A dull longsword and a heartbroken villager

"I want to burn this world down." Night Frost murmured softly after hearing Betley's words.

She turned her palm over, and the black flames spread from her palm to her entire body.

Night Frost, when burned by flames, can temporarily and randomly gain an ability, which may only last for one minute, and it is impossible to predict what ability it will be.

Leaving everything to luck seems like a good idea.

"The pitch-black flame can burn away the invisible, and it can also give power to the powerless."

“She really has acquired an ability that perfectly matches the word ‘witch’,” Beatrice said, looking at Night Frost with amusement.

“I think so too.” As Night Frost spoke, the sea of ​​fire engulfed Betley.

Magic and divine power—everything became fuel for the flames, making them burn even more fiercely.

“Looks like you’re really lucky.” Betley looked at the part of the dragon’s arm that had been torn off by the flames, “a characteristic of the dragon,” and was a little surprised.

You can acquire all sorts of strange and unusual abilities, and right now Nightfrost's ability is to devour all magic and divine power and transform it into black fire.

This includes the divine power that Beatrix stole from the gods.

“Perfect, let’s see just how big your appetite is, you witch.” But this targeted ability only made Betty laugh even more excitedly.

Devour, very good, he really likes the word devour.

"Hahaha, you better not eat yourself to death!" Betley laughed wildly.

The hall of the Mathematical Society is very large; it takes a very long time to walk from one end to the other.

But Betley closed that distance with a single shot.

No matter how far away, it all seemed like it was just a matter of Betley waving his hand.

Night Frost's frail body crashed through all the walls and pillars in the road, and was sent flying into the air.

Behind me was the very end of the "Mathematical Society" hall; beyond that was the edge of the space.

Night frost drifted into the air, its expression somewhat dazed.

Just as Betley had predicted, she could absorb the opponent's divine power, but if the flames themselves couldn't withstand it, she still wouldn't be able to defeat the opponent.

The black fire, burning to its limit, suddenly vanished after exceeding its limit.

Vanished without a trace, leaving only the marks of flames.

No matter how hard you try, you can't defeat this madman.

There was no escape; from the moment she stepped out of that hall, she was destined to be trapped.

Marek pushed her out like that, pushing her in front of Betley.

Marek may not have initially intended to push Nightfrost into the hands of this ruthless avenger, but now she is facing Betley, and no one can change that.

“Hey, even like this, you still look down on people,” Beatrix said.

"It truly lives up to the meaning of your ring."

Betley was rambling on and on, but Night Frost couldn't hear a word he said.

She landed gently on the ground, lying helplessly on her back.

Explosions, collapses, and Betley's words echoed nearby, but to Night Frost, they sounded as if they were coming from the top of a mountain to its foot.

It was so ethereal and indistinct that it was impossible to distinguish any of the syllables.

Not only the sound, but the surrounding scenery also seemed to be gradually moving away from her.

"Why am I here?" Night Frost asked, staring at the crumbling dome, a question emanating from the depths of her soul.

Yes, why is she in this place? Why did she become a member of the "Mathematical Society"?

Ultimately, why did she become an adventurer?

Thinking about it carefully, it seems that it was a boy from the village who tricked her, who had just graduated from college, into joining the team.

It's not just the empires of the Middle Kingdom that have academies; there's no shortage of academies for cultivating talent all over the world.

Night Frost came from the Eastern Continent and then followed that country boy on his adventures.

Year after year passes by unnoticed.

When she was at the academy, Ye Shuang always felt that time passed very slowly, so slowly that she could count each day.

But after leaving the academy and becoming an adventurer, he suddenly realized that there was simply not enough time.

Time is no longer measured in days, but in years.

A day is but a blink of an eye, and that's no exaggeration; it's simply the truth.

The length of time has never changed; it's just that those who perceive it have become desensitized.

So oblivious that they couldn't immediately sense the passage of time, it wasn't until a year had passed that they suddenly noticed the difference around them.

She too has grown from an immature girl into who she is today.

How is she now...? What is she like now?

In a daze, she accepted the ring; in a daze, she lost the country boy; in a daze, she became a witch.

In fact, she could have completely rejected all of this and refused to accept it.

But if we do that, what should we do next?

What truly confuses people is not whether or not to sever ties, but where to go after severing ties.

If she had chosen to leave the Mathematical Society when she was the only one left, things would definitely have been different.

Unfortunately, she didn't do that because she didn't understand where she could go after leaving.

Others could easily give her a series of examples and easily tell her what to do.

Unfortunately, those were all nonsense, useless words that couldn't resonate with people.

If such words could easily penetrate people's hearts, then the world would be either extremely evil or extremely beautiful.

Ye Shuang struggled to get up from the ground and patted the dust off her robe.

Even if what Betley said is true, no matter how badly she was crushed, Night Frost never showed any sign of weakness.

Or rather, even when she was in a sorry state, she could cover it up with her composed demeanor.

"The thing I want to do most right now is kill you." Ye Shuang tidied her long, disheveled hair that covered her face.

Night Frost is not weak. As a traitorous Ringholder, her strength far surpasses that of the Iron race, and even the Bronze race is not a threat to her.

However, she received the ring far too soon, many years less than Beatrix.

Night Frost bore the false fate of a monastic for less than three years, but Betley still endured the weight of fate for far too long.

The gap in strength is too vast, and the gap in awareness is also too vast.

From the very beginning, this battle was what Night Frost described as "a game of cat and mouse."

Night Frost opened her mouth and began to sing a ballad.

A long, solemn melody echoed through the hall, which resembled ruins.

Night Frost didn't know why she could sing, and neither did Beatrix.

However, having already started singing, Ye Shuang had no intention of stopping.

Do whatever you want, do whatever you want.

There are too many things in this world that are beyond our control, and beyond our own will.

Like her now, she has long since boarded a ship from which there is no turning back.

That's the ship of the conman, a ship from which there's no turning back once you've been fooled.

Ye Shuang wasn't sure what the world would become, but instead of trying to save it, she even considered burning it down.

She couldn't figure out the root of this idea either.

She's a bad woman, just like this avenger, absolutely wicked.

A small black flame ignited around her, and two points of light flickered around her...

The black flames revived once more, but the special ability of Night Frost had reached its time limit.

However, Ye Shuang's face showed no fear whatsoever; it remained defiant.

The look in her eyes when she looked at Beatrix was one of utter contempt.

The shadows of the flames flickered eerily across the silver and blood-red ground.

“How ugly, Avenger,” Nightfrost said to Beatrix.

"How ugly, witch," Night Frost said to herself.

"Why do you enjoy killing, and why do I aid and abet evil?" she asked Betley, who was standing a distance away.

"..." Beatrix didn't understand why the witch would ask so many philosophical questions.

But he had absolutely no desire to pay attention to this sentimental witch.

"Who cares about all that?" Beatrix grinned dramatically, his body crackling with popping sounds.

The witch tilted her head back, suddenly wanting to sit in a white chair and drink a freshly brewed cup of black tea. Most people just want an ordinary life.

However, this idea did not come to me from the beginning.

It's just that some things can't be accomplished, so in the end, we have to live ordinary lives.

People who, from the very beginning, simply want to live an ordinary life are extremely rare.

A longing for an extraordinary life resonated within me, yet I had to bow my head and say that I wanted to live an ordinary life.

Night Frost was the same; only when Beatrix's hand pierced her chest did she long for a quiet life.

The thought of burning the whole world to the ground vanished in an instant.

I want to sit in a snow-white chair at noon, enjoying the warm sunlight, drinking red tea and reading a novel by myself.

There is no noise, no complicated matters, just a need to quietly spend each day.

She only came to this idea after experiencing countless things, and at the end of her life, this thought grew infinitely larger.

She longed for it yet regretted it, but if time could be turned back, she probably wouldn't feel this way at this moment.

It was only at the very very end that she had this thought.

Are there people in this world who want a quiet life not because they are too tired?

Are there people who start striving solely for a peaceful life?

If someone does have that, it's truly enviable, because such a person wouldn't experience confusion.

After all, the goal was set from the beginning.

However, there might be a feeling of lacking ambition, but there's no rule in this world that says only ambitious people are qualified to succeed.

Now, besides wanting to live an ordinary life, Ye Shuang also has some regrets.

For example, she has not yet been able to become an empress.

What would it be like to be an empress? It's something to aspire to, something to dream about.

Countless thoughts drifted through her mind, and then a smile appeared on the witch's lips.

A smile incongruously appeared on that aloof face.

“You really are… devoid of any sense of beauty.” Even as life faded into the frost of the night, she still spoke these words to Betley.

Her past had nothing tragic about it, nothing worth remembering before she died.

So she was very happy, even as her life was fading away.

Betley neither replied nor made a move, and his ferocious expression softened considerably.

He saw too many complex emotions in Ye Shuang's eyes.

Night Frost was practically dead, so there was no need for Betley to continue tormenting her.

Night Frost stumbled back a few steps, nearly falling to the ground, but managed to regain her balance.

The power within the ring, unable to be suppressed, wanted to break free and devour Night Frost.

Like the fake "Forerunner" ring, this ring will also devour its wearer and twist them into a monster.