The Fairy Flower is the core of the fairy's existence and the source of their power.
This flower not only symbolizes the nature of the fairies.
It is also a crystallization of their life and soul.
Each Fairy Flower is unique.
Their colors, shapes, and fragrances reflect the characteristics of the fairy to whom they belong.
The Fairy Flower is not just a condensation of a fairy's power; it is also a carrier of their emotions and memories.
It is said that the Fairy Flower only appears in special circumstances, such as when a fairy experiences a major upheaval or when their life comes to an end.
"It seems you know what this is."
Tao Yao slowly opened her mouth, a hint of emotion in her voice,
"As you can see, she has been chosen by the fairy. The newborn fairy had already planted a crimson seed inside her a long time ago, intending to make her a fairy's apostle. And all this time, she has been keeping it from me..."
Upon hearing this, Hiyakura displayed a look of confusion on her face.
"Apostle?"
She softly repeated the word, as if savoring its meaning.
Hiyakura had heard of the concept of an apostle.
Outside the crystallized world.
There was once when Tao Yao explained to her what an apostle was.
According to the Tao Yao of that time:
Fairy apostles are a group seeking the fairy's power, believing in and serving the existence of fairies.
However, she never expected to hear the term "apostle" again now in the crystallized world, and it seemed to differ from her previous understanding.
This realization plunged Hiyakura into thought.
A flicker of dawning understanding crossed her eyes:
"Does that mean... apostles already existed at that time?"
Tao Yao noticed Hiyakura's reaction, and the corners of her lips slightly curved up, revealing an understanding smile.
"It seems you know what an apostle is; it's normal if you think about it. If, as you say, you come from the future, then you likely should understand this."
Hiyakura nodded:
"Yes, the you of the future told me that apostles are the seekers of fairies. But you did not explain why apostles are born or why they are chosen by fairies..."
"I see, it seems you have encountered the fairy's apostle."
Tao Yao stepped forward, extending her snow-white hand to cradle the Fairy Flower that floated in the air, emitting a faint glow.
"My Little Hiyakura, the relationship between fairies and apostles is not as simple as you say; it is slightly more complex than you understand or imagine."
Upon hearing this, Hiyakura furrowed her brow, appearing even more confused.
"Ah? Isn't an apostle just a believer? Similar to an agent or a proxy?"
After hearing this, Tao Yao revealed a mysterious smile.
Her eyes sparkled with the light of wisdom, seeming to unveil a profound truth:
"Little Hiyakura, I think you need to understand this concept. If fairies are the gods of the apostles, then correspondingly, apostles are the sanctuary of fairies."
"They are mutually exclusive, both paired and unique."
"The connection between fairies and apostles transcends simple faith; it is a profound and inseparable relationship, like partners, far exceeding life and death."
Tao Yao's words carried a sense of profound mystery.
Each of her words seemed to contain deep meanings, compelling one to delve deeper.
After hearing this, Hiyakura revealed an expression that seemed to understand yet not understand.
She couldn't comprehend why Tao Yao had suddenly become so enigmatic...
"I don't understand..."
Hiyakura honestly expressed, asking, "Are you saying that within me, there is also such a Fairy Flower? Wait... if that's the case... am I an apostle?"
At that moment, Hiyakura suddenly felt a moment of clarity.
If the Fairy Flower is the true essence of the fairy.
Then the second personality that had already appeared in her was the real fairy?
She seemed to be a fairy...
But actually was not a fairy?
This realization made Hiyakura feel dizzy, as if her identity had suddenly blurred.
Seeing Hiyakura's confused look, Tao Yao continued to explain:
"Fairies can also be apostles, and apostles can also be fairies."
"When a fairy chooses their apostle, from a certain perspective, the apostle can be considered a part extended from the fairy."
"Therefore, they can both be called apostles and can also be called fairies."
"However, in the situation we are encountering, some fairies may not necessarily have their own apostles, and some apostles may not necessarily have their own fairies."
After listening to this explanation, Hiyakura felt a serious headache.
She was baffled and unable to unravel the relationships within.
"What exactly is related to what?" she couldn't help but ask, "But... what is the difference between the two, and what does this have to do with this Fairy Flower?"
Tao Yao smiled and replied: "Of course, it is related. If it weren't for the connection, then how could you appear before me in some way now that the Great Hiyakura has already died?"
At this moment, Hiyakura had a faint reaction.
Her eyes widened slightly, as if she had grasped a crucial clue.
"Are you saying..."
Hiyakura's words were unfinished.
She suddenly thought of a possibility...
A possibility beyond comprehension!
Thinking of this possibility, a look of surprise flickered in Hiyakura's eyes, which then turned into deep shock.
Her lips trembled slightly, as if she wanted to say something yet failed to organize a complete sentence.
Her thoughts surged like waves in a storm.
"Are you saying that..."
Hiyakura's voice trembled slightly, her gaze fixed tightly on the Fairy Flower in Tao Yao's hand that emitted a faint glow, "I... can come back to life?"
Tao Yao looked at Hiyakura's shocked expression and gently nodded.
She carefully cradled the Fairy Flower in her hands, as if protecting the most precious treasure in the world.
Her voice was gentle and magnetic, slowly saying:
"It seems you have already guessed it."
"Yes, fairies are special beings. It is very difficult for a fairy to truly die in the real sense. Even if they die, there is a possibility of rebirth."
"The Fairy Flower is immortal, and the apostle does not die."
"And if the apostle does not die, the fairy endures!"
Tao Yao's words struck Hiyakura's heart like a lightning bolt, clearing the fog within.
She felt her heart racing, blood surging within her body.
The impact of this realization far exceeded her imagination.
Tao Yao continued to explain:
"When a fairy chooses an apostle and plants a Fairy Flower within the apostle's body, it means the apostle can become a fairy. Conversely, a Fairy Flower can also nurture a new apostle."
Upon hearing this, Hiyakura was completely stunned.
Her eyes widened, her mouth slightly agape, as if she wanted to say something but found herself unable to voice it.
Her body trembled slightly, as if unable to bear the impact of this information.
"I... can I really be resurrected?"
Hiyakura finally regained her voice.
Although she was not dead at the moment, she understood what this implied.
Therefore, her tone was filled with uncertainty and disbelief. Her eyes flickered with complex emotions, a mix of anticipation for the new life and fear of the unknown.
This understanding cleaved through Hiyakura's heart like lightning.
She felt her heart racing, blood surging inside her.
The shock brought by this possibility far exceeded her imagination.
Hiyakura's heart was full of contradictory emotions.
However, in this moment of shock and joy, a new question suddenly surfaced in Hiyakura's mind.
Her brows furrowed slightly, and a look of confusion crossed her eyes.
"Wait..."
Hiyakura hesitated for a moment, then mustered her courage to ask:
"Then why did they just resort to mutual destruction? Didn't she already choose her apostle? Why did she have to kill... kill 'me'?"
At the end of the statement, Hiyakura's voice trembled slightly.
Although she was referring to Past Hiyakura.
But when she uttered that sentence, she still felt a pang of heartache.
After all, in a certain sense, that "her" who was killed was herself.
Upon hearing Hiyakura's question, Tao Yao's expression became serious.
She sighed lightly before answering:
"Not all fairies desire to have their own apostles. Even if they have, they may not reach an agreement..."
Upon hearing this, Tao Yao fell into a brief silence.
A tinge of complex emotion flickered in her eyes, as if recalling some painful past.
After a moment, she continued:
"Fairies lack humanity and only know how to destroy."
"And Great Hiyakura disagreed, so... she tore her face with the fairies."
"Or to put it another way, she tried to destroy the fairies, including herself, before they caused greater harm due to their destructive desires..."
Upon hearing this explanation, Hiyakura's face suddenly turned pale.
Her eyes widened, lips trembling slightly, as if struck in the heart by this cruel truth.
"Suicide?"
In response to Hiyakura's words, Tao Yao gently nodded.
"Yes, you can understand it that way."
Hiyakura fell into contemplation, her brow knitting tightly as if trying hard to remember something.
Suddenly, as if she recalled something important, she raised her head and eagerly asked:
"Then... what did she say to you at that time?"
Upon hearing this question, Tao Yao's expression suddenly turned a bit mischievous.
"What did she say..."
She blinked her eyes, the corners of her mouth lifting in a mysterious smile, and said:
"Hiyakura, wasn't that a secret between us? You said it was a secret between us that only we know."
Hiyakura's cheeks suddenly turned red upon hearing this.
She felt a surge of inexplicable shame and anger, involuntarily raising her voice:
"I am not her!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Hiyakura froze.
She couldn't understand why she had said such a thing.
This sentence seemed to have slipped out of her uncontrollably.
Immediately after, a strong sense of regret enveloped her.
Did she...
Seem to say something wrong?
Sure enough.
Hiyakura noticed a change in Tao Yao's expression.
The previously playful smile disappeared, replaced by a complex smile tinged with bitterness.
Tao Yao sighed softly, a trace of undeniable sadness appearing in her eyes.
Her voice grew low and gentle:
"Yes..."
Tao Yao slowly said, "Although my intuition tells me that you two are the same person, you seem to be somewhat different... Sometimes I wonder if, even if this Fairy Flower blooms again and you are reborn from it, would you still be you?"
Tao Yao's words seemed to be directed at Past Hiyakura.
They carried a deep sense of helplessness and a hint of imperceptible loss.
Her gaze drifted off into the distance, as if recalling some precious past.
Upon hearing this, Hiyakura suddenly felt an overwhelming surge of complex emotions within her.
She felt an indescribable sadness and loneliness, as if she had suddenly become a being that could not be fully understood and accepted.
She wanted to say something, yet did not know where to start.
A silence enveloped the two.
Hiyakura lowered her head, her thoughts in disarray.
Tao Yao quietly observed her, her eyes filled with complex emotions.
Suddenly, Tao Yao broke the silence.
"Little Hiyakura, can you tell me how you connected the past and present to appear before me? I've actually been wanting to know."
Upon hearing this, Hiyakura's body trembled slightly.
She raised her head, meeting Tao Yao's gaze, but then quickly looked away.
Her lips quivered slightly as if hesitating whether to reveal the truth.
She was struggling within.
Earlier, she indeed revealed to Tao Yao that she came from the future, but she had never mentioned the specifics.
Tao Yao also did not press the matter, as if they had an unspoken understanding to avoid the topic.
Hiyakura knew that Tao Yao was unaware that she had come here through a shard of a memory crystal.
Watching Hiyakura's hesitation, Tao Yao's gaze softened.
She gently said, "If you don't want to say it... I won't press you."
It seemed Tao Yao was about to give up on the question.
Hiyakura suddenly raised her head, clenched her teeth.
She took a deep breath, gathering her courage to say:
"I can tell you how I came here, and I can even tell you some more specific circumstances, but you have to tell me what she said earlier..."
The "she" she referred to was naturally Past Hiyakura.
Hiyakura desperately wanted to know what her past life said to Tao Yao.
This secret felt like a mystery, tugging at her heart.
Upon hearing Hiyakura's request, a brilliant smile blossomed on Tao Yao's face.
"Sure!" Tao Yao readily agreed.
With Tao Yao's promise, Hiyakura felt slightly more at ease.
She took a deep breath and began to recount her experience with the memory crystal shard.
She briefly described how she entered this world through the shard.
But she did not delve too deeply into the details.
Tao Yao listened intently, her expression gradually becoming serious.
Once Hiyakura finished speaking, Tao Yao fell silent for a moment before breaking into a soft laugh.
"So... I'm just a fragment of memory; you haven't really crossed time and space, right?"
Tao Yao's voice was gentle yet carried a hint of curiosity, "Then what reason brought you to explore this memory? Did you encounter some difficulty?"
Her tone was filled with concern, as if she truly cared about Hiyakura's situation.
This gentle attitude made Hiyakura feel a wave of warmth, yet it also made her feel tangled about how to respond.
Just as Hiyakura was hesitating about what to say, Shiro, who had been observing from the shadows, suddenly whispered in her ear: "Just tell her the truth; say I forced you."
Hiyakura was slightly startled, but quickly calmed down. She took a deep breath and decided to tell the truth.
"Your maid kidnapped my two friends."
Hiyakura slowly spoke, her voice trembling slightly, "She forced me into the memory crystal shard, wanting to gather some... information about your civilization here, to learn more."
Upon hearing this, Tao Yao's brows furrowed slightly, a puzzled expression crossing her face.
"Maid? Who is my maid?"
"Shiro; her name is Shiro," Hiyakura quietly responded.
"Shiro?"
Tao Yao repeated the name, her expression growing even more confused, "What a strange name. Will she be my maid in the future? What does she look like? Is she pretty?"
Tao Yao seemed to fall into her own thoughts and began speaking to herself:
"However... she actually dared to threaten you."
"Uh... let me guess! This maid must be very nasty and also very ugly, right? She must be someone I didn't recognize! Otherwise, how could I have chosen such a maid?"
Shiro: "..."
Hiyakura found Tao Yao's words somewhat amusing, yet she quickly remembered her objective and urgently said, "I've told you everything you wanted to know. What about what I want to know?"
Hearing this, an expression of realization flashed across Tao Yao's face.
She smiled and said:
"Of course, this is our little secret. It's no big deal to tell you. At that time, you said..."
Hiyakura held her breath, fully focused on waiting for Tao Yao's next words.
Her heart raced, her eyes wide open, fearing she might miss any single word.
However, just as Tao Yao was about to reveal that secret, the surrounding world suddenly underwent a violent change.
The entire space began to twist, colors becoming muddled.
Hiyakura felt as if she were in a giant kaleidoscope, with the scenery around her constantly changing and reassembling.
The ground shook, and the sky cracked, as if it were a mirror on the verge of shattering.
This sensation felt like a computer screen had suddenly malfunctioned, or like the entire world had been pressed to pause and then began flickering frantically.
All objects began to decompose, turning into countless pixelated points scattered in the air.
Hiyakura looked on in terror at all this.
She wanted to reach out and grab something.
But her hand passed through everything she wanted to touch.
Tao Yao's figure became blurry before her, eventually vanishing completely in this chaos.
Just when Hiyakura thought she would be forever lost in this crumbling world, she felt a powerful force pulling her out.
Her consciousness began to blur, and everything around her turned into a void.
In the last moment before losing consciousness, Hiyakura realized she was being forcibly ejected from this fictional world of the past.
…
Hiyakura groggily opened her eyes, her consciousness gradually returning.
She found herself lying in a strange secret room, the surroundings slowly becoming clear.
It was a small, enclosed space, with various complex instruments and display screens embedded in the walls, emitting a faint blue light.
The air was filled with a light metallic scent, creating a slight discomfort.
Her attention was quickly drawn to a scene not far away.
Violet was tightly bound by ropes, her hands suspended in the air.
Her long hair was disheveled across her shoulders, her eyes bearing obvious tear marks, revealing deep fatigue and pain.
Maintaining this suspended position for a long time had evidently been torturous for her.
When Violet noticed Hiyakura had awoken, a glimmer of hope flickered in her eyes.
She began to struggle violently, making muffled sounds as if silently calling for help.
The ropes swayed with her movements, producing sharp friction sounds.
In stark contrast to Violet's intense reaction was the similarly bound Jasmine.
She sat quietly in a corner, her hands tied behind her, yet her expression bore little panic.
Her gaze was calm and deep, as if she were contemplating something important.
Just as Hiyakura attempted to understand the situation, a familiar figure gracefully appeared before her.
It was Shiro, the mysterious figure who claimed to be Tao Yao's maid.
Her face still bore that inscrutable smile.
"Awake?"
Shiro's voice remained gentle, yet carried a chilling undertone.
Hiyakura did not respond immediately.
She stared fixedly at the maid before her, her eyes brimming with questions and confusion.
Everything that had occurred just before in the memory world, along with that unanswered secret, left her feeling incredibly frustrated and angry.
Noticing Hiyakura's gaze, Shiro sighed quietly.
"Don't look at me like that," she said with a hint of helplessness in her voice, "I don't know why this situation occurred either. Just now, the equipment seemed to malfunction..."
As she spoke, she pointed to a nearby complex device.
Hiyakura followed her finger and saw that the place where the memory crystal had been placed was now just a pile of fine dust.
The shard that had held countless secrets had turned into an irretrievable pile of ashes.
"And then, the memory crystal shattered..." Shiro's voice carried a hint of regret, but Hiyakura couldn't determine if that regret was genuine.
She looked at the pile.
Feeling somewhat dazed and stunned.
Again shattered?
Suddenly, Hiyakura felt a deep sense of defeat.
She had worked so hard, taking immense risks to enter that virtual world, yet was forcibly exited just when she was about to gain the little secret from Tao Yao.
Now, even the opportunity to try again had been completely lost.
"You recorded the entire process; you should have what you wanted. You can let them go now, right?"
Hiyakura finally spoke, although with nostalgia.
But her current priority was to find a way to escape.
According to their deal.
Shiro needed data and information from the old civilization, and then let go of Violet and Jasmine.
The maid's smile revealed a hint of madness in her eyes:
"Of course, I did gain some insights. However... I only promised you I wouldn't harm them for the time being; when did I ever say I would let them go?"