novelraw Chapter 367: A Wise Person Knows Their Fate
Chapter 367: A Wise Person Knows Their Fate
With Erwind chasing after them into the Sycamore tree, Fisher no longer hesitated. He looked at the profound space below, thought for a second or two, and then took out the Fluid Sword from his arms. Seeing this, Eimhart tacitly shrank back into Fisher's embrace, falling downward together with him.
With every bit of distance he descended, Fisher used the Fluid Sword to either grab or pierce the wall to decelerate. As he descended toward the roots of the Sycamore tree, he asked the Moon Princess on his back,
"What is the approximate life tier level of that incomplete Base right now?"
"A bit higher than my mother was. It is also a Mythical Creature. Although it has no sentience and basically only uses brute strength, it isn't something the current you can deal with. I feel that the fellow approaching here now is a bit stronger than you. Is he your friend? If you two join forces, you might have some chance of winning..."
"...No, we are enemies intent on putting each other to death. And just like you all thousands of years ago, he also wants to enter the Mythical Rank with the help of the Spirit World."
"Oh my, stories about repeating past mistakes are not fun. How about you go discuss with him and see if you can temporarily shake hands and make peace? What do you think?"
"..."
Fisher didn't speak again, just quietly descending, not knowing what he was thinking about.
This massive and incomparably broad space led all the way down to an unknown abyss. Although the surroundings were presently pitch-black and dead silent, it wasn't hard to imagine that this place must have been very bustling in the past when the Phoenixes were still around.
They used to spread their wings and shuttle through the space here, going to different locations within the Sycamore tree. The sounds of Phoenixes conversing and their wings flapping should have been endlessly ringing in the ears.And the further Fisher descended, the brighter his surroundings became, because the originally exquisite architecture around him was gradually covered by layer after layer of growing True Ice.
The True Ice emitting a dense radiance below was like a kaleidoscope, spiraling down and pointing to a pentagonal, snowflake-shaped platform at the very bottom. There seemed to be many faintly glowing apparatuses on the platform, and beneath the platform were vast expanses of extremely thick True Ice...
Using his excellent vision to look through the True Ice beneath the platform and further down, Fisher seemed to see an indistinct yet enormous shadow within. At the same time, the Moon Princess also said,
"That's the root of the giant tree. Its energy is nearly infinite. Using the instruments we built above, you can control the mechanisms inside the Sycamore tree and the surrounding space."
Fisher slowly brought Valentiina down onto this snowflake platform. The fluorescence of the surrounding True Ice spread onto the ground bit by bit, illuminating the sights on the platform.
Right at this moment, tiny motes of light floated up from Valentiina's eyes like fireflies, flying toward the corner of the instruments.
Fisher's and Valentiina's gazes both followed those fireflies, only to see a rather tall, crystal-clear skeleton sitting in that direction, which was the edge of the platform.
That skeleton was about two meters tall, wearing a set of beautiful silk robes that had almost completely weathered away. Fisher had never seen such a style or craftsmanship before. Her head was slightly tilted, revealing the structure of a pair of wings on her back that had already scattered into a skeletal frame.
Every single one of these obvious characteristics proclaimed that this person, who had been dead for an unknown period of time, possessed the noble bloodline of the Phoenix Race, which had long vanished from the world.
The skeleton just sat quietly at the edge of the instruments, its hands, long turned to white bone, gracefully holding a sphere flashing with faint light.
That sphere was a Holy Artifact made by Angels. The fireflies flying out from Valentiina's eyes wobbled and fell into the center of that sphere. Perhaps it was an illusion, but after those fireflies flew back, the light on that sphere dimmed quite a bit.
"This is... the corpse of the Moon Princess, the skeleton of a Phoenix?"
Eimhart also wanted to drift closer to try and infer the appearance of a real Phoenix through this corpse that only had a skeleton left. But right as he was about to fly over, a rather gentle and unfamiliar female voice came from within that sphere,
"Mr. Fisher, my time is running out. Please turn on the lock switch of the instruments. The valve on the left is the locking device, the one on the right is the spatial gauge. The dot of light in the middle represents the Sycamore tree, and the circles around it are the spatial turbulence you can control. Twist the button all the way to the left. Once the circles completely wrap around the Sycamore tree, it will be successful."
Fisher placed Valentiina from his back down beside him. Suddenly having no one fighting her for the mic, she was even a bit unaccustomed to it. Fisher, on the other hand, crouched on the ground and sized up the instruments above. However, he didn't immediately begin twisting the instruments. Instead, he asked,
"Can these be operated without the bloodline of a Phoenix?"
"Yes. Naturally, the simpler the things in one's own home are, the better."
"..."
Fisher fell silent for a moment, then suddenly turned his head to look at the Moon Princess's corpse next to the instruments and asked,
"Moon Princess, I have a small doubt that I'd like you to answer."
"You clearly knew that what the incomplete Base wants is your final bloodline. If you saw the future before you died, you should know that your final bloodline was inherited by a fragile human. Letting Valentiina enter the Sycamore tree poses a great risk of completing the Base, thereby allowing the terrifying existence in the Spirit World to descend, yet you still left behind a testament allowing her to return. Exactly what did you see in your prophecy that made you so confidently feel that there would be no harm in letting her return?"
"Moreover, you said that a Phoenix can only see the future when unintentionally stimulated. Then I have two questions I'd like to ask you. First, when the stillbirth in your womb was born, did you really not see a prophecy? Even after thousands of years have passed, you still pine for that child. You must have been greatly stimulated at that time. It's absolutely impossible for no prophecy to have been born, yet you keep your mouth completely shut about this."
"Second, when the unconscious Curse was hunting the other six races at the foot of the mountain, it once spoke. It kept shouting 'Traitor'. Originally, I thought the six races betrayed the Phoenixes, but now I know it was hunting you. Then, can I infer that the traitor it was shouting about is actually you?"
Fisher turned his head back. The Moon Princess's corpse had long lost all signs of vitality; only the small sphere held in her hands was flashing with faint light. It wasn't until several seconds later that the Moon Princess's gentle voice transmitted over again,
"...Smart child. Your thinking is very fast. Truly, only now do I feel you have a bit of similarity with that nonsensical fellow. However, there is no need to suspect my intentions with such conspiracy theories. The prophecies seen by the weaker Phoenixes are a series of images, exactly like the images of things that have already occurred and are stored in your memory—they are the unchangeable past and outcome."
"But for the more powerful among us, it is different. What we see are not images, but a feeling. It is the direction of 'Destiny', the chances of fine threads tangled on someone or something trembling and changing as they are blown by the breeze of destiny. In our eyes, all difficulties are a knot entangled from thread ends. The harder this knot is to untie, the more it causes panic."
"The Mythic War my elder brother saw was an extremely complex knot of destiny, with almost no possibility of being untied. Thus, our entire race resorted to extreme measures and sought the help of the Spirit World. However, we didn't expect that this was precisely the cause of our destruction, a part of the knot. And indeed, when I gave birth to my child, I saw another, even more distant prophecy. Placed before me was an 'unsolvable knot' beyond the imagination of any living being. Even the knot that caused the destruction of our entire race was nothing more than a minuscule part of this unsolvable knot."
"If our race's knot was untied, then the unsolvable knot that followed would leave completely no way out; but even if we sacrificed the lives of the entire Phoenix race, it was still unpredictable whether the subsequent unsolvable knot could be untied. If you were in my place, how would you choose?"
Fisher's pupils shifted slightly. The World-Ending Prophecy, written like a joke at the beginning of the Demi-Human Completion Handbook, abruptly popped into his mind. He seemed to read the underlying meaning in the Moon Princess's words and said,
"You couldn't make up your mind. You privately told this prophecy to your mother, the Phoenix King. She made the choice for you... and chose the latter, correct? You and your mother sacrificed your race, electing to provide hope for untying the unsolvable knot afterward. This is also why, when a god-like pollution instantly swallowed your entire race, you and your mother seemed to face danger without panic, able to seal the Base with ice and shut the Sycamore tree amidst the crisis. It turns out you were prepared."
"But perhaps my vision as a human is too narrow. I fail to see the connection between these two matters. Besides, if you had given up on communicating with the Spirit World back then and stopped the God of the Sky from descending and using the bodies of your entire race to form the Base, wouldn't that perhaps have been more helpful for the unsolvable knot that followed?"
The orb in the Moon Princess's embrace gradually grew dim, and her gentle voice became fainter and fainter.
"Child, a race that can perceive destiny views the world in a completely different way. Any practical connections in reality are but the superficial appearances of destiny. Our tier is too low to delve into their true connections; knowing the ultimate outcome is enough. You guys must have arrived here long after my death. Then I want to ask you: in the history you've lived through, aside from the intrinsic wars of the Mythical Species, have there been any invasions by the Chaos-kin? Can you still feel the threat that the entities of the Spirit World pose to the world?"
"..."
Fisher pondered for a moment without responding. To be honest, it was indeed after arriving in the Northland that he learned there was also a terrifying threat faced in the Spirit World. Prior to that, even the invasion of Chaos-kin into reality seemed to exist only in myths and legends.
Looking at it this way, the sacrifice of the Phoenixes indeed somehow alleviated the oppression that bizarre existence exerted on the Spirit World and reality. At the very least, since his birth, he hadn't felt the desperate situation the Phoenixes faced back then.
"If gods could be trusted, they should have appeared long ago when countless living beings were being oppressed by tyrants. Direct intervention by gods in the world brings very severe consequences, not to mention the Spirit World which they cannot touch. Mythical Species can more or less feel the fluctuations in the threads of destiny, but they wouldn't make the same choice as us. If there's anyone to blame, it's destiny itself, for bestowing this ability upon the Phoenixes who had tasted the suffering of the common people..."
"However, it wasn't completely without reward, was it? For us, and for all the living beings of the Northland, it is so."
"In the Mythic War, the Mythical Species were well aware of our sacrifice and didn't let the flames of war spread to the Northland. Many Northland races have continued to multiply until today; they emerged safely out of the Mythic War. Furthermore, once, when the spirit body of the Base at its full strength escaped from the unsealed Sycamore tree and fled toward the ocean, wanting to snatch back my final bloodline, a powerful entity from the ocean even took action and drove it back into the Sycamore tree..."
"As for us, although our entire race has perished, our figures and stories still live on in the Northland. The subjects we sheltered sing our praises, and the companions who drank and made merry with us still obey my one-sentence command even after thousands of years... Perhaps, for our Phoenix Race, this is the best ending possible."
"Although our entire race exhausted everything and failed to cross the heavenly chasm that is the Mythic Rank, we accidentally became the gods believed in by the Northlanders. This is something that countless Mythical Species, even True Gods, who are tens of thousands of times stronger than us, would find hard to achieve..."
Fisher turned to look at Valentiina beside him. The intense questioning of the Moon Princess just now was absolutely not out of suspicion of her motives. After all, this incident had happened so long ago; to keep pressing on the intent left behind by a dead person would be completely meaningless.
He just cared about how to save Valentiina, who was nearing death. Her human body couldn't endlessly withstand the Phoenix bloodline. Even if she hadn't come to the Sycamore tree, she would have died outside. But despite explaining so much, the Moon Princess hadn't provided a solution, which gave Fisher quite a headache. However, seemingly understanding the meaning of the Moon Princess's words, he asked again,
"So, telling Valentiina to come back together with me is also related to the knot of destiny you saw? Can this help her solve her bloodline issue?"
"I don't know either. What do you think?"
"..."
Fisher, who failed to receive an answer, sighed and closed his eyes. He placed one hand on the control console and, following the Moon Princess's instructions, manipulated the spatial turbulence to thoroughly lock down the Sycamore tree, all while fully activating the various mechanisms inside. At this moment, the completely sealed and locked Sycamore tree turned into the final battlefield for him, Erwind, and this Base.
"Clunk, clunk, clunk!"
Accompanied by the mechanical sounds echoing within the Sycamore tree, Fisher stared at the flashing light of the True Ice below. He asked in a low voice, not knowing if he was asking the Moon Princess or himself,
"You've done your utmost to provide everything you can, but after all, that yet-to-arrive unsolvable knot won't be untied by your own hands. You've sacrificed so much and waited for thousands of years... but from now until the future, if your descendants take even one wrong step or make one mistake, you're going to lose the whole game..."
The Moon Princess merely chuckled "Hehe". Except, obviously, the remaining energy in her relic was growing scarcer and scarcer. For this reason, her voice also became increasingly faint and distorted. She simply stated,
"My mother and I are deeply aware of this principle. But after all, fate is hard to fathom. A gentleman should seize the moment, and a wise person must also know their destiny. Since the choice was made, there should be no room left for regret... Everything that follows is up to you."
The Moon Princess's gentle voice came to an abrupt end. The small sphere cupped in the hands of the skeleton also suddenly shattered along with her final words, turning into a pile of warmthless residue.
Valentiina beside him, however, squeezed her palm imperceptibly upon hearing the Moon Princess's final sentence. Looking at Fisher pondering with his head lowered beside her, she smiled and tugged on his sleeve, saying,
"It's okay, Fisher. Don't think about these things for now. Right now, you still have to deal with the Base left by the Phoenixes and that enemy chasing you, don't you?"
Seeing that Fisher didn't move and seemed to be still thinking, she, sitting on the ground, pulled his large hand up to her cheek. Feeling the touch and warmth of her skin, Fisher couldn't help but turn his head to look at her, while Valentiina also looked up at him from the ground and smiled. She raised the hand wearing the magic ring and said,
"It's okay. The ring you gave me will always protect me, Fisher."
"...You will be fine, Valentiina."
Looking at Valentiina who still remained optimistic right before his eyes, Fisher let out a long breath and put her back onto his back. He looked up at the upper part of the Sycamore tree. The space on the outside of the glass at the very top, where the moonlight was originally visible, was now completely distorted; not even the aurora could be seen clearly anymore. But at the same time, the previously tightly closed and locked doors within the Sycamore tree also loosened one by one. This immediately allowed Fisher to sense a wickedly terrifying fluctuation of soul energy coming from behind one of the doors in the middle section of the Sycamore tree.
And at the entrance, from the direction they had come earlier, the Erwind who was pursuing him had also entered this place.
Just as Fisher had previously guessed, Erwind headed straight for the direction of the Base without deviation.