Free Web NovelChapter 226: The Flame that was lit
The moment the flame in Nanoe’s hand blazed, red-gold light immediately covered one corner of the hall. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
The Flamebound Succubus wings behind her fully spread open. Flames flowed continuously along every soft curve, carrying allure to the extreme while radiating a danger that made even the surrounding drones simultaneously change direction. The cold points of light that had been locking onto Rover immediately split, a portion aiming toward her.
Rover was using [Shadow] to resist the massive satellite pressing down from above. His feet sank deep into the metal floor, the shadow arms crushed then forcibly reformed. He glanced at Nanoe, his gaze deepening slightly.
Nanoe smiled at him.
"Don’t worry."
Her voice rang out amid the sound of crushing metal and howling energy.
"This time, let me try a little."
The flame in her palm spun in circles.
But right before Nanoe could act, the surrounding space suddenly shook.
Not the shaking created by the massive satellite. Not the pressure from the Unnamed Explorer. It was a very strange sensation, like someone had just grabbed an invisible layer of fabric covering reality, then forcefully torn it apart.
Rover immediately frowned.
"Nanoe!"
He had barely called out when Nanoe’s body and the Unnamed Explorer were simultaneously enveloped by a stream of gray-white light.
The flames around Nanoe shuddered slightly.
The red point of light behind the spacesuit’s dark visor also flashed once.
Right after, both vanished.
The massive satellite pressing downward suddenly stopped. The drones flying around the hall also halted in mid-air, as if losing their command signal for an instant. Selina immediately lunged to Rover’s side. Rilia retracted her cold aura by half, her cold gaze sweeping across the room.
Sunako held the lantern tightly, her face pale.
"Where did Nanoe go?"
No one answered.
Because even Rover didn’t know.
In that instant, Nanoe felt the entire metal hall vanish from sight.
No sensation of being pulled away.
No sensation of falling.
When she opened her eyes again, she stood in a strange space.
There was no ground around her, nor a sky. Everything resembled an endless gray-white expanse, quiet to the point where no sound could be heard at all. The flames around her body were still burning, the Flamebound Succubus wings behind her still spread open, but the oppressive sensation that had just been in the hall had completely vanished.
Before her, the Unnamed Explorer also appeared.
The massive body in the spacesuit stood still not far from her. The lines of light on the armor were still there, but the cold killing intent and annihilating pressure had diminished considerably. He looked at Nanoe for a long moment, then slowly raised his hand.
Click.
The astronaut’s helmet was removed.
Nanoe saw the face inside.
It was the gaunt face of the man from the image earlier.
Professor Harlan.
Compared to his appearance in that memory, the man before her now was far more worn down. His cheeks were sunken, his skin pale, his eyes deep but still retaining a strange alertness. His face no longer carried the cold mechanical expression of the Unnamed Explorer from before. On the contrary, looking at Nanoe, his gaze showed a touch of warmth and satisfaction.
Like someone who had waited far too long, finally seeing what they wanted to see.
"The flame I gave you has finally been lit."
His voice was no longer distorted.
No longer like the cold mechanical sound from before.
It was hoarse, exhausted, but very clear.
"You truly are the chosen one."
Nanoe looked at him.
The flames around her body still burned, but her gaze had grown calmer. She didn’t immediately believe what he said, nor did she rush to deny it. From the moment she had stepped into this place until now, too many details had gone beyond her understanding. The spacesuit. The destroyed cubes. The password from the psychiatric hospital. Rover being called Successor. And now, this man saying the flame within her body had been given by him.
Nanoe was quiet for a moment, then asked: "This flame... do you mean no one before has ever been able to use it?"
Professor Harlan looked at her, then sighed softly.
"Many people once tried."
He paused for a moment, his gaze as if looking toward somewhere very distant.
"But they all died."
Nanoe said nothing.
Professor Harlan continued: "No one could keep it stable. No one could withstand its nature. They wanted to control the flame, but in the end were burned to death by that very flame. Body, soul, will, all of it burned clean, leaving nothing behind."
The flames around Nanoe wavered slightly.
She looked at her own palm.
The red-gold flame was still burning very steadily.
From the moment her second form had awakened until now, Nanoe had only felt the power within her body growing more dangerous, but had never felt it backfire against her. Before, she had thought this was a result brought about by the [Garden of Eden], the [Peaceful Bed], and her resonance with Rover, but now it seemed things might not be so simple.
Professor Harlan watched her reaction, the corner of his lips showing a very faint smile.
"After that, many things spiraled out of control. I couldn’t let it continue existing in its original form. So in the end, I had to keep that flame in the form of a frequency, so it would no longer directly burn anyone who touched it to death."
Nanoe raised her head to look at him.
"A frequency?"
"That’s right." Professor Harlan said softly. "A signal. A spark. A calling hidden within the current that very few could hear. I could only let it wait. Wait for fate to lead it to the right person."
He looked at Nanoe.
"And of course, that person is you."
Nanoe was silent.
If this had been before, she might not have liked those two words, fate. She believed in analysis, believed in choice, believed in using what she had to secure the best outcome. But after stepping into this world, after meeting Rover, after seeing too many strange things connecting together in ways nearly impossible to explain, she couldn’t completely deny the feeling that an invisible hand seemed to be guiding everyone.
Rover had found her. free𝑤ebnovel.com
She had become Rover’s Tenant.
The [Garden of Eden] had appeared.
The [Peaceful Bed] had helped her unlock her power.
The flame within her body had awakened at the exact moment they faced the Unnamed Explorer.
If all of it was only coincidence, then the number of coincidences was a bit too many.
Nanoe didn’t rebut further.
She only looked straight at Professor Harlan and asked a more important question.
"What about Rover?"
Professor Harlan’s gaze shifted slightly.
Nanoe didn’t let that detail slip past her. She continued asking: "Why did you call him Successor?"
The gray-white space suddenly grew quieter.
Professor Harlan was silent for a very long time.
Then, he sighed.
That sigh was very soft, but seemed to carry the exhaustion of an extremely long stretch of time.
"Because Rover’s father was once one of the people who created this prison."
Nanoe was stunned.
"Prison?"
Those two words immediately changed her gaze.
Since the Endless Game began, everyone had assumed this was a mutated world, a strange survival game, or a region dominated by the System. But Professor Harlan called it a prison.
If this was a prison, then who were the prisoners?
Survivors?
Monsters?
Lamp-Bearers?
Or existences locked even deeper within the fog?
Nanoe wanted to ask further, but Professor Harlan shook his head.
"I can’t say more."
Nanoe frowned.
Professor Harlan looked at her, his voice growing lower: "You can continue searching in the new region. There will be the next answer to this matter there."
"The new region?"
He didn’t explain.
Only said: "If Rover is the Successor, then he will go there. Sooner or later."
Nanoe looked at him for a long time.
She knew the other party didn’t intend to say more. Or more precisely, he truly couldn’t say more. Some kind of limit existed around these secrets. If that limit was crossed, perhaps the consequences wouldn’t fall only on him, but on Rover and everyone else too.
Professor Harlan put the astronaut’s helmet back on.
His gaunt face was gradually obscured by the dark visor.
Before completely vanishing behind the mask, he looked at Nanoe one last time.
"I hope... we’ll meet again sometime."
Before Nanoe could ask further, the gray-white space around her began showing countless cracks.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack.
Each piece of space shattered like glass.
The flames around Nanoe’s body instinctively flared up, but this time she didn’t need to defend against anything. The fragments caused her no harm. They only dissolved, revealing the familiar metal hall behind them.
Right after, Nanoe found herself back in reality.
She still stood in her original position.
The flames around her body were still burning.
Rover was still in front of her, the darkness beneath his feet not yet fully retracted. Selina, Rilia, Elith, and Sunako were all looking at her, clearly in their eyes the time Nanoe had vanished had only lasted a few moments.
Rover immediately asked: "Are you alright?"
Nanoe looked at him.
In her mind, Professor Harlan’s words still echoed.
Rover’s father was once one of the people who created this prison.
Prison.
Successor.
New region.
There were too many things she wanted to say, but now wasn’t the time.
Nanoe gently shook her head.
"I’m fine."
Rover looked at her a moment longer, confirming her aura was stable before turning his head back toward the Unnamed Explorer.
The unnamed astronaut still hovered in the middle of the hall.
But the annihilating pressure from before had vanished.
The drones stood still in mid-air, the cold light on their bodies gradually fading. The massive summoned satellite above also slowly disintegrated into small points of light. The thousands of spirits around the hall no longer shrieked. They only quietly circled the Unnamed Explorer, as if bidding farewell to an existence that had completed its final task.
The Unnamed Explorer slowly rose higher.
The light on the spacesuit began to disperse.
Not exploding.
Not being destroyed.
That massive body turned into countless streams of pale blue waves, spreading outward layer by layer like ripples on water. The lines of light on the chest armor, arms, shoulders, and back equipment dissolved one by one. Finally, even the dark visor on the helmet shattered into countless small points of light.
No more mechanical voice.
No more annihilation mode.
No more Overlord pressure that had made everyone nearly unable to breathe.
Only soft waves of energy spreading through the hall, then gradually dissolving into the air.
Sunako looked at the scene and said softly: "Did he... disappear?"
No one immediately answered.
Rover looked at the place where the Unnamed Explorer had just existed.
His gaze was still deep.
He knew this matter certainly wasn’t over.
On the contrary, this was perhaps only the beginning.
Nanoe stood beside Rover, the flames around her body slowly retracting. The Flamebound Succubus wings behind her also gradually disappeared, leaving only a trace of red-gold light flowing in her eyes.
She looked at Rover.
In her heart, she silently repeated that sentence once more.
Rover’s father was once one of the people who created this prison.
Nanoe didn’t know what truth lay behind that sentence.
But she knew one thing.
The path Rover had to walk from now on was perhaps far deeper, far more dangerous, and far more frightening than any of them had imagined.
