Chapter 716 — The Defiant Ghost
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Gaoyu reasoned that the shadows of the Defiants must surely lurk behind the Order of All Things' End, for the "Great Evolution" they pursued was plainly an extension of the Defiance Project from those years ago.
But he had not expected that the "shadow" would turn out to be two elves.
He had assumed the members of the Defiance Project were all human.
"They were elven scholars once employed by the Gondor Empire—that has been so since a thousand years ago. At the same time, they were members of the Holy Spirit Forest Twilight Sect... at least on the surface," Beiyila went on. "When the shock struck Mingcen Peak, they vanished from the sight of the sect's members for a time. I even thought they had charged into the Gondor wasteland alongside the other fanatics. But years later, they suddenly reappeared and made their true identities known."
"And they brought the Defiance Project with them."
Gao Yang looked at Beiyila. "Without question, given your circumstances and the mentality brought on by the 'divine shock,' the Defiance Project struck a profound chord in you."
"More than a profound chord..." Beiyila shook her head slowly. "We were inspired by that great and almost tragic project, awed by the wisdom and courage of those who came before. We were wretched creatures crushed by the malice of the gods, yet in our most despairing and fallen moment, we suddenly glimpsed a sliver of light kindled by other resisters. The technology and ideals they brought were something we could not refuse."
"...The Defiance Project was indeed the greatest act of self-salvation in human history, but mortals always err. As you said, the long passage of time and obsession set everything veering off course," Gao Heng said with feeling. "Not all Defiants held the line, and you were unfortunate enough, I fear, to encounter those who had strayed from their original purpose."
Beiyila made no response. Perhaps she did not know how to respond in that moment.
Any defense was feeble in the face of fact. The scorched land in the eastern reaches of the Holy Spirit Plains and this colossal "Solin Great Tree" were the final answer—a cruel conclusion—to all the efforts and persistence of the Order of All Things' End over centuries, and there was no refuting it.
Yet within Gao Yang's own heart, doubt rose instead:
Those elven twins, the elven twins who had once taken part in the Defiance Project—they had set aside the divisions of race to stand shoulder to shoulder with humanity against the gods, had faced together the demonic tide that destroyed the Gondor Empire, had weathered the baptism of a thousand years, and in the end had passed the key technology and ideals of the Defiance Project to the Order of All Things' End... Could their purpose truly be nothing more than to unleash such a disaster upon Ansu?
That artificial god was terrifying, but Gao Yang knew full well it had not yet reached a level mortals could not withstand. Even without the Cecil Legion, even if it could destroy all of Ansu, it could not destroy Typhon, could not destroy the Silver Empire.
For a conspiracy a thousand years in the making, this finale seemed rather a case of a grand beginning with a feeble end.
He truly could not fathom what those elven twins named Filna and Relna were after.
Perhaps Virolai would know? After all, they were fellow ancient Defiants—it was not unlikely they were acquainted...
Gao Yang shook his head, filed away this new point of suspicion for the moment, and asked, "What else do you know about those elven twins? Where are they now? Are they here as well?"
As he spoke, his gaze drifted involuntarily to the space behind Beiyila.
In that secret chamber draped with vines and roots, the densely packed humanoid remains had already begun to crumble away.