Volume 8, Chapter 32 – The World That Never Dried Up

“The feeling of… having a home?”

Claire raised an eyebrow, her expression turning subtle. She thought it over carefully but ultimately spoke her mind.

“But isn’t the feeling of having a home exactly that kind of meaning? Or does Little Fia want Lucitine to be your older sister? Having a Queen of Death backing you up certainly provides a sense of security, but on one hand, I don’t think Yelido would acknowledge such a daughter, and on the other hand, Little Fia needs to consider not just Lucitine, but also Silvar’s image. The undead are feared and despised by other countries on the World Tree Continent. At the very least, you need to lay some groundwork first, publicizing that the undead aren’t as evil as imagined, and only then take action. Otherwise, people from other countries will think the elves are associating with the undead and start ostracizing them.”

“Ah, no need to worry about that. The undead are an indispensable force for dealing with the Chaos going forward. As long as we can produce results—first make the other countries on the World Tree Continent aware of the Chaos’s dangers, then have the undead step forward to eliminate them—these countries will understand who the enemy is and who the ally is.”

The simplest example was the world Anastasia came from. There, people had eliminated all racial conflicts to combat Chaos, the living and the dead united to jointly fight Chaos.

But while this process sounded simple, putting it into practice would face many problems. For instance, how to make the other countries on the World Tree Continent aware of the Chaos’s danger. Fia could only think of first using Chaos to intimidate them, at least scare the royalty and upper nobility of these countries.

And as long as she could sway the royalty and upper nobility, everything would be easy. The countries of the World Tree Continent were different from modern states; most power here was concentrated in the king’s hands. What the king said, went.

Have the Eye tribe people intimidate them for her… but they couldn’t leave the Chaos for long on their own. Perhaps she should go find Helian.

It was worth mentioning that Fia didn’t intend to let Helian know about her relationship with the Eye. The Sovereign still hadn’t told her what he was planning to do, so of course she couldn’t simply expose the existence of the Eye tribe.

Regarding the Sovereign, Fia’s attitude was that she could trust him, but not too much. If she determined he couldn’t play a role in the upcoming war, she would make him pay for the people he had killed. The same principle applied to war criminals from the Milcandis Holy Kingdom—if useful, postpone judgment until after the war; if useless, judge on the spot.

“I completely can’t tell… Is Miss Lucitine really that Queen of Death? Legend says the Queen of Death is a skeleton draped in a black robe, inherently evil and cunning, who can take a life with a single thought. It’s only because she’s restricted by the gods’ covenant and cannot leave the Kingdom of Death that she hasn’t led the undead army to attack the world of the living.”

“Ahem.”

Hearing Liti’s unabashed doubt, Lucitine, who was memorizing Colita’s explanations, cleared her throat lightly. She sat up straight, her expression serious, her aura instantly shifting from humbly seeking guidance to the dignity and sharpness befitting a Queen of Death.

“I am indeed the Queen of Death, as the living call me. Thanks to Fia’s help, I have experienced having senses for the first time in ten thousand years. It is only natural for me to be curious about my surroundings upon first visiting the world of the living. If I cause any disturbance, please forgive me.”

“Uh…”

Despite her humble words, the aura Lucitine emitted was so intimidating that Liti couldn’t utter a single word, her pretty face turning slightly pale. Lucitine had long held a high position and commanded numerous subordinates with immense pride and strength; the queenly temperament she had honed was by no means something an ordinary person could withstand. The mere coldness in her voice was enough to convey that Lucitine was definitely not to be trifled with.

Seeing Liti shrink back in fear, Lucitine’s voice softened slightly.

“As for taking a life with a single thought, that’s pure nonsense. Not even a god can change a person’s life or death with just a thought. People’s fear of me stems solely from ignorance. Additionally, I have indeed been vicious and cunning at times in the past, but that was the past, not the present. The covenant between the gods and me was merely a verbal promise with no actual binding force. Back then, the weakened gods and the Darkborn were both afraid I would join the other side, so they made an agreement with me: if I remained neutral, neither side would interfere with me. Since that agreement, I have never seen the gods again. I don’t even know if they still exist in this world.”

Lucitine’s statement contained quite a lot of information; even Fia took a moment to process it.

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First, she couldn’t perceive the existence of gods, indicating Lucitine was not a goddess of the underworld with divinity protected by the world—gods can sense each other’s existence, a rule the Elf God had mentioned. And according to Milan’s explanation, gods were the first life born in this world, the Darkborn the second, and finally lives like humans and elves. Since Lucitine simultaneously denied being a god or Darkborn, strictly speaking, Lucitine counted as a third-generation life.

But Lucitine wasn’t an undead converted from a living person; she had inherently existed as an undead from the beginning. Therefore, Lucitine should be a special existence, a race of one person.

Second, according to Lucitine, she hadn’t seen the gods for over ten thousand years. This once again indirectly confirmed that Calista’s goddess hadn’t deceived Calista; there was likely only one god left in this world.

Then where had the other gods, like the Goddess of Life and the God of the Corona, gone?

There were too many questions she wanted to ask. Fia voiced the one she most wanted answered.

“Don’t the souls of the dead cross the Wall of Sighs and come before you? Hasn’t Lucitine seen those deceased gods?”

“No. First of all, the Wall of Sighs only receives souls from the World Tree Continent. More importantly, gods themselves do not die natural deaths like humans and elves. Their divinity is concentrated, they are favored by the world. Even if only a breath of life remains, given enough time they can recover to their peak. I suspect either they killed each other off in internal conflict, or they left this world. In any case, even if gods die, they don’t go inside the Wall of Sighs.”

Everyone in the dining room looked at each other. The information Lucitine had revealed was undoubtedly the hidden secrets of the World Tree Continent. Having it spoken so flatly by Lucitine gave one a sense of trance and unreality.

“But aren’t the gods’ enemies the Darkborn and Chaos? Why would they have internal conflict? And leaving this world—how exactly would one leave?”

“Heaven knows.” Lucitine shook her head gently, her pink hair swaying. “Don’t think of them as too sacred. Apart from being slightly stronger than the later-born humans and elves, their personalities are far worse than you imagine. Fighting over believers at any time wouldn’t be surprising.”

“As for leaving this world, I omitted one point earlier: foreign souls also cannot pass through the Wall of Sighs. Their ultimate end is either complete annihilation or wandering the world as soul forms imperceptible to others. If they unfortunately become tainted with resentment along the way, they become tragic undead like Davis, the Holy Son of the Corona. The shell enveloping this world is extremely fragile. People from outside can enter at any time. Correspondingly, with the right method, people inside can also go out—this is my speculation. The gods’ magic power is vast beyond ordinary imagination. It wouldn’t be strange for them to find this world hopeless and leave.”

“Speculation, huh…”

Fia was somewhat disappointed. She had thought Lucitine would say something like “if you keep flying upward, you can leave this world.” Previously, after learning [High-Speed Flight], knowing she wouldn’t die even if she suffocated, Fia had tried continuously flying upward. The result was that when the altitude reached a certain point, [High-Speed Flight] suddenly failed, unable to ascend further. Fia believed that was the world’s boundary. Beyond that range, all the rules magic relied upon would disappear, leaving only innate magics like [Orbital Beacon Bombardment] usable.

“But if the gods aren’t here, how to explain the World Tree’s barrier…”

Seeming to realize something wasn’t right, Lucitine began muttering to herself.

“A barrier on the scale of the World Tree’s couldn’t sustain itself for ten thousand years alone. Ultimately, the magical elements and elemental power in this world are constant. If the continent below has been continuously occupied by Chaos, the magical elements and elemental power should have gradually dried up, not remained as abundant as now… Could it be that all the gods died in this world, offering up the divinity and magic power accumulated in their bodies, thus maintaining the World Tree’s barrier and the world’s stability? That doesn’t sound like their way of doing things.”

“What does that mean?”

“Fia may not know this, but the gods were the first life born in this world, thus favored by the world. The magical elements and elemental power of the entire world spontaneously converged toward them, protecting them while continuously enhancing their strength. As long as they don’t die, the world’s magical elements and elemental power remain inside their bodies. And the magical elements and elemental power in the world are not inexhaustible; given enough time, they would eventually suck the world dry.”

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“The same applies to Chaos, except Chaos devours and destroys all magical elements and elemental power. Magical elements and elemental power spontaneously flow from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration. Since, as Fia says, the Primordial Continent is entirely covered in Chaos, then magical elements and elemental power should continuously flow from the World Tree Continent to the Primordial Continent, thereby causing the World Tree Continent’s magical elements and elemental power to be less than ten thousand years ago. Yet the magical elements and elemental power I sense now haven’t decreased compared to ten thousand years ago; on the contrary, they’ve slightly increased. This cannot be explained.”

“Aside from the disintegration of things on the scale of gods, releasing the magical elements and elemental power concentrated in their bodies to supplement the World Tree Continent’s supply, I can’t think of another possibility—no, there is a second possibility. The World Tree Continent continuously receives Holy Sons; perhaps this is a strategy the gods devised to relieve elemental depletion. Kill the Holy Sons, and the Holy Sons provide elements and magical power to the world, treating them as consumables to supplement elements and magical power. But this practice would require many Holy Sons; the numbers don’t add up. I still maintain my view that the gods are deceased.”

“Uh…”

This felt somewhat similar to what she herself had been doing.

Fia momentarily felt a strange kinship.

Magical elements and elemental power always flow from areas of high concentration to areas of low concentration, corresponding to the process of entropy increase. Every time a god was killed, that final moment could be delayed. And this world wasn’t an isolated system like the universe; it could communicate with other outside worlds—that is, Holy Sons from outside worlds. In this way, the moment when magical elements and elemental power completely withered could be delayed considerably.

But ultimately, this was just speculation. First of all, who could slay a god? Moreover, it wasn’t even certain whether the gods were actually dead. Only when Calista lured her goddess out would the truth come to light.

“In any case, their death is a good thing. Keeping them around would only cause harm. If not for those gods’ cleverness, Chaos wouldn’t have grown to what it is today. I wonder if Fia knows: in the past, the gods and Darkborn had an opportunity to annihilate Chaos. However, a certain god at the time was arrogant, charged forward alone to duel Chaos, ultimately fell, and became nourishment for Chaos, causing Chaos’s strength to greatly increase. The result was that they missed the best opportunity to eliminate Chaos and lost the qualification to fight Chaos. Ah~ah~ that’s all in the past. Any more questions?”

By the end, Lucitine was already yawning, seemingly unwilling to dwell on this resentment-inducing topic.

Fia glanced at the clock hanging in the dining room. It was already eleven at night, time to sleep. Although Lucitine might be unwilling to sleep due to the stimulation of a new environment, Fia couldn’t let her companions stay up with her until midnight. She took the initiative to speak.

“It’s getting late. Tomorrow we not only have to go to the abyss, but I also need to take you out to see the world a bit. I can’t have you rarely come to the world of the living and stay cooped up inside the whole time. Lucitine, go to sleep for now?”

“Sleep? You mean the kind where you lie on a bed?”

“Yes, that kind.”

“Ahh, okay.”

Although she didn’t show an expectant look like a child, Fia could already guess that Lucitine was full of anticipation about actual sleep.

She probably won’t be able to sleep.

Fia had a feeling she’d see Lucitine with dark circles under her eyes tomorrow morning.

It didn’t take long for everyone to go about their own business. Milu and Anastasia, who hadn’t bathed yet, headed to the bathhouse, while Claire and Liti, who had already bathed, returned to their own rooms.

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It was worth mentioning that Fia noticed the atmosphere between Claire and Anastasia was quite subtle. Subtle here didn’t mean bad, but rather too good. When Anastasia was heading to the bathhouse, Claire called out Anastasia’s name. Anastasia’s expression froze, her cheeks instantly reddening, and she gave a slight nod. This feeling that the two had reached some kind of understanding, with only her kept in the dark, left Fia quite puzzled. Especially Anastasia’s blush—that could be described as shyness.

Could it be that, without my noticing, Claire had quietly won over Anastasia…

Impossible. Absolutely impossible.

Fia dismissed the possibility after a moment’s thought. Although the image of two older sisters like Claire and Anastasia standing together was indeed beautiful, they surely couldn’t be mutually attracted.

To know for sure, she could just ask Claire.

In fact, while thinking such thoughts, Fia, having handed Lucitine over to Colita’s arrangements, had already arrived at Claire’s room.

“So Little Fia has secretly come to my room? Today, no matter what, I won’t agree to Little Fia, okay?”

“In Claire’s eyes, am I the type who only thinks about being lovey-dovey…”

Feigning hurt, Fia sat down beside the round table in the bedroom and sighed quietly. As always, Claire’s room was filled with a faint herbal scent. The soft lighting and carefully arranged vase decorations made the bedroom full of warmth.

“I came to talk about serious matters. I saw some noteworthy things in the Kingdom of Death today and wanted to ask Claire’s opinion. Also, there’s a secret I haven’t had a chance to tell Claire yet.”

“So you’re not asking where I went today?”

Claire, who was making the bed, turned around. Set off by her dark green dress, Claire’s gentle and graceful face looked exceptionally beautiful. Her silvery hair, flowing like a waterfall, reflected a faint light under the lamplight, her whole being exuding an elegant and charming older-sister charm.

Stunned momentarily by Claire’s stunning beauty, Fia slightly averted her gaze.

“If Claire wants to tell me, she will, right…”

“Little Fia doesn’t care about me at all. I’m so sad.”

“I’m just afraid Claire will think I’m being too nosy.”

That said, Fia knew Claire was joking. She watched as Claire took fruit wine and glasses from the cabinet, poured half a glass for each of them, and sat down beside her. Her movements were as natural as a true elf consort.

“I went to inspect the earthquake. Initially, I thought the earthquake occurred near the Weeping Mountain, where I’d been spending a lot of time recently. But this time, the collapse site was the Second Abyss. It’s gone from a one-kilometer-wide fissure to six or seven kilometers…”

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As she said this, Claire stared at the table with a preoccupied expression. She took a light sip of the slightly tart fruit wine, waiting a few seconds before continuing.

“That can no longer be described as a simple earthquake. I believe it’s the same as the barren land collapse some time ago—both are disasters of the same nature. It’s just that the land near the Second Abyss is more stable than the barren land, which is why it didn’t become a disaster of an entire landmass falling.”

“I’ve told Little Fia before, I suspect the land collapses are related to me. My existence affects the world’s order. In the past, when I stayed at Dragonfall, Dragonfall frequently experienced collapses. Later, when I lived in Blossom, the land across from Blossom fell below. Therefore, I couldn’t help but wonder if this collapse might be related to the Weeping Mountain, where I’d been staying recently, disappearing. So I went to inspect the Weeping Mountain. Fortunately, things weren’t as I feared; the Weeping Mountain was completely intact. What collapsed was the Second Abyss.”

Saying this, Claire’s furrowed brow relaxed. Her expression was that of someone relieved after a disaster, learning their family was safe. She looked up and smiled at Fia.

“In the past, I always thought my curse had more than two aspects, including a curse that makes land collapse. But I haven’t been to the Second Abyss many times, yet it collapsed. This suggests my previous speculation might be wrong. Little Fia, once things calm down a bit on your end, could you accompany me back to Dragonfall? There are some things I’ve wanted to test in the past but never dared to.”

“Of course, no problem. In fact, I’m glad Claire came to discuss it with me.”

“Thank you. Even though fighting Chaos is critical, I’m troubling Little Fia to divert her attention for my personal matters.”

Claire showed a relieved smile. She gently placed her slender right hand on the back of Fia’s hand. Her hand, larger than Fia’s, completely covered Fia’s, but Fia felt no warmth—on the contrary, it was cold, as if Claire had been bearing immense psychological pressure, tense to the point of being unable to calm herself.

Fia used her own warm hand to grip back Claire’s, raising her eyebrows displeasedly.

“What do you mean ‘Claire’s personal matters’? Claire’s matters are my matters. If you use such a distant expression again, I’ll get angry.”

“Hehehe, you’re right. I’m not alone. My mistake.”

Claire couldn’t help but smile apologetically. As if letting down the heavy burden in her heart, she let out a long breath and returned to her usual, slightly playful gentle expression.

“So what serious matter does Little Fia want to discuss with me? As for me, I can’t easily acknowledge Lucitine, you know? She doesn’t understand what love is, what liking is. She’s probably only seen Little Fia, and Little Fia has been very kind to her, so she’s mistaking closeness for love. Brief association is fine, but over time, all kinds of conflicts will arise.”

“No, no, it’s not that. Lucitine and I are innocent. I wanted to ask Claire if she has any good methods to hoodwink the heavens and cross the sea, to make Lucitine turn enemies into friends with Chaos. Ideally, make Lucitine have absolute trust in me.”

Quite seriously, Fia posed this question to Claire.