Chapter 58 My God! (as the title suggests)
A giant, bright red dragon, carrying a black cat and a mouse on its back, its wings blocking out the sun, circled the Yeti once. After a moment of preparation, it forcefully breathed flames at the Yeti's head.
The Yeti screamed and knelt down, its knees collapsing two rows of treehouses.
Ashlin shook her head, trying to clear her mind. That tiny sip of the twin grass felt like ten whole glasses of malt liquor.
She invoked the spiritual connection with Aisusa, a thread binding the dragon's soul.
"Aisusa!" she shouted over the connection, "Can you hear me?"
Aisusa responded after a while.
"Dragon Ancestor God! What are all these things?!"
"Never mind them for now, just spray them," Ashlin said. "Could you ask Zach to go to the High Priest's rat hole and get the wreath for Lucas?"
"Yes, sir." The dragon swooped down towards the ancient tree of the high priest.
There was no time to waste. Ashlin finally picked up the ring and quickly put it on.
She hoped for a miracle, such as a sudden flash of green light and the Yetis collapsing to the ground.
But nothing happened; the Yetis continued to wreak havoc on the Frostclaw Forest. The turquoise flower on the ring, though green, still emitted an eerie red glow.
“No,” she whispered, “it shouldn’t be like this.”
She concentrated her magic within it, but felt the spell bounce back. The ring did indeed react to her in some way; she could sense a powerful force being sealed beneath… something.
But she couldn't break through.
The Yeti attacked again, and Ashlin commanded the planks to be thrown at it. The planks shattered into pieces on the Yeti like glass.
"These are mine!" Noreira, the bird-woman, shrieked, struggling to pull her jewelry box from Greta, the rabbit-woman. "I'm taking them with me!"
"First come, first served!" The rabbit grabbed the box and ran out of the forest, but tripped over a tree root that suddenly grew out.
"Get out of here," Ashlin said to the rabbit-man, too lazy to say another word.
The rabbit-man hopped away on one leg, grumbling and cursing.
She returned the box to the birdman, her head spinning.
Even at times like these, some people still only care about money.
Ashlin stood bewildered in the snow, gazing at the sky.
Aisuza was still desperately breathing fire at the Yeti. The Yeti's fur was ablaze, but it could still move.
Unable to see Lucas's condition clearly, she could only pray that Zack had obtained the wreath. If Zack failed to arrive in time, Lucas would, as the forest goddess had warned her beforehand, lose his humanity forever.
In that case, even if they have now found three items that can lift the curse, it will be of no use.
Lucas has probably already completely turned into a cat, she thought. What's she even bothering with?
The ring still shimmered red on her finger, as if mocking her, and no matter how much magic she poured into it, she couldn't change it.
A sense of defeat, like the darkness of night, engulfed her, and the confidence she had just gained with the high priest began to crumble. She wanted to bury herself in the snow, to pretend everything was alright. Why did these things have to happen to her?
Just a few months ago, she was just a little girl sleeping in the parish school and doing her theology homework half-heartedly.
"Child of the Forest," she scoffed inwardly. The Mara family had knelt before her simply because she possessed the blood of a certain god; the High Priest had granted her the right to a trial, merely because her forest magic might be "interesting"; Nova believed she could save everything, only because he had heard of her magic. She was born with magic, while those without it would even risk their lives for it.
She could only control the plants, but the plants couldn't stop the Yeti. Forest magic was all she had, but now it was useless.
If someone were willing to take Ashlin's magic away now and fight the Yeti and stop the Dark Wizard in her place, she would agree without hesitation. She is simply not worthy of such power, nor is she capable of it.
At first, she only wanted to lift the prince's curse!
Ray's initial suspicions were correct. Who did she think she was, a hero who would save the world?
"What are you doing?" At this moment, Rai was also driven to the outside of Guardian Creek by the Yeti. "Aren't you a descendant of the forest gods, little witch? Quickly help us drive away these two guys!"
“I can’t do it,” Ashlin said dejectedly. After saying it aloud, it seemed to become a reality, and she became even more certain that she couldn’t do it. “My magic is completely useless.”
Ray jumped onto a tree branch.
"So you're giving up? Just because your precious magic is ignoring you." She said sarcastically as she aimed at the Yeti. "If anyone in the Frostclaw Forest can stop them right now, it's you."
Ashlin looked down at the ring, simultaneously cleaving several flying cedar trees in two. "You believe me because I am a descendant of gods, and it always has been."
Ray jumped down.
“You’re right, but that’s not all. The High Priestess may have your forest magic, but she doesn’t have your spirit.”
"I lack courage."
“Listen to yourself! My father spoke to you like that, and you were hungry and exhausted, yet you still persevered and healed Billy, even breaking the trial to awaken all the orcs! You have far surpassed someone like Araknia,” Ray said. “You dare say you lack courage? Don’t you know that saying itself is quite courageous?”
She shot the Yeti in the eye, and the Yeti covered its face.
“Listen, little witch, you don’t need anyone or anything. You don’t need the high priest, you don’t need me, you don’t need that prince, and you don’t need the ring,” Ray said. “Are you really only good at chopping down a few trees? Perhaps you could pray and ask your gods or something.”
pray.
Ashlin remembered the blonde woman she saw the last time she encountered this divine ring.
What did that woman say? "As long as she prays..."
She took a deep breath.
"Please, great forest goddess," Ashlin thought, closing her eyes. "I have a question for you."
She is no longer in Hanzhaolin.
A golden-green meadow appeared before me, shimmering with a silken sheen, with countless dandelions swaying in the green. The sky was an unreal blue, and the sunlight danced on the dazzling yellow-green, like a joyful symphony.
The woman with long blonde hair was still sitting casually under the shade of the birch tree, chatting with mushrooms, while some little mud figures were dancing around her.
“She’ll be back soon, I believe so,” the woman said confidently, then looked up and met Ashlin’s gaze.
"Ah!" She leaped to her feet, rushed over, and hugged Ashlin tightly. "My child!"
Her embrace was warm and familiar, and a captivating floral fragrance wafted over. The little clay figures cheered and hugged their feet.
Ashlin was completely stunned.
The woman raised her eyebrows: "Hmm, really? Why don't you take another look?"
She had messy blond hair, green eyes, and wasn't very tall. She looked incredibly familiar, almost like Ashlin herself.
"You wouldn't be..."
The other person nodded expectantly.
"...Me in the future?" Ashlin asked tentatively.
The woman quickly frowned.
"Pah! What future you? Take another good look!"
Boom!
Ashlinn didn't find her voice for centuries.
"Mother?"
Her beloved mother, Talia, waved generously. "Hey, it's okay if you don't recognize me. You were too small when I left."
"Got 'cleansed' by the king." Talia shrugged. "I don't really care, because I actually released some things from the labyrinth. Teared the earth apart, haha. You know, the power within us is hard to control. I never learned it when I was alive, it's difficult."
Ashlin felt a mix of emotions and suddenly felt her eyes welling up with tears. She quickly wiped them away.
Is she really doing the right thing?
Seeing her daughter looking at her with a complicated expression, Talia quickly added, "Don't pity me or anything. It's no big deal if I die, at most it'll just be a little boring."
"So we're in the spirit world now," Ashlin confirmed. "Did the ring send me here?"
"Hmm, it was the power of the forest goddess in the ring that brought you here. The environment is nice, isn't it? Apart from being a bit lonely, everything here is good. Only Sylvina often comes to see me and tell me about your situation." Talia looked her over, frowning. "But she didn't tell me you're as thin as a ham. How did your foster father raise you?"
"Uh. He's not very good at cooking."
"Fine, I'm not good at it either," Talia muttered, then suddenly remembered something. "Oh right, there's a time limit here. The Forest Goddess sent you here, not so I could teach you how to cook."
Very well, Ashlin wasn't prepared to learn to cook with her mother in the spirit world either.
“I have to stop the Yetis,” Ashlin said. “Only the Forest Goddess’s Ring can control them, but it only has destructive magic left.”
"Oh? Let me see."
Ashley raised her finger.
“Hmm,” Talia squinted, “Completely exhausted.”
"Is there really no other way?"
"You mean the ring's magic? That's all."
Ashlin felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, and a sense of despair crept into her heart.
Talia asked with great interest, "Ashlin, don't you know the real story behind the Yeti?"
Ashlin shook her head.
“That’s normal. I only found out after I died, chatting with Sylvina, haha,” Talia said casually. “You know the Dark Witch Cynthia, right?”
"Of course, I'm actually trying to prevent her from coming back to life."
“At that time, Cynthia was just a hardworking and diligent girl of divine lineage, not a so-called dark witch,” Talia said. “She was eager to gain a place in the court, but the royal family looked down on her simply because she was a little witch.”
Ashlin immediately thought of what had happened at the tavern in Helian's Lower City.
A time-cycle hourglass.
Author's Note: Originally, this was supposed to be the same chapter as the next one, but it was too long, so I split it into two chapters.
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