Chapter 19: The Pressure Is Completely Released
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"Furina… Furina? Furina!"
A familiar voice echoed beside her, pulling her from the haze. Furina blinked, dazed, and lifted her head.
There — so close she could see every flicker of worry — was Liu Yuan. Her brows were drawn tight, her expression openly anxious as her hands, faintly shimmering with Hydro energy, gently shook Furina's shoulders as if to wake her.
"…Liu… Yuan?"
Furina's voice trembled, her gaze unfocused. The script she had been holding slipped from her hand and fell forgotten to the floor. She reached out instinctively, fingers trembling, wanting to touch Liu Yuan's face.
Liu Yuan stilled. Her eyes widened in surprise, but she didn't move away. She let Furina's hand pass through — and pass through it did, clean and cold, with no resistance.
Furina froze. Liu Yuan had no body — only a phantom shaped of water and light. Untouchable.
"Furina… what's wrong?" Liu Yuan's voice cracked. Panic crept into her tone; Furina's behavior was frightening, unlike anything she had ever seen.
"…Me?"
Furina drew back her hand, touching her own cheek instead. Her fingertips met dampness.
…Wet.
She was crying.
Unknowingly, her tears had begun to fall, spilling hot down her face without her permission.
Why… why does it hurt so much?
The ache in her chest deepened, like a knife twisting into her heart. She pressed her hand harder against her cheek, wiping furiously, but the tears only poured faster, bursting free like a flood against a broken dam.
It hurts. It hurts so much.
Five hundred years of suppressed emotions — loneliness, exhaustion, self-doubt — all surged out at once, tearing through her walls until she could no longer hold them back. Her sobs broke raw from her throat, strangled and ugly, unstoppable.
The pain was suffocating.
Let it end. I can't bear it anymore… I wish…
…I wish I could just die.
The thought, black and consuming, unfurled inside her mind like smoke. She was drowning, dragged beneath the waves of despair, her arms thrashing in the dark but finding no hand to hold, no air to breathe.
No one would care. Would they?
Her knees buckled under the weight.
"Furina!"
That same voice pierced through again. Something cool brushed against her skin — like water, chilling and real. Arms, formed of flowing Hydro, wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her close.
Her breath caught. Her blurred vision cleared, and when she opened her eyes, all she could see were Liu Yuan's deep, unwavering blue eyes.
Color returned to her gray, hollow world.
In that moment, it was as if someone had thrown her a lifeline. A rope dangled before her, and instinctively, she grasped it.
Memories rushed into her — every moment she had shared with Liu Yuan over the past six months. Laughter, conversations, silent companionship. Each memory glowed brighter than centuries of divine solitude.
Six months… worth more than five hundred years.
Liu Yuan's phantom form wavered, but her arms remained steady, her worry etched plainly across her face. Hydro gathered and condensed, shaping into something solid enough to embrace Furina more tightly.
She didn't know what exactly was happening to Furina, but she could feel the storm inside her. The shadows coiling behind her were black as ink, heavy with despair.
Liu Yuan's mind raced, turning over every scrap of knowledge she had ever read, desperate for something, anything that could help.
One simple answer surfaced.
When a girl cries, the best comfort… is to hold her and whisper gently—
"Don't worry… I'm here."
Her soft voice wove around Furina like silk. Her arms tightened, warm and protective, until Furina felt the rope in her grasp transform into something unbreakable — a bond, a promise.
The darkness receded. The flood ebbed away.
Furina's sobs slowed. Her eyes, rimmed red, stared up at Liu Yuan, and though tears still clung to her lashes, they no longer fell. The exhaustion that followed was heavy, almost unbearable.
Her body sagged against Liu Yuan's water-constructed embrace. Her vision blurred, but the last thing she saw before her eyes closed was that pair of unwavering blue eyes.
And for the first time in five hundred years… Furina let go. She let herself sleep.
---
It was the most peaceful sleep she had ever known.
For the first time, Furina felt wholly unburdened. Every negative emotion she had locked away for centuries had poured out, leaving her hollow but light, free.
She dreamed.
In her dream, she wasn't the Hydro Archon. She wasn't a god. She was just an ordinary girl. Her face was unremarkable, her talents unexceptional. She lived a simple life, calm and untroubled.
And she loved it.
No grand trials. No burdens of divinity. Just quiet days that stretched gently, endlessly, in the way she had always longed for.
Then, within that dream, a figure appeared.
White hair. Blue eyes.
"Liu Yuan…"
The name escaped her lips unbidden. Memories rushed back in, surging through her dream like a tide. The dream shattered.
And Furina awoke.
.
.
.
_