Chapter 1489: Lady Night’s Unusual Arrangement

Wilde’s words made Amber’s mind freeze for a moment—what he said was so incredible that she didn’t know whether to react with shock, confusion, or doubt her own hearing. After a few seconds, she blinked and broke the silence with a stunned expression. “What… does that mean?”

“In the ‘Borderlands,’ time doesn’t necessarily flow according to the rules of the real world. Sometimes it rushes by in a flash; other times, time there nearly stands still. Lady Night governs the laws of the Borderlands. She uses this chaotic, irregular flow of time to imprison an unwelcome ‘intruder’ who has trespassed there, preventing it from escaping and wreaking havoc in the outside reality.”

“An intruder?” Amber paused, then quickly caught on. “You mean… the ‘Inverse Tide’?”

“Ah, yes. Lady Night does call it that—a pitiful yet dangerous entity,” Wilde sighed. “It suddenly burst into the Borderlands centuries ago, but in truth, a fragment of its power had already seeped in and corrupted the Borderlands long before that. To stop this contamination, Lady Night built formidable defenses. Then, to trap the creature’s core here as well, she transformed the Borderlands into a city of disorder.”

“That method worked well—at least for the first few centuries. The creature and its corruption were tightly bound within the Borderlands’ ever-shifting, chaotic time. Occasionally, the creature would break free, but it could never escape outward; it could only move toward the Throne. Each time that happened, Lady Night would banish it back into the city.”

“This went on until recently… I suppose you know what happened next. Lady Night mentioned it was a major event in the real world.”

Amber thought of the cataclysmic final moments of the Talash Plains battle—the half of the Inverse Tide’s divine corpse that emerged from the rift, and the massive trench carved out by the corrosive divine flesh.

She nodded softly. “Yes, we know Lady Night ultimately defeated the Inverse Tide and cast half of its remains into the real world. But how does that relate to what we were just discussing…”

“The Inverse Tide was split in two during its final battle with Lady Night. Half of its divine corpse was thrown into the real world. Now, guess where the other half was placed?”

Amber immediately looked toward the silhouette city at the edge of the desert.

“Yes, it was sent into that city. As an ‘outsider,’ Lady Night cannot allow its power to linger near the Throne. Even in death, it must be eternally imprisoned outside the Throne’s domain. And those ‘Lost Ones’ you mentioned—they were sent into that city as well. But Lady Night didn’t send them there to imprison them; rather, she used the residual power of the Inverse Tide to help them survive, because they are Lady Night’s… ‘guests.’”

“Guests?” Amber frowned, suddenly realizing something very complicated was going on here—something far beyond mortal sight, deep within this lost divine realm. In the short time since the Violet Kingdom vanished, events had already far exceeded what she and Gawain had imagined. “Lady Night treats a group of mortals who accidentally entered this place as ‘guests’? And what do you mean by ‘helping them survive’?”

“I don’t know the details. I only know Lady Night spoke with some of them—one called ‘Silver-Eyed Corrod,’ I believe,” Wilde said slowly. “When those people arrived, most were already on the verge of fading away. They hadn’t crossed the boundary of reality ‘correctly,’ so their very essence was nearly destroyed during the crossing. By the time they reached the Throne, they were as fragile as phantoms. At that time, Lady Night was quite surprised by their appearance. I’m certain she didn’t know them at all then.”

“But after speaking with some of them—especially Silver-Eyed Corrod—Lady Night seemed deeply… ‘shaken.’ She called these Lost Ones ‘unexpected but precious guests’ and decided to find a way to keep these fading mortals alive. To do so, she sent them all into that Border City. She said certain ‘elements’ left behind by the Inverse Tide would act as catalysts to help these mortals undergo some kind of ‘transformation.’”

“To be honest, I don’t really understand what Lady Night is trying to do. She didn’t explain it to me in detail. I only know that shortly after sending the Lost Ones into the Border City, she accelerated the flow of time throughout the Borderlands…”

“Is that acceleration still ongoing now?” Amber suddenly asked. “Right now, as I’m talking to you, inside that city…”

“It’s over,” Wilde interrupted before she could finish. “The time flow in the Border City has returned to normal, and it probably won’t change again—unless another ‘intruder’ invades, forcing Lady Night to reactivate her defenses.”

“Why did Lady Night speed up time in the Border City?” Amber pressed. “From what you said, I understand she sent the Lost Ones there to use the Inverse Tide’s residual power to save them. But how does that relate to accelerating time? And she even sped it up to the point where those Lost Ones have already lived a full hundred years inside the city…”

When Amber said “a hundred years,” her tone grew strange—tinged with regret, sorrow, and a subtle, unspoken frustration. Yet she knew she had no right to complain, so her voice became heavy and muffled.

“I don’t know,” Wilde seemed oblivious to her tone. “Lady Night keeps many secrets and rarely explains them to me. What she did recently in the Border City seems to be the strangest and most rushed of all her secrets. It’s the first time I’ve seen her… flustered and shocked. Well, I probably shouldn’t say that about the Mistress here, especially since she’s a formidable ancient god, but honestly, she seemed a bit panicked. She appeared to be hurriedly preparing for something—whether it was saving the Lost Ones or suddenly adjusting the Borderlands’ time flow, it was all part of that preparation.”

Amber’s confusion only deepened, but she realized this seasoned adventurer probably knew no more than this. In fact, it was already a remarkable stroke of luck that he’d shared so much—though it only raised more questions, she couldn’t ask for more.

“At least one thing is certain: even ancient gods can be caught off guard by the unexpected,” she sighed, looking toward the silhouette city again. “She clearly didn’t anticipate Silver-Eyed Corrod and the others showing up, nor the information those Lost Ones brought… Are you really sure you don’t know what they talked about?”

Amber’s curiosity about the conversation between Lady Night and Silver-Eyed Corrod flared. According to Wilde, Lady Night was deeply shaken and rushed to make arrangements right after speaking with the Lost Ones. But what kind of astonishing news could a group of mortals, who stumbled into this shadowy divine realm during the Violet Kingdom’s disappearance, possibly bring that would unsettle an ancient god? What made her treat them as honored guests, use the Inverse Tide’s power to sustain them, and even alter the Borderlands’ time flow? This series of actions didn’t quite match the image the ancient god had left behind.

Amber knew Silver-Eyed Corrod well. He was capable, but no matter how capable, could he really intimidate an ancient god?

After all, even she herself had trouble persuading Amorn to cooperate…

“I honestly don’t know,” Wilde’s tone was tinged with helplessness. “If Lady Night doesn’t want me to know, there’s no way I can find out.”

“…Alright, I believe you,” Amber said, staring at the black leather tome on the pillar for a moment before sighing helplessly. Then she glanced back at the towering Throne, her voice filled with awe. “But now I’m curious about something else… Just how powerful is Lady Night? Can she really control the flow of time?”

“Strictly speaking, even gods can’t control the flow of time in the real world. At least, none of the known gods can,” Wilde seemed to anticipate her question. “But this is the Shadow Divine Realm.”

Amber frowned, pondering.

“An ancient god’s understanding of a ‘divine realm’ far surpasses that of younger deities,” Wilde continued. “Lady Night doesn’t hold authority over time itself, but within this shadowy domain, she can command everything here.”

For some reason, Amber suddenly thought of the “Origin Laboratory” in the neural network—a place where time flow could be adjusted. Scholars of the empire immersed their consciousness there, and under accelerated time, months of work could be done in mere days. But the “time acceleration” in the Origin Lab was really just a speeding up of thought processes…

Of course, the Origin Lab couldn’t compare to an ancient god’s divine realm, but the idea of “creating seemingly impossible miracles by manipulating the environment” was a shared trait. No wonder the old scholar liked to say, “When technology reaches its peak, it becomes indistinguishable from myth.”

She shook her head, brushing away the unrelated thoughts.

“Can I go see that ‘Border City’?” She suddenly looked up and asked Wilde, who stood by the pillar.

“…I’m afraid not,” Wilde’s tone held regret. “The Borderlands are a very special place. Though you can see it, you can never truly approach it—unless Lady Night opens a path for you, or you possess power as great as the Inverse Tide’s. Lady Night is currently away, and I’m just an old man who talks too much. You won’t be able to get there.”

Amber thought for a moment and shook her head. “…Alright, then forget it.”

“I thought you’d insist more,” Wilde said, surprised. “Those Lost Ones who wandered here are people you care about, right? At least some of them… They spent their entire lives in that Border City. Don’t you want to see where they lived?”

Amber glared at him. “Of course I do, but didn’t you say I can’t go?”

Wilde was speechless.

“Actually… it’s not a big deal if I don’t see it,” Amber waved her hand. “Like you said, they’ve been gone from this world for a hundred years. What could I possibly see now?”

She fell silent for a moment, then spoke softly after a few seconds. “I just want to know what their lives were like back then, in that ‘Border City.’ In a place so far from the world they knew, in a city within a lost divine realm—what kind of life did they live?”

Wilde pondered for a long moment before slowly speaking. “I’ve never been to the border city. And for someone like me, who’s always stayed beside the Shadow Throne, the hundred or so years that passed in that city are just a distant story. But I think I can still answer your question, because the Lady of Night told me about the lives She arranged for those ‘lost souls.’

“The Lady did everything in Her power to ensure each lost soul lived a happy and fulfilling life. In this, She showed a kindness and… patience that even I found astonishing.”

“Is that so? That’s good to hear.”

Amber spoke softly, then fell into a long silence. She seemed lost in thought—or perhaps in memory. No one knew how much time passed before she suddenly said, “I suppose I should be leaving now.”

“You actually know when you’ll leave this place?” Wilde’s voice was thick with surprise. “Last time you left, it seemed like you still—”

“Because I’m pretty amazing.” Amber smiled brightly, waving her hand as her form began to fade into the air. Just as she was about to vanish completely, a strange smile flickered across her face, as if she’d suddenly remembered something.

Casually, she murmured, “Come to think of it, if you measure it by real-world time, not much time has passed between those ‘lost souls’ crossing into this shadow realm and my arrival here.”

“That’s true,” Wilde replied. “It happened not long ago.”

Amber shrugged. “In such a short time, the Lady of Night sure has told you a lot…”

With that, her figure disappeared entirely into the air.

Silence returned before the Shadow Throne, broken only by the hollow wind stirring up dust across the desert. The great black leather-bound tome on the stone pillar lay still. After a dozen seconds, Wilde’s voice echoed from the book: “…What did she mean by that last remark?”

Before he could finish, a voice—both commanding and languid—sounded from above. “It means she’s already guessed that many of the things you told her this time were actually my instructions.”

The towering goddess sat quietly in Her place. Draped in a black gown like a gathering storm, She reclined lazily on the throne, one hand supporting Her weight, the other gently stroking the black-and-white scepter. Amid the swirling shadows, a pair of amber eyes watched Wilde on the stone pillar, a faint smile playing on Her lips.

The Lady of Night had returned.

(End of chapter)