My Abyss Survival Diary

Chapter 51 The Girl in the Dream

High-temperature, grayish-white steam gushed out like a torrent from its red-hot muscles.

A grayish-white column of air rolled outwards from the Hungry Angel's body, pushing Simon back two steps and forcing him to kneel on the ground.

My skin started to burn, and all the exposed skin lost moisture in an instant, becoming tight, red, and blistering. Blisters appeared on the back of my hands, and the hair on my arms was instantly singed, curling and sticking to my skin.

Steam seeped into his nasal cavity and mouth, burning his trachea as if he had swallowed a mouthful of red-hot charcoal. The air he coughed out was scalding hot, and his lips were dry and cracked, with blood seeping from the cracks.

The collar of his coat was curled up and blackened. He lifted the coat to cover his mouth and nose, but the fabric inside the coat had been hardened by the heat and felt like a piece of scorching hot iron against his face.

The hungry angel stood in the center of the steam, its chest slowly contracting, its grayish-white skin receding from bright red to dark red, and from dark red to grayish-white.

The source of steam has dried up, but the residual temperature in the air continues to rise. The ruins have become a closed oven, with the metal frame blocking the path for steam to escape. Heat waves bounce back and forth between the frames, and the temperature keeps getting higher and higher.

Simon lay on the ground, trapped inside the steam, struggling to breathe. His lungs burned violently, and he coughed up dark red phlegm mixed with blood, which vaporized in an instant.

Flani collapsed beside him, appearing to have suffered severe burns.

Simon's consciousness oscillated between haziness and clarity before finally succumbing to darkness.

Breanne's voice seemed to come from a very far place...

"This isn't over yet..."

The darkness slowly dissipated, and when he opened his eyes, the sunlight was dazzling.

He lay in a golden wheat field.

The wheat ears drooped heavily, their awns trembling in the wind, making a soft rustling sound.

The sky was a deep blue, so blue it seemed unreal, like a piece of silk that had been washed, without a single cloud.

A cool breeze blew from the end of the wheat field, brushing against his cheeks and the backs of his hands; his skin was intact and smooth.

There was something soft and warm under the back of his head.

He looked up and saw a fair chin, pale pink lips, a straight nose, and a pair of smiling eyes looking down at him.

The pupils of those eyes reflected the golden yellow of the wheat field and the deep blue of the sky.

Brienne sat in the wheat field with her legs together, and he rested his head on her soft thighs.

"Awake from your nap?" Her voice was soft and languid. "You slept so soundly, did you have a nightmare?"

The current Breanne is not a head, but a complete person.

Her neck and below were hidden beneath a white dress, the hem of which stretched across the wheat field, blending in with the golden ears of wheat. Her hand rested on his shoulder; her fingers were slender, her nails pale pink and neatly trimmed.

"How did I get here?" Simon asked, his throat still feeling dry, as if burned by steam. "Wasn't I still in the abyss?"

Brienne tilted her head:

"Honey, what are you talking about? Did your nap make you dizzy? Isn't this our farm?"

The ending of a dream is the worst ending.

Simon sat up from her lap, turned around, and faced her.

"Stop acting."

Brienne's smile froze instantly, then slowly faded.

"How did you figure that out?"

Simon looked down at his hands. There were no blisters, no scars, and his skin was as smooth as if it had never been burned.

"I probably wouldn't marry someone like you."

Brienne paused for a moment, then pouted sullenly and poked Simon's forehead with her finger.

"A man of no taste..."

She withdrew her hand and tucked the hair that had fallen over her shoulder behind her ear.

The wind in the wheat field picked up, lifting her skirt and revealing her fair calves and bare feet. Her toenails were painted with light pink nail polish, which shimmered in the sunlight.

"This is my memory." Her voice softened. "I have some fragmented memories stored in my mind: wheat fields, sky, sunlight, cool breeze. I saw you were in so much pain, so I pulled you in here to escape for a while."

"Are you a psionicist?"

Simon didn't know how this seemingly incredibly realistic world was created; he could only attribute it to omnipotent psionic energy.

Brienne didn't answer, tilting her head to look at the deep blue sky at the end of the wheat field.

"I don't know. I have no memories of my past. I don't know where my abilities came from, or why I can still live after losing my body."

"Aren't you a heretic? A priest who serves the Mother of Abundance?"

When Simon first met Brienne, she was an important figure in the Church of the Mother of Fertility, escorted by powerful bodyguards, and appeared to be of high rank within the sect.

"My past is far more complicated than that." Her eyes were filled with complex emotions. "My powerful life force comes from the abyss, but not from the cult of the Mother of Fertility. They saw my miraculous self-healing, so they worshipped me as a sacrifice to make more people believe in the power of the Mother of Fertility."

The truth is becoming increasingly elusive; she was not "created" by the Church of the Mother of Abundance, but rather possesses a vitality that the sect does not have.

"Every night I retrieve fragments of past memories from my dreams. I vaguely know that I was not born from the abyss. I come from the ground, from the human world. The bishop of the Church of the Mother of Abundance constantly sends people to monitor me and prevent me from leaving the third level. In the long and boring years, I can only find amusement to pass the time. I never expected that they would allow me to participate in this pilgrimage. It was this trip that led me to meet you."

"Let's make a deal." After calming down, Brienne spoke calmly, "I'll give you half of my life to help you through this difficult time..."

"And what's the price?"

"The price is that before you leave the abyss, you must help me find my past, tell me who I am, where I came from, and why I have become like this."

Simon stared intently into her eyes, but he could no longer read the usual mockery; he saw only boundless sincerity.

"How did it go? Was it a sale?"

"Deal," Simon answered decisively. "I swear to the Mother of Abundance..."

"What does this have to do with the Mother of Fertility? If you're going to swear an oath, swear it to me, Brienne."

"Then I swear to you... I will help you find your past before I leave the abyss."

Breanne smiled, cupped Simon's cheeks in her hands, and leaned down to press her lips to Simon's forehead. It was light and cool, like a snowflake falling on his skin.

The wheat fields disappeared, the sky disappeared, the sunlight disappeared, and the wind disappeared.

Darkness surged back.

With fluttering eyelashes, Simon slowly opened his eyes. The pain that seemed to pierce his bones had vanished without a trace. The burns, the blisters on his hands, the skin that had peeled off his arms, and the charred flesh on his face were healing rapidly.

In a short period of time, he gained self-healing abilities comparable to those of the Hungry Angel.

He propped himself up from the ground, turned his head, and saw that Brienne was still in the birdcage, but with her eyes closed and her brows furrowed, as if she were going through a long nightmare.

Simon gripped the harpoon tightly; the metal shaft was burning hot, but the burns on his palms were healing quickly, allowing him to wield the weapon.

He took a step back, raised the harpoon above his head, and like throwing a javelin, leaned back, his spine taut like a bow, his left leg forward and his right leg back, his knees bent.

He took a deep breath and then hurled the harpoon at the hungry angel!