In an instant.
When she came to her senses, the live stream's video feed had already started dropping frames!
Guinaifen realized it was all because the barrage of comments was scrolling too fast.
In contrast, from Sefaria's perspective, she was already slumped on the spot, her breath as faint as a thread:
"Thou shalt walk with greed, and shalt perish over mere pennies."
"Ha... so the 'pennies' in the prophecy were meant literally after all," Sefaria muttered softly.
It was only at this moment that Guinaifen suddenly understood. She lowered her voice:
"Cat Cat never actually had divine speed. She is the Demigod of Deceit. The claim that flipping a coin grants divine speed was just a lie."
"When the Fire Thief took that coin in hand, her lie was exposed, so she returned to her original spot."
The barrage was shocked that Little Guizi actually understood!
And in her final moments.
Sefaria lifted her head to gaze at the pitch-black sky, the word 'sorry' spilling from her lips over and over.
She remembered that she seemed to have told too many lies in her lifetime, and owed too many apologies.
But the person she most wanted to apologize to in her heart was that golden figure, distant as the horizon, yet close at hand, yet forever just out of reach.
"Aya, I really want to say sorry to you..."
Sefaria looked towards a shimmering golden grub that appeared beside her: "But back then, I, cough... I had to leave Okhema..."
"Because, you were so good at seeing through people's hearts. If I stayed by your side..."
"My fragile, pathetic lies would have been exposed sooner or later."
Guinaifen watched and gestured, but could no longer form words.
All speech was choked up and stuck in her throat!
She could only watch helplessly as, outside Sefaria's field of vision, the fading images of Aglaea and Tribbie seemed to appear once more.
The difference was that in Sefaria's memory, the cold, romantic demigod was no longer cold.
She had become eternally gentle and bright.
"Aya, your weaving workshop... how I wish I could... pass by it accidentally one more time..."
"And get scolded by you and Sister Tribbie one more time..."
Sefaria kept apologizing sentence after sentence, the light gradually fading from her eyes.
These words, she never spoke them directly to Aglaea, not even in death.
Just as Aglaea, in death, never understood why Sefaria seemed to despise her.
The only thing worth being thankful for was.
That she had protected the spark of Kephale. That spark was never on her person.
That was just another lie——
"Even if, in the end, I was just a thief, I..."
"Still managed to contribute a little to the Chasing Fire, right?"
Sefaria gently closed her eyes. Her feeble state allowed her only to whisper in her heart: "Aya, can you hear me?"
"Talk to me... one more time."
"Please..."
[!]
[!]
[!]
[...]
Guinaifen found the barrage uncontrollable, even trying a one-click clear-screen function, but it was useless.
[Don't, don't go——]
[இдஇ]
[Is there something wrong with my understanding, or am I dreaming? What is all this!]
[Don't go! Don't close your eyes, Cat Cat! If you close your eyes, you'll never wake up again!]
[This is also Sefaria lying to me, right? Isn't she best at lying and running away? Didn't she promise not to get involved with the Chasing Fire?!]
[Wuwuwu~ Shaoji, what have you done?!]
[Shaoji, you son of a bitch, you stand right there! You son of a bitch, don't let me catch you, or I'll fucking cut you to pieces!]
[Ahhhhhhh——]
The light faded not only from Sefaria's eyes, but soon also from Little Guizi's as she slumped behind her screen.
Clearly, by this point, almost everything was clear.
In her final moments of consciousness.
Sefaria opened her eyes. The dazzling golden Aglaea seemed to truly appear before her once again.
She said: "You are the unsung hero of Amphoreus, Sefaria. You saved all of us."
"You betrayed the world... and used it to buy mortals a thousand more years of life."
She reached out her hand, just like the first time they met a thousand years ago.
She also reached out her hand, towards the guiding direction, yearning to take it just as she had a thousand years ago.
The two looked at each other and smiled.
When she came to her senses again, only Sefaria remained, lying cold and alone on the spot, a single grub chirping softly beside her.
In the end.
She deceived herself with a lie.
At the end of her life, she met her again for the first time.
...
At the same time.
Sushang's reminder snapped Guinaifen out of it: "Stop crying, Little Guizi, look quickly!"
Her gaze turned towards the game screen.
The Holy City of Okhema.
As expected, the moment the thousand-year-old lie was exposed.
The apocalypse.
Had descended!
"If there was one powerful lie that could deceive everyone..."
"Wouldn't it become the truth?"
Accompanied by a promise Sefaria had once made on a certain day.
A crimson sky blotted out the dawn that Kephale bore!
The people of Okhema shouted, screamed, ran amok, terror rampaging through every corner of the land.
Awe-inspiring yet sorrowful human chanting resounded. Okhema's ever-shining sun set into twilight, as countless rolling meteors fell from the sky!
"A lie is always a lie, Sefaria."
Aglaea chuckled lightly: "It's just that, sometimes... it can be nobler than honesty!"
And it was also at this moment.
The sky.
Turned black——!
...
[Cosmic Fragment +1000]
[Cosmic Fragment +1000]
[Cosmic Fragment...]
Under the gaze of the masses, the first wave of revenue from Sefaria's gacha banner opened.
It can be said that it was almost beyond doubt.
Xu Qiong instantly made a fortune!
Players who originally had little fondness for the character, after finishing the story, spent all their credits in a teary-eyed, all-in gamble!
Even people at the company were secretly recharging.
"Tsk tsk tsk."
Xu Qiong clicked his tongue in disbelief, finding it utterly mind-blowing.
Of course, the community's help was also indispensable.
Opening his phone, numerous analysis videos about Sefaria were also flooded with comments.
[Shocking! The one who bore the world for a millennium wasn't the World-Bearer, but the Deceiver?!]
[A detailed list of the three greatest lies in the Demigod of Deceit's life!]
[Discussion: The shocking final twist of Version 3.3. How will the Chasing Fire conclude, and can the Author pull it off?]
[...]
[After watching the analysis video, my bent back finally broke!]
[So the dawn machine of Kephale actually went out seven hundred years ago. It was Sefaria who, due to an accident, bore the world's dawn for a thousand years!]
[Everything makes sense now! The Deceiver's authority isn't disguise, but making people subconsciously believe it.]
[So to avoid her deceit being exposed, Sefaria distanced herself from Aglaea, embarking on a thousand-year self-exile!]
[The three greatest lies in the Demigod of Deceit's life: Okhema's dawn will never end, the spark of Kephale is within her, not liking Aya...]
[May we meet again at the end of the west wind, Sefaria.]
[Good night, Flipping Coin, Demigod of Deceit. May your deceptions never be exposed——]
[Tears are really welling up in my eyes! What pierced my heart the most was what Aya said: I never thought the relationship between us would ever fall to such a freezing point.]
[Aya blamed and introspected for a hundred years, unable to figure out why. And Cat Cat? How could she not want to stand by everyone's side in the Chasing Fire?]
[If I were Sefaria, watching the person I cared for most blaming herself because of this, unable to explain, unable to even go back to see her, to speak to her...]
[When she passed away, she was still thinking of Cat Cat, yet couldn't be by her side, couldn't mourn her, couldn't even say a final 'I'm sorry'.]
[She wove a millennium-long fairy tale for Okhema, yet at the moment of her death, not a single soul would ever know of it all...]
[Bastards! If it weren't for you people, I would have moved on long ago...]
[Sister Yayi, I don't want to die...]