Chapter 191: I, On Her Behalf (Two-in-one)
Within the Fragmented World of the World Tree.
Faint radiance sprinkled into the solitary Hall.
A cold chill rippled through the air.
Facing Shaya’s gaze, laden with sadness, longing, and a touch of reluctance, a sense of foreboding surged within Heiser in an instant.
However, she soon forcefully quieted her Spiritual Ocean.
Having experienced the upheaval in the Council Hall earlier, she was no longer the Heiser of the past.
Indeed, as the most ancient Elder of the Council Hall, and the only pure-blooded Golden Elf on the Lost Island, she possessed an exceptionally strong spirit.
Otherwise, Heiser would not have been able to advance her research into the Astral Realm to such a degree, alone, through centuries of darkness, with all her ancestors and supporters gone, her kin gradually forgetting history and turning against her.
Yet… because of the expectations her ancestors had placed upon her, and the heavy weight of the Elf Race’s future…
And because the newly appointed Elders of the Council Hall bore a resemblance to the ancestors in her memory, and flowed with the same bloodline, she still held a sliver of hope for the Elf Royal Court.
She believed that whether it was the Royal Court or herself, despite their differences and conflicts, they were ultimately acting for the future of the Elf Race and the Lost Island.
If it was to allow the Elf Royal Court to better survive and develop, then regardless of the method or its correctness, Heiser was willing to try and understand.
Even if she became the symbol of the old and rotten, enduring the public condemnation from the Royal Court’s inhabitants and being placed at the center of conflict…
Like the witch hunts Shaya had described, becoming a sacrifice to public opinion and the old era, she would not have cared.
But everything that had transpired in the Council Hall meeting earlier had completely shattered the last trace of naive illusion in Heiser’s heart.
It was not an attempt to find another path for the Elf Royal Court.
It was simply, pure betrayal.
Transforming from upright beings back into a domesticated, ornamental race.
This was something Heiser could not tolerate.
Even less could she tolerate their involvement of Shaya.
Unknowingly, in Heiser’s heart, the human youth named Shaya had come to hold as much significance as the entire Elf Royal Court.
She took a deep breath.
Deeply burying all her fear, unease, and faint cowardice within her heart.
Then, she raised her head.
Heiser knew clearly what she had to face next.
The slumbering Sun God… the Creator of the Glorious Era.
However, as the outside world could speculate, even if the great being slumbering within the World Tree Fragment was indeed the Creator from that time.
After that Great Calamity, His state would surely be diminished, perhaps by ninety-nine percent.
She might still be able to do something.
A soft chant flowed gracefully from the Golden Elf’s lips.
Transforming into melodious syllables, it stirred crimson gold magic, which emerged in the void.
Back then, it was Shaya who pulled her out of that dark mire.
He taught her Arcana, taught her magic, bringing light to the Lost Island, and also to her.
And now, Shaya had fallen into the darkness of the Lost Island.
Then, it was her turn to save him.
With this thought, Heiser’s pleasant chanting quickened.
Each syllable pulled with it magic, constructing arcane models of immense radiance.
It was the incantation for “Directed Dimensional Leap.”
She knew very well what she was facing. Even in his weakened state, he was the Creator of the Glorious Era, an absolute high-tier being.
Therefore, Heiser had never intended to kill him directly from the start.
Instead, she planned to take Shaya with her, leap out of the Lost Island, and escape into the Astral Realm.
Judging by his slumbering state, he clearly lacked the ability to pursue them across the Lost Island into the Astral Realm.
Once there, she and Shaya would be completely safe.
…
However, the next moment.
Upon the black iron Throne.
The illusory figure made no movement, maintaining its slumbering posture.
But then, from the faint shadow beside the black iron Throne—
An illusory eye slowly opened, revealing an ancient hue like that of bronze.
The instant she was gazed upon by that bronze, illusory eye, Heiser sensed her entire blood boiling.
Imprints of blood-red runes seeped out from her blood.
They permeated through her veins, soaking into every inch of the Golden Elf’s skin, every inch of her flesh.
Transforming into patterns of black and red, exuding a strange aura, they covered her skin entirely.
Following this came an excruciating pain that pierced to the bone, as if seeping into the marrow of her bones.
It was a curse that erupted from the Elven blood flowing within Heiser, directly invading her mind and flesh.
The “Directed Dimensional Leap,” which was only one step away from completion, was interrupted in an instant.
The arcane model collapsed just before it was completed, and the mental backlash caused blood to spill from her lips, her entire soul sea becoming unclear.
“The Lost Island… is my world.”
“Beneath that curtain of eternal night, it is filled with my severed fragments of disordered, insane, and chaotic divinity and rules.”
“Let alone ordinary legends—”
“Even ordinary demigods entering here, under the influence of that insane divinity and authority, would lose control in a very short time if they did not leave immediately.”
A voice, like the ringing of an ancient bronze bell, echoed through the Hall.
“Rather, for someone like you to enter the Lost Island, yet only have your strength and mental power suppressed, and to retain your complete self-will for an extended period without falling into madness, is the true exception.”
“Even ordinary True Gods could not achieve what you have.”
From the faint shadow, the bronze, illusory eye locked onto the slender figure of the human youth beside her.
Although Heiser had just arrived on the scene, and was the one confronting him, this illusory eye representing the will of the old Sun God seemed to pay no attention to the Golden Elf before him.
From beginning to end, its focus was solely on Shaya.
“But, despite being filled with such chaotic and disordered divinity, the Elf Race is not restricted on the Lost Island…”
Shaya let out a wry smile.
“That’s right.”
The illusory bronze eye closed slightly, then reopened.
“Long ago, when I chose the Elves as the third royal race, and also as spare containers, I spent centuries modifying the entire Elf bloodline and leaving behind contingency plans.”
“And as the race I created, my chess pieces… since their blood was tainted with my divinity, those scattered disordered divinities on the Lost Island naturally would not affect them.”
“It doesn’t matter whether they lived in the Royal Court, were born when and where, or are even currently on the Lost Island…”
“As long as Elven blood flows within them, even if it has been diluted to an extremely faint trace…”
“I can, by relying on those contingency plans within their bloodline, arbitrarily control their life and death.”
“This is the honor of a container, and also my blessing.”
The voice, like bronze, was not loud, illusory and ethereal.
But to Heiser’s ears.
It plunged her mind, which was already scattered from the backlash, into a frigid state once more.
Compared to the chill within the Golden Elf’s heart at this moment, the curse that eroded her body and corroded her flesh felt less painful.
“So.”
“We are simply containers…”
Crimson blood overflowed from her lips, carrying specks of dissipating crimson gold radiance.
Although the words were indifferent, they revealed a chilling truth.
Far more brutal than Heiser had ever imagined.
She had once thought that the past Elf Royal Court, and the High Elves residing within it, were merely pets kept in ornamental cages by the Sun God.
It was only when the Great Calamity befell them, and that former Creator fell, that the Elf Race regained its freedom and truly became an independent intelligent race.
But now, looking back, she had thought too simply.
That cage had never disappeared.
It had merely transformed from a clearly visible “large cage” with iron bars and railings into a transparent “small cage.”
And they were not pets.
But… as Shaya had described, mere experimental mice sorted into control and experimental groups for alchemical injections.
No wonder the master of the World Tree Fragment had never been alerted, no matter what research her ancestors or she herself had conducted right under his nose.
No wonder, even though she had overturned the entire Council Hall not long ago, causing such a commotion, the will of the old Sun God on the black iron Throne had never even glanced at her directly.
Why would the owner of a laboratory care about the disruptions of a mouse in a breeding cage?
Even if that mouse was powerful and killed other mice, becoming the strongest among them.
Imagine a turkey, raised on a farm, becoming a scientist. It observed that every day at 5 PM, the turkeys were fed at a fixed time, so the turkey scientist concluded, “Delicious food descends from the sky every day at 5 PM.”
For three hundred and sixty-five days a year, this conclusion was verified, so the turkeys believed it to be an eternal theorem.
But on Thanksgiving Day, the farmer who arrived was holding not a feed bucket laden with food, but a gleaming, sharp cleaver.
The entire Elf Race was a race created by that old Sun God.
As long as Elven blood flowed within her, no matter how far Heiser fled, the old Sun God only needed a minuscule thought to activate his authority and condemn her to a gruesome death.
“How pathetic…”
Crimson tears of blood dripped from the Golden Elf’s long eyelashes.
“It turns out… Elves have never truly lived.”
Just a few hours ago, Heiser’s heart was filled with joy.
Illuminating the sea of stars, she thought she, and the entire Elf Royal Court, had found their path forward.
But now, it seemed like a laughable delusion.
Like flowers in water, or the moon in a mirror.
Beautiful, yet shattered at a touch.
With a roar—
The burning sensation in her blood intensified, and Heiser’s originally fair and smooth skin was now branded with intertwined crimson and black imprints, carrying a solemn curse.
Originally, as the sole surviving pure-blooded Elf on the Lost Island, and a candidate container for the old Sun God, she still held considerable value.
But, it was clear that after Shaya’s appearance, the old Sun God had completely lost patience with this candidate container.
Feeling the approaching death, surging forth from her blood.
A flicker of determination flashed in Heiser’s eyes.
Then, in an instant.
She gathered the last remnants of her will from her dissipating Spiritual Sea.
The radiance of crimson gold magic flared, momentarily suppressing the curse woven from crimson and black.
Since, no matter what, I cannot survive…
Then, at least before I die…
I can use my own life, self-detonating with all my mental and life force, to dispel the surrounding divine suppression.
To give Shaya… a sliver of a chance to escape.
Even if my magic is weak…
Such a close-range explosion should still cause considerable damage to these divinities.
She slowly closed her eyes.
As if ignited.
Heiser’s entire body’s magic began to boil, like burning firewood.
However, the next moment.
She heard that familiar voice once more.
“Enough.”
Shaya looked up, addressing the illusory figure on the black iron Throne.
“As a human, my bloodline has not been modified by you like the Elves, nor have you left any contingency plans within me.”
“If I resist stubbornly, due to compatibility issues, even with your status, perfectly replacing my soul and occupying my body would not be an easy task, would it?”
“And you have told me so much, explained so much.”
“Nothing more than wanting to break my will, and have me willingly merge with you.”
“And now, you have won.”
He turned his head slightly, casting a glance at the Golden Elf maiden behind him.
His eyes held reluctance, and a hint of relief.
The next moment, clear words resonated in Heiser’s ears.
“I, on her behalf…”
“Will be your container.”
