Behind the door was a huge room, not only larger in area than Xia De's entire floor, but also three times the height of a normal room.
It was obvious that Grandma Cassandra had carefully tidied up this room. The antiques, oil paintings, furniture, and even the music box and crystal ball ornaments on the table looked quite valuable.
The overall tone of the room was bronze, because the walls and ceiling were covered with runes written in copper powder, resembling spreading vines.
Looking closely, these were runes from various sealing rituals from different eras, pieced together to form the seal of this house.
If the floor wasn't covered with a soft red wool carpet, Xia De believed he could see similar runes on the ground as well.
On the wall to the left of the door was a fireplace, with crossed swords hanging above it. At this moment, the raging flames in the fireplace provided light for the dim room. It was unknown what kind of wood Grandma Cassandra was burning, or if there were incense burners lit in unseen corners, but a fragrant scent permeated the air.
Apart from the fireplace, there were no other light sources here, making the room somewhat dim. After Xia De entered, the first thing he saw was a white and a black yarn dress thrown on the carpet. Looking ahead, the largest area of the room was occupied by a four-poster bed in the center of the room.
It was a large bed made of mahogany, seemingly large enough to accommodate thirty people. The height of the four posts reached the ceiling, and the shadows of the posts swayed on the walls with the flickering of the fire. Three layers of curtains hung around it, namely white gauze, pink gauze, and the innermost layer of black gauze.
The obstruction of the yarn curtains and the dimness of the room made it difficult for Xia De to see his sister Grace and younger sister Helen. He could only see the figures of two girls sitting on the bed, snuggling together, but he couldn't see their specific appearances and clothes clearly.
One of them rested her head on the other's shoulder, while the other wrapped her arm around the other's back, half-embracing her. Perhaps they had been inseparable since they met again in the Gap yesterday.
However, these two figures didn't quite resemble humans.
It wasn't referring to their appearance, but to their height. Although they were sitting on the bed inside the Gauze curtains, judging by the height of their upright upper bodies alone, the two of them were definitely no less than three meters tall. They seemed to have been enlarged into giants, but these giant figures were so beautiful, just like the so-called 'divine beings' depicted in religious oil paintings.
The change in body shape was probably one of the effects of the Red Butterfly Twins' short-lived abnormal state after meeting.
The evidence lay in the fact that the whisper element in the room was very obvious. Although it was weaker than yesterday, it still made Xia De feel short of breath and a slight headache.
Although there were no butterflies in the room, he could hear the sound of butterflies fluttering their wings. Listening more closely, it sounded like two different female voices intertwined in whispers.
As the whisper element's influence on Xia De deepened, he even saw some very illusory and indistinct Red Butterfly shadows in the air, but most of them only flashed by, leaving behind a few scattered red lights before disappearing.
"Long time no see, sir."
"Long time no see, sir."
The voices of the twin sisters were actually different, so Xia De finally distinguished that it was Grace holding Helen now.
Their voices were very hoarse, not particularly clear.
"Long time no see, Grace, Helen."
Xia De looked at them behind the three layers of curtains. Although he had many questions he wanted to ask when he was at the door, he couldn't say a word at this moment:
"How have you been... all these years?"
He asked this question again, and a light laughter came from behind the curtains:
"Sir, how have you been all these years?"
"Not bad. Actually, for me, the separation from you is only a month away."
He didn't hide this point. Helen, who had been resting her head lightly on her sister's shoulder inside the curtains, moved slightly and leaned against the chest of the other figure. Indistinct Red Butterfly shadows were also flying inside the account curtains, one of which landed on Helen's shoulder, but quickly disappeared as if it had melted:
"Sir, for us, the separation from you hasn't been too long either."
This was Grace's voice. As the elder sister, her voice sounded more calm.
"But, it's clearly been..."
"First, I want to apologize for Helen."
Her figure gently stroked her younger sister's hair:
"We could have met you earlier, but we had to wait until the end, and even concealed our identities and took you to such a dangerous place."
"It doesn't matter."
Xia De shook his head.
"For us, each cycle is not simply the body returning to its initial state, but even the memories and emotions returning to their initial state. Only the memories before being blessed by the gods are vivid. The other memories of the past five thousand years, with the scouring of the 22-year cycle, are as blurred as stories."
This explained why, even though they were immortals, their temperament was still similar to what it was back then.
"Crossing cycle after cycle, only wishing to meet my sister again. Time really flies, sir. In the blink of an eye, it's already the sixth epoch."
She said softly, her tone somewhat mournful.
"Has it been so many years already?"
Helen also asked softly:
"I remember the initial story, and the repeated reunions with my sister, the repeated waiting, then Sleep, and then waiting again... The meaning of life seems to be only reunion and waiting left, and we probably can't be considered human anymore."
"Back then, why did you accept the blessing of the twin gods?"
Xia De asked, even thinking that this blessing and curse were almost indistinguishable.
"This was our own choice. Because apart from this method, there was no other way to realize our wish. Sir, my sister and I are different from you."
Grace said, Xia De knew that the blue eyes of the tall figure inside the curtains were staring at him through the curtains:
"We are just ordinary mortals. Even with your help, even if we survived from the god's party, we are still just mortals. It is our great honor for a great one to glance at us for even a second."
The figures of the tall girls hugged each other behind the curtains. It was clearly a very enchanting scene, but it made people so sad.
The raging bonfire in the room cast the entangled shadows in the curtains onto the walls engraved with runes. And Xia De's shadow stood quietly beside them, watching them.
"What we seek is to escape the family curse of never seeing each other again, and then to be together forever. Hasn't the god who protects the twins already fulfilled our wish?"
Grace asked.
"Yes."
Helen sighed softly:
"The god personally descended, defeated the subspace evil that the family had guarded for generations, liberated the mission that had been passed down for several generations, and broke the curse that my sister and I would never see each other; the god gave us blessings, allowing us to gain eternal life, allowing that bond and love to last forever; the god even gave us strength, allowing us, as his blessed ones, to be able to travel freely in this world even now that the god has long since departed. The god has already done enough for us."
"And the price we need to pay for this gift of fate..."
The figures of Grace and Helen in the curtains looked at Xia De standing by the bed at the same time:
"...is nothing more than assisting the Phoenix in suppressing Between Life and Death in a cycle of 22 years."
Xia De didn't know what to say for a moment. Their choice was truly voluntary.
"The Phoenix is reborn in the fire time after time. Although we were originally just mortals, we are now almost equivalent to being able to be reborn in the fire. Sir, look at these Red Butterfly."
The fluttering butterflies surrounded Xia De. But when Xia De wanted to reach out and touch them, the butterflies scattered again.
"This is the witness of time, the witness of the affection between my sister and I, the witness of our mutual torment and mutual entanglement. Time will erode emotions, but our strong emotions and love become deeper in this torment and entanglement. Look, the god even helped us to maintain our original intentions forever in this way. Bitter waiting, and painful farewells, as well as the bruises on the neck, polish the emotions and soul..."
This mellow emotion can actually be described as "twisted," but for them, this is what they want.
"The god did not bind us. If we want to leave, we only need to step into death together to end everything. But for so many years, so many times, no one has been tired of that waiting and reunion."
The power in Grace's words showed their determination.
The Outsider suddenly felt that he might have understood their thoughts. This may not be the best, but at least it's not bad:
"Grace, Helen. I want to know, if we return to the era when I met you, would you still choose this way?"
"Yes, sir."
The tall figures inside the curtains answered almost in unison.
"We understood a long time ago that all mortals must die. We are not afraid of death. What we fear is separation. Wanting to be together forever is the eternal wish of my sister and I."
Helen in the curtains sat up from Grace's arms, and the figure pinched the other figure's chin, and then kissed her.
Xia De couldn't understand this twisted emotion, but he believed that this emotion, called kinship, love, or something more complex, was actually the curse placed on Grace and Helen.
In that god's party, everyone had their own wishes. Although Xia De had seen the twins' specialness at the time, he didn't expect that they would use this method to continue the story to this day.
Mutual torment, mutual love, mutual waiting, mutual farewell, walking alone in the material world for 22 years, just to climb the mountain again to welcome another person.
The Outsider has witnessed many stories in this world, but the story of Helen and Grace still makes him sigh. The Red Butterfly witnessed the cycle spanning two epochs, and Xia De witnessed the beginning of everything.
He knew that the current situation was already good for Grace and Helen. But he didn't like this story, not at all. If he could complete the path to the sublimation of the twelve divinities, the Outsider would definitely not let this story end with such a cycle.
