Pillars of Ita

When the worried Aina arrived at the dilapidated square, she saw a figure safe and sound amidst the ruins. All her unease and resentment vanished instantly, and she felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from her heart. Overjoyed, she burst into tears: "Parker, you're really alright!"

The Paparars, who were fearless throughout their lives, panicked at this moment: "Ah... don't come any closer, wait, what could possibly happen to me?"

Despite saying that, the little girl with red eyes still buried her head in the latter's arms. She was the owner of Oak Hill, but at this moment she was just an ordinary girl who had fallen in love.

Faced with the meaningful gazes cast by Luo Hao and the big cat-man, Parker blushed and hurriedly waved his little arms, "She and I haven't..."

"Nothing much? Parker, you don't need to explain to us. I think the lady of the house is truly devoted to you." Reid looked at the other man with a hint of sarcasm, stroked his beard, and said with a smile.

"But……"

"You're worried about your identities? There's no need to worry so much," the cat-man replied. "Just look at your captain. Sylvie is different from him and doesn't belong to the same world, but they might still be able to pass through the stargate."

“That’s not what I meant…” Parker raised his hands, looking in the direction of the platform. “Besides, I’m not like him.”

The big cat-man just smiled and shook his head, knowing that he was just being stubborn and couldn't save face. When they first left the Hill of Giant Trees, the little girl had extended an olive branch to him.

But Parker refused outright. Although the Paparallar claimed to be the King of Nightingales, he was unwilling to bear the stigma of remaining under someone else's protection.

After the battle of Grey and White, everything about the past has long since vanished. Now they have become heroes of the Hill of Giant Trees, and Aina has become one of the biggest benefactors of the Seven Seas Brigade. But precisely because of this, the other party is unable to get over that hurdle.

But it doesn't matter, those are things for young people. Reed looked up, the sunlight shining on his long mane, making it sparkle, as if it touched a few strings in his heart.

The illusions of the past are long gone. After the storm, the sky cleared, and sunlight pierced through the clouds, illuminating the ruins of the city. A few black dots remained in the sky, the last fleet of the Flame Tower.

They had met the archbishop of the Oath Court, who was heading to the temple in Tririel with a group of people. It was likely that the wanderer, Alter.

After that, both of them disappeared without a trace. Miss Nightingale had told them to keep an eye on each other beforehand, but for some reason, the 'mastermind' never showed up.

Not long ago, there was unusual activity in the Oath Court's fleet. It seemed that the bishop had returned to the fleet. However, unexpectedly, the Rota's fleet, which had initially adopted an attack posture, quickly retreated after receiving some orders.

The crowd was unsure what the Oath Court was up to, but since Ed had already taken control of Vor-Salastir and the core was now back in their hands, they weren't worried about what the other side would do.

The big cat's thoughts drifted further and further away, and he unconsciously gripped the cold hilt of the sword with his paw. He knew very well how the Oath Court would act now, just like that unforgettable time in Rotao, and those few unforgettable names.

He had to let one of them go in Idus, who seemed to be testing whether his strength had recovered. If it weren't for the safety of the others, he should have kept the other one there.

Those people still seemed to remember him, the exiled 'former paladin,' but fortunately, he had no intention of doing so either. Originally, he was supposed to return to the Hill of Giant Trees after finishing his business there, but Ed persuaded him to stay with Attila.

"It seems it's time to talk to everyone and that little guy..." the big cat-man thought to himself as he watched the black dot on the horizon gradually fade away.

Meanwhile, Elisa, on the high platform, was also looking at the black dot on the horizon. The strange actions of the Flame Tower Court left everyone else equally puzzled.

"They really left."

"Perhaps it's because their goal is Levergard, but that dragon is no longer there, so this place has naturally lost its value to them."

Marigold proposed a hypothesis: some members of the second group also arrived with the Seven Seas Storm. They had previously acted with Alice, Gita, and others, and now they came to the square with Forest and others.

"Besides, they also suffered considerable losses when they confronted Livegard before; the archbishop almost died there."

“But if that’s the case, why are they acting like they’re about to attack?” Daryl asked.

“Because of greed,” Marigold replied with an "I knew it" expression. “This is the legendary floating fortress, proof of the dominance of the Silver Sea. Legend has it that decades ago, a pirate king relied on it…”

Miss Nightingale coughed softly, interrupting the outspoken young lady.

Not long ago, she collaborated with Olivia to witness everything that happened in the second timeline, where she killed one of the projections of the Dragon King Livegard with the holy sword 'Blacksteel'.

But she knew that there were multiple timelines in this space, one of which was closely related to the rise of that pirate king thirty years ago.

She looked at Catherine and her twin sister beside her, her eyes questioning them—what exactly happened back then?
But Alice innocently shrugged.

She had no idea that she had received orders from Fang Zheng at the last minute, instructing them to go to the temple in Tririel and intercept the group of wanderers.

Then they encountered the great Gulf explorer, Sel Gios, and later met the Dragon Queen, Alessa. As for what happened after that…

"Let me tell you."

Catherine then looked up and interrupted everyone.

The pirate lady's emerald eyes seemed to be coated with a layer of melancholy; she had been somewhat depressed ever since leaving that space.

Catherine took out the star tracker with a chip in it and handed it to Elisa, who was standing next to her. It was this action that made Miss Nightingale look at Elisa and completely lower her guard.

Elisa spoke softly, "If this concerns your privacy, Miss Catherine..."

“It’s alright,” Catherine forced a smile. “It’s not a secret. As you can see, I’m not here looking for any Proof of the Conqueror, because it has been in my hands from the beginning.”

She pointed to the star tracker in Elisa's hand, "It is the core of this city. Owning it is equivalent to owning control of Vo-Sarastil."

"My relationship with that pirate king of the Silver Chain Sea is as you know, but the story of him abandoning me on the island is just a pretext. He was being hunted down by his enemies and entrusted me to a merchant who had received a favor from him."

"That merchant was once his subordinate and a member of the pirate crew. He was crippled in a battle and could no longer run the business. Such stories are common among pirates and are not unusual. Such people usually do not have a good end, but he gave that man a large sum of money so that he could quit and have a legitimate livelihood."

"Because of my father's gratitude, the other party accepted the task of raising me and took me to various places until I grew up and became a sharp knife for the Colin people."

"The pirates in the rumors are mostly cruel and vicious. I don't intend to defend my father. They are indeed such people, causing many families to be broken up and people to die. In fact, I myself have also stained my hands with the blood of innocent people."

Catherine raised both her hands at the same time, looking at her long, slender palms with a hint of indifference. "I do dirty work for the Kingdom of Colin, disrupting the routes of the Empire and even the Rotao people. I've killed quite a few people. Of course, most of these people weren't exactly innocent. Sometimes they were legitimate smugglers, and sometimes they would transform themselves and do the same kind of work as us."

"My father was such a pirate. In his early years, he was actually a double agent in Silverwind Harbor, doing much of what I do now. However, that double agent was soon abandoned by the nobles of Silverwind Harbor, and he was hunted down by the Silverwind Harbor navy, who were originally his own people. In the end, he almost fell into the hands of the elven navy of Autumn Woods—"

"But by a twist of fate, with nowhere else to go, he passed through a fog and arrived at this place."

"After that, legends about this fortress, the Proof of the Overlord, began to circulate in the Sky Sea. With the power he had, the Pirate King of the Silver Sea made a comeback and dominated the Silver Chain Island area for many years."

“These are stories from before I was born, but all good things must come to an end. I knew from the beginning that he had made a pact with a demon. On that rainy night, those ghostly figures came to him, asking him to fulfill the pact, but like most people who have lost their minds because of greed, my father refused them and had his sailors throw them into the sea.”

"As you can imagine, those people were later revealed to be henchmen sent by Livegard. They were followers of the Cult of Dragons, controlled by a green dragon named Torragtus. They easily reclaimed the power my father had gained from that filthy darkness, and instead of killing him, they told him: 'You must return to where you came from and ask it to forgive your sins…'"

"But of course he dared not return to that place. Instead, he fled his pirate crew with me, who was still an infant. After losing his power and the 'blessing' of the Proof of the Overlord, my father was no longer the Pirate King known to all. He was just a target with that tempting title. He knew what kind of people his men were, just as he knew what kind of person he was."

“He brought me along, not out of affection, but because I was the key to his agreement with that demon—an agreement that one day I would return to this place with this key.”

“I guess he originally intended to use me and the ‘key’ as leverage. He knew that the ‘demon’ couldn’t leave this place, and that was his biggest bargaining chip, or at least that’s what he originally thought. But man proposes, God disposes. It wasn’t the demon’s henchmen who came knocking, but his former subordinates.”

"Just as he thought, the pirates were all the same. They drew their knives, killed him, and then continued to roam the Silver Chain Sea in his name until they finally fell apart due to internal discord and were completely wiped out at sea by the elven navy of Autumnwood."

“This is my father’s story, and now it’s my story,” Catherine said, looking up at the place as if this dilapidated fortress were a replay of her countless nightmares.

But now, it has lost its meaning.

“My father died so suddenly that the merchant who took over his commission didn’t really know the inside story, and his former subordinates didn’t care about a descendant like me, or what could a little girl accomplish in the eyes of those sailors?”

"In short, the merchant secretly took me away from that place, and we wandered around afterwards. He did his best, or perhaps becoming a merchant eroded his original nature, and he just wanted to live a normal, ordinary life. He raised me, but he didn't have a good end."

"Shortly after I arrived in Colin, I learned that he and his fleet had been wiped out by the Blood Shark pirates. A former pirate had finally died at the hands of his own kind."

Elisa looked up at the other person. After becoming the white glove of the Colin people, this female pirate captain absorbed a part of her father's former power and seized her adoptive father's assets, thus becoming a maritime overlord.

Her main rival is the Blood Shark Pirates, who are rumored to be ruthless towards their colleagues and never leave any survivors.

On the surface, Catherine seemed not to care much about her adoptive father's death, but in reality, she harbored a desire for revenge deep down.

Catherine felt Elisa's gaze, and as if realizing something, shook her head and said, "Hatred means nothing to me. Logically speaking, that man is my father, and I should avenge the subordinates who betrayed him, but those people have long since died at the hands of the elves."

"But the elves and Silverwind Harbor were the ones who abandoned him without mercy and truly betrayed him, and those nobles have long since vanished."

"As for my father himself, he was the source of all this, but he was already dead. Even my adoptive father couldn't escape the fate of our line of work."

“In theory I should stay away from their fate, but by some twist of fate I have to return to this place,” she said with a sigh, turning her hand to the back of her hand and rolling up her sleeve, where Miss Nightingale could see a black mark.

It resembled dragon flames, like a tattoo, but it was fading away little by little. "My father gave me the Proof of the Overlord before he died. I know he wanted me to avenge him and fulfill his unfinished ambition."

"He instructed me not to tell anyone about this, so even the 'merchant' never knew anything about it. Theoretically, this is the only legacy he left me, but for me, it is the beginning of a curse."

"Because of this thing, I had no choice but to flee the Hill of Giant Trees and go to Corin to study. Because I saw those golden eyes again in my dream, and they called to me, calling me by a name I had never heard before..."

“Nietal, or Elaine…”

"It told me that I was originally one with it, a part of its separated soul and power, and only by returning to this place can I reunite with it and become my true self."

Elisa held her breath, already knowing the meaning behind the name: "Catherine, so you are actually...?"

“No,” Catherine shook her head and said firmly, “I am who I am, and I have nothing to do with the person she used to be.”

She looked down at the mark and said, "This is also the source of my deepest fear. More than ten years of the past have taught me who I really am, but there is a voice in this mark on my hand that reminds me that I am not myself."

"As I grew up, I gradually developed a strange connection with the star tracker. I could draw a continuous stream of power from it, which is why I stood out from the Colin people and why I was able to take revenge and reclaim my father's and that merchant's inheritance and status." "But all of this came at a price. In addition to constantly tempting me to that abyss, I saw those people again not long ago."

"Those people, Dragon Cultists?"

“Not entirely,” Catherine shook her head again. “The Imperials were with them too. They joined forces with the Blood Shark pirates to defeat my fleet and turned the people around me against me, setting up an ambush.”

Fear was rarely seen in her eyes. "No, it shouldn't be called a betrayal. Rather, it's as if the people I used to know suddenly changed."

Elisa immediately thought of the Shadow Man. She couldn't help but look at Eliussis beside her. The Duchess had obviously thought of something as well, and her expression turned very bad.

Catherine continued, "When I met those people, I had already prepared for the worst possible outcome. That person once possessed power and influence far greater than mine, but ultimately collapsed overnight."

"I can't truly trust the people around me, but fortunately I still have some channels among you that no one knows about, and one of them is related to someone you know."

“Minmir!” Elisa had long suspected this person. Catherine’s encounter with them was disguised as a coincidence, but there were too many suspicious points at the time.

“It’s not his fault,” Catherine smiled wearily. “Although I deceived you all back then, he promised to find you a matchmaker, and I do have the ability to help you escape the Imperial Navy’s pursuit, don’t I?”

"Besides, he didn't actually intend to play any tricks. He just accidentally revealed your whereabouts to me. Because I was desperate at the time, I had no choice but to resort to this tactic, replacing the original 'matchmaker' and seeking refuge with you all—since you are at odds with the Empire, the possibility of you betraying me is naturally not high."

“After that,” she thought for a moment, “it was later that I realized those people were everywhere, and my endless escape was only a temporary solution. So I had to come back here and find a real way to solve the problem.”

"So that's why you encouraged us to search for that 'Proof of the Overlord'?"

“I’m not lying to you, it is indeed in my hands, and I can indeed hand it over to you.”

Elisa silently watched the other woman, making the pirate lady feel a little guilty. She had no choice but to change her tune, "I chose you because I was thinking of something else."

"The pact he made with that demon was actually to help it unlock its soul sealed beneath Idus. And you all know about this, which started with the Dragon Witch's calamity in Corin-Ishrien."

"Shortly after that well-known disaster, the 'key' that the wanderers took from this place, which is the star tracker in your hand—or the proof of the overlord—was somehow lost from them and ended up in my father's possession."

"Although in retrospect, this should have been the arrangement of the green dragon Torragtus, and my father, bewitched by the power in the key, happened to be in a desperate situation while being pursued by the elven navy, which is why he came to this place."

“But at that time, Livegard’s soul had already been sealed in the underground of Idus,” Gita suddenly thought of something and spoke for the first time, “so although the power it carried in the Orbiter returned here, Livegard could not fully recover its power, not to mention that it still needed outsiders to open the seal for it.”

"That's why it made a 'contract' with that pirate king and 'hoped' to complete the final step of its plan with the help of the pirates."

"But after your father obtained the power, he chose to break his promise and did not intend to truly fulfill it, until the minions of the green dragon Torragtus came to him."

“And all of this may have been part of Livegard’s calculations,” the scholar said. She was probably used to stories about dragons and those who drank their blood, and many of those tragedies had similar underlying causes.

Given Lifgard's cunning, he would naturally not fully trust a pirate's promises, but that was not important to him.

Because the key to everything actually lies with Catherine. She is not only the daughter of the pirate king, but also the vessel of the power within that key.

She is its other half, the soul of Neytari, the sister of Selgios, who was killed by his own hand.

Only through such means could Sel, as a mere mortal, completely strip away the power of Lifgard from it and take it away from this place, separating it from its soul.

It bestowed this power upon the legendary pirate king, but the essence of this power belonged to it. Therefore, one day, it will lead its master to the sealed land of Idus and retrieve its soul.

Then, they returned to these ruins once again.

Just like Catherine at this moment, even the pirate lady herself was unaware of this.

But Gita, who had a deeper understanding of the mysteries of power and soul, saw it very clearly: "The only thing Livegard didn't expect was that his soul would be unsealed ahead of time."

"When its soul escaped from the underground of Idus first and returned to this place, it became even more eager for its own 'power' to return to this place once again."

"And once the two return, the final piece of its plan—that is, to lure the green dragon Torragtus and the wanderer Alter to 'use' the magic circle on the island and break its seal—can be realized."

“All of this is based on the greed of mortals,” the scholar said, looking at the female pirate not far away. “And you, Miss Catherine, were originally part of its plan.”

"Also driven by selfish motives, you still chose to deceive us," Gita calmly replied. "Therefore, while everyone was completely unaware, you actually secretly brought that 'key' back to the island."

Catherine's expression changed immediately.

She had already realized that if Alessa and Ed hadn't changed their plans in advance, allowing her and Alice to travel to another timeline with the key, things would have been different.

In fact, with the soul, power, and the magic circle itself all in place, Livegard should have already escaped this scheme.

She blurted out, "It's Ms. Alessa..."

But Gita's expression didn't lighten much; instead, it became even more serious.

What the scholar was really worried about was the Dragon Queen.

She knew in her heart that it was Alessa who had been plotting everything behind the scenes since she left Longtail Island.

That night, the captain, Alessa, and Olivia had a secret meeting, after which the three of them brought back the imperial woman named Eliussis.

She looked at the duchess; in fact, many of the arrangements that seem so now had already been made back then. Elisa, standing beside her, clearly realized something as well.

Miss Nightingale recalled the moment she met Olivia in the second timeline.

“The Dragon King Livegard is sealed within this fortress. I have already contacted Eddard, and there are still a few ways for us to get out of this predicament.”

In that snowstorm, these were the first words the girl spoke to them.

She paused for a moment, then asked, "Ed, how did you get in touch with him?"

“It wasn’t me,” the girl smiled at her in the snow. “It was Alessa. You should know who she is. She took the initiative to help us establish a connection in time and space and set this anchor point.”

As he spoke, the other person stepped aside, allowing the box holding the sword to emerge from behind him.

The box said calmly, "Ed sent me."

That's why she chose to believe him at that time.

"So, the timeline you went to was also arranged by Alessa?" Elisa then asked.

Catherine nodded.

Miss Nightingale understood what had happened after a moment's thought. The agreement between Livegard and the pirate king was that the contract would be completed when the soul returned.

In other words, that was the deadline for lending power to that pirate king. That's why the other party chose to delay returning the power that originally belonged to Livegard.

But Lifgard was clearly just observing all of this with indifference, because no one understood better than it where its power would end up, and that all those who drank dragon's blood would meet a bad end.

Conversely, when the soul returns, the contract is completed, and the borrowed power will naturally return to the soul—all that is needed is for the vessel of that power to return to this sealed land.

In other words, if Catherine had just taken one more step and entered the temple of Tririel, Lifgard's scheme would have been completely completed.

But it was its daughter, the Dragon Queen Alessa, who stopped Alice and Catherine first, and, in accordance with her agreement with Fang Zheng, sent them to another timeline.

That was the timeline before the pirate king made a pact with Livegard, so the pact could not have been reached before the passage of time.

In that place, they reversed cause and effect, preventing the pirate king from making a pact with Livegard and killing Livegard ahead of time.

“But the problem is,” Daryl now understood the crux of the matter, “how can we kill Livegard with only two dragon-slaying swords?”

“There are three,” May suddenly replied. “The holy sword Moa, which once killed Livegard, has always been in this timeline. It has already died once, so this concept always exists.”

"Therefore, Blacksteel and the Destroyer killed it the first two times, and Alessa killed it the third time using the concept of Moa. She was merely using the relationship between Lady Catherine and Livegard to anchor the third point in time."

"Therefore, at that point in time, no matter what weapons Ms. Catherine and Miss Alice used, they would all be considered part of the Moa Holy Sword."

"You can do that?" Daryl was completely bewildered.

“I’m sorry,” Catherine said, sounding quite honest and somewhat ashamed. “I didn’t think that far ahead. I just couldn’t gamble my future on someone else’s promise under those circumstances. I never imagined I would be used by Livegard.”

"I know this is selfish, but the only reward I can offer that matches it is this Proof of the Overlord. Fortunately, everything is now settled. If you have any other complaints about me..."

"The dust has not yet settled."

Elisa suddenly spoke up.

Miss Nightingale was different from the others; in fact, she didn't dwell on things that had already happened, because it was neither helpful nor beneficial.

The first fallen star has now fallen into their hands at the heart of this city. Compared to the slight deception, the price paid by the Seven Seas Brigade is negligible.

But she was concerned about something else:

"Where is Alessa?"

...(End of chapter)