Chapter 885 — An Invitation?

By now, Gao Yang had grown used to the various gaps that riddled the memories he had inherited.

A considerable portion of those mysteriously vanished memories had been erased by Selina Gale's own hand back then; the rest had defied explanation to this day.

Yet all the missing memories shared one thing in common: they pointed, in one way or another, toward the gods—things that would be "sensed the moment they were mentioned."

Having confirmed that common thread, Gao Yang needed only to realize that his memories concerning the Shield of the Kingdom's Guardian contained gaps, and he could already connect a great many dots.

He let out a slow breath, set aside the many conjectures and associations churning in his mind for the moment, and looked once more at the two senior agents before him: "What else do you want to know about the Shield of the Kingdom's Guardian?"

"We'd like to know whether, after you obtained it, you were ever—" Metzen began, hesitating slightly, as though weighing her words, "—whether you were ever affected by it in some way that brought about a certain 'change'?"

"A change?" Gao Yang frowned slightly. "What do you mean? 'Change' is a very broad term, you know."

"Seeing or hearing things, for instance. Suddenly possessing senses you never had before," Noretta said. "You might even have seen complete visions, received memories that were not your own..."

Gao Yang's expression turned serious at once—Noretta's words had all but directly confirmed a conjecture that had just surfaced in his mind, a conjecture concerning Gao Yang Cecil of seven hundred years ago!

"Since you are the party involved, we may as well speak plainly," Metzen said, noticing the shift in Gao Yang's expression and stepping half a pace forward candidly. "We know a little about the shield in your hands and the secrets behind 'god-metal'—as you are aware, god-metal, that is, the Eternal Slate, possesses the power to influence the minds of mortals, capable of instilling into them memories that are not their own, even 'transcendent experiences.' The primary material of the Shield of the Kingdom's Guardian shares the same origin as god-metal, and carries a 'power' that goes a step further than god-metal's, so it too can produce similar effects.

"It can influence a mortal's mind and perception, instilling certain memories or emotions into you, and may even alter your spiritual and physical structure, establishing a connection between you and something far away.

"What we want to know is whether, during the days you held the Shield of the Kingdom's Guardian, you experienced similar changes, or... came into contact with a similar kind of 'sensory transmission'?"

Gao Yang had braced himself the moment Noretta began speaking, so now, listening to Metzen, his expression remained calm and composed—only within his heart it was as though a peal of thunder had sounded: Just as I thought!

This was the reason Gao Yang Cecil, a human, had suddenly established a connection with the satellite in the sky seven hundred years ago, and had even been able to communicate with the satellite consciousness that he himself had been back then—because of that "Anselm—the Shield of the Kingdom's Guardian" that he had never let out of his sight!

A fragment of metal of unknown origin, most likely the wreckage of some ancient installation that had fallen from space, possessing energy radiation similar to the "Eternal Slate" yet not the Eternal Slate itself—the members of the expeditionary army, knowing nothing of its nature, had worked this metal into the Shield of the Kingdom's Guardian, and afterward Gao Yang Cecil had lived side by side with this piece of equipment for nearly twenty years of his life. This "relic of the starry sky" did not, like the Eternal Slate, immediately produce mental guidance and instillation of knowledge; instead, over many years it had subtly and imperceptibly influenced Gao Yang Cecil, and ultimately enabled a human to establish a connection with an ancient installation out among the stars.

Gao Yang could not determine how this change had come about, nor whether there had been any critical junctures in the course of it—for the relevant memories had all vanished. Whether those gaps were of Gao Yang Cecil's own making or had been erased by some external force, the Gao Yang of today could no longer learn how the original owner of this body had been influenced, bit by bit, by the "relic of the starry sky." At this moment he simply found himself associating it with another matter:

In elven legend, the earliest "primordial elves" had once reached a towering spire and, within it, been subjected to mysterious energies, thereby diverging into several subspecies—gray elves, silver elves, sea elves, and others—and all the subspecies had suffered large-scale memory impairment and far-reaching technological discontinuity. From intelligence gathered later, Gao Yang surmised that the tower the primordial elves had encountered was likewise a relic of the god-slaying fleet; it likely lay in the southwest of the continent, and was in some way connected to the tower that Gao Yang Cecil had encountered when he sailed southeast in those years...

These ancient relics all seemed to possess similar powers: ceaselessly emitting mysterious energies, instilling memories or knowledge into any race that came into contact with them, and under certain conditions even capable of altering the life-form of those who touched them...

This prompted an involuntary question in Gao Yang's mind: Gao Yang Cecil, who had also successfully reached a "tower" in his day... after he entered that tower and came out alive, was he really still "human"?

He instinctively looked down at his own body, and for the first time felt that this body he had "picked up" out of thin air was the greatest secret he faced in this world.

"Is something the matter?" Metzen noticed Gao Yang's odd behavior and could not help asking.

"No... nothing. I just suddenly thought of some things from long ago." Gao Yang steadied himself and suppressed all the surging thoughts in his mind. Then he frowned, pondering whether he should answer Metzen's question directly, and looked at the two senior agents before him—they simply stood there quietly, wearing smiles that betrayed no true intent, full of patience and professional courtesy.

At last he let out a slow breath and said, in a slow, low voice: "Yes. In the course of my contact with this 'relic of the starry sky,' I learned certain things."

Noretta asked instinctively: "Specifically...?"

"The gods are dead," Gao Yang said, looking into her eyes and enunciating each word, "and it was a massacre."

A brief silence fell over the room. Metzen and Noretta regarded Gao Yang with a certain inexplicable solemnity, while Gao Yang continued unhurriedly: "And yet in this present age, the gods still hang high above the heads of all living things; divine oracles and divine power seem unchanged since antiquity. So my greatest curiosity now is this—those things that answer mortal prayers from the divine realms, what exactly are they? What is their purpose, and what is their true relationship to the mortal world?"

At Gao Yang's final words, Metzen and Noretta instinctively exchanged a glance, then both fell silent. After a few seconds of quiet, Noretta finally spoke.

"I am sorry, we cannot answer your question," she said, shaking her head. "But there is one thing we can tell you—They are still gods, and not something else."

"...That answer is enough." Gao Yang glanced at Noretta, his brow smoothing, and said slowly.

If the agent's words could be trusted, then this at least confirmed one of the conjectures he, Virodai, Kamaier, and the others had formed:

It was not that some other thing had usurped the divine thrones—rather, new gods had been born upon those thrones... It was the activity of a new civilization that had shaped a new season of gods.