novelraw Chapter 657 - 656 - Lost Figures
Chapter 657 - 656 - Lost Figures
There were many that considered the last 5 centuries a rise of peace and prosperity. They celebrated the milestones like Liberation Day with great fanfare and sharing the legends of the war back then.
There were, of course, inconvenient figures or facts people tried to smooth over but Lind refused. He did not fight for a celebration but he would not let them be buried. There were the red robe Soulmancers and the Soulless that had committed many atrocities but rose up to bring down Xing nevertheless.
The Soulless were easier because of what was done to them but the red robes were harder to thank for obvious reasons.
That was nothing compared to a Fiend helping Lind at a key moment.
Alden was more than a rebel, he was something that gave Lind real clues to where the Fiends came from. He needed more information but it remained a fact that Lind and Lili would have been dead to Timat without any hope.
Still, no one wanted to celebrate a Fiend for any reason no matter what Lind revealed. It was too much for the public to understand or accept.
Still, a small floating island over the Ward of Peace was owned by Lind and on it was a memorial along with a massive weaving that demonstrated Fiend Qi against Celestial Qi. It detailed all Timat had done, including experimenting on his own children.
It layed out Alden's journey and his sacrifices over the centuries. Lind may not be able to push it to all, but many that survived the war brought their families there to remind them about reality.
The demons were fairly insistent about it as they refused to bury their heads in the sand as humans seemed to want to.
Lind appeared with a small squad of guards but all of them wore dark cloaks to hide their identities. Normally the guards would be disturbed but it was quite normal for groups to arrive hiding their faces.
While some did honor the dead, they did not want a trail to come back and cause issues with the public. The guards simply confirmed the tokens all had and waved them through.
Lind did not go to the memorial. He instead used his fingers to engrave a trace between 2 sigils few would notice. Even if they did, they would assume it was part of the larger display, yet it was hidden inside it.
The moment the trace connected, a section of the once vibrant greenery became misty and Lind went in alone. The Emerald Souls proceeded to the memorial to make sure nothing too suspicious was noticed by anyone visiting.
Lind followed a gentle path winding deep into the small hills on the island. It was a beautiful place of yellows, reds, and blues from flowers with well trimmed trees along it. The scenic path was soothing to the soul.
Lind had worked with a few to make it that way.
He quickly entered a clearing with a modest cabin sitting in the sunlight. The lush grass with the potted plants gave it a warm feeling of home. Lind smiled as he saw the shoots of herbs so carefully reared but for their beauty instead of their usefulness.
Some alchemists would cry at the waste but Lind found no issue with it.
He saw a rocking chair on the porch with a wooden cup and plate on the table next to it. He had clearly missed his target by a few moments so he waited. She likely already knew he was there.
The creak of the wooden door revealed a beautiful woman.
The white hair reached her back and seemed to glow in the sunlight but her narrow face revealed her youth. She wore no makeup but her father had gifted her with supernatural beauty as she grew up.
Her aura was stable at the peak of the Star Tier. She had advanced but she could easily have been in the Sun Tier with her talent. She just had no interest. She rarely smiled anymore.
Around her neck was the completed amulet. It was the last time she smiled in Lind's presence. Her robes were simple gray but seemed to only make her look even better.
"Kin." Lind bowed but she simply looked at him before setting down a tumbler after seasoning her drink. He frowned as he suspected what that was, yet he said nothing.
"You still disapprove of my coping method." She was not asking, simply stating a truth. Lind shrugged but stayed at the fence as he looked around. The care and beauty was all her work.
"You have a talent for this. Truly, a work of wonder to me." He was not sure what to say so started with the mundane. Kin simply looked around with hollow eyes.
"My mother liked to garden. It is the only time I felt close to her all these centuries. My father loved to watch her work and hold me before I could help her." Lind felt a sting in his heart.
The recovery of old memories was not always pleasant. It could reveal heart demons but Kin had progressed without issue until the present.
"I got your message." Lind knew Kin was intentionally using that memory to push him to the topic at hand.
"I kept to the oath. I have watched as people honored my father and my mother. I did appreciate that. I really did, but they are gone. Also, it does not solve the problem." Kin then looked at Lind harshly.
He did not flinch. He knew it might happen as he was like Kin. Unlike him, she walled off everyone after the war. Only Lind got through and made her swear to endure until she could not handle it anymore.
He hoped she would realize she was alive and her parents lived through her, but those eyes reminded him of his own dark memories.
"I want this bloodline to end with me. I want the curse to die with me. Keep your promise to me." No one spoke to Lind like that usually but he actually preferred Kin's attitude to others, yet he wished she was not like that.
"As you recall, I get to speak first. You can choose to listen or not, but understand what I am about to say is difficult for me. Only my family and a few others know about this." Kin actually snapped her eyes at him on the last line.
Lind finally entered the yard and summoned a stool for him to sit on. He also summoned out an old set of crimson robes. They had the flying crane on them in black as he smiled at the old work of the Frey Clan.
It had seen better days but he kept it.
"My father was a monster…" Lind began to speak. He spoke of his treatment as a child and why it existed. He spoke of his half-siblings and how they were treated. He spoke of why his mother sacrificed herself and all the things that made up the origin of his existence.
He did not stop but spoke of how he came to hate himself because he was related to that man. He spoke of how 3 heart demons nearly took him over on multiple occasions. He never looked away from Kin as he spoke.
For the first time in several centuries, an emotion was in her eyes. It was like she was shocked he could speak of it so openly but Lind's aura was far from stable. He let his raw emotions out for her to see.
He conquered his heart demons but it did not change how he felt in those moments back then. His current self had moved on but he let Kin see the old him. It was the only method he had left.
He stopped talking after he destroyed the Kingdom of Altair. Kin was crying looking at him. She suddenly stood up and slapped him.
"How dare you! How dare you try to minimize my pain! How dare you pretend to understand what I am going through!" Lind did nothing to stop her. "Your father was an evil man but he was at least a man! My grandfather was a Fiend! He was the enemy of all life!"
Lind was being battered as she kept hitting him. Tears flowed but Lind said nothing as she tried to use all her power on him.
The wood of the cabin lit up with weavings protecting it but the plants were not so lucky. The ground was torn up and the pots shattered.
Trees creaked as wave after wave of Star Tier power was unleashed, but Lind sat at the heart of it with a steady face.
"You think you are tied to that evil because he is your ancestor. In that, we are the same. In that, we both hate ourselves, yet I know that is a lie. The truth is we want to punish the person that caused all the pain to make ourselves feel better." His words made Kin thrash at him more before a set of daggers appeared.
Blood flew from Lind's face and body, yet it was random. No lethal attack came and he simply took it.
"NO! I want to die! I want to die! I want to die!" Lind did not deny her the words. He did, however, let loose something from long ago.
The yard filled with a sinister aura that made Kin jump back in fear. The formerly kind man she had known was now looking at her in dark humor.
"Well, this is a neat little trick the boy came up with! Perfect recall includes us! No sane cultivator would do this! Who would resurrect their heart demons afterall?" The voice was seductive and Kin felt terror for the first time in a very long time.
The being that had been Lind slowly stood up as it clearly stretched out the body.
"He has come so far! This will be–" A sudden twist appeared on his face before emerald light flared and pain came to him. "Y-you, what are you–"
The voice was weakening before the warm Lind returned. He was pale and looked tired but he was himself once more.
"Ok, not doing that again." His voice was back to normal but he looked up to see Kin terrified on the porch. The aura around her was completely defensive and he smiled at her.
"So, you want to die, huh? Why are you fighting to live?" Kin suddenly realized what she was doing. She had put up defenses and prepared to run from the being Lind had become.
"Wh–what was that?" Lind smiled but took an elixir before standing up to help her up.
"A memory given form. My heart demons were not kind but they were just memories. The moment it tried to do more my harmony shattered it. A true heart demon is not so easy but it did what I wanted. It is easy to say you want to die, but it is a lot harder to accept death." Kin stood up and looked at him.
"I free you from the oath. What you do with your life is yours to decide but at least be honest with yourself. It is not that you want to die but that you don't want to be his granddaughter. If he was not there, you would not let your parents die with you." His words shook her.
She would have denied it before but now, after facing such terror, she was no longer sure. Her eyes, once so hollow, were now at least alive. Lind bowed and left. He could only do so much.
Time had passed and she still tried to die. Now, he had ripped away her illusions. He tried a soft way but she forced him to do it the hard way. He was about to leave when he stopped.
"Alden kept a portrait in his room. It was cracked and fading but he treasured it. It had to hurt to see her and know what happened but he never hid it. It was prominently out in the open for all to see." Lind saw tears form as Kin began to weep heavily. Tears she had held onto for far too long finally were let loose.
He would be sad if that was the last he saw of her, but he could not stop her forever. He bowed and returned to his guards to pay respects to Alden and his wife before leaving back to the Core Hall.