Enlightenment · Two (Continued)

So, should I reward myself for being so amazing?

My mood brightened, and my view broadened considerably. Looking around, I could see that the Dusk Flame' pursuit of the poisonous fog in the abyss had reached its end. What came into view was another unfamiliar urban wasteland.

Carthus was banished underground due to the desolation and compression of spacetime.

Beneath Carthus lie countless desolations from various ancient eras.

In the game, the back of Carthus's Tomb connects directly to the road leading to Irithyll —the game is the game, and reality is reality. In reality, at a future point in time, a vast area between the underground ruins and Irithyll is obliterated in a distorted timeline due to the arrival of the apocalypse, thus spatially connecting Farron and Irithyll, two places that could never possibly be close together!

But this is not the future, not the end of the world.

—The Lothric in the game is so small because distorted spacetime has pieced them together, making the whole world appear so small. However, things are far from reaching that final end.

It's not the right time yet.

Therefore, it is impossible to find a way out from here—at least not now.

So... shall we continue?

Her gaze shifted, and the murky air around her, thickened by the scorching heat, cleared. At the edge of her vision, she spotted numerous massive, towering stone pillars, seemingly impossible to sculpt by human hands, each nearly a hundred meters in diameter. She then floated to the vicinity of these pillars, her toes touching the ground around her. With a slight exertion, the seemingly solid stone surface instantly tore open with a massive crack.

Beneath the stone lies a deep abyss, the lower end of the stone pillar extending into an unreachable, distant depth.

In the distance, there was still an unfamiliar ruined city, the nameless ruins of an ancient kingdom, parallel to the top of the stone pillar, stuck in mid-air above the abyss.

—Interesting. Burned by the Profaned Flame, it remains unharmed, but will it collapse under the influence of force?

—It's a strange substance that won't react with the First Flame. So, this really is a stone and Giant Tree from the ancient times, before the flames emerged from the long silence.

She remembered the mythology of the world of Lordran. In the most distant time, before life and death, light and darkness, before time itself began to flow, there were only three things on the land that was not yet called Lordran —mist, ancient dragons, and Giant Tree.

The mist obscures the structure, and the ancient dragons are not living beings. In the static era, dragons and trees were essentially stone. And these oldest rocks, unfazed by the First Flame, succumb only to lightning and pure violence.

Lightning—in this world, lightning, along with light and darkness, are the primary manifestations of miracles.

Miracles originate from belief; in other words, this immortal and unchanging stone will only submit to the ever-changing beliefs of the intellectual body.

—A changeable mind is stronger than an unchanging stone. Why do I find this statement somewhat ridiculous?

Why do I feel like this is a suggestion to myself?

A strange thought popped into her mind, but she quickly dismissed it. Following her analysis, she lit a flickering bolt of lightning at her fingertips.

Pressing down, the stone pillar in front of you peels off in large chunks, like snowmelt exposed to sunlight. Along with it, the solid stone layer beneath your feet also crumbles away.

A vast void appeared before her eyes, accompanied by the continuous echoes of falling stones. Deep within this void, layers upon layers of ancient ruins nestled in various corners—some ancient, others even older. She saw Drangleic Castle, a place she only vaguely recognized from the game, the setting of Dark Souls II. She saw the Bulldozer Tower, she saw Rumi, and at the very end of her seemingly endless vision, she even saw Oolacile, a place from before DS1.

—Should I be thankful that I didn't see Poletania? At least the Demon Soul didn't show up?

The girl paused for a moment, waiting for the flying caravan to follow and drift down.

She asked it casually.

"If I keep going down, will I reach Oolacile Township before I reach Ashen Lake?"

She heard Lian's reply.

"That's not the case, Surtr. Because the Oolacile Township is below the Ashen Lake, and the Ashen Lake is the bottom of the world, but the Oolacile Township is at the end of the world."

"You mean Ashen Lake is at the Earth's core, while Oolacile Township is on the other side of the Earth?"

"Lordran is not a ball, Surtr." Lian's voice came from behind her from afar. "Lordran is a burning flame. Ashen Lake is at the root of the flame, Oolacile Township is at the tip. But beyond the flame, there is no up, down, left, or right. So cross the deepest wasteland, the end of the world, and you will find where Oolacile Township is."

—I understand, Klein bottle.

"The Oolacile Township is always below all things, because few know how to go above all things. But all living things know how to go down."

Surtr turned and looked at Ren and the Fire Keeper —the information she had obtained from Ren was not beyond her expectations. Ren's response to her seemingly pointless question was likely just a hint or an answer.

—At the very bottom of Ashen Lake, the end of this exploration journey.

—I will meet Filianore.

—Not lotus, but Filianore.

—She is my fiancé, but also the Goddess of the Ringed City who guards the Dark Souls.

She gazed at Lian, and Lian looked back at her.

She wasn't afraid of being stared at; she was simply still thinking.

To ponder things that are insignificant compared to the survival of the world.

—The lotus is already mine.

Even if I don't intend to touch her now. But in reality, no matter how I bully or take advantage of her now or in the future, she won't refuse. I could even pin her to the ground right now.

—I kind of want to do that. But it's just possessiveness... just lusting after her body. And it seems that both the Fire Keeper and Ren are the same.

The reason I decided to stay by their side, for now, is simply because they can't live without me. That's why I made a promise with them. Even though I genuinely like them, it's essentially still just a request in a rather unusual form, one I wouldn't have accepted in the past.

—I like it, but it shouldn't be like this... It shouldn't be like this.

So, what exactly constitutes true liking and true infatuation?

Thinking, thinking doesn't yield quick answers. Yet, this brief moment of contemplation led to a victory in the eye-catching contest—she saw Lian avoid her gaze. A slight blush rose to her cheeks, and her body instinctively prepared for a flight of wills.

It's very interesting and cute.

Surtr couldn't help but reach out and touch Ren's slightly flushed face.

She didn't actually encounter it.

But before her fingertips could actually touch her cheek, she sensed Lian's suddenly accelerated heartbeat and the subtle heat emanating from beneath her skin.

"Surtr. You, you didn't say..."

Lian seemed to want to question something. But as if she had resigned herself to her fate, she couldn't say anything more—she tilted her head slightly, her eyes wide open, but remained motionless in that position.

Then she remained motionless for more than ten seconds.

"Surtr?"

"It's nothing, I just wanted to see your reaction." Miss Surtr withdrew her finger, which hadn't managed to touch you. She nodded slightly, as if to say something serious. "You're quite cute."

"You!" The Princess and Goddess, who was always revered, was instantly furious. The embarrassment of being tricked replaced the shyness of being bullied. She couldn't help but raise her hand and punch Miss Surtr hard on the shoulder, then turned her head away heavily, ignoring the red-haired fellow.

But two seconds later she burst into laughter again, not a gentle laugh, nor a polite laugh. It was a laugh that was closer to her true inner feelings, a laugh that was both angry and forgiving.