Chapter 25: The Forsaken Land

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PS: Congratulations! Today, this book has finally welcomed its first mindless troll. Ah, there it is—that familiar flavor! How could a Honkai: Star Rail fanfic be complete without a mindless troll? It seems my book has finally gained recognition! Let the whole world celebrate.
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After the Tarot Gathering concluded, Caelus returned to the tavern. He headed to the kitchen on the first floor and used the synthesizer to make himself a "Dream-Colliding Cone."
This is a tri-colored soft-serve ice cream from Penacony; its flavor is the embodiment of the very concept of a "dream." Originally, there were over twenty different flavors, but after the filtering of time, only three main flavors remain, symbolizing the three types of dream scenarios that people enjoy the most.
Stelle poked her head out from a nearby trash can, a trash can lid perched atop her head.
"Is that good?"
"Of course." Caelus took a bite of the ice cream scoop, then opened his mouth and puffed out several breaths of air. "I think it could easily win the Penacony Annual Best Dessert Award."
"Did it win the last one?"
"No."
"It didn't? Then what was the annual best last time? Oak Cake Roll? Sliced Cake? Or maybe Fries Sundae?" Stelle scratched her head, curious.
"None of those," Caelus shook his head.
"This... it couldn't possibly be Soda Mung Bean Milk, could it?"
Caelus revealed the answer: "The previous Annual Best Dessert Award went to the Interastral Peace Corporation's promoted Great Universe Fried Rice."
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Evening arrived, and Klein had long since fallen asleep. After the Tarot Gathering ended earlier that day, he had taken out his notebook, recalled the contents of several of Emperor Roselle's diary entries, and transcribed them in Chinese. By recording them this way, he reinforced his memory to prevent forgetting them in the future.
After writing, he read through them again and again, but in the end, he tore up the transcribed notes and burned them until nothing remained. He did this once every week to ensure he wouldn't forget.
Afterward, he paid a visit to the Divination Club, where he heard about a very skilled apothecary named Rosen Darkweed, who had a small shop at 18 Vlad Street in the East District called "Rosen’s Folk Herb Shop."
It was a very simple and clear name. He felt that such a name was far better than those flamboyant shop names; at least, one could tell at a glance what the shop did.
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Later, he met a Mr. Joyce Meyer. The "Clover" he had traveled on some time ago had been the scene of a shocking murder case at sea, which had given him nightmares every day. Klein interpreted the dream for Mr. Joyce, gaining some understanding of the tragedy that occurred on the Clover and developing suspicions about a man named Trissy.
Klein recalled the events of the day, drifting off into a hazy sleep.
Suddenly, he heard layer upon layer of illusory prayers echoing in his ears. He struggled to open his eyes, climbed out of bed with difficulty, and walked four steps counter-clockwise to ascend above the gray fog.
"The Fool that doesn't belong to this era, the mysterious ruler above the gray fog, the King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck." In the illusory and hazy mist, he saw through the "crimson" that it was Mr. Devil who was praying.
"In the middle of the night, what could be so urgent?" Klein was a little nervous. Could it be that the Tarot Gathering had been discovered by the Church of the Seven Orthodox Deities?
He heard the words of Caelus’s prayer: "I seek your help, I seek your favor, I seek your... let me have a good dream."
Let me have a good dream... have a good dream... a good dream...
Klein gritted his teeth, his eyes wide with fury.
[The Fool has not slept either (Confirmed)]
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The Forsaken Land of the Gods, outside Silver City.
This was a ruin, and at this moment, a six-member exploration team was investigating it. The leader of the exploration team was a burly man several meters tall, looking like a small giant.
The leader was the Chief of the Six-Member Council of Silver City, Colin Iliad. He was a Sequence 4 Demon Hunter, a demigod of the Warrior pathway.
A bonfire was burning, and the team members were resting around it. Besides the bonfire, two of them held torches, illuminating everyone’s figures so that no one was swallowed by the darkness.
Everyone in the team was eating quietly, with no one speaking. The only sounds in the air were the crackling of burning wood and the chewing of dry rations.
Perhaps feeling it was too oppressive, a thin, scrawny man who was two meters tall—appearing quite slight within the team—spoke up: "What do you think that thing we found in the pit a few days ago actually was?"
A few days ago, a sphere had suddenly fallen from the sky and crashed into an already explored area far from Silver City.
Because that area had long been explored and was considered safe, someone had immediately led a team to investigate, finding a large crater where the sphere had landed.
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The team members at the time went down into the pit to take a look and found only a cracked sphere of unknown material sitting alone in the crater.
The sphere was hollow and contained nothing, but it had split open a crack that, in the eyes of the people of Silver City, was just large enough for a child to pass through.
Beside him, a one-eyed man with a scar on his face, who was a head taller than the scrawny man, chewed on bread made from Black-Faced Grass and mumbled, "Don't know. But I heard that sphere was incredibly hard. It couldn't be smashed at all, and no proper research could be done." As he spoke, he ignited a flame on his hand to toast a piece of bread until soft, then handed it to a female teammate nearby.
A third person joined the conversation: "I know about that; I tried it myself, and even I couldn't break it." He was a Sequence 5 Guardian of the Warrior pathway.
"But that thing is already cracked. If even you couldn't break it, how did it crack open?" The scrawny man who spoke first asked again.
"I heard something opened it from the inside."
"Doesn't that mean there was something alive inside!"
"I heard..."
Colin listened quietly as his team members discussed the events of the past, neither joining in nor stopping them.
In fact, the scrawny man was a "plant" he had arranged before they set out, to help the team members relax a little when they were under too much tension.
After some time had passed and it seemed the team members were sufficiently rested, Colin stood up and thrust a massive torch into the bonfire to light it.
"Alright, folks," his gaze swept across the members in front of him, four men and one woman, six in total including himself. "It's time to set off."
They were going to explore these ruins. It would be best if they could find something useful, like a potion formula or a Sealed Artifact.
Colin extinguished the bonfire and led the group into the ruins. As the torches moved away, the clearing where they had just been resting was swallowed by the darkness.
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