Chapter 123: Ready for Grand Makeup, The Play Begins (Two-in-one)
Arcane City, Lokiia.
In the most prosperous hotel in the Constantine District.
Shaya let out a long sigh as he looked at the azure light screen in his mind.
[Yui]
[Stage: Growing]
[Soul Pact Status: Fifth Soul Pact (Shaya Egut)]
[Combat Level: 53 (Fifth Order)]
[Racial Level: Low-tier Emperor (Sixth Order)]
[Familiar Skills: Source of Fire (Extraordinary to Saint), Metal Creation (Extraordinary to Saint), Giga Structure Armament (Perfect)]
[External Golem: Sky Patrol. Sword of Damocles (Resolution 90%), “Fantasy Collapse. Spirit Particle Fission” (Resolution 90%)]
Shaya and Aerora had stayed in Lokiia, the Arcane City, for a week.
On one hand, it was rare for Solun, the Saintess of Dawn, to leave the Holy Court for a few days, so the three of them had a brief tour of the city where they had lived together.
On the other hand, Shaya was also cooperating with Yui to familiarize herself with those two golems.
Those were Shaya’s biggest trump cards, prepared at great cost, and he couldn’t afford to be careless.
After seven days, the preparation phase was considered successfully completed.
As a newly joined familiar, Yui’s attributes were all maxed out by Shaya without regard for cost.
It had also nearly depleted Shaya’s last Sands of Time. If he hadn’t received some rewards from clearing important character favorability and reputation values when he first exited the Historical Echo, Shaya might not have had enough Sands of Time.
Yui’s treatment made the other three little ones in Shaya’s Soul Pact Space extremely envious, to the point of bubbling with sourness.
Damn it, can a daughter who recognizes her mother do whatever she wants?
Especially Crimson, who recalled that when she first joined the team, she also received the treatment of Shaya’s own daughter, with resources and attribute point opportunities being blindly dumped onto her, and she even had exclusive access to Shaya’s hug pillow.
But now, the boomerang that was thrown back then had finally landed on her. It was her turn to be old and yellow, watching the newcomer enjoy the fruits of her labor.
Speaking of which—
A large part of Yui’s current status was also due to her recognizing Solun as her mother.
So, could she also find an opportunity to recognize the Azure Silver Witch as her mother?
Sylvia wouldn’t really disown her own daughter, would she?
Crimson fell into deep contemplation, and the more she thought about it, the more feasible it seemed.
*Snap.*
The hotel suite’s door lock was opened, and the door swung open.
Aerora walked into the bedroom, carrying shopping bags of various sizes.
Ever since they moved to the manor in the Black Lily District, the two of them had slept in the same bed. It was no different in their hotel suite in Lokiia.
“You’re back?”
Shaya didn’t need to turn around; he recognized who it was just by the footsteps and spoke casually.
“Mm, I went shopping with Solun.”
“She’s returning to the Holy Court tonight, so we stayed out longer.”
Aerora walked to the side of the large bed and put down the shopping bag containing new clothes.
She wasn’t the type to dress up normally, but it seemed that under Solun’s influence, she had started to pay more attention to this aspect recently.
Shaya was naturally happy to see this, as he could unlock more ways to have fun.
Moreover, the little Ai who had become like this now had a bit more humanity, rather than the indifferent killing machine devoid of life from the military.
However, upon returning to the bedroom, Aerora did not perform her usual pre-sleep meditation cultivation.
She simply sat silently by the bed, quietly gazing at Shaya’s profile.
Could it be that she found out about Solun?
Aerora’s death stare made Shaya’s heart feel a little uneasy.
During these past few days, Solun had secretly met with him several times without informing Aerora.
Except for the final step, they had done everything else.
One could only say that this girl was truly skilled.
The girls beside Shaya were all unique in their own ways.
His relationship with Aerora was more like an old married couple, understanding each other’s hearts without words, with love and family affection coexisting.
Sylvia was more like a white moonlight seen after a long separation, carrying a touch of dreaminess.
As for Solun, she was the type of playful little lover.
Just as Shaya was about to raise the white flag and surrender under his wife’s death stare, Aerora suddenly spoke.
“Are you preparing to… go to that kind of place again?”
The girl’s clear and cold voice sounded in Shaya’s ears.
That kind of place… what kind of place? The kind of place where I fought with Solun?
This was Shaya’s first reaction, but he quickly realized… this time Aerora had called him by name, not starting with “Classmate Shaya.”
So, she was actually referring to the Historical Echo.
“Mm.”
Shaya nodded.
Aerora had learned about the Historical Echo the second time Shaya entered it, or rather, Shaya hadn’t intended to hide it from her.
Combined with the subsequent incident of her fainting in the washroom and Sylvia’s appearance, Aerora could already guess parts of the story.
Aerora had never been the type to probe into things.
With their tacit understanding, if Shaya didn’t say anything, Aerora wouldn’t ask.
It was just that, for some reason, Aerora had brought it up proactively this time.
The blonde girl gazed at Shaya’s profile with her ice-blue beautiful eyes, “Is it dangerous this time?”
“It’s alright, much safer than when I fainted last time.”
This was true. Although the enemy Shaya was about to face this time was far superior to the Ancient Azure Court, he had the Undying Body.
He wasn’t afraid of death, but he was afraid of not being able to die.
“Then this time, will you, like before… leave behind another love debt for yourself, like Miss Sylvia, the chairman of the White Tower?”
“Probably, not.”
Shaya recalled the information from Escarnia.
At least so far, a situation like the Azure Silver Witch’s hadn’t occurred.
Hearing Shaya’s answer, Aerora nodded with satisfaction.
With their understanding, she could naturally tell that Shaya wasn’t lying.
Aerora extended her plain white palm, and a miniature silver lance quietly appeared above it.
“Actually, about two weeks ago, when you entered that place again, I sensed some slight abnormal movement from Rungoniumad.”
“Its recovery progress seemed to have accelerated again… but at the time, I didn’t know the specifics, and could only fully immerse myself in meditation to digest the feedback from Rungoniumad’s unsealing.”
She tilted her head before speaking again.
Her clear and cold voice had become a bit more cheerful now.
“However, after I completely mastered Rungoniumad after its advancement.”
“I discovered that I seemed to have a way to control Rungoniumad to a certain extent in that anomalous space-time you’re going to.”
A hint of joy flashed in the blonde girl’s sky-blue beautiful eyes.
Aerora had felt great distress the first time she learned of the danger Shaya faced and realized she couldn’t help him.
And when she witnessed the black-haired youth she depended on lying unconscious in the washroom, that distress turned into panic.
A panic of being abandoned by the entire world.
She had sworn in that blizzard to become someone useful to Shaya.
She had always considered herself the sharpest sword beside Shaya.
But when Shaya was in danger in another world, she could only wait powerlessly at home.
That sense of powerlessness had been haunting Aerora’s heart every moment, almost becoming a terrible nightmare in her dreams.
Aerora had thought many times that if Shaya couldn’t return from the other world… what would she do then.
However, she had never revealed these thoughts, because Aerora knew that Shaya’s decisions were made after careful consideration.
Since that was the case, all she could do was unconditionally support Shaya’s decision… Weak tears and worries were meaningless; they would only distract Shaya and become a burden to him.
And Shaya was never the type of protagonist in a romantic drama who needed women to weep and cry for him.
So, during these days, Aerora had silently, without a word, shut herself in the meditation room, cultivating madly.
And as if resonating, the girl’s longing heart had finally received a response from the holy spear.
“Is that so?”
Hearing Aerora’s description, Shaya couldn’t help but be stunned.
However, he soon came back to his senses, lost in thought.
The holy spear held by Aerora, according to history, had indeed left a formidable reputation in the history of Escarnia before the Freista Empire was established.
“With the status of that holy spear, is it already qualified to interfere with space-time?”
“Indeed, in terms of mystery, that holy spear has even surpassed the eighth order, the limit of the Throne level.”
Shaya fell into contemplation.
During their intimate encounter in the Spirit World last time, Sylvia had not only been passionate with him but had also shared much of her knowledge and secrets of mysticism with him.
Originally, his own rank was insufficient, and the legendary and extraordinary realms above the legendary had always been shrouded in a layer of fog, with only hearsay and partial understanding.
But with a Throne-level Beast Tamer resolving his doubts without reservation, many mysteries were no longer mysteries.
For example… Sylvia had told him.
There were two necessary conditions to become a Legend—
First, to elevate one’s mental power into a complete Spiritual Ocean.
And the other condition… was to “feel the flow of time,” or rather, to concretely perceive the existence of the river of time.
And to cross from the seventh to the eighth ring, from Legend to Throne… there was one ultimate threshold—
To leave one’s own imprint in the river of time, in history.
Sylvia’s own accumulation had long reached the limit of a Legend, but breaking through to the Throne level only occurred after she had slept for more than three hundred years.
Because only then had her feat of “Creator of the White Tower” become ancient enough to be sublimated into a historical imprint, leaving her footprint in the river of time.
Or in other words—
Every Throne user was essentially a living history, having truly touched the realm of the laws of time.
Of course, according to Sylvia, her own imprint in the river of time was only five hundred years old, so her control over the laws of time was still clumsy. Most of the time, she could only watch, not touch.
But by analogy…
Could the so-called True Gods above the eighth ring and demigods possess the ability to backtrack into the past and see into the future?
“To leave one’s imprint in history… meaning, every power user who achieves the Throne has lived for who knows how many years?”
Shaya quickly suppressed this irreverent guess, as he felt that if he said this, he would offend countless old timers.
“But if you really think about it… I’ve also left an imprint in history, having the title ‘The Forgotten Man’.”
“This means that when I break through to the Throne in the future, there shouldn’t be any bottleneck.”
“And if Little Ai can control the holy spear and leave a trace in the Historical Echo, wouldn’t that also be writing a piece of history?”
Shaya felt a flicker of excitement.
Raising Little Ai to the Throne level with his own hands?
It felt like playing a dating simulation game.
He shook his head, temporarily casting these stray thoughts aside.
Shaya pondered for a moment, then looked back at the blonde girl before him.
“Shall we… try it?”
Coincidentally, after staying in Lokiia for seven days, Shaya was ready.
He had originally planned to wait until Solun left before entering the Historical Echo again in the Imperial Capital.
But there was no better day than the present, so it was fine now.
“Oh.”
The blonde girl nodded.
She didn’t care about historical imprints or Throne potential… Aerora’s only fear was being no longer needed by Shaya.
And now that she could finally help Shaya, that was enough.
With a slight movement of Shaya’s thought, he once again activated the Historical Echo.
However, unlike in the past when he locked himself in the washroom upon entering, this time, Shaya was lying on the bed, entering with the beautiful girl’s lap as his pillow.
This was the benefit of raising a wife since childhood.
As Shaya’s consciousness entered the Historical Echo.
Everything around him in the real world, be it the flowing night or the flickering candlelight, froze.
Only the soft double bed in the center of the hotel suite was an exception.
A faint mystery surged around the holy spear, keeping the flow of time on the bed at its normal pace.
“Go, Rungoniumad.”
“In that space-time, Shaya is your master, and his command is my command.”
“Even if you shatter yourself, protect him well.”
Aerora looked at the tiny holy spear and said softly.
The next moment, the pure silver lance erupted with brilliant, dazzling light.
Time surged, and this ancient holy relic broke through the river of time and went upstream, soon disappearing from the present world.
The blonde girl watched it all in silence.
After a long while, she brushed aside a few strands of light gold hair that had fallen onto her forehead and looked down at the black-haired youth beneath her, who seemed to have fallen asleep.
A blush crept onto Aerora’s plain white, cute face. She looked at Shaya’s sleeping face for a long time, then suddenly leaned down and imprinted a kiss on his lips.
“You must come back.”
The girl’s self-mutter was very light, almost drowned out by the howling night wind, yet it carried an indescribable decisiveness.
“If you don’t come back…”
“You understand what I will do.”
Escarnia.
Shaya stood on the city wall, sensing the filthy aura of abyss creatures blowing from the wilderness. His black robes with red clouds fluttered in the wind.
“Then, let’s begin.”
“The ‘Black Knight Cain’s’—”
“Final Dance.”
