Chapter 1027 — A Special Meeting

Then at last he made out what astonishing detail that bizarre Cecil craft possessed—on the machine's inverted-cone base was mounted a "container" more than two meters across, and inside it was steeped a living brain. In that brief instant he and the brain were "eye to eye." This ought to have been a chilling, even horrifying sight, yet he felt something rise up from within him, from somewhere unknown—a feeling of heartfelt kinship, as though bound by blood.

The next second, a strange humming came from inside the craft that "housed" the brain, and then rune-light kindled on the brain's surface and on certain mechanical structures of the craft. An invisible psychic field unfolded, and a long limb like a spider's jointed leg emerged from thin air and stabbed swiftly toward the divine eye, which was rapidly dissolving not far away.

Luo Yan instinctively looked toward that limb, but before he could make out what happened next, a blinding white light suddenly filled his entire vision.

A brief but intense vertigo struck, and Luo Yan realized his mind had been invaded—yet the intrusion stirred no sense of danger in him at all. After quickly adapting to the disorienting sensation of spatial displacement, the scene before him gradually steadied, and he found himself in an extraordinarily vast space.

An endless expanse of water stretched boundlessly across his view, its surface so calm it seemed a mirror; the sky was clear as washed glass, and against that azure backdrop floated thin clouds, together with countless symbols, formulas, and mechanical parts endlessly rotating and reassembling among them; platforms of all sizes and unknown purpose floated on the water in the distance, shrouded in blurred barriers so that no detail upon them could be seen.

This was the scene that met Luo Yan's eyes when he opened them.

A moment later he recovered from his astonishment and saw that a round table had appeared before him at some point, ringed by several high-backed chairs—pure white and plain, yet elegant in design. Two figures stood beside the table, apparently waiting for him.

When he made out the appearance of one of them, his pupils contracted instinctively—yet the next second his expression relaxed, more relaxed even than before.

Gao Yang Cecil—not in the least surprising.

Luo Yan stepped toward the round table. His feet trod upon the water's surface; he could clearly feel that what lay beneath was no solid ground, yet he did not sink in the slightest.

He came before Gao Yang Cecil, looked him up and down once, then swept his gaze around the surroundings before a faint smile appeared and he brought his eyes back. "So, should I address you here as Gao Yang Cecil, or as the Wanderer Beyond the Pale?"

"It seems the Long Twilight cultists you recruited have revealed a good deal of useful intelligence to you," Gao Yang said with a laugh, gesturing casually to a seat beside the round table. "Take a seat—everyone who comes here has a place."

"My thanks." Luo Yan nodded and sat down quite at his ease. Before him fine tea and refreshments at once appeared, and a teacup filled itself.

Gao Yang glanced at him in some surprise. "You don't look particularly surprised?"

"Now that this war against a god has come this far, there is truly so much that has exceeded what I expected at the outset," Luo Yan said calmly. "By comparison, the 'Wanderer Beyond the Pale' is at least something I have seen in the intelligence reports."

Just as he finished speaking, a woman's voice came from another seat at the round table. "I thought you would greet me first—has the Augustus family's sense of propriety really fallen into such a sorry state by your generation?"

The woman who had spoken was the other figure who had been standing beside Gao Yang since a moment ago.

Luo Yan's attention had been entirely fixed on Gao Yang, that "Wanderer Beyond the Pale" worthy of wariness, so that for a time he had paid no mind to who the other person at the round table was—and in the first moment he had anyway failed to match that unfamiliar face to anyone he knew, until he heard the other speak now, and only then did he abruptly realize that this was the very strange woman's voice he had heard earlier when facing the divine eye. He turned his gaze in surprise.

He made out her features—an elegant, dignified, beautiful lady in a pale green gown. He thought back briefly and confirmed he did not know this person, but then something stirred in his heart and he vaguely sensed something amiss—he did not know this person, yet he had seen that face somewhere...

The lady in the green gown frowned slightly. "What, have you burned all my portraits already?"

Luo Yan Augustus finally remembered where his sense of familiarity came from—her features matched something in his memory, and his eyes went wide. "You... you are..."

"You see, there are still some things here that can surprise you even more," Gao Yang laughed from where he sat, speaking as casually as if making small talk. "Come, have some tea."

But Luo Yan paid no mind to Gao Yang's words or to the refreshments set before him. He only stared, looked the woman seated across from him up and down once more, and his brow slowly furrowed. "You are Beiyila Augustus?"

"You should add a term of respect," the woman said faintly. "I at least did not ask you to bow here."

"All right, perhaps I should address you as 'Your Grace,'" Luo Yan said calmly. "So it is true—in some form or another, you have lived on until now?"

Bei Yila caught the key word in the other's words keenly: "'True'... It seems you know something."

"...The imperial house keeps many ancient records, along with scattered investigative notes on those family members who vanished inexplicably over the course of history," Luo Yan hesitated a moment before continuing. "Beyond that, I have certain... personal sources of intelligence."

"Well, not bad work, but this subject is hardly a pleasant one for me," Bei Yila thought of the already-extinguished Assembly of All Things' End, and of certain members among those dark cultists who had once ranged across the world—members whom even she found repulsive—and she shook her head. "Let us end this cordial, friendly family reunion here. It's time we discussed serious matters."

(End of this chapter)