Chapter 148: I Come from the Era Where the “Guardians” Have Long Been Forgotten by the World (6400)
Present World, Tower of Secrets, Era Hall.
The light curtain unfolded like rippling water, creating layers of waves and reflecting everything happening at this moment in the Night World.
A boy stood high in the sky, casting a dignified gaze toward the earth.
It was clearly morning, but the frozen dusk overshadowed the intense sunlight, shrouding the entire heavens.
And on the wasteland.
A gray-haired girl looked up at the boy in the distant sky, the brilliance in her emerald green eyes completely frozen.
She did not run away, nor did she activate the time rewind again; she just stood there in a daze.
“Wow, Rast’s momentum is a bit intimidating…”
“He has contained one of the three essential elements of becoming a god—the d*ath God’s Chalice, and spent three years ascending to the throne of the Netherworld, incorporating the chalice and the faith of countless dead souls into himself.”
“His current status must be at the peak of the sixth tier… No, considering that he is in the Netherworld, an ordinary peak sixth tier probably isn’t even comparable to him.”
Watching the figure in the distant sky through the light curtain, Mr. Silver, the principal, grabbed a small fish snack with his fluffy paw and pointed at the light curtain.
The power of the d*ath God’s Chalice, the enhancement of the imperial domain within the Royal City, and the ability to control the power of that remnant body of the God of d*ath.
With the combination of these three, if Rast were to truly contain the Holy Grail, another key to becoming a god… then he might even be able to bump into the weakest legend.
Thinking of this, Mr. Silver couldn’t help but look stern.
That fluffy white tail swept across the picnic blanket, gathering various grilled fish snacks and a large bottle of soda.
With such power, this little fellow wouldn’t try to steal food from himself, would he?
Meanwhile, Ophelia watched the silver weasel principal, who was panting in a food-guarding fantasy, with helplessness in her eyes, as the metal incarnation formed from undead mercury reflected her feelings.
Even though her age might be greater than the history of Starry University, did she really have to act cute and youthful in front of her…?
Haki Weasel, you…
Ophelia felt that after spending so long with Mr. Silver, her clever little mind—capable of mingling with the great nobility of the imperial capital—was being assimilated into a mush by this weasel.
“Little Weasel, you’re overthinking.”
The mercury incarnation, taking the form of a girl, gently rubbed her forehead: “Unless it’s an extraordinary item or emblem armor issued through task rewards with certification from the Night World.”
“Otherwise, everything obtained from the Night World is merely a phantasmal remnant of historical echoes and cannot be brought back to the present world.”
“Whether it’s the d*ath God’s Chalice acquired in the Night World, or the power from the old era’s faith, or the remnant body of the Ancient God… when Rast returns, they will all dissipate together into nothingness.”
“I believe, as the head of the Magical Creatures Research Institute and a professor at Starry University, Mr. Silver, you should already know this…”
“And also—”
Ophelia squinted her eyes, the wine-red eyes of her mercury incarnation lingering for a moment on Mr. Silver, who was innocently wagging his tail on the picnic blanket.
“I don’t think, based on Rast’s character, he would be interested in the pet food of Mr. Silver.”
To be honest, even Ophelia sometimes couldn’t tell whether this weasel was deliberately pretending to be silly or if it was just its nature.
Mr. Silver was certainly a bit afraid because he couldn’t see through her heart, but vice versa was also true…
Even Ophelia, the second princess of the empire, could never truly understand the essence of this talking weasel—it might exist longer than the founding of Starry University, and the information database of the Tower of Secrets has never recorded Mr. Silver’s origins.
A magical creature that perfectly masters human language and emotions, possessing an seemingly eternal lifespan, and the unique “Moon” sequence… Underneath the silly and cute exterior of Mr. Silver lies too many mysteries and fog.
Starry University and the Granwill Empire had observed Mr. Silver for centuries, but the only discovery they made was that this weasel genuinely held goodwill toward humans in the present world…
And that it seemed to be really lazy, having stayed cooped up at Starry University for hundreds of years, hardly moving its nest.
However, even so—
Mr. Silver had a corresponding number in the forbidden directory of the Tower of Secrets.
“0-03·Beast of the Moon”
It did not represent a level one forbidden directory with legendary potential, but rather a “zero” level.
Its existence itself was equivalent to legend.
…
“Is that so? I almost forgot.”
Mr. Silver tapped his fluffy tail against his head: “After all, weasels also grow old, and with age, memory isn’t as good as you young ones with mechanical databases backing.”
“But since this guy’s chalice can’t be brought out, then I can relax.”
As if letting out a long breath, Mr. Silver patted his chest with a small paw: “I thought I was about to be made into this guy’s true pet weasel—”
“Thus losing my freedom, only able to eat and sleep every day… although there are endless fish snacks, I would no longer breathe the fresh air of the outside world.”
“Now that I think about it, I still feel a bit lingering fear.”
Why do I feel like you seem to not only have lingering fear but also a bit of anticipation…?
For not really being made into a pet that only eats and sleeps, is there even a little regret?
Ophelia glanced at Mr. Silver, who lay innocently on the picnic blanket, but ultimately withdrew her gaze.
Whether it was an act or his true nature, this weasel had truly become sentient in a literal sense.
It was indeed a bit of a fantasy to try to probe Mr. Silver’s secrets with just a few words.
The conversation settled.
Within the Tower of Secrets, both the human and the weasel turned their attention back to the light curtain, now streaming live from the historical echoes of the Night World.
In the light curtain, that boy shrouded in a yellow glow stood isolated in the distant sky, resembling a king reigning over all.
In fact, he truly was a king.
At this moment, he was the Solitary King revered by all spirits in the Netherworld.
“However, becoming the king of the Netherworld who dominates the life and d*ath of all, stepping onto that lofty throne… also means you will embark on a path of loneliness from now on.”
“No, it’s not that you become lonely because you became the king of the Netherworld in the Night World.”
“But because, from the very beginning, you have always been alone.”
Mr. Silver gazed at the boy in the distant sky.
The laziness that once danced in those ruby-like beast eyes had slightly receded, rippling with subtle waves.
It was the “Moon Beast” that grew by consuming human emotions.
And because of this, despite the barrier between the present world and the Night World…
At this moment, Mr. Silver briefly captured a corner of Rast’s true heart.
That solitary figure, like a king of tall towers, was not an act… but an embodiment of his inner self.
Compared to that peaceable, approachable Rast of the present world, this moment was closer to Rast’s true inner landscape.
“The iron will that has not changed despite hundreds of scoffs, and the loneliness born from that.”
“Then, who will be the one to make you realize what love is for the first time…?”
Mr. Silver softly uttered.
“Younger Tina, Younger Xiya…”
“Or that person you mentioned before, someone from Canaan—”
“Or perhaps…”
Mr. Silver’s beastly gaze slowly locked onto the distant girl in the light curtain, whose eyes showed a confused expression.
“Is this girl named Grey?”
Mr. Silver’s murmurs went unheard by Ophelia beside him.
But at the same time, Ophelia’s mercury incarnation also fully fixed her wine-red eyes on the gray-haired girl in the light curtain.
Through Rast’s first-person perspective and the light curtain live stream, both Mr. Silver and Ophelia understood this girl’s actions.
Her name was Grey, from the Guardian of the Shore Organization of the Sixth Epoch.
Moreover, she seemed to have a uniquely special, indescribable emotional entanglement with Rast from the previous historical echoes.
That was why she traveled thousands of miles to the Royal City of Paradise, to the site of the holy rites.
Risking personal danger to stop Rast from containing the Holy Grail.
And from an observer’s perspective.
Ophelia made yet more startling discoveries regarding Grey.
“The ‘Fate’ sequence long tier that can interfere with fate and the flow of time.”
“Although previously a professor in the Ruins Institute had already predicted the existence and general abilities of the fate sequence… I never expected to see it in person.”
“Reversing time, overturning everything that has happened, possessing the possibility to try and error repeatedly across countless timelines… Such god-like power being held by a human is truly a bit ridiculous.”
“Moreover, this girl named Grey appears to possess some ability to simulate others’ sequences and Night Blades, and mimic them—”
In Ophelia’s mercury incarnation’s eyes, several miniature runes for detection, analysis, and recording were slowly rotating.
Though merely a fleeting glimpse from Rast’s perspective live stream.
With the aid of her brilliance as a genius mechanic, as well as the assistance of artificial intelligence, she managed to perceive the full scope of what was happening in the Night World based on the limited information gathered.
She exchanged glances with Mr. Silver beside her, both sharing similar thoughts.
Rast’s ability—
That which was registered as the “Copy Eye” Night Blade at Starry University.
Resembled the abilities exhibited by this girl named Grey, both able to perfectly simulate and replicate different types of sequence abilities and Night Blades.
“I knew that guy Rast was deceiving me, only able to imitate the skills of the copy eye…”
Mr. Silver pouted: “This guy can even be immune to time rewinds yet still keeps talking about the copy eye, purely making a fool of his teacher.”
Earlier he had felt he was being deceived but had no evidence; now he felt he had finally found the proof.
“However, is this girl named Grey just scared silly?”
He looked at the scene in the light curtain, a bit confused, whisking his tail:
“Why is she just standing there, giving up resistance?”
After a few jests, Mr. Silver realized that the little princess beside him had not followed his line of thought.
He turned back in confusion… only to see that the miniature computation runes in Ophelia’s wine-red eyes, which were slowly rotating, had now silently paused.
And on the second princess’s delicate face, a look of confusion akin to Grey’s in the light curtain had appeared.
After a long moment, Ophelia finally snapped back to reality.
“I say, Little Tina’s sister, have you been scared silly too?”
Mr. Silver whipped his tail: “Is Rast’s kingly presence really that intimidating?”
“No, it’s not because of my future brother-in-law…”
The miniature runes for calculation in Ophelia’s eyes faded quietly.
“I was just analyzing the crystal that records the data streaming back from the Night World, which showed an extremely unusual, far exceeding the normal range of ‘aging’ phenomenon.”
“And then—”
Ophelia’s words took on a somewhat haunting tone for some reason.
“I finally have a faint understanding—”
“Grey relinquished resistance and the reason why she gave up on another rewind.”
…
In the distant sky, Rast’s figure slowly descended toward the earth.
His form cloaked in a yellow majesty, the speed of descent not particularly fast…
But this time, Grey did not choose to escape immediately upon being discovered by Rast, as in the previous two timelines.
She merely stared blankly at the boy’s face before her.
Those emerald green eyes, which had never wavered even in the face of imminent danger over the past three years, now revealed an unprecedented sense of breaking.
Until just moments ago.
Grey finally understood everything that had happened to her—
Along with the true reason for the extraordinary wear and tear of her soul.
Why even though she had only activated the time rewind twice in her memory, the actual degree of soul damage far exceeded the “two” threshold.
“It seems you have noticed it too, little Grey.”
As if having seen the shaken expression on Grey’s pretty face, the boy’s cold and indifferent words followed, like a storm arriving.
“If I counted correctly…”
“This should be the one hundred eighty-third rollback I experienced with the entire Royal City of Paradise.”
Rast’s cold words, devoid of any emotional ripples, clearly etched themselves into Grey’s mind, validating her previous vague suspicions.
Yes.
It was not the third time time rewind.
But the one hundred eighty-third.
Starting from the first time she went to the Royal City of Paradise to stop the holy rite and prevent Brother Rast from obtaining the Holy Grail… she had already activated the time rewind a total of one hundred eighty-three times.
However, without exception.
Every single time of the rewind—
Having accumulated past timelines’ failures and experiences, she should have been able to avoid wrong options and complete each attempt under easier conditions—
Yet she still failed once again and initiated another rewind.
Such repeated failures also forced her to stretch the time span of her rewinds, having to regress toward earlier points in time…
Under such high density and lengthy spans of rewinds, the wear on her soul gradually intensified—
Until the wear on her soul reached a critical value, causing her to forget all past experiences of time rewinds… mistakenly believing she had just arrived at the Royal City, initiating a new round of the cycle.
Such cycles of repetition, she did not know how many rounds had lasted.
But without exception—
Each version of herself, even granted the ability to time rewind and attempt infinite retries—yet still could do nothing.
On this day in the Royal City of Paradise, fate branched into one hundred eighty-three different paths, starkly opposing tributaries.
Yet, all one hundred eighty-three tributaries, no matter how winding and rugged—
Ultimately, were converged into the same conclusion.
Irreversible, irretrievable.
Just like that ancient mythic spear named “Gungnir,” the moment the spear was thrown, causality had already reversed, the outcome predetermined—
No matter what attempts and efforts you made during this period: building towering iron walls, hiding behind Aegis’s shield, or fleeing to the ends of the earth… it was destined to be futile struggles.
But—
“For…”
“What…”
Grey gazed at the boy descending from the sky, appearing before her.
Her lips moved slightly, producing a hoarse trembling voice.
Why did all one hundred eighty-three of her rewinds fail?
Why could Brother Rast precisely find her every single time?
If the occasional few rewinds could be perceived by Brother Rast due to her momentary carelessness, then with over a hundred trial opportunities, even such a clumsy version of her should have filled all the gaps, discovering the genuine solution.
Moreover, the most crucial question—
Why?
Why would Brother Rast know “one hundred eighty-three times,” a rollback count that even she couldn’t be certain of?
Faced with Grey’s questioning, Rast did not immediately provide an answer.
He merely stepped down from the heavens, walking toward Grey step by step.
The sound of horse breathing, the noise from other passengers in the carriage—the world froze at this moment, and all the noise was isolated from the outside.
Grey sat collapsed in the carriage seat, while Rast stood under the fierce sunlight.
The boy and the girl looked at each other across the wasteland, the whole world being swept away by the winds that blew across the plains.
“Why…?”
His lips curled into a cold smile.
“I think you should already have the answer in your heart.”
“It’s just that from beginning to end, you have been evading it, unwilling to admit and face it.”
Rast’s voice was not particularly loud, but rang clearly within Grey’s soul.
Indeed—
This was a fact she should have noticed long ago.
Not counting the powerful beings who stepped into the legendary rank, no one can retain the consciousness of previous timelines in a time rewind—
Except for oneself, a favored child of Fate, who can retain one’s will amid swirling time like impurities and dust.
However, “Fate” is a unique long-tier sequence, a fact the Leader Ciser had repeatedly explained to her.
Moreover, she was aware Rast’s sequence was the “Tower” sequence, which lacked the ability to manipulate time and interfere with fate.
Yet Brother Rast possessed traits that should belong to the long-tier sequence of “Fate.”
Such an exception… within her understanding, had only one explanation.
And just so, she had never truly known Rast’s anomalous abilities…
And ten years ago, when she first encountered Brother Rast in Frozen Water Town—
That was a memory from when she was still a naive little girl; to this day, the past in Frozen Water Town had become hazy, but Grey still vividly remembered her first meeting with Brother Rast.
Moreover, when smashing the Zhuyue pollutant entangled in Frozen Water Town… Brother Rast had shown various extraordinary abilities that did not belong to the “Tower” sequence long tier on multiple occasions.
These were things Grey had overlooked in the past, and even when she occasionally thought of them, she brushed them off with the excuse of “It’s been so long; maybe I remembered wrong.”
But at this moment, recalling them again, after expelling all possibilities—
The remaining answer, no matter how absurd or unfathomable…
Became an undeniable fact.
“Yes, you guessed right.”
Although the two figures were mere inches apart, Rast’s words seemed to come from the far end of the clouds, feeling distant and unfathomable.
“Little Grey, what supports you—”
“What gives you the courage to stand before me again after three years… is the legacy bestowed upon you by Cisel, is it not?”
The boy’s tone softened a touch, losing some of its chill and aloofness, gaining some familiarity that Grey recognized.
However, at this moment.
That warmth, which had once brought Grey immense comfort, instead became a haunting curse, shattering the last psychological defenses within her heart.
Before her, that black-haired, black-eyed boy slowly reached out his finger.
In the next instant.
A strand of pale silver flame quietly appeared at the tip of Rast’s finger.
The light of the flame was ethereal, fleeting and uncertain, carrying no discernible destructive power.
But to Grey, this flame was so familiar.
And it was identical to what she had inherited from Leader Cisel—
However, this was clearly a legacy between the Guardians, stolen from the Gravekeeper… a unique flame.
Yet at this moment, the unique flame revealed a second version.
Just as mentioned before, after expelling all impossible options, what remained was the only answer.
At this moment.
Grey finally understood… the indifferent, cold, elevated expression on Brother Rast’s face when he overlooked her earlier.
It was neither hatred nor disgust—
But a pure observation, just as a researcher observes an ant colony in a laboratory; how could a human high above be bothered about mere ants?
Just like—when carrying out the Lost Paradise plan she once had, looking at the dead souls in the Paradise.
In the eyes of someone like her, the dead in Paradise were merely expired souls, specimens stripped of fate, having lost future possibilities,
And the people in Rast’s eyes were equally ancient artifacts that had lost their fate, fossils used for archaeology.
Also a manifestation of some unknown, towering power that instantaneously brought back… past illusions.
“Unluckily, the flame you obtained, I also have the same one.”
“However, just as you guessed.”
“I come from an era where the ‘Guardians’ have long been forgotten by the world.”
The boy’s final indifferent words.
Sent Grey’s spirit plummeting into the abyss of despair.
(End of Chapter)
