novelraw Chapter 252 : Chapter 252
Chapter 252 : Chapter 252
The Volume of the End 2 — The Last Shard of Memory, and the Final Truth
“My shard, you’ve run away from home for so long — isn’t it time you went back?” Astrid’s expression was cold and detached, her tone like an aria in an empty valley. She strode slowly; the sharp heels of her shoes tapped the ground with crisp “tuk-tuk” sounds as she walked over to Ifan.
“Shard?? Astrid, what are you talking about?” Although Teresa had clearly noticed something off about Astrid after the final stage, she had only assumed the other had been affected by Ruglian and grown more taciturn.
Could it be that Astrid hadn’t become just more silent, but had turned cliché-teenaged instead??
Things weren’t that simple — Teresa could very clearly sense that something had changed within Astrid.
Could it be… possession??
No. It shouldn’t be.
The thought was snuffed out the moment it sprang up. Possession implied a change of soul, and elves could gaze straight into souls. If Astrid’s body had been possessed, then with her powerful instincts she should have sensed an abnormality in Astrid’s soul at once — yet up until now, even now, she could not detect anything unusual about Astrid’s soul.
Astrid didn’t offer any explanation. She didn’t even look at Teresa; she stared at Ifan, who wore an expression of confusion edged with timidity, and raised her hand.
“It seems you still couldn’t recall. Never mind — I have just reclaimed my self-awareness. My memories and perceptions were still incomplete, but you seem not even to have recovered self-awareness.”
“Let me help you. See who you are.”
After she said this, a cold, winterlike light issued from Astrid’s hand and descended upon Ifan.
For reasons she didn’t understand, Ifan felt a peculiar awe toward this moon-elf who looked less than a hundred years old. When the beam landed on her, innumerable sentences formed from ancient Elvish words flooded her mind.
Ifan’s expression shifted from initial resistance to dazed disbelief at the amount of information contained within, and finally settled into acceptance.
She looked at her hands; the bewilderment drained away. Teresa, watching from the side, showed a look of astonishment.
What had Astrid done??
Teresa trusted Astrid unconditionally, but the change in the latter was enormous: the soul was unchanged, yet the person seemed different.
Cognitive control? No — Astrid was a young elf who’d lived less than two decades. How could she, with less than twenty years’ experience, alter an elf who’d lived more than four hundred years? It was impossible.
“Have you found yourself again? Now, do you know who you are?” Astrid lowered her hand slowly and looked at Ifan, whose bewilderment had dissipated like smoke but who still found it hard to accept.
“.........”
After a brief silence, Ifan nodded, but she glanced at Teresa with an expression tinged with some deep meaning Teresa could not read.
Teresa’s thought was correct: decades of experience could not assimilate centuries of memory, but what about the obsession and awareness of a thousand years?
Under the shock of millennia of cognition and obsession, those few centuries of memories collapsed into scattered sand and fused into the main consciousness.
It was like a teenager’s mind suddenly being invaded by a thousand years of memories — it was hard not to be assimilated by them, to become stupidly convinced you truly were the owner of those memories, while the previous dozen-odd years merely felt like an unclear, memory-lost period.
Ifan now faced that problem. This intense sense of recognition had not been transmitted into her body by Astrid; rather, it had always been there, buried deep. Astrid had merely awakened it.
That recognition and experience felt utterly natural.
“There’s no time to waste. I need your strength.” Astrid extended her hand toward Ifan; her tone carried the flavor of a command, and Ifan could not refuse.
Because she knew — both she and Astrid were only ‘shards’ of the主体 (the whole consciousness).
They each had their roles. The moon-elf before them was the主体’s awareness — the last to awaken.
“After fusion, I will disappear, won’t I?” After hesitation, Ifan nodded and asked again. It was strange to see this centuries-old ‘demon lord’-like presence deferentially compliance to a girl elf of less than twenty.
“What are you talking about? None of us will disappear.” Astrid answered matter-of-factly. “We were always one. Reassembling into one was inevitable, sooner or later. Being one, of course we each had our duties, so none of us will vanish.”
“.........”
Ifan did not reply. Instead she turned and looked at Teresa deeply.
“These hundreds of years — I didn’t expect the other shards to form attachments to others,” Astrid murmured, shaking her head.
“If you can, could you take care of her for me?” Ifan’s tone carried a pleading quality.
“I will do my best. But you know, if she goes against me, or stands in my way, I cannot promise anything.” Astrid sighed lightly as she spoke.
Teresa knit her brows.
“After all, it’s not only me and you — there is also another shard’s millennial obsession and its ‘wish.’”
“All things come from a strong vision. That person had one, and so did we; otherwise, we could not have crossed a thousand years to reappear.”
“To fulfill that obsession, I had no choice.” Astrid looked at Teresa plainly.
Only then did Teresa perceive that Astrid had not been possessed — her feelings toward Teresa remained, but Astrid carried a far stronger obsession and vision, and that vision surpassed her feelings for Teresa.
“I hope you understand; if it were you, you would understand.” Astrid said.
“.........I understand.” Ifan answered gravely. She no longer looked at Astrid. Her eyes closed; a faint pale luminescence rose from her body, and the wounds on her flesh visibly healed under the light.
It was not over. Under Teresa’s and Astrid’s gazes, Ifan gradually shrank — more precisely, she condensed.
Her body turned into a pale silver light and finally reduced to a shard.
The shard, drawn by Astrid, flew into her body.
“Ifan?!” Teresa stared in stunned disbelief at the scene. As Ifan’s body vanished, a golden shard hidden within Teresa flew into her mind.
For a moment Teresa’s head split with pain — a strong emotion combined with memories crashed into her mind.
A series of memory fragments flashed through her brain.
The memories were so strange, yet so familiar.
She remembered everything. She remembered it all.
‘Ifan, I hope our battle won’t affect the innocent.’
‘.......Alright, I promise you.’
Those were the words she had spoken when confronting Ifan at the Sacred Tree of the Elves.
But there were earlier events.
Previously she had already noticed the gray elves’ corruption and rebellion and started an investigation...
From her investigation it emerged that someone had complied with and simultaneously subverted the commands issued by the Golden Elves, even secretly altering orders.
After all, the executors of law could not always be the elves themselves; power organs issued orders that were passed down to the grassroots for implementation.
It was unclear which link failed, but a law meant to be shouldered by all tribes had been twisted into something only the gray elves bore.
Including ‘caretaking the Sacred Tree of the Elves,’ ‘maintenance and repair of the Sacred Tree’s barrier,’ ‘filling the front lines for battle,’ and other incidents unknown to Golden Elf high ranks.
Merely saying ‘Gray Elves are like bricks — move them where they’re needed’ was insufficient to explain the gray elves’ plight.
In the end, the gray elves were controlled in number; an unfinished record, about to be burned, showed extra-born gray elves were sent to an underground chamber and never returned.
These appalling oppressions caused the gray elves’ corruption and rebellion.
But none of these things had truly turned the gray elves black enough to open the gates for the Demon Race and slaughter their kin.
When Teresa investigated in secret, clues emerged, and she gradually identified the one who secretly altered high-level orders and opened the gates for the demons — and that person was hiding inside the elves.
After verification, Teresa set the most suspicious candidate as a moon-elf elder.
But just as she was about to act, the gray elf uprising force had already reached the Sacred Tree, and she had to accept negotiations with Ifan.
After she used reason to calm Ifan and her followers, an unknown black halberd flew at Ifan, and Teresa stepped before Ifan to save her...
There was no being in this world capable of defeating the Elf War Goddess, but being killed by that weapon was, tragically, plausible.
Indeed, the black halberd that had killed her back then was the very Divine Weapon she had used repeatedly: Sacred Oblivion.
Teresa stared at her palm in horror — it was the first time she had shown such an expression.
As memories returned she recalled many important things: details about Sacred Oblivion.
She realized, to her terror, that she had used this dangerous divine blade multiple times without knowing its true nature!
And she finally remembered who she had identified as the most likely culprit of those crimes...
“Click!” Before she could think further, a silver chain of light snapped around her neck.
“It looks like you remembered everything, Teresa — or rather, should I call you ‘Your Grace, Elf War Goddess’?” Astrid held the other end of the light chain, her expression indifferent.
“...You’re his lackey too?!” Teresa’s face had gone cold.
“I think you misunderstood, Your Grace. I only did this to protect you and keep you from taking part in what came next.” Astrid said calmly. “You are important both to the former me and to my shard. If anything happens to you, I would feel sadness.”
“So, to prevent you from doing something irrational, forgive me for acting first and taking control of you.”
“The rest of this no longer concerns you. You’ve fought for hundreds of years — you must be tired. Rest well. Don’t worry; as long as you behave, I’ll keep you alive and safe.”
“And what about the other elves?? Will you not care for their lives and deaths?!” Teresa clenched her small fists.
“That damned bastard, that evil traitor........” For the first time Teresa used such vicious language.
“He harmed so many elves, used his kin for human experiments and dissections, secretly opened the forest gates to the Demon Race so the elves were forced from their homes, scattered and broken, the Sacred Tree left in pieces!”
“All those debts of blood must be repaid!”
“No matter what, I must make that man with the beastly heart pay!”
“Diderlay...” Teresa ground her teeth, each syllable severe — her rage was visible.
“So, sometimes knowing too much is not necessarily a good thing.” Astrid sighed. “If I hadn’t come here with you, that confrontation might never have happened.”
“That’s why I warned you: some things, once known, cannot be undone.”
“Who are you, really?!” Teresa stared at Astrid.
“As you know, in this life I am called Astrid.” Astrid said softly.
“...Why did you aid the enemy, Astrid??”
“Sorry, Princess Teresa, let me correct: Diderlay and I are not allies. In fact, thousands of years ago we were opponents with differing views.”
“Thousands of years ago? You’ve lived for millennia? Impossible — Diderlay has not even reached a thousand years yet.”
“Of course I didn’t mean his present lifetime. In fact, he and I and you are the same.”
“Reincarnation, Princess Teresa — aren’t you the best example? You wouldn’t think you were the only one capable of returning in a second life, would you?”
“I don’t want to meddle in your affairs, but if you have conscience, you shouldn’t let Diderlay’s plot continue.”
“Conscience, huh...?” Astrid closed her eyes. “Even if you rushed there now, you probably couldn’t stop Diderlay.”
“Then you? Won’t you stop him?”
“Why should I stop him?” Astrid opened her eyes. “I can’t agree with his methods and his direction is wrong, but sadly his goal aligns with mine.”
“So trapping you here was also meant to stop you from interfering.”
“Princess Teresa, do you know what Diderlay’s monstrous cruelty is ultimately for?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know.”
“You cannot beat him.” Astrid said with conviction.
“After you awakened in this life, you lacked complete memories and didn’t know who the prime mover was; you found an indestructible blade within you — you doubted, but you didn’t think hard enough.” Astrid spoke slowly.
“Have you considered that all of this was arranged by him?”
“He encouraged you to explore Ruglian, and you, to meet a dear friend again, acted stubbornly. Along the way you did two things for him that achieved two aims at once.”
“One was removing the barriers between the Demon Race territories, allowing the demons’ chaos to escalate; the other... was that dangerous divine blade in your hand — he let it soak into you so thoroughly that even you, reborn, would lack the power to stop him.”
“Because you used that filthy weapon repeatedly, you had accumulated a lot of taint; if you continued fighting fiercely, that taint would soon stain every corner of your body, and then you would be corrupted like Ifan.”