Malin felt as though he was walking through darkness, with nonsensical murmuring in his ears.
Gradually, the murmuring turned into a familiar voice.
"This year is the Year of the Horse, and you were found by little Lin, so let’s call you Malin," said the matron of the orphanage. Malin’s world was no longer dark; the old woman was looking at him with a smile: "You must grow up strong and healthy, little one."
He remembered that since he had any memory at all, he had lived in the orphanage.
The Aunt Lin who found him had a child, but the child died young. Her husband divorced her, and she became a mother to all the children in the orphanage.
She was a woman like an angel, with a compassionate heart.
With this thought in mind, Malin heard a joyful echo from behind him, "Malin! It’s great! I didn’t miss the time!" It was a girl’s voice, full of joy. Malin turned around and saw a very cute little girl with big black eyes and long hair, wearing a grey dress. The dress was patched up, but unexpectedly pretty.
"What’s wrong? You asked me out to a movie today, have you forgotten?" She walked towards Malin with a smile.
With each step she took, she grew older until she stood before Malin, transformed into a beautiful girl.
Just as Malin had transformed from a boy to a young man.
If it hadn’t been for that car accident, Malin thought he probably would have married this girl. He had grown up with her in the orphanage, they were childhood sweethearts. They learned together, grew together, held hands together.
You are forever the fifteen-year-old with a bright smile, you are still you... and I, I am no longer me.
Malin looked aside to see another version of himself behind this girl, watched them smiling, holding hands, and then walking together into darkness.
"Malin, do you know how proud I’ve always been that you could become my soldier? You’re the most diligent, hardest-working young man I’ve ever met," said a voice at his side.
Malin turned his head, and the young man he became in that instant saw his drill sergeant.
The sergeant was a good man. Even though every day in his recruit platoon felt like hell, Malin understood that the sweat and tears shed during training could replace the blood that might be shed on the battlefield.
"Do you know? You shouldn’t have retired. You should have stayed in the forces; we need talents like you."
I wanted to stay too, but in these five years, I never went to see her. Because the orphanage was demolished, everyone scattered, and the old matron, I heard, passed away due to illness, while Aunt Lin I know not where she has moved to.
I no longer have a home, but I still have her. I wanted to go back and be with her.
And so, Malin returned to his hometown, worked, and studied again. Knowledge is power, so they say, and Malin held that to be true as well.
The days passed, one by one, and each year at that time, he would go to be with her.
He never married, never sought love again. Sometimes he wondered when fate would bring him back to her side.
Would she possibly... not recognize him, worn and aged?
Would she have... already reincarnated and passed him by without ever meeting again, remaining strangers till death?
Looking at the road before him, at the girl on the pedestrian path, Malin heard the roar of an engine and saw the out-of-control vehicle. He also saw another version of himself, no longer young, but still running, trying to reach the girl before the vehicle... once again failing.
Malin watched the incident unfold once more, saw himself flung into the air yet holding onto the girl, his body cushioning her fall in the end.
This wasn’t the detail he was supposed to know.
With that thought, Malin watched everything disappear like tears in the rain, and a figure made of light appeared before him.
"Malin, I have witnessed your past." The figure had no mouth, but its words exploded next to Malin’s ear.
"Who are you?" Back to his present self, Malin frowned.
"Who do you hope I am?" The figure had no features, yet it seemed to smile.
"An Evil God? A Rightful God?" Malin tilted his head.
"You could say I am a Rightful God, I am the God of Justice." The light around the figure gradually faded, and an ordinary-looking man appeared in front of Malin. Even so, having seen the statues of the God of Justice before, Malin thought the face did look very much like them.
"I won’t believe you!" Despite this, Malin would not compromise. This bastard who jumped directly into his head and started a fight, who knew what kind of demon or ghost it was.
"I do not need your faith, unbeliever." The deity said while stretching out a hand toward Malin, a holy light striking him.
"Go, return to their side, and do not forget the promise."
Faye had to admit, the Chaotic Sorcerer was indeed very strong, but no matter how powerful he was, he didn’t have as many assistants as Faye did. When Maya couldn’t find Malin for a moment, she immediately took out all her rage on the Chaotic Sorcerer. Her blasting arrows made the Chaotic Sorcerer very uncomfortable. He wanted to kill Maya more than once, but every time he wanted to make a move, Maya would immediately dash behind cover, and at the same time, everyone would come to Maya’s aid.
Back and forth , the girls battered the Chaotic Sorcerer—various Spell Formations and the Revolver left at least twenty wounds on his body. The she-wolf Jessica noticed that this guy couldn’t defend against bullets from behind at all.
In the end, when the Chaotic Sorcerer’s attention was again drawn by Maya’s exploding arrows, Jessica finished him off with her Longsword — she charged from behind and stabbed the blade into the back of his neck.
"We did it! Damn it, we never should have retreated!" Shela peeked out from behind cover, reloading her gun while surveying the battlefield: "Damn, I can’t feel Jason’s presence at all!"
"Brother Malin is gone too!" Maya stood on the battlefield, pouting as she shouted: "I can’t sniff out his scent!"
"We never should have left." Faye sighed.
Disappearing on a battlefield against Chaos, death, all were luxury affairs.
Just then, a shriek spread across the battlefield, and the girls looked towards its source to find the Wraith had freed itself at some point. Having finished shrieking, it looked into the distance, not towards the location of any of the girls.
"That... Is that the Paladin?" Faye felt as if everyone was in trouble.
"It should be... After the sacred sacrifice, a rogue soul turns into a Wraith, requiring Purification." Clovis frowned, "We’re living beings, why isn’t it looking at us?"
With that question, the girls saw Malin crawl out from the tall grass.
The Wraith shrieked once more and then approached Malin.
"Brother!" Maya wanted to run over, but Malin raised his hand to stop her: "Don’t come over; brother has a promise he must keep first."
After speaking, Malin looked at the Wraith. A young shoot broke through the soil in front of Malin, rapidly blossomed, then grew, until a slender twig, like a short sword, appeared in front of Malin.
Malin reached out and grabbed the twig in his hand.
He glanced at the thin twig he was holding, then gripped it tightly in his hand.
"Let’s call you... the Oath of the Faithless."
Having said that, Malin wove a sword flower with it.
"Sir, let us fulfill our promises to each other," he said.
Watching the Wraith before him, Malin smiled and bowed. In the next second, his slender twig clashed with the Wraith’s Spectral Power Longsword, scraping off a large bunch of Spectral Power fragments.
Radiant, like sparks.