After a brief pause, Ye Bai instinctively asked, "The king you ntioned is...?"
"The King of Kings, the God of Gods... Isn't the other half of the key you carry here because of Him?" Eno Lucia blinked, smiling softly.
Though she seed to have mistaken Ye Bai for soone else earlier, his arrival with the key still brought her great joy. She continued,
"I have been waiting for you for a long ti. Though I have no mories of the 'future,' I still know that when the two keys rge as one, they can open..."
"Excuse , did you just ntion a place?"
The scene before Ye Bai forced him to rudely interrupt the Elven Queen, because when she clearly referred to a certain location, the sa holographic 'pixelation' he had seen from the mouth of the Infernal Demon God reappeared.
From Ye Bai's perspective, when Eno Lucia ntioned that place, her voice suddenly vanished, and her lips moved indistinctly. Even face-to-face, Ye Bai couldn’t discern what she had just said.
"Oh, I forgot you cannot perceive such information..." Ye Bai's question made Eno Lucia realize sothing. She replied, "Yes, I just ntioned a place—it belongs to the King."
Hearing this, Ye Bai couldn’t help but recall the na of his quest: "The Divine King’s Treasure Vault?"
"Treasure Vault?" Eno Lucia looked slightly taken aback before nodding slowly. "That’s not an entirely inaccurate way to put it."
Ye Bai then rembered another question he had overlooked and quickly pressed further: "What did you an when you said I cannot know that information?"
From the hints in the Elven Queen’s words, it seed she was aware that certain information would appear 'pixelated' in Ye Bai’s presence.
Eno Lucia’s next reply caught Ye Bai completely off guard. She said, "Perhaps it is because the King... suffered Oblivion."
Ye Bai froze once again.
The Lower Queen had once ntioned that the Divine King described the Great Oblivion as the 'balance' of this world being disrupted. If each race did not restrain itself, all living beings would gradually face an unknowable end at an unknowable ti.
Now, Eno Lucia—who seed to hold the most crucial information—suggested that the Divine King might have once endured 'Oblivion.'
Ye Bai imdiately voiced the new question forming in his mind: "What is Oblivion? How is it connected to the Great Oblivion?"
Eno Lucia sighed. "The King suffering Oblivion is rely my speculation. The King warned us of the impending Great Oblivion and said He would seek a solution. Then, one night soon after, the King vanished. At the sa ti, mories and records of Him in this world began to fade."
"Fade?"
Eno Lucia nodded. "Ordinary people’s mories of the King were gradually forgotten. At first, so still rembered His na, but soon, many could no longer recall who He was. Later, they only vaguely knew of the Divine King’s existence, until eventually, they forgot entirely that such a being had ever sat upon the Divine Throne..."
"Compared to ordinary folk, the stronger one was, the more mories they retained. Deities preserved the most, but even their mories dwindled over ti, starting from the smallest details. By the ti you looked back, you’d realize you had forgotten most of it."
"And these mories cannot be shared—they cannot be known by those who were unaware of Him. Just like earlier, I couldn’t tell you the na of that place: '...' Any records related to Him also cannot endure. Now, perhaps only deities retain so mory of the King, yet they cannot describe Him to those beneath them. They can only refer to Him in vague terms."
As she spoke, Eno Lucia’s expression turned sorrowful. "Even I have forgotten the King’s na. His face is no longer clear to ... I only vaguely rember His presence. That’s why, when I sensed the aura of the other half of the key on you, I mistook you for Him."
Hearing this, Ye Bai couldn’t help but think of the naless, mory-less, bodiless paper man. Could his current state not be due to so curse, but rather the 'Oblivion' the Elven Queen spoke of?
And...
Ye Bai asked, "Then the Great Oblivion is...?"
Eno Lucia nodded. "If what the King suffered was Oblivion, then the Great Oblivion is a silent catastrophe that will sweep across the entire continent. When it befalls the common races, our world will lose countless lives without a sound. Worse still, those who suffer the Great Oblivion... their kin and friends may forget they ever existed."
This was truly complete and utter erasure...
Ye Bai suddenly understood. So this was the Great Oblivion—no wonder, apart from the chaotic Infernal Realm, all races were withdrawing, searching for a solution.
"You said the Divine King vanished shortly after warning of the Great Oblivion?"
Eno Lucia nodded. "Yes. Though baseless conspiracy theories spread among humans at the ti, only Walsh—that fool whose head is filled with magma—believed them."
Walsh must be the true na of the Infernal Demon God who was first used as a battery by the Serpent Demon and then by the Kraken...
Ye Bai thought for a mont before asking, "If I go to the place you ntioned, can I bring the Divine King back?"
Eno Lucia corrected him, "No. The King has only suffered Oblivion—He has not disappeared. I still rember Him. Even if I were to split apart again, I would hold onto these mories."
Her words suggested that mories could serve as so kind of... anchor?
Ye Bai paused before rephrasing his question. "What I ant was, can He return?"
"Of course. The King will surely return and put an end to the Great Oblivion." Eno Lucia answered with absolute certainty.
If loyalty could be asured, Ye Bai was certain the Queen’s devotion to the Divine King would be a perfect 100.
At the sa ti, many of the mysteries that had puzzled Ye Bai before began to make sense. He ntally sorted through the tiline of events—
The earliest mories belonged to the Upper Queen before him. It all began with the Divine King discovering the Great Oblivion and then vanishing, likely the first victim of this calamity. Next was the Middle Queen’s account—the Voidkin, who pursued knowledge, underwent a transformation that indirectly led to ambitious factions in two human kingdoms waging civil war, ultimately opening the Gates of the Infernal Realm.
Due to the disappearance of the God King, the unbound Infernal Demon God, either incited by a certain human faction or driven by its own rebellious nature, invaded the Erald Forest. After a fierce battle, both sides suffered heavy losses.
After the war, the long-lost God King reappeared, first aiding the Elven Queen in sustaining the Erald Dream, then shifting the depths of the ocean to suppress the Infernal's future resurgence.
Given that the Elven Queen had believed the God King to have been annihilated, his ability to accomplish these feats suggested he still retained considerable power—enough to orchestrate a series of concluding arrangents. But where did the God King go after all this?
Ye Bai felt that many of her questions had finally found answers here, yet so crucial details remained shrouded in mist. After all, any information directly tied to the God King appeared to her as if obscured by a veil.
"Oh, I forgot to attend to our guests..."
At that mont, Eno Lucia glanced at Autofis beside Ye Bai, as if suddenly rembering sothing. With a wave of her hand, she opened a spatial passage leading to the location of the World Tree's fruit.
It seed she was preparing to offer Ye Bai another taste of the sacred fruit.
However, upon seeing the bare branches inside, the Elven Queen froze in shock.
"How... how are there only two left?"
Ye Bai imdiately snapped out of her thoughts, stiffening as she held her breath, not daring to make a sound.
"Ah-uh!" Autofis, on the other hand, let out an excited noise. Clearly lacking any sense of sha, it seed to have already caught the fragrance of the World Tree's fruit and eagerly gestured toward Eno Lucia.
The forgetful Elven Queen ultimately couldn't recall when the stock had dwindled so low. Shaking her head, she smiled and said, "At least there are still two left."
Ye Bai stared at the green fruit floating before her. Well, since these were the last two...
"Crunch, crunch..."
Ye Bai and Autofis synchronized perfectly as they devoured the final remnants of the World Tree's fruit, a treasure nurtured in the Erald Dream for who knew how many years.
"Thank you so much!"
As Ye Bai and Autofis finished eating, Eno Lucia smiled warmly, about to say "you're welco," when her expression suddenly shifted.
"Danger approaches. You must leave the Dream imdiately."
......
Not long before, in Saint Loriburg.
The towering fortress lowered its drawbridge as a column of stern, battle-hardened elite troops rode in on mutated draft horses.
Passing through the heavily guarded gates, the highest-ranking officer among them—Codos, the High Executor of Saint Loriburg—dismounted from his armored steed.
His armor was dust-covered, save for the insignia representing the lineage of Light, which glead brightly from constant polishing.
"My lord..."
Every soldier along the way bowed deeply, while the slaves working in the fortress prostrated themselves in fear. Only after Codos strode past, disappearing into the fortress's depths, did the slaves scramble back to their feet under the kicks of the guards.
Codos crossed the grand hall, descending through hidden passages where the guards stationed at key points grew increasingly formidable and enigmatic.
The underground labyrinth beneath the fortress revealed a world far vaster than its imposing surface—rely the tip of the iceberg.
Finally, Codos traversed one last deserted corridor, arriving at the deepest chamber beneath Saint Loriburg.
Before the High Executor stood a vast, chilling mausoleum.
The interior was shrouded in gloom, reeking of decay, illuminated only by the dim glow of night pearls outlining an ornate sarcophagus at its center. The entire tomb resembled the gaping maw of an abyss, with the sarcophagus as its devouring tongue.
Even Codos, with his stern and unyielding deanor, couldn't suppress a flicker of unease at the sight.
At that mont, the night pearls brightened, casting light on more of the tomb's interior. Beyond the central sarcophagus lay nurous other coffins and powerful artifacts buried as offerings.
Swallowing hard, Codos stepped forward and knelt before the central sarcophagus.
"Ancestor."
From within the lidless sarcophagus, a withered, skeletal hand erged, tracing a teleportation spell in the air.
"I sense it... unmistakably, the power of the Deathly Relic. Confirm its location and prepare for my descent."
"As you command!"
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