"...The Auster Empire was composed of refugees?"
This news took Annan completely by surprise.
He had never heard such intelligence, not even a word.
His knowledge of the history of the Auster people only traced back to the Third Era.
At the transition between the Second and Third Eras, a cataclysm occurred—equivalent to the desert, which constituted three-quarters of the Aesirland continent, becoming alive. It moved about unrestrained, much like a child in its boisterous phase.
Thus, the Auster Empire’s entire clan migrated, and after paying a tremendous price, the remnant forces finally escaped the desert and arrived at a lush and peaceful oasis.
—"Aesirland" means "oasis."
At this time, Aesirland’s technology had only just developed to a stage equivalent to the early medieval period. They were utterly defenseless before the Auster people... so much so that they were easily defeated and ruled without even engaging in a proper war.
In commemoration of the Auster people’s escape from the desert, they renamed the new empire "Aesirland," meaning "country of the oasis."
At that time, the Aesirland continent roughly consisted of two types of people—Auster and Aesirland people.
Aesirland people referred to the continent’s indigenous humans, dwarves, werewolves, and other races... while the Auster people were the Elves and Centaurs.
By this time, the remnants of the Auster people were few in number. Their population was too small to rule such a vast continent, so they simply proceeded to feudal partitioning. Many small kingdoms and duchies were born successively during the Third Era.
The end of the Third Era had nothing to do with the world west of the desert.
They could only confirm through Prophet spells that the Third Era had ended suddenly.
Starting from the end of the Third Era, the number of Elves began to plummet suddenly. After passing through a blank two hundred years, history gradually began to clarify—
With the growth of the indigenous population, the increase in the number of Transcendents, and for some unknown reason, the stagnation and even massive regression of the Auster people’s technology, the dwindling of races, and the gradually shrinking dominance circle, Aesirland people finally regained their political status within the Empire of Aesirland, returning to an equal footing with their former colonizers.
In fact, by the end of the Fourth Era... before the sinking of Aesirland’s capital region, the number of Elves had dropped to just three digits, and they had essentially lost all real power—unlike the Centaurs with their innate great strength, they were a very timid race and basically existed as a vassal race to the Elves.
But because many Centaurs were tired of the power struggle in the capital region, a significant portion of them did not reside there. The Elves always stuck together... and had a considerable degree of power consciousness, thus they all lived in the technologically most advanced capital region.
Until the sinking of the Aesirland capital region, the Elves were finally completely exterminated. Even if there were any remnants, there were at most only a handful.
Afterward came the collapse of the great barrier, the disintegration of the Aesirland Empire, and then centuries of chaotic civil war... In this bloody struggle for the True God, the number of Centaurs was also greatly diminished.
In the end, the Centaurs, who were not adept at competing with others and liked to flee when troubles arose, finally gave up the struggle for power and returned to the wilderness far from the Aesirland civilization to rebuild their settlements.
At present, Centaurs can basically only be seen on the islands of the United Kingdom.
...According to the intelligence from Bofis, whether it’s the sudden sinking of the Aesirland Empire during the Fourth Era or the drastic decline in the number of Elves starting from the Third Era, as well as the advanced technology that the Auster people could no longer use without warning, all seem to be related to this energy technology called "mana energy."
The meaning of "Auster" is actually refugees caused by demons?
Could this be the cataclysm of the First Era?
...No wonder, the Auster people were composed of Elves and Centaurs.
Elves are characterized by their innate silver souls. If they embark on the path of ascension, they start at the silver tier and cannot become fallen.
And Centaurs are exceptionally good at fleeing—each Centaur is the finest prophet, as well as a strong warrior and a timid coward.
They predict the future and train their bodies merely to ensure their own survival, devoid of any strong desires. Therefore, even though their population was more numerous than that of the Elves, they ended up as a subservient race to the Elves.
And the news from Bofis made Annan somewhat worried.
...Speaking of which, there were plenty of fallen and demons in the Royal Capital.
While Annan pondered, Bofis continued to communicate with Xitan Pulan, "Speaking of my mother’s Book of Truth... I only know its name is ’Storm and Heart’s Canticle’. But as to which domain it belongs, my mother didn’t tell me, so I’m not very clear about it.
"However, I think, since the word ’heart’ is included, this must be the reason why my mother tried to obtain the ’Heart of Justice’."
"Yes... The saint’s relics are certain parts of the saints’ bodies. The relic left by the Justice Saint is his heart."
Bofis answered seriously, "But my mother felt that she might not be able to gain recognition from the ’Heart of Justice’ for the time being, so she planned to seal it first.
"Because the relics continuously pump out the power of curses... If someone signs a holy covenant with it, it will become an infinite source of a saint’s power. But if it is not in a covenant... Like the source of a fountain, it will endlessly spew out curses.
"And it will keep emitting vibrations, attracting suitors. But usually, the ones most satisfying to the relics... are not Transcendents of the Gold rank, but ordinary people. They are utterly incapable of bearing the power of the relics, and if they forcefully use the relics, their souls will soon crumble and dissolve, lasting no more than a month.
"And because of the power poured by the relics, they will turn into massive nightmares after death. Therefore, besides being extremely rare items, the relics are also a big, difficult problem to solve.
"And the only way to put the relics to Deep Sleep is the ’Dragon Sleep Potion’."
Xitan Pulan heard a familiar term.
She vaguely remembered her grandmother was something related to dragon sleep... but she was not very clear about the specifics.
Bofis unconsciously explained it to her, "It is what you are thinking... It is the state the Lady of Cold Blood enters every so often. However, that’s just an adjective...
"This means that once the potion is taken, or even just touched, one will fall into decades of dragon sleep, hard to awake, just like the grandmother. Its scent alone can make a person faint.
"It is the most potent anesthetic, even capable of putting dragons to sleep. Therefore, it is also a kind of dragon hunting potion... But it is very difficult to concoct, mainly because one of its necessary cursed materials is ’active blood from an adult of the Dragon Race’.
"The so-called ’active blood’ is blood that the donor voluntarily cuts away from themselves after conducting a ritual... and therefore contains a small amount of their Spiritual Body. Active blood is hard to regenerate once it flows out, but the same active blood will, like fresh blood, have special effects.
"However, if one kills a dragon, or draws blood while the dragon is in Deep Sleep, or even just collects normal blood, it won’t have this effect. Only by soaking the relics in the Dragon Sleep Potion can you put them to sleep."
"...Oh! So that’s why your mother—"
"Right, that painting of the grandmother, my mother sold it to a dragon to make the Dragon Sleep Potion. But the dragon seemed to be very satisfied, agreeing easily to my mother’s request, selling forty doses of active blood. Altogether, it was about as much as a bathtub..."
Bofis said, her tone also somewhat astonished, "Even though that Mr. Dragon was huge, this loss is quite... But after all, it was grandmother’s painting, understandable. Grandmother is an idol to the dragons.
"Speaking of which... You mentioned your friend, is he a descendant of the grandmother? What’s his surname?"
"His surname is ’Winter’. That seems to be a mark of the grandmother’s descendants," Xitan Pulan replied.
Bofis was somewhat puzzled upon hearing this.
"To my knowledge, the descendants of the grandmother... shouldn’t they be named Frost Speech?
"...Or is your friend, he is not a dragon?"