Chapter 129

Fire can be lit on stones, and iron can be turned into spring water.

The shimmering waters converge to form a lake.

As the Grand Harmonizer in charge of the Cinnabar, she knew better than Nero that the Atlantis and the Pure Water Spirit were already inextricably linked.

They used the elixir to maintain their long, youthful lifespan.

Among the oldest citizens, those who have lived almost since the Golden Age, what flows in their veins is not blood, but high-purity spiritual dew.

They also possess the talents that Pure Water Spirit have.

These people are also able to travel through waterways, freely transforming their forms between human and aquatic states.

So, what are the differences between them and Pure Water Spirit?

Elizabeth smiled coldly.

None of the three Grand Harmonizer were truly twilight; their "achievements" came from the decree bestowed upon them by the Philosopher King Remus.

Nero mastered the melodies used in war, so she only possessed the Twilight rank among instruments used in wide-area warfare.

Elizabeth was given a melody that could change the nature of things.

But this change in nature can also happen to her.

Shortly after Elizabeth was given the "cinnabar," she was affected by it and her body began to age incurably.

Therefore, she had to beg two other Grand Harmonizer to build her a coffin to hide in.

She must be constantly immersed in a coffin filled with the Youthful Dew in order to resist that irreversible transformation.

Dawn had not yet broken, and the view along this lakeside remained dark, with only the ripples reflecting lights from who-knows-where, casting a faint, eerie glow.

Hebe walked through the dense forest and looked across the lake at the coffin where Elizabeth was hiding.

Inside the coffin, a joyful smile suddenly bloomed on the Grand Harmonizer's face.

"In this dark night, instead of hiding in the spring, you wander through the mountains and forests, which must mean your determination to kill me is unwavering... This is truly delightful."

The lake water rippled, and the coffin was slightly opened.

A pure white hand emerged from it, and in the darkness, the scene appeared somewhat eerie and terrifying.

Hebe frowned slightly. "So you also enslaved a Pure Water Spirit."

Given Elizabeth's rate of consumption, if the spiritual dew inside the coffin is a source of water without roots, even if most of the spiritual dew in Isu were drained, she wouldn't last for several hundred years.

However, if a Pure Water Spirit is imprisoned in a coffin and subjected to prolonged torment, it will be able to continuously produce Youthful Dew.

The Grand Harmonizer inside the coffin shook his head and said with a sigh, "Not one... two, ah, but now there is indeed only one."

Hebe remained silent; she certainly understood what Elizabeth meant.

Within this coffin are two Pure Water Spirit from the same water element, allowing them to take turns resting and recuperating. However, as time passed, one of them was forcibly enslaved to death... and the latter is likely not far from death either.

"Aren't you going to run away?" Hebe asked.

Why should I run away?

Elizabeth laughed and said, "Since you're not a soldier under that madwoman's command, and you're Pure Water Spirit... do you still think you can kill me?"

After saying this, she tapped the surface of the coffin with her palm.

The drumbeats, capable of altering the properties of matter, resounded loudly.

According to the legends of the Pure Water Spirit, the most terrifying of the three Tuners was not Mozart, who could soothe melodies, but Elizabeth, who could change the nature of things at will.

This is because Pure Water Spirit are adept at changing between gaseous, solid, and liquid states, so ordinary swords and blades cannot harm them at all, and may even be assimilated by them.

Elizabeth, however, can reverse this change, either stopping it or forcibly transforming it into another form and imprisoning it... It can be said that "Vermilion Drumbeat" is naturally restrained by the Pure Water Spirit type!

Pure Water Spirit represent nature and the fantasies of humanity's primitive era.

Cinnabar was an essential element of classical alchemy, and in other words, it was once a symbol of human civilization's progress.

Celestial Flint, a ruler who has existed since ancient times yet continues to innovate, has left his mark on every aspect of the world.

Although Elizabeth was unaware of the underlying reasons, she secretly aligned herself with the symbol of Celestial Flint's world-renewing reforms, and thus naturally achieved great success.

However, faced with this unfavorable situation, Hebe's deep green eyes were already filled with an amber light.

The Pure Water Spirit placed one hand on the iron crown on its head and sneered:

"Kneel down."

200 bursts and scatters

Kneel down!!!

Hebe's soft laughter, like endless thunder, echoed back and forth inside the coffin, making Elizabeth, who was playing the drumbeats, dizzy.

The vermilion drumbeats she was playing were abruptly interrupted.

"This is... the King of the Northern Territory?" Elizabeth exclaimed in astonishment.

In the past, the three Grand Harmonizer removed a quarter of the Grand Symphony in order to maintain the stability of the entire Atlantis.

Unless someone can gather the broken melodies of the North and recreate its Northern Territory's Movement, civilization will never emerge in the North again, and the Northerners will forever remain barbarians kneeling in the mud, eating their food.

Yes, she should have realized long ago that since these northern barbarians were able to gather into an army and establish towns like Norwich... it was naturally because someone had secretly rearranged the Northern Territory's Movement and fixed it onto this black iron crown.

The city-state of Mycenae, which existed two hundred years ago, is not just an unrealistic legend! That Pirate King truly unified the royal power of the Musical Kingdom with a legal code and established a regime in the North!

Elizabeth didn't have time to think further. She withdrew her hand and said, "Since you're not going to run away, then I will."

The coffin lid closed tightly again, and in an instant it turned into wisps of water vapor, which rode the wind and drifted away to the distant sea.

If she can escape to the sea, she can turn the tide of battle with the help of the bell tower's ensemble.

Hebe stared in the direction Elizabeth had fled, and chuckled again.

"Trying to escape?"

Flying is prohibited in this area!

Her disciples behind her shouted in unison.

The First Mark: Pirate Code!

With the support of the Northern monarchy and its followers, this hastily enacted law, though implemented later, arrived first and engulfed Elizabeth was about to escape to the sea.

The king has decreed that the enemy be killed immediately.

As your assistant, I have not been negligent!

In an instant, Hebe borrowed the authority of February Archon Scar Father through thought magic.

She constructed her laws into a triangular framework of "ruler, minister, and people," and directed this spearhead at her enemy— the Grand Harmonizer Elizabeth!

The coffin instantly transformed from water vapor back into solid form and fell to the ground.

Hebe caught up from behind, pulled out a wooden stick from his waist, and slammed it heavily onto the surface of the coffin.

[Second Imprint - The Tuners (Silence)]!

Click, click!

The coffin, which was impervious to water and fire and undamaged by knives and axes, was actually cracked by a wooden stick.

Inside the coffin, Elizabeth peered out in terror.

She realized that she could no longer sit idly by and wait for her fate.

Call.

After exhaling, a fierce wind swept across the dark sky, and the coffin lid instantly melted away.

As the coffin was filled with the surging spiritual dew, Elizabeth had vanished without a trace.

Before Hebe's eyes, a crimson color, like vermilion, was reflected.

Elizabeth was moving back and forth between various substances at an extremely high speed, constantly changing the properties of her body, making it difficult for Hebe's eyes to catch a gap.

Between existence and non-existence, Elizabeth extended her palm.

Her hands were no longer smooth, white, and delicate; instead, they were a decaying black, with the tips of her fingers withered and long, like dead tree branches.

This palm also constantly shifts between "existence and non-existence" and "illusion and reality".

Elizabeth wants to take Hebe's heart.

But when you reach out and grasp it, the feeling is nothingness.

"How could this be...?"

Elizabeth looked tremblingly at the pansies in her palm. The delicate petals gradually turned into pure water in her hand, slipping away uncontrollably.

This also involves changes between matter and illusion, and is even more sophisticated and subtle than my own.

When exactly was it...?

Beside the coffin, Hebe's hand gently stroked the musical staves that outlined the Musical Note and melody symbols.

As a result, the five lines were snapped one after another.

As she did these things, Hebe turned her head and gave her a mocking look.

"Changes in the properties of matter, transformations between reality and illusion." Hebe smiled enigmatically. "Hmm, is this thing so difficult? How could someone have gotten themselves into trouble?"

"He is truly ignorant and incompetent."

Those two short sentences made Elizabeth's pupils seem to bleed.

She stared at Hebe with cold anger. "I'd like to ask you something."

As if to confirm the Grand Harmonizer's words, the ground around them softened, becoming like mud that locked Hebe's legs in place.

The coffin she was trying to decipher suddenly flew up, trapping Hebe inside, unable to escape.

Its shape changed in an instant.

The coffin was gone, and an alchemical cauldron lay on the ground.

Elizabeth reached out, but instead of striking the alchemical cauldron, she patted her own barren and withered chest.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The first sound was the crisp crack of a hand striking skin.

The second sound is the classical resonance of a heartbeat.

The third sound, the thud and the heartbeat, were indistinguishable, like thunder that was both near and far!

Ignoring her aging, she unleashed the power of the Vermilion Drumbeats, determined to use the lingering effects of the night before sunrise to completely annihilate Hebe within it.

The Youthful Dew extracted from two Pure Water Spirit was enough for her to cross the sea and return to Ys.

Elizabeth's fingers danced in the air, and a divine expression appeared on her aging face. She stood naked on the desolate coast, yet it was as if she were standing in a magnificent golden palace. She was playing music to the endless wind and water, and all things responded to her!

The surrounding hillsides, shrouded in shadow, seemed to be moved by her performance.

This is her most divine performance to date!

"Open!"

At Elizabeth's command, the top door of the alchemical cauldron suddenly opened, but what happened next made that old face freeze.

What emerged from it was not the pure, golden Youthful Dew, but a wooden stick!

That was the wooden stick that Hebe had just held in her hand!

When did she replace herself with this wooden stick and throw it into the alchemical cauldron, allowing it to undergo tempering and sublimation, transforming it into a wondrous object?

An overwhelming sense of crisis exploded within Elizabeth's heart. She didn't have time to think about where Hebe was. Her thin feet touched the ground, and she shot towards the distant sea.

But suddenly a bright light shone in front of Elizabeth's eyes.

"The sun has risen?"

No, it's not the sun rising.

There is still some time before daylight arrives.

It's a Fleur-de-lis Banner fluttering high in the wind!