One night a long time ago, in the palace of the Kingdom of Solis.
"Uh, red, red..." When Elaine walked into the simple room, Eddie was making tea and waiting for him.
However, Eddie did not dress in gray and red as usual and use the strange powder to dye his hair. Instead, he faced the White Bear boy with his original color.
The red hair on his body was also particularly conspicuous under the soft light, it was as bright red as blood.
"Only tonight." Eddie replied: "Because it was too hot, so I, um... took a shower. I won't use that powder to dye my hair until it is dry."
"Yes, really." The white bear boy sat down and said, "This red is very, very beautiful. It suits you very well."
"That's not true..." Eddie also sat down and took a sip of tea. Because Elaine came back to visit him about two or three times a week, he gradually became familiar with Elaine and acted less reserved.
"That, that," Elaine took out a few comic books and said, "Oh, my uncle was very drunk the day before yesterday, and then I heard my uncle crying. He was crying and talking in his sleep, looking very disappointed."
"Your Majesty the King...?" Eddie showed an incredulous expression.
"Uncle, you are so pitiful. Is your uncle really a bad person? He treats you like this..." Elaine asked.
"He didn't do anything wrong. If you want to say it, it should be me who is wrong." The young man from Red Lion groaned: "If I hadn't stayed in the palace shamelessly like this, maybe His Majesty the King wouldn't have been harmed.
."
"So, is Eddie a bad guy?" The White Bear boy tilted his head and asked, "But, you don't look like a bad guy."
"The situation in the adult world is very complicated." Eddie sighed and continued drinking tea: "Don't always run towards me. If His Majesty the King finds out that you are in contact with me, he will only be hurt more.
."
"Really, is it really possible?" Elaine showed a confused expression: "So when can you reconcile with your uncle? Do you have to quarrel?"
"We are not quarreling. This matter, um... is very complicated. You won't understand."
"Yes, but..."
"Anyway, don't mention this matter." Eddie shook his head: "By the way, come and play? What should we play today?"
"No, don't you read comics?"
"I'm a little tired of reading. Rather than sitting here and reading comics quietly, I really want to play something with you. Checkers? Or chess?"
"I, I'm not good at those..." The white bear boy scratched his head: "He, when I play chess with Leo, I always lose. You will feel bored."
"That's it -" the little lion pondered for a while: "How about an adventure game?"
"Exploration, adventure game?"
"Hehe~ Actually, I know there is an ancient ruin under this palace. I found the entrance by accident when I was cleaning the courtyard."
"Relics?" The White Bear man's shoulders shrank: "A place like that, no, wouldn't it be dangerous? Traps or monsters or something?"
"It's okay. Everything in this palace is very gentle, including the ruins. I've seen His Majesty the King go in before, and he didn't even bring any guards. It seemed like he was going in to worship something."
"This, in this case we shouldn't go in..."
Elaine thought that the ruins might be a holy place in this country or something. If you enter without permission, you might contaminate that holy place and suffer retribution.
"It's okay, really. I've sneaked in several times, but there's actually nothing inside, just an altar." Eddie continued: "Let's go! It'll be fine for a while. I want to stay with you and adventure together."
Memories."
"Stay, leave memories?" Elaine blinked: "Well, aren't there many opportunities for this kind of thing in the future? Yes, is it necessary to choose tonight..."
So Eddie showed a sad expression and didn't reply.
"Okay, okay. Let's go." The white bear boy compromised.
"Hehe." The little lion grinned and dragged Elaine's little hand out.
Late at night, the courtyard of the palace was empty and quiet as before. There could not be assassins or thieves in the palace, and naturally there were very few guards patrolling. In addition, the king and others went to bed very early, so there were very few courtyards in the middle of the night.
Someone is out and about.
Elaine yawned and was led by Eddie, and finally came to the door of a bunker covered by trees in the depths of the courtyard. Eddie opened the thick iron door of the bunker with some difficulty, held his tail and said: "
Come on, it’s right here."
"Really, is there really no danger?"
"Believe me, this is safe." The young man from Red Lion walked in first.
"Eh...don't, don't leave me." Elaine, who was afraid of the dark, could only follow him in.
The passage at the beginning was a bit old. It was made of stone floor tiles and wall paving. The floor tiles were cleaned frequently, but there was a lot of moss on the walls. It was probably because of the high humidity in the basement that there was no time to clean it frequently.
However, once you enter the interior of the ruins, warm and dry air continues to spread out, and the moisture is driven away. Therefore, moss no longer grows on the floors and walls, and there is a very comfortable dry feeling.
There are also many murals on the walls, which are carved with very sharp carving knives and are also coated with protective paint to prevent the murals from weathering.
There are many wonderful things painted on the murals, and the one that caught Elaine's attention the most was a picture of a lion kneeling on the ground worshiping the sun.
Elaine remembered that the Kingdom of Solis had its own artificial sun. That artificial sun always rose at six o'clock in the morning to replace the real sun blocked by the shadow of the wall of other worlds.
Because the rays of the artificial sun nourish the earth, the Kingdom of Solis has never wandered in darkness. This land is fertile and abundant.
Elaine has heard that other orc countries in Eastern Europe do not have such good treatment. They do not get sunlight for at least a quarter of the day. The land is barren due to the lack of sunshine, and the food is far less.
The Kingdom of Solis is so abundant.
So does the lion in the mural worship the sun so much? Is the one being worshiped an artificial sun or a real sun?
Moreover... the whole body of the lion was painted in gold. Although the carving of the mural was a bit rough, Elaine could roughly imagine that the golden lion was the royal family of Thoris.
Elaine had heard from Leo before that the Solis royal family seemed to have the duty to "serve the sun", and the artificial sun in this country was managed and maintained by the royal family.
What worries Elaine even more is that in the next mural, next to the golden lion worshiping the sun, there are more small suns. The lines painted with gold should be light. They
Light up the whole world.
"Oh, there are more suns?" Elaine asked.
"Oh, that's [gold magic] handed down from ancient times."
"Gold...magic?"
"Simply put, it is the magic of generating a new sun and generating new light." Eddie replied: "Don't you know that the artificial sun in the kingdom is also made using similar magic? It can generally only last for two years.
After a thousand years, it will need to be replaced with a new one. The current artificial sun is very old, and it seems it is time to replace it."
"So...then, will uncle make the new artificial sun?"
"No, orcs can't use magic. The person responsible for creating the new artificial sun probably won't be His Majesty the King."
"Then, who could that be?"
"God knows." Eddie touched the murals thoughtfully: "It's probably some kind of creature wearing the skin of a lion, but it's not a lion."
"So, uncle can't use [Golden Magic]?" The White Bear boy tilted his head and asked, "No one in this country can use it, but it still retains the ancient [Golden Magic]?"
"That's it." The little lion smiled: "If such a dangerous spell fell into the hands of humans, the consequences would be disastrous, right? If humans could create the sun at will with their hands, the world would be in chaos. So we must seal it
Here, people are not allowed to know the existence of ancient gold magic. Most people only know that the artificial sun in Soris Palace is a legacy left by ancient people and is an artifact, but they do not know that this legacy was actually created using magic.
."
"Then, why do you know?"
"Well... I heard my father say it before." Eddie smiled bitterly and continued walking deeper into the ruins: "Look, that's the altar."
There is a place like a square deep in the ruins. In the center of the sunken terrain is a stone bed. Next to the stone bed are three huge stone tablets. The ones on them are not murals, but more like some kind of magic patterns. In short, they are very abstract.
, Elaine couldn’t understand it at all.
"Okay, it looks like you can lie down on it?"
"Of course, it's an altar. You have to put sacrifices on it to activate it." Eddie replied.
"Sacrifice, sacrifice? You, are you talking about the kind of human sacrifice?" Elaine has seen similar scenes from various fantasy novels in the past. In those cult festivals, cult believers used living sacrifices
People were sacrificed, tied to the altar and brutally killed, and then the flesh and blood of the sacrifices were sacrificed to some evil god.
...Well, that is not a book that children should read. The king also gave Leo and Elaine a lesson because they found out that they had peeked at such a book.
"What nonsense are you talking about? How can there be human sacrifices in such a sacred place." The red lion gave the little white bear a glance: "The person in charge of lying on the altar is His Majesty the King. You see, he is not alive and well."
"
"Uncle, uncle is still lying in a place like this? You, when did you see it?"
"Last time, it was also late at night. I sneaked over and happened to see His Majesty the King lying on the altar, and then his whole body started to glow." Eddie replied: "Although I don't know what happened, but he
After lying down for a while, he got up and said something like "Didn't you succeed this time?". He seemed to want to trigger something, but failed."
"Ju, there is something that even my uncle can't do..."
"Then I also tried lying on the altar to see what would happen. The result was that nothing happened, and my body did not emit golden light like His Majesty the King." Eddie said again, and then his eyes turned in confusion:
"Hey, do you want to lie down on it and try it?"
"Me? How could I...even my uncle didn't succeed? I am even more..."
"It's just a try, there's no harm in it."
"Wouldn't it be blasphemous to do this?" The white bear boy still hesitated.
"I also lay down on it. But nothing happened. There was no such thing as divine punishment, which happened to me." The little lion touched Elaine's furry chin: "Whether it's Mr. Sunbird who is responsible for guarding the sun, or
The Dawn Lions responsible for guarding this country are very gentle gods. They will not be angry because of children's pranks."
(So do you admit that this is a prank...)
"Come on, lie down and give it a try. You won't lose anything." Eddie continued to encourage.
A drop of sweat broke out on Elaine's forehead: "Really, will you really not be blamed..."
But Eddie had already pushed him to the altar, and tried to take off Elaine's shoes and push him onto the altar.
"Hey, you have to take off your clothes too?" Elaine was even more puzzled when she saw Eddie trying to pull off his shirt.
"You don't want to soil the altar with your dirty clothes. Otherwise the gods will be angry."
"Gang, just now you said that gods will not be angry because of children's pranks..."
"It's so noisy! Just lie down quietly for me!" The little lion also tore off Elaine's shorts, and then let the young white bear boy, who only had one pair of shorts left, lie flat on the altar.
"Hmm..." Elaine moved her toes uncomfortably.
"How's it going? Do you feel anything?"
"No...what, I don't feel anything——"
But before Elaine finished speaking, his body was suddenly seized by a very powerful force, as if there was a magnetic force that attracted him to the altar.
Then came the light. The dark ruins suddenly emitted light, and the gradually dazzling light dyed the walls and ceiling with gold.
"Oh my God...!" Eddie took a step back: "You...really...!"
Elaine gradually realized that the golden light actually emerged from his body.
And a certain thought also flowed into his body.
[Astrovers?]
[No. The wavelength of the soul is very close, but it is not Star Traveler.]
[Successor of Star Traveler?]
[Creation of Star Traveler.]
[A parody of Star Trekker.]
[Excellent imitation.]
[Either way, he has the qualifications.]
[He has [gold] in his body.]
[For we should grant him [another kind of gold].]
[Fool's Gold.]
"What are you talking about?!" Elaine exclaimed, feeling both scared and worried about what was happening.
The whole world is shaking. It's better to say the ruins are shaking. It seems like something big is about to happen.
"Oh my God!... Stop it! Get off the altar! If we wander any further, we will be discovered!" Eddie exclaimed.
"I, I can't move!" the white bear boy exclaimed.
Something poured into his body. He subconsciously knew that it was some kind of knowledge, but he didn't know what kind of knowledge it was.
Then the hair on his body also began to turn red. It was not red like blood like Eddie, but red like fire. It was as if he himself had become the sun and was about to burn.
At this moment, feeling the vibration of the ruins, the king and two guards broke into the ruins.
"What are you doing?" The king looked at Elaine on the altar with a terrifying expression: "Oh my God! What have you done?!"