Silent Crown

by Feng Yue

  For a moment, everything was silent.

  The world froze.

  Ye Qingxuan turned around in confusion and saw a silhouette at the peak of the sacred city.

  Endless aether light guarded him, illuminating his stern expression. He reached out and pressed down on the empty air. The entire city lit up as if finally awoken.

  The black clouds shrouding the city were ripped apart. Starlight fell from the sky, shining upon the deadly battlefield.

  In the abyss, the Doomsday’s Dragon kept growling, roaring wildly, as if sensing that something terrifying would arrive soon. In this frozen world, everything was locked in the cage. No one could stop what was about to happen.

  “Fate?” Ye Qingxuan murmured, watching the silhouette.

  Then the Pope lowered his hands, and it sounded as if the world had shattered!

  The sky shook. The chilling crack started from the east and fell toward the west, cutting across the night sky. Starlight and moonlight disappeared, turning into a dark vortex.

  The starry sky disappeared, as if it were being rolled up like a rug. God radiated fatal light from above the twisted sky.

  Ye Qingxuan could not see anything.

  He could only feel the continuous resonance beside him, but a human’s eardrum could no longer stand that terrifying sound.

  When the first sound of stars crashed, his senses had already been shattered. Everything had turned into a hopeless nightmare. The world was at the brink of collapse. The ground had turned to coal, tar and fire burned into the sky.

  Everything was on the path to destruction…

  In the end, all that was left was a shattering sound, as if the monster was chewing on the remains of the earth.

  —

  Ye Qingxuan woke up from his terrifying nightmare in shock. He opened his eyes wide, panting.

  Screams continued by his ear.

  “Ah! Help! Someone help! Catastrophe! Catastrophe!”

  Continuous screams sounded in the classroom. Hundreds of students woke up from nightmares. Their faces were chalk-white as they tried to remember where they were.

  As the hallucination dissipated, the professor drinking black tea at the podium looked up. He gazed down at the frightened students.

  “What you all saw was the Battle of the Abyss from three hundred years ago,” he said. “This is what I will teach you in the first class—the endless war between humanity and catastrophe.”

  1Avīci Niraja means “Hell” in the Sanskrit language.

  2Nibelungenlied is an epic poem from Middle High Germany. It tells the story of the Burgundian dragon-slayer Siegfried.

  58 So-called Catastrophe

  One hour before, at eight in the morning, Ye Qingxuan arrived on time to the classroom he had been tested in.

  Today was the first day of school. According to the tradition of the Royal Academy of Music, the first class was there, no matter what school one was a part of. In the past, the principal would speak and encourage everyone to study hard. But this year, no one was anticipating such a terrifying experience, especially because the principal was not even present!

  But when the principal entered, everyone was dragged into the hallucination.

  Now the hallucination was finally gone. At the podium, the teacher carefully lifted the vinyl record from the stereo and placed it back into the box.

  “Wow, it’s the rarely seen record alchemy equipment. Can’t believe I could get cool stuff by listening to first-year classes.” Beside Ye Qingxuan, someone said while hitting his thigh, “The visual and audio effects are impressive. It was worth it to get up early this morning.”

  Ye Qingxuan slowly looked over to see Charles happily munching on an apple. There was a pile of fruit skins by his feet. Beside him, the fruit basket had been taken over by Bai Xi, guarded in her arms.

  He glanced at Bai Xi, but was glared at instead. Sighing, he said, “Brother, it’s fine to come listen to lower classes. But is it good to eat like this?”

  “Can’t I eat while watching a record?” Charles glanced over in confusion. “You tell me after I already finish a bucket of popcorn? Do you want some?”

  “I’m okay…” Ye Qingxuan’s lips twitched, and he smartly decided not to say anything else.

  He and Bai Xi had been living inside the of the academy ever since the entrance exam two days ago. Because they were both in the School of History, their dorms were together.

  It was not just their dorm, but all of the classrooms, offices, student dorms, and teacher dorms of the School of History were all in the same two-story building.

  They were in the corner of the campus. It was a building that was easily missed unless one was actually looking for it.

  When Ye Qingxuan first saw the little building, he felt a chill.

  “This house had to be over two-hundred years old, right?” he had thought.

  The speckled walls were covered in ivy, and there was a pile of fallen leaves before the door. A stray cat glared at him from the roof. Countless details recreated an atmosphere that only existed in horror stories.

  “Could normal people live here?”

  All of the buildings in the Royal Academy of Music were arranged strangely—strange to the point that those who lived there for five years could still get lost.

  The entire place was like a giant maze!

  When Ye Qingxuan found out that he had to memorize a map just to buy breakfast, he felt hopeless…

  Usually, a warm-hearted senior would come to the rescue in this situation. But the problem was that this warm-hearted senior was not reliable at all!

  In only two days, Ye Qingxuan became well acquainted with Charles’ ability to get lost.

  They could be walking down a straight and open path, then in the blink of an eye, Charles would be gone! And then he would reappear somewhere weird…

  Not only did he get himself lost, but he also dragged other people with him.

  Once, Ye Qingxuan followed him to the cafeteria and then somehow ended up in downtown Avalon. Then he realized why the professor had told him again and again never to let Charles lead…

  —

  They had only known each other for two days, but it had been a busy time for that senior!

  In two days, he had been found by debtors four times, and chased six times. The night before, and earlier this morning, he had been slapped by two random girls in public. Those two pretty girls did not even say anything before he started crying and ran away covering his face…What did he even do?

  “Yezi, you suddenly look like you’re in pain.” Beside him, Charles moved closer in concern. “Do you have hemorrhoids? Ah, that’s bad. You have to discover it and get it treated early. Should we go to the doctor’s after class? It’s okay, I’m really familiar with them. If I take you there, the doctors can give you a discount…”

  “…No, it’s okay.” With twitching muscles, Ye Qingxuan forced a smile.

  “Oh, that’s good.” Charles produced a durian out of nowhere. “You want some?”

  “…” Ye Qingxuan looked away. The durian smell made him want to sob.

  “Oh, right, some people from your row keep looking over here. Are they that hungry?” Charles sighed. “If they want fruit, then they can just come over. It’s bad to skip breakfast…”

  Ye Qingxuan glanced at his row and saw some elite boys looking at him with disdain. The leader was a red-haired youth. He had been the first one to be accepted.

  Edmund-something?

  Beside him, Banner seemed to not be awake yet. He lowered his head and stared at his fingers, his feline eyes interested. No one knew what he was thinking about.

  Sensing Ye Qingxuan’s gaze, their expressions turned to disgust. They threw him a glance and looked away.

  “What’s wrong?” Bai Xi followed his eyes. “Spacing out?”

  “Nothing.” Ye Qingxuan looked away. “Some psychos want to eat bananas.”

  —

  “Alright, you all seem to have recovere
d.” At the podium, the professor looked down as he finished organizing things. “Here, I have some smelling salt. The girls who are pretending to be dizzy can take some. That student over there, you don’t have to get so excited about CPR. She’s pretending, can’t you tell? And that student eating, where did you get all that?”

  The professor looked in Charles’ direction, his expression turning stern. “I’m talking about you, the student in the second row. I noticed you awhile ago. Do you know the rules about eating during my class?”

  “Uh…” Charles froze. Awkwardly, he clutched the banana he had just peeled. Thinking for a bit, he carefully took it to the podium. “Would you like some?”

  “Brother, you have no hope.” Ye Qingxuan covered his face, not wanting to admit that he knew that guy.

  “You do know the rules!” In the silence, the professor gazed at Charles and smiled, “A very bright student!”

  As everyone’s jaw dropped, he took the banana and nodded in satisfaction. “Mm, this tastes quite good!”

  “Of course! I stole this from the School of Modification this morning. They’ve been waiting for this for half a year.” Charles felt around for what’s left in his pockets. “Would you like to try an orange too?”

  The professor hesitated. Seeing the gaping students, he finally jolted back to reality and coughed dramatically. “We’re in class now.”

  Sitting in the front, Ye Qingxuan could clearly hear what the professor whispered, “Remember to bring one kilogram to the office…”

  “…”

  Was there still hope for this school?

  —

  “Ha, that was just a joke. Now, we’ll officially start the class.”

  After finishing the banana, the professor’s aura suddenly changed. Even his expression turned stern. “If anyone relaxed just then, please get nervous again. Breaktime is over.

  “What I’ll be teaching next is all in ‘Discussion of Natural Catastrophe History and Research.’ There is also an entire textbook of exam material, so please don’t ask me what will be tested.”

  Ye Qingxuan sat up straighter.

  The good stuff was finally here!

  —

  As the name implied, natural catastrophes were catastrophes unable to be prevented by humans.

  Generally, those that could not coexist with humans would move away from humanity, but most natural catastrophes would wander at the borders of humanity. Ever since the Dark Ages, there had been legends of catastrophes. Every catastrophe would result in a massive loss of property and life.

  Even before the Dark Ages, there were signs of natural catastrophes from cave paintings.

  There was a wide variety, each with unique characteristics. Some were animals, some plants, while others did not even seem to be living. The complex classifications were thick enough for a book—the one in Ye Qingxuan’s hands now.

  But no matter what, they all followed the same basic law. Or maybe they were shrouded by the same mystery.

  Where did they come from?

  What did they want?

  And why did they…hate humanity?

  Ever since the beginning of humankind, the fear of natural catastrophes followed their history. Even after humanity had control over aether, horrible events still occurred in the five hundred years after the Dark Ages had ended.

  ‘Till this day, humanity had only discovered and explored less than a quarter of the world. And of this quarter, less than half were arable, mild aether zones.

  Every inch of earth was with blood from humans fighting against the natural catastrophes.

  Every victory was built upon thousands upon thousands of lives.

  But what made people hopeless was that those creatures did not die. They were made from aether and would not experience conventional death. Even if their body was destroyed, only their memories would be wiped clean, and they would return to the dark world and sleep. When they reappeared, they would have new life.

  And they were becoming stronger…

  —

  To keep the natural catastrophes from coming, humanity put boundary markers in all directions.

  In the East, four emperors of the Aurora Empire constructed the Great Wall with millions of slaves. There was a beacon tower every hundred steps, with musicians guarding it every second of the day for their entire lives.

  One hundred thousand beacon towers meant one hundred thousand torches. If the torches were not extinguished, the natural catastrophes would not be able to easily enter humanity’s territory.

  In the Northern tundra, the Asgard people built their entire empire on glaciers. Those who saw death as reprieve used broken battle axes and corpses for the Valhalla Defense Line.

  In the deserts of the West, the original defense line created by the Samnites had already been breached. Now it was under joint reconstruction by several empires. Apparently, at the end of the desert, fire still burned in the remains of the old defense line.

  The endless ocean of the West was the most peaceful. Sea monster Leviathan had not appeared for a few hundred years, but the city guarding it was where Ye Qingxuan was now…Avalon.

  Anglo’s own king had inherited the hundred-year old mission from King Arthur to stand in the Western front and fight against the sea monster.

  Even if it had not appeared for hundreds of years, they were still alert.

  Around forty satellite islands surrounded Avalon. More than twenty were completely locked. If anyone tried to get within ten nautical miles, they would be stopped and told that it was a forbidden zone. It would not be too late to turn back, but if they decided to go forward, they would die there.

  Other than that, there was a wide range of defensive measures and millions of fortresses. Humanity’s art of war was not only to kill each other, but to prevent disasters.

  Here, the professor paused, and his smile became secretive. “You might have heard the name of the most dangerous natural catastrophe to mankind—the Dark Mother.”

  59 The Dark Mother

  The Evil Maternal, the Source of Beasts, the Vortex of Evolution…

  For centuries, humanity had given the Dark Mother many names, but to the entire world the most dangerous was none other than the Dark Mother.

  When the Dark Ages ended hundreds of years ago, the Three Kings chased it to the northern tundra. It wandered in the dark world, reappearing every now and then, leaving behind mutated organisms in its path.

  It did not even have a shape that people could fully describe. It was difficult for mankind to specify what it really was, so it had never been completely destroyed, but had regenerated instead.

  It was like a virus in nature. One could sense its presence by seeing the ruined environment, but could never truly touch it. In many descriptions it was depicted as a writhing ring.

  Some philosophers believed that its true state was an indescribable ring, but everyone knew that philosophers were useless. In current descriptions, it consisted of many natural catastrophes, made up of countless beasts, animals, and mutated monsters.

  But this description was not accurate either because the Dark Mother did not even have a substantial state.

  People could feel where it was. Like a boundary drawn by an invisible force. It was difficult for any organism in the boundary to leave. There was a biological longing and fear of the outside world.

  But in the circle, all organisms would feel free, and experience wild growth and evolution. Then they would swallow each other or mutate into a mixture of both.

  All animals would evolve at a speed a thousand times faster than normal, turning into something different depending on the food chain or natural environment.

  Ultimately, even a regular forest would become a den of monsters. If there were humans there, it would be even more problematic because compared to those bloodthirsty beasts, monsters who were human were much scarier.

  When the priest and Wolf Flute opened the stone coffins, they saw the corpses of many strange animals. Despite dying
long ago, they still had signs of struggling and fighting.

  The centuries of this bloody history proved only one point—blind evolution was disastrous.

  And yet, the “Evolution Ring” would collapse sooner or later. Using up all the energy in this round of “birth,” the Dark Mother would then “die.”

  At that time, the deformed beasts would massacre each other to become the most powerful, and would win the title “Child of the Mother.” When the constraints lost its effect, the beasts would escape from the cage and spread in all directions…

  The dead Mother would then reappear from the darkness after brewing for years.

  —

  This deformed evolutionary ring had existed for hundreds of years. It did not have any meaning by itself. It only wandered in the dark world, planting its seeds along the way. But the Children of the Mother inherited the Dark Mother’s hatred toward mankind, and thirsted for human blood and bone.

  They were like the most deadly cyst in the world, full of endless poison. Not even the deformed beasts that the Dark Mother left in this world centuries ago had been killed completely.

  If one tracked the bloodlines of all the monsters in the world, it would become clear that they all had the same mother. Because of this, it was known as the most dangerous of all natural catastrophes in existence.

  Any musician that discovered its presence must report to the church. A Scepter ranked musician would then lead a hundred-man group to attack it.

  Of all of the living natural catastrophes, the Dark Mother was undeniably the representative.

  “But not all natural catastrophes are as annoying as the Dark Mother. In actuality, some don’t even know what they’re doing…maybe they don’t know why they exist either.” After all this, the professor’s tone became more relaxed. “An example would the most harmless natural catastrophe. When we look up at night, we’ll see it shining in the sky like a laurel…”

  “The Star Ring?” Ye Qingxuan could not help but ask. “That’s a natural catastrophe too?”

  “Correct.” The professor nodded and drew a map of stars on the blackboard. Using chalk, he drew a horizontal line from west to east.

  This was the celestial phenomenon known as Star Ring.