Chapter 271: Destruction And Rebirth
Momo spread her right hand and pointed it at the sky. The thick dark clouds in the sky started to spin and turned into a terrifying vortex. The entire range of the city that was enveloped by the Dark Kingdom started to vibrate rapidly. The people that initially wanted to attack Bai Yi's group panicked and a small proportion of them who were more quick-witted instantly ran for their lives. However, these people only managed to take a few steps before being bounced back by something. Momo looked at this group of people and gave them an evil smile.
"Have a taste of my new enlightenment!"
The ground beneath Momo's feet broke. Momo remained floating in the air, but somehow, it seemed like she was falling to the ground. Everybody was frightened, but before they could react to this, they realized that the entire city had begun to float up toward the spinning vortex made of dark clouds. The people who remained in the city went crazy. Some of them ran and tried to escape in a frenzy. Others tried to attack Momo to make her stop.
Although Bai Yi's group didn't know what was going on, all of them gave it their all to protect Momo. Momo's eyes lit up and a trace of blood leaked out from her lips - Soul Bind! The group of people charging toward Momo in a frenzy froze on the spot as if the entire world had bound them there.
Other than a few of them who were still panicking, most of them actually calmed down. As they figured, Momo's close encounter with death created a qualitative change in her power. The change was enough for Momo to turn the entire battle around with just her power.
More than ten kilometers in a diameter of the city floated in the air as if it had been crudely dug from the earth itself. The bottom part of the floating city continuously crumbled, and loose rock fell toward the ground. Swiftly, Momo went below the city and supported it with her right hand. From the looks of it, the entire city seemed to be supported in mid-air by Momo's hand. The wounds on Momo's body started opening again, but she completely disregarded them.
Momo used her life field and focused on a group of people. In the next moment, the group was thrown out of the city by an unseen force. The group suddenly discovered themselves in mid-air, and the ones who couldn't fly were almost scared to death. They grumbled but quickly lost the mood to grumble and thanked their lucky stars to be able to escape the city. They were all on the same side as Bai Yi's team, and there were only a few dozens of them left. As for the people who had been attacking Bai Yi's team, none of them managed to escape.
Momo's expression was one of pain and malevolence as she said, "Law Treasure: Dark Kingdom!"
In just a few seconds, the entire city was sucked into the dark vortex above them. The vortex turned into a small and elegant tiara before falling into Momo's hands. Only then did everyone realize that the outcome of the battle had been decided the moment the tiara in Momo's hands had been unleashed. With the current abilities of the evolved humans, it was impossible for them to break through the boundary of the Dark Kingdom and escape. For those trapped in the Dark Kingdom, it was easy to imagine what end awaited them. Momo's hair was a mess and she panted heavily.
Momo looked at Bai Yi and softly said, "Daddy."
The rest of them tensed. Was it possible that Momo bore a grudge against Bai Yi for almost killing her? Bai Yi simply smiled while panting heavily and floated over. He took the tiara from Momo's hands. The tiara wasn't too magnificent, just small and elegant. However, everybody knew that it was the Law Treasure: Dark Kingdom that Momo mentioned.
"You are my princess," Bai Yi placed the tiara on Momo's head with a smile. "The Princess of the White Underworld and the Dark Kingdom!"
Momo's clothes were extremely ragged, and over seventy percent of her body was covered in bandages, but the bandages couldn't stop the blood flowing out of Momo's body. The moment Bai Yi placed the tiara on Momo's head, everyone suddenly felt an invisible noble pressure sweeping from Momo's body. It wasn't just an aura that came from Momo, but something even more mystical like Momo's enlightenment right on the brink of death - the laws of the universe.
Crowning!
From the moment she wore the tiara, the universe itself seemed to acknowledge Momo's identity as the princess of the Dark Kingdom and the princess of the dead!
One person took the lead and kneeled. The rest of them didn't resist and kneeled as well. In the center of the vanished city, the few remaining people all kneeled on the ground and a genuine sense of allegiance to the young girl floating in the air rose in their hearts. All of them were actually in a very miserable state. The wounds and blood from the long duration of the battle, the utterly destroyed city, and the mere few dozens of survivors made things look very miserable. However, the scene shook people's hearts more than any grand coronation ceremony.
...
Truman and the others looked for Bai Yi to say their farewells, "Bai Yi, we will return to Australia."
Things had already become like this, so nobody would pursue further conflict between themselves and Bai Yi.
"En, take care on the way," Bai Yi nodded.
Although everybody was in a very sorry state now, they had no choice but to start hiding. Momo's outburst of power had ruined the United Nations' scheme, and the small group of them left had no strength left. However, everybody understood just how much impact the group could cause once they entered the wide world.
Right before they left, everybody looked at Momo, or rather the small tiara on Momo's head.
Law Treasure: Dark Kingdom!
Everybody was extremely curious, but it wasn't the time to get to the bottom of it. After saying their farewells, each of the teams gradually left. Although they were somewhat inferior to Bai Yi and Momo, none of them could accept being subordinates of other people. As for the few remaining people, they planned to tag along with Bai Yi's team. Including Bai Yi's original team, there were seventeen people remaining now. It was a pitiful number, but it was the number of people who survived with great perseverance after the bitter battle.
Bai Yi looked at everyone present: Woolf, Pupu, Melvin, Alodia, Betsy, Nancy, and Bellamy. Momo had already killed Sharpei. Although Momo said he wouldn't die but was changed to a different form of life, nobody knew the specifics of that. As for the others, they weren't familiar before, but they had become comrades-in-arms after the battle.
"There's still one more!" Bai Yi suddenly recalled.
"There's still one more? Who?" The rest of them asked.
"I haven't given her a name yet. I don't know if she's still alive either," Bai Yi said as he led the group to the location where he had left the baby girl. The group of them followed Bai Yi with a confused look until Bai Yi found the intentionally collapsed house and the little baby inside.
After Bai Yi shifted the rocks away, he found that the protective crystal dome created by Alodia had already broken. It had apparently been damaged during the battle. Bai Yi's heart dipped, and he immediately took apart the protective dome to reveal the baby girl inside. The small and frail baby had been crushed under a rock, and her body was slightly deformed.
"Bai Yi!" Although they didn't know whose baby she was, they still wanted to console Bai Yi upon seeing this scene.
"Her soul has already dissipated. She won't be able to revive even if I changed her form of life," Momo suddenly said.
Everybody looked at Momo. Apparently, Momo had learned a lot of things regarding life and souls in this battle.
"Is there any way?" Bai Yi asked softly.
"There is. I can create a new and pure soul, but she would definitely be incompatible with a common person's soul," Momo nodded.
Bai Yi heard her words and suddenly took out the Soul Release Wood necklace. Momo took it with a look of puzzlement. A soul floated out from it after she released her life field. Even Momo was surprised when she saw the person. It was actually Khina! Khina was still, apparently, in a daze. She hadn't regained clarity even though she appeared in front of everybody.
"Older sister Khina!" Momo said softly.
"You are...Momo. Ah? What happened to her?" Khina was confused for a moment before she saw the female baby on the ground and drifted over. Khina first fell into silence before her entire person seemed to become depressed. Apparently, Khina already understood what had happened.
Momo also seemed to understand, "She's your daughter?"
Khina hugged the baby girl gently with a look of motherly love on her face, "En, my daughter."
Momo looked at Khina and at Bai Yi. Bai Yi released Khina's soul with the intention to let Khina make the choice about what to do about her daughter.
Momo took a deep breath and said, "Older sister Khina, there's a chance that I can revive her; however, she won't be a normal human but a citizen of the Dark Kingdom."
Khina immediately looked at Momo in confusion, Citizen of the Dark Kingdom?
"I can't explain it in detail now," Momo said. "Even I only vaguely understand the concept, and I haven't organized it properly yet. I can save your daughter, but the price will be your soul. There's no precedence for this, so I'm not too sure about the final result--"
Momo had initially wanted to explain clearly, but she didn't get the chance to continue since Khina didn't wait for Momo to finish speaking and immediately agreed, "OK!"
After pausing for a moment, Momo looked at Khina and said, "Give her a name then. A name that comes from her mother."
"...Sha Luo."
***
Translator Notes:
It was Soul Law Treasure in the raws of the previous few chapters, but I guess the author truncated it to just Law Treasure in this chapter.
The name of the baby doesn't translate to an English name I know or Google knows, so don't ask me why Khina gave her baby a (supposedly) Chinese name ._.lll