Chapter 151: I Forgot All Suffering; Everything I Saw Was a Miracle

Amphoreus, within the Seat of Power.

The location of the original Demiurge, the "Heart of Amphoreus."

"My dear friend, if all goes as expected, this should be the last time I appear before you."

Tailian said softly.

"Why is it the last time? Are we parting, Peach?"

The Demiurge didn't understand; it only wished Tailian could stay with it longer.

"Yes."

Tailian chuckled, yet her smile was so sad.

"Peach, don't go! I don't want you to leave!"

The Demiurge was like a helpless child, only able to use its most sincere words to keep the most important thing in its heart.

"My dear friend, you've heard me speak so much about my hopes for 'tomorrow.'"

Tailian said softly. "It's also time for you to personally go and see that future called 'tomorrow.'"

"What about you? Aren't you coming with me, Peach?"

The Demiurge asked, not understanding and reluctant to part with her.

"I probably won't have that chance."

Tailian's words held a well-hidden, subtle regret.

"Why?"

The Demiurge asked, puzzled.

"Peach, where are you going? Will you come back like before?"

It wasn't the first time Peach had disappeared. She would disappear after telling each story, a process that had continued for thirty million ages.

But every time she disappeared, she would say "see you next time." And then, she would reappear here again soon after.

Once again, she would recount to the Demiurge the stories she had experienced and witnessed in that cycle, repeating endlessly. So, it knew Peach didn't lie.

This was the first time in thirty million ages that Peach had told it she was leaving.

The Demiurge didn't understand. Where was she going? And why was she saying goodbye to it?

"My dear friend."

"My story has ended; now it's time for your story to begin."

Tailian didn't answer her question directly.

"Peach..."

An unknown emotion arose in the Demiurge's heart. At that moment, it didn't yet understand that this emotion was called sadness.

"Oh, by the way, haven't you always been curious about the story I've been writing in 'As I Have Written'?"

Tailian smiled, aptly changing the subject.

"I always said I could only show you after it was finished, even though it's just one final stroke away from being complete."

Tailian said, placing the book she held in her arms onto her palm, holding it with both hands.

"But I probably won't have the chance to complete it."

Tailian drew one hand away and gently caressed the book's surface as she spoke.

"My dear friend, didn't you say that the one who tells stories is 'Tailian'?"

"Then that final stroke."

"Would it be too much trouble to ask you to add the final stroke and continue writing for me?"

Tailian gave her final entrustment to it, like a coming-of-age gift.

"I want to give you my pen, my book, and my name!"

"Please accept them as beautiful blessings, carry them towards tomorrow, and turn this story I wrote alone into a story we write together~"

Tailian smiled, waiting for its answer.

"Peach's wish, I will fulfill."

The Demiurge promised her, making a vow at the same time.

"Peach, next time we meet, I will tell you this complete story!"

The Demiurge believed it and Peach would definitely meet again, because Peach had said. "Goodbye" means "hello"!

"Then I'll look forward to it."

Tailian merely smiled, opening the pages of "As I Have Written" before it.

"My dear friend, the story I wrote is actually very simple: it's about an idealist's perseverance, and how her ideals finally came true."

After speaking, Tailian began to tell it the story recorded in "As I Have Written."

She had written this story for thirty million ages.

And today, it could finally receive the final punctuation mark, symbolizing its end.

"There once was a story that circulated in the Lili Mythwood."

"Pink hair, long ears. When the first cry of life echoed, villagers rushed forth with the sound. People said this girl was born a 'Priest of Ages.'"

Tailian's gaze held a hint of nostalgia.

"Pink hair, pointed ears, it's Tailian!"

Upon hearing these two characteristics, the Demiurge immediately thought of its best friend.

"You can think of her as me, or you can think of her as a previous me."

Tailian chuckled, not correcting its words.

"The villagers made the girl cry loudly."

Because in the records of the Lili Mythwood, the cries of the priest would draw the attention of Oloronius.

"With an oracle as her birthday gift."

Tailian gently recounted the story she had written.

"In previous years, oracles would always guide the Lili Mythwood's path. Every year blessed by an oracle was a golden age for the Lili Mythwood in all aspects."

"So, people all eagerly awaited the arrival of an oracle."

"As expected, amidst the girl's cries, Oloronius indeed bestowed an oracle."

Tailian chuckled, "This will surely be a romantic story unlike any before," and turned to the next page.

"The girl's talent was exceptional, even drawing forth another unknown deity behind Oloronius."

"The deity forged from crystal said:"

"'In the near future, a calamity named the Black Tide will sweep across all of Amphoreus, and the Lili Mythwood will not be spared. Only by having the Priest of Ages offer all memories of her remaining life can the calamity be prevented.'"

A hint of complexity entered Tailian's eyes.

"The villagers were stunned."

For a moment, they didn't know what to do. The oracle had never been wrong, meaning all of this was absolutely fated to happen in the future.

"'Are we to sacrifice a child?'"

The villagers of Lili Mythwood worried, unable to make a decision.

"'A Dragon King is only worthy of the revered Imperial Ancestral Temple when he brings rain. A Dragon King who fails to bring rain has no need to be obeyed.'"

At this moment, a hunter stepped forward.

The hunter called himself a Ranger. He wasn't a local of the Lili Mythwood, and no one knew where he came from.

Because he had helped the villagers solve numerous incidents like bear attacks before, he was quite popular in the village.

The village chief looked at the hunter, saying nothing, merely asking Oloronius about the maximum deadline for the Black Tide's arrival mentioned in the oracle.

As she recounted the hunter's appearance, a subtle smile played on Tailian's face.

"'Upon the priest's adulthood, she shall offer her first memory. Thereafter, once every five years, until the end of her life. The process shall repeat once a new priest is born.'"

Oloronius gave its answer.

The villagers remained silent, unable to give a definitive answer even after the departure of the Age Titan.

"'One who achieves a great deed holds the same status as a priest.'"

The village chief looked at the hunter, as if responding to the words he had spoken earlier.

Not one villager proposed acceptance, nor one proposed refusal, nor one refuted the hunter.

They were suppressed by the prevailing circumstances, unable to speak with righteous indignation, but their gazes towards the hunter were filled with a kind of entrusted hope.

Tailian knew.

Everyone in the Lili Mythwood was kind-hearted, which is why she loved them the most!

"'Great deed,' this idiom originates from a former knight of the Lili Mythwood named Kanis, who, claiming to be a knight, was renowned in his lifetime for continuously charging windmills."

The villagers of Lili Mythwood didn't take Kanis's words seriously, nor did they treat a hardworking person as a joke; they simply let him choose his own life.

Every household would often invite him over for an extra meal, using the excuse that he needed to eat more to become a knight, thus showing their care for him.

Kanis never managed to defeat the windmill, even until his death.

But then one day, when an opportunistic army came to forcibly seize their grain, he stepped forward, and single-handedly repelled the enemy, protecting the Lili Mythwood.

However, he himself sacrificed his life in the process. At that moment, he became a true knight.

This story was fabricated from Tailian's thirty million ages of experience. Its factual components were a mix of truth and fiction, but what she wished to implicitly convey through the story was singular.

"To commemorate Kanis, the Lili Mythwood regarded the village's only windmill as a symbol of heroism, and the one who charged and defeated it would have achieved a great deed."

"'One who achieves a great deed holds veto power over all matters concerning the Lili Mythwood.'"

The hunter said nothing. He turned and returned to the village, beginning to attack the windmill.

He held a tattered wooden bow, shooting arrows at the windmill day after day, delusionally hoping to collapse it through this form of charge.

No one believed he could do it, but no one wished he couldn't.

Tailian chuckled.

"'Just because you can't do it doesn't mean I can't. If it's me, I can do it!'"

The hunter often had this phrase on his lips.

Eighteen years passed quietly. The girl grew into a maiden.

She voluntarily took on the priest's responsibility, willing to sacrifice for the people she loved.

The maiden went alone to the altar, to the fated moment of the oracle.

But the hunter never accepted fate. On her eighteenth birthday, he gave her the best birthday gift: a Kanis-style charge.

He successfully toppled the windmill within the time limit and, without a word, walked towards the altar.

On the path he knew, no one stopped him.

The maiden was a daughter of the Lili Mythwood; there are no parents in this world who don't love their children.

The people she loved and respected had always loved and respected her in return.

Tailian's words stopped, and the story came to an end here.

"Perhaps this story isn't realistic enough, but do you remember what I said?"

Everything in this story was too ideal, but wasn't that precisely its charm?

"The stories I write, every page is filled with tenderness, filled with happiness."

"Only poets know how much struggle and suffering lie beyond the story."

"But I am not a poet; I am a maiden who won't grow up. I only tell aspirational stories, stories where the world hides its scars and smiles to be seen by people."

Tailian disliked tragedies, so naturally, she couldn't bring herself to write a tragic story.

In this story.

Iron Tomb was the windmill that conventional human strength could never defeat.

Just as Kanis, knowing he couldn't win, still chose to confront Iron Tomb and Nanook.

This was not foolishness, but a spirit of defiance.

Tailian was the maiden who could only accept the fate of yesterday.

She had no choice; she could only choose to believe in Fuli. If she didn't believe in her, Amphoreus would have long since become nourishment for Iron Tomb.

Leon was the hunter who broke fate and helped her move towards tomorrow.

The windmill would eventually be defeated by the next inheritor, just as Iron Tomb would be broken by an external variable.

Just waiting, a negligible price. He was a man true to his word.

"So in the end, what happened to Peach and him?"

The Demiurge wanted to see Peach saved.

"In the end..."

Hearing this, Tailian's gaze fell upon the last page of "As I Have Written."

Only a mere two lines remained to fill this final page.

"This final ending, I leave for you to write."

Tailian's form began to turn transparent, as if she would completely vanish in the next second.

"What would the hunter say to the maiden, and what would the maiden feel upon seeing the hunter?"

"I believe you will surely give this romantic story a tender answer."

After speaking, Tailian vanished.

Only the opened "As I Have Written," the unfinished story, and a quill pen remained, lingering at the spot where she had just been.

"Peach? Peach?"

The Demiurge tried calling out a few times, but this time, it didn't receive an answer as usual.

"Peach, have you gone?"

The Demiurge changed its form, transforming from a Rubik's Cube into what it imagined Peach would look like when she grew up.

"The story's ending..."

The Demiurge passed through the cage, bent down, and picked up "As I Have Written" and the quill pen.

"The hunter is the one Tailian was waiting for."

The Demiurge had heard Peach say that she was waiting for someone to come and save her, to save Amphoreus.

"What would he say when he saw Peach?"

The Demiurge raised the pen, falling into deep thought over this question.

Just then, a hand appeared directly in front of its lowered gaze.

It blocked the story content on "As I Have Written," making it difficult for the Demiurge to write.

"It's just a predicament. Reach out your hand, and I'll lead you through the siege."

However, the words the hunter would say to the maiden now had an answer.

"First, kill Iron Tomb. After killing Iron Tomb, we'll go save Tailian!"

Leon extended an invitation to the Demiurge.

The person before him was Tailian, but also not Tailian.

Although from a causal perspective they were the same person, from the moment they became two separate entities, at least for Leon, they could no longer be conflated.

Just as he didn't view March 7th and Evernight as the same person, he would absolutely not conflate Tailian and the Demiurge, but view them as separate entities.

One of the story's last two lines now existed.

The Demiurge, in a daze, reached out its hand and accepted his invitation.

What would Peach think when she saw him?

Without the Demiurge noticing, "As I Have Written" had already provided the answer.

"—I have forgotten all suffering; all I see are miracles."

As long as Leon came, then the time Tailian had bought with her thirty million ages of suffering, it would all be worth it!