Superman Termination Manual

Chapter 612: Chapter 288: Major Family Event III: The Witching Night (Part 3)_3

Looking at the profile of Black Rose, the girl in the gothic dress parted her lips slightly and uttered a name in a low voice.

“…Lu?”

Witch Black Rose cocked her head to the side, giving her a sidelong glance, silent.

“It really is you…”

The girl on the cross opened her eyes slightly wider and stared at her without moving, her consciousness hazily murmuring.

Black Rose nodded slightly, her eyes hidden beneath the strands of her dark hair.

“It’s me. Hadn’t you failed to recognize me earlier? I am, after all, the witch you hate the most, the one you find utterly repulsive,” she said sarcastically, “But of course… After all, in your eyes, I have been dead for half a year. If you didn’t forget about me, how could you start a new life, play and be merry with new friends?”

The girl in the gothic dress gazed at Black Rose’s profile and slightly bowed her head, tears welling in her eyes.

Not yet fully conscious, she seemed a bit incoherent, opening her mouth and trembling lips, as if straining to say something, but only a few pale words squeezed out slowly from her lips.

“Let’s… go back,” she said.

Black Rose took a deep breath, “You are still so presumptuous, foolish beyond reason.”

“Let’s go back.”

The girl in the gothic dress repeated the same sentence, her eyes red and weary with tears.

“There’s no going back…” Black Rose stated, “You are not like me, you didn’t see with your own eyes how Jiaqi was chopped in half… Her face still bore a shocked expression as her body split down the middle right before my eyes, just like a pig in a slaughterhouse…” A cold laugh escaped her, “Ghosthand Buddha and Abyss Swordsman stood there sneering, their feet pressing my head to the ground. To this day, I still remember their laughter.

She paused: “They let her blood flood over my face, made me smell the scent of her blood.”

The girl on the cross seemed to lack any extra strength to form facial expressions and just listened to Black Rose narrating the events with a dull gaze.

Tired of even expressing sorrow, her reddened eyes couldn’t squeeze out any tears, only her eyes trembled slightly.

After a long silence, Black Rose asked: “Do you know why I’m still alive?”

“…Why?”

“Because those witches saved me, while you did not come.”

At those words, the chains on the cross suddenly trembled, the crisp sound of metal clashing echoed as the girl in the gothic dress leaned her body forward, her voice reduced to a hoarse and desperate whisper.

“I did… I went to save you, but I didn’t—”

She desperately tried to vindicate herself, but Black Rose interrupted, her head lowered: “Yes, you were too late…”

Ash froze, no longer making a sound.

Meanwhile, Shi Neian sitting beside her on the stone steps was slightly stunned; she had never seen Ash looking so distraught.

In the silence, Black Rose slowly turned around and walked towards the altar, passing through the barrier, lifting her head to look into Ash’s eyes.

Their eyes met.

Black Rose lifted her right hand, wrapped in thorns, and gently caressed Ash’s cheek. The sharp thorns carved a ferocious scar on the girl’s pale face, the blood trickling down her cheek.

But she seemed numb to the pain, her stare almost pleadingly vacant as she looked into the calm eyes in front of her.

After a moment’s silence, Black Rose whispered close to Ash’s ear.

“Everything you cherish, this city you fought so hard to protect, is about to be destroyed just like the day Lin Jiaqi died before me… You can’t do anything about it.”

She paused and intensified her tone: “In the end, open your eyes and watch how you become a villain beyond redemption, just like me.”

With those words, Black Rose turned and left without looking back.