Book 4: Chapter 171: Truth
Book 4: Chapter 171: Truth
Book 4: Chapter 171: Truth
Lilith’s expression darkened as anger washed over her.
It was not like she had not thought about all the bizarre things that had happened during her time in this world. However, the hints were all fragmented. She could vaguely piece the truth together, but it was like looking at a flower in the fog, she could only see its vague outline.
“Who are you exactly?”
After thinking for so long, Lilith found herself asking the same biggest question she had; the very same one that contained the ultimate philosophy of this world. If Titan 12138 had been putting up an act, then Lilith had to start over from square one.
It was very likely that these titans were actually an elaborate lie.
“Who am I exactly? Titan 12138 of course, your majesty’s most loyal subject.”
Titan 12138 looked at Lilith earnestly and spoke sincerely, “Everything I do is for the king, for the entire titan clan.”
Lilith snorted coldly. “For me? By using smoke bomb on me so I can’t fight back? This is the weaker version of what you used on me when I first arrived in this world, right? Apart from Cornelia’s Hypnosis Incense, your strange smoke is the only one that could incapacitate even me.”
While saying that, Lilith tried her best to circulate the qi and blood in her body. Unfortunately, the incense thickened the blood in her body into cement. Even with the absence of meridians in her body, it was hard for it to flow through her body due to its stickiness.
If Lilith was in this state, Lesiah was in a worse state. She was so weak that she was already down on the ground. Her eyes were glazed over like she was going to lose her consciousness at any moment.
Her beautiful face was dirty because the ground was muddy. In just the blink of an eye, the honorable princess was reduced into nothing more than a pitiful beggar on the ground.
The pitiful state that Lesiah was in immediately ignited the murderous intent in Lilith. She was even tempted to use the ancestor’s power but she resisted the urge, perhaps because she was still hoping that Titan 12138 would give her a reasonable explanation. One that could convince Lilith to spare her life.
“It seems like you still don’t believe me, your majesty. That’s fine. The preparation should be almost ready. Let me show you… my loyalty.” Titan 12138 looked in the direction of the village, then suddenly raised her arms. Her wide sleeves slid down, revealing her thin arms that were covered by strange pictures.
A white column of light came down from the sky above the village and something rose slowly in the light pillar. With Lilith’s vision, she could vaguely identify that it was the statue of a young girl.
A bad feeling welled up in Lilith’s heart. The moment she realized that she had to act, a similar white column of light came down from the sky above her and bathed her in its light. She could immediately feel her ancestor’s power being forcefully suppressed.
Alarm blared in Lilith’s heart, but her body would not cooperate. She found herself rooted to the spot.
The pictures covering Titan 12138’s arms and palms slowly glowed brighter and brighter, bridging the two columns of light together.
The one shining down on the village nearby shrank, while the one shining down on Lilith expanded at speed visible to the naked eye.
Although Lilith was alarmed, she did not feel any discomfort. The light that shone down on her felt as pleasantly warm as the sun in spring.
Her thickened blood started thinning until it could flow like normal again. Even though she still could not move, she felt refreshed.
A faint prayer then rang out in unison, every chant purified her mind.
“What is this?” Lilith asked in shock.
“The power of faith,” Titan 12138 explained.
“The power of faith?!”
Lilith looked at Titan 12138 in shock, only to see the old titan wearing a smile which Lilith had never seen before. There was regret, pain, joy and relief, all mixed in it. No one knew what was the story behind this smile, but anyone who saw it would know there must be a lot of stories behind one that looked like this.
“That’s right, your majesty. This is the power of faith that the titan clan has accumulated for the past one thousand years. Please, accept all of it.”
The old titan waved her hands around like a fanatic, then laughed loudly while tears streamed down her face.
The column of light expanded bigger. Many short figures emerged around Lilith, in the valley and from the graves. All of them faced Lilith then slowly kneeled down.
These were all the dead titans, with a passionate look on their faces. What stirred Lilith’s heart the most was the fact that she had seen all those faces before.
What… was going on?
She did not even have much time to think, because every time one of the titans kneeled, the intensity of the light shining on her increased.
It felt so good that she almost moaned. And… she could sense as though some kind of shackles within her body was about to be broken. She felt all light and airy.
“What… are you guys… doing?” Lilith squeezed the question through her teeth while trying hard to fight the intoxicating feeling in her body.
“You must be confused, your majesty.” Titan 12138 twisted her neck like she was a madman, then looked at Lilith at an unnatural angle. “Don’t you feel strange all over?”
“Cut… the crap!”
“Haha, then allow me to explain. I will tell you the story, king! All of it!” Titan 12138 was both laughing and crying.
“Where shall I begin? Ah, let’s start from the first lie I told you. I told you that I didn’t know if the second day of darkness would come. That was a lie. I actually knew that those black devils were not going to rest until they exterminated us.”
“Why do I know? Because… That was what happened a thousand years ago! On the third day after the king saved us and named all of the survivors, the black devils reappeared. But they didn’t come out in full force, so the king led us and fended them off.”
“Then it happened again… For the third, fourth, fifth time… They grew in numbers like there was no end to them. In the end, the king was finally overpowered by them. It was at that moment, she made a choice. She chose to save me. Me and me alone.”
The patterns on Titan 12138’s arms spread to her whole body. She looked like she was floating among the stars. Her withered hands gripped on the dazzling white silk cloth she wore, so hard that the veins on her hand bulged.
“The king bestowed upon me this cloth. It could conceal my presence, so that the black devils would not sense me. Then, she… vanished. I was left behind, to live in this world all alone. It was really lonely. So lonely that I could only sit on the ground everyday, counting the grass and how long it took for a leaf to fall.
“It continued until one day, I started to imagine that everyone was still around me. I began to think about their smile, their actions and the things they’d said before. I lost track of how long I continued to imagine, until… They really appeared around me.”
“Everyone was alive like nothing was wrong. It was almost as if the black devils never appeared. They lived their lives and built this village. And before I knew it, I became the matriarch.”
“Then a man in black appeared before me… He told me an unbelievable truth that I had no choice but to believe. He told me that everything around me wasn’t real. The people in my clan, and even myself weren’t real… We were just living in someone’s dream.”
“D-Dream?” Lilith echoed in disbelief.
“How could that be… If this was someone else’s dream… How did people like us from the real world enter here…?”
Titan 12137 sneered. “Because the dreamer is a deity. A powerful one at that. She dreamed for so long… that the dream itself slowly became a reality. And that is how we… gradually became real too. That’s why those black devils… no, I should call that the deity’s protective consciousness, tried to erase us. Otherwise, this world will become real just like us. And that would mean… the dreaming deity… slept herself to death. My king, have you forgotten how you’d always be sent back here automatically at specific intervals after being pulled into the black devil’s world? That is because real people like you are being rejected by that false world.”
Lilith found herself at a loss for words. The emotions and shock in her heart was a stark contrast to the pleasant feeling her body was feeling. She felt like she was being burnt and frozen at the same time.
At the same time, she could not deny the fact that though Titan 12138’s tale was bizarre, it perfectly explained everything Lilith experienced during her time in this world.
Why… would Cornelia view outsiders like them as the enemies? Because they would turn this dream into reality.
Why… this world could not withstand the power above the saint realm? Because the dream world itself was fragile.
Why… would Cornelia suddenly want to fight her in this world without any worry? Because she wanted to destroy this real world that was different from the other world, though it meant she would also lose something dear in the process.
And Cornelia’s mother had mentioned dreams and reality too.
“Then… what does all this have to do with you guys… pouring the power of faith into my body…?”
Titan 12138’s eyes lit up. “Because that man in black told me something else… As long as you become the titan clan’s god, our real god, we can become real. Those that have died a thousand years ago will be resurrected too!”