Sophia desperately tugged at her father's gray coat, acting like a childish little girl. She tried to pull Jacob up from the dusty ancient stone floor. The girl who had seemed so fierce when Lara first met her was now in tears. She was the admired role model for all the young people in the village, a strong warrior who led her people in battles against outsiders—yet now, she was powerless. No matter how accurate her arrows were, they couldn't solve this problem. In her heart, she kept asking herself whether she had neglected her father too much in the past—she had always thought of him as the invincible Prophet. For over a thousand years, he had led their people through countless hardships with his wisdom, but no one had ever known the exhaustion buried deep within his soul. The Divine Source could heal his body, but it couldn't mend his spirit. The accidental death of his wife had carved a deep, unhealable wound into his already fragile mind.
"I'm really tired. I'm just an ordinary man," Jacob said, lowering his head. Pale sunlight streamed through a small hole at the top of the observation tower, isolating him and Solomon within the desolate-smelling building. "Even if you gave me all this knowledge, my mind is still that of a mortal. You can't ask more of me, my lord. My mission is complete. The damned curse you gave me should end now."
Sophia stepped back, drew her longbow, and pointed the arrowhead at Solomon. Through her teary eyes, she glared at the sorcerer, until in the blink of an eye, Catherine's longsword was at her neck. The artificial human wore a grim expression as she placed her finger on the activation button—one press, and this young, firm neck and beautiful red hair would be severed and shredded into a bloody mess by sharp serrated blades. But neither Solomon nor Jacob paid attention to the confrontation beside them; they simply looked into each other's eyes.
"This is our first meeting, but I'll see you again in the future," Solomon said with a smile. "Only, by then, I'll be the one who remembers everything. I'm sure my future self will mock you a bit."
"You already did," Jacob sighed in relief, a smile spreading across his cheeks, lingering in the wrinkles around his eyes.
"I think we both need some time," Solomon said as he bent down, gently pressing his hand on Jacob's shoulder. A thousand years of vigilance would be a tremendous burden for any mortal—something even a Supreme Mage could not endure. This kind of pain had nothing to do with flowers, sunlight, or anything beautiful and new; it was about listening to the endless howls of your own soul rotting away, enduring nightmare after nightmare in the pitch-black silence of the night. Time becomes confused in memory, and sometimes it's impossible to tell memory from reality. "I know what immortality feels like. But now's not the time," Solomon sighed, thinking of the Exalted One. "Jacob, you still have a little time. I think the reason my future self told you that you'd have a daughter was probably to give you more time to enjoy your family. That's important—it's the only thing we truly have in this lonely universe and dark future."
"I'm sorry you'll have to face that future alone," Jacob said.
"It's all right. I've been prepared for it since the day I was born. What about your decision?"
"Time is a cycle, isn't it? The choice I made won't change."
"At least not now, Jacob," Solomon said. "You still have time to write greeting cards, drink wine, go skydiving. Until this mission is complete, you still have time. Let's finish off the Trinity forces here first. How about it?"
"Deal, my lord," Jacob leapt up, lighthearted and cheerful, as if he'd returned to the young man Solomon had once met in the future. "The reason I brought you here is because this place leads to the Lost City. Everything you're looking for is there. The engineers who built it left behind a map. This observation tower was where they supervised the construction. You need to find the imaging equipment they left behind, and you'll get the map to the Lost City. I don't know what you left for yourself, but I'm sure you had your reasons."
"See? I told you we still had unfinished business. If I'd agreed earlier, would you have told me this then?"
"You'd have figured it out on your own anyway, wouldn't you?" Jacob said with a chuckle, shaking his head. "Sophia, we should welcome our guest. Let the young people enjoy the food he brought—we need a celebration!"
"You're not going to kill yourself anymore?" Sophia asked, wide-eyed.
"Don't be silly. I'm the undying Prophet."
Solomon looked at Lara Croft. "You don't need to go all-out this time, my dear archaeologist," he said. "You can take your time exploring—no detail will be missed. I promise you, you'll learn everything you want to know."
"Even the gift you left for yourself?"
"Mmhmm, that's not happening," Solomon raised an eyebrow, wondering what his future self might have left behind. The idea was like making a wish—whatever he needed now, his future self would try to prepare for it. It sounded silly, but that's how it worked.
All the carrier-based aircraft had already been deployed. However, to minimize damage to the terrain, the Sisterhood had to rely on the firepower of the assault shuttles themselves and air-dropped special ops squads to clear out the mercenaries hiding in the mountains. Bullets from ordinary people couldn't pierce the girls' armor. Kevlar vests and ceramic plates were no match for .50 caliber explosive rounds. Paired with strafing from the sky carrier's under-mounted cannons, all resistance was flattened in an instant—Trinity's leader, Konstantin, had tried to fight back, but after the sky carrier fired a macro-cannon barrage that triggered an avalanche and caused a slight tilt in the vessel's hull, no one dared continue resisting.
The sky carrier's first combat trial was only against a few armed helicopters, but it revealed urgent issues that engineers in the Immortal City needed to address. There were still plenty of creative military designs awaiting implementation, but Solomon decided to slow things down and carefully review past mistakes.
There is no room for error on the battlefield. Mistakes mean death.
He didn't stay in Siberia for long.
After confirming that nearly all Trinity mercenaries had been eliminated, Solomon returned to the Immortal City aboard the sky carrier. He left behind a Sisterhood elite squad, several assault shuttles, and a large amount of supplies to ensure the girls would bring back what he needed. Of course, the most important element was Phoenix, who bore responsibility for overseeing the entire operation.
Lara took an intrigued tour of the miraculous underground Roman city before following Solomon into the prison—where her stepmother and Trinity's leader Konstantin were being held. Solomon intended to extract detailed information about Trinity from the two of them. Anna, Lara's stepmother, looked deeply despondent after her capture. Medical staff in the Immortal City informed Solomon that Anna's health condition was poor. Konstantin initially displayed symptoms of mania, but quickly sank into a trance-like obsession with prayer.
"Sounds like an Oxford University student club to me. I'm quite sure Trinity's headquarters is in the UK, and most of their members studied at Oxford," Solomon said, waving his hand dismissively. His expression was tinged with mockery—it was hard to imagine what kind of psychological shock he'd just endured. Even if someone did know, all they could do was marvel at his extraordinary mental resilience. "I can smell the stupidity of those nagging seminary zealots. I was a physics major, after all."
------------------
Enjoying the story? Support the author and get early access to chapters by joining my Patre@n!
Find me at: patre@n*com/Mutter
You can read each novel for $5 or get them all for just $15.
Fairy Tail: Igneel's Eldest Son (Chapter 256)
I Am Thalos, Odin's Older Brother (Chapter 336)
Reborn in America's Anti-Terror Unit (Chapter 542)
Solomon in Marvel (Chapter 924)
Becoming the Wealthiest Tycoon on the Planet (Chapter 1284)
Surgical Fruit in the American Comics Universe (Chapter 1289)
American Detective: From TV Rookie to Seasoned Cop (Chapter 1316)
American TV Writer (Chapter 1402)
I Am Hades, The Supreme GOD of the Underworld! (Chapter 570)
Reborn as Humanity's Emperor Across the Multiverse (Chapter 660)
[+50 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[+5 Reviews = +1 Extra Chapter]