Just as the audience was full of anticipation…
The scene suddenly shifted. The camera moved to the Grove of Epiphany.
Switching scenes right at the moment when everyone expected Anaxagoras to show off felt almost like playing a "cut-off" tease on the viewers.
But everyone knew, that MiHoYo would always push the progression further than expected.
So they patiently kept watching.
...
In this place, overtaken by the Black Tide, there still remained something of remarkable value.
The manuscripts and books left behind had not been transferred along with the hostages into Okhema due to the disaster.
And so, Hyacine and Dan Heng had come here. There might be clues about the Death Titan here.
Standing atop the massive tree roots, Dan Heng was still thinking about his companions in Okhema.
"What are you thinking about?" Seeing him lost in thought, Hyacine asked.
"Just amazed at how this towering tree is Cerces' divine body. It's a majestic sight."
Dan Heng casually came up with a plausible excuse.
But Hyacine let out a soft laugh. "Is that so? You don't look the slightest bit amazed, though. Plus, you seem to be strangely familiar with the city around the Great Tree...?"
Dan Heng froze for a moment, not knowing how to respond.
Clever as she was, Hyacine naturally sensed there was more to it. But she wasn't the type to pry. So she let it go.
After all, as someone from beyond Amphoreus, it was only natural for him to have a few secrets.
She smoothly shifted the topic to the Titan's.
"The Grove has a wealth of research on Titan's, and that is exactly what we are here for."
Dan Heng nodded and set off alongside her. The two moved through the Grove, chatting from time to time.
Dan Heng had always been interested in Titans, and with the opportunity now, he eagerly asked Hyacine about them.
Along the way, he also learned about her life. Although she was a priestess of the sky, her childhood and education had all taken place within the Grove of Epiphany.
He couldn't help but ask about it. Hyacine didn't hide anything, quietly recounting the past.
"Don't read too much into it. I mean, can mortals even hope to reach Aquila's realm? They're a strict and draconian god, nothing like Cerces. Reason is willing to share what is theirs with others, but Sky... only expects people to revere them."
"You get what I'm saying, right Dannie? After all, the Titan that imprisoned you and Stelle here in Amphoreus is none other than Aquila themself..."
Dan Heng nodded slightly to show he understood.
But inside, a storm surged.
Aquila, the Titan who ruled the sky, as long as it continued to soar above the clouds, the people of Amphoreus could never leave the ground.
And since Hyacine's ancestors were priests who worshipped Aquila, her description of the sky should be closest to the truth.
But in Amphoreus, Titans and divinity were inseparable topics. People created myths, and reality in turn shaped them…
So, being part of that system, Hyacine and her ancestors could hardly remain completely objective.
As an outsider, Dan Heng had to step beyond this subjective narrative and analyze the information with absolute objectivity.
After this intense mental process, he finally reached a conclusion.
"Titans and Aeons are two distinct classes of beings. Titans can communicate with us humans, and it is not impossible for us to overpower them. Upon their demise, we can even take over their divinity."
"In this regard, Titans can be said to be a lot more similar to humans than Aeons are..."
"Chrysos Heirs are humans who possess heroic qualities, with most of them demonstrating extraordinary combat prowess and strength. Upon clearing a Coreflame trial, a Chrysos Heir can even ascend to a demigod and inherit a Titan's divinity."
After finishing his analysis, a flash crossed Dan Heng's eyes. He realized where that lingering feeling had been coming from all along.
It was a sense of dissonance. Titan, Demigod, Chrysos Heir.
This structure gave him the impression of some kind of… selection mechanism.
"And the dissonance doesn't stop there."
"Guided by the prophecy, the heroes are on a quest to reclaim Coreflames and usher in the Era Nova. Their efforts have seen gratifying results to date."
"As I expected, the prophecy is the hardest to make any sense of."
Through all the information and clues he had gathered in Amphoreus, Dan Heng had now pieced together his insight.
To him, it felt as if the truth was within reach, just a thin veil away.
But that excitement and anticipation were ultimately washed over by a faint sense of impatience and urgency.
Stelle was still in a superposition between life and death.
His discoveries meant nothing in the face of that. The priority remained finding the Death Titan.
"Let's go." Suppressing his thoughts, Dan Heng said to Hyacine.
Watching this scene, the audience began discussing excitedly.
...
: Dan Heng has uncovered some incredible things too!
: So this is why they suddenly cut us off earlier?
: Feels like the two storylines are about to confirm each other, Anaxagoras's side and Dan Heng's side will definitely intersect!
: The materials hidden in the Grove must be really important.
: I'm excited to see what they'll uncover.
...
The comments scrolled past.
And soon, the two found many valuable records in the core area of the Grove.
One of them documented a "sky vessel."
Long ago, someone had arrogantly built a flying vessel, attempting to break through Aquila's blockade.
But unsurprisingly, the vessel was destroyed by divine punishment sent down by Aquila.
Yet this act of defiance was recorded and passed down to this day.
Because of it, Anaxagoras and other scholars once held debates.
The scholars believed that the construction of the sky vessel once again proved that the sky of Amphoreus belonged to divine authority.
But Anaxagoras saw it differently.
He believed that the failure of those who built the vessel proved only one thing, among all the ways to approach Aquila, building a sky vessel was simply the wrong one.
That's all. It had to be said, this really was typical Anaxagoras-style thinking.
Dan Heng looked at the record and sighed inwardly.
Hyacine interrupted him,
"Anaxa often says that... "Every failure brings us one step closer to the truth."
"Perhaps, to him, the crash of the skyship carries a different interpretation. The firmament is not impenetrable. On the contrary, it was precisely because the skyship represented the first step toward breaking free from the shackles of the earth that it provoked the wrath of the Sky Titan and brought divine punishment upon itself."
As Dan Heng and Hyacine spoke, the audience gained a clearer understanding of Anaxagoras's past.
But this was only the beginning. As they dug deeper, the valuable fragments hidden within the vast archives were gradually uncovered.
Many of the things recorded there, even Hyacine had never heard of them.
Because once these archives were cataloged, they were placed in the most central area of the Grove, guarded by scholars.
Even the debates and knowledge within were strictly forbidden from spreading.
Some were afraid. Afraid that seeing these archives would inspire rebellious thoughts, giving rise to extreme ideologies like Anaxagoras's.
"These things… I've never heard of any of this." Hyacine held a scroll, her voice a bit high.
What it recorded was Anaxagoras's alchemy research notes.
And the subject of his research was actually the Chrysos Heirs.
[The Holy Maiden of Janusopolis — Tribbie, Trianne, and Trinnon, descendants of the Holy Maiden from the Temple of the Three Fates...]
[Goldweaver Aglaea of Okhema... from the Mnestia priestly family...]
[The Prince of Castrum Kremnos... Hyacine of the Twilight Courtyard... All of their ancestry have varying degrees of connection to the divine Titans or their divine authorities.]
...
[Does the golden blood... come from the heritage of priest families... or royal bloodlines...?]
...
[Anaxagoras — I myself show no such connection.]
[Kephale the Creator... what criteria did they use to create the golden blood... to shape the Chrysos Heirs?]
...
[Yet Castorice, the Servant of Death from Aidonia... her lineage is neither Titan priest nor demigod... but she has walked the earth for at least a millennium with the power to grant "Death" to humans... Where did this power come from?]
Word by word, it laid out all existing Chrysos Heirs as subjects of research.
And the speculations about the connection between the Chrysos Heirs and the Titans were utterly heretical.
What shocked Hyacine was that people like them had been used as research material by Professor Anaxagoras, and that he sought to uncover the underlying principles behind the Chrysos Heirs.
No wonder so many people regarded him as a deviant. Even Hyacine, as his student, needed a long time to process what she was seeing.
Meanwhile, the memories of the Dan Feng stirred again within Dan Heng's mind.
If the contents of these notes were ever made public, then in the end, the Chrysos Heir would inevitably stand opposed to ordinary people.
Regardless of whether they were kind, or even heroes. Because the common and the mediocre were destined to reject their existence.
Just like Caenis and the Council of Elders. Yet there was also a fundamental difference.
While resenting the Chrysos Heirs, people would gradually begin to question the Titans and divine authority itself.
Just as the two were still reeling from the contents of the notes, they turned the page and found something even more outrageous.
[Another text speaks of the dragon legends of Styxia... The alchemical extraction of "soul" ripped from dragon corpses is intriguing...]
[Dragons appear to be the Titans' creations...]
[Perhaps there's a way to reverse the process — using alchemy to re-fuse human "souls" with Titan creations, increasing the purity and divinity of golden blood toward the absolute?]
...
[This theory must be tested. Experiments to be arranged.]
Good grief. He wasn't even trying to hide it anymore.
So even back then, Anaxagoras had already conceived of such terrifying ideas.
Outside the screen, the audience kept gasping.
The initial excitement at Anaxagoras defying divine authority had already faded.
In its place, was a deep shock at just how outrageous he truly was.
...
: That's way too much information!
: Damn, bro, if Anaxagoras lived in ancient times, he'd definitely be some grand sage-level figure.
: You can tell the Grove really wanted him dead.
: Too bad this is Cerces' domain. The fact that Cerces tolerated someone like him, even indirectly protecting him, is wild.
: My opinion of the Titan Cerces is going up.
: Honestly, I kind of get the Grove sages now. If it were me, I'd burn all these notes. But this is the Grove, so they chose to seal them instead.
: Still the enlightened Grove… even heretical knowledge is still knowledge.
: The value of these notes… is no less than the part where Anaxagoras viewed Cerces' memories!!
: The connection between the Chrysos Heirs and the Titans is priceless… but it doesn't seem strictly hereditary? Anaxagoras himself and Castorice don't seem connected.
: Maybe there's another hidden factor.
: But looking at all this, and the earlier Amphoreus storyline, I can't shake the feeling… something is seriously wrong with this place.
: From beginning to end, it feels like all the favor in this place is given to the Chrysos Heirs.