Chapter 51: A Countdown Without a Clock (Patreon)

The moon had risen above the treetops, but Su Ye was still in her room preparing desserts for the next day's Harvest Festival.

The oven was still warm, and the room smelled of cocoa and cream. She was using fine threads of Spirit to lower a handful of berries onto a cake when a voice came from outside the window at the worst possible moment.

“Clever. No wonder your desserts always look so beautiful.”

Su Ye's hand jerked. The red berries tumbled to the floor.

The Elf King stepped in from the terrace, looking faintly puzzled.

“Why are you so jumpy?”

Seeing who it was, Su Ye relaxed. Without explaining, she cut him a small slice of chocolate cake. Over the past few days, he'd somehow managed to “pass by” whenever something was about to come out of the oven. She never called him on it. Instead, she slid the plate toward him with a smile. “I made extra for the festival tomorrow. Want to try some?”

He pulled out a chair and sat down as though he belonged there, then picked up his knife and fork and began to eat with effortless grace.

“This is even better than the last one. Where did you find the recipe?”

“In those old travel journals. They're full of recipes other elves brought back from their travels.”

Su Ye cut him another small slice. Since he didn't seem bothered by the mention of traveling, she ventured a question.

“I'm so jealous of the elves back then. Once they came of age, they could go out and see the world. Why can't we do that anymore?”

“Nah, that guy will find you if you leave.”

The Elf King was so absorbed in his cake that the words slipped out before he could stop himself.

Su Ye's ears practically pricked up. “Who?”

He paused, clearly realizing he'd let something slip. Still, he seemed to take her curiosity for nothing more than the usual dreams of a young elf longing for romance and adventure.

“Nowhere out there is as safe as it is here. Put the idea out of your head.”

Su Ye let the subject drop. She wished she hadn't reacted so strongly. Now she'd put him on his guard.

Only after he'd disappeared into the sea of trees did she open the group chat and share what she'd learned. She still didn't know whom he'd meant, but at least they had something to go on: somewhere on the continent where Gu Zhiwei and the others were, there was a threat to the elves. A person.

Matt: Did he mean this person specifically targets elves? Or are they a threat to everyone?

Aglaya: Maybe he's worried they'll follow someone back and find the entrance?

Su Ye: I couldn't tell. But the way he talked about them made it sound like he knew them personally.

Aglaya: Umm... honestly, if even the Elf King has to hide from this guy, let's not get ourselves killed trying to take him on.

Matt: He might not be hiding. Maybe he just doesn't want the elves getting hurt out there.

Su Ye: Ugh, we still don't know enough. I'll try to get more out of him next time. By the way, where's Zhiwei? She hasn't said anything in ages.

Aglaya: Probably training again. Honestly, it's scary how caught up she gets in practicing Luminurgy. Anyway, I'm finally starting to take over the duties at the Inner Sanctum tonight. Memorizing all those ceremonial hymns has nearly killed me. I’m gonna do some serious investigating once I’m in.

Matt: Be careful. Just observe for now. Don't do anything rash.

Aglaya: Don't worry. I know what I'm doing.

Gu Zhiwei was in no position to check the group chat. She'd only just dodged a vicious attack, and her ears were still ringing from the impact. Bits of shattered rock had showered her from head to toe. Only now did she realize that her increased Strength seemed to have made her tougher, too. She could take a lot more punishment than before.

Lucien-vael landed in front of her and hurried over to check on her, barely able to hide his alarm. He knew exactly how much damage his attack could do, but he had clearly underestimated how much punishment Gu Zhiwei could take.

“Where are you hurt?”

“Huh? I'm... I'm not hurt...”

He drew her closer and checked her over. Only when he was certain she was telling the truth did he relax and let go of her arm, looking faintly awkward.

Gu Zhiwei stared at him. This... wasn't how she'd expected things to go.

She'd thought he'd storm over and demand to know why she was there, then flash a classic villainous grin. Something along the lines of, “Mwahaha! Now that you've seen my secret, I can't let you live!” Followed by an all-out fight, obviously.

That was it?

She opened her mouth, but her gaze caught on the narrow-necked bottle in his other hand. It was already sealed. A single drop of black liquid clung to the inside of the glass, slowly writhing as though it were alive.

“What exactly are you... doing here?”

Before Lucien-vael could answer, a piercing shriek rose from the foot of the slope. As if they could no longer contain the energy building inside them, the shadow beasts began to thrash wildly.

He put the bottle away and unfurled a broad sheet of lumenbreath in front of him. It flowed across the cold, damp ground as easily as if it were part of his own body, then lifted into the air, shimmering like silk caught on a breeze. He stepped onto it and held out a hand to Gu Zhiwei.

“Come on, get on. Since you’re here, help me clear out the beasts down there.”

“All of them?”

“Were you hoping to keep a few as pets?”

Yep. That was definitely Lucien-vael. She took his hand and stepped onto the carpet of light. It looked soft, but felt surprisingly solid underfoot.

As they rose above the rocky ridge, she finally saw what lay beyond it. A faintly shimmering wall of light held back the frenzied shadow beasts. Some clawed at it; others lowered their heads and charged. Each impact sent a burst of harsh white light flaring out. Injured beasts shrieked and staggered back, only to be trampled by the ones surging up behind them.

Gu Zhiwei felt some of the tension leave her. She hadn't quite admitted it to herself, but she'd never wanted Lucien-vael to turn out to be her enemy.

“The east side is yours.” He raised a hand and impaled a shadow beast as it lunged toward them. “Don't push yourself. Tell me when you're tired.”

Gu Zhiwei nodded. Slender arrows of light formed between her fingers. With a sweep of her hand, she pinned the beasts at the front of the pack to the muddy ground. The others couldn't stop in time and crashed into their fallen kin, one after another. Seizing that moment of chaos, she compressed her lumenbreath into a thin blade and sent it sweeping sideways just above the ground.

The shrieks rose in pitch. A massive shadow beast burst from the churning black mist, using the backs of the others to launch itself into the air. Its open jaws all but blotted out the moon. Gu Zhiwei held her ground. With a twist of her hand, she sent the lingering blade of light back the way it had come. It pierced the back of the beast's neck and tore out through its open jaws.

The enormous carcass hurtled toward her. Lucien-vael swept it aside with a casual wave of lumenbreath, sending it crashing into the pack below. It landed with a thunderous boom, crushing the beasts beneath it. 

A gust of displaced air rocked the  lumenbreath sheet under their feet. Gu Zhiwei steadied herself and sent another volley of arrows after the carcass, just to make sure it stayed dead. Several beasts struggling to rise around it were pinned to the ground as well.

They fought on, but more shadow beasts kept crawling out of the vortex.

“If only I had a bow that could channel lumenbreath.” Gu Zhiwei wiped the sweat from her brow, missing Windlisten all over again. Then she thought about the unusual properties of this world’s weapons. Maybe she really could try making one.

“You know how to use a bow?”

“I'm incredible with one.”

Lucien-vael gave a low laugh without slowing his attacks.

By the time the moon was directly overhead, the vortex had shrunk to the size of a well opening. Then, at last, it faded away. They'd both burned through an enormous amount of energy. Gu Zhiwei had gone a little pale, and she longed to pull out a Spirit-soothing potion and down it right there.

Lucien-vael lowered them into the valley. He checked along the barrier for any surviving beasts before dispelling it. The mountain wind slipped down Gu Zhiwei's collar, chilling her sweat-soaked back.

【Shadow beast pack successfully purified. Virtue Value +28.】

【Remaining Virtue Value: 180.】

Her Spirit was still at 46, but she'd earned 28 Virtue Value in a single night. Definitely worth the trip. She found a dry boulder to sit on and wiped her brow. Only then did Lucien-vael take the golden brooch from his pocket.

“A gift?”

Gu Zhiwei shifted uneasily. There was no way someone as sharp as him hadn't noticed what she'd done to it. She had no choice but to come clean. Yes, she'd had ulterior motives, but she'd also put real thought and care into the gift. As long as he didn't do anything she couldn't accept, the mark would remain nothing more than a protective pact.

Lucien-vael held up the brooch and examined it. “An interesting design. Did you come up with it yourself?”

“No, no.” Gu Zhiwei didn't dare claim credit, but she couldn't tell him where the idea had really come from, either. Time to improvise. “I once saw a protective charm in the Grand Temple and tried adapting it. It lets you locate someone and teleport to them if they need rescuing.”

“The Grand Temple has something like this?”

“...Yes.” She didn't dare add any more details. Please let that be the last question.

Fortunately, he let it drop. He didn't even ask where she'd learned to turn invisible. If he had, she'd have had to fall back on her answer for everything: the Grand Temple.

In the soft moonlight, he watched her quietly for a moment, his pale gray eyes resting on her face. Then he slipped the brooch into an inner pocket.

“Good. You should be cautious. With Lyvaria the way it is now, you can't afford to trust anyone too easily. Keep that in mind.”

Gu Zhiwei blinked in surprise. He wasn’t upset with her at all. He was actually praising her for it.

“But appearing right in someone's line of fire like that was stupid.” He glanced at the shattered rock wall. “Don't expect everyone to hold back. And that invisibility spell of yours is terrible.”

For all the scolding, there was still warmth in his eyes.

Her throat tightened, and she nodded earnestly. What else could she expect from a cheap invisibility potion? She really needed to stop relying on luck. Still, after everything she'd seen tonight, she had plenty of questions.

“Then why were you using that black liquid to create shadow beasts, only to kill them?”

If the idea of Lucien-vael being a player hadn't seemed so absurd, she'd have suspected he'd found some twisted exploit for farming points.

He took out the bottle and held it up for her to see.

“This is black mist I've collected. It turns liquid when sufficiently concentrated. I wasn't creating anything. I was letting it out.”

Gu Zhiwei extended her senses through the glass. A suffocating mass of darkness surged toward her, and she recoiled, hastily withdrawing.

“Careful.” Lucien-vael quickly pulled the bottle away. “If the mist isn't collected regularly, we'll keep getting shadow beasts like the ones at the old mill. By then, all we can do is react. It's much safer to gather the mist, take it far from any settlements, and release it somewhere we can destroy the beasts all at once.”

“Where did you collect all this?”

“Around Asterwyn. Other towns have it too, but nowhere needs clearing as often as the capital.”

She stared at the palm-sized bottle, remembering the beasts that had filled the valley. A chill ran down her spine.

“The capital... produces this much every day?”

“This is two weeks' worth. It used to take months to gather this much.” He put the bottle away, his voice growing grave. “And as far as I can tell, it's accumulating faster and faster.”

Gu Zhiwei drew a sharp breath. Lucien-vael could see that she understood.

“If things keep getting worse at this rate, I don't know how much longer we can keep it under control.”

So that was why the quest had no time limit. If none of them did anything, the entire continent was doomed. The countdown had been running from the moment they arrived.

“Does His Majesty not care? What about all those noble luminurgists? The other S-ranks? Are they just watching you work yourself to death?” Now that she understood the danger Lyvaria was in, she was beginning to grasp just how much Lucien-vael had been carrying alone. She thought of the nobles in their finery crowding the temple on Lumenbreath Day, and anger flared in her chest. “What, do they think the shadow beasts will politely leave them alone?”

Lucien-vael was silent for a moment, then let the matter pass without comment. There were some things he seemed reluctant to discuss.

“Very few S-ranks are still alive. Since the Grand Temple's previous High Priest died, fewer than three remain.”

“Where do shadow beasts actually come from? Is there no way to get rid of them for good? Why are there so many in Asterwyn? Is it because worship of the God of Radiance is so concentrated here?” Gu Zhiwei had to try another angle to get him talking. She had so many questions, and now they all came tumbling out.

Lucien-vael looked toward the silver moon and shook his head, his expression grave. “You've read the ancient texts. They've been here since antiquity. Humanity has never truly defeated them. And the Gods of Radiance were simply a handful of immensely powerful beings from other species.”

“Then where did they go?” She'd long suspected that what she'd seen in her Retrocognition memories was somehow connected to present-day Asterwyn. His words only strengthened that suspicion. If Neria and Eren, perhaps even the dragon Rhaelor, had been the figures behind the Gods of Radiance, what had happened to them? Had they simply abandoned the humans?

“You don't seem surprised that the God of Radiance was more than one person.” Lucien-vael gave her a curious look. He certainly hadn't taken it so calmly when he'd first learned the truth.

“Huh? Oh... some records refer to the God of Radiance as male, and others as female. That made me wonder.” She couldn't tell him about her Retrocognition memories, but at least she had a few clues she could use to explain herself. “And... aren't there three sacred relics in the Grand Temple?”

Wait. The more she thought about her improvised explanation, the more sense it made. Three relics. Neria, Eren, and Rhaelor. Didn't that fit perfectly?

Lucien-vael cut in. “No. Those relics are all fake.”

“The Gods of Radiance left nothing behind. The relics were made to bolster the faith.”

Huh? That didn't add up. Gu Zhiwei could understand the Grand Temple's relics having been replaced with fakes. But if there had never been any real ones, what was she supposed to make of their quest objective?

She was about to ask when a system notification chimed in her ear.

【Player Born2BCarried has discovered a crucial clue: The Shadow in the Inner Sanctum.】

【Current shared quest progress: 30%.】

Born2BCarried? That was Aglaya. What had she found?

Gu Zhiwei sprang to her feet to check the group chat, then stumbled and nearly fell.

Lucien-vael caught her. “What's wrong?”

She shook her head and sat back down. Before she could speak, a second notification chimed.

【Player Greenfeather has discovered a crucial clue: The Doom of Lyvaria.】

【Current shared quest progress: 55%.】

Two breakthroughs, only seconds apart. The Forum, quiet for so long, erupted.

【??? Holy crap, a double jumpscare?!】

【AAAAAH, Greenfeather finally made a move!! I knew a top player like that wouldn't let us down!】

【NOOOO!! Slow down, please! I haven't farmed enough Virtue Value yet!!】

【Who's Born2BCarried? What the hell is in the Inner Sanctum?】

【Are we just ignoring the second clue?? DOOM!! Wait, this was an apocalypse dungeon all along?!】

Gu Zhiwei ignored the flood of Forum posts and went straight to the group chat.

Gu Zhiwei: Aglaya, where are you? What did you find in the Inner Sanctum?