Lux was nearly insane at this moment.

She ran through the dilapidated streets at a speed that seemed to burn her very life force.

She no longer cared if the Grace Bathers of the Holy Light Church would discover she was a Cursed One, if they would kill her for it.

There was only one thought in her mind—her sister was dying.

Only those people could save Mitty.

"Get out of the way! All of you, get out of my way!" Lux roared, running.

Her arms held Mitty tightly in her embrace, like a pitiful stray dog protecting its only treasure, refusing to let go no matter what.

"Brother… I can't see… I can't see anything anymore…" Mitty's originally weak voice now seemed to have regained some strength.

But this abnormal phenomenon made Lux's heart even more flustered, more terrified.

Because she knew, this was a sign of a final rally before death.

When people were about to die, they sometimes suddenly became more lucid.

"It's okay! Mitty! I'm here! Soon… soon I'll take you to the Grace Bathers! Soon you'll be okay!" Lux gritted her teeth tightly, forcing herself to speed up.

The vast and chaotic magical power from Rio the Shadowmancer was still rampaging within her body, not yet fully digested.

She felt her consciousness beginning to blur, her head throbbing with a splitting pain as if it were about to explode.

"Brother… it's so dark… I really… can't see anything anymore… I want to… touch your face… okay…?" Mitty struggled to open her mouth, her voice as faint as a thread.

"Touch it! Mitty! Touch it!" Lux's voice was choked with sobs.

She abruptly rushed through another intersection.

The vendors and pedestrians on the roadside, seeing her blood-soaked, ghost-like appearance, all recoiled in terror, merely casting uncertain, frightened glances at her back before returning to their own business.

Mitty used the last ounce of strength in her life to slowly raise her small, cold hand and gently caress Lux's cheek.

It was a cold, small hand, a pair of hands that had once been so nimble, that could sew beautiful clothes and cook delicious meals.

"Lux… Brother… you're so beautiful…" A gentle, yet incredibly weak smile appeared on Mitty's face. "Clearly… you're so beautiful… but for me… you became 'brother'… for me, this… burden…"

"No! Mitty! You are… you are the most important thing to me…" Lux choked out, no longer having time to look at Mitty again, because their destination was right ahead.

Just a few more streets.

Soon.

They were almost there.

"Brother… in the future… you have to… eat lots and lots of cake for me…" Mitty seemed not to have heard Lux's words, just continuing to speak in an increasingly faint voice.

[Almost there! Almost there!] Lux screamed frantically in her heart.

Just one last street.

"Bang!" Lux used her last ounce of strength and slammed her head hard against the tightly closed main door.

Then, she screamed at the top of her lungs towards the inside of the door, "Please save her!! Please!! Open the door and save her!!"

This was a small, temporary chapel established by the Holy Light Church in Purple City, for the purpose of expanding their congregation, and thus a small number of Grace Bathers were stationed here.

After Lux had run to the door with all her might and slammed it open, the hurricane-like headache she had been forcibly suppressing finally erupted completely, engulfing her entire brain.

Her vision blackened, the world spun, and she almost fainted on the spot.

But she held on with her last shred of will, continuing to scream towards the inside of the door.

"No clamor in this sacred place!" A stern and solemn voice came from within the door.

Then, the door was fully opened, and a Grace Bather wearing a golden star mask and a pure white priest's robe appeared before Lux, the star pattern on the mask emitting a faint, soft glow.

"Please! Please save my sister! I'm willing to pay all my money! I have ten shining gold coins! I'm willing to do anything! I'm willing to pay any price!" Lux pleaded incoherently.

The Grace Bather's expression behind the mask did not change when he heard about the money, but when he heard Lux cry out "any price," he seemed to nod slightly, then said in an emotionless, icy tone, "Silence. Let me see your sister's injuries first."

"Yes! Yes! My sister… my sister, she…" Hearing the Grace Bather agree to examine her, Lux's heart suddenly eased, as if grasping the last straw of hope.

She hurriedly lowered her head, looking into her arms.

However, her arms… were empty.

Only a few tattered fragments of a purple cloth dress, stained with large patches of blood, lay scattered on the ground at her feet.

"Mitty…? Mitty…?!" An icy, sharp pain, as if about to tear her brain apart, suddenly struck her.

She seemed… not to know what had happened… And yet, she also seemed… to vaguely know something… She couldn't believe… couldn't believe what had happened…

She slowly lowered her head, her gaze falling vacantly on her chest—there, at some unknown point, a small red flower meticulously sewn from cloth had been pinned, the edges of its petals carefully outlined with emerald green thread.

[Flower of Healing. A red and green cloth flower. When worn, allows use of healing magic.]

"Ah—!" Lux let out a heart-wrenching wail, her hands flying to her face. Her sharp fingernails, heedless of pain, dug deep into her flesh, crimson blood instantly welling up, yet she seemed to feel nothing, only roaring in absolute despair, allowing the torn flesh and skin to fill the crevices beneath her trembling nails.

"What's this? A madwoman?" The Grace Bather commented coldly, then slammed the church door shut with a "bang," shutting out the desperate roar. "Stay away from here."

Lux clutched her head, kneeling on the ground, repeatedly and violently banging her forehead against the cold, hard flagstones of the street.

Blood soon flowed from her forehead, mixing with the dust on the ground.

Gradually, she stopped moving, just kneeling there in a daze, kneeling beside that pile of scattered, bloodstained purple cloth fragments, like an empty shell that had lost its soul.

She stared deadly at those tattered clothes, then looked down at the cloth flower on her chest, which still looked somewhat vibrant amidst the bloodstains.

"I ate… my sister…" Lux muttered to herself, her voice hoarse and broken. "Mitty… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"

Scalding tears, like the blood that had flowed continuously just moments before, finally surged uncontrollably from her empty eye sockets.

Perhaps, she should find a place to properly bury these clothes left by her sister.

Perhaps, she should flee immediately, escape this city that had brought her endless pain and despair.

But, Lux did nothing right now.

She just knelt there, for a long, long time, then extended a trembling hand, bit by bit, and with extreme care, picked up those tattered fragments of Mitty's clothes, holding them tightly in her embrace.

Then, she stood up, like a wandering spirit, and aimlessly, step by step, walked towards the city gate…

Time seemed to lose all meaning, flowing by rapidly in numbness and despair.

When dusk fell, the surviving ordinary citizens in the city were preparing simple dinners, or busy tidying up their shops, preparing to close for the night.

Life seemed to be trying to restore its fragile and false peace.

Suddenly. From the city center, in the direction of the most prosperous inner district, came a deafening, violent explosion.

This explosion, like a sharp blade tearing through canvas, instantly shattered this false peace completely.

The still-shaken citizens, curious and fearful, pushed open their windows or ran into the streets, looking towards the direction from which the explosion came.

Lux, however, did not look back.

She continued to walk numbly, unsteadily, like a purposeless ghost.

Until… she discovered with horror that the bloodstained purple dress fragments of Mitty in her arms, had actually begun to… burn for no reason.

No. Not just the dress.

It was everything purple. It was all burning.

Those purple bricks that made up the city's buildings.

Those wooden materials painted with purple paint.

The purple clothes worn by the pedestrians.

Everything. As long as it was purple, at this moment, it began to burn fiercely.

"No! Don't!" Lux screamed, trying to extinguish the flames on the clothes in her arms with her remaining left hand.

But, the flames were like maggots on a bone; no matter how hard she tried, even when her palm was burned until it sizzled and her skin broke, she could not put them out.

The flames, instead, burned even more fiercely.

Terrifying flames, tinged with an ominous purple, erupted violently from within all the purple objects in the city, like the karmic fires of hell.

Unimaginably high waves of heat wantonly swept through the entire city.

The air was scorched until it distorted, boiled.

Piercing wails, desperate cries for help, futile attempts to flee… instantly resounded through every corner of the city.

But, there was nowhere to escape.

Because, wherever there was purple, even hotter, even more violent flames would erupt.

This city, once proud of its purple, had now, at this moment, completely transformed into a blazing, wailing… inferno on earth.