The youth, identical to Ye Chui yet completely naked, bellowed at the top of his lungs, “My name is iPad!” His voice sounded rather immature, laced with a touch of childishness.
Dikao, Merendan, and the others stared at the youth in shock. iPad’s attacks moments ago had been immensely powerful. Colliding with the magician’s spell among them, the explosion had injured nearly everyone to some degree. This proved the youth’s combat prowess was far from ordinary, but it also confirmed something else.
“You are a magician! Wolf bandits cannot use magic. They wield power granted by demons, so you are not fallen. But who exactly are you?” Merendan demanded, his voice trembling slightly.
From his words, Ye Chui and Debbie could tell that the iPad youth’s powers were regarded as magic, while their enemies, the wolf bandits and fallen ones, used demon-granted strength. This seemed to lessen their initial hostility considerably.
“My name is iPad!” the youth shouted.
“…Very well, you are called Aipade. But I have never heard of anyone named Aipade. As a magician of such strength, I should know of you. You, you must be at the specialisation realm, right?” Merendan continued. He discarded his staff and approached the iPad youth with hands raised.
“My name is iPad!” the youth shouted again.
“…” Merendan paused, somewhat baffled. Why did this absurdly powerful magician keep declaring his name? Was there some profundity to it? Or perhaps Aipade was a renowned name he simply had not heard of, and the youth repeated it in anger at his earlier words?
Merendan glanced at his companions, then continued in a gentle tone towards the iPad youth. “I am truly sorry. I have not heard of your esteemed name, but you must be an exceptional magician…”
“My name is iPad!” the youth shouted once more.
“Yes, I know that now…” A twitch crossed Merendan’s young, handsome face.
“My name is iPad!”
“…Is that the only thing you can say?”
“My name is iPad!”
“…”
At this point, Ye Chui and Debbie exchanged a glance and understood. The iPad youth was not human at all. After arriving here, for some reason, Ye Chui’s iPad spellbook had manifested in this human form. He kept repeating that phrase… probably because it was the only thing he could say!
Ye Chui saw that Merendan had lost patience. The other swordsmen and magicians prepared to attack again. The iPad youth’s behaviour was practically a provocation. Thus, Ye Chui hurriedly pulled Debbie forward and shouted, “Everyone, do not panic. He means no harm.”
All eyes turned to Ye Chui. “Eh!?” They then noticed that the iPad youth looked exactly like Ye Chui. Their gazes grew peculiar. What made it even stranger was, “Yah!” Upon seeing Ye Chui and Debbie approach, the youth’s somewhat childish face split into a grin. He darted to their side.
He crouched on the ground and began rubbing his head against Ye Chui and Debbie’s legs…
Well, just like a dog expressing affection to its owner upon reunion.
Everyone present: “…”
Debbie started with a fright at first. A naked youth identical to Ye Chui suddenly acting like a dog was truly hard to get used to. Ye Chui’s feelings were a whirlwind of bloody hells, an indescribable weirdness. Then he extended a hand, tentatively placing it on the iPad youth’s head. The touch was soft, like real hair, with a faint scalp warmth.
Feeling the stroke, the iPad youth arched his head eagerly, clearly relishing it.
Seeing this, Debbie followed suit. The girl soon wore a beaming smile and whispered to Ye Chui, “I have always wanted to keep a dog…”
Ye Chui: “…”
Merendan, Dikao, and the others could no longer hold back. This youth, whose combat power clearly exceeded all, had left them dishevelled and severed Dikao’s arm with one strike. Now he acted like a dog beside Ye Chui and Debbie? They struggled to accept it. Merendan turned to Ye Chui and said coldly, “What on earth is going on?”
“Oh, this is my twin brother. He has some issues with his head and does not communicate well with people, so I have always been the one caring for him.” Ye Chui explained hastily. He paused, then added, “Do not let his appearance fool you. He is incredibly powerful, possessing specialisation realm magic strength.”
Ye Chui had no idea what specialisation realm meant, but he had heard Merendan mention it earlier, so he parroted it.
An elderly magician clutching a staff interjected then. “If he is a specialisation magician, he must be renowned across the Aigendas Continent. How, how can you treat him this way!”
The old magician clearly could not stand seeing the iPad youth treated like a dog, his head stroked by Debbie. His tone was stern as he stepped forward unthinkingly. But this alerted the iPad youth. The youth whipped his head around, crouching warily. “My name is iPad!”
“What, what does he mean…” The old magician’s body trembled.
“His meaning is that you must not take another step forward.” Ye Chui translated helpfully. Well, that was probably it. He could see that this group, who had attacked without a word earlier, now showed a clear shift in attitude. From the old magician’s words, Ye Chui gleaned more: Aigendas Continent, the name of the Castro Continent in the age of the gods. This truly was five thousand years ago?
“Since he is a specialisation magician, my rash attack on him was my sin. Losing this arm was no injustice!” Dikao’s arm had received emergency staunching. His face was pale, but his expression showed no pain or dejection, only excitement. “We need powerful magicians like him in the War of the Gods!”
War of the Gods? Another term from five thousand years past. Debbie lowered her voice to explain to Ye Chui, “The war between humans and the gods five thousand years ago is called the Holy War in later records, but those on the gods’ side termed it the War of the Gods. It lasted a full one hundred and three years!”
Ye Chui nodded. He said to Merendan, “We came for the War of the Gods, but we hid in a secret realm for many years and know little of the outside world… May we ask how many years the War of the Gods has raged now?”
“It had already begun when I was born.” Merendan said with a sigh. “Now it has been one hundred and three years.”
Ye Chui’s body jolted. “The gods are already extinct?”
Ye Chui’s exclamation slipped out. Though phrased as a question, it sounded like a statement. Thus, Merendan, Dikao, and the others were stunned.
“What? The gods are gone!?”
“Impossible!” Dikao flared up again, shouting at Ye Chui. “The gods, the gods cannot have fallen to those fallen demons!”
“Dikao…” An elderly swordsman hurriedly restrained Dikao’s arm. Grief filled his face. “Sigh, legend says the Divine Lady is the last of the god race. We have been besieged by wolf bandits in Greenleaf Village for so long, already at the end of our tether. We could not know the outside world’s tidings. It seems the War of the Gods has truly ended. We lost…”
Though Ye Chui had just asked how many years the War of the Gods had lasted, they came from outside and might not know the duration yet knew it had concluded. Most crucially, Merendan and the others seemed long aware that this battle was a foregone loss.
Ye Chui and Debbie exchanged another glance. From these exchanges, they vaguely grasped that Merendan, Dikao, and the rest had been trapped in Greenleaf Village by the so-called wolf bandits for many years, ignorant of external events. Yet one thing puzzled Ye Chui and Debbie: Divine Lady, wolf bandits. They had heard these exact terms from Old Harry’s mouth.
In that other timeline, Greenleaf Village faced the same threat from wolf bandits, and it too had a being called the Divine Lady.
What connection lay between them?
At that moment, a horse galloped swiftly from distant Greenleaf Village. A burly man in armour rode it. He reined in abruptly beside Ye Chui and the others, leaping down. “The Divine Lady bids me relay her order. She knows of the two guests’ arrival and requests they meet her.”
“Two guests?” Merendan blinked, glancing at Ye Chui, Debbie, and the iPad youth. There were clearly three. The Divine Lady was of the god race, Mother Earth. She could sense arrivals, nothing unusual. But why say two?
Ye Chui and Debbie exchanged yet another glance. They were indeed two, for the iPad youth did not count as a person…
What else did this Divine Lady know?
Was she truly the Elven Queen?
…
The wolf howls outside the carriage had gradually subsided.
Following Ye Chui’s order to stay in the carriage, Green, Lessa, Guni, Jacob, Old Harry, and Hank felt their tension ease slightly. Lessa peeked outside discreetly and saw the dreadful wolf fog had vanished. She rushed out hurriedly. Green, Guni, and the others also leapt from the carriage, shouting Ye Chui and Debbie’s names loudly.
But the surroundings stretched vast and empty. They could see the dilapidated village on the distant hillside, nothing more.
“Where have the guildmaster and the others gone?” Green asked tensely, turning to Old Harry, who had also emerged from the carriage.
Old Harry sighed and bowed his head.
His grandson Hank explained, “When wolf fog appears, anyone who enters it cannot return… They are devoured utterly by the giant wolf undead within… I am sorry. Your guildmaster and vice guildmaster are probably dead by now…”
“Impossible!” Lessa said, her face full of fury. “Little brother and big sister would never die!”
Hank hung his head tightly, at a loss for how to respond.
Just then, Jacob spotted something and tugged Green’s sleeve. They saw a figure running towards them from afar, seemingly a youth. But as joy flickered on their faces, thinking it Ye Chui, they realised it was a village boy in ragged clothes, skin dark as coal. Hank and Old Harry clearly knew him and hurried forward. The dark boy glanced fearfully at Debbie’s group, especially the Fire Ant Giant Sword slung over Guni’s shoulder, which made his body quake…
Then, somewhat breathless, he said, “The Divine Lady asks you to come to the village…”
“How does she know we are here?” Lessa frowned. Anxiety gnawed at her. “I must find little brother and big sister first!”
The boy glanced at Lessa, seemingly unused to speaking with such a pretty girl, and hastily lowered his head. In a hesitant voice, he continued, “The Divine Lady says she, she knows where the three who got separated from you are. She says she can help you find them…”
