Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 364 Lost Hometown
"Your Highness, there's another letter from home." Anasia stood outside the temporary office and reminded softly.

The two elders of the Hall of Mystic Arts in the room looked at each other, stood up and saluted Lucia, saying, "Your Highness, this is roughly what our clan records about Esti's early life. If you have any questions, you can summon us at any time in the future."

"Thank you for your hard work, elders. It's enough for now to know this much," Lucia smiled and sent them out. "But since Victor and Selina were killed, there is a lot of work to be done in Ceria. The Hall of Mystic Arts needs to take more care of it."

The two elders quickly bowed their heads in agreement and retreated respectfully.

Looking at the receding backs of the two elderly Black King and White King, the guess that had been lingering in Lucia's mind for many days was finally verified - just as he thought when analyzing Esti, the notorious evil god of the starry sky was actually a member of the "Sons of the Stars" in his early years.

Although the records of their ancestors by the descendants of the Black King and the White King are incomplete in many places, by combining the information from the Memory Battlefield with intelligence from other sources, many truths can still be pieced together.

More than three thousand years ago, the Black King, the White King, and the Crystal Man were originally an alien race with the same origin, the "Children of the Stars", and Esti was the strongest of this race at that time.

Later, after a disaster not recorded in history, the Children of the Stars were almost wiped out. Only Esti completed the transition of life level, successfully mastered the law of gravity, and became a new god on par with several ancient gods.

Later, it was not a mythical story of a new god leading the people who survived the disaster to rise again, but a sudden massacre.

Eight out of ten of the remaining Star Children died at the hands of the star beasts, and only one in ten escaped and managed to survive by taking shelter under the Moon God.

It seems that Esti does not want to let go of these former compatriots. The God of the Starry Sky, who is at the peak of his power, unscrupulously challenges the more ancient God of March. The fight between the two sides has spread from the depths of the universe to outside the border.

Summarizing information from all sides, perhaps the beginning of the Star-Moon Era - the meteor shower witnessed by the ancient stargazers, was originally the aftermath of the battle between the Star God and the Moon God. It was precisely because of the horror she witnessed in the depths of the starry sky on the top of the snowy mountain that Esti became an indelible nightmare in the minds of the Origin lineage.

In the end, the battle was undecided. Whether it was the surviving descendants of the former Son of the Star or the people from the borderland who were spectators, they only knew that Esti had fled far away and disappeared into the depths of the starry sky.

The God of March guided his own clan and the Sons of the Stars to land on an isolated island in the Storm Sea along with a meteor. After merging with the native race of the border area called "Rare People", they became the source of the Star-Moon Civilization.

There are still too many details that need to be supplemented in this ancient history, and it is impossible to complete it in a short time, but Lucia can at least draw the most critical conclusion from it -

Gods are not, at least not all of them, innate lives born from nothingness. For example, Esti, through some unknown means, "ascended" with a mortal body and became the god of the starry sky who controls the law of gravity.

This means that there may never be any insurmountable chasm between those high and mighty external gods and mortals, and even the divine power itself, which is regarded as a symbol of the authority of the gods, may not truly belong to the gods who monopolize them.

He couldn't help but think of those clergymen who had lost their power due to "loss of faith". Was it because they betrayed the trust of the gods and lost the grace given to them, or was it because of their "usurpation" that the gods cut off the power that should have belonged to them?

By extension, does such a power flow relationship also exist between the gods that originated in the border areas and their believers?
If it were still the era of revival when the gods were fighting each other, Lucia could still capture a few wild gods for research. Unfortunately, those local gods running around everywhere had already been wiped out by Marica and Catepera, and it was basically impossible to find any examples for research. Only when he thoroughly deciphered the forbidden inheritance left by Esti would he have the opportunity to further explore the mystery.

"Forget it, don't think too much about it." Lucia sighed silently, took the "letter" from Anacia, and said casually: "Guess what's inside?"

"Same old." Anacia replied. "Well, I guess there are just a few more names."

When he opened the letter, it turned out to be, as he had expected, a petition signed by three elders of Fam Azra and more than thirty elders. It contained thousands of words, but in the end it was just one thing - asking Lucia to move to the Sky City immediately and be crowned the Dragon King.

Lucia glanced at the list at the end and sneered, "This time, even Elder Ochris was persuaded by them. It's really rare."

He flicked the heavy report, placed it on the table, and said, "After submitting the report three times, what do you think is different, Anna?"

“Different people, different positions, and different goals,” Anassia summarized succinctly.

"Initially, there were nearly a hundred people who submitted the petition, but they were all young and inexperienced young men in the court, and most of them were not members of the Council of Elders."

"They heard about your heroic deeds of slaying the evil god and expanding the territory by thousands of miles, and their blood boiled and their hearts surged. Therefore, they wanted your Highness to ascend the throne as soon as possible and lead the dynasty to restore its former glory as soon as possible. It is worth mentioning that it was these people who opposed your Highness's entry into the Golden Capital as a hostage and were willing to go to war with the Golden Dynasty for this."

"Yes," Lucia nodded, "A sharp blade just out of the furnace is hot and sharp, but if it is not quenched, it will be too hard and easy to break."

"Yes, so His Highness wrote a reply letter specifically for them, detailing the preparations that must be made before becoming king. Except for a few stupid people, we haven't seen them since the second time they submitted the letter."

"Correspondingly, the second petition was led by the Ancient Dragon Elder Kaironissa, who proposed that Your Highness's alliance with Kalia to annex the Eastern Territory would inevitably lead to a counterattack from the Golden Dynasty. We must return to Fam Yazra as soon as possible to command the ministers and mobilize the whole country to deal with the possible invasion of Asia and the Southern Territory. Only one elder needs to be sent to guard the Eastern Territory."

"To be honest, I think this group of people sensed that Your Highness is not strict with those who persuade him to ascend the throne through the first petition. At the same time, seeing that Priest Lance has not returned to the court for a long time, the long-extinguished ambition in their hearts has been rekindled. They are also worried that if the priest helps Your Highness to quickly establish a solid foundation in the East, there will be no reason for him to interfere in the East in the future."

"Their petition seems reasonable, but in fact they just want to invite you back to Fam Azra as soon as possible, and then take over all the affairs of the East Territory in the name of the Elders Council. On the one hand, they want to cut off the inseparable relationship between Your Highness and Kalia and the two Highnesses Michaela and Marenia, or at least slow down the speed of our three-party communication. On the other hand, they want to gradually reduce your control over the East Territory and pave the way for some plans that dare not be announced."

"Your Highness did not respond to them, so the third petition was made. Although Elder Okris only holds three seats, his prestige and authority are actually higher than those of Kaironissa and others. The purpose of the second group of people remained the same, but they used a different approach to persuade the most experienced senior officials in the court, and then used this to put pressure on Your Highness."

"This time their reasons echoed my thoughts," Lucia exhaled softly, "Not only does Fam Azra need a new king, but those displaced people who are wandering around the world are even more in need of a king who can lead them back home. In the past, my status was not enough, and my prestige and qualifications were even less than that. Now the latter are enough. I really need a name to do all this legitimately."

"But these seniors don't know that the world contained in His Highness's heart is far greater than they imagined."

Lucia crossed her fingers, leaned back in her chair, stared at the map hanging on the wall opposite her, and sighed, "Yes."

"Fam Azra has been lost for too long, so long that even her oldest children have forgotten that she was once the center of the world. And her people who are scattered abroad are more than just the millions of survivors they call 'lost people'?"

(End of this chapter)