Book 5 Chapter 19.5 - Love and Forgiveness
Only once did Madeline charge at an enemy's home field head on.
Her thoughts immediately returned to that night.
From the moment her feet landed touched Sunset Castle, every step she took shook up the home field Unwavering Sunset established over several decades. As someone who used to be a member of the three dark giants, they all had equivalent strength to her own. As such, while fighting in the enemy's domain, Madeline actually didn't feel the slightest certainty in coming out victorious.
However, she had confidence in dragging Unwavering Sunset with her down to hell.
No one knew what she was thinking at that time, not even herself. In her memories, her emotions during that moment, were blank. The heavy armor not only covered her appearance that could illuminate the world, it also covered the world deep in her heart.
The resolution to attack Sunset Castle, on the surface, was due to Unwavering Sunset's series of schemes targeting Su, she had to stop him. Great enemies like him who had ruled as one of of the three dark giants his entire life, Madeline understood clearly their innate characters, for example, only with a dead Unwavering Sunset would there be an end to the schemes.
However, was that truly the only reason? At the very least, it wasn't to the extent where there had to be an immediate life and death battle. At least in the eyes of those around her, Madeline at that time was much more terrifying than those three dark giants, and more vicious. As long as she willed it, she could have very well forced Piccolo from his home field. However, she decided extremely recklessly to attack Sunset Castle from the front, even though she knew that this decision was one of no return.
The scene of Peperus crying bitterly while hugging Piccolo, appeared once again before Madeline's eyes.
She inwardly released a sigh. Peperus could be considered to have followed her from the cradle to the grave all this time. The pain and struggle Peperus felt inside when she betrayed Madeline was all captured in Madeline's eyes. Peperus wasn't aware of this, but Madeline knew about her plot a long time ago, everything that happened afterwards was just pushing the boat with the current.
What truly made Madeline step of this path of no return was because of a grayness hidden beneath her surface, a gloominess she, to this day, wasn't willing to touch.
The irony was that when Madeline charged into Piccolo's home field with incomparable domineering might, thrusting out the final sword that was meant to end in mutual destruction, the ambitious and ruthless Piccolo unexpectedly showed fear! His fear towards death made him hesitate slightly, and it was precisely this bit of hesitation that made his final counterattack's power slightly insufficient, unable to kill Madeline on the spot, instead allowing her to leave Sunset Castle and enter the deepest slumber.
If, just if, Darklight Scale's people successfully opened up Madeline's blood coffin, what they would obtain would only be a pool of blood. Madeline's body would completely melt the moment the coffin was opened. In addition, prior to entering sleep, she didn't contact Dark Red Castle, only wishing to sleep just like this, all the way until the end of this world.
The world of sleep was black, the black darkness enough to cover that grayness.
She didn't manage to wait until the end of the world. When she woke up again, the first one she saw was Su. In that moment, Madeline finally believed that miracles existed in this world.
After completing the third transformation, Madeline seemed to have returned to eight years ago. No matter what happened, she, who had already died once, was only willing to quietly follow Su at his side. Most of the time, her mind was still completely blank. She didn't want to think too much, nor did she want to recall the past. However, she grasped every bit of time and opportunity so that her abilities were still rapidly growing. Madeline knew that Su will need her strength. When she completely finished growing, the peaceful days would become a thing of the past. At that time, she would pick up her memories again, as well as the grayness she deliberately avoided.
Only, she never expected that at this moment, that grayness would suddenly be stirred up by a single absent-minded question from Cirvanas.
It was unknown where Madeline's line of sight landed, but Cirvanas' abnormal expression naturally wouldn't escape her. Only by summoning all of her control over herself did she manage to drag herself out from her own memories. She squeezed out a smile and said, "It'll be over soon."
Madeline could almost imagine just how forced her smile was.
Due to an issue of the angle, Cirvanas didn't see Madeline's smile. However, that unintentional 'It'll be over soon' gave him an unusual feeling.
The feeling of grayness and gloominess.
This completely illogical answer suddenly threw the young man's thoughts into chaos. He didn't know what will be over soon, but from his intuition, he could vaguely guess that these words carried a different meaning, not just pointing at the battle within this base. Upon closer inspection, the pure and sensitive Cirvanas seemed to almost sense what was hidden behind these words.
That was an extremely heavy gloominess.