Ch.13947. The Phoenix Clan (3)

The two of them went outside the fortress.

The place Seohwa guided them to was a mountain not far from the fortress. Halfway up the mountain stood a massive temple.

It was likely the Phoenix Temple. And in the distant future, it would become the temple of the Divine Faith.

Seohwa and I arrived there quickly. I looked around inside the temple, wondering if I might see other priestesses and priests I had glimpsed in my memories, but there was no one.

Only blue flames burned in lamps placed throughout the temple. Seohwa looked at me and said:

“Many of these blue flames were lit by Master himself.”

That explained why those flames seemed so familiar. And the moment I entered the temple, I recovered some of Yu Jahyun’s memories.

‘The blue flame is also fire created by the Phoenix… The ability to use that fire is the qualification of the clan head.’

Yu Jahyun was my past life. Though fundamentally a different person from me, there was a reason why I had become so quickly accustomed to fire spells after obtaining the Red Jade in Eins.

Although it wasn’t a spell based on dominance like Yuri’s.

My high level of understanding of fire spells and their theoretical formulas was probably an innate talent from my past life.

It seems my fate has always been inextricably linked with fire.

Like tourists visiting a serene temple, Seohwa and I held hands as we walked through the interior. Then I unconsciously stopped in front of a small shrine.

“This place…”

Through the already open door, I could see a statue inside.

Just as Buddhist temples house Buddha statues in their halls, this place seemed to have a statue of the deity worshipped in this temple.

“This is where we enshrine the Phoenix and the Supreme Deity.”

My guess seemed correct. The interior was more spacious than it appeared from outside. And behind several statues, there was a wide mural-like painting.

“That is…”

“It’s a painting depicting the legend of when the Supreme Deity created this world.”

A burning bird. And beside it stood a statue in the form of a woman. The burning bird was the Phoenix, and the statue next to it seemed to be the Supreme Deity that Seohwa mentioned.

“The Supreme Deity is the god who created Ailetan, the mother of the Four Divine Beasts including the Phoenix, and a benevolent being who shared her power with her creations.”

I gazed at the painting beyond the Supreme Deity’s statue.

As Seohwa said, it was a legend about creation. The story was unfolded in pictures.

A goddess creating the world. That goddess distributing fire to her creations. As I looked at the painting, my gaze stopped at one scene.

“Seohwa, what is this…?”

I pointed to a particular scene in the painting. Among the creations, there were monstrous beings that weren’t human.

Their appearance was similar to the demons I knew.

“The Supreme Deity is a compassionate mother. So she had compassion even for evil demons, as they were her children too. And the demons deceived the Supreme Deity to increase their powers.”

The story Seohwa told next was astonishing.

The tale of the Supreme Deity was ultimately the origin story of demons and mana awakeners.

Humans as creatures of light, and demons as creatures of darkness. Both were creations of the same goddess, but the demons plotted to increase their power and annihilate humans.

“As they drove humans from the earth, the world would become entirely the demons’ domain.”

The demons deceived the Supreme Deity and gained more power. Humans couldn’t withstand them.

“So the Supreme Deity sent down the Four Divine Beasts, her avatars, to help humans.”

The Four Divine Beasts: Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise. These four deities and humans sealed the demons and sent them down to hell.

“But the demons’ hatred burned fiercely even in hell.”

And that hatred was directed at the Supreme Deity and humans. The rest of the story matched exactly what I was seeing in my memories.

Among the demons, the Archfiend who possessed the greatest portion of the Supreme Deity’s power called himself the Evil God.

The war between that Evil God and humans has continued to the present day in the Eastern Empire. And that legend was not unrelated to the current Earth.

‘On Earth too, demon contractors and the Red Lake started a war.’

But I paused that thought for a moment. The story I heard here. The Supreme Deity who was the source of that story. I needed to ask about that being.

“Seohwa, I have a question for you.”

Seohwa nodded. I asked:

“Could the Supreme Deity you speak of possibly be Ayel?”

Ayel. The monotheistic deity of the White Cross Society. And as evident through Saint Arini and the holy relic of Parma that I possess.

That god is a real deity. Also the one who guides the members of Flame toward the holy incantation Epitheus through the prophecy.

At that moment, Seohwa answered my question:

“No. The Supreme Deity is not Ayel. However, her name is…”

Our eyes met, and she continued:

“The Supreme Deity’s name is Arel. She is Ayel’s twin goddess. And now, a dead goddess.”

***

Seohwa and I moved to a separate building of the temple.

The temple was situated halfway up the mountain. To reach the separate building, we had to climb even higher up the mountain.

The separate building was where the Phoenix priestesses resided. Seohwa seemed to receive special treatment among the priestesses.

“If Master was the head of the clan, I was the divine maiden who directly received the Phoenix’s will among the priestesses.”

So Seohwa was something like a saint of that era. As Seohwa said, the separate building I entered was detached from the temple buildings.

A spacious yard, or rather a separate garden, showed the treatment Seohwa received at the temple. The size of the separate building was also much larger than the other shrine halls of the temple.

I glanced at Seohwa. Her cheeks had turned red as she firmly held my hand.

“This place was originally forbidden to men. That prohibition applied even to Master, who was the clan head.”

Just as I, a man, cannot have physical contact with Arini, the saint of Ayel, it seems the same was true for the divine maiden.

Since my past life didn’t die here but in another shrine hall of the temple, it seemed this truly was the first time a man had entered her room.

She soon bowed her head in embarrassment. Come to think of it, I had suggested spending the night with her at the temple.

Perhaps Seohwa had interpreted those words somewhat differently.

‘For now, that’s not the issue…’

This wasn’t the time to imagine such intimate situations between a man and a woman. My mind was busy with two thoughts.

First, naturally, about the five seals Seohwa had placed on me. And the other was about the goddess called the Supreme Deity that Seohwa had told me about.

‘She said her name was Arel.’

That goddess, whose name resembled Ayel’s, was Ayel’s twin goddess according to Seohwa. Having recovered some of Yu Jahyun’s memories, more specific memories returned when I heard the name Arel.

‘As in Seohwa’s legend, a foolish deity who gave her power to her creations.’

I found myself thinking that way about the Supreme Deity, Arel, without meaning to.

Arel shared her power with her creations. The evidence of this was the special power that Ailetanians could use: mana.

Mana is the source that enables magic or Aura Swords. That’s why Ailetanians possessed strength on a different level from Earthlings who couldn’t awaken mana.

‘Even Earth’s firepower couldn’t penetrate shields made of mana.’

But Arel was foolish. Ailetan was another Earth. And she couldn’t bear to see her creations die according to natural law and suffer, so she shared the power of mana.

Beings completely dominated by the power of mana became demons. Villains would be the degraded version of those demons.

And demons deceived Arel to steal more of her power. Arel belatedly realized her creations’ malice and confronted them through the Four Divine Beasts, but…

In the end, she lost all her divine powers and perished.

‘The aftereffect of that extinction would be dimensional fusion.’

Ailetan, having lost its main deity, couldn’t exist as a single world anymore.

Another world, Earth, created by her twin brother. Ailetan barely postponed the moment of extinction by fusing with that Earth.

‘Then the end of that dimensional fusion…’

Two worlds requiring two deities. Even if they forcibly patched the tattered Ailetan onto Earth, they couldn’t prevent extinction.

Even Ayel, the deity of Earth who left humanity to develop on its own, has now shared his power to protect his creations.

‘The evidence is that pure Earthlings have become awakeners.’

It means Ayel, like Arel, is growing weaker.

The forces of the Red Lake and demons grow stronger every day, expanding their territory on Earth. If the Evil God revives as is…

The Evil God will kill even Ayel and turn the fused Earth into his own world.

And there will be no place for humanity in that world.

This is the truth of dimensional fusion that I’ve pieced together through my memories and Seohwa’s story. If so, what I need to do after entering this memory space becomes clear.

‘I need to awaken Arel’s power. The Phoenix’s fire.’

Not the crude Phoenix fire I used at the holy site, but the true Phoenix fire that Yu Jahyun used. And Seohwa must have prepared the key for that.

While I was lost in thought, Seohwa was busily moving around by herself. Soon, Seohwa came out of the separate building and stared at me.

She seemed to have something to say but was too shy to speak easily.

“What’s wrong?”

“…Um… Master… You said you would spend the night with me tonight, right?”

I nodded. I had many things to discuss with Seohwa about the seals and memories.

At that, her face turned even redder, and finally, as if resolved, she grabbed my sleeve tightly and pulled me along.

“Th-then let’s take a bath together first!”

***

Seohwa and I entered the hot spring bath together.

Behind the separate building was an open-air hot spring. I was puzzled by the bath’s atmosphere, which resembled a Japanese ryokan.

As a priestess, keeping the body clean was a divine maiden’s duty. That’s why a separate bath was built for the divine maiden’s quarters.

‘Even in this memory space, it’s quite nice.’

Soaking my body in the warm water made me feel relaxed. I could see Seohwa’s expression melting as well.

But when our eyes met, she quickly turned her head away as if embarrassed. Her nape had turned red.

‘She doesn’t need to be so embarrassed.’

We didn’t enter naked, of course. We covered what needed to be covered with towels. But despite her shyness…

She had subtly moved closer to my side. I could feel her breathing becoming slightly faster. The silence continued for a moment longer.

As the atmosphere seemed to be getting increasingly strange, I cleared my throat and spoke:

“By the way, Seohwa.”

“Y-yes! P-please speak!”

Seohwa was startled, but I pretended not to notice and continued:

“About the Phoenix fire that Yu Jahyun used. And about the sealing of that power. Could you explain it to me in detail?”

“Yes…? So… that’s what you meant.”

She replied with a voice full of disappointment. But true to the Seohwa I knew, she quickly answered my question, perhaps realizing my sincerity.

“The Phoenix clan. As you’ve seen, Master, its head possesses a very special power. And the power that only the clan head can possess is…”

The Phoenix egg directly bestowed by the Phoenix to the clan. Only the clan head could possess that Phoenix egg as their own.

“The Supreme Deity shared all her powers with her creations, but the beings she shared god-like powers with were only the Four Divine Beasts and the Ten Heavenly Demons. And the Ten Heavenly Demons later became the source of beings called Archfiends.”

And the Phoenix egg was a divine object containing the godly power of the Phoenix, one of the Four Divine Beasts.

In other words, the clan head could directly use the power of a deity through the Phoenix egg.

‘Yu Jahyun. That must have been the source of my past life’s ability to fight against the Red Dragon.’

However, since that divine beast’s power was too immense for a human body to handle, the Phoenix egg placed restrictions on itself to prevent its owner’s body from collapsing under that power.

Seohwa’s words matched the past life memories that had somewhat returned to my mind. But I had one question.

“But Seohwa. The Yu Jahyun I remember, my past life’s power, definitely had four seals.”

And her red eyes met mine.

“But the seals you’ve placed on my mana heart now are five, aren’t they?”

Seohwa was silent for a moment. Then after a while, her lips parted.