Chapter 1163: 150. A Boring Story

Huh?

Eight hundred years ago?

Tars?

What the hell was she even talking about?

“No, Big Sis.”

Muen was completely dumbfounded.

“What do you mean, trapped in the Tars of the past? You can’t possibly expect me to rewind back eight hundred years to do something, right? Back in Saint Blancfazesiya, relying on the faith power of the entire city, I only managed to rewind that tiny bit of time...

“Eight hundred years? I couldn’t do that even if I were drained dry ten thousand times!”

Muen’s scalp went numb from this completely unreasonable request. Unfortunately, Andri seemed to be deliberately giving him no chance to resist at all. While Muen was complaining... she had already lost all breath.

She was dead.

She died so quietly, just like her title... that night which arrived silently and departed silently.

“You really...”

Muen smiled bitterly in helplessness, already not knowing what else to say. Originally, toward the passing of this great mother, he had still held a certain degree of sorrow, but at this moment, it had all been replaced by inexplicable exasperation and a feeling of not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

What a despicable fellow. Leaving just like that, throwing all the problems to the living.

As if he, this living person, could really solve anything.

If he were really that amazing, why would he still be a yellow-haired villain? Wouldn’t it be better to directly become the true protagonist, killing gods if gods blocked his way and killing Buddhas if Buddhas blocked his way?

“Miss Andri, it’s not that I’m heartless. It’s just that something that sounds this much like a fantasy tale is truly beyond me...”

Muen sighed mournfully as he peeled open Andri’s already-stiff hand, which was still gripping him, bit by bit. At that moment, he suddenly discovered that Andri’s other hand, the one reaching into her wide robe, seemed to be holding something. Because she had been too weak, she had not managed to take it out even at the end.

Muen hesitated for a moment, but still reached out and took that thing out.

Unexpectedly.

It was a pinwheel.

A small, colorful, paper-folded pinwheel.

The craftsmanship was excellent. Every detail showed the care of the person who had folded it. Not a single crease or unnecessary wrinkle could be seen. At the same time, it emitted a faint aura of magic, as if it had been specially preserved with magic for a very, very long time.

“Why was she holding this?”

Muen could not understand at all why a little pinwheel would appear in Miss Andri’s hand at this moment. It also looked very important. Nor could he understand what this tiny paper pinwheel represented. He merely raised it subconsciously.

Whirr...

As the wind blew, the pinwheel began to spin. Each blade had a different color, and as it spun and spun, they gradually blended into a beautiful, gentle color. The few dark bloodstains on it also merged into the pinwheel itself as it turned, and everything became so beautiful.

“Heehee...”

Muen seemed to hear a clear laugh, innocent and pure. But when he wanted to pursue it, that indistinct voice had already scattered with the night wind...

“Could this also be some very special magic item?”

Muen carefully toyed with it for a long while, but still could not discover what was special about it. Helpless, he shook his head and carefully put it away.

...

...

Not long after Andri lost her breath, the sky gradually brightened.

Because of the Fog Wall, Annabawei’s dawn was far longer than any place Muen knew. The newly risen sun hid behind the continuous clouds and fog for a full hour, only faintly refracting a trace of dim sunlight.

Clank, scrape. Clank, scrape.

The rusted armor rubbed against itself as Alan limped over. First, he bent toward Muen and bowed seriously. Without saying much else, he slowly leaned down and carried Andri’s corpse on his back.

“Where are you going?”

“To find a good place and bury the Goddess...”

Alan’s voice was still hoarse.

“Before that, can you first tell me about your situation?”

Muen was truly somewhat curious about the story of this First Pioneer. Most importantly, it seemed that from him, he could obtain some information about that Priscilla from before.

The story concerning the survivors of Tars had not yet concluded. Naturally, the more relevant information, the better.

“...My understanding of her is also limited. Please do not expect too much.”

As if he had also guessed Muen’s thoughts, Alan spoke directly.

“My story is very boring.”

“You’re a hero in the eyes of the people of Annabawei. No matter what, you can’t describe those past events with the words ‘very boring,’ right?” Muen smiled.

“...”

Alan shook his head.

“Where should I begin? Right, let us start from the first time I crossed the Fog Wall. That was a reckless exploration. I also had not the slightest experience, so I became lost in the fog very easily. And when I was truly lost, I met her. At that time, she did not look like this, but I will never forget her aura for as long as I live.”

“Wait. Crossing the Fog Wall? After you assassinated Andri? That doesn’t match up. Didn’t you say the sacred artifact was given to you by Priscilla?” Muen asked in confusion.

“The first attempt to cross the Fog Wall was before the assassination of the Goddess. At that time, the long night had descended, and the whole of Annabawei was suffering, but almost no one had yet formed the idea of resisting the Goddess... In that era, the Goddess’s authority was absolute. She was our mother, and also our guardian deity.”

That was why even now, even after knowing she was not a true goddess, he still habitually called her “the Goddess.”

“...I see. So your initial thought at the time was also to seek a way out beyond the Fog Wall?”

“Yes.”

“Then you got lost in the fog, met Priscilla, and she gave you the sealing sacred artifact, telling you that as long as you killed the Goddess, Annabawei would welcome light?”

“Yes.”

“Later, you failed.”

“I very nearly succeeded.”

A trace of pain and complexity surfaced in Alan’s tone.

“The Goddess at that time was in an extremely chaotic state. When I found her, her condition was already very poor. I did not fight, nor did I undergo any difficult setbacks. Instead, I very easily stabbed the sacred artifact into her body and sealed her power.

“This is the truth of my so-called saving of Annabawei.

“This story is not especially winding or bizarre, and it has absolutely nothing to do with a heroic epic. It is entirely a base story of a child being deceived, then murdering his own ‘mother’ when she was at her weakest.

“Even at the final moment, when she became slightly clearer and began to fight back, she still did not kill me, allowing a shameless wretch like me to drag out my miserable existence.”

Alan slowly narrated in a voice that sounded as if sandpaper were rubbing together. His tone was so calm that it was as if this were someone else’s story.

“From then on, Annabawei obtained the so-called ‘Daylight Period’ and took a slight breath back from the edge of destruction. I also knew that if things continued like that, Annabawei would still have no future. So after that failed assassination attempt, I turned my gaze to the Fog Wall again.

“What followed is the story everyone knows. In order to stabilize the hearts of the confused masses, according to that person’s... Priscilla’s suggestion, I began spreading belief in the Goddess of Light. Light and night... those opposing attributes made everyone accept this belief very quickly. After temporarily stabilizing things internally, I began the second exploration of the Fog Wall, and by using my prestige at the time, I established the exploration of the Fog Wall as the only path for Annabawei’s survival.”

“Hold on.”

Muen interrupted once again.

“Speaking of which, why did you continue establishing the path of exploring the Fog Wall? Based on your thoughts and perspective at the time, continuing to try to kill Andri should have been the most logical choice.”

“Because...”

Alan suddenly raised his head. The gaze beneath his faceplate stared straight at Muen.

“You should know.”

“...Because you sensed Miss Andri’s strength?”

Muen took out that “sacred artifact,” or rather, that ancient relic with sealing ability, and toyed with it. He also remembered the terrifying aura that had emanated from Miss Andri when he had just pulled this thing out.

Although it was very difficult to know exactly how strong she had been, she had at least been stronger than Priscilla. In other words, her true strength at her peak had at least been on the level of an old Crowned One.

Only then did it make sense how she had been able to cover the entire Annabawei in night for several hundred years.

At that time, although Alan had successfully stabbed the sacred artifact into Andri’s body, he had also felt the strength she once possessed. He knew that if she were unwilling, absolutely no one in the whole of Annabawei could truly harm her... much less kill her.

That was why he had turned his gaze back toward exploring the Fog Wall.

“The second exploration was an extremely long journey. Alone in the Fog Wall, I went through many trials. I saw terrifying monsters after monsters shuttling through the fog, and time and again, I wandered along the edge of death.

“I became lost again and again. Sometimes, even I myself did not know whether I was advancing or simply walking in circles. Within the mist, there were not only those monsters, but also many strange phenomena. Every step I took was extremely difficult, so much so that even I at the time had not expected... that I would actually succeed.”

“You succeeded?”

Muen’s brow lifted. He was surprised once again.

The later Pioneers of Annabawei had systematically explored for over a hundred years and returned empty-handed, yet who would have thought that this First Pioneer had, at the very beginning, already reached the end of the Fog Wall?

“You crossed through the Fog Wall?”

“No...”

Alan slowly shook his head, seeming to fall into memory. His brow also furrowed bit by bit.

“Rather than saying I successfully crossed through the Fog Wall, it would be more accurate to say I arrived at another land of vitality within the Fog Wall.”

“Another land of vitality? What does that mean?”

Muen was slightly stunned. This was another answer completely beyond his expectations.

“Like Annabawei... surrounded within the mist. A strange piece of land, a strange region...”

Alan thought, weighing his words.

“In short, it was as if it were another Annabawei, another ‘desert island’ within the fog. It was just that place was not covered by the power of the Goddess of Night and had normal day and night.

“And it was also there that I saw...”

“Saw what?”

Muen was gradually drawn in by Alan’s description.

“I saw that one.”

Alan pointed toward the sky.

“That one brought down divine punishment beyond my imagination, completely destroying that other ‘Annabawei,’ as I called it, in an instant.”

Muen’s cheek twitched.

“At that time, I was at the edge of that ‘Annabawei,’ hesitating over whether or not to step onto that strange land to explore. I could sense that there were definitely traces of people living there. Even from beside the Fog Wall, I could see many wisps of cooking smoke curling upward.

“But that one brought down a torrent of destruction. In only a few short minutes, she turned that entire region into a wasteland where no life existed anymore. The cooking smoke was gone. Human traces were gone. Even the land itself was reduced to boundless scorched earth beneath that annihilating disaster.

“At that time, my mind went completely blank. I had never seen such a terrifying existence before... There were also monsters within the mist, but compared to that, they were practically pitiful little kittens.

“So when I came back to my senses, I was already running desperately in the direction I had come from—I had made marks, so I would not lose my way on the return.

“I ran and ran... ran for a very long time.

“And it was precisely during that flight, amid that unimaginable fear, that I suddenly understood.

“Yes. The actions of the Goddess of Night may not have come from her madness... but from her fear. Like me... even greater than my fear. She had not gone mad. She was hiding from that terrifying existence, and that was why she used night to cover Annabawei.

“Having understood all of this, I finally realized what foolish thing I had done.”

Alan’s head gradually lowered. His face could not be seen, but Muen could still sense his sorrow.

“After that, I returned to Annabawei without regard for anything else, and went to the Goddess’s side. I wanted to atone for my foolish actions, only to find that at that time, the Goddess had also been tortured by her own conflict and regret into true madness. I reached her side, but I was also affected by her, and I myself became half-mad, muddleheaded and confused... until not long ago.”