Chapter 3815: The Egg and Rebirth

The two followed the corridor all the way to the stone chamber at the end. Now, besides the braziers at the four corners of the stone chamber, the walls and floor were also covered in dense golden divine-script runes—this was a simple sealing ritual that Miss Eden had brought people to set up at noon today.

The "Brand of Redemption" was branded into the center of the ceiling, surrounded by those divine-script runes, and below the ceiling extended a staircase leading down into the earth. Afterwards, the Prophets' Association, the Academy, and the Church would continue to reinforce this seal together, and establish a permanent monitoring station within the snow mountain ruins to watch over this place—this was also part of the duties of the "Ring Hall" that was to be established later.

Winnie transformed into frost and wrapped around Xia De, then carried him flying down beneath the staircase.

Below was a world where reality and illusion intertwined, a strange space woven from the power of the Old Gods, the power of the Serpent of the End, and the spirituality of the snow mountain. Winnie carried Xia De all the way to the very bottom of that space—a dim yellow desert, in which stood a building very similar to the temple in the real ruins.

The power of the Serpent of the End still lingered here; the long sealing had caused its power to merge with this place. And in the desert temple, Xia De saw a giant white snake egg on the altar. That snake egg was at least half a meter tall, its surface emitting a soft glow.

This was not a divine artifact from the 【Gao Ta】. Xia De approached with some surprise, and after touching it once, he understood:

"Is this Ms. White?"

Winnie nodded:

"The destiny of 【Guardian】 has already been stripped from her, and all her power has been exhausted. Before she dissipated, I froze her existence and hid it here—after all, snakes don't easily return to this place. When I came looking again after the war, she had already become like this."

"Then can Ms. White still hatch?"

Xia De asked. His perception could not penetrate the interior of the eggshell, and Winnie was not certain either:

"Maybe she can, maybe she can't. I plan to place it in the Upper Spring later, using the power of that spring's water to nurture this snake egg. Perhaps on some day in the future, we can see that lady again.

But by then, she will no longer be a Ringed Beast, nor the guardian of the seal. She will simply be a snake born from the spirituality of Mount Fatumondst, similar to me and to Miss Elaith."

Xia De nodded. He knew this was already the best possible outcome:

"Then what about you, Winnie?"

He asked the crystalline, translucent maid:

"Are you still a Twelve Ring, the way you are now?"

She knew what Xia De wanted to ask:

"The power Ms. White entrusted to me is indeed powerful, but Your Majesty Chloe has said not to walk a path that doesn't belong to oneself because of powerful strength. That power has given me very great help—very, very great. The me now is only one step away from the Thirteen Ring."

The ice maid looked at Xia De with a gentle, graceful smile:

"Perhaps I would need an encounter like Miss—no, Ms. Hivia Aurora's, to advance to the Thirteen Ring."

"But that miracle only works on witches."

"So, Master, you're rejecting me, aren't you?"

She smiled playfully at Xia De. Only then did Xia De realize she was teasing him, so he grabbed the maid's hand and kissed her:

"After this, you'll be able to go from the snow mountain castle to my home at any time, right?"

"Yes, but you need to take me home first before I can set the coordinates. Now that the key has been found, all the functions Your Majesty Chloe designed for that castle can be activated.

However, Her Majesty believes the castle shouldn't compromise the 'functionality' of the house you own, so only I can travel back and forth between the two places at any time for maid duties. If you want to go to the castle, you still need to use the old method."

"Does Chloe know about Saint De..."

Xia De hesitated in thought, then reminded Winnie:

"In the past, generally Miss Miss Difa and the others would go clean my house and do some housework. When you have time, the two of you can chat and see how the work should be divided going forward."

The maid, however, shook her head:

"We've already talked, and the various duties have been divided. A maid exists to serve her master—please don't worry that we'll grow tired of each other or fight over work. A qualified maid wouldn't do that."

Xia De was reassured by this, but Winnie said again:

"Actually, this morning's matter was also the result of my discussions with Miss Miss Difa and Matilda... Although the witches of the Sixth Epoch differ somewhat from those of the Fifth Epoch, the witch apprentices are equally bold."

Ice-blue eyes looked at Xia De:

"How was this morning?"

Though clearly a life born of ice and snow, this sentence carried an especially warm quality.

"Mm... not bad. Very talented."

Winnie smiled and kissed Xia De again. She wasn't in any hurry at all—after all, compared to the demigod witches far on the other end of time, the little maid had already obtained the power to enter Xia De's home at any time.

Before returning to the Radiant Messenger to rejoin everyone, Xia De and Winnie together transferred that snake egg to the Upper Spring. Winnie didn't want anyone to disturb the egg, so she used some "authority" to hide part of the Upper Spring, placing the egg in the hidden area.

And although Ms. White was asleep, the things she had promised Xia De had still come true. This didn't refer to the matter of Queen Diana, but to the matter of the "Fate Casino."

All the information about the ancient gods' legacy space concerning fate had been told by her to Winnie all at once. On the road back to the Radiant Messenger, hand in hand, Winnie relayed this information to Xia De as well.

The incantation needed to open that door was "May the impermanent, ever-turning fate protect me upon the stage of fate," and the "key" required to open the door was not the Ring of Fate or the Arc.

"Frozen fate is something that should never have existed in the first place; the ancient gods would not use it as a key. The true key is the opener themselves—the opener must know their own fate to enter the casino. And only those powerful ones of fate who have comprehended their own destiny are qualified to go to the casino at any time to try new opportunities."

Winnie explained it this way. With this, the door hidden on the first floor of 6 Saint Delan Square could be officially put to use.

The elves had already delivered the banquet invitations to the ship. Such grand banquets attended by both Ring sorcerers and strange-species creatures were rarely attended by the witches, so everyone was looking forward to it.

Luvia had found some excuse or other to leave the city again, and had come to the ship early. She wouldn't attend the elven banquet tonight—although the Association had given her a spot, since she couldn't meet Xia De, she felt there was no point in going, so she declined.

Luvia planned to stay on the ship tonight after everyone left, continuing to handle the many matters following the Battle of Fate—such as personnel assignments, the whereabouts of the Arc, the charter for the subsequent management of the ruins, and so on.

Because she didn't need to dress up, before the group set off for the elven camp, Luvia explained to Xia De in the banquet hall everything that had happened during the Battle of Fate. The story that continued until dawn today was divided into three threads—"Xia De's Story," "The Story of the Cat and the Unicorn," and "The Witches' Story"—and the witches had already gathered all of these that afternoon and compiled them into a written report.

Of course, the most troublesome part was learning about her experiences from Aili, after all—her companion Mimia couldn't speak, and little Lianna's Common Tongue was even worse than Aili's.

Only then did Xia De truly learn of the ordeal Aili and Mimia had gone through in the snow mountain last night; that Luvia, after divining with two coins, had arranged for the powerful ones of "Fate Has Three" to fight the serpent before his return; how the luck Aili brought by ringing the holy bell had given each person their opportunity; and who had performed the "Moonfall Rebirth Song."

"The only thing I still don't know is—what exactly was that evil god's descent for? I should have asked you this morning, but you were very busy then."

Luvia asked Xia De, who was neatly dressed. Beside Xia De's hand sat a box containing the eggshell fragments of the snake egg from the 【Gao Ta】—he planned to give them to Luvia in a moment.

"Mr. Misfortune... that's really not an easy question to answer. Probably to make me fall."

Luvia raised an eyebrow:

"Fall? And what was that for?"

"To let me know the past, to complete part of the 【Rebirth Ritual】, to know what happened at the Moon Tower on Mount Karras."

Xia De told Luvia about what he had seen and heard during his "fall." Luvia listened carefully, and after Xia De finished, she was silent for quite a while before speaking:

"You told me before that the Academy's background investigation on you definitely wasn't accurate... Before you met Doctor Shi Nai De in the summer of 1853, maybe you weren't a vagrant at all, and weren't a blind fool either?"

"Maybe I wandered for a while, maybe I was a fool for a while, but not for very long. I think my amnesia was caused by that fall in spring."

Lu Jia thus calculated in her mind: if Xia De's true age of "two years old" was counted from the spring of 1853, then the timing worked out exactly to the present.

She suddenly felt she understood something, but since it touched on the sensitive topic of Xia De's true age—a matter that left them deeply ashamed—Lu Jia certainly would not bring it up herself.

As for Xia De's past foolish blindness, Lu Jia of course understood that it absolutely had not always existed. After all, even if Xia De had not deliberately performed or copied any books, the speech and cultural cultivation of the outlander, long "polluted" by knowledge, simply did not look like that of an illiterate origin.

One had to know that Xia De's mathematics was even better than Xi Er Lu Weiya's, and sometimes Lu Jia and the Misses even suspected whether he had truly held a doctorate before.

Of course, what mattered most now was still what had happened back then on Kalas Mountain:

"You said that at the time, there were two figures, one gold and one silver, watching you fall from the top of the tower..."

"Meow~"

The orange-and-white kitten Leaving Xiao Leaving Xiao Miya, being stroked by Xia De, mewed with half-closed eyes.

But in the end Lu Jia did not say anything; she shook her head:

"These questions you should solve yourself. I think only you can solve them. Since you say that during the Battle of Fate your fall was an imitation of that year's fall, and it brought you such a great improvement, I think the Moon Tower of Kalas Mountain must be involved in quite an extraordinary secret. Your special quality of not being identified by witches' curses—perhaps that is all because of that place.

Then Xia De, for the upcoming trip to Kalas Mountain, besides Dac Dac Nisi, do you plan to bring anyone else?"