Xingmei's fingers traced the guestbook, and she subconsciously flipped to the very last page.
"Xingmei-chan, I'm going on a journey to a very distant place. I don't know when I'll be back... but I will definitely come back for you! Wait for me—you can wait anywhere you like—and you must stay alive and well during this time! This is your only mission."
Following this passage was a long blank space, with only a single scratch mark that betrayed the writer's intense emotion. At the bottom of the page, a line of crooked characters was written: "I'm sorry for being so selfish and leaving you to endure this loneliness."
"She will return," Raven said suddenly.
"Ah!" Xingmei slammed the book shut with a thud. "Y-You saw that?"
"I didn't mean to eavesdrop—well, alright, I was peeking," Raven admitted. Within the sensory range of his 'Blind Spot' skill, the raised characters on the page were as clear as day.
He paused and spoke in a solemn tone, "In the next millennium, your mistress will return to Nokstella. You will meet again."
"The next millennium?" Xingmei gave a strained smile. "I know you're just trying to comfort—"
"One thousand years from now, I promise," Raven said, striding ahead. "All the Nox people will return and rebuild the Eternal City. If you don't believe me, surely you still believe in your mistress?"
"Yes, Mistress promised she would return." Xingmei clutched the guestbook and trotted after Raven. "The next millennium... Xingmei will keep waiting."
They returned to the rooftop, but Lilith was no longer there. From the edge of the terrace, they could see a row of thick pipes jutting out from the exterior wall. Sixteen waterfalls plummeted into the artificial channels, merging into the rushing Ainsel River.
The Troll leaned on his iron hammer, quietly watching this spectacle. It wasn't until the flow of water gradually diminished that he finally set his hammer down, sat where he was, and slowly lowered his head.
"Wait a moment!" Xingmei shouted at him. "The people of Nox will return! They haven't truly left! Big guy, don't go to sleep—don't you want to help rebuild the city?"
"I do not wish to die, but I wish even less... to live in loneliness," the Troll's head shifted slightly as he whispered. "If the day for rebuilding the city ever comes, wake me up then."
His body began to melt into silver steam, eventually condensing into a small sphere of metal that lay quietly on the street, reflecting the starlight of Nokstella.
"Wake him up?" Raven heard the Troll's final words. "Does that mean he can return to his Troll form and is only in temporary hibernation?"
Xingmei nodded, then shook her head.
"His memories and data are copied and preserved; the information can be read to return him to his previous form. Because he would possess his complete memories, others wouldn't even notice a difference. But for the Silver Tear itself, that past consciousness has truly perished. The newborn consciousness would be an entirely different Tear."
"I see," Raven said. He suddenly felt the floor vibrate slightly; the entire building seemed to be sinking.
"Xingmei, what did you mean by 'sealing the facility' earlier?"
"The pool area will sink into the earth and be locked behind a metal grid."
"I think you should have mentioned that sooner," Raven leaped up. "Prepare to leave this place!"
He jumped from the rooftop. Using the 'Rock Blaster' sorcery of the Carian miners, he quickly cleared the rubble from the entrance and rushed into the first-floor hall.
By the time he snatched the Sword of Night and Flame from the crushed locker, the entire first floor was nearly submerged into the ground. The main entrance was almost completely sealed by earth and stone, leaving only a half-meter gap at the very top through which starlight filtered. Liquid metal trickled down from cracks in the ceiling, pooling on the floor and threatening to submerge his boots in an instant.
Raven sprinted toward the exit, his footsteps sending up massive splashes of liquid metal. Strands of metal clung to the soles of his boots, pulling into long threads, but they couldn't slow his pace. As he reached the exit, he performed a Fosbury flop, his body nearly parallel to the ground as he slid through the gap just before the floor sank completely.
Pressing his hand against the ground, Raven landed gracefully on the street and shouted up toward the roof: "Jump! I'll catch you!"
There was no response.
Raven frowned slightly and ran vertically up the wall back to the rooftop. He found Xingmei facing the Ainsel River, her hands gripping the railing, seemingly having forgotten that the building was sinking.
"Hey, it's time to go!" Raven grabbed her arm, but his eyes were momentarily dazzled by a flash of light on the river. He focused his gaze and saw streaks of silver light weaving through the waves, swimming upstream from the lower reaches.
"Silver-glow fish!" Xingmei cried out. "They... they aren't extinct! And they've developed such a large population in the wild!"
A silver tide surged across the river. One after another, the silver-glow fish leaped from the water, unfurling translucent dual fins to glide through the air on the currents kicked up by their companions ahead, in turn providing updrafts for those behind them.
"They must be here to welcome their companion—to welcome the fish from the aquarium." Xingmei broke into a smile. "The records said silver-glow fish could glide over the water for long periods, but I had never seen it and thought the data was wrong. It turns out they only glide like this when they return to their school and move together over the wide river."
Raven didn't think the fish would mobilize on such a scale just to welcome back a single member of their species. It was more likely that something had happened downstream in the Lake of Rot, forcing the school to migrate. However, he much preferred Xingmei's theory.
"This is a good omen," Raven smiled. "A thousand years from today, this abandoned aquarium will rise from the earth and reopen. New species from the underground world will fill every tank, and visitors will flock here every day, filling the halls with children's laughter."
"Yes," Xingmei added eagerly, her eyes full of longing. "That day will be designated as an annual anniversary. A band led by Mistress will perform in the main hall on the first floor, the notes of the flute sonata carrying through the hydrophones to the breakwater. There, the silver-glow fish will leap and dance to the music—eek!"
Raven grabbed her arm and used 'Bloodhound's Step' to teleport seven or eight meters away from the terrace. Xingmei let out a small cry of surprise, only to find she had descended a few meters and landed on solid ground.
Behind them, the aquarium rumbled as it sank into the fractured earth. Silver liquid metal flowed from several pipes, pouring into the pits left in the road, completely submerging the building. Finally, all that remained was a pool of liquid metal, its surface perfectly level with the surrounding stone pavement, gradually solidifying and hardening.
Witnessing this, Raven felt certain once more that this aquarium was anything but ordinary.
Suddenly, many bubbles rose from the smooth surface of the metal. The bubbles grew more frequent until a perfectly round sphere emerged from beneath, about four meters in diameter, floating atop the liquid metal.
Seeing the transparent crystal panels on the sphere that looked like windows, Raven said in surprise, "Could this be—"
"The research vessel Far-Sight. After it was decommissioned, it served as the aquarium's tour boat," Xingmei explained. "Don't let its round shape fool you; it moves very fast underwater and can easily withstand the pressure at depths of several thousand meters. When the Director was young, he used it to sail down the Ainsel River to the sea and map the seabed."
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring
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