After greeting Furina and Focalors, Fidelle approached Rukkhadevata.
"Greater Lord Rukkhadevata of Sumeru, thank you," she said.
Rukkhadevata gazed at Fidelle, and in her, she seemed to see a reflection of her.
It was a strange sensation. Having been erased from Irminsul, she should have forgotten her completely...
Pure Soul. From the moment of her Awakening until now, she had never ceased her investigation, but unfortunately, she had found nothing.
-
After Furina and the others departed, Rukkhadevata returned to her usual office.
While Furina, Focalors, and Fidelle reminisced, Lumine requested to visit the Sanctuary of Surasthana alone.
Paimon wanted to accompany her, but Lumine refused.
Rukkhadevata had chosen Lumine because she was the only one who remembered Rukkhadevata's existence from the beginning. Deep within her consciousness lingered the image of the Dendro Archon.
This was a fragment of Irminsul's consciousness stream retrieval. Paimon, unable to recall Silaya, would not only be unhelpful but could potentially disrupt the plan.
As for Chu Xi...
One person was enough. Chu Xi was currently in a daze; the fact that she hadn't demanded to investigate the Dendro Vision was already the best possible outcome.
After bidding farewell to the others, Lumine arrived at the Sanctuary of Surasthana. Unlike before, the entrance was now completely deserted.
Puzzled, Lumine opened the door and entered the sanctuary.
"Traveler, you've come. Mom is waiting for you inside."
Nahida led Lumine into a green bubble. The moment they entered, Lumine's vision blurred. When she finally regained focus, she realized where she was.
This... was Rukkhadevata's usual office...
As expected, Sumeru also possessed spatial technology.
Lumine noticed several documents hovering in mid-air above Rukkhadevata's desk, emitting a faint green glow.
Rukkhadevata rose to her feet and addressed Lumine, "You've arrived, Traveler."
"What do you need me to do?" Lumine asked.
"Nothing. Simply remain here. I will use the memories of 'her' in your mind to search for the countermeasures she left behind."
Silaya's methods were so sophisticated that even Rukkhadevata only knew she had left a contingency plan.
Previous attempts to locate it had all failed. With Lumine's assistance this time, Rukkhadevata estimated their chances of success would increase by at least twenty percent!
After instructing Lumine where to stand, Rukkhadevata sat down at her desk, closed her eyes, and began radiating a faint green light.
The God of Wisdom of Sumeru now wore an unshakeable melancholy between her brows.
The plan had begun...
Lumine held her breath. She could sense Rukkhadevata's mental tendrils piercing deep into the very foundation of Sumeru's existence—the vast, ancient consciousness stream of Irminsul—in a way no mortal could comprehend.
She was attempting to retrieve a name that the world itself had forcibly erased: Silaya.
A person who willingly sacrificed themselves to be completely erased from Irminsul, all for the sake of Rukkhadevata.
Lumine swallowed hard, her throat parched.
She dared not make a sound, clenching her fists so tightly that her nails dug deep into her palms.
Time crawled by under Lumine's anxious gaze.
Finally, Rukkhadevata's long, delicate eyelashes fluttered violently.
Her tightly closed eyes snapped open!
In that instant, every scroll, rune, and even the air itself within the space resonated with a faint hum as she opened her eyes.
Gone was the usual gentle wisdom in her eyes, replaced by a blankness washed over by overwhelming shock—an almost bewildered emptiness.
Then, that emptiness was abruptly replaced by a piercing, unnerving light that locked onto some invisible point.
"I've found it..."
Rukkhadevata's voice was soft, as light as a falling feather, yet possessed a strange penetrating power that struck directly at Lumine's heart.
Her right hand slowly rose, her fingertips twitching and kneading in the air as if gathering an invisible yet impossibly strong thread.
As she moved, a faint, nearly transparent green glow struggled to coalesce between her fingers, flickering like a candle flame battling a fierce wind, desperately resisting being extinguished.
Lumine's heart pounded like a drum as she nearly sprinted to Rukkhadevata's side, her voice trembling with excitement.
"What? What did you find? Is it something left behind by her?"
Rukkhadevata's gaze remained fixed on the flickering green light, her voice heavy as if submerged underwater, carrying a hint of disbelief:
"Traces... no, more precisely, 'etchings'. Double etchings."
"Double?" Lumine pressed, her eyes glued to the fragile green glow.
"Irminsul's deletion mechanism is like the most merciless eraser." Rukkhadevata manipulated the faint light, suspending it between them. "It completely erased 'her' name, along with all connections and memories of her existence. This is the first layer of erasure, irreversible."
Her fingertips tightened slightly, causing the green light to shrink inward, almost vanishing as if about to be completely extinguished.
Lumine's heart clenched.
"But 'she'..."
Rukkhadevata's tone shifted, carrying a mixture of awe and reverence:
"She anticipated this. She exploited the deletion mechanism's inherent 'inertia' and 'overwrite' properties."
Rukkhadevata's fingertips moved with meticulous precision, as if she were handling the faintest speck of dust on a priceless treasure.
"In the instant of her complete erasure, she—through some method I still cannot fully comprehend, perhaps by leveraging an external force or by a desperate, climactic burst of her own wisdom—managed to force a barely perceptible 'Mirror Echo' onto Irminsul's information stream at its 'symmetry point.' It was like the almost invisible indentation left on paper after a forceful erasure with an eraser. This is the second layer of inscription."
As she spoke, the green light at her fingertips stabilized in a peculiar manner. Though still faint, it burned stubbornly, even faintly outlining a vague, fragmented silhouette—like the shadow of a broken leaf.
Lumine gasped, her eyes widening in disbelief. "She... she even accounted for Irminsul's 'eraser'?"
This was utterly inconceivable!
An ordinary person... no, she was anything but ordinary!
To calmly plant such a contingency at the very moment of complete annihilation?
A chill ran down Lumine's spine, quickly replaced by an indescribable thrill.
This is just like Silaya, she thought, remembering her friend's cunning smile and the all-seeing light in her eyes.
"Yes."
Rukkhadevata finally lowered her hand slowly, but the faint green glow didn't fade away. Instead, it hovered before her, rotating gently.
The deep pools in her eyes churned violently, the weight of five centuries of stagnation shattered by an urgent, burning light.
"This double-layered inscription cannot directly point to her. The deletion mechanism has twisted it beyond recognition. Yet it stubbornly persists, like a deeply buried seed that refuses to decay. It points to... a 'point'."
As she spoke, the hovering green light suddenly expanded, dissolving into countless tiny emerald sparks.
These sparks, as if alive, rapidly coalesced and flowed, weaving together in the air between them to outline a map.
In the blink of an eye, a Map of Sumeru materialized, as vivid and solid as a physical object.
On the map, the lush emerald green representing the Rainforest region seemed almost dripping with verdant life, while the radiant, steady points symbolizing the Akademiya and Sumeru City shone with unwavering brilliance.
Yet all the glowing streams converged frantically toward the northwestern corner of the map—a vast, desolate desert region tinged with arid yellow.
Ultimately, every stream of light converged on an utterly unremarkable speck deep within the desert. There were no city markers there, only the monotonous expanse of sandy yellow.