Pillars of Ita

Chapter 1157 Tracing back to the past history

Fang He ultimately failed to catch up with the girl. She seemed not to want to see him and disappeared without a trace after leaving the hall.

Fortunately, after he turned back, the other members of the Holy Mystery Society also learned about the elves. Victor, the man dressed as a pirate, told them that the Holy White Tree on the Hill of Giant Trees was growing gray branches, and death was spreading among the forest like a shadow.

All things are withered and silent, shadows are falling, the living are dying, the withered woodlands are repeating the story after the coming of severe winter, but that winter has lasted for more than a year, and an ancient legend is spreading widely among the Holy White Descendants of the Radiant Court - the goddess in charge of withering has passed away forever.

She was originally a twin of the Lady of Nature, a twin of the forest, and a part of the natural cycle of death and rebirth. But when the withering part passed away, resurrection also ceased to exist. From then on, new branches no longer sprouted from the soil, and the birdsong of spring no longer returned.

These reminded Fang He of the words of the Dragon Queen. A goddess passed away, and Ms. Roman also said that a god had left Orin's holy order, but which one was it? Fate or apoptosis? The Giant Tree Hill was in chaos because of this. The Adventurer's Guild sent people everywhere to investigate the matter, and the Craftsman's Guild also got involved.

They even sent a team to the Silver Tower to retrieve the elven relics that were stranded there. That team was Forin's. Fang He had seen them before, and only now did he understand why they disdained the honor of the Holy King's Hall.

They went for the 'phantom' of the holy object from the beginning.

In addition to the Artisans' Guild and the Adventurer's Guild, the elves will naturally not be idle - but the elves of Giant Tree Hill are actually divided into three branches, the elven royal family who mainly live in the Autumn Woods, the Holy White Clan of the Radiant Court; and the Council of Elders, the Forest Guards and priests in the Sacred Woods.

As well as the moon elves of Mistville - the forest guards, priests, and unicorn girls are the caretakers of the sacred tree. The sacred tree gave birth to gray branches, and the saint girl has an unshirkable responsibility. Moreover, she was not in the sacred tree forest during the incident.

In order to quell the criticism, the Saint decided to step into the Gray Forest to find out. But Victor told them that the Gray Forest was actually a non-existent place name, it was on the other side of the Sea of ​​Light, and the Saint was actually going to step onto the altar and sacrifice herself to get in touch with Emaya.

"Since the shadow began to spread, the Forest Lady has remained silent, and her followers believe that someone has angered the forest, or that the death of decay has also affected the goddess."

"Under such circumstances, the saint dedicated herself to the white tree, and through the tree she connected with the thoughts of the forest lady to seek answers. However, no one who went to the gray forest ever came back. This was actually a road of martyrdom."

"Of course, this is only on the surface. In reality, someone is forcing Her Majesty the Saint to make a choice and asking her to explain her actions."

"Explanation? Why?" Fang He looked at Victor, furious. "Just for her to find her brother? She is a saint, and the Elf Court can't even protect her blood relatives. She still needs to come out to look for him herself. Doesn't she have any responsibility at all?"

"Because there is only one Unicorn Girl in each era, the Elf King's Court has long been dissatisfied with the Council of Elders. The priests control the sacred forest and monopolize the will of the goddess, which actually weakens the authority of the royal family. The next Unicorn Girl is Lian Kuiya Alsana."

It's another damn power struggle, even the elves are not immune to it. Fang He was so angry that he remained silent. Miss Attila must have known about this a long time ago, but never told them. Could it be that the separation at that time was a farewell forever?

He took a deep breath, not knowing whether it was directed at the Elf King's Court or at the Elf Lady's sudden departure without saying goodbye.

Seeing his uncertain expression, Victor said, "Your Excellency, there is no need to rush to go to the Hill of Giant Trees. After all, the ceremony to enter the Gray Forest will take some time. Perhaps the Holy Mystery Society can still provide you with some help."

Fang He nodded. Although his mind was no longer here, he still had a few questions to ask. Before leaving, he planned to ask these questions one by one: "Mr. Victor, does the Holy Secret Society know anything about the evil star?"

Victor looked at him and nodded. "The scholars on the continent and the sorcerers of the Tower of Stars and Moon are all studying the Star of Misfortune, because 'it' is closely related to our world and our disasters, and no one can avoid it."

"Is the third disaster about to come? What exactly is it? Is the plague related to the evil star? Walta experienced a heavy fog, after which all the residents of the town disappeared, including the pirate king Balosa. Is this related to the red moon and the disaster?"

Fang He asked a series of questions in succession.

"The arrival of the star of disaster was a consensus among the prophets on the continent almost five years ago. The third disaster is called 'Azure', which is the twin of Verdant Green, and the 'Red' disaster is just its sign."

"Red Disaster?"

"That's the blood moon you see. 'Red' is a sign before a disaster comes. Similar things happened before the advent of 'Black Throne' and 'Verdant' in the past, but they are rarely seen in documents -"

"When the Black Throne descended, black spikes first grew all over the land, and the army of death swept across the continent; and before the Green Star hung alone, Ataria experienced the Seven Days of Calamity, and the Eternal Night descended, and the minions of shadows roamed the world."

"Dead Silence March, Seven Days of Disaster?"

Fang He didn't expect that these two entries were actually about the star of disaster. It was said that there were two disasters in Ataria. The first one happened ten thousand years ago, in the era of the Xinsas snake people. It was rumored that life came from rocks, causing an immortal dynasty to collapse.

Then the Snake People's Empire was divided into seven parts, which led to the era of the Seven Kings' War.

The second scene describes the eternal night of the Holy Tree era, which directly led to the withering of the Holy Tree and the division of the elves. After that, the green came to the world and the second catastrophe came. The Numelin elves united again, and after the battle of the Holy Tree, they completely defeated the enemies of civilization.

But the literature never mentioned that these two disasters were related to the "evil star". The seven-day disaster occurred about a century before the advent of Verdant, and few people associated this disaster with the shining of Verdant.

  No wonder he didn't connect the two before. Fang Yu suddenly realized it, but the scholars who recorded history all agreed that what was the purpose of keeping silent about it?

Victor shook his head.

Sarona on the side said: "The Holy Mystery Society is also advancing the observation of the 'Evil Star', but not every mystery is so clear. We can get information from some channels, but the Evil Star is a disaster that affects the entire Ataria, and no one knows its nature."

——Sarona is the name of the lazy and mysterious lady. Now Fang He already knows the identity of everyone present. The old man is named Roger, and the tall bartender is named Juniper Locke. Their identities are not mysterious, except for their identity as the gatekeeper of the Holy Mystic Society.

The bartender was a man of few words, but the old man was much more talkative.

"What about the death plague?" Fang He asked.

The old man answered slowly, "If the rumors are true, the plague should be a sign of apoptosis. The Holy Order of Orin has changed. One or more gods have fallen. The plague may come from the death of the gods themselves, but the astrologers have not yet reached a clear conclusion."

"We don't know if this is related to the coming of the evil star, but every time the evil star comes, the divine order will undergo a drastic change. The last time was the death of all the sun gods, and the time before that was the birth of the Holy Order of Orin. As for this time..."

Fang He felt heavy in his heart. The matters involved were too wide-ranging. The Seven Seas Brigade was still powerless in the face of such changes. When he thought that Miss Attila was related to it, he didn't know if he could handle it.

"If the star of disaster is destined to come, how much time do we have?"

He now hopes to race against time. Although he does not know what happened in the era when the 'Black Throne' descended, the history is too long, but after the seven-day disaster, there is still a century before the green will descend on the world.

In other words, they still have time.

"Then I'm afraid you will be disappointed," Sarona shook her head.

"There are various signs that the third disaster will come much faster than we expected. After the Numen elves repelled the 'Green', scholars originally expected that the third disaster would not come until the next era, but it has only been a mere thousand years and the 'Absolute Blue' has come."

"There was a gap of 10,000 years between the first and second disasters, which is two full eras. However, there was only less than 1,000 years between the third and second disasters, which is ten times faster. We don't have much time left."

She looked at Fang He with purple gem-like eyes, "The Holy Secret Society was formed to deal with this disaster. It has been carrying out the goddesses' plan. I didn't expect that you care about this as much as we do. The person you chose is indeed not wrong at all."

Fang He couldn't help but think of Rodrigo de Anris. Did the pirate king come here for this? In a sense, it seemed that this was the case. The Pale Pirates had been fighting against the Empire and hiding the Ether Node.

Is this also part of Ms. Roman's plan?

  His heart sank more and more. The trip to Giant Tree Hill was imminent, but if the plague was related to the death of God, how could they rescue the elf lady?

"I have a few more questions," Fang Yu said. "One of my companions was cursed by the Naga tribe. The Naga God Narsu transformed her into a member of the same tribe before she died. Is there any way to reverse this curse?"

"Abyss Blessing," Sarona was a little surprised. "It's been a long time since I last heard of this blessing. Of course, it can also be called a curse. This blessing is irreversible, but you do have a way to make it better."

"May I ask what the solution is?"

"This blessing has two sides. Whether it is good or bad depends on the intention of the caster. But from your description, the spell she was hit by doesn't seem to be the most vicious one. Therefore, there are two ways to remedy it."

"The first is to make the caster change his mind. The spell was cast by Narsu, so she can naturally take it back, or turn it into a completely positive blessing. But Narsu is dead, so you can only take the second path..."

Sarona paused: "That is, let her fight for divine power."

"Fight for divine power?" Fang He was speechless. Although the God of Naga was dead, how could Sylvie fight for the position of God of Naga? In that case, wouldn't his ship officer really become the mother of Naga?

As for the God of Storm, the possibility is also very slim.

"It's not as difficult as you think," Sarona shook her head. "Fighting for divine power does not mean that she will become a god. It is almost impossible for mortals to obtain divine power from a priesthood with a master, unless they get the approval of their master. In fact, this 'blessing' itself is also a kind of 'approval'. It is the approval of Narsu-"

"But Narsu's position is dead, and the priesthood has lost its master. The ownerless divine power is wandering in the sea of ​​light. Many beings will covet this newly born throne. And you are not going to compete with them, but just to pick up a strand of this ownerless divine power."

This does sound like a possibility.

But how can a mortal draw a ray of divine power from the sea of ​​light? Fang He couldn't help but look at the lady.

"If it were someone else, this would be a priceless secret," Sarona said in a lazy tone, "but you are the heir, I can tell you for free, the easiest way is to let her have the power of the law."

"The Dragon Knight's territory is the threshold of the Divine Fire. Of course, there is a huge gap between the threshold and the entrance, but that is enough. As long as she has a way to enter the Sea of ​​Light, she will naturally have a way to rely on her own strength to recover the divine power."

She gently picked up a feather, injected strength into it, and threw it upwards; the feather flew into the sky, then fell back down and landed in her palm.

"It's like this," Sarona said, "My power is contained in the feathers, and it will naturally return to my palm. She has Narsu's 'approval'. Although Narsu is dead, this aura still allows her to gain the affinity of those free divine powers-"

Fang He listened quietly. For a mortal to touch the threshold of the power of law, he must at least reach the Silver Rank. Because of the goddess Odessa, although Sylvie already has the Dragon Knight system, it is still not easy to reach the Silver Rank.

However, after hearing what Sarona said, he suddenly thought of a way. In order to gain access to the Sea of ​​Light, it seemed that they did not necessarily have to jump into the door of the Silver Steps.

He looked up; by this point, most of his questions had been answered, and at no cost.

And now, he still had one last question - he couldn't help but look at Yugurdora beside him, and the 'Gray Lady' happened to be looking in this direction, "Ask them about the Shadow Society." Yugurdora reminded him with her eyes.

Fang He nodded and asked Victor this question.

Unexpectedly, Victor showed a rare look of surprise, "The Shadow Society... You actually know this. It turns out that their establishment has a connection with us."

Fang He looked at the three people in surprise.

"That's not surprising. Most of the secret societies in Ataria now are actually related to the earliest cause," Victor shook his head. "Most of them come from the Silver Helmets, Oath Keepers, Secret Scholars, and Sons of Light. You should have heard of their names."

Fang Plover nodded.

"The Shadow Society will come from the Oath Keepers, and so will we. The Oath Keepers were originally the guardians of the Holy Sword, the race that guarded the blood of the Dragon King, but they have long been divided over the long years, except for the oldest branch that still inherits the secret of the Holy Sword, but the Dragon Blood Oath..."

Victor paused for a moment and sighed, "The corrosiveness of dragon blood is so strong. After the incident with the Dragon Witch, that branch must have died out by now."

"The Shadow Society is from the faction that guards the secrets of the Oath Keepers. They have long been fighting against the Dragon Society believers and have become a separate group. I did hear that they had a major split about fifty years ago, which was related to the fire in the Great Library of Silver."

"As for us, we are actually connected to the Mirran Temple in Lothal. The Mirran Holy Guard is also a branch of the Oath Keepers, the guardians of the ancient seal. We are all working towards the common goal of resisting the 'Star of Misfortune'."

"After the Numelin elves left, this important task was placed on the shoulders of mortals."

"Dear sir," said Yugurdora, "We are investigating the civil unrest in the Southern Territory Association. There are traces of shadow people there. Judging from the traces they left, it seems that traitors from the Shadow Society are assisting them." "We know very little about the Shadow Society. Each branch of the Oath Keepers is good at keeping secrets and rarely interacts with each other," Victor replied, "but I do know an incident about the Southern Territory."

Yugurdora looked at him.

"Many years ago, around the time of the Dragon Witch Calamity, the Dragon Witch Nicol Bolas sent a number of spies to the kingdom. Those nobles lurking in various parts of the kingdom surrendered to her and formed the later Dragon Worshipers."

"Although the followers of the Dragon Worship Society have existed throughout the history after the Giant War, there are differences between the Dragon Worship Cult and the Dragon Worship Cult. The Dragon Worship Cult of Corin-Ishurian worships the Dragon Witch and is almost a vassal of her alone."

"During the great purge at that time, the Yis region was undoubtedly the hardest hit area. In fact, to this day, the kingdom still has some suspicion of officials from Yis. And it was in the territory of this dragon witch that a riot occurred before she was defeated by Yoshud—"

"There was a conflict among the Dragon Cultists, and a relic was taken from Yith by traitors."

Yugudora's eyes fixed on him and he asked, "What holy object is it?"

Victor narrowed his eyes and said word by word: "The second toe bone of the Saint."

……

The Holy Secret Society answered almost every question they had, and the gains from this trip were beyond their imagination. However, regarding the issue of purchasing special materials, Fang He was still unwilling to accept benefits for no reason, so he expressed his willingness to trade.

Victor and Sarona did not object to this because the Holy Secret Society would respect the will of the heir.

  However, Victor suggested that he had a more suitable bargaining item, so there was no need to waste any more effort. He only suggested that he should stay for a while because they were going to hold a secret ceremony for this:

"Collecting the silver coins of destiny has a special meaning for us," Sarona said to them, "and this ceremony is actually good for you as well. The ocean current and wind direction to the Giant Tree Hill will not arrive until half a month later, and you will need more strength before you go there."

This reason convinced Fang He.

He roughly guessed that the more suitable "trading item" that Victor was talking about was the crucial coin that the other party had mentioned at the beginning, but after searching his entire body, he only found a few Imperial Eagle Head Gold Coins.

The same thing happened to Miss Nightingale.

After leaving the hall, Yugudola brought Fang He to the side.

Fang Hecai couldn't wait to ask, "What is the second toe bone of a saint?"

"I knew you would ask," Yugudora looked at him, "That is a holy object, a toe bone that once belonged to the God of the Lizardmen. By the way, do you know how our current king ascended the throne?"

Fang He nodded. Korin-Ishurian was not a kingdom in the traditional sense. It was an alliance of Korin people, Is people, elves, dwarves, desert people and Guta mountain people. Therefore, the kingdom had no tradition of establishing a legitimate heir.

As long as the parliament approves, there has been a precedent of appointing the younger brother to succeed the elder brother. Therefore, when the previous king was seriously ill, many people were actually optimistic about the more wise king's brother, Prince Coleman.

The young eldest son was cold, arrogant, cruel and selfish, and was not liked by most people. Although Prince Coleman was born with a disability and his appearance was not satisfactory due to his deformity, the latter still had a higher voice among the people.

What's more, Prince Coleman's friends and supporters are all over the kingdom. People like Sir Ma Wei and Master Ander enjoy a high reputation in the kingdom. As long as they are willing to stand up, it will not be difficult to influence the decision of the parliament.

But the young king's sudden rise was mainly due to the rise of the Royalist Party. The core of the Royalist Party was the current Prime Minister, but not only that. Behind the Royalist Party were a large number of traditional nobles of the kingdom.

Among them are the three major families in the southern border.

"If it weren't for the sudden rise of the Royal Party, our king might not have been able to ascend the throne," said Yugudora, "but you should know the origins of the Royal Party."

Fang He scratched his head and said, "Of course I know that, Ms. Yugudora, please get straight to the point."

He had a thorough understanding of the history of Corin-Issurian. The history of the Royalist Party was related to him. No, it should be related to Princess Brian, Sir Robin and others. The Royalist Party rose in a war sixteen years ago.

That's right, the Battle of Bavaria.

The Battle of Bain created heroes and also the royal party. The war that took place in Nognese made a series of nobles in the far south and many aristocratic families in the south become emerging political forces in the kingdom.

The two formed an alliance and jointly promoted the new king to the throne, and it was in this process that the prime minister emerged and became a core figure in the kingdom's politics.

"The outcome of the Battle of Byrne has definitely affected the decision of the parliament, and the old king believes that Brian and Sir Robin can be entrusted with disciplining the eldest son..." Yugudora whispered, "People are selfish. More importantly, His Royal Highness Prince Coleman is actually not interested in fighting for the throne..."

"After all, the kingdom was united at that time. Who knew it would turn out like this? The heroes of the Battle of Byrne, the royal party, were actually comrades in arms on the same battlefield. Brianne never thought that her former comrades would become what they are today."

"Is this actually related to the reason why Princess Brianne is so tolerated in the court?" asked Alyssa.

Yugurdora nodded. "After all, the heroes of the Battle of Byrne are the source of the legitimacy of the royal party. Even though Princess Brian and Sir Roban always disagree with the prime minister, they have to show tolerance."

"But what does this saint's toe bone have to do with it?"

"Listen to me carefully," said Yogurdora. "The ones who split from the Dragon Worshipers must be the traitors of the Shadow Society. The Dragon Worshipers of Corin-Ishurian are different from those of other places. They are fanatical believers of the Dragon Witch."

"But the Shadow Society's traitors are different. They may be under the orders of the Green Descendants, that is, the Shadow People. Therefore, conflicts will occur between cultists. The second toe bone of the Saint that the Shadow Society's traitors took away from Is was actually the cause of the Battle of Byrne."

Fang He looked at her in shock.

"This matter is top secret," said Yugudora. "Everything about the Battle of Byrne is top secret. The royal party found the coordinates of the floating island through the second toe bone of the saint and raised it from under the deep sea."

"But something unexpected happened during the ascent. A team they hired betrayed them and escaped with the top-secret Abyssal Slate. This incident also caused the news to leak out, leading to the intervention of the Empire."

"After all, it was a divine corpse. No one was willing to give in, so the war broke out."

"But what I never expected was," Yugudora's face became serious, "that the second toe bone of the saint actually came from this place. If it was first taken away by the betrayer of the Shadow Society, how did it end up in the hands of the royal party?"

She bit her lower lip. "This matter is extremely important. I suspect it has a lot to do with the civil unrest in the Southern Territory Association. In fact, since the disappearance and reappearance of the eldest son of the Duke of Phoenix, everything has been full of conspiracy. I always feel that there is something behind this that we haven't noticed -"

Yugudora looked at Fang He, "I must pass this message back as soon as possible. There must be a problem within the royal party."

But Fang He didn't listen to her at all.

"But something unexpected happened during the ascent. A team they hired betrayed them and escaped with the top-secret Abyssal Slate. This incident also caused the news to leak out..."

"There were two people in the group that escaped. The scholar named 'Traveler' was your father, and the other one was your mother..."

He felt like he was struck by lightning. His head was full of buzzing sounds. He was frozen in place, and his heart was pounding again and again, like the beat of a drum hitting his heart.

"Ed, Ed?"

Yugudora looked at him in surprise, "Why are you in a daze? I have to leave this place as soon as possible, but before I leave, I have something to say to you."

Fang He looked at her.

The silver-clad female swordsman then took out something and handed it to him. It was a long dagger. Fang He recognized it at the first sight. "Star Dagger?"

Yugudora nodded. "This was given to me by a friend of mine. It is very precious, but now I entrust it to you. At the critical moment, it can save your life."

She gently pushed the dagger forward, "Don't rush to refuse. I know your situation. You share your life with Mia. This dagger can also help her."

The female swordsman looked at Fang He solemnly, "...I can't stay with you from now on. I should have gone to see Jita, but now I don't have the time. Also, say hello to Mia for me."

Fang He was stunned for a moment before he remembered that the other party and the Sea Witch had a history of being teammates.

That was a long time ago.

"In addition," Yugudora continued, "try to contact the military before heading to Giant Tree Hill."

"The military?" Fang He was stunned for a moment. "Ms. Yugudora, can you contact Stargate Port?"

Yugudora shook her head. "No, but I have a way to send a message to them. It will take some time. The military has been trying to find you. You wait here for a week and they will definitely come."

Fang Plover nodded slightly.

The Gray Lady looked at him carefully before turning around and walking out, but Fang He couldn't help but call her, "Wait, Ms. Yugudora..."

"What's wrong?" Yugudora stopped, looked back at him, couldn't help but smiled softly, and returned to her previous playful tone, "Why, I gave you a good thing, and I don't want to let it go?"

She smiled and said, "Why not call me sister first and let me hear it."

Fang He smiled bitterly, his throat was a little hoarse. He really didn't want to care about this: "Please help me investigate the matter of the betrayed team, Ms. Yugudora...sister, because it, it...may be related to my parents..."

The smile on Yugudola's face disappeared immediately.

She looked carefully at the boy who was no younger than her. She had also heard about the accident, and could not help but nod to him lovingly. "Don't worry, I will find out everything and give you an explanation."

She paused again, "So you must be careful and wait for me to come back."

The swordswoman's figure disappeared into the darkness.

……

Victor looked in that direction silently.

It wasn't until Sarona walked behind him that he noticed something. The former said, "...the scholar's child, is this why the goddess chose him?"

"This is the starting point of everything, and also the end point of everything," Sarona shook her head. "Everything in this world is always so coincidental, isn't it? The hand of fate drops the invisible thread, over and over again, until the end of time."

The man looked silently at the stone platform.

The silver coin of fate leaves its mark among the dust—

  Write a line of text above:

"...She picks up fallen leaves from the lake and removes gray branches from fate..."

……