The Headless Knights on the plaza patrolled in perfect unison, their rusty armor emitting a grating sound with each step. Li Wen stood at the edge of the plaza, observing these eerie guards. Despite having lost their heads, their movements were unaffected, even more precise than normal people. Every time they reached a specific position by the fountain, all the knights would turn simultaneously, their actions mirroring each other perfectly.
Sir Guinea Pig nervously tugged at the hem of Li Wen’s cloak. “I’ll only take you this far, you’ll have to figure out the rest yourself!”
After saying that, it tried to slip away but was grabbed by the scruff of its neck and pulled back by Li Wen.
“Wait,” Li Wen’s voice was frighteningly calm. “You still haven’t told me how to communicate with them.”
Sir Guinea Pig’s purple eyes darted wildly, its short paws flailing in the air. “Let… let me go! Those guys don’t need communication at all. As long as you get close, they’ll naturally—”
Its words abruptly stopped. Li Wen felt a cold gaze. Although these knights had no heads, she was certain they “saw” her.
The twelve Headless Knights simultaneously halted their march, turning uniformly in Li Wen’s direction. Grey fog seeped from the gaps in their corroded armor, writhing like living creatures. The knight at the front stepped forward, its movements stiff but precise, causing the ground to tremble slightly with each step.
Li Wen released Sir Guinea Pig and subtly placed her hand on her dagger. The Headless Knight stopped five paces in front of her and slowly raised its right arm. The arm was wrapped in chains, and at the end of the chains was a heavy Metal Book.
“Request… or transaction…” the Metal Book automatically turned its pages with a grating sound. A hoarse voice squeezed out from between the pages, “Choose…”
Li Wen narrowed her eyes. The book appeared to be some kind of contract medium. She didn’t recognize any of the script, but her intuition told her that signing it rashly would be a terrible idea.
“I want to inquire about the whereabouts of a person,” she said directly. “Someone wearing a Brass Mask, with a Pointer in their right eye.”
The Metal Book suddenly trembled violently, its pages flipping frantically before stopping on a blank page. The chain-wielding hand of the Headless Knight traced across the page, and grey fog condensed into a blurry image—it was indeed a humanoid figure wearing a mask, but the details were unclear.
“The price… the price of knowledge…” the book hissed.
Li Wen was prepared. “What do you want?”
“Memory… knowledge… or…” an eye pattern suddenly appeared on the page, staring intently at Li Wen, “your path…”
Sir Guinea Pig had already snuck away at some point.
Li Wen’s expression remained unchanged. “How about another option.”
The Metal Book was silent for a moment before turning its pages again. “Then… your name…”
“My name?”
“True name…” the book explained. “Entrust your true name to our safekeeping… in exchange…”
Li Wen’s internal alarm bells blared. In any mystical system, a true name held special power. To give up one’s true name was to surrender a part of oneself.
She decisively shook her head. “That’s impossible.”
The book seemed to have anticipated her refusal and immediately proposed a new condition. “Then… a story…”
“A story?”
“A story you personally experienced…” the book’s voice suddenly softened. “It must be true… it must be unforgettable…”
This condition seemed much easier to accept than the previous two, but Li Wen knew that in a place like this, any seemingly harmless transaction could harbor a hidden trap. She pondered for a moment and decided to tell an inconsequential experience.
“I once got lost in the forest for three days, surviving on wild berries and dew.”
The Metal Book suddenly snapped shut with a loud bang. A large amount of grey fog erupted from the seams of the Headless Knight’s armor, clearly showing its great dissatisfaction with this perfunctory story.
“Not… qualified…” the book trembled with anger. “It must be unforgettable… it must be soul-stirring…”
Li Wen sighed. It seemed she had to share some real experiences. She pondered for a moment and slowly began:
“I died once.”
This statement made the Headless Knight stir restlessly. The Metal Book also stopped trembling, hovering quietly in the air, awaiting her continuation.
“It was when we were fighting against some inevitable great catastrophe,” Li Wen’s voice was soft but exceptionally clear. “We, my companions and I, knew we couldn’t win, but we still chose to fight. In the end, everyone died, including me.”
Bronze-colored liquid seeped from the pages of the Metal Book. The liquid automatically formed words, recording Li Wen’s account.
“But fate gave me a second chance,” she continued. “I returned to before the disaster began. Now, I carry everyone’s hopes, walking alone on the path to confront the apocalypse.”
Silence fell upon the plaza; even the grey fog ceased its flow.
The Metal Book slowly closed, emitting a sigh of satisfaction. “A qualified… transaction…”
“Then where is the person I’m looking for?” Li Wen immediately asked.
The cover of the Metal Book suddenly bled dark red rust. The rusty spots wriggled like living things, gradually outlining an ancient scene: it was an era before the grey fog had enveloped the land. Several figures of various appearances stood on the barren land, with cracked black earth beneath their feet and an amber-hued sky overhead.
Li Wen saw a familiar Existence within it—a colossal figure, as tall as a mountain, clad in a magnificent cloak, the ancient Evening Bell.
Besides him, there was the person she was commissioned to find, a figure wearing a Brass Mask, whose race was impossible to determine.
“The initial builders…” the Metal Book’s voice became ethereal. “They called themselves ‘Descendants of Eternity’… guarding the secrets at the root of the world…”
The scene shifted, and Li Wen saw towering black spires rise from the ground, and clusters of pyramid-shaped temples spread across the barren land. It was the establishment of a magnificent kingdom. Houses and city walls were built from a luminescent white stone, and the streets were filled with people of all sorts—elves, Dwarves, humans, and even strange creatures Li Wen had never seen before.
“Then the calamity descended…” the Metal Book’s voice suddenly turned sharp. ***
The scene distorted abruptly. Huge fissures opened in the sky, and a yellow liquid poured down like a waterfall. Upon contact with the ground, the liquid instantly solidified, forming countless sharp crystals. Buildings collapsed under the erosion of the crystals, and living beings turned to ashes in their screams. The figure wearing the Brass Mask stood at the highest point, holding a scepter. With a wave, he halted the calamity. ***
But it was futile. More and more cracks appeared in the sky, and the entire kingdom was destroyed.
“They failed…” the Metal Book’s voice held a peculiar amusement. “‘Descendants of Eternity’ disappeared one by one… until only he remained.”
The scene finally froze on a ruin. Grey fog seeped from underground, gradually engulfing everything. The figure wearing the Brass Mask stood alone in the center of the ruins, his scepter long broken.
“Where is he now?” Li Wen pressed.
She could guess that the history the Metal Book was recounting was that of the outer district of Amber City. The inner city had not yet been built, and the Long-lived ones gathered here, establishing the first residence of the Twilight Witch.
But what reason caused its demise? And that yellowish liquid, the grey fog seeping from underground, it felt…
