Chapter 024 [Inverted V] 24
The sound of the tea whisk slicing the water surface and the sound of the boiling kettle beside him provided Solomon with a leisurely rest time - when the tea bowl was pushed in front of the two gods opposite by Lei Dianzhen, Solomon turned the tea bowl, watching the tea-green foam floating in the bowl, and the aroma of the tea leaves evaporated all the way up with the heat of the water.
After tasting the tea, Barbatos handed the empty wine jar to the spirit of the wine jar, and left the cherry blossom forest with Solomon. To reach the area where small animals were raised, they needed to first cross the ice field that represented the winter.
"You want to tell me something in private, right?" Barbatos floated beside Solomon, holding his harp, dancing in the wind on the ice field set up by the pot spirits. "What kind of story do you want to tell me? Is it an interesting story?"
"That depends on what kind of story you want to hear." Solomon smiled as he stepped onto the ice, using magic to shield himself from the cold. "After all, I've seen and heard many different yet similar stories - many of which are not suitable to be told here, but they are indeed stories that are shocking enough."
"Then tell me the part that I can listen to." Barbatos stopped and raised the harp in his hand to Solomon, smiling and hinting at him, "You know, I'm a bard - so, if your story is good, maybe I will pluck its strings for you."
"But you don't have any stories that can go with the sound of the harp, do you?" Solomon sighed helplessly, turning his eyes to look at the harp in Barbatos's hand. "If a minstrel has no poems to sing, what kind of minstrel is he? He can only be regarded as a wandering musician."
"So I was looking for a real exchange story!!!" Barbatos stamped his feet, stretched out his hand to pluck the strings, and a rare formal look appeared on his face, "But, if you have a poem - then I can also accompany you."
Solomon nodded slightly, cast a spell to block the sight of Heaven's Law, and told Barbatos on the cold ice field the prophecy that Merlin had left behind in the past, which was transformed from his past journey.
"Now, please listen to me tell you about the future.
The godless country has been reduced to a den of monsters. I will tell you its end.
Saying welcome home to the guilty,
This is a deep, bottomless, god-forsaken city.
Growing like grass and trees, solid like rock,
As pure as nectar, dispersing like a thousand winds.
Our future is bound by the sky,
Today, he is still imprisoned by the law.
However, you only need to be patient for a moment.
After five hundred years, the Traveling Star will appear.
To bring together the gods (them) and humans (us),
The man who crosses the stars lets reality begin.
Even if you don't know at first, you can keep going forward to find your relatives.
Communicate with the gods in the smallest moments.
City of ice, country of snow.
When disaster is repelled, travelers should be welcomed.
The stars of time guide him, and the blood relatives of the abyss watch over him.
The traveler finally arrived at the throne of heaven.
The one who resides in the sky is the truth of this world,
Please wear a bloody crown.
Like thunder, it sounds like the lamentation; like fire, it sounds like the wrath;
The seven bell sounds teach people to know, and the path of truth is opened here.
Before being swallowed by the dark disaster,
Before being sealed by the white dust of disaster.
It doesn't matter if you slack off on work.
We are the only nation without the protection of the gods.
Hope is never enough,
I sincerely look forward to a bright tomorrow.
"How is it?" Solomon looked at the bard holding the harp, and ended the story by imitating Merlin's memory. "Is it a poem whose meaning is vaguely understandable, but not to the point? Haha, after all, the poems of bards occasionally contain prophecies - you don't understand it when you first hear it, but after the event happens, you will feel that it is so consistent with reality..."
"It's like a curse quietly sticking to your back."
"Five hundred years?" Barbatos stopped plucking the strings of his harp and looked at the seemingly endless ice field. "Is the time so short?"
"No, more than five hundred years have passed since the prophecy was made." Solomon looked in the opposite direction of Barbatos. "Besides, these are not my own words, but a song that drifted into my ears on the wind."
"I don't know whether these words came from the past or from the future."
"But no matter what, this prophecy must be linked to something big."
"I will ensure that this song prophecy will be passed down forever on the continent of Teyvat," Barbatos promised Solomon, "until the star appears, until the starlight crosses half of the journey - may I ask, what do you call this journey in this story?"
"The tour," Solomon replied.
"I understand." Barbatos flew back into the air and came to Solomon's side. "Then, can I know the real story of Sumi?"
"Even if one day I will forget them all?" Solomon tilted his head. "Just kidding - I know how to keep the real memory, but are you sure you want to keep the memory that is incompatible with Teyvat, Barbatos?"
"But you are the Grass God that I really know." Barbatos landed on the ground and looked up at Solomon. "I don't know what kind of conditions you have reached with Heavenly Law, but I can be sure that the three demon gods on your side do not belong to this world. Heavenly Law allows you, outsiders, to appear in this world as demon gods, and does not prevent me from contacting you..."
"But no one knows what will happen if you, who originally belonged to Teyvat, remember that we are outsiders in the future." Solomon walked to the other side of the ice field. "However, if you want to listen, I will tell you another prophecy left by that guy in the past--"
"The wind will sing for freedom,
The rocks will turn to dust,
The lightning flashes in an instant and becomes eternal.
Wisdom is for sale.
Nectar is the beginning and end of all things.
The fire is rekindled in the embers,
Ice binds hope.
"...This is not a good ending." After hearing this prophecy, Barbatos fell into a brief silence, but soon laughed again, "But, let me still remember your story. After all, different stories mean fun to me!"
So on the way across the ice field, Solomon recounted to Barbatos the story of the past in the oasis. Barbatos was very interested in the eternal oasis that the three had built in advance, and was eager to sneak to Sumi after the banquet to see the tomb of the flower god, which Solomon said was a replica of the utopia.
"You can't go there." Solomon reached out and stopped the excited Barbatos. "A mechanism has been added at the entrance, and the Town Spirit has abandoned its form and merged with the mechanism. If you go there now, it will cause a cognitive conflict for the Town Spirit. If you really want to see it, you can secretly follow the traveler in the future and follow him in when he goes in."
"Like a gust of wind."
"Okay." Barbatos pursed his lips and looked at Solomon, "Then why did you build the Eternal Oasis in advance?"
"The answer has to do with the outside world..." Solomon pondered, and gave an answer in a subtle tone, "Just think of it as the three of us feeling that even if we hold a tea party in a large oasis like that, there will be disturbances from the wind and sand... so Merlin proposed to hold the tea party in another place."
"Well, even if Morax asks, this is the answer."
Finally, the two found the God of Ice in Winter among a bunch of cats.
The Ice God seemed much softer than the sharp image Solomon had expected. After seeing her colleagues coming to find her, the silver-haired, blue-eyed girl picked up the kitten in her arms, walked out from the pile of cats, and stood in front of Solomon and Barbatos.
"Is this Sumi's grass god, Barbatos?" The Ice God looked at Barbatos and asked Mondstadt's wind god for the correct answer, "Moreno. I am Moreno, the Regent of Solstice - well, but the situation over there is..."
"Ah..." Barbatos quickly whispered to Solomon and added the information about Winter Solstice. "The situation in Moreno is very strange. Generally speaking, the rulers of our mortal world are given titles that represent the people's respect, or directly called gods. But Winter Solstice is different. They accept the leadership of Moreno, but they call her a witch in contempt."
"…This is even more like it."
Solomon looked at Moreno, but another person appeared in front of him, and his ears were covered by the overly tragic voice in the distant memory -
"I, take back the title given to me—"
"No, no, please!!! It's just a little bit - I'm sure I can save you!!!"
"Fairy Knight... Bedivere - for the sake of Britain, please complete the Holy Lance on my behalf."
"A shell without the support of a soul will eventually collapse."
"No, that throne and those holy spears are facilities that only a genius like you can wield!!! Your Majesty Morgan!!!"
"Use your real name again, my sister, my half, my shadow - Alice."
“Ah…Ahh…Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!”
At that time, Kirshtalia had led them away from the battlefield as quickly as possible and rushed to the throne of Camelot in the fairy kingdom - but no one expected that behind the door of the throne room was an unimaginable tragic scene.
The Winter Queen who had suppressed the Fairy Kingdom for thousands of years was dismembered by the fairies. Of the only two fairy knights present, one had fallen into a large hole outside Camelot, and the other had been over-stimulated and his magic power had gone out of control, and he could no longer maintain his original form. When the people from Phoenix Chaldea finally pushed open the door, they saw a pile of bloody flesh and blood. In front of the throne in the center was the deputy director whom they had not seen for a long time.
——But she looked as if she was hit all over by blood and flesh.
Then, she grasped the magic wand of the Fairy Queen and faced the god who had awakened from the giant cave and was poisoned to death by the fairies at the very beginning.
"Holy Lance, draw the anchor."
"Sume, Solomon." Solomon interrupted his memories and looked at Moreno, with a look of regret that he himself had not expected. "Do you want to hear the story I saw?"
Moreno: “Huh?”
"Solomon..." Barbatos glanced at Solomon's expression, then fell back to the ground and put away the harp in his hand. "Let me hear the story of the 'future' that you saw."
"Spring brings surprises, summer brings disputes, autumn brings celebrations, and winter brings wars.
By piling up mass death, it thrives forever and ever.
The savior becomes the heartless king,
There is only an empty shell on the throne.