The City of Silver, the Hall of the Dead. Deric stood at the steps, his eyes red, gazing ahead at his parents lying separately in two coffins. A simple, straight silver sword, planted in the stone slab before him, swayed gently, trembling slightly with the ever-present thunder that shook the building. The Berg couple within the coffins had not yet truly passed on; they struggled to keep their eyes open, breathing in weak and then strong bursts. Yet to some, the brilliance of their lives was already fading—irreversibly dimming. "You should be well aware that we, the people of darkness, have been forsaken by the gods and are forced to live in this land cursed with afflictions—every deceased becomes a terrifying spirit, no matter what we do, and this fate cannot be reversed, except when someone of our own blood personally ends their life." "Why? Why?" Darien shook his head, bewildered and desperate. "Why are our people of the Silver City destined from birth to slay their own parents?" The elder closed his eyes, as though recalling memories from the past: "That is our destiny. That is the curse we bear. That is the will of the gods." "Draw your sword, Darien, as a mark of respect to your parents." "Once you have calmed down, you may then attempt to become a Godblood Warrior." Berg in the coffin wished to speak, but after a few labored breaths, could only manage a series of weak, rattling sounds. Derek took slow, labored steps back to the silver straight sword, trembling as he extended his right hand. The cool sensation reached his mind, instantly recalling his father's blood ice brought home from hunting—just a palm-sized piece could keep the room cool for several days. In his mind's eye, he saw his stern father teaching him swordsmanship, his gentle father brushing dust from his back, his kind mother mending his clothes, his brave mother stepping in front of him when facing mutated monsters, and the warm scene of the whole family gathered around, sharing meals by the flickering candlelight... Ah... A sound deep and choked, barely audible, rose from his throat. With a sudden, strong force, he pulled the straight sword free. Thud! Thud! Thud! He kept his head down, charged forward, raised the sword high, and drove it down with force. Ah! A sharp cry of pain escaped him as blood sprayed out, splashing onto Derek's face and into his eyes. To his eyes, everything was a deep red. He drew his straight sword and drove it into the nearby coffin. The sharp metal pierced through flesh. Dariq released his grip and staggered to his feet. He didn't look inside either coffin, stumbling wildly out of the mortuary hall as though pursued by a spirit. His hands were clenched tight, his teeth gritted, and the crimson on his face was washed away into fainter traces. "Ah..." the elder, watching all this, exhaled softly. Along the streets of the City of Silver, stone pillars stood upright, each bearing lanterns hung with unlit candles. The sky had no sun, no moon, no stars—only an unchanging darkness, constantly torn by lightning. Under the glow of lightning, the people of the City of Silver moved along the dimly lit streets. During the several hours when the lightning ceased, they considered it the true night—a time when candles were needed to illuminate the city, dispel the darkness, and ward off monsters. Daryl walked steadily down the main avenue, his eyes fixed straight ahead, without thinking about where he was going. Yet as he walked, he found himself unexpectedly back at his own doorstep. He pulled out his key, unlocked the door, and pushed open the entrance. Everything looked familiar, yet he heard neither his mother’s concerned voice nor his father’s scolding for his restless wandering. The house was empty and still, quiet and cold. Daryl clenched his teeth again, hurried back to his room, and once more retrieved the crystal sphere—according to his father, a sphere once used by a long-fallen city to honor its gods. He knelt down before the crystal sphere, pleading with a sense of hopelessness, even in pain: "Great spirits, please turn your gaze once more upon this place you have abandoned." "Great spirits, please lift our dark folk from the curse of fate." "I am willing to offer my life to you, to please you with my blood." ...Again and again. As he was about to give up completely and rise, he saw a deep red light burst forth within the pure crystal sphere, like a flowing stream, instantly engulfing Dariel. When he regained partial consciousness, he found himself standing within a magnificent palace supported by towering stone pillars, before an ancient, weathered bronze table. Opposite him sat a figure veiled in a thick gray mist. Beyond that, the surroundings were empty, ethereal, and hollow, with a continuous haze of invisible, pale gray mist and a scattered array of unreal, deep red light points drifting at the floor level. A flame named Hope had been kindled deep within Deric. He gazed茫然ly and inquisitively at the figure seated majestically ahead, asking, "You—you are a deity?" After uttering these words, he suddenly remembered a passage from the well-known books of the Silver City and promptly lowered his head. The passage read: "Do not gaze directly upon a god!" Kleyn leaned back, crossed his hands, and responded in a relaxed, composed tone in the Giant language: "I am not a deity. I am merely a simple-minded man who finds history fascinating." Deric, who had already lightly tapped his left teeth twice, observed that the ethereal body within the young man's being revealed a star-spirit layer that was patchy and uneven in color—indicating that the youth had not yet attained the status of a remarkable one. The fool... Dairek chewed on the word, remaining silent for a long time before finally managing to say with difficulty: "Whether you are a deity or merely a fool, my plea remains unchanged. I wish for every person in the City of Silver to be freed from the curse of fate. I wish for the sun—just as described in the books—to appear in the sky. And if it is possible, I also wish for my parents to be resurrected." Hey, I'm not some kind of wish-granting machine... Caine loosened his hands and smiled. "Why should I help you?" Dairek was momentarily stunned, taking a while to reply: "I will offer my soul. I will use my blood to please you." "I have no interest in the blood or souls of ordinary people," Caine smiled, shaking his head as the colors of the young man's expression gradually turned to despair. Before Dairek could speak again, Caine said calmly: "But I can give you an opportunity." "I am a fool who believes in equivalent exchange. You may take whatever you desire from me or from others like yourself, but only if it is of equal value." "This could make you strong—perhaps one day, you will be able to rely on yourself, lift the curse from the City of Silver, and restore the sun to the sky." Based on the description just given, he had a good sense that the City of Silver was indeed located in the so-called God-Abandoned Lands. Of course, he could not yet be absolutely certain—after all, according to religious texts, the state of the sky without the sun still existed during the First Age, the Age of Chaos. No one knew for sure whether there were other strange places beyond the God-Abandoned Lands, unknown to the nations of the Northern Continent. Derek listened quietly, lowered his head in silence, and only after a while replied: "I would like to become the 'Sun,' and I would like to receive from you the original recipe for the magic potion of the initial sequence." "Sequence, potion, 'Sun'... the Sequence Pathway mastered by the Eternal Radiant Church... seems indeed to exist within the same world. The term 'Sequence' itself emerged after the first Tablet of Desecration came into being, at the close of the Second Age of Darkness. In other words, if the Silver City truly lies in the 'Divine Abandoned Land,' then this region must have become separated from the northern and southern continents at least by the end of the Second Age. Could this be connected to the Cataclysm of the Third Age? According to legend, the Night Goddess, the Earth Mother, the War Goddess, along with the Storm Lord, the Eternal Radiant Sun, and the Deities of Knowledge and Wisdom, jointly protected humanity through that period of upheaval. From the other's words, Caine gathered considerable information. Yet he found it difficult to listen attentively, and even more so to organize his thoughts, as his command of the Giant language remains still developing." Fortunately, the Gour-sak language directly evolved from the Giant language, an area where Caine is at least a qualified expert, so he has made rapid progress in mastering it and now feels confident. Caine maintained his posture unchanged and responded calmly: "This transaction can be arranged for the coming days. For the next two days, you should avoid leaving the city and try not to share rooms with anyone else." He was unaware of the time units used in Silver City, nor did he know how they related to the time units of the northern continent's kingdom of Luon; thus, he simply referred to it as "tomorrow," and would clarify the exact timing after the Tarot gathering. From then on, this would be the agreed-upon timeframe—this very point. As for the unit of "day," since the Giant language already had it, Caine believed that even if Silver City didn't use it for counting, the other party would understand what he meant. "...Understood, I'll follow your instructions," Deric replied, bowing his head without raising any objections. Klein exhaled a quiet relief, lightly tapping the edge of the table. "Before we send you back, let's first complete the equivalent exchange we've just made. I've given you a powerful opportunity—now you must pay a corresponding price." "I've said I'm a fool who delights in long histories. The exchange I seek is the historical record of the City of Silver—the history you know of it." After a moment's thought, Deric replied in a low voice, "I will describe it faithfully." "The City of Silver has always existed—indeed, even before the God, the All-Knowing and All-Powerful One, abandoned this land. No, it existed even before that. It was simply known then as the Kingdom of Silver."