I lost contact in the fairy world

Chapter 635: The Sword is Corrupted, the Shield is Silent

The sound of rotten leaves being crushed in silence, Hep's sneakers sank into the wet soil, and Xiaoyou's lavender skirt swept across the dew-covered ferns.

The water energy of the Thousand-Faced Chameleon stirred restlessly beneath its scales - since entering this forest, all the elves have become unusually docile, even the aggressive Serpentine Bear just crouched on the ground far away, humming softly with its nose pressed against the moss.

"Look, Hupp! Those leaves are showing us the way!"

The boy's chestnut hair was covered with fluorescent spores. Looking in the direction of the girl's fingertips, he saw that all the banyan trees' aerial roots were moving without wind, and their emerald leaves were pointing towards the depths of the forest like compasses.

When they stepped into the circle of glowing moss, the air suddenly rippled, and some kind of life pressure that transcended level suppression made the Poké Balls on their waists collectively buzz.

"careful!"

As soon as Hep grabbed Xiaoyou's wrist, the entire humus layer suddenly came alive, and the mycelium weaved into a glowing carpet that sent the two of them deep into the jungle.

When the fungal blanket stopped in front of the thousand-year-old banyan tree, dusk leaked in through the gaps in the tree canopy, weaving an emerald curtain in front of the two people's eyes - the translucent green figure was coiled on the fallen thousand-year-old alder tree with gilded vertical pupils opened, and the entire Galar starry sky was reflected in the dewdrops hanging from the vines at the tip of the tail, and the fluorescent veins on the body perfectly overlapped with the annual rings on the bark.

"Y-It's an elf?"

Xiaoyou's fingertips clenched Hep's sleeves. The vine snake in front of her was surrounded by a rich green light, and fluorescent vein-like patterns were faintly visible under its scales. The most amazing thing was its pair of gilded vertical pupils - when they turned towards them, it seemed as if the breathing of the entire forest was ringing in their ears.

【Humans, why do we step into the cradle of life? 】

The clear voice exploded in the minds of the two without warning. Hepp stumbled and hit the tree trunk. The Thousand-Faced Eviscerator immediately took a sniper stance and was ready to attack at any time.

Hep looked stunned, wondering if he was hallucinating.

"Hey, Xiaoyou, did you hear that? That elf seems to be talking to us?"

Hep's voice was stuck in his throat. He saw the other party's scales flowing with the halo of the changing seasons, as if the breathing of the entire forest rose and fell with the tip of its tail.

Xiaoyou's pupils suddenly contracted, and she seemed to remember something and replied quickly.

"It's telepathy! Just like... just like what Dr. Sonia said in her book. I've read about it before. Some elves are gifted and extraordinary, possessing intelligence no less than that of humans, and can communicate with people through telepathy. These elves are called legendary elves, or divine beasts! I'm afraid it's a similar existence to the legendary wolf god!"

Hep's heart suddenly leaped, and his heart surged. He didn't expect that he would actually see such a legendary existence in the forest. If there really is such a god-like elf, then the legend of the sword and shield hero...

As the vine snake slid to the ground and swam down from the branch, all the mimosa in the forest bloomed at the same time, and the leaves illuminated by the flames of summer formed a staircase behind it. Where the tip of its tail touched, the flattened lily of the valley instantly straightened its stems, and the dew on the blue and white petals reflected a colorful halo. It looked up at the two people, and two shocked faces were reflected in its vertical pupils.

[I am looking for a person wearing a red hat. Have you ever seen him? ]

"Red hat?"

Without any thought, Hep swallowed and almost subconsciously thought of Huohong's iconic red hat.

Under the wild red hair, there is a red hat with burnt edges that is always worn - when they first met in Shuizhou Town, that red hat made Lurina roar like crazy.

He looked at Xiaoyou, whose eyes were gleaming with memories, and whispered in his ear.

"Could it be that the person it is looking for is Senior Huohong? She always wears a red hat. Even though it is tattered, she never takes it off..."

[Red?]

The scales of the vine snake suddenly began to show spring thunder patterns, the vines at the tip of its tail trembled violently, the halo of four seasons suddenly stagnated around the vine snake, and the roots of the thousand-year-old banyan tree resonated like thunder.

When it caught the familiar soul wavelength along the fragments of Hep's memory, the vines at the tip of its tail suddenly burst out with spring thunder, splitting the rotten wood fifty meters away into charcoal.

[This smell... is similar to the one in my memory, but mixed with the smell of embers]

For the first time, Vine Snake's voice rippled, as if a broken picture flashed through his consciousness.

Hep gestured subconsciously, trying to calm the other person down.

"Her name is Huohong, her hair is burning red, her eyes are like molten gold, and she is followed by a bear that is always cursing..."

The tip of the vine snake's tail suddenly trembled violently, and the fluorescent veins under its scales exploded like electric current. It swam closer, and its gilded vertical pupils almost touched the tip of Hep's nose.

Where is she now?

Xiaoyou seized the opportunity and quickly recounted how Huohong defeated the Violent Turtle and confronted the Emperor of Dan in Shuizhou Town.

When it heard that Huohong was called the remnant of the disaster of Hoenn by Dan Di, the four-season light around the Teng Teng Snake suddenly merged into a ring of reincarnation, and the annual rings on the tree trunk began to rotate synchronously.

【The wait is finally over...】

There was an indescribable joy in Vine Snake's voice.

[I sensed the thread of fate! Take me to see her, the sooner the better. If she is really the one I am looking for, she may be able to answer my questions. By the way, why are you here?]

Xiaoyou suddenly grabbed Hep's hand, her lavender eyes reflecting the glass-like body of the Vine Snake. Hep took a deep breath and told the story of the sword and shield three thousand years ago that Yaluo mentioned, and the crisis of the loosening of the Gigantamax seal.

When the words "Wolf God" and "Sword and Shield" sounded, the vertical pupils of the vine snake suddenly reflected the direction deep in the forest, and the vines at the tip of its tail pointed directly to the north like a needle.

"The legendary sword and shield that protect Galar are sleeping in the deepest part of the Sleeping Forest..."

The vertical pupils of the vine snake suddenly shrank into slits, and the faint light around it suddenly turned into a solemn blue.

It turned and swam towards the deepest part of the forest. Wherever the vines swept past, the rotten leaves automatically parted to the sides, revealing a path covered with fluorescent moss.

【Follow me】

The sound of rotten leaves breaking on the soles of boots startled a group of fluorescent butterflies, with silver-blue light flowing between their wing veins. Hep and Xiaoyou followed the winding path of the vine snake, and every step they took was on the fluorescent path of the moss automatically folding. The ferns crawling on the ground were straightening their stems at a speed visible to the naked eye, building a half-man-high emerald archway at their feet.

"listen……"

Xiaoyou suddenly clenched Hep's wrist. A harp-like vibration came from deep in the forest. It was not the sound of the wind, nor the chirping of insects, but the resonance created by the friction of the annual rings of the thousand-year-old trees.

When the vine snake swam past the third giant banyan tree, the fluorescent veins on the bark suddenly lit up, outlining the same wishing star pattern as that on Hep's Gigantamax wristband.

But every scratch here is filled with solidified gum, glowing amber in the twilight, like blood and tears sealed for three thousand years.

The tip of the vine snake's tail suddenly stood up vertically, and the leaf-shaped end drew a complex trajectory in the air. In an instant, the giant trees on both sides made wooden groans at the same time, and their crowns tilted toward the center, forming a dome woven by branches and leaves.

“Are these trees… bowing?”

Hepp's voice was absorbed by the layers of fluorescent light, making it seem particularly ethereal.

He noticed that ancient Galar runes were emerging from the moss on the ground. With every step he took, the runes swam to the soles of his feet like living things, leaving a fleeting mark of sword and shield on the soles of his boots.

The scales of the Vine Snake were now flowing with winter ice crystals, condensing the surrounding mist into suspended prisms, and each ice crystal reflected fragments of the legend of Sword and Shield: Cang Xiang holding the Immortal Sword swung his sword to split the Gigantamax red cloud, and Zang Marant with grass braids raised his shield to protect the crying fawn.

When they stepped into the seventh concentric circle composed of growth rings, the vine snakes suddenly stopped. The core of the forest was a circular open space with twelve giant banyan trees forming an open-air altar around the center.

Hep suddenly felt his chest tighten - the Poké Ball on his waist was resonating, and the aura of the Chameleon and the Braided Sheep flowed along his arms towards the altar.

When he looked up, he found that the tip of the vine snake's tail was pointing to the center of the altar, where two wolf-shaped skeletons were lying prone. Their silver manes had long turned to dust, and only the diamond-shaped gems inlaid on their foreheads were still glowing, like two stars that would never go out.

There was a half-rusted sword stuck between the fangs of the wolf head on the left, and the blade was engraved with weathered Dynamite particle patterns; under the front paws of the wolf head on the right was a shield cracked into three petals, and the remaining patterns on the center of the shield were the prototype of the emblem of the Suchuan Town Gym. Now there was a half-charred feather stuck deep in the crack, perhaps it was the remaining feather of the Steel Crow from three thousand years ago.

"This is... the hero of Sword and Shield?"

Xiaoyou's voice was choked with sobs, and her fingertips touched the cracks on the shield, tears filling her eyes.

"Legend has it that they are just taking a nap in the forest, but now..."

Hep knelt in front of the skeleton of the Wolf God. The Galar dragon pattern on the scabbard had long been blurred, and the grass totem on the edge of the shield was also in tatters. Only two broken wishing stars lay quietly in the center of the altar - the surface of the dark red ore was solidified with golden blood stains that had long since dried.

Legend has it that the cruel truth was revealed under the moonlight. It turned out that the hero of the sword and shield had been sleeping here for three thousand years, never to return. Hep's Adam's apple rolled heavily as he swallowed the sourness.

"It's over. Everything is over. No more heroes of sword and shield will appear to stop the night from falling on Galar..."

Hep's nails dug deep into the rust on the hilt, and his chestnut hair fell down to cover his red eyes.

He once heard his elder brother Dantei say that Galar's faith was nothing more than a fairy tale woven by the Alliance, but when the legend took shape as the corrupt sword and shield before him, the pain of the collapse of faith was far more heartbreaking than he had imagined.

The vine snake coiled around the edge of the altar, and the tip of its tail lightly touched the gem on the wolf god's forehead, and the faint light of the four seasons flowed into the bones like water.

[Don't be sad, what decays are bones, what is immortal is courage, the cycle of life never stops, swords will decay, shields will shatter, but the spark of inheritance will never go out, their souls have long been integrated into the roots of the forest, guarding this land for thousands of years, look——]

As it spoke, new sprouts suddenly sprouted between the ribs of the Wolf God skeleton, withered yellow grass leaves sprouted at the joints of the skeleton, and even a lily of the valley poked its head out from the crack of the shield. When the vine snake swam over the altar, the Wolf God skeleton on the altar suddenly made a sound of metal and stone.

The teeth of the wolf head on the left trembled slightly, and the rusty sword actually made a humming sound. The dead leaves on the sword tassel instantly came to life, and pulled out a few strands of emerald vines like the vine snake; the front paw of the wolf head on the right raised half an inch, and dewdrops oozed from the cracks on the shield. Each drop reflected the Galar map. Those areas that were dyed red by the Dynamax were gradually fading in the dewdrops.

[Thunder will awaken dormant seeds, and fire can bring decay back to life. The will of a hero never lies in whether the body is intact, but in whether someone is willing to take over their sword and shield.]

Hep looked up suddenly and found that two fluorescent lights had appeared in the pupils of the wolf god's skeleton, as if responding to the surging fire in his heart.

He remembered the determination when he transformed from a Lizard into a Chameleon in the Jiqing City Arena; he remembered the scent of lavender mixed with the smell of gunpowder when Xiaoyou hugged him in the ruins.

He reached out and grasped the rusty sword. The indentation on the hilt matched the lines on the palm of his hand perfectly, as if the three thousand years of waiting were for this moment.

Xiaoyou held the broken shield in her arms. Her lavender skirt moved without wind, casting a shadow of reborn grass on the surface of the shield. The remaining emerald light in the heart of the shield illuminated the corners of her moist eyes.

"But... they're already broken. How can we fight? Can we... can we really do this?"

The vine snake swam between the two of them, and the mystery of reincarnation condensed into a transparent cocoon on the surface of its body.

[A true shield is not used to resist harm, but to protect hope; a true sword is not used to kill enemies, but to split the fog. Galar's sun will not be extinguished by dark clouds, just as life will not be extinct in the cold winter. The heroes of the past were just mortals, and now it is your turn to take over this responsibility]

"I understand now. The sword and shield are not weapons, but beliefs."

Hep looked into the wolf god's empty eye sockets, but saw his own determined reflection in them.

His hand holding the rusty sword was oozing with blood, but his smile was brighter than ever - it turns out that the real miracle is never the relics left by the gods, but the burning light in the eyes of mortals when they take over the relics.

The vertical pupils of the vine snake curved into crescents, and the tip of its tail curled up two rays of fluorescence, which merged into the fragments of the sword and shield respectively. In the moonlight, the skeleton of the wolf god suddenly made a low hum, and the dewdrops on the treetops fell at the same time, forming a river of light under the feet of Hep and Xiaoyou.

Fragments of rusty swords and broken shields floated in the air, slowly rotating around them and drifting away with the wind, as if a medal awarding ceremony spanning three thousand years was being held.

As dusk deepened, Hep and Xiaoyou stood in front of the altar, the swords and shields in their hands still dripping with fluorescence, and the gilded vertical pupils of the vine snakes reflected the rising moon.

[The road is long and arduous, it’s time to set off]

Hepu and Xiaoyou looked at each other, turned around and started their journey home. The mist in the Weimei Forest dissipated quietly, and the moonlight gilded the backs of the three people.

The skeleton of the wolf god behind them gradually blurred in the fluorescent light, leaving only the outlines of the sword and shield, casting long shadows on their shoulders, like the reincarnation of the backs of the pair three thousand years ago...

(End of this chapter)