Chapter 1185 Sparrow Blossom's Pendant <TOC> Chapter 1187 Situation
Previous page password is bold portion: DuDr63hlc+?t6p?7
Translator: SumTLMan
Emerging from the dark rifts of the void, a leisurely figure strolled across the emptiness of space.
The newcomer emanated a soft glow that stemmed from deep within her porcelain-white skin.
With the aid of the gentle radiance, her features were discernible — identical to Olucia, the Flameless Lord who accompanied Giallar to La Sutherland.
The Flameless Lord wandered through the void for a while, then abruptly paused.
“Spatial collapse?” The Flameless Lord’s gaze held a flicker of surprise. She stood stationary, contemplating momentarily, before reaching out a finger to open a new spatial passage.
After the detour, it didn’t take long for the Flameless Lord to halt once more in the fresh void rift.
A colossal creature, mountain-like in scale and of void descent, had suddenly obstructed his path.
“Garotarosius.” The Flameless Lord murmured the creature’s name under her breath — a formidable entity that was a match for a Demon Lord.
Garotarosius was still seething from its recent frustrations as a few pesky insects had managed to escape its pursuit not long ago. The glowing figure before it evoked immediate recollections of those previous annoyances. Upon closer scrutiny, it realised this figure bore a striking resemblance to one of the earlier escapees.
At this revelation, Garotarosius’s fury flared anew.
It was utterly oblivious to the caliber of the entity it was about to confront.
Minutes later, Garotarosius had vanished entirely from the void. With the “mountain” collapsing, remnants rained down, leaving the Flameless Lord’s expression unmarred by the event.
“You possess the requisite strength, but your wisdom is yet in its infancy. This is why I harbor such distaste for void creatures…” The Flameless Lord voiced indifferently.
Void creatures were undoubtedly powerful. However, dwelling within the void, void of enlightened civilization, their intellectual evolution proceeded at a snail’s pace.
Pausing momentarily, the Flameless Lord found herself engrossed in thought again.
“With Garotarosius on this path, they would likely alter their course once more… but which route would they opt for?” The Flameless Lord’s contemplation over this question evidently lasted longer than her previous decision to change paths.
Eventually, the Flameless Lord chose a set of coordinates and opened a new passage.
To her surprise, she was once again met with an anomaly upon arrival at the new location — a void storm.
Naturally, the void storm posed minimal threat to the Flameless Lord. It simply made traversing a tad inconvenient. However, if she deemed it a hassle, it was highly unlikely that they would have chosen this route.
Seems like another detour was in order. Upon making this decision, a peculiar sentiment arose within the Flameless Lord: Despite the myriad dangers present in the void, having one disaster befall after another seemed too unlucky, even for them.
The Flameless Lord continued to speculate on the potential new routes they might have chosen.
This time, the period of contemplation stretched on even longer.
Unbeknownst to Angel, the doom curse of Toby had erupted. While their own fortunes persistently soured, it simultaneously delayed the arrival of the Flameless Lord. Sometimes, when misfortune is at its peak, it might paradoxically indicate a form of luck.
Naturally, Angel had no insight into the matters of the void. He was now confronted with Popoca, lost within the whirlpool of his own emotions.
Greaves would certainly relish Popoca getting lost in his memories as it might buy them some time. Angel had initially hoped to stall for a while too, but seeing Popoca’s emotional turmoil intensifying, Angel was reminded of the scenario when Popoca lost his sanity, which sent a chill down his spine.
If Popoca were to lose his sanity due to his emotional turbulence, it would spell disaster. At least a sane Popoca could be coaxed into peaceful coexistence using negotiation tactics. If Popoca were to go insane, all bets would be off.
With that in mind, Angel began, “This pendant was given to me by your sister. As for the silk painting inside it, she kept it as a memento.”
Angel’s words eventually pulled Popoca from the depths of his self-inflicted reminiscence. He lifted his head to look at Angel, a mixture of complex emotions flashing in his eyes. After a long while, he finally spoke, “You’re telling the truth.”
Angel bared his soul, and even without the use of truth-detecting spells, Popoca could feel that Angel was not lying.
“My sister, Sparrow Blossom…” Popoca paused. Initially, mentioning his sister’s name did not invoke much sentiment, but now, knowing news about his sister, he felt a rush of apprehension, “Is she doing well now?”
Angel did not respond for a long time, which led to an inexplicable sense of dread rising within Popoca, “Didn’t you say you would take me to see her before? Were you lying to me?!”
Popoca’s sudden emotional outburst forced Angel to attempt to soothe him once more.
“I saw your sister two years ago. She was very kind and adorable.” As he spoke, Angel extended his hand, and several unadorned fundamental illusion nodes were released. These nodes were combined in a particular formation, gradually constructing a scene.
A room in shades of pink, gentle white curtain windows, an elegant desk, stacked books… it was a young girl’s boudoir.
After the room was constructed, a humanoid silhouette was gradually outlined beside the table. Finally, it revealed an innocent little girl, her face dotted with freckles, dressed in a pale yellow dress.
The little girl was originally looking at a picture book on the table. Feeling Popoca’s intense gaze, she suddenly turned her head and smiled in Popoca’s direction.
The smile was as radiant as sunshine.
Popoca stood there, stunned. The tumultuous feelings within him were instantly smoothed over. He began to chuckle, repeating his sister’s name under his breath, but after a while, Popoca abruptly burst into tears.
Popoca was not stupid.
Angel constructing this illusion was not to prove that he had seen Sparrow Blossom — the pendant alone was proof enough. Angel’s true intentions were already expressed in this illusion.
The silk painting inside the heart-shaped pendant was a birthday gift Popoca gave his sister when she turned nine. Coincidentally, that was also the year she went missing.
Popoca vividly remembered the moment his sister went missing, dressed in a sunshine yellow dress.
The little girl in the illusion was his sister, garbed in the same dress she wore when she vanished, her height and appearance echoing the image of his sister at nine years old. But Popoca was keenly aware that many years had passed since his sister’s disappearance, and if the girl he had encountered two years ago was his sister, Angel, she would not have remained a nine-year-old.
Additionally, the faintly visible phantom of Sparrow Blossom within the illusion subtly symbolized an unspeakable truth.
His sister might have already… departed from this world.
Popoca’s question was: “Is she doing well now?”
Angel didn’t answer explicitly, instead, he crafted a gentle and beautiful illusion, communicating his answer silently.
This was why Popoca initially smiled foolishly, only to burst into tears shortly afterward. He understood what Angel was trying to convey.
The sound of his sobbing echoed in his ears. The heartrending cries of despair were so powerful that even Greaves, who was standing nearby, was taken aback. The grief that touched everyone around him was a testament to the weight Sparrow Blossom held in Popoca’s heart and expressed his final Echoes of Bygone Days.
Perhaps exhausted from his sobbing, Popoca’s eyes took on a vacant look. Staring at the quiet, dark sky, he softly began to speak: “My sister, she may have been the true descendent of the Laudsourcians, for she inherited their gift——prophecy. Everything I know today, in fact, was foretold by my sister when she was very young, from the ancient scrolls of our ancestors, which she then deduced…”
“Back then, though we were aware of the existence of extraordinary beings and wished to track them, we had never encountered any. Even through prophecy, the places where such extraordinary beings might exist were so far away from us, so unreachable, that we might never get there in our lifetime.”
“Having not become an extraordinary being herself, my sister exhausted not the magical power flowing from the magic source during her prophecies and deductions, but her own physical health.”
“When my sister was nine, her memory was often in a state of confusion due to her years of prophecy and deduction. She would frequently forget the way home. I was then recruited by the Whiskas Royal Knights. Knowing my sister’s condition, I intended to refuse, but rejecting a royal summons required a personal visit to the knight’s headquarters to explain why. So, I cleared a day, instructed my sister not to leave, and went to the knight’s headquarters.”
“But when I returned that evening, my sister had disappeared.”
“I asked around, but nobody had seen where my sister went. At first, I thought her playful nature led her astray, unable to find her way home. But later, someone told me they had seen a group of flying, black-robed figures in the forest on the day my sister disappeared. I thought then that they might be the extraordinary beings from the legends. Knowing my ambition to become one, my sister might have followed them.”
“In the years that followed, I even fantasized that my sister had become an extraordinary being herself and that one day she would come back for me.”
As Popoca recounted this, he paused for a long while, then let out a self-deprecating laugh.
“Later, I ventured into the Savage Grottoes, and it was there I came to the realization that wizards aren’t as noble as I had envisioned. Wickedness, ruthlessness, selfishness… How do they differ from demons? If such transcendent individuals had taken Sparrow Blossom away, I could somewhat anticipate the grim outcome.”
“In the midnight reverie, I often question myself; if only I had prevented my sister from prophesying, if only I hadn’t sought the trace of these transcendent beings, if only I hadn’t attended the knight’s assembly on that day, perhaps all of this could have been averted…”
My sister’s pendant, news of her, the impending fulfillment of her prophecy… So many things combined together, compelling Popoca to unburden his long-held secrets from deep within.
This not only represented Popoca’s most precious memories but also his deepest regret.
Finally, Angel understood. It turned out that the reason Popoca seemed to know so much about the Abyss, predicting every action with a kind of prescience, was all down to the merits of Sparrow Blossom.
To be a mere mortal like Sparrow Blossom, yet be able to receive such terrifying prophecies — even if gifted with the wisdom of predecessors — it was a tremendous feat indeed.
Angel couldn’t help but recall the scene when he first saw Sparrow Blossom.
After Sparrow Blossom’s demise, her soul remained solid and undispersed, further emphasizing how exceptional her innate talent was during her lifetime.
Chapter 1185 Sparrow Blossom's Pendant <TOC> Chapter 1187 Situation