Chapter 15 The Price of a Wish

　　The familiar car lay overturned on the road, as if it had been in an accident on the way to the cathedral, and her uncle was obviously inside—Vanna's mind, already somewhat hazy from fatigue, tensed up at this moment, and she rushed to the car almost in the blink of an eye.

　　Then, she suddenly noticed that the arm resting outside the car window was twitching slightly, and the blood-soaked hand seemed to lift slightly as she approached.

　　Uncle is still alive!

　　Vanna reacted instantly, hurriedly steadying the car with one hand, and pinching off the deformed door frame with the other. Then, she leaned in to support the deformed internal structure while checking on Dante's injuries, rescuing her uncle from the car while trying not to cause further damage. Immediately afterwards, she cast a divine spell, summoning the moist sea breeze with what little energy she had left, trying to bring life back into Dante's already dazed body.

　　The almost suffocating hot wind continued to rage on the streets, and the scorching ashes and falling sparks made the city look like purgatory. Vanna surrounded herself with protective power, resisting the deadly environment with fierce pressure. She laid Dante flat on the ground, and after a round of rescue, she finally saw the relative she had depended on for eleven years slowly open his eyes.

　　"Ah... Vanna... you're back..."

　　This was the first thing Dante said after opening his eyes.

　　"Yes, I'm back," Vanna didn't realize that there was anything wrong with Dante's "back" at first, and subconsciously stepped forward to hold Dante's hand, "How do you feel now? Can you get up? I'll take you to the cathedral..."

　　"No... there's no need to worry about me, a burden," Dante shook his head slightly. He held Vanna's hand back, his fingertips exerting a little force. "I should have expected this day... they would come to collect this price... you must leave, before they find you... leave Pland, go somewhere where no one knows you..."

　　Listening to her uncle's whisper, Vanna was suddenly stunned. She suddenly realized that her uncle seemed to know something that even she didn't know, which made her tone even tremble slightly: "What... what do you mean? Who are 'they'? What price are they collecting? You... did you already know what happened in the city?!"

　　Dante propped open his eyelids, his ruby ​​artificial eye had broken at some point, and blood flowed down from the wound on the edge of his eye socket. The only remaining human eyeball reflected the raging fire on the street. After a few seconds of silence, he finally opened his mouth softly: "The Endtime Evangelists... and the Warp behind them... Vanna, do you remember the fire eleven years ago?"

　　"The fire eleven years ago..." Vanna's eyes widened slightly, "You actually remember that fire?!"

　　"How could I not remember... it burns in front of my eyes every day," Dante showed a bitter smile, "But I thought I could deceive myself for the rest of my life."

　　Confused thoughts were boiling in her mind. At this moment, Vanna seemed to have forgotten the fatigue and pain on her body. She stared at her uncle's already cloudy eyes, and thoughts about the fire, the black sun, the Warp, and the Endtime Evangelists kept flashing in her mind. Before these clues could bury her, she finally asked: "But what does this have to do with the Warp and the Endtime Evangelists... and me? What does this have to do with me? Why are 'they' coming for me? What 'price' are they collecting?!"

　　Vanna regretted asking these questions in a row. She felt that she was not talking to her uncle, but interrogating a prisoner. But Dante obviously didn't care about this. He just took a few breaths before opening his mouth in a low voice, as if in a dream: "When that fire started, I glimpsed... a line of projection of the Warp. When that extreme and dangerous truth descended, I made a wish to the Warp."

　　"You made a wish to the Warp?" Vanna looked at Dante in astonishment, "What wish?"

　　"I wished that none of it had happened, that you... would come back to life."

　　All the expressions on Vanna's face froze instantly.

　　Dante quietly watched his niece in front of him. The expression on his face seemed to be crying, but with a hint of a bitter smile. He slowly raised his hand, as if wanting to stroke Vanna's hair. His lips moved, and his voice was low: "Vanna... you've grown up... I'm sorry, I'm really sorry. Uncle was useless. Back then... I couldn't save you..."

　　"But I remember you taking me away from that fire..."

　　"All I brought out of the fire was a pile of ashes," Dante said softly, "It was just a moment, there was no time to react at all, and you turned into a small pile of burnt ashes... I frantically wanted to escape from that nightmare, wanted to make everything go back to before the disaster happened, anyone could help, gods, demons, even the Warp... Then, something responded to my wish. It took me many years to understand what exactly responded to me at that moment..."

　　Vanna didn't seem to hear what Dante was saying after that.

　　She just slowly raised her hands, looking at her flesh and blood body.

　　After an unknown amount of time, she finally broke the silence: "So, in a sense, my survival is actually the result of the Warp's blessing?"

　　Dante closed his eyes slightly. He couldn't answer this question and could only default in this way.

　　"Then... how did I become a Saint?" Vanna asked immediately. She was asking her uncle, but it was as if she was asking herself, "How could the Storm Goddess allow someone who survived because of the Warp's blessing to become her believer, and even grant her powerful power and protection?"

　　"I... I don't know," Dante shook his head slowly, "Perhaps only the Goddess herself can answer your question, but... how can we..."

　　Vanna was silent. Her thoughts were more chaotic than ever before. The belief that had supported her for so many years had an irreparable crack at this moment, making her not know how to face her faith, or even how to face her "existence." But after a moment of silence, she still slowly stood up and whispered, as if talking to herself: "In any case, someone must stop this invasion of reality, we must... bring everything we are familiar with back to the real world."

　　"Vanna, you will die," Dante suddenly opened his eyes wide. He used all his strength to prop up his upper body, "You can't stay here any longer. The foundation of reality here is breaking down. You must leave Pland, leave this vision, until it completely disappears from your memory—listen, if your survival is really the result of the Warp's blessing, then the act of correcting history is likely to cause you to be destroyed. This paradoxical conflict is not something mortals can..."

　　Vanna just quietly looked at her uncle, her eyes gentle and peaceful.

　　"Uncle, didn't you say that you love this city and everything in it?"

　　Dante was silent for a moment, and a firm expression returned to his face: "...Of course, so I will stay here and face fate with the city. I am prepared for either survival or death, but... but you are different, Vanna, you can't..."

　　"I'm the same," Vanna interrupted softly, "I also love this place and have made all the preparations... just like you taught me since I was a child, it's my duty."

　　Dante quietly looked at Vanna standing in front of him, the only relative he had in this world. The latter's figure was as tall as ever, as firm and steady as a sea wall ready to meet huge waves.

　　He knew that his words would no longer work.

　　So he sighed softly, using his last strength to support himself, slowly moving to the side, and leaning against a nearby street lamp.

　　"Then go," he said softly, "I'm here... waiting for you to come back."

　　Vanna lowered her head and looked at her uncle in front of her.

　　In her memory, her uncle was still a tall and firm mountain, but since when has he been so much shorter than herself?

　　She gently bent down, her voice low and gentle: "...If everything goes well, the Pland you are familiar with will return to the real world. At that time... don't forget me."

　　Dante didn't say anything, just nodded gently.

　　Vanna straightened up.

　　However, in the next moment, an ominous tremor suddenly came from a distance, interrupting her movements, followed by a terrifying loud noise, and the ear-piercing sound of building structures being torn apart and collapsing.

　　Vanna looked in the direction of the sound in astonishment. She had never felt so afraid and uneasy as she did at this moment, and the scene reflected in her eyes in the next second confirmed the source of this uneasiness.

　　She saw a pillar of fire rising into the sky from the direction of the cathedral. The air wave from the explosion almost scattered the hot clouds in the sky, followed by a dazzling and strange flash, as if a small sun was gradually rising from the ground, about to devour and melt everything from the bottom up.

　　Then, something even more terrifying happened.

　　She heard more explosions, more ear-piercing noises. She saw pillars of fire rising from all over the city, and huge fireballs floating above the sea of ​​fire like small suns. And the location where each fireball rose represented a church.

　　The bells, which had not stopped even during the Living Fire City Melt, finally gradually stopped, and the isolated havens in the city were collapsing one after another.

　　Vanna felt her mind almost blank. In the next second, she rushed towards the direction where the largest flash erupted, towards the Storm Cathedral in the center of Pland, driven by instinct.