Do you like this eternal cradle?

Gawain suddenly thought of the young dragon who had just woken up from the hatching sac, and of the cheerful cries that the other party had made at him; I thought of the "inferior citizens" in the lower city who had become addicted to synergists and hallucinogens, and had become completely nourished by the gods; I thought of the chaotic and crazy arena, the dragons fighting in the arena...... It was a dozen or so cold steel machines struggling, strapped to the skulls and ganglia immersed in the hallucinations of the synergist.

The dragons are indeed alive – but Tallrond is dead.

"It's terrible," he said softly, suddenly, "and life is worthless. ”

Then he paused and asked, "Can the Cradle of Eternity be broken?" ”

"That's a big price," the dragon god said quietly, "but the odds of success are slim - after all, the cradle itself is already the price of failure, and the laws of nature are never tolerant of losers, and it is difficult for any race, even a mighty dragon, to be qualified to fail twice." ”

Speaking of this, He suddenly raised his eyes, and his gaze fell on Gawain's face: "So, you want to help Talrond break this 'Cradle of Eternity'?" ”

"Me?" Gao Wen pointed at himself and couldn't help laughing, "How can I have this ability?" ”

"You can even destroy it with a single command," Ryujin smiled faintly, "Why not assume that you also have the ability to break the 'cradle' on this continent?" ”

It seemed like a joke, but Gawain couldn't help but think about it seriously, and after a few seconds of thinking, he still shook his head: "No, at least not now." ”

"Why?" Ryujin showed a hint of curiosity, "Don't you feel that this cradle is terrifying?" ”

"I'm not the savior of the dragons—there has never been one," Gawain said earnestly, "and like you said, breaking the Cradle of Eternity comes at a great price—I can imagine what those costs are, and who pays for them." No one is qualified to sacrifice other people's things to satisfy their own 'salvation' drama, so I am not qualified to make decisions for the dragons, and I am not qualified to choose sacrifice or survival for them.

"So, whether they want to sink to death in the cradle of eternity, or to fight to find a future for the entire race, this is the dragon's own business, and it is up to them to make their own decisions, and they have to choose whether to pay that price or not.

"Cecil doesn't meddle in the internal affairs of other countries – that's my rule."

Gawain finished his thoughts, but the god in front of him looked him up and down with strange eyes for several seconds before he said with a smile: "It's incredible that these words come from the mouth of a 'hero' recognized in the human world. I thought you had positioned yourself as the 'savior' of the human world, but that doesn't seem to be the case now. ”

Gawain spread his hands: "I didn't save anyone, all of us are saving ourselves." ”

“…… You seem to have completely considered yourself a member of the human race, a member of this world, Wanderer," the dragon god looked at Gawain with some curiosity, "I'm suddenly curious—can people face the same problems in your homeland as this world?" Like what...... When you encounter great social changes, when your social groups also encounter great ideological changes, when your beliefs are tested, when you also have to abandon traditions and dogmas and face great changes in the environment...... How did you deal with all this?

"Ah, or should I make sure first—do you have races, societies, creeds, and nations?"

"Of course we also have concepts like society, the state," Gawain laughed, but soon his smile added some mixed emotion, "Of course, we will also face those ...... 'challenges' that you mentioned. To tell the truth, when the people in my hometown are faced with changes from tradition, reality, beliefs and ideas, they will also have turmoil and unrest, and the whole process of transformation is often painful and dangerous, but it is different from this world - those traditions are just traditions, and people's thinking concepts are just thinking concepts, and they do have huge constraints, but they are ...... They do not become any 'entity' with real deterrence, nor do they generate 'power' beyond reality. ”

Speaking of this, Gawain suddenly found that these things that were taken for granted by earthlings were likely to be unbelievable in this world, and even gods like Enya felt incomprehensible, so he had to explain while considering the vocabulary: "To give a simple example, when a race that has lived in the mountains for generations and regards the mountains as gods decides to move out of the mountains, they only need to face the opposition of the elders of the clan, and they don't have to worry about being punished by the mountain gods. ”

The dragon god listened with some surprise, and finally he understood what kind of world rules Gawain was describing, and the god had a somewhat dazed expression on his face, and it was not until a few seconds later that he whispered, "It's so beautiful." ”

"Actually, it's not easy," Gawain couldn't help but want to explain a few more words, "even if the trend of thought does not form a real force, and rebellion against tradition does not bring direct divine punishment, it is still difficult for our people there to change a traditional concept, and the resistance created by the old forces in the mind is sometimes no more than ......."

He was only halfway through his sentence before hesitating to stop.

The dragon god sat opposite him, wrapped in countless black chains, and the "Dragon of Confusion" at the other end of the chain floated above Talrond like a time bomb ready to destroy the entire dragon civilization, and the entire kingdom was locked in this deadly balance, and it had been cautiously breathing for a million years.

"yes, that's wonderful," he sighed, "compared to here." ”

Then he suddenly remembered something, and his gaze fell on the dragon god: "By the way, you just said that there are three stories, but you only said two - what about another story?" ”

The dragon god looked at Gawain, and suddenly showed a hint - Gawain didn't know if he was wrong - and showed a sly smile: "The third story hasn't happened yet. ”

Gawain: "? ”

"It's boring to tell all the stories, let me keep you in suspense on the third story," said the "god," said the "god," unhurriedly, "and I'm curious how the third story will play out—I'll tell you again in the future if I have the chance." ”

The faint roar and whistling outside the temple grew fainter and weaker, as if a swift but short-lived storm was gradually subsiding, and Gawain glanced in the direction of the distant terrace, but saw only the starlight and the night, which were not much different from before.

"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?" Ryujin's voice came from the other side, "It's still early, we can talk a little more." ”

Gawain thought for a moment, sorted out a few questions he had thought of before coming to Talrond, and asked, "Can you tell me about the 'Rebellion Against the Tide' in ancient times, and the tower northwest of Talrond?" ”

"That depends on what you want to hear," Ryujin nodded, "I'll try to answer." ”

"As far as I know, the Empire of the Tide went astray because it came into mistaken contact with the knowledge left behind by the Voyager - and according to the clues we have found so far, the main problem at the time was 'relegating knowledge to a miracle'. Did the Empire of the Tide deify the legacy of the Setter? The outbreak of war between the Dragons and the Tide Empire is also because of this? ”

"That's pretty much right," Ryujin nodded, "the legacy of the Voyager...... That was too much of a time for a race that was still trapped in the land, especially millions of years ago, when a great deal of 'legacy' was still powerful. The mortal civilization was suddenly given knowledge and power far beyond their comprehension, and their rulers were unable to explain the principles behind those things to the populace, and their scholars were unable to reproduce the logic behind those legacies, so it became inevitable to deify them.

"People will blame miracles for things far beyond their comprehension, and this is a trap that many mortal civilizations can easily step into.

"War breaks out between the Dragons and the Tide Empire...... It is because of this 'deification' of their behavior that they are creating new and uncontrollable ideological products, and the war itself ...... It's actually disgraceful for both sides. ”

"Disgraceful for both sides?" Gao Wen instantly smelled the gossip and subconsciously leaned forward, "What does this mean?" ”

The dragon god glanced at Gawain and said unhurriedly, "It's very simple, because the ...... who originally cultivated the Tide Empire and guided it to the legacy of the Voyager It's the dragons themselves. ”

Gawain: "...... The dragons themselves?! ”

"It was an unsuccessful attempt, a reckless and bold 'game-breaking plan'," Ryujin said lightly, "It happened many, many years ago - at that time, the 'Cradle of Eternity' had not yet been fully established, Talrond had not been in chains for a long time, and many dragons still maintained a strong sense of free will and anticipation for the future, and driven by this impulse, the dragons began to seek a solution from the outside. ”

Gawain frowned: "Foster a mortal force independent of Tarrond, let them absorb the power left by the Voyager, quickly become strong, and then break the ...... 'cradle' of Tallrond?" ”

His eyes were a little strange when he said this, because both he and Ryujin knew very well what it meant to "break the cradle", but the expression on Ryujin's own face was more indifferent than Gawain's, so the weird topic continued.

"It doesn't seem like a full-fledged plan now, but they're still carrying it out with hope," the dragon god said, shaking his head, "At that time, the Tide Empire was still very weak, weak enough that any adult dragon could easily guide its development, so the dragons lost their caution...... They believe that everything can be controlled, at least for a long time, everything can be controlled in the hands of the dragons.

"And what happened after that should be easily imagined - arrogance is the greatest original sin, the dragons believe that the 'everything is under control' of the Rebel Empire from the beginning is unwilling to become a tool of another race, the intervention and guidance of the dragons only exacerbates their spirit of rebellion and rebellion, and leads to the situation deteriorating much faster than expected. The tide is out of control, they are secretly developing many technologies, secretly developing many sects, they have cracked the secret arsenal left on the land by the Voyager, and they have become stronger by leaps and bounds.

"Before Tallund could react, the 'Counter-Tide' completed its metamorphosis, and they quickly became an extremely xenophobic, dragon-hating, powerful empire, and most importantly, a 'theocratic empire'.

"The over-reliance on the legacy of the Voyagers and the act of deification have led directly to the uncontrollable theocracy of the entire Tide-Tide Empire, and even a few of them who are aware of the dangers involved cannot stop this process. The Empire of the Tides considers itself a follower of the Voyagers, and sees the Dragons of Tarlund as 'heretics' who have betrayed and stolen the Voyagers' legacy, and all of this ...... Diametrically opposed to Tallund's original plan.

"And so the battle against the tide broke out."

Gawain opened his mouth, and it took a few seconds to organize the language: "...... Did you acquiesce in all this? ”

"So to speak."

"Why?" Gawain couldn't help but ask, "Didn't you see the risks involved?" ”

The dragon god said in a deep voice: "The dragons of Tarlund didn't find out, so I didn't find out either—and even if I did, as long as the dragons' act of cultivating the Empire against the tide didn't itself offend Tallrond's 'traditional ideology' and didn't trigger the 'transgression', I couldn't stop all of this." ”

Gawain thought of the "two stories" that the dragon god had just told him—and in this moment, he had a deeper understanding of the rules behind those two stories.

"That war destroyed the entire Rebel Empire, ended a season of civilization before the Demon Tide came, and dealt a severe blow to Tarlund," the dragon god continued, "The loss of war itself is not terrible, but a terrible blow to confidence and conviction - the entire Tallrond society was greatly shaken, and this shock was almost immediately reflected in the dragons' 'group mind'......"

Gawain reacted quickly and widened his eyes: "This also forms a new 'lock'?!" ”

"In a normal civilization, this short-lived, unaccumulating group mood is nothing, but the dragon's gods have become one, and the interaction between the gods and humans has never been stronger, so that any strong, collective spiritual fluctuations of their will quickly reverberate in the minds and reverberates—the reverberations become new locks.

"For more than a million years since then, the dragons have not interfered with the world outside of Talrond, and even the number of dragons who leave Tallrond each year is strictly limited.

"They can't reveal too much information about the war against the tide to other civilizations, they can't reveal the secrets of the Starters at will, and when other civilizations come into contact with the Setter's legacy, they must find a way to recover those 'dangerous objects' as soon as they come into contact with them...... These are the 'reverberations' of the dragon group after the rebellion of the tide of the year, and these reverberations have become mandatory 'locks', and any dragon must unconditionally abide by the constraints they bring, even if it is 10,000 years, 100,000 years, or millions of years...... Even if the legacy of the Voyager is completely wiped out by time, and even if no one remembers what the 'Empire Against the Tide' means, the dragons must abide by it forever. ”

Gao Wen listened in amazement, and suddenly couldn't help but say: "But when Melita mentioned to me that she wanted to recycle some dangerous goods or block certain news, she just said that it was an order from her superiors, and it was a 'company regulation'......"

"That way, at least it sounds better."