Chapter 380 - 378: Sorry, Hilia
This place is located deep underground in the Land of the Far North.
The stars and aurora cover the entire underground, only when Rose and Hilia move forward does a path split open before them.
Along the path, all the way down, Rose and Hilia reached a gigantic space at the bottom.
Here stands an ice sculpture castle, somewhat similar to the ruins, yet imbued with a greater sense of mystery than the castle within the ruins.
The space above is still covered by stars, and it seems there is also a half-moon.
Rose paused, gazing at the ice sculpture castle ahead.
After a while, he stepped forward.
Slowly, he emerged from the magic puppet, which transformed into a stream of light and returned to the storage space.
As he advanced, his shadow gradually solidified.
By the end, aside from being intangible, he appeared no different from a normal person.
Hilia quietly followed behind Rose, without saying a word.
At this moment, silence was adequate.
No need to speak.
She saw no sign of happiness on Rose’s face.
Completely different from when he had met Jonathan earlier.
His expression was calm, betraying neither sadness nor joy; that in itself was a signal.
Meaning...
Recalling fragments of Alina’s memories brought discomfort to Hilia once again.
"I hope Miss Alina is okay, just asleep." The girl prayed in her heart.
Soon, they entered the castle.
Inside, there were also ice-sculpted guards, standing on either side of the castle entrance, silently guarding the sleeping princess.
Unlike the ruins, the guards would not come to life.
The castle had walls but no city gates.
The only entrance was an ice-sculpted door at the castle itself.
"This door shows marks of being opened repeatedly..."
Hilia noticed numerous marks of opening on the gate leading inside the castle.
These marks were obvious to anyone not blind.
They were polished to a shine, after all.
Rose stood in front of the door for a while, then turned and said, "Hilia, please help me open the door."
"Oh, okay." Hilia hurried forward.
Rose couldn’t touch physical objects in his current state, yet he had a hundred methods to open a door—asking Hilia was one among them.
Pushing open the door, inside wasn’t dim at all; it was bright, still enveloped by stars and aurora.
However, among the stars, a layer of shadow loomed, unyielding.
The castle inside was undivided into rooms, only housing a vast space, with a platform jutting out at the center, upon which lay a gigantic ice block.
Underfoot, the castle’s columns and walls were covered with runes.
If examined deep into these runes, hidden magic crystals could be seen.
Rose slowly approached the ice block, stepped onto the platform, hesitated for a moment, sighed, lifted his leg, climbed onto the platform, and moved next to the enormous ice block, looking inside.
Inside the ice block lay a stunning purple-haired girl with closed eyes, quietly nestled within the ice, hands folded across her abdomen.
The purple hair subtly sparkled with stardust.
The ice formed a groove, its surface slightly higher than she was, reaching a height below Rose’s chest.
Hilia followed, gazing at Alina within the ice.
She could not discern whether Alina was alive, so she looked toward Rose, awaiting his reaction.
She detected no change in Rose’s emotions.
Yet...
The surroundings seemed to grow a bit colder.
After a while, Rose suddenly sighed lightly.
He reached out, his fingertips solidified, and gently brushed aside a lock of Alina’s hair.
Alina made no reaction.
No breath.
As if...
She had long been dead?
Hilia opened her mouth, but then hesitated.
She wanted to speak but restrained herself with great effort.
Until Rose was the first to speak softly: "You want to ask whether Alina is alive or dead, don’t you?"
Hilia silently nodded.
"Alive, yet dead too."
Hilia: "..."
Well, she had already grown accustomed to Rose’s manner of speaking.
Every time, Lord Rose would say such things.
Rose watched Alina, gently saying, "I’ve seen more dreams than you, aside from millennia-old dreams, I’ve seen dreams from nearly a hundred years."
Hilia remained silent, taking on the role of a faithful listener.
"In the early days of the calamity resistance, Alina overexerted her strength. For a mage with a Dream Attribute, being unable to sleep means she’s depleting her strength, her soul."
"Faruga perceived her wrong state and earnestly persuaded her; only then did she come to the Land of the Far North to sleep, using the icy cold and aurora there to nourish and repair her soul, restoring her strength bit by bit."
"But over a century ago, she was prematurely awakened."
"She voluntarily permitted her blood extraction, letting her strength and blood leave her body."
"Her condition was already poor, and once her strength was drained, her state, her life rapidly declined, lingering on the brink of life and death. If it weren’t for the array here providing continuous treatment, she might have died decades ago."
Hilia opened her mouth slightly and finally couldn’t resist asking: "Who convinced Miss Alina to voluntarily drain her strength and blood? The Polar Blood Alliance..."
Rose’s voice turned cold: "Only someone close to her could persuade her thus; someone used my matters to deceive her—well done."
Someone familiar...?
Names Jonathan once mentioned flashed through Hilia’s mind.
Eventually, amid the chaotic names, one slowly emerged and slipped out.
"Ashugar?"
Hilia still remembered Jonathan mentioning the conditions of other apostles.
Six had died, of those remaining, Faruga was missing, Alina lay asleep, Ashugar and Raphael chose to remain active outside, resisting the gods, while Dolovaster and Jonathan each founded a relic, staying within the ruins.
Ashugar and Raphael were the most suspect.
Yet to Jonathan, one resisted to the end, the other spread ideas.
Rose had once mentioned that Ashugar was a war fanatic.
His suspicion was greatest.
Raphael was unfamiliar, unclear.
Rose was noncommittal, not lingering on this topic, "Hilia, take out all of Alina’s blood."
"Oh, okay."
Hilia produced all the blood of Alina she had obtained thus far.
Aside from one vial used in special training, the rest were all there.
Most were recently acquired at the base above.
Under Rose’s control, the blood floated out from the vial, hovering before Alina.
Rose muttered, "Though I can’t heal your injuries yet, I can at least keep you hanging by a thread, wait for me, after I come out, I’ll personally escort you away."
Those dreams left Rose’s mood somewhat complicated.
At the same time, Alina’s willing blood sacrifice, leaving her barely hanging on, only kept alive by Faruga’s array, also infuriated him.
Under Rose’s control, the blood swiftly formed an unusual rune pattern, slowly merging into Alina’s body.
The array within the ice sculpture castle also began to glow.
Hilia was watching, suddenly seeing Rose turn back with an apologetic expression:
"Forgive me, Hilia."
Hilia was still puzzled when she suddenly felt her magic power being instantly drained; she rolled her eyes on the spot before fainting.