378 Into the City (1/2)

”Probably...this is the only way.” Looking at Bann, Caligula took out a stone, placed it on the table, and slowly pushed it to the middle. The fist-sized scarlet stone looked exquisite and beautiful. ”What is this?” Bann frowned.

Caligula smiled. ”You know what? When I was young, I lived in Burgundy.”

”That was a good place. My wife and I got married there. She was smart, beautiful, and attractive. She was the best. She died so early and it was my fault. She lived a bitter life with me. In that year, the nations expelled the people of Romulus, which caused riots. The kingdom wanted to imprison me. She stood up to vouch for me. She promised that this matter had nothing to do with me.

”Then she... Later, she died. She swore to the gods that if I were innocent, her heart wouldn't wither. But how will gods bless such a man like me? I was imprisoned for ten years, soaked in a dungeon, and was not even able to attend her funeral. I didn't even know she was dead.” Caligula stretched out his hand and rubbed the stone red as flesh. ”Look, this is her heart... She confirmed her oath. I took it to visit many people, but ten years had passed. Everyone forgot her. Even the files of that year were gone. No one in the world remembers her, and no one remembers me either.”

He looked at Bann and said in a measured, slow pace, ”The cruelest thing in the world is this: there are some things you haven't forgotten, but the world has forgotten because they don't care.”

After a long silence, Bann lowered his eyes. ”So you have resentment against the nations because of this?”

”No, I don't hate them.” Caligula shook his head. ”Hatred is meaningless. Any sensible man can see that there is a reason for everything the kingdoms have done to Romulus. You can say they are forced to do so but are we doomed to perish?

”We are born guilty. There is no door for us to heaven, so should we just die obediently before falling into the abyss?” Caligula, holding the scarlet heart, gazed at Bann. ”A sinful man is also entitled to salvation, Mr. Bann. If you don't care, I'll do it.”

-

The dark steel cabin was in silence. Ye Qingxuan felt a sense of weightlessness, like suddenly falling into the deep sea, surrounded by pressure that almost crushed him.

It was a sudden shock caused by the whale fall. But at that instant, his sight went black as if everything fell into stillness. He fell into the icy sea, and every part of his body was frozen. His thoughts, as well as the sub-originator in his body, stopped operating. All music theories were completely solidified in situ.

But then the odd feeling disappeared again. The sub-originator slightly vibrated, emitting inexplicable fluctuations. Where the fluctuations passed, those shackles were untied. Ye Qingxuan's stiff body suddenly trembled. He was drenched in sweat, gasping intensely.

In the cabin, the grandmasters glanced at him in astonishment. They did not agree for this knight to join the team although it was the Knights Templar's delegation. Unless someone unfolded the symphony of predestination and temporarily prevented him from being intervened by Faust by breaking a hole on the wall between the material world and aether world, everything would be frozen in time under Faust.

Since the Knights Templar had ensured that the new knight did not need any care, they had no objection to his participation, but they had not expected that Ye Qingxuan could overcome such a strong power. Even they needed to unfold the symphony of predestination to resist it in all force. Only the grandmaster from Anglo looked at him meaningfully and whistled.

To tell the truth, Ye Qingxuan also did not understand what was going on. He just vaguely sensed that the melody and music theory of Faust did not work on his body as if he was totally ignored.

”We have entered the range of Faust. Once landed, you need to be more careful,” the master whispered in his ear. ”Although we are masters, we need to use the symphony of predestination to resist the influence of Faust, so we will be equivalent to the ordinary distortion level when we fight. No one knows what will happen. If you see something wrong, do not worry about us. Just turn around and run.”

Ye Qingxuan was speechless. He complained in his mind, who was the one that guaranteed the priest he would protect me?

The black-robed master smiled. Before he could say something, the earthquake came. It was like he suddenly hit a wall. Ye Qingxuan only felt the shaking all over his body, his bones rattling. Even if there were two layers of shock absorber system, his body still almost fell apart.

The cabin landed! Bang. The cabin's door snapped open and flew away. It was designed to save time and make it easier for the Knights Templar to operate the whale fall. But now, the cabin, which had just been detached from the masters' protection, was frozen in the air.

A few of the masters under the cover of the symphony of predestination stood up and reached out to press the door. The frozen door crashed and then flew for several meters before freezing in the air again.

The door opened.

Ye Qingxuan breathed heavily. He untied the chains and fixtures on his body and staggered to get up. He followed behind and poked his head out to look.

The whole world seemed to be frozen and covered in an icey blue. The cabin had crashed into the ground of a square. Layers of fissures spread around. Gravels flew but were solidified in the air. Time stopped at the moment of their whale falling. It was so bizarre.

At this moment, they had entered the strange city, but when looking at the towering buildings, they were overwhelmed by that kind of dark and sharp beauty. This was definitely not the style of the Romulus. This was completely different.

The Romulusians advocated squares or circles with preference of white. The frame of their buildings was magnificent. But in this city, there were no white buildings.