Chapter 580: Petal
“Athena?”
Luna slowly read the name, then, wanting to get closer to this seemingly powerful Godborn noble, emboldened herself and asked, “You’re so beautiful. Is this ice-like authority of yours derived from the God of Frost?”
“Frost?”
Athena smiled. “You could say that. Little girl, do you know Ace?”
Luna said without hesitation, “Of course I do. I even held His head once, that was…”
It seemed that talking about Ace could make this iceberg-like beautiful woman reveal a sliver of a smile. Luna seized the topic firmly, telling Athena everything she knew. She also paid attention to technique, subtly asking a few questions. Without Athena hiding anything, Luna quickly learned some things about her.
She was an Epic Hero, a descendant of Frost, and had come this time to find a Wondrous Item.
“A Wondrous Item that can allow me to advance to a Demigod. Are you interested?”
Athena looked at Luna with a half-smile.
Luna shook her head vigorously like a rattle-drum: “I am not interested. Such a thing is not something I can covet. The result of having too much ambition is welcoming destruction.”
Hearing this, Athena did not reply. The Frost Bone Dragon continued to soar. Two days later, they gradually saw an extremely vast emerald forest in the distance.
“The mission is very simple. I will launch a frontal assault. While the elves are distracted by me, you go steal a treasure.”
After speaking, Athena pressed an ice flower onto Luna’s forehead and continued: “This is my Noble Phantasm. It will guide you forward. As long as you help me, I will also help you. We can make a vow right now.”
Luna nodded like a chick pecking at rice. Without a vow, she was still worried Athena would kill the donkey after it finished grinding the wheat.
The corners of Athena’s mouth curled up slightly. She extended her slender, jade-like hand. As their hands touched, accompanied by a biting cold light, the ice flower flew up. Athena said solemnly:
“I, Athena, descendant of Frost, and Luna, using the Ice Flower Noble Phantasm as a medium, forge a soul vow to not harm each other. I will launch a frontal assault to attract the elves, and Luna will infiltrate from the side to steal the treasure.
“If Luna successfully obtains the treasure, I will send her back to the surface of the world.
“For the violator, their soul shall turn to frost and completely dissipate.”
There seemed to be a mysterious restraint. A sensation like freezing ice made Luna’s whole body jolt. She felt her soul, and even her Heart Fire, covered in a layer of frost, possessing a mysterious constraint.
Feeling slightly more at ease, Luna said, “Lady Athena, then I will go lie in wait first?”
Athena nodded, her voice still biting like the cold wind: “Go. The Ice Flower will conceal your figure; as long as you aren’t too close, you won’t be discovered. Remember, be patient. I can hold the line here.”
Luna nodded forcefully, then asked, “Does the other side have Level 3 existences?”
The corners of Athena’s mouth continued to curl up. She said softly, “No. But they have existences comparable to Demigods.”
Luna had just let out a sigh of relief, but then her hair stood on end. That’s a Demigod, not some random Tom, Dick, or Harry! Even in the entire High Tower Wizard faction, there was only one Immortal Legend and two Mythical Wizards.
Athena looked at Luna, a hint of mockery in her eyes: “Afraid? We have already forged a contract. Violating it means losing your soul.”
Luna felt a chill crawl from her tailbone all the way up to the back of her head. This beautiful woman in front of her clearly looked so aloof from the world, but now she made Luna feel like she was facing a devil.
She gulped and whispered, “Is it still possible to back out now?”
Athena raised an eyebrow, half-smiling: “What do you think?”
Looking miserable, Luna jumped down from the Frost Bone Dragon and, as if accepting her fate, slowly approached the emerald green.
Athena’s gaze also became incredibly sharp. The power of frost surged within her body, and her power suddenly erupted. The Frost Bone Dragon immediately grew a body of frost over its skeletal frame, transforming into an extremely powerful-looking Frost Giant Dragon in a short time.
With a roar of the giant dragon, the Frost Giant Dragon charged towards the emerald forest like light, crashing into the barrier of the emerald secret realm with a loud boom.
The giant dragon then flew up and continued to ram it. In just one minute, it actually rammed it nearly a hundred times, smashing a large hole in that barrier.
Barefoot, Athena kicked against the sky, leaping in mid-air. Her white clothes fluttered in the wind like a Goddess controlling frost. The giant dragon continued to tear at the barrier, crawled inside, and breathed out a freezing dragon breath.
Instantly, the entire emerald secret realm was clad in silver and white, as if draped in a beautiful coat; it looked very lovely.
If not for the large number of elves freezing to death, perhaps this would be a wondrous spectacle on earth.
Looking at everything before her, Luna muttered to herself, “Too brutal. What exactly is this Athena’s background, and why does she care so much about His Holiness Ace,?”
Despite being in an extremely dangerous situation, Luna couldn’t help but start gossiping.
“Could it be that these two had some kind of intersection? The great Firelinker once had a romance with the noble God Descendant lady, the ‘flower on the high peak,’ but ultimately gave up on each other due to the massive gap in status and the opposition of their factions?
“If I had the chance to play matchmaker, would His Holiness Ace thank me? Would He bestow upon me resources to advance to Level 3?”
For a moment, Luna found this idea incredibly tempting. But the biggest problem is although she had seen Ace a few times and was even Ace’s nominal disciple, she had no way of meeting Him.
Sighing, she tossed the chaotic thoughts out of her head and began to watch the battle seriously.
“Who is it? How dare you attack Arondasya! Daring to despise the Elf Royal Court is an unforgivable sin.”
Along with an angry roar, an extremely small, scorching fireball flew out, hitting the Frost Giant Dragon right between the eyebrows. The dragon’s brow quickly corroded into emptiness. In an extremely short time, the Frost Giant Dragon turned into a Fire Dragon, ultimately turning into steam and disappearing completely.
Athena frowned slightly. Hovering in mid-air, she raised her right hand, as tender and white as a lotus root, high up. A massive amount of ice suddenly appeared in the sky, transforming into various weapons that frantically assailed the broken barrier.
The barrier was shattered, breaking like glass. The unknown Demigod-level existence flew into the sky, its entire body burning with scorching flames.
“The Elf King of Fire, Quintina Firetree.”
Hearing Athena’s voice, the elf was stunned for a moment, then laughed heartily.
“Knowing my name, were you already prepared? Then show me what you’ve got!”
Monstrous flames soared into the sky, making the air scorching and searing. Athena’s whole body was freezing cold, and a blizzard swept the earth. The two sides were distinctly separated, actually fighting to a stalemate.
Luna took the opportunity to rush into the ruins of the shattered barrier. Following the guidance of the Ice Flower on her forehead, she found the object Athena wanted. It was a treasure flickering atop a giant tree.
Luna climbed to the top of the branches and clearly saw the treasure. It was a petal as dreamy and beautiful as crystal, about the size of a head, seemingly containing indescribable truths.
“So beautiful…” Just as she was intoxicated, her forehead turned cold, and she immediately woke up: “Almost fell for it; better grab it quickly.”
Holding the crystal-clear petal in both hands, the Ice Flower on her forehead suddenly bloomed with brilliant light. The space twisted, and she actually disappeared.
A wave of dizziness washed over her, as if someone had put her in a cage and spun it a thousand times. Luna almost threw up bile.
She gripped empty air with both hands, suddenly realizing the petal was gone. While alarmed and uncertain, she noticed the Ice Flower on her forehead had also disappeared. She was lying prone on the outskirts of Byrne City.
High in the sky, Athena had already been beaten by the Fire Elf King until she coughed up blood, but a trace of a mysterious smile appeared at the corners of her mouth, her eyes revealing madness.
“The flower of the World Tree, the body of an elf, the flower of ice. With my body, I jointly sacrifice and communicate with the Great Source; this is Medira.”
An ice crystal flower manifested on her forehead, and a multicolored, dreamy petal drifted out. The Fire Elf King trembled all over, unable to move.
The ice crystal flower flew into the sky and suddenly grew larger, actually transforming into a wind tunnel. Freezing ice and blizzards blew out from it, actually turning everything here—including Athena, the Fire Elf King, and that emerald secret realm—entirely into ice crystals.
The multicolored petal flickered a few times and also turned into ice crystals.
Bang! The ice crystals shattered like brilliant fireworks; everything mentioned above ceased to exist.
Only Athena’s true spirit was still flickering. The true spirit drifted onto the ice crystal flower, actually generating a powerful suction force, absorbing some of the ice crystal fragments that had turned into fireworks, and disappeared.
In the deepest part of the Kaya World, the place of the world’s rules, yet no rules could be seen; the primordial place of the world, yet the primordial could not be seen; unknowable, yet the great prophet. This place was the yearning of countless people, and also the burial ground of countless people.
A crystal-clear, brilliant petal abruptly appeared here, swept up by the Great Source like a wave, and disappeared.
Athena’s true spirit seemed to feel the joy of the Great Source. Even in slumber, the Great Source could still have instinctive reactions.
It seemed to ask Athena what she sought by sacrificing a supreme treasure.
“I want to reshape hope! The hope shattered by God King Kronos in the previous epoch, the hope scattered to unknown places. I want to reshape it; I want to become the new Hope!”
The voice of Athena’s true spirit was resolute and decisive. The Great Source was jubilant like an ocean, and caressed her like a mother.
She had offered the essence of the Giant Tree World and received the recognition of the Great Source. Under this kind of feedback, with an effect almost like wishes coming true, Athena’s body was reshaped—a True God’s body, a True God’s soul.
Stealing the essence of one world and offering it to the Great Source of this world increased the power of the Great Source by at least five percent at this moment. Athena didn’t know how much it increased, but she knew this object was absolutely a rare treasure.
Her thoughts began to drift. After parting with Ace, she wandered everywhere, entered many unknown secret realms, and slowly found various traces left from the previous epoch—traces of hope.
In the previous epoch, Emperor Augustin was suppressed. The Immortal True God, the Goddess of Hope Medira, had Her Fruit of Immortality shattered by the God King in the Divine Secret Realm. The law of hope shattered, leaving only mysterious guidance, seemingly wanting latecomers to resurrect Her.
However, Athena’s goal was not this. She did not want to resurrect Hope; she wanted to become Hope. She wanted to break free from the constraints of her body, break free from the shackles of her bloodline.
Therefore, she did not act according to the guidance. Just as the Outer Gods invaded, Athena serendipitously entered the Reflection World. Investigating all the way, she finally discovered the primordial petal of the Giant Tree World.
That was a petal left behind after the birth of the previous cycle’s fruit of the Giant Tree World. It was said to contain hope and hide the secrets of the Giant Tree World.
“If I only collect the fragments of Kaya’s law of hope, I will inevitably fall into Medira’s trap. But that petal from the Giant Tree World is different. It is a relic of another powerful world, a world that once reached a higher level. With this as the foundation, I shall be the new Goddess of Hope.
“Goddess of Hope, Athena!”
The waves of the Great Source continued. Athena’s divine body and divine soul gradually solidified. Pushed by the Great Source, she actually leaped out of the third dimension and entered the fourth dimension.
She didn’t understand the concept of the fourth dimension, but when She became a pseudo-four-dimensional existence, She immediately understood that She had entered the Divine Secret Realm.
Seemingly out of instinct, Athena sought out Her own past. Her past remained converged and solidified. Following the prompts of the Great Source, Athena saw the fleeting Fruits of Immortality of some deities and quickly comprehended the so-called immortality.
“So it’s completely solidifying one’s past, extracting it from the long river of time. From then on, as long as the past exists, I am immortal. This kind of immortality can only be relative. Outside the scope of the Divine Secret Realm, it is immortality. But if there is a Level 6 powerhouse like the God King, they can probably shatter the Fruit of Immortality in the Divine Secret Realm, causing the deity to perish forever.”
Having understood this, Athena’s eyelids trembled slightly, and She sighed.
She imitated the other deities, twisting Her own past, only to find that some of Her past actually intertwined with another fruit. That fruit didn’t seem to be deep within the Great Source; the two resonated slightly.
“Seems to have intersections with other Immortals. It’s probably Ace. That’s normal too.”
On the three-dimensional level of the Kaya World, Ace was absorbing energy through the high-dimensional rift. He was cleansing the detrimental state generated after entering higher dimensions.
“It’s almost done. Let’s check again. If there are no problems, I can proceed with the next journey of law retrieval.”
Suddenly, Ace felt His own Fruit of Immortality seeming to fluctuate mysteriously, seeming to interact with another forming Fruit of Immortality.
“This feeling… there’s no mistake. Someone who had major historical intersections with me has also achieved immortality!”
Ace’s eyes flickered with light. The eight Laws of Comprehension were activated simultaneously, trying hard to trace it.
“The third dimension is hard to trace, but I can deduce it. People who had a major historical impact on me: The cause of my transmigration? Impossible. A transmigration that even a True God cannot comprehend, if intentional, must be the work of an incomprehensible great existence.
“My parents? Also impossible. I can sense they are still in Thoth City.
“Nicholas is possible. He was the prime mover, my supernatural enlightenment.
“And then there’s Athena, who gave me a lot of initial motivation. For the path afterwards, it was mostly relying on myself; others were influenced by me, rather than vice versa.”
After quickly checking His state, Ace directly passed through the High-Dimensional “Door” and entered the Four-Dimensional Secret Realm. He wanted to perceive from up close: was it Nicholas or Athena?!
Athena was immersed in Her past. She seemed to re-walk it once, slowly solidifying the past. Countless voices, smiles, and faces were thus condensed. The past was finally twisted into a bizarre four-dimensional loop, which She turned into a brand and engraved deep within the Great Source.
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