"It's a pleasure to see you again, Old God. May I know how long it has been since I last left?"
Xia De adjusted his mood, first greeting him, then asking his first question.
The young man in the clown hat shook his head, the decaying aura around him even more pronounced than when they last met.
It was as if all things were on the verge of withering:
"This Hope Town itself is not a normal place; there's no normal concept of time here. Additionally, my impending Sleep has caused distortions in the material world, leading to abnormal temporal and spatial states enveloping this place. This is merely the autumn of the fifth epoch, 1068, and it doesn't represent any specific point in time."
"So that's why. The History Academy of Saint Byron's didn't discover any major events at this time point because of this reason. That Ring術士 who was held back for decades because of it must have been wronged."
Xia De thought to himself, then speculated that Hope Town itself was a relic, a relic formed in an epoch even earlier than the fifth epoch.
He mused to himself, knowing time was short, and then said:
"Old God, my purpose in coming this time is still to witness your final wish, but... after an existence like yours falls into Sleep, can he return?"
He asked this question, wanting to verify Miss Annette's statement about the whispering chapters.
"Compared to Sleep, the word 'Sleep' is actually more fitting."
"Sleep? And he can awaken?"
Xia De asked in surprise, but the Saint in the clown hat merely smiled and did not answer.
"Alright then, can I ask a few more questions?"
"Of course. Satisfying the curiosity of children is one of my duties. However, you don't seem to be able to stay here for too long; pay attention to the time."
He kindly reminded him, and Xia De immediately nodded:
"Do you know Sublimation Words?"
The power the doctor used with Sublimation Words had a distinct sense of decay, which was extremely similar to the feeling emanating from the Saint before him.
"I do not know. The Ring術士 system you possess was only formed in the mid-to-late fifth epoch, and this is only the early fifth epoch, so I do not know."
"Then how do you... Alright, some things you can know, but I cannot know yet."
Xia De understood the Saint's meaning, and the latter smiled:
"But you will get the answer. After all, even the mortal mystical system of the current fifth epoch has powers similar to what you call 'Sublimation Words.' But you need to seek the answer yourself."
"Yes, I understand."
He said, then inwardly asked how much time he had left. After getting the answer from the whispers, he temporarily put aside his questions. Whether it was the whispering chapters or The Chosen, these were all things that happened after this deity's Sleep, so he couldn't get answers. It was better to focus on the task given by the Old God.
He cleared his throat:
"Then, Saint, what is your final wish?"
The Old God, The Innocent Creator, gently clapped his hands:
"It's very simple. Children, come out."
Subsequently, from the crowded shelves of the toy store, three short children emerged. Xia De had initially thought there was no one else here.
Two Boys and one girl. The girl seemed to be the oldest, but she wouldn't be over 12 years old, and the youngest Boy even had snot bubbles coming from his nose.
Their clothing was completely different from the townspeople outside. Not to mention the style, at least the colors were much richer and more vibrant. Compared to the numb townspeople in this eerie Hope Town, they were truly living people.
The Saint looked at the three innocent children and gently explained:
"I had intended to quietly meet my end here, to observe the material world in the form of a Saint. I just didn't expect to accidentally involve these three children in the Town. As an apology, my final wish is to fulfill their wishes."
The language used by the Old God was not any language of the current time, so the three children couldn't understand it, but Xia De could.
"Children, what do you want?"
The Saint switched to a different language and asked the three children, his smile very gentle and infectious. The three children looked at him with anticipation. The children were protected by the divine, so they would not be harmed by looking directly at the divine. Of course, this was only temporary.
In Xia De's view, the mental state of the three children was already off; that inexplicable joy and excitement was completely unlike the behavior of children in an unfamiliar environment.
The oldest girl, wearing a pretty floral dress, looked up and said, her eyes very bright:
"Sir, I want power, enough power to protect myself."
The Boy holding a toy wooden knife said, deliberately mimicking an adult's tone:
"Oh, sir, of course I want to grow up, to grow up into an adult immediately."
The yellow-haired Boy, holding a toy bear and blowing snot bubbles, said:
"I want stories. I just want to hear good stories."
They all looked at the Saint behind the counter, and this Old God then turned to look at Xia De:
"You see, my final wish is to fulfill these wishes."
These wishes should be simple for a god, and they also fit within the divine purview of The Innocent Creator, indeed suitable as his final wish.
But seeing the Saint smilingly look at him, Xia De had a bad premonition:
"You're not going to say you can't do it, are you?"
The young man in the clown hat laughed:
"Yes, I can't do it at the moment. I've used my remaining power to perfect my last work; they appeared too late. But I do want to fulfill their wishes; this is my final wish, born from the pure and good hearts of children. I thought it couldn't be accomplished, but I didn't expect you to appear..."
He again used a language the children couldn't understand. Xia De pointed to himself and asked incredulously:
"You're not going to say... me?"
"Yes."
The Saint nodded again with a smile, this expression quite fitting with the clown hat he was wearing:
"No matter what method you use, as long as you fulfill the wishes of these three children, it will count as witnessing my final wish. The Old God of Time will not be stingy, and neither will I. I will give you an additional gift, guaranteed to satisfy you."
This was certainly tempting, but Xia De still shook his head:
"I really want to help you, but I am just a mortal. I don't have your creative power."
"How many mortals receive help from a god? But the wishes of children are mostly fulfilled by mortals."
The Old God who was nearing his end pointed to the three children in turn:
"They want power, they want to grow up, they want stories. Mortal illuminated by the afterglow of divinity, I think you can fulfill these wishes."
The three children immediately looked at Xia De with renewed anticipation, and Xia De forced a smile at them.