Chapter 33 - The Farm in Irttat
Chapter 33: Lament of the Deep Sea 09
This phantom stood between mountains and seas, as tall and majestic as if connecting heaven and earth. In a flash, it came to her side like a gentle, leisurely neighbor.
She couldn't see the shadow's face clearly but could see her Galaxy-like meandering skirt hem, a circle of complex spring flowers adorning her head, and long winding hair merging with the earth and rivers.
Though she clearly couldn't see the shadow's eyes, she seemed to feel a compassionate, merciful gaze falling upon her.
If Lucita were a native resident of this world, she would recognize at a glance who this image belonged to—the Creator God Gaia.
But she was a foreign visitor lacking common knowledge. At this moment, she instinctively stepped back, rising with vigilance that her mental world was being invaded: "Who are you?"
Gaia took no offense and cast her gaze upon the mortal world: "I am Gaia, the master of this realm."
Even if Lucita didn't recognize Gaia's image, she knew Gaia's name.
Not long ago, she had prayed to this divine being during the ritual in the deep sea.
Unlike the living beings of this realm who grew up in monotheistic faith, Lucita, though not knowing her own origins, inexplicably lacked reverence for the divine. Hearing this, she was only surprised for an instant, then thought for a moment and asked: "What do you want with me?"
"This world is about to collapse." Gaia gazed at the volcano erupting below: "This is the tenth time."
Lucita's pupils constricted: "What?"
"I'm very troubled, child. This world has already been destroyed nine times."
Lucita: !!!
She said nothing and quietly listened as Gaia continued.
"In the beginning, I established many rule layers. Rules interdependent with each other formed this world. Space, time, life, spirit, even color and scent, every layer of rules was stacked up after my careful consideration. I was very satisfied with the final result."
"Later, I had my children. I bestowed the authority of life upon the elves, the authority of spirit upon the water sprites—they seem to have changed their name to merfolk these few hundred years—and the authority of space upon the dragons. These children's existence helps me regulate corresponding world rules, maintaining world stability. It could keep running without my gaze."
"As for humans, humans were my last creation. Their lifespans were too brief compared to my other children. To compensate them, I bestowed souls upon them."
"With souls, though they had nothing at first, they had the possibility to create everything. Not only were they able to perceive the world's constituent elements but even utilize the world's rules."
"They were weaker at first, but once they grew, they became stronger than all my other children."
"My children should have lived happily in this world, and the world layers would have remained stable."
"But now, I've encountered a problem." Gaia's tone held an almost innocent confusion: "These human children seem to prefer slaughter."
"Every time, they exterminate the elves, merfolk, and dragons."
Lucita's tone was very subtle: "Every time?"
"Yes. After that, the life, spirit, and space rule layers lose regulation and fall into chaos, gradually heading toward collapse. After that, they drag all rule layers into successive collapse like an avalanche—what you see now."
"I don't understand, why do they do this?"
Lucita thought for a moment: "Humans reproduce very quickly. Perhaps this world is too crowded for them."
"But they occupied so much territory yet still don't live very well." Gaia said: "The territory they expanded didn't bring them happiness. Their wisdom was sufficient to create such a brilliant civilization, but in the end, a kingdom's mages numbered only four. And the most widely spread magic they created was actually stealing my power to perform curse rituals."
"Finally, the magic rule layer corresponding to the mighty humans always becomes thin and precarious, becoming the last straw in the world's collapse."
Lucita looked down and answered her: "Probably because of something called social class. Magic inheritance depends on writing, all things that can be monopolized."
"In any case, this is the tenth destruction I foresee. If there are no accidents, it will also be the last." Gaia said regretfully: "I have no way to exterminate my children myself. I can only keep patching from behind. Sheltering children on the verge of extinction, repeatedly restoring the world's ecology. It has exhausted all my power. I'm already spent, powerless to reverse fate."
Lucita pressed her lips together.
"You came to me because you need me to help with something, right?"
"Yes, you're a special child." Gaia looked at her probingly: "Though I don't know where you came from, when your soul mistakenly entered here, I had a dream."
"In my dream, the future of the tenth destruction was rewritten. It became chaotic, very unclear."
"That's because of you, child."
Divine beings didn't dream. Her dreams were essentially a kind of foreknowledge of causality lines.
Lucita's arrival twisted the causality lines, arousing the divine's curiosity and causing her to start paying attention.
But foreign souls had barriers with this world that were difficult to break. The divine had difficulty making contact until recently when she communicated with the divine through the curse-lifting ritual. Only then did the divine establish connection with this foreign soul, descending into her dreams.
But Lucita’s attention was elsewhere. Instead, she asked an unrelated question: "Even you don't know my origins?"
The feeling of losing the past wasn't pleasant. For Lucita, this was what she cared about most.
Gaia pondered: "When I saw you, you were unconsciously traveling through the stars. You were originally from a blue star, but I don't recognize it."
"There are also human souls on other stars, truly incredible. I even suspect creating humans wasn't a coincidence."
Blue star...
Lucita's mind throbbed with pain. Scattered memory fragments flashed rapidly, impossible to grasp.
"You don't remember at all, do you?" Gaia said: "Souls can carry memories. If you have no memories, you're very likely a remnant soul after death. When remnant souls leave the body, memories have already dissipated with the body's death."
"Thank you for clarifying. This is very helpful to me." Lucita nodded, returning to Gaia's question: "I don't know what your dream means. In fact, I truly don't know how to help this world."
"Don't worry." Gaia said: "You have one most special aspect."
"What?"
"You possess the bloodlines of all my children, plus a human soul. After your soul and body completely merge, you'll be able to access all the rules and authorities in the world."
This sounded truly enticing, but Lucita wasn't very surprised.
Back when talking with Violet by the Mirror Lake, she had already suspected something like this.
Gaia extended her illusory palm and clasped Lucita's right hand. Lucita paused but didn't dodge.
The divine hand drew out a shadow of a pocket watch from Lucita’s palm.
It was that pocket watch where Acquanetta had once resided, which had disappeared in her palm during the seabed ritual.
Lucita looked up in surprise. Gaia opened the watch case and showed her four light spots arranged inside.
"That day in the sea, I casually modified this pocket watch. It can display the stability levels of the four world layers: life, spirit, space, and magic. Green means the most stable state, red the most dangerous. You can judge this world's state based on color."
Lucita took the pocket watch from the divine's hand. The pocket watch transformed into a stream of light and dissipated in her palm.
She asked somewhat dazedly in a soft voice: "Then what should I do?"
"In fact, I don't know either." Gaia looked around wistfully and said to her: "This is all I can do, child. What this world becomes afterward, let it be. I've already used up everything I have. I don't care about the outcome anymore."
"You..."
Before Lucita finished speaking, her vision blurred.
Countless water-wave-like stripes swayed. Light bent, all things became illusory, finally dissipating like a mist.
Lucita suddenly opened her eyes.
Outside the window was pitch black.
A dim Milky Way flowed across the night sky. A pale crescent moon was as white as a clipped fingernail.
The wall lamp hanging on the back wall stayed lit all night. The soft yellow light reflected the tree full of blooming luo flowers, filling her vision with scattered white petals, delicate and lovely.
Amid the low chirping of spring insects, this spring night seemed extremely quiet.
She yawned, rubbed her eyes, and extended her right hand.
A silver-cased pocket watch appeared in her palm.
With a "click," opening the lid revealed a piercing deep red. The two color spots representing life and spirit were slightly lighter red.
No wonder, she had successively lifted the curses on the elves and merfolk. In the future, if there were no accidents, these two races would begin reproducing and thriving again . The world layers should gradually stabilize too.
Lucita turned over, her thoughts drifting, and soon fell asleep again.
When she woke again, the sky had completely brightened.
Lucita pushed open the door and saw two plates on the long table in the living room, one plate of asparagus, one plate of pan-fried tuna, and a steaming pot of seafood soup.
She'd slept too long. Now smelling the food's fragrance, her stomach growled.
Violet happened to come in carrying a basin of washing water. Seeing Lucita standing dazed at the bedroom door, she raised an eyebrow: "Awake?"
Lucita nodded: "Awake. Morning." She pointed incredulously at the dining table: "You made this?"
"How could I?" Violet huffed: "Bought from Lily's tavern, using my own money. Lily also just came back yesterday. Why didn't she stay in bed like you?"
Lucita knew she was in the wrong and gave an embarrassed smile as she went to wash up.
Not until the morning light was bright and the two sat at the dining table to start breakfast did Violet speak up to ask: "Rested well?"
"Mm."
"Care to explain?"
"Mm."
……
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