Irelia didn't say anything unnecessary.
She simply extended her right hand, made of light, to the soldier.
Then, a grasp of emptiness.
A sword appeared out of thin air in her hand.
That was not the "Sword of Dawn" of the past. This newly born holy sword had a more slender blade, presenting a dreamlike quality that existed between reality and illusion. On the blade, there were no ornate runes, only countless blurry faces flowing and flashing within them—dwarves, elves, orcs, humans... the soul imprints of all the fallen Alliance warriors.
Inlaid on the hilt of the sword is a gem as dazzling as a star, which is the core of her will after her rebirth.
The moment the sword appeared, an indescribable, overwhelming sorrow and anger swept through the entire settlement.
All the systems of the "Pure White Soldiers" and "Peacekeeping Mechs" experienced a large amount of garbled text. Their core logic was unable to comprehend this power composed purely of "emotion."
"Fire!" the patrol captain gave the final order.
High-energy particle beams and solid projectiles rained down on Irelia in the air.
However, these attacks, powerful enough to melt steel, vanished without a trace when they came within a meter of Irelia's body. The space around her seemed to be protected by a higher law.
Irelia's eyes were as calm as the sea before a storm.
She slowly raised the new holy sword in her hand and gently swung it downwards.
There was no earth-shattering explosion, no devastating light.
A gentle, starlight-like golden ripple spread out from her throughout the settlement.
Wherever the ripples passed, time seemed to slow down.
The bullets fired by the "pure white soldiers" paused in mid-air before disintegrating into the most basic particles. Their white armor, like weathered sandstone, peeled away inch by inch.
But they did not die immediately.
The power of the holy sword penetrated their bodies and acted directly on their souls, or rather, on their "human" essence that had been suppressed for thirty years.
The patrol captain's eyes were the first to change. The indifference and numbness on his face melted away like ice and snow, replaced by extreme shock, fear, and... pain.
All the emotions that had been suppressed and suppressed for thirty years burst forth like a flood, overwhelming his fragile consciousness in that instant.
He recalled his childhood, the warm embrace of his parents. He remembered the shyness and joy of falling in love with a girl for the first time. He remembered the excruciating pain and resentment he felt when he joined the army, when cold instruments forcibly stripped him of all emotion.
He saw himself mechanically following orders over the years, personally "correcting" hundreds of "emotionally unstable individuals" like that little girl. He saw the fear and despair in their eyes.
"I... what have I done..."
His body began to crumble from the purification of the holy light, yet he felt no pain. The only thing tormenting him was the guilt that had arrived thirty years too late, a guilt powerful enough to tear his soul apart…
"Aaaaaaaahhhhh!"
He let out a roar that was not human, filled with regret and pain. Then, in a golden light, his body turned to ashes.
He was not killed, but rather "awakened" and unable to bear the sins he had committed, causing his soul to collapse.
The other "pure white soldiers" went through the same process. In their final moments before death, they were no longer the empire's killing machines, but transformed back into flesh-and-blood human beings who could cry, laugh, feel pain, and regret.
After the ripple swept over them, the metal armor on the two "peacekeeping mechs" rapidly rusted and peeled off. Their internal, sophisticated electronic components had their underlying code forcibly rewritten by an incomprehensible force. Their red electronic eyes began flashing wildly, and finally, with a "bang," they went completely out, turning into piles of scrap metal.
Irelia's attack was not directed at matter, but at "order" itself.
What she wants to destroy is the cold, hard law that Lin Feng relies on to rule this world.
As the golden ripples subsided, the entire settlement fell into an eerie stillness.
The signal tower ceased operation the instant the ripples swept across it. The "Celestial Will" energy field that had enveloped all the residents vanished like a punctured balloon.
For the first time in thirty years.
The residents of Silverlight Valley experienced a sense of freedom, free from any mental control.
Their eyes were no longer empty. Confusion, bewilderment, fear... all sorts of unfamiliar emotions began to emerge in their pupils.
The little girl who had fallen to the ground had stopped crying. She stared wide-eyed with innocent wonder at the golden figure in the sky, which resembled a deity.
Her mother, Lillian, trembled violently. She looked at her own hands, then at the equally bewildered "neighbors" beside her. Vague, fragmented memories began to flash through her mind.
She seemed to...remember...that figure in the sky.
“Ai…Airi…” A vague name was uttered silently from her lips.
Then, as if she had finally broken free from all constraints, she rushed forward and hugged her daughter tightly in her arms.
"Baby...don't be afraid...Mommy's here..."
Warm tears welled up in her eyes, which she hadn't cried in thirty years.
Her hug was like lighting a fuse.
More and more residents began to react. Some stared blankly at their hands, some crouched on the ground, letting out suppressed, bestial howls. Others began attacking anything around them that bore the imperial insignia.
Emotions suppressed for thirty years, once they break free, will bring immense chaos and pain.
Irelia watched all of this silently. She knew this was just the beginning. Awakening them was harder than killing them.
She slowly descended from the sky and walked to Lillian, who was still holding her daughter and crying.
She reached out and gently placed her hand on Lillian's head.
Gentle holy light flowed into Lillian's body, soothing her soul, which was on the verge of collapse due to the resurgence of her memories.
"Lillian, it's been a long time." Irelia's voice was as gentle as the evening breeze of her hometown. "I'm back."
Lillian slowly raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked at the face before her, a face both familiar and unfamiliar. The fragments of her memory were finally pieced together.
"Irelia...is it really you? You...you weren't already..."
“I’m back,” Irelia repeated, her eyes firm and warm. “I’ve come back to take back everything that’s rightfully ours.”
She turned around and looked at the desolate, "purified" land outside the settlement.
Her new holy sword emitted a clear, melodious hum in her hand, as if yearning for a thrilling battle.
"Lin Feng..."
"Your 'order' should come to an end."
Silver Valley, or rather, Delta settlement, has fallen into complete chaos.
After the initial emotional turmoil, the residents gradually calmed down under Irelia's holy light. But what followed was immense grief and anger.
They remembered how their loved ones died during the "purification," and how they were raised and reformed like livestock.
The flames of hatred burned in everyone's eyes.
"We must have our revenge!"
"Kill those imperial scum!"
Uncle Buck, the old man who used to only play the accordion, now pulled out an ancestral, rusty hunting axe from his home, his eyes gleaming with a fierce light that belied his age.
Irelia knew that hatred alone was not enough. Hatred would only bring destruction, and what she wanted was new life.
She walked to the tower whose signaling function she had destroyed. This tower was a symbol of imperial order, but it was also a powerful signal transmitter.
She placed her hand on the cold tower.
A holy light emanated from her palm, instantly enveloping the entire tower. The cold electronic components belonging to the Empire within the tower were reshaped and transformed by the holy light. It was no longer a tool for disseminating the "Will of the Heavens," but had become Irelia's "voice."
She closed her eyes and connected her will with the tower.
Then, she began to "sing".
It was not a sound produced by the vocal cords, but an "aria" that originated from the soul, could transcend space, and resonate with all life.
Her singing voice, amplified billions of times by the tower, transformed into invisible radio waves that radiated across the entire planet.
The song pierced through the blockade of the "Will of the Sky" and bypassed the monitoring of "Gaia".
It was like a warm spring breeze, blowing across every corner of the continent.
In the "Elven Reserve" in the far west, the elves, numbly polishing imperial artifacts on the assembly line, suddenly heard this voice from the depths of their souls.
In that song, there was the whisper of the forest, the singing of the stars, and the call of our departed compatriots.
The aged Queen Elana suddenly raised her head. For the first time, a light rekindled in her cloudy eyes. She recognized the voice—the voice of "hope." It was the voice of "dawn," the voice she thought had vanished thirty years ago.
"It's her...she's back..." the Queen murmured in a trembling voice.
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