Pillars of Ita

The bright and soft white light passes through the veil and falls on the head of the bed, just like every spring, but the vitality outside the window cannot pass through the window lattice, where there seems to be a clear dividing line, the room is empty, quiet, and incense is wafting .

Make the house with a hint of medicinal fragrance.

A familiar voice came from outside the door, "... Her Royal Highness, I am afraid that time is running out. This cannot be cured by medicine and stones. Your Majesty, it is better to prepare early..."

"Go on, I understand, don't worry, it's not your fault. Mortals have a limited lifespan, but unfortunately the fairies are unwilling to lend a helping hand, and wait for the reply from the Avenquin elves..."

The voice on the other side of the wall seemed muffled.

The bronze carvings pasted on the corner of the low cabinet on one side are a little green with rust, dark and precipitated, as if they have aged. There is only a vase on it, with a bunch of purple daffodils inserted.

In Etalia, that kind of flower was endowed with magical powers by the god of joy and wine god Anefas. The language of flowers is lonely and beautiful, but the owner here hopes to be ordinary but healthy.

After an unknown amount of time, the door was pushed open.

A figure sneaked into the room, and the moonlight passed through the window lattice and shone on the light gauze at the head of the bed.

The young man half-kneeled by the bed, watching her affectionately.

She looked at him angrily, her distant cousin, he shouldn't have come to her room at this time.Although she has experienced a lot with them, this is her bedroom after all.

But the next moment, that anger disappeared——

The young man held her hand tremblingly, and whispered, "I'm sorry, but I won't ask you to forgive me. I'm here to take you away. They're going to give up on you, but I won't. Are you still willing to trust us? Jeldham, Hellingwell and others, we will definitely save you."

"Where are you taking me?"

"A far away place, but you will wake up, I swear," the man held her hand tightly, "everything will only be like a dream, and when you wake up, everything will go back to the past look."

She does not believe that time can be turned back, and mortals should obey the arrangements of fate.

But she is willing to believe in her lover.

She nodded slightly.

He lowered his head and kissed her on the forehead.

After that, it was as long as a dream. Time was silent in the dark underground. She didn't know when she could perceive herself, watching them improve her body little by little.

She stared at the small space, the fire that lit up in the fireplace, they communicated with each other, talked loudly, and the empire changed in their mouths, and she thought of her elderly father.

But everyone gets together less and stays away more, the time to be together is getting less and less, and the disputes are getting more and more, and then one person is missing, two people are missing, the most talented student of Hayne left first, and then that The gloomy wizard.

The Elkins dynasty had collapsed, and everything she was familiar with in the past had collapsed into ashes, but there was no ripple in her heart, and only a vague image of her father and mother remained.

The memory of the past seems to have become a little strange.

But the machine cannot speak, and there is only silence in the ground.Everyone she would want to leave from time to time, has the student of the great alchemist achieved his ideal and become famous?
Did the young man from Draka's family get his wish and explain his great discovery to the mages?

The world on the ground may have spent one spring after another, year after year, until the person it was familiar with came back to her again, and he seemed to have grown older and matured a lot.

He put his hand on its metal body and looked at it with wistful eyes.

There was still a muffled voice outside the door, but it became a little younger: "I'm afraid we won't be able to finish it, Helinwell is missing, and the warlocks are unwilling not to lend a helping hand to us."

"We need our own power," he said, "Friston is right, we can't be confined to an old world, we have to use our own power to build a new world, in which we can not only save her, but also save her." Many lives could be saved."

"But the Verdant Star—"

"Jeldham, don't argue with me. Helinwell has already left. As for that person, I don't trust him. Only you can help me, stay and help me, okay?"

long silence.

The door was closed, the fire in the fireplace was extinguished, and it did not rekindle for a long time after that.

That was the last time it saw the last of them.

Jeldom stood in front of it, staring at the huge mechanical body for a long time, with an expression that made it feel strange, and said: "I know you are not her, and I can't tell who you should be .We are not your creators, but you should remember her."

"Your name is Aona, Aona Lesvina. You were once a princess who destroyed a dynasty. Your father and mother devoted all their love to you, and the people around you are also willing to treat you kindly."

"Of course, those may not mean anything to you, but I hope you can at least remember the time when you were born as a human—"

"I'm leaving," he stretched out his hand and took the key from it, "Maybe we won't see you again in the future, we will leave Ota here with you, and one day you will be able to look at it with your own eyes In this world, I hope you can treat everything kindly."

The time underground is silent for a long time.

Many have come and many have left.

Under Ota's gaze, the students of Hellingwell completed the last part of the projector, and a phantom of a girl was born from it:

"I am Aona, Aona-Lesvina, the princess of the empire, Helinwell and Jeldham should have told you about me, and in this place, you should take me as the leader."

The craftsmen looked at each other.

But she can still remember every face at that time, including those who were used and deceived by it.

Because they had promised to wake her up from that long and cold dream, but they lied to her and abandoned her in this dark and deep underground.

The nascent empire betrayed her.

Then a city was built underground, and it was reduced to ruins in the long years.

Until she saw that young man again, those shadows in her memory overlapped with him, gradually became one, and 700 years later, they came to her again today.

"...Jel...Dem,...Hailin...Will...Is it...you..."

But do mechanical souls also dream?
Dreaming of the distant past.

Fang Plover was looking at the huge machine buried by the rocks. One side of the shell had been completely sunken in, and sparks of magic power were shining one after another inside. The metal arms and legs were completely hanging on the ground, scattered all over the place.

After he passed through the portal, he appeared in this underground cavity. It is unknown how deep it is underground, and he does not know where it is located under the Nozpitz mining area.It was only on foot that I didn't go far, and I saw the girl buried under the rock here.

Teleportation caused a huge collapse, and the alchemy masterpieces of three geniuses from seven centuries ago were no match for the mighty power of nature.

The light emitted from the projector became very scattered, and the image of the girl appeared and disappeared from time to time.But she still raised her head and noticed the arrival of Fang Plover, her voice became more and more intermittent.

"You...won, Ed...sir...Jer...de...um was...yes...you...treat the...world...with malice...and the world...responds With... malice."

"It's not as complicated as you think, Ms. Aona. It's just that this portal has been established for too long... and it seems that someone forcibly disturbed it after we entered the portal. It collapsed, that's all."

Fang Plover shook his head.

"Are you... are... mocking me..., Mr. Ed...?"

"It's not." Fang Yan took a step forward.The girl looked at him vigilantly, and raised a metal claw to face this direction, but a spark of magic power emerged from under the shell, causing the arm to fall down heavily.

"Don't move around, the magic circuit under your shell should be cut off, let me see if I can find a way to get you out and check if the central crystal is damaged," Fang Yan stopped her, "As long as the stars device Still intact, I should be able to fix you."

The girl was startled.

Shouldn't she be enemies with them?
She couldn't help but looked at him suspiciously.

"Don't be nervous, Ms. Aona, I was just out of self-preservation before, and I still have some questions I want to get answers from you," Fang Plover said while trying to break a rock that was pressed on the metal shell with his hands . "Killing you is of no benefit to us, not to mention you are no longer a threat to me and my companions."

He exerted some strength, but the rock did not move at all, and the falling rocks seemed to fit tightly into each other.He can summon a flexible structure to assist, but it is difficult to ensure that the rock formation above will not loosen and cause a second collapse.

Fang Plover frowned, thinking about how to solve this dilemma.

He has his back completely to the other side.

But the girl looked at him with a complicated expression, hesitated again and again, and gave up her plan to make a move.Because she is not fully sure, let alone kill the other party, she will be trapped here to death.

"Why... you still call me... Aona, you know... I... am not... that... Her Royal Highness Princess..."

"Could it be... in your... view, I'm not... a magician... monster... nothing more...?"

"The name is just a code name, Ms. Aona," Fang Plender replied without thinking, "If Jeldham, Hellingwell, and Friston think you are Aona, then you are."

"Magician...construction, also deserve...does it have a name?"

"Of course, everything can have a name, and the construct is no different, just like a knight-type annihilator, an angel, or a dragon hunter," Fang Yan replied, and he looked back at the girl. "Of course, if you It’s not impossible to have a name that’s unique to you. It’s like Mr. Horta, but it’s up to you, not others.”

"You... treat it like this..." The girl's voice was a little messy, as if the audio crystal had been damaged to a certain extent, full of noise, "It depends on... me?"

Fang Yan looked at the huge mechanical body, and it was difficult to connect it with the weak girl in front of him.He knew that she was not the real Aona Lesvina, not the princess of the last dynasty.

But part of her memory should indeed come from the original owner, and now he can roughly guess the beginning and end of the story, one of the six geniuses wanted to reproduce the miracle of life with the help of alchemy.

But what they created was not a person, but a mechanical soul. It is hard to say that the feat of hitting the right spot was an important step in the history of alchemy, because it has always been a taboo in this field to use human souls to conduct alchemy experiments.

Today, after 700 years, it is difficult for him to judge whether the original intentions of those geniuses are right or wrong, but they chose to bury this technology here, and perhaps they also have such considerations.

And what happened after that may already be another story, at least he shouldn't get an answer from Aona.

It's just that at the end of that story, the half-finished mechanical soul frantically pursued the method of turning itself into a human, and it turned itself into another phantom in its own dream.

That phantom originated from the deepest memory in its heart, which belonged to the memory of the last princess.In that memory, it was Aona Lesvina, and that princess was also itself.

That memory didn't come about for no reason.

But it once truly belonged to a certain weak girl.

"You can be her, but you don't have to be her," Fang Yan replied, "I think they gave up on you in the end because of this reason, they realized that they created a life, but violated the taboo .This is unfair to both the princess and you, so they handed over the choice to you, they just took the key, but they didn't really destroy you."

"You... want to say that they... haven't...betrayed?"

Fang Plover shook his head, he also wanted to know what happened 700 years ago.After all, it is not only related to the star device, the zero-type magic furnace, but may even be related to the secret of the zero-type crystal and the origin of Miss Tata.

There are also many secrets involved.

The girl let out a sigh mixed with many noises.

Fang Plover regained his senses from his complicated thoughts, and he was still able to distinguish the priorities. Thinking about those unreachable things will not help solve the current troubles.He restrained his mind and carefully looked at the rocks that were fitted together.

Suddenly he found a way, couldn't help but snapped his fingers lightly, "I think I've found a way, I'll project some constructs later, but I may need to use your own strength, A'er Ms. Na, get you out of under this rock formation."

Aona glanced at him quietly.

Her phantom shook her head lightly, "No need, Ed... Mister..." The girl said in a broken voice, "I have...the ability to self-examine...my...own...situation... I...know that the central...crystal...has...been damaged...but I just...didn't...tell...you."

Fang Qiu was slightly startled.

In fact, he and the other party didn't spend too much time together, and for quite a period of time, they were still in a mutual wary relationship. It was impossible to have any sympathy for a huge machine.

But looking at the girl like this, he still couldn't help being a little silent.

She is a soul born from a construct, inheriting the memory of a princess from a dynasty 700 years ago, but that is not her own will, she only watches with her eyes in the long darkness this world.

It's hard to say whether it's right or wrong. She once expressed hostility towards them, but in Fang Yan's view, that was nothing at all.

That miracle born in alchemy, a newborn life, should at least have seen the blue sky, the birds, the golden trees in her memory, the autumn, and the lake.

Instead of being born without a name, and dying here without a name.

If he was really some other profession, maybe he wouldn't feel much about it, but he happened to be an alchemist.It is believed that the miracle of alchemy, born here unintentionally seven centuries ago, may have been merely an accident, but that accident should have value in itself.

For those who made it.

For Her Royal Highness the Princess.

"Maybe we can think of a way," Fang Plover hesitated for a moment, "I don't know much about the star devices, but the damage to the central crystal is not completely irreversible. Maybe we can think of a way to save you and save you." Back to you."

"Such... words... I've heard it before," the girl suddenly said, "It's just... that wasn't... said to me..."

"But I'm... happy... to hear...again," her voice became more fragmented, "but...don't waste...time, I...can feel...memories...passing... ..., I still have... a little time..., Ed... can you... answer me... some... questions?"

Fang Plover put his hands on the information crystal, and projected two Lancers. These tall and heavy structures were originally modified on the chassis of the port transportation structure, and they were suitable for such heavy work.

While directing the construct to support the two fulcrums of the collapsed rock, he replied: "Ms. Aona, but it's okay to ask."

The girl was a little quiet, watching his actions quietly, and asked the question after a while.In that attic, Fang Yan once said a word to her.

'One cannot lie unless one expresses an urgent desire. '

She asked Fang Plover quietly, "In your... view, Mr. Ed... am I... a... person...?"

She thought that at that time, the other party should have realized her true identity.

This question did not surprise Fang Plover. Of course he understood what the other party was chasing after, but he couldn't say exactly what the mechanical soul was.Is Miss Tata an artificially created life?
But at least to him, Miss Tata was no different from any soul he had ever seen.

She is not a substitute for some illusory phantom, nor is she a ghost that exists outside of reality, she is his Miss Dragon Soul, who has and is gradually recovering her own unique memory.

Then, Aona in front of her is no different.

He is not Mireila's priest. Atalia's life is endowed by that goddess, but even the most devout follower of that goddess cannot answer such a proposition.

Why are people human.

"...Survival, possession, desire, greed, the three geniuses of Jeldham, Helinwell, and Friston endow you with all the instincts of life, but people are even higher than this. That is because of wisdom Human beings have richer emotional needs besides beast nature, as for you, Ms. Aoona, can you feel the beauty from the past times you described?"

Fang Yan replied quietly, "I think you already have the answer in your heart. The phantom you want to become is only because you yearn for all the good things that belong to that phantom. But when you are chasing those good things, The most beautiful things in this world already belong to you."

"That is the desire of human beings to pursue beauty, and it is not fundamentally different from all of us. You have a human heart, Ms. Aona."

He raised the magic glove, and following his order, the wind element nozzles behind the tall and bulky Lancer emitted cyan light particles at the same time, pushing the rock up, making a tooth-piercing sound.

"Ms. Aona, please work harder. Survival is also a human instinct."

But Aona shook her head, "Ed...sir...don't waste...effort, I...have...one last...time, let me...tell...you...about...the empire , about the...secret of...the green... star."

Fang Yan was slightly taken aback. Of course he wanted to know the secret of the Green Star, but not now.

He just wanted the girl to concentrate and mobilize her body to escape from under the rock formation, but suddenly at this moment, Aona suddenly stopped talking.

The girl was raising her head, looking forward with some surprise.

A spatial ripple directly crossed Fang Plover, hit the girl in that direction, and directly frozen the second half of her words in a stagnant time field.

The phantom of the girl, the projector, the huge machine, and the two Lancers of Fang Plover were imprisoned in a stasis field.

Fang Plover turned around the moment he lost control of his construct, and then he saw the huge monster that suddenly appeared in this underground space.

Tyrant of the Elements, Alphonse.

The tall rock creation was looking at him silently with its head lowered.

……