Chapter 25 – Tillysha Nolin
Sealed-away memories awakened, like unwrapping a new item only to find inside it something so familiar you couldn’t get any more acquainted with it. No freshness, no novelty, just memories hitting you with the force of déjà vu.
“Tillysha, you tell me what’s going on! Don’t—don’t be like this…” A silver-haired, tan-skinned elf girl held her tight, sobbing her heart out.
Her consciousness dipped into darkness, and the scene shifted to a bright room with a tech-laden operating table and glaring lights.
“Congratulations! Sir, it’s a healthy boy!”
She cried her heart out, involuntarily wailing, her cries mingling with the infant’s shrill cries. In those cries, she forgot her past, her once-life. From the moment she regained her senses, she began to live as a human, a human of Blue Star, in an ordinary life, until fate called her again—a truck sent Earthling Lindi Chuang flying, literally, back into the world of Caleburn.
Earth was still her home, but it wasn’t her true home. The Blue Star concepts and thoughts didn’t color her essence, not due to anything but the fact that she had come into this world already painted with her own colors; she had just forgotten about them for a moment.
But forgetting is just forgetting, it can’t undo the facts of what has happened.
That Gold Elf was right. These memories, once unlocked, cannot be resealed. Now, she knows who she truly is.
So it’s like this, huh?
This is how it is.
Revealing the truth, Tillysha was a little surprised but not entirely shocked—it was as if everything was exactly how it should have been.
Although she had guessed this possibility before, she could never be certain. After all, this was all incredibly absurd to her. She didn’t possess memories beyond this life and still thought of herself as a human living on Earth. It was hard for her to accept this conjecture.
Once she learned the truth and regained the memories of her past life, everything fell into place. It was indeed unexpected yet thoroughly reasonable, leaving no sense of abruptness. Instead, everything began to feel like a perfect fit after she learned the truth.
The elegant willow bow in her hand opened all its secrets to her. Thick roots curled tightly around her wrist, like an enchanting young woman swaying in the spring breeze, holding her hand, chatting, and catching up.
In this moment, memories finally came flooding back.
Dillin, who was supposed to have existed, had never truly existed at all.
Tillysha opened her tranquil, crystal-clear eyes, tearing through confusion, with no lingering hesitation.
A roar of anger mixed with the howling storm shattered into pieces from a single blow.
Tillysha stood tall amidst the waning storm, her wind-tousled, radiant golden hair shining brilliantly in the battlefield chaos. Her braided hair, tied like a sheaf of wheat at the back, though slightly disheveled, added a bold charm to her appearance.
The same as before but with a renewed vigor, the golden-haired girl stood upright, commanding the battlefield.
The storm’s violent pressure froze the Resentful Centaur’s movements, making it struggle to stay balanced. Yimi, watching from afar, instinctively felt Tillysha had changed significantly from before, but she couldn’t exactly pinpoint what that change was.
Golden daisies on her hair emitted a faint bluish glow, dragging streaks of an iridescent hue in the air. With a transformation in her aura, Tillysha calmly stared at the tall tower monster composed of pure resentment. In a flurry of verdant life, her Flower Discourse Changsu transformed—sometimes a graceful willow bow, sometimes a willow-handled winged long kn*fe, and sometimes a huge spear with roots and veins growing like a giant tree.
Lifting her arms, visible concentrations of dense natural elements gathered around her hands, and a lifeless desert devoid of greenery became carpeted with fertile plant life.
Yimi watched in amazement. Elves, traditionally drawing their power from the natural world, used divine authority through nature. Yet here Tillysha was, creating nature itself out of divine authority. With every step, a flourishing carpet of verdant vegetation sprouted under her feet.
“Where did her bow come from?”
In an incredibly short span of time, Tillysha had grown much stronger—it wasn’t about sudden transformation but a deeper understanding of her own abilities. She had advanced in the way she handled the divine powers entrusted to her.
In simpler terms, her divine authority level had undergone a qualitative leap.
Consider this: two bodybuilders of the same strength—one is experienced, well-versed in the workings of their body and the nuances of applying it effectively. The other just uses brute force. Naturally, the experienced one can unleash more power. Similarly, when divine authority is in the hands of someone who thoroughly understands it, the effects differ drastically.
The previous Tillysha was clearly not entirely adept at her divine authority, simply reading its effects and realms with her Divine Analysis Technique, following instructions, without truly comprehending the principles behind it.
The current Tillysha had clearly reached another level—she had understood the essence of her divine authority and realm. Naturally, her application of it became more refined and flexible.
It felt as though Tillysha had suddenly realized something or perhaps retrieved some lost memory on how to utilize her divine authority and realm more effectively. The divine pressure she now exuded was unlike anything expected from a student enrolled for less than a year.
As memories trickled back, her divine authority level increased, her wave-laden eyes shimmering brilliantly. Wrapped in white silk, her delicate feet treaded lightly on the ground, untouched by dirt.
“Forgive me for keeping you waiting, Mr. Monster,” Tillysha said with a serious and elegant bow, her hands deftly twirling the bowstring as if it were a harp string.
“My apologies, I forgot to introduce myself earlier.”
“But now is not too late, is it?” Tillysha reached behind her head and nonchalantly discarded an invisible object on the ground. Revealing her beautifully pointed, white tender elf ears, she showed no hesitation.
“I am Tillysha Nolin, the second daughter of the former Elf King, invested as the Elf Divine Warrior by the King himself.”
“Engaging with you is not an honor,” she said with a playful glint in her eyes. “But do teach me a thing or two, will you~?”
The resentment doll didn’t understand Tillysha’s words, but as a Collective of Grievance, highly attuned to emotions, it immediately realized it was being taunted. Enraged, it charged her with ferocious attacks.
“Yimi, I need you to do something,” Tillysha glanced sideward, avoiding the resentment waves flying toward her, her calm gaze meeting Yimi’s. “Something only you can.”
“What is it?” Yimi asked, intrigued by Tillysha’s serious tone.
“Defeating this monster alone is impossible for me.”
“Are you asking me to assist you? Though I’m not sure how useful I can be.”
“Not exactly,” Tillysha smiled mysteriously. “Do you remember the corpse flower chopped to pieces those days ago? Find it for me, and bring back some root tendril.”
“What do you want with that flower? It’s already withered.”
“I cannot handle such a massive resentment entity alone,” Tillysha dodged effortlessly while explaining. “Even if I can destroy its body, I won’t be able to dispose of this colossal amount of resentment. They must have someplace to go.”
“The only destination can be that flower, only the necrotic corpse flower, born naturally to contain negativity, can serve this purpose. Otherwise, this monster cannot be eradicated.”
“But the flower is already shredded; I can at most gather some ‘remnants’ for you.”
“Exactly, I need you to gather them, the more complete, the better. The corpse flower is a natural product; creating such material artificially is near impossible.”
“Alright, understood!” Yimi agreed reluctantly and took off running backward. “I hope you hold out till I return!”
“Count on me,” Tillysha said, her Flower Discourse Changsu transforming into a bow with the essence of verdure attached. She drew the bow, aiming skyward, and the arrow wrapped with tender vines exploded mid-air, weaving a shower of emerald arrows.
With each arrow hitting the monster, a delicate sprout grew on its body, bursting into radiant flowers.
“Divine Warrior’s Flower Rain Bloom.”
The monster roared. It could feel the flowers siphoning its power, compelling it to continually generate more resentment for energy. Being a physical manifestation of resentment, its actions required its power. Without power, it was like a machine without fuel.
After confining the resentment, Tillysha’s bow transformed swiftly into a long, elegant willow-handled blade, its edge gleaming like jade. With impressive agility, she leaped into the air, her blade trailing flames as she elegantly sliced through the sky.
Landing behind the Resentful Centaur, Tillysha retracted her blade. In an explosion of light, all four of the beast’s centaur legs were severed.
“Divine Warrior’s Thousand Moon Slash.”
Tillysha’s blade no longer wavered. She had a clear and unflinching understanding of who she was, what she needed to do, and what lay ahead.
Her arrows were now pointed with purpose and unwavering determination.
The resentment creature regenerated its four legs, but the blossoms covering its body, having drained too much bitterness, withered and fell, restoring its movement.
Fiery spears and mauls crashed down toward Tillysha.
Clearly, the resentment entities were dissatisfied with their current vessel. True to form, the original body’s owner wasn’t that strong, creating a bottleneck that limited the power of all the resentment packed into it.
Back when the Demon Race invaded the Elf Lands, the same resentment entities formed a collective, dark clouds of gloom veiling the bright sun overhead, acid rain falling upon the forests, causing the lush green leaves to wither almost instantly.
The Elves, stripped of their natural cover and battlefield advantage, having grown complacent from prolonged peace, combined with this celestial calamity, saw their morale plummet, and they were shattered at the first touch.
Even Tillysha’s memories of that era were somewhat blurred, yet she had confirmed the broad strokes. She herself was Tillysha, the same Tillysha from the life before this one, not reincarnated into Tillysha’s body but rather reincarnated back into her original world.
Whether or not she had, in the past, tarnished the royal honor by cruelly treating her subjects she couldn’t recall.
However, she believed it less likely, based on the current state of her inner self.
Still, what events led to a rift between the Gold Elves and other Elven clans, giving rise to the Demon Race?
Maybe it was time for her to visit the Wise Forest and converse deeply with the current Moon Elf King.
Though her powers and memories hadn’t fully returned, this was sufficient.
This Collective of Grievance was too weak, there was nothing nearby worthy for it to possess.
Tillysha was somewhat relieved that the flower didn’t explosively rupture. Had it done so from overburdening, the stored resentment within would’ve dispersed into countless fragments, forming a swirling cloud of black-purple mist over the entire empire.
Had that occurred, the deeply resentful commoners of the empire could’ve been triggered into a new Demon race. Peace in Caleburn would’ve ended.
The current situation regarding the Demon Race in Ruglien was uncertain. They didn’t seem to have the desire—or perhaps the inability—to expand outward as of now. But you could never be sure.
If a new Demon race were to arise within Caleburn in alliance with the old on the mainland, the Light Race would be in grave danger.
Yet, looked at another way, the cause of one’s own demise is often self-created, just like the Empire.
She sighed, observing the relentless fight put up by the Collective of Grievance. If it weren’t for the insatiable oppression of the empire’s nobles, would things have come to this pass?
Cause and effect—everyone must take responsibility for their actions in the end.
Though four hundred years of resentment didn’t amount to another catastrophic ‘purification,’ the fact that all of it had condensed into such a feeble shell meant that despite her inability to k*ll it fully, she could survive its attacks without much trouble.
On the other side, Yimi, having fled the scene to the outskirts of the Furnace city, soon realized how far away they were from the city and lacked any means of rapid transportation. Running on her small legs, she feared she’d collapse long before reaching her destination.
What to do? What to do?
Each step brought fear—what if Tillysha met some disaster while she was rushing to reach the city?
Her worry sapped her strength quickly, causing her to pant heavily and grow exhausted swiftly.
Her lungs burned, her legs felt numb, but she kept on, thinking that if she simply persisted, she’d eventually reach her goal.
Even if she found the flower petals, she’d have to traverse this distance again.
Despite Tillysha’s apparent ease in handling the situation, her divine power would eventually deplete.
Can I really accomplish this task?………
A horse’s whinny jolted her barely conscious thoughts. Glancing back, fear of the Resentful Centaur made her tense.
But then she saw familiar silver hair and the familiar girl.
Riding her horse up, the girl simply offered her hand without a word.
“I believe I’ve arrived just in time.”
