Moon Boat

Horace Loux sat cross-legged on a hide mat in his tent. The entrance flap was tightly shut, with only a small brazier providing dim light and warmth.

Outside, the tribe seethed with feverish excitement over their successful campaign against the dread dragon.

But he needed quiet. He needed to sort things out, and above all, examine the most fundamental source of support deep within his soul.

His consciousness sank into his inner sea, shutting out every sensation of his body.

Against a backdrop of emptiness and silence, a "gate" stood without a sound.

It was the Gate of Myriad Laws.

It had no definite form, yet seemed to possess the outlines of every gate in the world.

The weight of stone, the grain of wood, the cold gleam of metal, a vortex of energy... every concept of a "gate" seemed embodied in it, yet no single concrete image could fully encompass it.

It was simply a "presence," an indescribable "foreign object" anchored within his soul.

For a long time, the only clear function it had offered Horace Loux was to expend energy to open a passage to another world-a seeming escape route rendered impossibly distant by its astronomical energy requirements.

But now, as Horace Loux's consciousness "gazed" at the Gate of Myriad Laws, he keenly sensed something different.

After absorbing Bayle the Dread's heart, which contained flame lightning and tremendous life energy, his strength and the essence of his soul had undergone subtle changes. Those changes seemed to have "activated" something deeper within the gate as well.

The great gate, once deathly still, now emitted exceedingly faint "fluctuations."

The Gate of Myriad Laws... myriad laws... Horace Loux mulled over the name.

Previously, he had focused only on the gate's world-traveling function. Now it seemed his thinking had been too narrow.

"Myriad laws"-the scope those words suggested was far too broad, and far too frightening.

New "information" gradually became clear.

The gate had granted him a new function-[Seek an Answer].

It was simple, yet held limitless possibilities: he could pose a question to the Gate of Myriad Laws, and after paying the corresponding "price," the gate would provide an answer.

The detail and accuracy of its answers seemed directly related to the price paid and the level of what the question concerned.

Horace Loux felt little joy. Instead, his brow furrowed.

The reason was simple. He had just tried it, and the result had left him in an even deeper predicament.

He had spent some of the energy he had accumulated and asked the most urgent question at hand: "How can I safely lead the tribespeople willing to follow me to the Liurnia Lake Region and find a suitable initial foothold?"

The question was specific. He had expected the gate to provide a detailed route.

But the Gate of Myriad Laws gave an unusually brief answer, just three Chinese characters:

[Moon Boat].

Horace Loux froze.

Moon Boat? What was that?

He quickly searched his memories of the "game." After turning it over several times, he finally dug up some relevant information from an obscure corner-it seemed connected to the future "Twin Moon Knight," Rellana?

She had traveled from the main body of the Lands Between to the distant Land of Shadow in a vessel called the "Moon Boat."

As he had requested, that thing could indeed cross vast distances while remaining extremely well concealed. It might even involve some kind of spatial jump or phase travel, perfectly matching his needs.

But there was a problem.

Rellana had been able to find and use the Moon Boat because she had received guidance from the "moon."

It was part of her fate.

But how was Horace Loux supposed to find that elusive vessel so closely bound to the "moon"?

He had no choice but to question the Gate of Myriad Laws again. This time, he spent more energy and asked a more focused question: "How can I find and use the 'Moon Boat'?"

This time, the information the gate returned was far more extensive, washing over his consciousness like a cold stream of data.

After digesting that information, Horace Loux fell into an even longer silence, and even felt a trace of a chill.

The information revealed several key points:

First was a principle underlying the workings of the Lands Between-"fate."

The movements of the stars, observed and foretold through ancient astrology, were the courses of fate for all living beings and things.

Such fate was not absolutely unchangeable, but it was immensely powerful, forming the world's basic order and network of cause and effect.

The "Greater Will," meanwhile, stood above the many gods and factions, altering fate at will.

The stars determined fate, while the Greater Will altered it, and thus stood above them.

But that was not the main point.

The main point was the second revelation: as a transmigrator whose soul came from outside this world, Horace Loux himself did "not exist" within the system of fate in the Lands Between.

No star marked him. He had no predetermined course of fate.

He was like a loose thread that had abruptly appeared on an intricate tapestry, belonging to none of its original patterns.

Was that a good thing? Horace Loux was not sure.

It meant he was theoretically free of certain predetermined fates, but it also meant he could not naturally enjoy the advantages or guidance that certain "fates" brought-such as Rellana's connection to the "moon" through fate, which allowed her to naturally receive its guidance and find the Moon Boat.

That was the fundamental reason he could not find the Moon Boat: he had no "fate" through which the "moon" would watch or guide him.

The vessel would only answer the call of particular courses of fate.

The Gate of Myriad Laws offered a theoretically feasible solution: since he had none, he could "forge" one.

Because he had no predetermined fate binding him, he instead possessed a certain "blank" malleability.

In theory, he could actively "set" a false course of fate for himself.

He could forge a "fate" that formed a deep connection with the "moon," thereby attracting its gaze and gaining the qualification to seek the Moon Boat.

The method sounded incredible, but the Gate of Myriad Laws indicated that it could do this for him.

The price, however, was extraordinarily steep.

It required an incomparably vast amount of energy.

The figure was so staggering that all of Horace Loux's current reserves amounted to a drop in the bucket.

Where could I find that much energy?

A wave of helplessness washed over him.

Hunt powerful creatures? Flying dragons on Bayle's level were exceedingly rare even in the Lands Between. Hunting them carried enormous risks, and the energy gained would still be a mere fraction of what he needed.

There was not enough time, either. He had to finish preparing for the migration before his elder brother and Marika formally launched their great war and the Land of Shadow descended into complete chaos.

Turn to Marika, or the "Two Fingers" behind her?

He quashed that thought as soon as it arose.

Leaving aside whether they even possessed such vast energy after losing contact with the Greater Will, even if they did, why would they give it to him without asking why?

He had no trust whatsoever in those lofty gods and envoys.

Was he left with no choice but to abandon the Moon Boat and undertake an extremely dangerous overland migration?

Cross regions soon to become battlefields, facing the hornsent, the forces of other Empyreans, wild monsters, and other threats, all while bringing along the old, the weak, the sick, and the disabled?

No. There had to be another way.

Under immense pressure, Horace Loux's mind raced.

Since conventional means of acquiring energy were impossible, he had to consider unconventional, even dangerous, methods.

His attention turned toward those powerful and uncanny beings-the Outer Gods.

Those gods were themselves vast concentrations of energy, or even embodiments of certain laws.

If he could attract the attention of one of them and cleverly "draw" some of its power...

But which one? This required the utmost caution.

The Frenzied Flame? It represented utter chaos and destruction; contact meant madness. Ruled out.

Scarlet Rot? Dangerous and uncontrollable. Ruled out.

The Deathbirds and the Dull Sun? Elusive traces, obscure concepts, difficult to contact. Ruled out.

The Fell God of Fire? Considering that his elder brother Hoarah Loux might fight the Fire Giants in the future, as well as the Golden Order's attitude toward the giants, contact with this god could lead to unpredictable conflicts and issues of allegiance. Ruled out.

The ancient god worshipped by the dragons? Long gone along with the age of the ancient dragons, with no way to find it. Ruled out.

After eliminating them one by one, only the Formless Mother, with her fondness for sadomasochism, remained.

In the game, this god appeared as the power behind Mohg, the "Lord of Blood," with powers manifested through curses and blessings related to blood and wounds.

She craved wounds, pain, and flowing blood, and encouraged further injury and bloodshed by granting power.

In a sense, she was "pure": her purpose was direct, her demands clear, and she was relatively "easy" to attract and bargain with.

Moreover, although the Formless Mother's "blessing" caused side effects such as bloodlust, her ability to strip away and bestow vitality, her control over flesh and blood... if used properly, it might offer more than just energy.

Naturally, Horace Loux would not needlessly mutilate himself or carry out mass slaughter to please the Formless Mother.

That did not serve his purpose, would make him all too easy to expose, and would provoke fierce opposition from Marika and his elder brother.

He needed a "legitimate" reason, an "excuse" that could not be refused, to conduct a "ritual" that would produce enough "wounds" and "blood" while providing a reasonable way to contact and attempt to guide the Formless Mother's power.

The stars and moons are actually rather puzzling.

Stars are living beings, and glintstone is part of the stars, carrying their vitality.

Astel is a malformed star.

There are three moons in the Lands Between: the full moon, the dark moon, and the black moon. But usually, only one full moon appears in the sky, while the dark moon can be seen during Ranni's questline. As for the black moon, according to the Eternal City's text, it suddenly disappeared one day, and the tears were made in imitation of it.

But are moons actually stars? By ordinary reasoning, they should be, yet the moons have shown no signs of possessing vitality. Encountering a moon can grant extraordinary talent, which seems to suggest characteristics similar to those of the Outer Gods.

Here, the moon will be treated as an Outer God of relatively high standing. It should be weaker than the Greater Will and the lightless abyss, but stronger than Rot.

There is too little text about the Dull Sun, and I have not figured out how it became connected to the dead Godwyn.