Chapter 120: Familiar Names

Chapter 120: Familiar Names

Hearing Miss Justice’s suggestion, Klein thought for a moment and said,

“Guide the dream around Second Epoch history, the Elven Queen ‘Queen of Calamity’ Cohinem, the elves’ living habits, the oldest language, and the legendary Western Continent.”

“…All right.” Audrey’s eyes moved slightly, revealing a thoughtful expression as she digested the hidden information in Mr. World’s words.

Immediately afterward, she walked to the side of the Elven Songstress.

Under her guidance, Mobet’s figure in the garden rapidly blurred and vanished from Shatas’s dream.

Layer upon layer of ripples once again emerged in Audrey’s emerald eyes, flowing into the depths. Her lips moved slightly, as though she were silently reciting something.

The entire dream world shook. The garden became like a reflection on a lake, smashed into shimmering fragments by an invisible stone that had flown from nowhere.

Those fragments swiftly gathered together, but what they restored was no longer the garden. It was a palace that seemed to be made of coral.

Every detail of this palace was exceptionally ornate, and the whole structure was tall and magnificent. Yet because it lay under layer after layer of deep-blue seawater, the sky could not be seen at all, making it seem dim and gloomy.

Inside it, one colossal coral pillar after another held up an exaggerated dome. The walls and ceiling were covered in murals depicting the terror of storms.

Across the murals and coral, streaks of silver-white lightning moved like living creatures, following fixed trajectories as they wandered everywhere. In the end, they gathered at a nine-tiered platform embedded with pearls, diamonds, emeralds, and sapphires.

Shatas stood in attendance there, with many elves opposite and beside her.

Above the nine-tiered steps, two gigantic chairs seemingly formed from pure lightning had been placed. One occupied the very center, like the ruler of this palace and this world. The other sat to its left, comparatively less conspicuous.

On the central throne sat a man wearing a simple, loose robe. His ears were pointed and high, the lines of his face comparatively soft, and each strand of his hair was thick, black and blue intertwined with each other. Not only was every feature remarkable on its own, when combined, they made him even more handsome. However, he intuitively gave people a violent feeling, as though if a single word displeased him, he would pick up the lightning spear leaning against the armrest and throw it forward.

Sitting beside him was a beautiful woman with glossy black hair coiled high into a bun, ears slightly pointed, exquisite features, and deep-brown eyes like the sea. She was toying with an intricately patterned golden wine cup.

Without any need for Shatas’s introduction, Klein and the others could easily determine that this man and woman were the Elf King, ancient god Soniathrym, and the Elven Queen, the Queen of Calamity Cohinem.

“Aurmir, that traitor!”

Suddenly, a gigantic voice boomed like thunder. It shook the entire palace violently and made Shatas and the other attendants lower their heads in fear.

That furious roar came from the ancient god.

Aurmir—isn’t that the Giant King’s name? I have drunk red wine named after him recently. I have to say, the quality truly was better than the others, only a little expensive… While listening with lingering ringing in his ears, Klein let his thoughts scatter at random.

He remembered that Little Sun had once said the Giant King Aurmir, the Elf King Soniathrym, and the Sanguine progenitor Lilith—three ancient gods with relatively humanlike forms—had been allies. They opposed the faction formed by Ankewelt, the Dragon of Imagination; Gregrace, the Phoenix Ancestor; and Kvastir, the Mutant King. Farbauti, the Devil Monarch, and Flegrea, the Demonic Wolf of Destruction, were loners who wanted to corrupt everything and overturn all.

So the alliance of the three humanoid ancient gods ultimately collapsed? Klein restrained his thoughts, waiting for the dream to continue changing.

Because of The Sun Derrick’s existence, Justice Audrey was not unfamiliar with the history of the Second Epoch. At this moment, she did not hesitate at all and directly made Shatas’s dream develop further.

Beneath that terrifying roar, the Queen of Calamity Cohinem remained completely unaffected. With a cold expression, she said in a comparatively calm tone,

“Was that not a fact determined long ago?

“His credibility is the exact opposite of his size.”

At that moment, the ancient god Soniathrym’s body was already enveloped in blazing lightning. His voice thundered as he said,

“I thought that after these few centuries passed, He would have understood the situation of the world more clearly. I overestimated His intelligence!

“If not for His betrayal back then, how could Lilith have fallen?”

Eh… The Sanguine progenitor Lilith fell so early? Klein’s eyelids twitched, and his attention rapidly concentrated.

After the Elf King finished roaring, the Queen of Calamity Cohinem maintained her earlier posture and said,

“That was not a bad thing. At least Kvastir and Flegrea were dragged down by Lilith and buried with her. None of the gods trusted one another anymore. Even without allying with any side, we could rule the seas, lakes, and rivers.”

Hearing these words, even Justice Audrey, a Spectator, found the astonishment in her heart difficult to suppress and had to use Placate on herself.

This… This means that the Sanguine progenitor Lilith, the Mutant King Kvastir, and the Demonic Wolf of Destruction Flegrea fell during the ancient gods’ own divine war, caused by the betrayal of ancient gods like the Giant King Aurmir. In reality, it had nothing to do with the ancient Sun God?

Is this why Lilith died but did not go entirely silent, and could occasionally still descend oracles? And precisely because of this, Antigonus and the Mother of the Sky in the Hornacis mountain range survived into the Fourth Epoch… Klein grew increasingly certain that the history recorded by the City of Silver also contained much fabrication or ambiguity. Fortunately, he had not yet finished digesting the Bizarro Sorcerer potion and did not need to consider advancing to Scholar of Yore for the moment. Otherwise, the “history” he used might not be true.

In ancient times, the Sanguine progenitor Lilith and the Mutant King Kvastir respectively perished because of each other… Yet recently, the Sanguine are cooperating with the Temperance faction among the Mutants. Time really is the greatest magician… Heh, if The Moon, Emlyn, learned of this matter, I wonder what expression he would have… As The Star, Leonard listened, he felt somewhat emotional.

While the three of them had thoughts flashing rapidly through their minds, the ancient god Soniathrym snorted and said,

“Aurmir recently wants to cooperate with certain secret cults that have emerged among humanity to deal with us. It is said this matter is being led by Harvest and Dawn.

“I now even want to cooperate with Ankewelt and destroy the Giant King’s Court. Unfortunately, every time I see that dragon, I want to skewer it and place it on a roasting rack. That is an attraction rooted in essence—the most irresistible delicacy!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than this ancient god’s figure suddenly vanished. The entire palace shook violently, to the point that cracks appeared.

Before any of this had calmed, lightning flashed, and Soniathrym returned to that gigantic throne, holding a spear made purely of lightning in his hand.

“You went to the Giant King’s Court?” Cohinem asked.

“I gave Aurmir a little lesson,” Soniathrym answered without hiding anything.

Shatas and the other elven attendants lowered their heads even more, vaguely seeing one slippery tentacle after another, each thicker than their bodies, swinging across the ground, with silver-white electric serpents flashing along them.

Then they even closed their eyes.

The dream changed accordingly. Shatas “recalled” her interactions with other elves.

Through their conversations and interactions, Klein, Leonard, and Audrey learned that the era in which Shatas lived was a relatively peaceful period of the Second Epoch. Giants, elves, dragons, devils, and phoenixes—the five great races—coexisted, dividing the rule of the Northern and Southern Continents and the five seas among themselves. Vampires, demonic wolves, treants, sea monsters, mutants, humans, and other races respectively depended on different forces, occupying the middle and lower ranks.

“This is not at all similar to the history recorded by the Church. Even the myths and legends of the City of Silver do not contain these matters,” The Star, Leonard, said with a sigh. “The Old Man probably did not understand it to this degree either.”

“Not necessarily.” Klein shook his head almost imperceptibly. “Quite a few beings from the Second Epoch survived into the Fourth Epoch, even into the present day.”

“For example, that Angel of Wisdom?” Leonard guessed in response.

“Probably.” Klein did not give a definite answer. Instead, he smiled. “When you were talking to Mobet, I thought you would ask Miss Justice to avoid listening.”

Leonard immediately glanced at him, yawned, and said,

“You mentioned before that an existence behind me might have seen the second Blasphemy Slate. Then, while talking to Mobet Zoroast, if I had deliberately asked Miss Justice to avoid listening, would that not have actively made her draw connections?

“And you also said that when you dealt with all the Amon avatars in Backlund, you drew Miss Justice into the final cleanup. To a Sequence 5 Spectator, the information she has is already more than enough. If she learns a little more about the Zoroast family, the truth is practically right in front of her. Since that is the case, why waste time asking her to step aside? How troublesome. It would be better to ask Mr. Fool to act as witness afterward, and have everyone swear not to reveal one another’s secrets.”

“If you had asked Miss Justice to step aside, it would instead become harder to bring up an oath of secrecy afterward…” Klein nodded slightly.

At that moment, Shatas continued,

“After the Sanguine progenitor, the Demonic Wolf of Destruction, and the Mutant King fell, some of Their subordinate gods were killed, some defected to other ancient gods, and some disappeared, hiding in the shadows.”

Having “transformed” into an elf, Audrey immediately asked,

“Who defected to whom? And which ones were killed?”

Shatas recalled for a moment.

“I have never seen them. Uh, the Sanguine’s Life Goddess and the Mutant King’s God of War were killed. No one even remembers their names anymore… The Demonic Wolf of Destruction’s God of the Undead, Salinger, defected to the Phoenix Ancestor. The Sanguine’s Goddess of Beauty, Auernia, joined us… The Mutant King’s God of Spiritual Objects, Tolzna, and the Demonic Wolf of Destruction’s Goddess of Misfortune, Amanises, vanished without a trace…”

Salinger… Auernia… Hearing these two names, Klein’s temple twitched. Instinctively, he used a Clown’s ability to maintain the expression on his face.

Auernia was the Blood Moon Queen, wife of the Night Emperor in the Fourth Epoch, and empress of the Trunsoest Empire!

And Salinger was the founder of the Balam Empire—the Fourth Epoch’s Emperor of the Underworld, Death!