Primeval and Other Times
Last updated 2026-09-05
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Missing Mission Still
Primeval and Other Times is the fifth part of the Trailblaze Mission chapter The Lethe Below the Living. It automatically begins after completing Best Farewell to the World.
Steps
- Head to the riverbank of Myriad Wish Grove
- Summon Graphia's ferry
- Board the ferry and head to the distant shore within the canvas
- Accompany Blade on his final journey
- Pick up the sword's shadow in the dream
- Bid farewell to the master
Dialogue
Head to the riverbank of Myriad Wish Grove
Mission DescriptionThe warning of the Lord Ravager's return has been delivered. But to retrieve the token I must pass on to Evanescia, I must accompany Graphia on a trip to the World in Canvas.
Blade has also arrived at Inkford Hermitage. If we truly find the sealed maw of Voracity on this trip, I fear this will be my final journey alongside him.
Should I feel relieved that his heavy burden will finally be lifted? Or... No, I don't know how to face this impending farewell.
- (Approach the marked location)
- Silver Wolf: I've heard that in the same forest, giant trees will fight each other for nutrients...
- Silver Wolf: How about this: we just feed Shuhu to that tree in the Courtyard. It would save us a long trip.
- Blade: ...
- Silver Wolf: Say something.
- Blade: Didn't know you were a forestry expert.
- Silver Wolf: I'm not joking. I'm serious.
- Blade: If the Elwood absorbed another Emanator of Abundance, it would likely bring about an even greater catastrophe.
- Blade: Right now, there is no other option besides the Voracity husk.
- Silver Wolf: ...
- Silver Wolf: If the Abundance grows too strong, the Ambrosial Arbor loses control, and the arcadia is doomed. If the Abundance is too weak, the husk spirals out of control, and the arcadia is doomed just the same...
- Silver Wolf: It's called an "arcadia", but the whole thing is built on a razor's edge. Does that mean the essence of the Elation is just dark humor?
- Blade: You're afraid.
- Silver Wolf: I'm not. I respect your choice.
- Silver Wolf: ...
- Silver Wolf: Aaarghh, fine! You're right! I'm afraid! So what?
- Silver Wolf: You think I don't know what that Xianzhou person meant? "One-in-ten chance"? There is no chance at all!
- Silver Wolf: Listen — I just can't stand by and watch one of my kin sacrifice himself.
- Blade: Kin...
- Silver Wolf: What else? Friend? Colleague? Playmate? The guy who carries my bags when we go shopping?
- Blade: I suppose all of those fit.
- Silver Wolf: Fit how!?
- Silver Wolf: Sometimes, I can't tell if you're actually dumb or just playing dumb...
- Blade: I hear you. Just assume it's the former. Simpler that way.
- Blade: My mind is made up. You should understand: misplaced emotions will only cause the mission to fail.
- Silver Wolf: You really are just playing dumb.
- Silver Wolf: Ugh... To be honest, I'm the same way.
- Silver Wolf: If I could see Firefly cured of her illness, Kafka finally finding the "heart" she's looking for, and (Trailblazer) reclaiming (his/
her) future... - Silver Wolf: Then I'd be willing to pick up that "LV.999" cartridge too, even if... it means becoming nothing but a shadow of the Dark Zone.
- Blade: Don't. At the TV Tower, you already severely overspent your time. Don't touch that thing again.
- Blade: Besides, why are you telling me this? You should tell them yourself.
- Silver Wolf: Because just like you... I'm a total! Stuck-up! Softie! Happy now?
- Blade: Feel better?
- Silver Wolf: No. Unless you give me a sincere apology and a proper goodbye, we're not settled.
- Blade: Not settled... is that right?
- Blade: Fair enough.
- Blade: (Whether as "Yingxing" or as "Blade," my journey has reached its end.)
- Blade: (Before the final verdict...)
- Blade: (I should say a proper goodbye to my "kin.")
- Blade: ...Who's there?
Hold your fire, it's me.
- Silver Wolf: Next time, it'd be better if you didn't try to sneak up on us like that.
- When did you get here?
- Silver Wolf: We've been here for a while. If you'd come any later, you'd be looking for him inside the belly of Voracity.
- Sorry, didn't mean to eavesdrop.
- Silver Wolf: I get it. It was a deliberate "accident."
- Blade: I knew you would come.
- I found a way into the World in Canvas.
- I can call for a boat to teleport us into the Canvas.
- (Trailblazer): I met the legendary Graphia. She told me a way to enter the World in Canvas.
- (Trailblazer): If we simply chant her name and release a wispae into the river, she'll come to ferry us.
- Silver Wolf: A legend from a thousand years ago... And she's actually still alive?
- Silver Wolf: It really makes sense. After all, you two are practically the same age. Knowing that gives me a bit more hope that you can actually make it back.
- Blade: Then let's begin.
Summon Graphia's ferry
- (Talk to Silver Wolf or Blade, optional)
- Blade: ...You are unusually talkative today. Are you trying to buy time?
- Silver Wolf: ...
- (Enter Interplanar Jump!)
-
- (Trailblazer): Little one, I choose you.
- Wispae: Everyone, let's go find Graphia!
- Wispae: World in Canvas, here I come!
- (Trailblazer): That should do it, right?
- (Trailblazer): I summon Graphia, Mother of Imagenesis. May she come forth and deliver us into the World in Canvas...
- (Trailblazer): No wispae were harmed in the making of this operation.
- (Exit Interplanar Jump!)
- Wispae: Graphia, Graphia! Everyone, into the World in Canvas!
- ???: How odd. This time, the visitors actually know of my existence?
- (Trailblazer): (Strange... Why is the boat coming from downstream?)
- Graphia: I heard your call and have come by boat to guide you across.
- Graphia: Greetings, travelers who seek to leave the mortal world behind. It is a pleasure to meet you.
- Graphia: Oh? Not an imagenae? But someone here to settle the past, and... family members seeing them off?
- Silver Wolf: I guess so.
- Graphia: ...The power of Abundance. What a nostalgic scent. There is something terrifying slumbering within you.
- Blade: I've heard that something lies at the end of the World in Canvas with the power to suppress it. Will you show us the way?
- Graphia: I see. You are better informed than I thought.
- Graphia: I understand. Time is of the essence. Please, step aboard.
- Blade: Thank you.
- Blade: The mountains lie distant, the waters still... and snow settles.
- Blade: A fine moment to bring this weary life to its end.
- Graphia: Bring a weary life to its end? To my eyes, the power taking root within you is far from withering away.
- Blade: It's just a matter of time.
- Graphia: The journey downstream is long. As is custom, I must collect your past stories as fare. I shall use them to paint the path forward, which will guide us to the other side.
- Blade: My past stories...
- Blade: I am not much of a storyteller.
- Graphia: There is no need to weave your thoughts into a complete story. A single memory, a single breath... These too are parts of your past.
- Graphia: Only by letting go of the past can you truly set forth with an open heart. Is that not so?
- Silver Wolf: Go ahead, say something. I'm curious too.
- Blade: ...
Board the ferry and head to the distant shore within the canvas
- (Approach the marked location)
- Blade: ...Then I shall begin with that lone island of Insumousu.
- Blade: It was a desolate wasteland, untouched and forgotten. Desolate, cold. The perfect place to lay the dead to rest.
- Blade: I planted rusted, broken blades in the wasteland as a mark of my departure. Little did I know that even after joining the Stellaron Hunters, I would find myself returning there time and again, bringing along a few new swords with me.
- Blade: Their owners, some of them sought my life, only to fall by my hand. Others simply wished to see me one last time as their own lives flickered out.
- Blade: I was once a craftsman. And those swords... They were all my own creations.
- Blade: I raised those wordless monuments for my old friends, one by one, until they became a forest of broken blades.
- Blade: And what about... me?
- Blade: And my sword... When will it finally join them in that forest?
- Graphia: ...
- (Cutscene begins)
-
- Graphia: I will follow your words with my brush... and paint the ideal end...
- Graphia: Sword-Burier...
- Graphia: We've reached the shore you've been seeking.
- (Cutscene ends)
- Blade: What is this place?
- Graphia: This is the World in Canvas, a mirror to your soul, blooming as your heart dictates. May this meadow be everything you wished for.
- Blade: Superb artistry...
- Blade: And yet, I thought you would paint the desolation within me instead.
- Graphia: Desolation?
- Graphia: I saw no desolation in your story. Instead, I found the lingering regrets of a master craftsman.
- Graphia: The fire that tempers black steel and shapes a hundred blades does not burn upon the forge or anvil. It burns within your heart.
- Graphia: That spark within you has yet to fade. It is why this plain has chosen to bloom into flowers.
- Blade: ...
- Silver Wolf: We've got no clue what you two are on about with all this cryptic talk...
- Silver Wolf: But you smiled just now, didn't you?
- Blade: ...No, I didn't. We should go.
Accompany Blade on his final journey
- Step DescriptionI saw it, that existence, that Blue Maw.
May you find the resting place you desire, Blade.
- (Walk along the path)
- Silver Wolf: He finally smiled, (Trailblazer).
- Silver Wolf: I'm actually the one who can't even smile. This sucks...
- Silver Wolf: (sigh)...
- (Approach the marked location)
- Graphia: We have reached the end.
- Blade: That Blue Maw... So, this is it?
- Graphia: Correct. Driven by the buried secrets of Ahatopia, you have come seeking liberation. And now, I have shown you the silhouette of the beast's maw.
- Graphia: If you should find a way to get out, I ask that you swear to keep this secret.
- My lips are sealed.
- Silver Wolf: I will keep the secret.
- Silver Wolf: That Blue Maw... Can it truly consume the Abundance?
- Graphia: Only a beast of insatiable hunger can end a plague of eternal growth.
- Graphia: I have stood watch in this realm for a millennium, beholding the eternal conflict where the Voracity and the Abundance remain locked in strife.
- Graphia: O undying soul... The fate that awaits within those depths lies far beyond the reach of our conjecture.
- Graphia: Perhaps you will vanish into nothingness in a mere heartbeat, or perhaps, you will endure a millennium of gnawing, constantly regenerating only to suffer once more, with liberation remaining an elusive dream.
- Blade: Beneath that calm of yours, I can feel an "old friend" lingering: agony.
- Graphia: This is the price I must bear for becoming one with the "Canvas".
- Silver Wolf: You're telling me if he leaps, he has to stay down there and be torn apart for ages?
- Silver Wolf: I'm not okay with this! Yao Guang never said anything about this when we went over the plan!
- Blade: I have lived for nearly a millennium. I stopped wishing for a swift end a long time ago.
- Blade: If the Leviathan does not consume me utterly, then I am still alive. And until that moment comes, I will pin Shuhu to the anvil and swing my hammer, once, twice, and again and again.
- Silver Wolf: ...Is there really no other way!?
- Blade: ...
- Blade: Silver Wolf, I was never one for sentiment. I'll say only this.
- Blade: In my past life as a smith, I made it a point to forge something for those friends I found tolerable.
- Blade: But ever since I joined the Stellaron Hunters...
- Silver Wolf: Alright, I get it! You want me to go back and take apart that box Kafka uses as a footrest, right?
- Blade: ...You already took it apart?
- Silver Wolf: A long time ago.
- Silver Wolf: Quite a few treasures in there: a master-crafted blade, a game controller, and a... uh, portable reactor?
- Blade: ...That's the armor core reforged from the remains of the Glamoth Queen.
- Silver Wolf: Oh, and a cat scratching post.
- Blade: When did you find out about these items?
- Silver Wolf: "You"? You mean "We". We all found out.
- Silver Wolf: Think you hid it that well? Please, give me a break. We're a pro team, you know.
- Blade: ...
- Blade: Just split it among yourselves. Consider it a keepsake.
- Silver Wolf: ...
- Silver Wolf: Kafka should be the one saying this, but...
- Silver Wolf: You are the most perfect blade the Stellaron Hunters could ever have.
- Blade: ...
- Blade: ...Just a broken blade, that is all.
- Blade, you're actually quite gentle and kind.
- Blade: You talk too much.
- Silver Wolf, I didn't know you had a sentimental side.
- Silver Wolf: You talk too much.
- May you find the ending you seek.
- Blade: ...Thank you.
- Silver Wolf: Before you go, you have something to say to (Trailblazer) too, right?
- (Trailblazer): ...To me?
- Blade: Don't take offense, it's just a few words.
- Blade: Before joining the Stellaron Hunters, I once lost myself.
- Blade: Unable to see the future, yet unable to reclaim the past... Just like you when you were first reborn.
- Blade: Whether we chose this path or were forced onto it...
- Blade: (Trailblazer), leave no room for regret, and never deny the path you've traveled.
- Can't you be a little more direct?
- Blade: We use the script to interfere with the future.
- Blade: But some things, once spoken aloud before their time arrives, will never come to pass.
- Blade: So... I must head into this unscripted path alone. To witness that final, solitary truth for myself.
- I understand what you mean.
- Blade: Then, let it be.
- Blade: It's time.
- Blade: Do you still remember that passphrase?
- Blade: No need to step forward. Just recite it in your head.
- Silver Wolf: (Three of a kind...)
- (Trailblazer): (Two pair...)
- Blade: (Ace... Go.)
- Blade: Farewell.
- (Cutscene begins)
-
- Blade: Let everything end... or truly begin.
- (Cutscene ends)
- (Enter Exploratory Excursion Dream of Death)
Pick up the sword's shadow in the dream
- Step DescriptionOld dreams are like ashes, washed clear by blood and fire.
The blade shatters, all form dissolves and returns to stardust.
- ???: In the final moments of your life...
- ???: What will flicker through your mind?
- Blade: ...
- Blade: The devouring... Has it begun?
- Blade: How much time has passed?
- Blade: Sea of Clouds... Ambrosial Arbor...
- Blade: Huh... To think that with death so close, this is the scenery my dreams would conjure.
- Blade: (My heartbeat... It's barely audible now.)
- Blade: (Shuhu... Are you still alive? Am I... Am I still alive?)
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Finally woke up, Yingxing?
- Blade: Master...?
- Blade: ...I am sorry. You have the wrong person. I am not Yingxing.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Huh. A lad your age, yet your head is more muddled than mine. You're talking nonsense in your sleep, boy.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): It has been ages since we last met. Tell me, have you let your craft go to waste? Your master wishes to see what you can do.
- Blade: ...
- Blade: Not a sweet dream of toasts and laughter, nor a nightmare of clashing steel...
- Blade: ...Instead, it is a dream of returning to the very beginning, to confess my sins before the master who taught me everything.
- Blade: Typical...
- (Unlock Achievement A Moment on the Distant Shore)
Bid farewell to the master
- Blade: This is a standard-issue sword I forged for the Cloud Knights, back when I first began my training.
View the Cloud Knight's Sword- Blade: Looking at it now, it is a crude piece of work.
- Hanguang (In Reminiscence): "Senior frater, are you truly from a short-life species?"
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "Why do you ask?"
- Hanguang (In Reminiscence): "I mean no offense. I just wondered... Why would you come all the way to the Xianzhou to learn the craft?"
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "My home became a grazing ground for those borisin beasts. My parents, their fertilizer. Unlike you, I won't live to see them wiped out, but my blades will."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "Look at this blade. Fresh from the forge today. I made it."
- Hanguang (In Reminiscence): "That is so cool!"
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "Stop flattering me. This is just a standard-issue sword for the Cloud Knights. According to the template, its name should be New Blade: Zero One."
- Hanguang (In Reminiscence): "Senior frater! How could you so thoughtlessly name your own creation?"
- Hanguang (In Reminiscence): "The very first assignment Elder Huaiyan gave his disciples is 'What defines a blade?' He always says a name carries the weapon's destiny..."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "'A lone cloud drifts, a crane departs the woods...'"[Note 1]
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "Let's call it 'Departure,' junior frater."
- Hanguang (In Reminiscence): "Haha! Senior frater, I thought you'd go with Lone Cloud or Guyun!"
- View the Cloud Knight's Sword (again, optional)
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "Look at this blade. Fresh from the forge today. I made it."
- Blade: Looking at it now, it is a crude piece of work.
- (Walk further)
- Blade: Baiheng... And that bow I forged for her.
- View the "Recurve Bow"
- Blade: In the end, it was I who forged the greatest sin.
- Baiheng (In Reminiscence): "For me? Thank you! I told you, didn't I? As long as you set your heart on what you love, nothing can stop you."
- Baiheng (In Reminiscence): "Hey, did you give this bow a name?"
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "I named this bow 'Luer,' after a mythical steed from the Primeval Imperium. Legend says it was one of the Emperor's finest mounts, a divine beast that could tread over any chasm and lead its master back from the brink of death..."
- Baiheng (In Reminiscence): "Pfft! How did you get so off track? Why pick a name meant for a horse?"
- Baiheng (In Reminiscence): "That won't do! It does not suit me at all. I am going to call it Recurve Bow."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "That sounds terrible. It is like my mother naming me 'Human.' At least change it to something elegant, like 'Winding Stream'!"
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "Fine. Have it your way."
- Baiheng (In Reminiscence): "Look at you, skilled with both the pen and the sword. You really should not be trapped in this Flamewheel Forge for the rest of your life."
- Baiheng (In Reminiscence): "Hey, perfect timing! I have a few friends getting together on the Luofu. Want to come along?"
- Blade: Staying in a single place your whole life? That won't do.
- View the "Recurve Bow" (again, optional)
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "I forged this so you can use it to protect yourself."
- Blade: In the end, it was I who forged the greatest sin.
- (Walk further)
- Blade: Jing Yuan's Devastator Glaive... The weapon I promised to forge for him all those years ago.
- View "Starfall Reverie"
- Blade: Old friends have drifted across the stars, but he remains.
- Jing Yuan (In Reminiscence): "A genius? I suppose Master Jingliu's swordplay should be no trouble for you then."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "Hmph. You little rascal, do not try to act like my senior just yet."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "I am from a short-life species. Xianzhou swordplay takes hundreds, even thousands of years to master. I simply do not have the time."
- Jingliu (In Reminiscence): "I heard your bold claim: 'I'd rather leave this world in a blaze than live until the end of time.' It seems you think little of us Xianzhou people, then?"
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "My, my, the future Sword Champion has sharp ears. It was just drunken rambling. Don't take it to heart."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "It would be a waste to throw my skills away on the battlefield. You go to the front, and I will forge the divine weapons for you. It is a promise."
- Jing Yuan (In Reminiscence): "Alright, deal! Then I want a devastator glaive, four meters long, decorated with green silk, and you should engrave the blade with cloud patterns, or maybe lightning...?"
- Jingliu (In Reminiscence): "Wait until you have grown a bit taller!"
- Jingliu (In Reminiscence): "Then it is settled. When the time comes, you shall arm each of us with a weapon of our own. Let us face the fires of war in your place and handle all that tedious business on your behalf."
- Jingliu (In Reminiscence): "Come, friends, drink up! We five come from all walks of life, but here and now, we are one. Together, we shall bring glory to the Xianzhou and peace to all who dwell beneath the stars..."
- Blade: ...By the Reignbow and the Ten Lords. If I betray our bond, let all of existence hunt me down.
- View "Starfall Reverie" (again, optional)
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "It would be a waste to throw my skills away on the battlefield. You go to the front, and I will forge the divine weapons for you. It is a promise."
- Blade: ...By the Reignbow and the Ten Lords. If I betray our bond, let all of existence hunt me down.
- (Walk further)
- Blade: The prosthetic arm and sword-staff for Mr. La Mancha were works created by my master and me.
- View the Ranger's cane
- Blade: He came to visit me even after I was cast into the Shackling Prison.
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "Yingxing, oh Yingxing... How did you end up like this?"
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "The shadow has tasted the flesh of Abundance within you."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): ...
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "You... You cannot even speak anymore."
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "Yingxing, look at me. Lift your head."
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "It was only thanks to you and your master that the shadow of Voracity was sealed. I owe you both a debt of gratitude."
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "So, I have but one question: Do you want out? If so, just nod."
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "There is always a way out. Just give the word, and I will carve a bloody path to get you out right now."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): ...
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "There is... no need."
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): "I must... atone... for my sins."
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "Perhaps if I had taken you away from Flamewheel Forge back then, your fate would have been entirely different."
- La Mancha (In Reminiscence): "I respect your choice, just as I did all those years ago."
- Blade: Pity... so much in this world does not go as we wish.
- View the Ranger's cane (again, optional)
- Yingxing (In Reminiscence): It... it was not meant to be like this.
- Blade: Pity... so much in this world does not go as we wish.
- (Walk further)
- Blade: "This... is not my work?"
- View the Hunter's Blade
- Blade: This was where my life as Blade began.
- Silver Wolf (In Reminiscence): "So you're Blade? You sound like quite the expert on swords."
- Silver Wolf (In Reminiscence): "Oh, good timing. What do you make of the sword she's carrying?"
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "The blade itself is fine, but the technique is wrong. Swordsmanship is no song and dance. Power starts at the feet. Only when the eyes and mind follow through will the strike land."
- Kafka (In Reminiscence): ...
- Silver Wolf (In Reminiscence): "My oh my, Bladie! You really are the ultimate blade critic!"
- Silver Wolf (In Reminiscence): "Since you have so much to say, Master, why not forge a legendary blade for each of us?"
- Blade (In Reminiscence): ...
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "I put down the hammer a long time ago. My hands cannot do what my mind wants anymore. Fighting with a weapon that does not suit you is just a quicker way to die."
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "From now on, if a sword is needed, let it be mine."
- Blade: This shell of mine is the only "Blade" there is.
- View the Hunter's Blade (again, optional)
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "From now on, if a sword is needed, let it be mine."
- Blade: This shell of mine is the only "Blade" there is.
- (Walk further)
- Blade: A weapon given by Yingxing to an old friend...
- View Cloud-Piercer
- Blade: But we are no longer who we once were to each other.
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "Who I am? Does not matter."
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "What matters is, do you remember this weapon?"
- Dan Heng (In Reminiscence): "I don't understand what you're talking about..."
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "All that happened... You think you can just walk away from it all?"
- Blade (In Reminiscence): ...
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "You would do well to keep Cloud-Piercer by your side, or..."
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "...Next time we meet, I will be the end of you!"
- Blade: What a pity. In the end... we still cast our weapons aside.
- View Cloud-Piercer (again, optional)
- Blade (In Reminiscence): "All that happened... You think you can just walk away from it all?"
- Blade: What a pity. In the end... we still cast our weapons aside.
- (Walk further)
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Apprentice, come here.
- Blade: Finally... Is the end in sight?
- (Approach the marked location)
- Blade: I am here, Master.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Good. I have waited a long time for you.
- Blade: You have seen every blade I have forged in this life.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Fine work. Somewhat flawed, perhaps, but their edge is undeniable. The marks of a true master.
- Blade: Gazing upon the weapons I forged in days past, I can only feel a surge of endless regret.
- Blade: The hammer falls and cannot be undone, yet I have spent my life taking one wrong step after another.
- "The galaxy is vast beyond compare, containing an infinite number of possibilities."Our community needs more information on this page! Can you help out? Click here to add more. The reason provided was:Missing Mission Still
- Blade: I betrayed my friends and broke my oaths. Even with these divine blades, I failed to protect those I held dear. My hands are stained with blood. I loathe the reflection it casts back from my blade.
- Blade: But what weighs heaviest on my soul is the debt I owe you, master. In this life, I fear I will never have the chance to repay it.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): ...Let it all out. You feel a bit lighter now, don't you?
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): But isn't there one last piece you've yet to show me?
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): It has yet to be named, has it not?
- Blade: That is a mere scrap from the forging of Shard Sword. I hid it away, fearing it would bring shame upon our school. Master, how did you...
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Can a mere boy keep secrets from his master? I entrusted General Yao Guang to bring it to you.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Since the day you left, I have kept this blade hung in the hall, gazing upon it daily. That raw, youthful spirit within it, it burns to the touch.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): It is the same light that shone in your eyes the day you bowed to me. It is the keen edge of a craftsman.
- Blade: I am but rusted scrap now, my light has long since faded. This is where I belong, buried.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Crushed ore, old materials, rusted iron... As craftsmen, we spend our entire lives in such company.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): "Waste not the bounty of the world, but perfect it through craft." To take what is useless, to take every failed scrap and forge it anew, isn't that our very mission as craftsmen?
- Blade: Even for a life that has reached its end, a life built on nothing but mistakes?
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): As it is with the work of a craftsman, so it must be with the life of a craftsman.
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): Do you still remember the question I once asked you: What defines a blade?
- Blade: ...
- Huaiyan (In Dreams): The answer already lies within you. Go now, and forge it anew.
- Yingxing (?): "Forge it anew." Interesting.
- Yingxing (?): "Now I wish more than anything that I could just live a bit longer." Yingxing himself said that, back when he was nearing his end.
- Blade: Shuhu...
- Shuhu: You've fought me all this time and leapt into the Leviathan's maw, nothing more than a bid to drag me down with you.
- Shuhu: A pity, truly. For so long as a single soul in this vast world prays for Abundance, I shall return to bestow my grace.
- Shuhu: And now, I have come in answer to your prayer. Within the Leviathan's maw, I shall grant you a thousand years of agony as your flesh will be remade only to be devoured again and again. You shall find no release.
- Shuhu: Is this not exactly what you call "Forge it anew"?
- Shuhu: Poor child. You and the Xianzhou citizens are always so short-sighted.
- Shuhu: Trapped in this waking dream called life, you cling to what is gone and tremble at the thought of being forgotten.
- Shuhu: Yet when I come to carve through your flesh and awaken your minds, you spurn my beautiful gift.
- Blade: ...
- Shuhu: You were once a master craftsman. You should know best about the beauty of shaping.
- Shuhu: I can grant you the power of reshaping life and death, bringing those you loved and lost back to life. Let your friends return to this world again and again, giving you the chance to right every single wrong.
- Blade: Righting wrongs? You mean by carving out more walking husks like me, things that crave an end they can never reach?
- Shuhu: That is but a fleeting pang, a necessary tempering on the path to eternity. If you persist in spurning this gift, then this maw shall become your prison for all time.
- Shuhu: Your body will churn for millennia, caught between being digested and reborn. Every inch of your flesh will remember the agony of being ground to pulp, until your very will dissolves into nothing, leaving only a hollow husk that can cry out my name.
- Blade: ...Are you done talking?
- Blade: Do you truly believe that I am the only prisoner here, Shuhu? You are the one bound most tightly by your chains.
- Blade: "For so long as a single soul in this vast world prays for Abundance, I shall return to bestow my grace."
- Blade: You are nothing but an echo of THEM, a slave trapped within your mission of "Compassion." You mock our obsessions? You are Yaoshi's most pathetic prisoner.
- Shuhu: ...Are you trying to provoke me?
- Blade: No. I am pronouncing your sentence. I never dove into this abyss for the sake of "a mutual end."
- Blade: I came for "forging."
- Blade: As long as you cling to life, you must keep reshaping this body to fight back the gnawing from the Voracity. And that struggle is exactly what I want.
- Blade: Let the maw of this Aeon husk be the furnace, let our undying flesh be the iron, and let death, a thousand times over, be the hammer...
- Blade: Right here, I shall forge and recast you, again and again!
- Blade: Not to destroy you but to create a cage that can hold you prisoner for all eternity.
- Blade: And the thorns of this cage shall forever be aimed at that savior who branded you with your mission, Yaoshi.
- Blade: Are you ready... to turn your vengeance against your god?
- Shuhu: ...I see now. So this is how you "forge it anew?"
- Shuhu: Very well... let us see how this duel between the condemned unfolds, this forging within the furnace—
- Blade: ...In the end, which of us shall forge the other into a "Blade"!
- Switching to Himeko's POV...
- As Himeko pursues the mysteries surrounding her father, she briefly recalls those artworks related to the Destruction...
Notes
- ↑ Chinese text: 『孤云无定鹤辞林』
Adapated from the line 『孤云无定鹤辞巢』 "A lone cloud drifts, a crane departs its nest." from the Chinese poem 送丁道士归南中 "Seeing off Daoshi Ding on his return to the south" by Tan Yongzhi (Chinese: 谭用之) during the late Tang dynasty.
Trivia
- Primeval and Other Times is a magical realism novel set in the fictional Polish village of Prawiek (Primeval) that explores how time impacts the characters that live in the village.
Other Languages
| Language | Official Name |
|---|---|
| English | Primeval and Other Times |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 太古和其他的时间 |
| Chinese (Traditional) | 太古和其他的時間 |
| Japanese | 太古とそのほかの時間 |
| Korean | 태고와 다른 시간 |
| Spanish | La antigüedad y otros tiempos |
| French | Temps primordiaux et autres époques |
| Russian | Древние времена и другие эпохи |
| Thai | บรรพกาลและช่วงเวลาอื่น |
| Vietnamese | Viễn Cổ Và Những Thời Gian Khác |
| German | Urzeit und andere Zeiten |
| Indonesian | Zaman Purba dan Zaman Lainnya |
| Portuguese | Tempos Primordiais e Outros Tempos |
Change History
Released in Version 4.3
