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Chapter 283 - 283 Origins (Part 3)
Chapter 283 - 283 Origins (Part 3)
283 Origins (Part 3)
William couldn’t shake the memory of the moment he used the Seed of Hope to reverse causality and bring Blake back to life. As he did so, he saw countless possibilities of Blake’s death play out in front of him—some of which he’d never even encountered in his ‘William Kane’ saves.
It was as if those conflicting possibilities existed simultaneously, much like the two different origins of Ravenwood Forest. But once a choice was made and time moved linearly, only one possibility became the truth of history.
However, this historical truth didn’t seem impossible to change.
William had already seen it happen with Blake’s resurrection through the use of the Seed of Hope.
Camilla had already become a Void Sovereign, but She could still leave a body called the World Tree in Currere.
Could it be that powerful forces in the Moon Realm can shatter linear time? Is it even possible to reconstruct the past and future? William mused to himself.
An unsettling thought began to gnaw at him.
This timeline he found himself in was the result of countless choices, deaths, and reloads made in his OCD quest for a perfect ending.
But if Blake, Sibylla, Camilla, and other Void Sovereigns all had conflicting possibilities during the shattering of time, could William’s failed timelines from the past also exist?
Could they be used to change the current truth of history?
No… It wasn’t just the ‘William Kane’ save. Could all of his past saves also exist in shattered time? He’d already seen Blake’s death play out in different saves.
And was he the only one living as William Kane?
Or was he, as a transmigrator, viewing this world from a higher narrative level?
…
“My adoptive parents were once members of the Platinum Ring. They were tasked with hunting down the Blind Sisters and it was through their findings that I discovered the truth about the Forest Elf history.” Floral gazed up at the towering tree, her voice laced with mystery.
William was intrigued, eager to learn more about her adoptive parents, especially her last name, Kane. But he pushed those thoughts aside, focusing on the more pressing matter at hand. He needed to know about the Lady of Starvation. Family gossip could wait.
“Tell me what you know,” William urged.
“The humans who once lived here worshiped a powerful deity named the Beast Lord. He was the god of hunting and wild beasts, born from Ravenwood’s hunting civilization. According to the Holy Spirits Church, he was a mixture of the two Holy Spirits, Father and Youth. And, if some of the cruel blood sacrifice rituals are to be believed, he may have even been influenced by the King of Deathblood.”
“Hold up, did they only worship Father and Youth?”
William noticed that something was amiss.
If Ravenwood Forest had been a thriving forest in the past, there was no reason for the local residents to not have a belief in the Holy Spirit, Mother. In fact, every primitive faith on the Vic Continent had legends of the Mother Goddess who gave life to humans.
“Are you very curious why there’s no allegory of the Mother Goddess?”
“Even in the death-themed Blackwater Swamp myths, there’s an image of the God of Life. Although her status in myths is low, she appears as Death Vera’s maid and can’t even resonate her power through ceremonial magic… But at least there are records,” William nodded and said.
“That’s because the image of the Mother was completely abandoned by the human tribes in Ravenwood Forest.”
“Abandoned?” William asked in confusion.
“It was destroyed and forgotten out of fear,” Floral stated.
“But why were they afraid of the Mother Goddess who brings life?”
“That’s because the image of a Mother Goddess isn’t always just a benevolent and kind mother. In other places, it’s due to the harsh environment or limited survival resources. Newborn lives are delicate and valuable, so the Mother Goddess is depicted as gentle. At most, she’s like the Stormland myths. As the wife-in-arms of the Stormland God King, she shows her harsh side, but only towards enemies. However, in Ravenwood, life is abundant, not scarce. The threat to their survival comes from the unknown depths of the forest, not limited resources. That’s why the Mother Goddess in local myths has a terrifying side.”
Floral said as she looked at William. William could sense a smile behind Floral’s veil.
“Because the land is too prosperous, She will consume Her children and return them to their mother.”
The Beast Lord, who taught humans how to hunt, brought light to the settlement in the forest with his lightning and fire. But in the dark, uncharted depths of the forest, to humans just starting civilization, the forest was like a giant, all-consuming mouth that swallowed countless lives who ventured into it, returning them to where they came from.
“So, before the image of the Mother was established as a mythical entity, humans abandoned and forgot about Her,” William concluded and continued asking, “But if She was forgotten, there shouldn’t be any records left. How did you learn about all this?”
“That brings us to today’s main topic… The elven colonists from Ava State found the deepest part of the forest and retrieved the image of the Mother in order to fully occupy the land.”
The elven colonists from Ava State were weakening, losing the blessings of their souls. They also weren’t willing to surrender their transcendent powers and become mortal, living no longer than a hundred years. That would be detrimental to the construction of their civilization. The only way to reverse their fate was to find another existence to bless them.
“They refused to believe in the Beast Lord, like the local natives, because they feared being controlled by humans, or even worse, becoming human themselves,” Floral explained. “So, when they discovered the abandoned Mother faith in the forest, they summoned Her back to make up for their fading blessings. Many things happened after that, but in the end, they succeeded. The Mother they summoned became the embryonic form of the future Matriarch.”