Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 58 Another Story
William's question caused Flora to fall into a long silence. It was obvious that she didn't want to talk about her past, at least not how she got her current power.
But judging from the attitude of the imperial envoys towards her, this woman definitely did not rely on the laws of the stars to reach the realm of the gods. And at a time when the magic promotion system is monopolized by the Star Council, there are only a handful of ways to achieve this - and they are all more or less tainted with some taboos and dangers.
William hesitated for a while, then sighed slightly:
"On the premise that it will not affect the next stage of the goal, just say what you can. To be honest, I am not interested in knowing more than that, but after all, this concerns the survival of the entire Ravenwood. If you really care about Ravenwood as much as you say, I think you are not the kind of person who can't distinguish the priorities of things, right?"
As William spoke, he took out the quaint black soul box from the storage space in front of the other party's surprised gaze.
"This is the soul box that Ebony claimed to give me as a reward... Although I am sure that it is the soul box of Nehe more than a thousand years ago, I have always been skeptical about whether it contains his soul. As for now, if I am not mistaken, this thing actually contains your soul, right?"
William's words caused the other party's body to tremble slightly, which made him confirm his guess, so he continued:
"You claimed earlier that you had a contract with Lady Hungry and Corrupted, and you hoped that I could help you completely wither the core of the World Tree... Let me guess, the legacy left by Nehe must have some inseparable relationship with Lady Hungry and Corrupted, right?"
Flora was as quiet as an icicle standing in the hall .
The reason why William came to this conclusion is actually very simple.
Since the Ironhearted Widow said that Neher was dead, he must be dead, and there was no chance that he would have a soul box left to revive. Even though William had held on to a glimmer of hope, after he was sure that the "Holy Tree Mother" mentioned by Ebony was actually the hungry and corrupt lady from another timeline, he should have completely given up this fantasy.
Apart from Neh, the only lich powerful enough that he knew of was the one in front of him.
After a while, she stared at the soul box and said:
"Because the records left by Lord Neh are not complete, the following story is entirely a version pieced together by my...adoptive parents based on the information and historical facts that can be confirmed. I cannot guarantee its accuracy, and it is unlikely to be of any help in solving the current situation."
"Whether it will help solve the current situation, I need to hear your words before I can make a judgment."
William replied.
Even though she didn't need to, Flora took a deep breath.
"Well... what I am sure of at the moment is that it happened two years after you 'ascended'."
…………
The beginning of the story is basically the same as the version Ebony had previously recounted to William.
In the 880th year of the Platinum Calendar, two years after William's "ascension", the entire Wick continent was in turmoil, and the two leaders of Ravenwood died mysteriously on the same day.
In order to renew their oath to the World Tree, the reformists in the Holy Tree City sought out the surviving member of the Tribunal, Frost Witch Nihel, to help them reform the ancient traditions of the forest elves.
But what is different from the version told by Ebony earlier is that the reward offered by the reformists is not to restore his identity as a forest druin, but to exchange his life box with him.
Or, to put it more accurately, the reformists used Neh's phylactery as a threat to force the former hero of the Tribunal to cooperate with their plans.
"Wait a minute, where did those people get the phylactery from...is there any record?"
William couldn't help but interrupt and asked.
William always felt it was very strange how the phylactery was found. Because apart from himself, no one else would know the final whereabouts . Even if someone picked it up by accident, it would not be so coincidental that it fell into the hands of those people at that time.
Flora shook her head, but that didn't mean "there is no record".
"Although it's just a guess, my adoptive parents speculated based on a series of events that followed that obtaining Mr. Neh's phylactery was the beginning of everything... The Ravenwood Reformists assassinated the two leaders only after they obtained the phylactery and were sure they could control Mr. Neh, pushing things step by step to an irreversible point."
In other words, the story started when Neh's soul box was found. It can be said that this is a repeat of Neh's personal story line back then - in this case, the problem should be with the soul box itself.
William nodded and motioned for the other party to continue.
After the Moon Realm Crisis that year, the two ancient gods, Mother of the Holy Tree and Father of the Wilderness, fell into eternal sleep. They were unable to interfere in a personalized manner, but could only respond to the beliefs of their believers instinctively. In the long run, the forest elves should be able to use this as the core and develop a more controllable extraordinary system that continues to be based on faith.
However, those so-called reformists, in a sense, should be said to be the most conservative conservatives. They hope to reawaken the two gods by recreating the past rituals and continue the past system of the forest elves.
Of course, these are just superficial phenomena. The deeper reason is that when the Moon Realm was completely blocked from the real world, the hungry and corrupt lady had a backup plan and planned to use Ravenwood as a trump card to start infiltrating and corrupting the real world again.
Of course, she certainly didn't dare to do so in a big way at that time. Otherwise, she would become the missing person of the entire Moon Realm in an era when other kings were locked out. Moreover, if she wanted to change the timeline, the fuel that Ravenwood could provide at that time was not enough.
Forty million old souls should be the critical value that is not reached until today, a thousand years later.
Therefore, her ultimate goal is probably to replace her consciousness with the will of the World Tree, so as to indirectly control the entire Ravenwood. After all, the World Tree is her body that was transformed into a tree when she was still a mortal.
"Mr. Nehe was half-forced and half-deceived to participate in the reform. Even though some people in the Oak Council tried to steal the core of the World Tree with the mentality of destroying both the good and the bad, they were ultimately unable to stop it."
"But in the end, Ms. Hungry's plan failed. Why? Was it because Nehe finally discovered the truth and tried her best to stop it?"
William asked.
Flora shook her head and said:
"Mr. Neh only figured out the truth after everything was settled, and at that time his soul was already close to dissipating. Before that, he was forced to complete the entire ritual and directly entered the other timeline. However, the strange thing is that Ms. Hungry and Corrupted used the power gained from the ritual to try to project her consciousness into this timeline, but chose to use that power to attack and beat Mr. Neh to the brink of death.
"Perhaps her hatred for the Tribunal takes precedence over her control over Ravenwood."
After all, for the Void Kings, they have unlimited time to play with the real world. But if they don't seize the opportunity to kill those mortals who have been in their way, they may die of old age.
This is the conclusion reached by Flora and her adoptive parents.
Although William didn't think so, he couldn't think of any other explanation for a moment, so he continued to ask:
"In the records he left behind, did he mention how he entered another timeline?"
Flora shook her head and said:
"The record of that ceremony is very vague, and only mentions the concept of time fragmentation. But what is certain is that recreating the ceremony of the first appointment with the World Tree is definitely a method. Other than that... he seemed to have vaguely mentioned that compared to the body, using memories and souls to travel through time would have much less resistance."
William nodded when he heard this, and then said:
"That's right, that's what I plan to do."
Flora looked at William in confusion.
"The tree-like forest elves in Ravenwood right now are the soul boxes. Their souls are connected to the undead on the other side through dreams."
William said, weighing the soul box in his hand, and then said:
"But you have already separated your soul from your body from the beginning. In other words, as long as we find the tree-like forest elf pretending to be you on this side, and then replace your soul with hers, we may be able to transfer to another timeline very naturally. After all, the body in the other timeline is also yours... Of course, this is just a hypothesis, and it may not succeed in the end."
In fact, William himself is not quite sure whether this idea is correct, but at least it is worth a try.
"But... there are more than 40 million tree-like elves in the entire Ravenwood."
Flora said with her eyes wide open.
"But there aren't many people whose souls are as strong as yours, right?"
William replied.
The other party reacted immediately.
"It's those tree spirits..."
"Yes, it's the spirit of the giant tree."
