Chapter 365: 140. Moon Princess
“Oh my god, is this the legendary Frost Parasol Tree? It turns out this is not a tree at all, but a complex built by phoenixes in the pure ice. How deep must it be? It must be several thousand meters deep, right?”
As the magnificent sight suddenly appeared before him, Emhart quickly leaped from Fisher’s embrace, shimmering with golden light, as if recording the entire view of the Frost Parasol Tree, while shaking his head in amazement. Even for someone who had traveled the world, it was the first time he had ever seen such a spectacular creation.
Fisher and Valentina were both stunned by the grand architecture sealed within the pure ice mountains. This was also the first time Fisher had seen a complete complex built by ancient subhuman races; who knew they would encounter such a massive surprise right away?
The towering structure of the Feimabaha Dragon Court in the Southern Continent was left with only scattered Dragon Tribes and crumbling ruins in reality. The Golden Palaces of the Whale Folk remained unseen in the Deep Sea, let alone the so-called “Demon Dynasty,” which was buried in the abyss and known only by name. This was the first existing monument that symbolized their past glory, witnessed by Fisher himself.
“Are there still phoenixes inside?”
Valentina stared with her mouth agape for a long time before finally asking this question.
“I don’t know, but we will find out once we go in. Valentina, get down first, I have something for you.”
“Huh? What is it?”
Fisher shook his head, snapping back to reality from the astonishing sight before him. He immediately set Valentina down and took out a ring that shimmered with the light of a “soul” ring. He placed it on her ring finger, which fit perfectly, encasing her fair and soft skin.
“This is a magic designed to block curses. It should keep you hidden once we go in, but I want to test it.”
“Magical? I thought… well, I’m still very happy, thank you, Fisher.”
Valentina’s previous ring had been taken by a group of Nali agents, and she had not received another one until the sacred wedding. Though she was considerate enough not to say it out loud, in this moment, when Fisher placed a ring back on her finger, she couldn’t help but smile, looking very pleased.
Seeing her simple yet satisfied smile, Fisher couldn’t help but smile back as well. He said, “Later, if there’s a chance, I will give you a real wedding ring, Valentina.”
“Okay, but that ring must also have your magic inscribed on it. I’m so used to having your magic rune on it.”
“Of course.”
Emhart rolled his eyes, his good mood after documenting the true form of the Parasol Tree vanished without a trace. The feeling of not belonging to this place grew stronger, making him reluctant to look back at the scenery behind him.
Fisher smiled as he activated the protective magic on the ring. An invisible soul shield spread from the ring, simply isolating the connection between the spirit realm inside and outside the protective barrier.
He took out the Fluid Sword again and transformed the blade’s tip into a fine silver needle, stabbing it into her index finger.
As a drop of blood oozed from her fingertip, Fisher and Valentina cautiously surveyed their surroundings, but it remained quiet. Even after several minutes, nothing happened. Fisher finally sighed in relief, sheathing the Fluid Sword and saying, “That’s good, let’s move out.”
In the next moment, he gently lifted Valentina’s bleeding index finger to his mouth, delicately savoring the soft finger wrapped in the taste of her blood. Valentina blushed, feeling quite embarrassed. She lightly patted his head, but she didn’t pull her hand away, whispering, “Fisher, don’t do that.”
Emhart could no longer hold back and turned around, giving Valentina a sideways glance, repeating in a mockingly high-pitched voice, “Fisher~ don’t do that~!”
This sentence angered Valentina, who was once again on Fisher’s back, as she glared at her bookish friend, but Fisher remained serious, merely explaining, “It’s just to stop the bleeding; let’s go.”
“It’s just to—ow!”
Emhart tried to mimic Fisher’s tone again but was abruptly stopped when Fisher’s iron grip caught him and stuffed him back into his own pocket.
He swayed slightly inside Fisher’s pocket, then extended one of his eyes out to look at the path ahead, muttering the mockingly familiar phrases in his heart.
Fisher carried Valentina along the tangible pure ice mountains toward the shadow of the building, where numerous statues of varying forms were neatly arranged facing his direction.
These statues, made of different materials and sculpted in various styles, seemed to be shaped by the different races of the Northern Region, all maintaining the same posture of kneeling on one knee and gazing forward toward the Parasol Tree, forming a path that archingly led toward the structure.
Fisher squinted at the statues, many of which featured races he had seen, some he had not, and others that had long since perished or left the Northern Region.
Unicorns, cold deer, dwarves, sheepkin, ice owls, ice kites, fog cats, and dozens of other subhuman races, both male and female, were all present.
Following the statues, Fisher suddenly spotted a male statue wearing fur clothing that also knelt and looked toward the pure ice mountains.
That was the statue representing humans, currently appearing here without any sense of incongruity.
In that moment, the weight of history prompted Fisher to turn his gaze forward, where at the end of the path stood a colossal black door over twenty meters high, connecting the shadow of the pure ice construction to the outer space, evidently serving as the entrance to the Parasol Tree.
At the top of that door, an exquisite, dramatically different pair of large winged statues extended outward, resembling a phoenix spreading its vast wings toward the sky.
Following the radiance of the aurora and moonlight, the shadows formed by the wings spread out, sheltering Fisher, Valentina, the surrounding races, and the six statues in the back, just as the phoenixes had done in the past.
“Click, click, click!”
As they approached the giant door, a mechanical sound that Fisher had never heard before suddenly rang out, and with a slight tremor in the ground, the massive black door slowly opened a crack toward Fisher, revealing an incredibly dark and deep space within.
Fisher took a deep breath and stepped forward without pausing, crossing past the giant winged statues and entering the dim structure before him.
However, at the same time, that giant door could no longer be closed.
“It’s so dark in here, Fisher.”
As they passed through the gigantic door, the interior space of the Parasol Tree was extremely dark and quiet. The phoenixes tended to construct buildings using this pure black mineral that Fisher was unfamiliar with, which resulted in a space that was already lacking light becoming utterly pitch black. Forget Valentina, even Fisher, whose vision had been significantly enhanced, could not see the environment.
Fortunately, he had prepared some magic with lighting functions while he was with the trolls. He took out two necklaces, tied one around his hand and the other around Emhart’s body. Then, when Emhart flew up, they could roughly see their surroundings.
As the two spells illuminated, the scenery around them immediately came into focus. It seemed to be an extremely spacious hall, about the size of a football field, with a height comparable to that of the door, roughly twenty meters high.
Standing at the entrance, Fisher and Valentina immediately felt that sense of emptiness mixed with the light breeze coming from deep within the Parasol Tree.
At that very moment, the originally black markings on Valentina’s neck, which had been carried on Fisher’s back, flickered with a faint azure light. However, that light was quite dim and was blocked as soon as Fisher’s illumination magic activated, leaving even Valentina oblivious.
The expansive hall was incredibly vacant. Fisher walked a short distance ahead, scrutinizing only to find nothing but darkness.
“It’s really dark here, and the inside of the Parasol Tree is too vast. Where should we go?”
Fisher quickly reached the end of the hall, where many tightly closed doors appeared, with no writing on them. The main door standing in the center was also tightly shut, and despite Fisher’s efforts, it wouldn’t budge.
“Wow, you are one strong little fellow! What do you eat to grow like this?”
Just as Fisher was testing to see if he could open the main door, Valentina, who was on his back, suddenly reached out and rubbed Fisher’s chest muscles, saying with a smile.
Fisher stared in disbelief before turning to Emhart, “Valentina?”
“Hey, you two have had enough! What are you doing playing around at a time like this? The great Emhart is going to distance himself from you!!”
Yet Valentina, still on Fisher’s back, was equally shocked. Her face was flushed as she waved her hands in a hurry to explain, “N-No, I don’t know why I spoke just now. Fisher, something’s off… Um, are you looking for me?”
Even as Valentina’s frantic explanation was abruptly cut off, the next moment, with her utterly perplexed gaze, her mouth inexplicably opened again to speak.
Fisher frowned, and Emhart, incredulous, flew to Fisher’s shoulder and speculated, “Oh no, Fisher, don’t tell me she’s possessed by the soul of a dead phoenix?”
“Fisher, I can’t control it!”
Fisher quickly set Valentina down and warily scanned their surroundings, but just then, Valentina spoke again, “Um, don’t panic… Actually, what this ugly thing said is indeed correct, I really am a soul, and I’ve been waiting for you for a long time.”
“How dare you call me an ugly thing! I’m going to take you down!”
Emhart, already pushed to his limits by Valentina today, was now further agitated by this unknown soul mocking him through Valentina’s appearance. He couldn’t take it anymore; his frustration reached its peak, and he was just about to charge at Valentina!
But just as he was about to collide with her, the somewhat flustered girl smiled faintly. Then, her voice, echoing Valentina’s tone but carrying a completely different feeling, reached their ears.
“Let me introduce myself, I am Hebakfis, but of course, you can also call me what other races typically call me, just call me the ‘Moon Princess.'”
Emhart, mid-charge toward Valentina, veered unexpectedly and flew back onto Fisher’s shoulder, shocked as he looked at the Moon Princess speaking through Valentina on the ground.
“You’re the Moon Princess? You’re not dead… Oh, wait, you just said you’re a soul, so you are dead?”
“Moon Princess, how can you be in my body, using my body to speak?”
Facing Valentina’s voice filled with despair, the Moon Princess smiled slightly, saying, “Sorry, I know this must feel strange. Sometimes, I might take over your speech, but I won’t stay inside you for long. I’ve been dead for a long time; I can only temporarily revive through the bloodline of my descendants due to a certain holy object. We need to hurry; this one…”
“Fisher.”
As the Moon Princess looked at her, Fisher interrupted his vigilant observation of Valentina’s state.
“Fisher, good. Since you are here, it shows that the trolls followed the orders I left before I died. The situation is roughly in line with what I saw in the future. Now, Fisher, carry me; the main door and many doors behind it are locked and sealed when the Parasol Tree closed, so let me lead the way.”
Though the Moon Princess said this, Fisher remained motionless, still warily watching the Moon Princess hidden within Valentina.
“Where are you taking us?”
“Don’t worry, I won’t harm you. The strategy I left behind before my death is complex, and there is definitely a reason for you to come to the Parasol Tree. Now is the time to achieve that goal. Let’s go. I’ll explain as we walk; after all, the journey to the destination is quite long. The Parasol Tree is huge. And also, I sense a powerful presence approaching this way.”
Initially, Fisher didn’t intend to move, but when the Moon Princess said that, his expression changed immediately as he picked Valentina up from the ground and placed her on his back.
“Which way should we go?”
“Hehe, just go through that door.”
The Moon Princess pointed to a small door in the distance. Fisher exchanged glances with Emhart, who floated in mid-air, and then dashed toward it. When Fisher pushed the door, he found that it could indeed be opened. He swung it open, revealing a small corridor that led to an unknown destination.
“This isn’t our living area. The entrance to the Parasol Tree you entered is designated for non-phoenixes, later constructed by my second brother with rooms designed to accommodate other races. Let’s go forward; where we need to go is really deep.”
Fisher glanced back at Valentina, who looked on the verge of tears, making it evident that she wasn’t enjoying the sensation of having her voice taken away, but he again looked back at the enormous door hundreds of meters away. Erwind was coming soon, so he hesitated no longer and rushed down the dark corridor with Valentina on his back.
“What exactly do you want us to enter the Parasol Tree for? And can you stop touching my chest muscles?”
“What’s wrong with a little touch? You should have followed my orders for the sacred wedding, right? I’m also using her body, you shy?”
Fisher was rendered speechless by the Moon Princess using Valentina’s body. He took a deep breath but ultimately didn’t push her hand away, continuously navigating through one shadowy and deep corridor after another under the Moon Princess’s guidance, where everywhere was filled with darkness and silence, as if this place had only them.
“Alright, stop looking; there are no phoenixes or anyone else here. All the remaining phoenixes except for the bloodline on your back are dead. Don’t you want to know why we all perished?”
While running, Fisher didn’t look back but said, “Yeah, what exactly happened back then? Why is there a curse in the Parasol Tree?”
However, the Moon Princess didn’t answer his question immediately. The way she touched Fisher’s chest muscles grew more forceful until now, she seemed to finally have touched enough and withdrew her hand. Fisher thought she was just being inappropriate, but the Moon Princess appeared to have realized something, looking surprised as she spoke.
“Ah, at first, I thought it was an illusion from being dead too long, but now I realize that you seem to have the scent of an old friend of mine.”
“Old friend? You mean your teacher? That elf?”
In response to Fisher’s curiosity, the Moon Princess shook her head and said, “Oh, you even know about my teacher? From the trolls? Nah, I’m not talking about my teacher, but rather an interesting human.”
The Moon Princess seemed to recall someone, smiling mystically as she spoke of that person. After a nostalgic smile passed, she continued, “That old friend of mine was a human with a special interest in subhuman races. You seem quite serious; you’re probably not like that guy, or it’s just my illusion. No worries, no worries.”
Fisher’s pupils constricted slightly, and the steady pace of his running came to an abrupt halt. The level of shock caused Valentina, who was on his back, to sway slightly too, halting their movement in the center of the dark corridor.
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(End of Chapter)
