Ed wasn't sure what he was hearing.

Like the never-ending sound of the Vinz River, and like the earnest call of a mother. Every time he raised his head from the pillow and listened, only his heartbeat and breathing were in the silence, and every time he closed his eyes and forced himself to sleep, the sound lingered in his ears again.

Tossing and turning into the middle of the night, he couldn't even be sure if he was dreaming or waking up when he got up and walked out of the room...... I don't know where I'm going or what I'm going to do.

But it doesn't feel bad.

It was very quiet, and no one bothered him. Limestone Castle grew more and more like Christus in the darkness...... Or has he returned to Chrisses?

Ed unconsciously reached out his hand, his fingers brushing over the cold walls, and the ancient stones seemed to whisper to him. All the portraits on the wall seemed to come to life suddenly, some smiling at him, some glaring angrily, and some just watching him walk by indifferently.

The castle also has its own memories - who told him this?

Ed felt that his steps were unbelievably light—his whole body was unbelievably light. The cold air lifted him up like water, and he slid leisurely through the long corridors and winding staircases, with an indescribable ease in his daze.

He loved that feeling better than the moment when he was in the stands of the Colosseum, working a miracle.

At that moment, he did feel extremely powerful. As if standing on the top of the mountains, above the sky, the indescribable power was surging within him, and he knew that he could raise his hand to set off a huge wave on the sea. He knew that he could bring everyone under his feet and that he could create everything if he wanted to. It can destroy everything...... The power filled him instantly, making him tremble in ecstasy and fear, and then hollowing him out in an instant, leaving him with an endless emptiness.

He knew in a trance that something was dying, just as something was returning, order and balance, gain and loss. Creation and destruction, life and death. Eternal Truth......

In the end, seeing Borena sit up suddenly, in addition to joy, there was a great sadness that overwhelmed him. And he didn't even know why.

All he knew was that he didn't want to experience it a second time.

With his bare feet fluttering on the damp dirt, Ed suspected that he hadn't even left a footprint like an elf. The moonlight was also like water, flowing gently and coldly on his skin. Birth and death were being born and dying in the night, all whispering to guide his path, and he didn't need to think, just follow.

He didn't know when he left the castle, a fortress made of rock. They didn't need that, but everything has its own meaning once it's born......

Ed loves rocks. The Dwarven's Mine was the grandest structure he'd ever seen, but he still preferred water.

Everywhere and on the move. Erratic.

Faint as mist, macro as rivers and seas, forever in the palm of your hand.

As the river overflowed his knees, he let out a long, contented sigh and leaned back. Sink quietly into the water.

It was as if after a long journey, finally returning to that eternal home. All the exhaustion and hesitation melted away like snow and passed away with the flowing water. He heard a soft whisper, as if calling his name......

"Ed!! Ed?Singhal!!"

Everything in front of him suddenly began to shake violently, and the silence and serenity of the previous moment shattered silently in an instant. A burst of fury caused Ed to roar, desperately resisting the arms that tightly bound his upper body. He kept kicking and thrashing, even biting like a beast, frantically trying to break free from all restraints and return to where he had been, to the silence and freedom.

"Ed!!Are you crazy?!It's me...... Are you trying to force me to become a dragon?!"

The roar of exasperation sounded familiar, and Ed instinctively stopped, staring blankly into the clear light blue eyes.

“...... Is?" He let out a dazed cry and shivered violently, shivering uncontrollably in the sudden cold.

"It's ...... What's going on?" he hugged his arms and curled them up, his teeth chattering, barely able to speak. The soaked clothes clung to the skin like ice, and I felt cold and hard all over my body, and the pain was numb.

"I want to ask you!" Ace angrily dragged his half-paralyzed friend back a little more, rubbing his arm violently, hoping to restore his temperature a little, "Do you want to die?!

Ed looked around with a dull gaze, and in the wilderness, the limestone fort was entrenched like a gray-white eagle on the edge of a nearby cliff, and in front of him, the Sickle River, a small river that flowed into the Black River, was flowing slowly in the night.

- And he had no memory of how he got here.

"I don't know......" he muttered, his memory frozen as if it were his body, "I don't know......"

Isis sighed, cursed something in a low voice, and pulled him up from the ground half-dragging and half-hugging, and when he spoke, his tone was unusually gentle.

"It's okay, let's go back first. He said, "Gotta warm you up first, and then we'll figure out what the hell is going on......

Ed didn't resist again. But as he dragged his heavy, trembling body towards the Limestone Castle, he couldn't help but look back at the moonlit river several times.

He didn't think he was going to really die there.

When Alan woke up in the morning, he was refreshed and relaxed.

It's been a long time since he's slept so soundly—strangely sweet. This gave him an immediate sense of foreboding.

Sure enough, as soon as he got dressed, Iss came running and knocked on his door and told him with a depressed face that Ed was sick.

The "great priest" who had just brought a man back from the dead had a high fever and was lying in bed with a flushed face, sometimes awake, sometimes dazed, muttering not knowing what he was saying.

He obviously can't heal himself now.

"Is this some kind of after-effect?" asked Naria, confused.

Alan looked at Is.

"Even if there are any sequelae, it's sleepwalking, not a fever. "He ran out of the castle in the middle of the night and jumped into the nearby river, and I dragged him out, but he himself could not tell what was going on." ”

Iss woke up in the middle of the night last night. It's not that you perceive any danger, it's that you ...... A more subtle, somewhat annoying feeling.

Somehow, he suddenly wanted to take advantage of the night to turn into a dragon and fly around, gliding lazily on the air above the clouds, and when he opened the window to jump out, he saw Ed.

The fellow, dressed in a thin nightgown, walked briskly through the courtyard, the gates silently opening for him, while the guards on either side and on the walls seemed unaware.

Surprised to follow, Iss followed. He hadn't intended to interfere because the power he felt didn't seem to have malicious intent, but when Ed walked into the creek and seemed ready to simply lie down in the water, he instinctively rushed over and dragged Ed out.

Now he realized that he had probably done something he shouldn't have done on impulse.

"Oh, I can't blame you for that!" Narya reassured him, "I'll do the same." It doesn't matter what kind of test or revelation it is...... It's too easy to misunderstand!"

Iss had no choice but to smile at her.

"Are you sure this isn't some necromancer's spell?" Alan was more worried about this, "keep the others to sleep and let Ed jump into the river by himself......"

Isis shook his head affirmatively: "Different forces have different breaths. Even if it wasn't a god's power, it definitely wasn't a necromancer's. ”

And silently putting the entire castle, as well as the elves, into a coma or trance, is not something that a necromancer can do,

Alan breathed a sigh of relief. But in any case, they couldn't get out of Anktann as soon as they had planned.

"What the hell is he talking about? Tess curiously leaned her ear close to Ed's mouth, trying to hear his muffled mutter, "Why does it sound like elf?"

"Tess ......" Norway sighed and pulled her away, "Let him have a good rest." ”

It wasn't just elven words—Iss looked at Ed with some concern. He heard several different languages, including dragons. The current situation reminded him of the last time Ed almost froze to death, and it seemed that someone was trying to shove all sorts of things into Ed's brain and body, and he feared that a human might not be able to accept it. 、

Last time, Ed tossed and turned for days to recover, and when he woke up, he forgot everything.

Maybe he should make another trip to the Valley of Ambition, maybe Ingris will know something, or maybe he can find some useful account of the powerful priests or saints of the past......

Sage?

There was a thought that flashed through him, so fast that he couldn't grasp it at all, and then no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember it again.

In the evening of that day, Limestone Fort welcomed an unexpected guest.

"Looking for you. Célene Grean brought the guest directly in front of Allen, his expression calm, but his eyes still involuntarily rolled over the guest as he left.

"Take the liberty of interrupting. Ethan Crofeller met Allen's surprised gaze and said politely, "I'm afraid my intentions will be even more presumptuous." ”

- Then please go back.

Alan would love to respond. He was old and lame, in a foreign land, with a few self-righteous young men around him, and an even more self-righteous friend running outside...... He really didn't want to get into any more trouble.

But the instinct that made him a knight from a blacksmith's son, and abandoned his name as a knight to embark on an adventurous path, drove him to make a completely different choice.

"If you want us to help...... "I want to know everything you know, and all your plans." ”.

(To be continued)