Yarra's Adventure Notes-Chapter 1430 - 216 Cold Feedback

"What happened after... became very hard to accept," the Undead who had always accompanied Lady Nellie exchanged glances, hesitating before Finche sighed, "We tried several times to reverse-engineer the channel for a spiritual link, but due to reasons of our own, we could not truly have faith in her, making it difficult to establish a channel for prayers. Even on occasions when we did manage to establish it, all we received was ice-cold silence."

"There was no response at all?" Pannis asked, "That’s hardly surprising though."

"No, it’s not that there was no response. If there were simply no response, we could consider she was concentrating her spirit to deal with the invasion of Danacus and was unable to spare attention to respond to us—we wouldn’t be too anxious." Finche shook his head, "But those few times weren’t without response; instead, it was a kind of icy silence. Perhaps you haven’t established a spiritual link with Lady Nellie and, because of your faith in Lord Yarra, you haven’t prayed to other Deities, so you might not understand what I mean. Based on the several past spiritual link channels that were initiated by Lady Nellie, her spiritual world felt very warm and secure. However, those few times were different. In those rare successful connections, we felt a coldness in the brief moments we were connected—not a metaphorical coldness, but a literal chill in the spirit, as if standing in the middle of the Perpetual Icefield, where the soul itself shivers, regardless of the layering. The cold silence would end abruptly each time, and it remains unclear if it was due to our lack of faith, preventing a long-lasting connection, or if it was severed proactively from the other side. Either way, we couldn’t get a response. You should understand, changes like this in the spiritual world can only mean one thing unless Lady Nellie herself was putting on such a facade to confuse us; that we were most likely connecting, not with Lady Nellie, but with the Soul of Danacus."

"Yes, you might be right." Pannis’s expression remained unchanged; it seemed that after the initial shock, he had returned to his state of calm, or perhaps due to being overly agitated, he had become numb, unable to show any inner turmoil. Therefore, he spoke much more calmly than before, apparently without any emotional fluctuation, "Unless it’s deliberately disguised, the spiritual world cannot undergo such a drastic, opposite change, so it must have been the Soul of Danacus to which you connected. This means that in the spiritual world, Danacus has gained an absolute advantage, which is why you would connect solely to Danacus himself at different times; it can’t be just a coincidence."

"Are you... alright?" Luscia was startled by Pannis’s calm demeanor. Through what Nellie had expressed, the Bone Dragon understood the depth of feelings between the two, so she couldn’t comprehend Pannis’s calm that seemed to surpass that of the Drakes, prompting her to ask out of concern, "We’re all friends here. There is no need to hide your pain. Everyone here can understand how you feel, so it’s okay to show your agitation."

"No, you don’t understand at all," Pannis’s tone remained even as he said lightly, "You don’t grasp my habits and thus you say such things. In situations like this, I do not get agitated. I lost control once before, and that one time led to irreversible consequences, which I have regretted for over a hundred years. I will not commit the same mistake again."

"That’s right, Luscia, Kyle has always been like this," Finche also explained on behalf of Pannis, "When faced with problems, he has always remained this calm; the more serious the problem, the calmer he becomes."

"Whether in excitement or frenzy, beyond the venting of emotions, neither helps me in any way or solves any problem. They only reveal my incompetence and fragility. I used to think this way, and after more than a hundred years of it, I think so even more now. You don’t realize, for various reasons, I wasted a hundred years. If I had been able to stay calm during that time, like I am now, I would have used it to consider many issues and carry out many tasks, ensuring things wouldn’t have reached this point." Pannis said with a self-deprecating chuckle, "Of course, the word ’if’ has no value by itself; the past doesn’t offer a chance for ’ifs.’ But as a creature of intelligence, it may be inevitable to make a mistake once, yet it’s a sign of a cognitive issue to repeatedly make the same mistake. I do not believe my cognition is flawed, so I don’t plan to make the same error twice. Indeed, my heart is filled with excitement and anger, but I must remain calm, which allows me to think clearly and make the right judgments. I cannot allow various negative emotions to control my consciousness; otherwise, I might repeat the path from the past."

"Maybe... you’re right, I don’t really understand," as a Guardian, Luscia’s thoughts were far less complex—put simply, her nature was rather straightforward, so she found it hard to grasp Pannis’s point of view. She didn’t intend to dwell on such trivial matters and waste time. Therefore, she nodded, her neck bones creaking, "After that, we closed off Between the rituals, disallowing any Undead from entering, and even for this temple, I justified it as my territory and strictly controlled the comings and goings of the Undead. Indeed, such measures can’t prevent Danacus from influencing the outer Undead, but by at least increasing the distance, we can prevent the Undead from his direct interference."

"Aren’t you worried that Danacus might come out on his own?" Pannis asked, frowning, "If he wanted to come out, you wouldn’t be able to stop him, would you?"

"However, he cannot come out," Finche said with certainty, "I believe this is the last barrier Lady Nellie set up for him."

"That’s right, he can’t come out," Luscia nodded in agreement, "Our power certainly isn’t enough to stop him, but we are not worried because it’s not us that’s preventing him, it’s the Divine Barrier."

"Hmm?" Pannis was taken aback, "You know about the Divine Barrier?"

"Nellie told me, so I am aware," Luscia explained, "When we lost contact with Nellie, the slow collision between the two worlds had already begun. It’s a long process, and according to Nellie’s plan, it would last two to three years. To initiate the collision, this space had to first lose the characteristics of the Divine Kingdom, and then be accepted under the rules of the Divine Barrier. Thus, for Danacus to emerge from Between the rituals, he’d have to break through the Divine Barrier, which is impossible. With his strength, even at his strongest, he couldn’t possibly manage it, so we aren’t worried in the least that he might come out."