Astartes of the Bear School

Chapter 1904, Section 1876: The Oracle

Sir Bai Zhi did not respond to the question Lan En casually mentioned, but Lan En could still vaguely sense his pessimistic mood by looking at the supernatural darkness under his helmet.

Without saying anything more, Bai Zhi prepared to lead Lan En to the deepest room in the Round Table Hall to meet the legendary Two Fingers.

But just as the two of them turned and walked into the fortress.

"...!?" *2
Lann and Sir Baizhi, who were about to step into the Round Table Hall, stopped in their tracks and turned their upper bodies back to look at the inner high walls of Rodel outside the fortress.

On this city wall, countless ribbons of light suddenly appeared from somewhere in the sky.

The bands of light intertwined with the fallen leaves of the golden tree, creating a dreamlike scene.

Amid the chaos in Rodel, many people who had experienced the previous night and were feeling disoriented and emotionally turbulent all spontaneously stepped out of their homes.

With their hands clasped together in front of their chests in a posture of devout prayer, they hoped that the golden light would bring them faith and bring them the peace and joy they had felt the day before.

They prayed that the glorious Golden Age of Law would not end, that this eternal life and stable cycle would not collapse.

They knelt on the avenue of Rodel, praying to the golden ribbons of light that descended from the sky, believing that this might be some kind of revelation or expectation shown to them by Queen Marika.

But Lan En and Bai Zhi both came to the street, and the two of them stood in the crowd of people kneeling down, looking at the bands of light.

And... his expression showed absolutely no joy or peace.

Lan En's eyes swept across the majestic city of Rodel, spotting the points where the trailing beams of light would land.

Actually, given his current position below the city wall, he shouldn't be able to see much.

However, these light bands seemed to be positioned specifically to be seen, as they mostly landed on the inner edge of the city wall, or even on the outward-protruding parts.

Within that band of light, some strange images began to appear.

Lan En felt that those non-human beings looked like snowmen or the mascots of Mixue Ice Cream.

Two white spheres, one large and one small, are connected together, with two slender arms extending out, holding golden musical instruments resembling flutes.

They played the flute, and golden, shimmering bubbles emerged from its spout, drifting down into the white city along with the falling leaves of the golden tree.

“The oracle…messenger.”

Beneath Gideon Ofnir's helmet, the voice emanating from the darkness was almost a sigh.

“Yes,” Lann said, looking in the same direction as him, confirming his words, “the Oracle.”

Lan En saw the inhuman orchestra with his own eyes, while Bai Zhi knew what was going on just by looking at the band of light in the sky, the flute playing in the air, and the golden bubbles.

The Oracles are a non-human band.

In the legends of the borderlands, when the messengers of the oracle appeared and blew the golden flutes in their hands...

That signifies a new deity or a new era.

In other words, the appearance of the divine messenger, like the [Guardian Spirit - Qilin] on Lan En's body, is a sign and anomaly symbolizing a huge change in the times and the world!
The problem now is that if it were a chaotic world where order had collapsed and people were in a state of chaos, their appearance would be perfectly reasonable, and even something that people would welcome.

But when is it now?
Just one night ago, the Golden Dynasty was still at its eternal peak!
The Golden Law still applies to the Elden Ring!
Queen Marika remains a unique deity in this world!
The divine messengers have now appeared... What does this mean?!

Lan En looked at the people of the Golden Tree kneeling on the broken street and was speechless: Did they even know what the object of their prayers symbolized?
They wanted to pray for the Golden Age to last forever, but ended up praying about a symbol of the changing of the times.
The uproar and commotion caused by the appearance of the oracle is growing ever larger.

Lan En patted Sir Hundred Wisdom on the shoulder and winked at him toward the round table hall.

Sir Hundred is not a slow-witted fool; on the contrary, he is perhaps one of the most intelligent people in the entire Borderlands.

He immediately understood what Lan En meant.

In the ordinary world, such symbols of changing times often appear because of the so-called 'transition of worldly affairs and change of destiny'. But at the crossroads, this phenomenon can be attributed to a specific object.

That is the supreme will.

Ultimately, the golden meteor sent down by the supreme will created all living beings in the world today. It also condensed and materialized the principles governing the world into a [Elden Ring].

And now, isn't there one of those two fingers that can communicate directly with the supreme will right here in the Round Table Hall?

Without hesitation, Gideon Ophniel immediately led Lann away from the street where more and more believers were gathering, and quickly entered the Hall of the Round Table.

Walking all the way to the deepest room, behind the tightly closed door behind the round table with the sword, Baizhi personally pushed open the heavy door and went inside.

Originally, the audience between the Faded One and the Two Fingers should have been a simple yet solemn occasion. But now, with a series of explosive events happening overnight, Rodel simply didn't have time for such formalities.

The door creaked open, revealing the scene inside to Lan En.

A red carpet stretched from the entrance to the deepest part of the room. There were more than a dozen chairs on either side of the carpet, presumably used when the fading people were present.

But now the chairs on both sides of the red carpet are empty, except for the throne at the end of the red carpet, and the seat below the throne, where something is safely placed.

The reason he called it 'thing'... Lan En wasn't an impolite person, but that was really the only way he could describe what he saw.

【Two fingers】It is indeed two fingers.

It was a slender hand, four or five meters tall, with only two long fingers.

This hand doesn't look like it was cut from a whole hand; there are no wounds on it, it just looks like this.

The tips of both fingers are neatly trimmed and look very healthy and tidy.

He stood before the throne, seemingly only borrowing the vision of the throne as the 'ruler,' without actually sitting down due to his physical structure.

Below Him was an old woman, withered and emaciated, almost curled up in a ball, with empty, dark eye sockets, and her whole body no bigger than two or three babies.

This is what is known as the "Jiezhi" (解指) at the border.

Two fingers can communicate with the supreme will, but He Himself does not have a vocal organ, so He needs to "unfing" to relay the words of two fingers to the people.

Therefore, even before the Golden Age of Law arrived, the two fingers bestowed upon [the Unbound Finger] the blessing of immortality.

Immortality seems to be very easy to achieve in this world. At least in Lan En's understanding, [Jiezhi] should be an interpreter who translates the sign language of two fingers.

But even this can grant immortality.

"grown ups!"

Gideon led Lann in, and they came to the huge, thin hand, whereupon they bowed respectfully.

He clearly wanted to say something, but before he could continue speaking, Jie Zhi, whose thin arm was supporting him with a wooden cane, interrupted him with an aged but clear voice.

"So you're the new Faded One? You must be tired from your journey. I'm Enya, the Finger Unraveler. Look closely, the Finger Master is trembling slightly; that's His way of welcoming you."

While Enya was speaking, Sir Baizhi glanced at Shuangzhi, who was trembling slightly, and Lan En, then stepped back, indicating that Shuangzhi should communicate with Lan En first.

Lan En watched this scene without showing any emotion.

To bypass the introducer and speak directly to the person being introduced. In a conversational setting, this almost explicitly indicates that there is more to say to the introducer, but the conversation will be postponed for now.

Suppress until the person being introduced has finished speaking.

“I am honored,” he said modestly. “This is also the first time in my memory that I have ever seen the legendary two fingers.”

"Let's skip the formalities," Enya chuckled. "Come on, listen carefully to what Master Finger has to say."

Suddenly, Enya's voice changed.

Although she was frighteningly large, she was a kind old woman in terms of both voice and tone.

However, perhaps due to her long-standing professional habits as a translator, when repeating Shuangzhi's words, she deliberately downplayed her emotions and made her voice much deeper.

"Although I have never seen you, there are no traces of blessing on you, so you are undoubtedly a faded one."

"I have heard that you are accompanied by a wise beast, which is truly the quality of a king. You should strive harder and make even greater progress."

"Especially now that [Gold] Godwin is dead and the Golden Law is in turmoil, your cooperation is even more necessary."

Words that could cause a huge uproar, spoken so casually and without any ripples, came from Enya's mouth. Perhaps, as the "Unbound Finger" who was granted immortality, she had said countless such explosive words in her life.
But Lan En, who was standing below, and Bai Zhi, who was standing next to him, both suddenly raised their heads.

“Lord Twofinger,” Lann cautioned, “isn’t it a bit premature to say that? Queen Marika only took the prince’s body to the Deep Roots a few hours ago, hoping to heal his soul.”

Enya's empty eye sockets looked in the direction of the two fingers without turning her head, and then she spoke in a tone that was adjusted when relaying the words.

"But it was Marika's foolishness that made the current situation irreversible... No, perhaps it can't be called foolishness, because neither she nor I obviously expected that taking the body of that soulless prince to the tree root under the Golden Law would bring such a result."

“Death, an abnormal death, has already entered the prince’s body and become entangled with the tree roots, and will spread uncontrollably.”

"The Golden Law forbids the death of demigods, so at the roots of the great tree, where the golden tree is rooted, powerful life force continuously flows into the body of the Soulless Prince. But the soul within that body is already dead, so that force instead strengthens the filthy, dead flesh."

"And the power of that dead flesh spread through the tree roots that were everywhere."

"The Golden Law has a loophole! A mistake! This is an undeniable and undeniable truth."

"Therefore, I can only send down the divine messenger to begin tolling the bells for a new era."

(End of this chapter)