Chapter 17
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 17
Chapter Title: Saved from the Rubble
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“With that alone, even Axiom could be easily killed.”
‘Whoa, that was really close. It came down to a 1- or 2-second difference between life and death.’
Huge debris was about to crush Stella’s mother.
I threw myself forward and blocked the cascading fragments with my arms.
Thud.
An impact like my spine would snap crashed down, but there was no pain.
Every time something like this happened, it hit me anew.
This body was truly monstrous.
“Asrania!”
Esira arrived late, her face draining of color in an instant.
I was in danger.
The fact drove her mad with worry.
Of course, by my standards, it wasn’t that dangerous.
“No! Right now, that’s...!”
“Esira.”
I jerked my chin toward the debris below. There was no time for lengthy talk.
“Pull the person out from right underneath.”
“But...!”
“No arguing. Hurry.”
Esira’s eyes flicked between me and the debris, a mix of anxiety and anger, before she bit her lip hard.
“...Got it.”
This was why I’d said I’d go alone.
Esira immediately crouched into the gap in the debris. Stella clung to her side like mad.
“Mom, Mom!”
“...Grab her arm.”
Esira pulled the woman with all her strength. The body pinned beneath the debris inched out bit by bit.
“Got her. Just a little more.”
“Haa, haa.”
She was still breathing.
The moment the woman was fully pulled free, I drew a deep breath.
I shoved the debris aside.
Krunch, boom!
A cloud of dust billowed up.
I dropped to one knee and let out a long breath.
“Phew...”
That had been really close.
I spotted the child who’d been wailing uncontrollably just moments before.
Stella.
She clung to her rescued mother, trembling violently, hugging her as if letting go would make her vanish again.
“Mom, Mom... Hic, Mom...!”
“Yes... Mom’s here...”
Her mother stroked Stella’s hair with a trembling hand.
Seeing that scene brought faint recollections of the game’s text.
A line from Stella.
“The moment Mom was crushed, I got buried right there with her.”
“It wasn’t that I couldn’t save Mom—it was that I couldn’t save myself.”
“I could’ve saved her. But I fought over that damned stone instead, and in the end, Mom died.”
Stella, Chapter 1 Final Boss.
Mother’s death marked the turning point.
The child discarded every shred of trust in humanity.
She hated the world and loathed Blood Cell, the seed of tragedy.
Yet, ironically, she ultimately accepted Blood Cell’s power.
And rampaged.
Another line from Stella lingered in my mind.
“If that was fate, then fate is too cruel.”
“With the God’s Stone, I could overturn fate itself. If it’s a world where Mom had to die, then change that world first.”
The rampaging Stella ultimately fell to the Commander and the title heroine, Reina.
That was the ending.
Flower Blooming Amid Ashes was that kind of game.
I’d saved her. The branch point had changed.
The Stella crying in front of me now was no longer the final boss.
Just an ordinary child reunited with her mother.
The original story had diverged.
“...You were too reckless.”
Esira approached from behind, her worry hardening into anger.
I admitted it. I had been reckless.
I glanced once more at the debris, dust still swirling in the air.
‘I had to do it.’
Living in Asrania’s body, I already knew this physique wasn’t remotely human.
Honestly, I figured I could pull it off.
And I had.
I started to voice excuses, then just shook my head.
I wasn’t in the mood for a long explanation.
Instead, I gently stroked the child’s head.
“Thanks for worrying.”
“...No. It’s okay. I think I understand why you did it.”
Esira’s expression was hard to read—sadness flickered through, yet she seemed somehow calm.
I slowly raised my head.
The village came into view.
Or rather, what should have been the village: piles of rubble.
Houses with half their roofs torn away, fences snapped in half, charred wooden beams.
People had flocked here from everywhere, all chasing immense power.
Murder came all too easily.
‘Was it this bad?’
Abandoning their humanity to become gods.
“...”
Unconsciously, my hand reached for my back.
The moment I gripped the hilt, the noisy world seemed to pause a beat.
What should I do?
I hesitated for a moment, then resolutely let my hand drop.
‘...Later.’
This wasn’t the time to draw my sword.
Priorities were different.
I turned to Esira and Stella.
“Let’s head somewhere safe. Can you walk?”
The mother nodded.
“Ah, yes. Fortunately, I can manage.”
Those people would end up tearing each other apart anyway, heading toward mutual destruction.
And that wouldn’t be the end of it.
Stella cried out urgently.
“Ah, we have to save the others too...!”
“Too late.”
I’d seen far too many corpses on the way here.
In the original story, Stella was the only survivor.
“Ah...”
Stella’s lips trembled, but in the end, she said nothing.
We reached a spot a short distance from the village.
Stella’s mother brushed the dirt and dust from her clothes with trembling arms. Her eyes were red.
“...Thank you for saving me.”
A person who’d been on the verge of death beneath the rubble just moments ago.
Her eyes burned with the will to endure somehow.
Stella clung tightly to her mother’s waist, sniffling, then lifted her head. Tears clung to the bridge of her nose.
“...Th-thank you. R-really, truly.”
In a way utterly unchildlike, she bowed her head.
I was momentarily at a loss for words, then schooled my expression.
“No big deal.”
Stella’s mother looked up at me again.
“Really, how can I ever repay you...”
“Don’t even think about repayment.”
The village was gone in a single night—what could I possibly want?
I hadn’t acted expecting any reward in the first place.
If not for knowledge of the original story, by now...
“They said this village had a Blood Cell. That’s why people flocked here.”
“Blood Cell...! Why!?”
Mid-sentence, Stella’s mother cried out in shock.
A Blood Cell appearing out of nowhere in an ordinary village? It made no sense.
Stella seemed to recall the people slaughtering each other earlier; she furrowed her brow tightly.
Beast-like eyes hunting for the stone even before her mother.
Faces that didn’t blink as people fell.
Stella gritted her teeth.
“...Earlier, those people. They tried to kill you, Mom.”
We could’ve saved them.
But we deliberately looked away.
“Yeah.”
Admitting it kept my heart from shaking as much.
Stella asked immediately.
“What’s a Blood Cell?”
I paused, wondering how to explain.
Game lore was now spilling into reality.
Stella’s mother spoke first.
“...A stone that burns you from within to turn you into a monster.”
“A monster?”
It wasn’t wrong to call it a monster-maker.
The humans Stella had seen today were already half-monsters.
I closed my eyes briefly, then opened them and spoke as calmly as I could.
“Yeah. It makes you strong in ways no human should be.”
I held up a single finger.
“Not just swinging a sword a bit harder. Your body toughens, wounds heal in seconds. Power you shouldn’t have surges out. That’s why everyone loses their minds over it.”
Stella pressed her lips tight, her voice dropping lower.
“Why does something like that even exist in this world?”
Esira rolled her eyes for a moment, her face choosing her words carefully.
I took Stella’s hand lightly, gently rubbing her wounded palm with my thumb.
“It’s made from this.”
“...This?”
“Blood.”
Blood smeared onto my thumb.
Stella’s eyes shook violently.
“That’s why it’s called Blood Cell. Made by gathering blood, they say.”
I had to finish the explanation.
“And it needs an enormous amount.”
A few people’s blood wouldn’t cut it.
Stella grew even paler.
“Yeah. So those people earlier...”
Stella trailed off, gripping my sleeve tightly instead.
Then, cautiously, she called out to me.
“...Um, sister?”
“Yeah?”
“With the stone alone, how strong do you get?”
Her mother looked at Stella in surprise.
“Stella, why ask about that?”
“Just curious.”
I hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“It’d vary from person to person. Still—”
Before I could finish, Stella’s mother cut in.
“With that alone, even Axiom could be easily killed.”
“Axiom?”
“An organization that belongs to no nation, full of monster-like people.”
Esira’s shoulder twitched beside me.
I pretended not to know, struggling to keep a blank expression.
“The strongest and scariest in the world gather there. They scoff at laws, kings, even gods.”
A bit unfair. I never scoffed at gods.
I had no idea how grateful I’d been since arriving here.
“But with Blood Cell?”
“They say you could crush even Axiom like bugs.”
I swallowed a hollow laugh inside.
‘Of all benchmarks, Axiom.’
I’m Axiom.
The feeling was strangely surreal.
“That’s why everyone lost it. If they could put even Axiom under their feet, why not claim the whole world?”
Stella nodded.
“Are Axiom bad people?”
“Of course they are. To make Blood Cell, think of all the blood they’ve spilled.”
Esira subtly checked my reaction.
“...”
I had no real rebuttal.
It was the truth.