The tall knight walked up the divine stairway with his hand on his longsword, as five-colored lights of gold, blue, red, green, and pink shone from his body.
“Father of humanity.”
The knight stopped at the last step, his clear voice echoing in the hall of the deity.
“Have I accomplished what you hoped for?”
The tall deity sat upon a golden throne. This former king of humanity, named the All-Father, gazed at the knight who had stopped outside the hall. On either side of His throne were warriors clad in golden armor, each one of them no less in stature than the tall knight. These heavily armored warriors all held long halberds, lining both sides to guard the throne. The temple also echoed with sacred ritual music; just hearing a few notes made one feel as if their entire being was purified. The red carpet was embroidered with ornate patterns, and on it were pictorial records of the All-Father’s past campaigns.
“&#$&@!&@^&##;&=&”
The deity spoke, but the language He uttered was obscure and hard to understand. The little elf, who had regained consciousness at some unknown point, found herself being held in one arm by the tall knight.
In that instant, the temple suddenly turned cold and filled with a bloody aura. The decorations inside the temple also became pairs of severed long ears, with blood still dripping from them. The majestic warriors turned into bloodthirsty demons, their armor no longer holy, and their halberds stained with blood. The demons stared at the little elf in the knight’s arms, letting out shrill roars, but they made no further move. The golden throne became worn and dilapidated. On closer inspection, the base of the throne was actually paved with countless bones. The red carpet seemed to have truly become a battlefield, with countless demons slaughtering so-called heteromorphs upon it. The music echoing in the temple turned into rousing war drums, intermingled with cries and wails.
What terrified the little elf the most was the massive figure seated on the bone throne. That once majestic deity had now donned armor completely dyed red with blood, and countless wailing heteromorph souls lingered around the armor. The deity pressed one hand on a longsword and held a halberd in the other. A golden flame blazed on the longsword; any heteromorph soul that came near would be burned to nothing. And impaled on the halberd was a figure the little elf knew very well.
The little elf had seen a statue of that figure in the square of her home village. It was the former Supreme Ruler of the Elves, the hero of the elves, Xi’aofula Suona, who was said to have once wounded the All-Father. This elven hero now had no sign of life. Her graceful body was pierced through by the halberd, blood flowing endlessly from the halberd onto the base of the throne and then seeping into the ocean of bones.
The little elf felt cold in her limbs and dizzy in her head. Fortunately, the golden light on the tall knight holding her grew brighter, and the rich, warm aura made her unconsciously press against the knight’s thick chestplate. The tall knight looked down at the little elf in his arms. Although he wore a fully enclosed helmet, the little elf seemed to feel the emotions conveyed in his gaze.
Doting, joy, and… love?
What the hell? The little elf was utterly bewildered. When did she get a big tin can boyfriend? Wait, why did she automatically assume she had a boyfriend? And wait, what exactly is this place? What’s going on now?
“Ah!”
Astraea woke with a start from her bed, cold sweat covering her smooth forehead. She sat up from the soft bed, wiped away the sweat, and took a few deep breaths before recovering from the shock.
This was not a temple, nor were there bloodthirsty demons or deities. It was just an ordinary inn room. Astraea and Luo En had returned to Port Tils. After lodging Lily with a professional stableman, Astraea temporarily checked into an inn with Luo En. Earlier, to save money, Astraea used to sleep under bridges. But she couldn’t take Luo En to sleep under a bridge with her, could she? Besides, she had plenty of money now. Not only did she not spend any money buying Lily, but she could also get money from Baron Ili. So staying at an inn for a while was no problem; she, Astraea, could afford it.
Thus, the little elf, who had hardly felt the comfort of a bed since leaving the elven city-state, fell asleep almost immediately upon touching the soft mattress. Such speed startled Luo En into thinking that the little elf might have been attacked by someone. And then it was until now that Astraea was awakened by a nightmare. Just recalling that temple in her dream made cold sweat break out on the little elf’s forehead again.
It was too terrifying, especially for Astraea, who was an elf in this life. Facing so many slaughtered kin, it was already good that the little elf could maintain her sanity. Now that she came to her senses, she realized that the temple scene might not be real; it might just be a manifestation of her fear of the All-Father.
As for that elven hero and the heteromorphs slaughtered by humans… The little elf did feel anger, and she inevitably developed thoughts of retaliating in kind. But that was just a subconscious cathartic emotion. Astraea felt more of a sense of sorrow. This sorrow was for all those lives that had been slaughtered. She knew that in human temples, one could see so many non-human lives being killed, but what about in the temples of other races? There must also be scenes of many humans being slaughtered, even in elven temples.
The little elf grew up in an elven village; of course she knew what her kin thought of humans. Even when she was still young in this body, when she showed sympathy for humans to the children in her village, she was ostracized by those elven children. Later, even some adult elves would cast strange looks at her. This was also one of the reasons that drove Astraea to leave the elven city-state.
“Sigh…”
These were just things of the past. And Astraea, who wasn’t even as good as a qualified elven warrior, had no way to change these things. Wallowing in self-pity here was meaningless.
Astraea suddenly felt somewhat empty. While recalling that terrifying temple, she also remembered that big tin can who had held her in his arms. The light and aura that tin can emitted at the time were like a lifesaving charm for her in the temple. Just recalling it made the little elf feel hot all over, her face flushed red, and her heart filled with a desire to immerse herself in that light and aura forever.
“Mmm…”
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The little elf’s face was so red it seemed like blood could drip. She really didn’t know what was wrong with her. Ever since meeting Luo En, his figure had been lingering in her mind. Even… even she dared not admit that the aura of that tall knight she felt in her dream was actually identical to Luo En’s aura!
‘I… have I fallen in love with him at first sight?’
Astraea stared at Luo En’s profile as she thought.
‘But what about my over twenty years of life in my previous life?’
She recalled all the bits and pieces of her previous life: from learning to speak to school life, from entering society to finally accidentally touching a high-voltage contact net. All memories were crystal clear, as if they had just happened yesterday. The long lifespan of elves made their memories very strong. Not to mention that Astraea’s memories from both lives combined were only a little over forty years, which was a very short time for an elf. Her over twenty years of life in her previous life left an indelible mark on Astraea. Since childhood, she firmly believed that in her previous life she was a human, and a human from another world. And after first learning magic, relying on the circuit diagram knowledge in her memory, Astraea could easily extrapolate and quickly understand magic formation diagrams based on the similar properties of elemental power and electric current. This made little Astraea a so-called genius, while also making her more convinced of her understanding.
The problem occurred exactly here. Astraea could have avoided this dilemma, but unfortunately, the previous life in her memory was also male. How could she come to like a human male? The moral concepts from her previous life violently elbowed her thoughts, plunging her into conflict and pain.
After a long time, the little elf stopped thinking. She really couldn’t accept that she had fallen for a man at first sight, so the escapist little elf pushed everything away.
‘It must be that All-Father did something to me. Definitely!’
The little elf, temporarily escaping, sighed silently and stopped thinking about these things.
“I’ll go check out those cults later…”
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