Kiana and the Captain's Bizarre Adventure

Chapter 157 Red King Ahmar

"Is this the deepest part of the entire ruins?"

Farusan looked around and said, while Zeborelle stepped forward and told everyone that this was indeed the deepest part of the ruins, and that the throne in front was the so-called throne.

It is said that those who are qualified to sit on that throne will inherit the wisdom of the Red King and be transported to that eternal golden dreamland.

"You seem to know a lot about this. This isn't your first time here, is it?"

"..."

After a moment of silence, Zeborele admitted, "This is indeed not my first time here. More than ten years ago, Euphemia and I came here, but because of this, I lost Euphemia forever."

……

Kiana paid no attention to their conversation; from the moment she entered the room, she had felt that the throne was calling to her.

They called for her to sit down, and Kiana sat down while everyone else was still discussing it.

By the time the others realized it, Kiana was already sitting on the throne with her eyes closed.

When Kiana opened her eyes, she found herself in a starry sky, with no one around her.

"This is troublesome," Kiana thought, rubbing her hair with a slight headache. She then began exploring the space, but the scenery all around her was the same; even Kiana herself couldn't tell if she was moving forward or standing still.

After an unknown amount of time, a man with a starfish-shaped head appeared before Kiana.

The man turned to look at Kiana with a smile, and Kiana then realized that the man looked very much like a character from an anime she remembered from her past life.

"Teacher, it's been a long time," the man said.

"Teacher? So you are the Red King Ahmar?"

"Yes, but I would prefer the teacher to call me by another name. But I think that would be difficult, since I've already used that name to seal away forbidden knowledge."

The names, the seals, the forbidden knowledge—they really are becoming more and more alike.

Kiana sighed and asked, "Can you tell me what exactly happened?"

"Didn't the Tree King tell the teacher?"

"No, she only told me that forbidden knowledge polluted the World Tree, but she never said that it had anything to do with you."

"Is that so? I never expected that incident to have such consequences. It seems that I was indeed wrong."

"So what exactly happened?"

Seeing Kiana's displeased and furrowed brows, Ahmael knew that if he didn't explain himself clearly, he would probably get a beating.

“That happened after you left Teyvat. Although I had already completed my apprenticeship, my thirst for knowledge only grew stronger, and I eventually made a huge mistake. I ignored your warnings and used the sacrifice of Flora to travel to the world outside Teyvat, where I brought back forbidden knowledge.”

"What did you say?!"

Kiana exclaimed in surprise, to which Ahmael could only offer a wry smile. It seemed even her teacher knew the dangers of forbidden knowledge. How could she have been so foolish as to try and acquire its power?

However, Kiana's focus seemed to be different from Ahma's.

"You mean the Flower Goddess sacrificed herself for you?"

"Yes, teacher, I know that was wrong of me, but at that time I was obsessed with everything except the thirst for knowledge."

“No, this might not be entirely your fault,” Kiana said in a deep voice.

Just now, Kiana discovered something interesting through the Imaginary Tree. According to the information provided by the tree, the Flower Goddess actually likes Ahmar, but she has her own ulterior motives.

The reason why Ahmar later became increasingly eager for forbidden knowledge was partly due to the secret guidance of this goddess of flowers.

But why? The Flower Goddess was originally a messenger from heaven, the predecessor of a fairy. Logically, as an angel, she should love people very much and wouldn't do something that she knew would harm humanity.

Is it because she has ulterior motives, or is she simply willing to do anything for Ahmar because she likes him?

If it's the former, Kiana should seriously consider whether this meeting was arranged by the Flower Goddess; but if it's the latter, then why is she so eager to hint to Ahmar to pursue forbidden knowledge?

I can't figure it out, I just can't understand it. Kiana sighed and then gestured for Ahmar to continue.

Although Ahmar didn't know why Kiana reacted so strongly to the Flower Goddess, he roughly understood after thinking about it.

After all, Kiana and the Flower Goddess were close friends, and before leaving Teyvat, Kiana specifically instructed him to take good care of the Flower Goddess. Now that she knows the Flower Goddess died because of him, she must be very sad.

However, Kiana didn't seem to want to delve into the matter, which made Ahmaar secretly relieved.

He was terrified that Kiana would shatter his last remaining consciousness in the next second, and then he would truly be unable to convey what Kiana had told him.

Although I don't understand why Kiana wants me to relay what she told him to the future Kiana, since this is the teacher's wish, perhaps there is some deeper meaning behind it.

"Afterwards, I came to the outside world through the portal created by the sacrifice of the Flower Goddess and brought forbidden knowledge with me. However, I did not expect that when I returned to Teyvat, that forbidden knowledge would have an extremely strong infectiousness. As a result, the Dead Zone and the Demonscale Disease spread in my city. In order to protect my subjects, I had no choice but to use my name to seal most of the forbidden knowledge in my body and have Apep eat my corpse."

"Have you ever considered that forbidden knowledge is not only highly contagious, but also has an extremely tenacious regenerative capacity? As long as a trace of forbidden knowledge remains, that place will eventually still experience a crisis of infection. Do you know that the Tree King exhausted all his power to resolve that last bit of forbidden knowledge for you? And because of this, the World Tree was also infected with forbidden knowledge, which almost caused the World Tree to wither and die five hundred years ago due to the contamination of forbidden knowledge?"

Ahmar could only smile wryly and say, "I know, after all, it was you, teacher, who told me about the dangers of forbidden knowledge. But as my desire for knowledge has grown, I may have long forgotten your teachings."

"Can't you just be a little less troublesome?"

"Haha, the teacher is just as good at this, isn't he? If I'm not mistaken, the teacher actually doesn't have any memories related to me, the Tree King, or the Flower Goddess, right?"

"..."

Seeing Kiana's silence, Ahmael smiled with relief.

"The teacher is still the same as before, keeping everything to herself so that we won't worry. Now I understand why she asked me to relay her message back then."

"...Speak, what is it?"

"Teacher, you once told me that you would come here to meet me in the future. At that time, you hoped that I could convey some words to you, saying that there were some flaws in your plan and that you hoped to make modifications before it was implemented, otherwise you would definitely regret it."

"I understand, but why here?"

"This is where you gave me strength, and where you told me these words. So afterwards, I left fragments of my consciousness here, so that I could convey your words to you in the future, which may come at any time."

"Yeah…"

Kiana was filled with emotion after listening to him. The past and the future were completely connected through the individual Akhmar. Kiana was finally able to clearly see the history of Sumeru and understand where the problem with her plan lay.

So she looked up at Ahmar and said, "Ahmar, I need to take back the power I gave you back then. You don't mind, do you?"

Ahmar smiled, a smile so happy and relieved. Perhaps he had known all along that this day would come, and he had long been prepared for his power to be taken back. He spread his arms wide, revealing his chest to Kiana without any defense, indicating that Kiana could take that power away at any time.

Kiana silently stepped forward and took back the power. Then, Ahma's consciousness turned into sand and dissipated in the space.

Indeed, it was the power of understanding and construction. Feeling the power in her hand, Kiana immediately understood what kind of power her future self had given her.

If we're talking about what power can perfectly explain the somewhat futuristic technology of the Red King civilization, then perhaps only the power of the Herrscher of Reason can explain it.

As for the three familiars, they were probably just stories from a previous life anime that Ahmar told him on a whim, and Ahmar created them based on his descriptions after obtaining the power of the Herrscher of Reason!

This space and that consciousness were probably maintained by using power. Now that I have withdrawn my power, the consciousness will naturally dissipate, and this space will probably dissipate completely before long!

However, before leaving, Kiana still needs to analyze this power. Through years of integration with Ahmael and prolonged exposure to forbidden knowledge, this power has also acquired some information and power from forbidden knowledge.

This is exactly the information Kiana wants, so this undisturbed space became one of the best options before she could fully analyze it.

After all, she was already here, so rather than moving to another place, she might as well make the most of this space and complete the analysis before it completely dissipated.

Time passed by, second by second, and the time for this space to completely dissipate was getting closer and closer. Fortunately, Kiana's analysis speed was not slow. She had already finished analyzing the space when it was half collapsed. She even had time to do some related experiments in the remaining time.

After confirming that she hadn't forgotten anything, Kiana left the space. The moment she opened her eyes, she noticed that the others seemed to be arguing about something.

However, the content of the debate has shifted from being related to archaeology to being related to themselves.

"Isn't there any other way?"

The person who said this was Farusan. It wasn't that Kiana and Farusan had developed a deep friendship after spending these few days together; their relationship was just that of ordinary friends.

The reason for asking this question is simply because Narcida instructed Farusan to handle Kiana's affairs, and Farusan has a responsibility to ensure Kiana's safety to a certain extent.

But now Zeborelle says that all who sit on the throne will be granted an equal eternal sleep, which literally means that those who sit on the throne will die and go to that eternal golden dreamland, without exception.

This was undoubtedly bad news for Falushan, but the rest of the team had no such concerns. After learning why Kiana was sleeping on the throne, they planned to return.

Before leaving, they were still trying to persuade Falusan to go back with them, which led to the scene of the argument that Kiana saw when she woke up.

Seeing that the argument was escalating into something more intense, Kiana quickly spoke up to interrupt it.

After realizing that the voice came from the direction of the throne, Falusan immediately reacted and turned around to hug Kiana tightly.

However, the height difference between the two made it seem to outsiders that the frightened younger sister had protected her older sister.

Realizing she had lost her composure, Farusan quickly coughed and then checked Kiana's body to make sure Kiana was indeed unharmed.

Zeborele, standing to the side, looked at Kiana in surprise. Logically speaking, Kiana should have died, and her body should have been gradually devoured.

After all, he had watched helplessly as Euphemia died in front of him more than a decade ago, and then a surge of dark energy emerged from the depths of the ruins and completely engulfed Euphemia's body.

If he hadn't reacted quickly and run away, he probably would have been swallowed up as well, even though he wanted to take Yuffie's body with him. But because of this, he lost the chance to take Yuffie's body with him forever.

This is why he was the one most eager to urge others to leave; it was because he had experienced it himself that he understood the danger involved.

He had already lost Euphemia, and now he didn't want to lose his daughter as well. Therefore, leaving the ruins before that dark power appeared was the best choice, but he hadn't expected Farusan to be so resolute.

He could have left the others behind and taken Jade and Tirzad away, but Tirzad insisted that this was only part of the ruins and that there were other places that hadn't been explored yet, so he stayed.

Unable to argue with him, she could only persuade Rahman to let him help her forcibly take these two annoying scholars away.

However, what Zeborele did not expect was that Farusan not only possessed the Eye of God, but also had combat experience that was no less than theirs, and he would not be able to subdue her in a short time.

So he had no choice but to continue trying to persuade Lucia, hoping to get her to give up Kiana and leave with him as soon as possible.

In fact, if Kiana didn't wake up soon, Zeborele planned to abandon the others and leave with Tirzad and Jade.

Unexpectedly, Kiana woke up unexpectedly. Since Kiana was able to wake up, does that mean that Yuffie also had a chance to wake up?

For a moment, Zeberlele's heart was filled with bitterness.