Ch.95Each One’s Speculation (2)

The priests of the Order held sacred relics in their hands. Ancient holy artifacts containing pure divine power that could no longer be found in this age where magic had tainted every corner of the world.

Some of the most precious relics, those most deeply imbued with the breath of God, were meant to be sacrificed according to the Pope’s plan…

But even with the remaining relics, they could become a new wind for the declining Divine Order.

It was the harbinger of a new era.

However, they couldn’t feel such joy at this moment. Their comrade, Joaquin, who had remained in the temple until the end, had not returned.

Philoxenon, the leader of the Aigio Order, stroked his white beard. He belonged to the oldest generation of priests in the order, along with Joaquin. Though Philoxenon was known for his cool-headedness, he and Joaquin had been comrades for decades. It was difficult to remain detached about a comrade’s life or death.

And then, at some point, the world began to vibrate.

It was different from an earthquake. It wasn’t a physical tremor caused by tectonic collisions, nor was it the aftermath of magical power.

The purest divine power, which they thought they would never feel in this age, was shaking the world.

The priests suddenly realized that the ground beneath their feet had turned black. It resembled the color scheme of the Great Temple of Pluto where they had been searching for relics just moments ago.

It wasn’t merely a resemblance. The black, darker than shadows, was identical to the walls of the Great Temple they had witnessed.

Beneath their feet, rising and shaking the earth, was the Great Temple of Pluto itself.

“This is…!”

One priest exclaimed with a mixture of shock and joy.

The members of the Divine Order no longer felt the harbinger of a new era.

Instead, they witnessed the new era itself.

The glory of the brilliant mythic age. The ancient temple had once again returned to the hands of the Divine Order.

***

Kore concealed the Great Temple of Pluto in the shadow of the earth and headed toward the Pope’s residence. It was truly a miraculous achievement.

Inside the temple were vast quantities of sacred relics that the priests of each order had not yet managed to transport. Whether it was right to consume them for the Pope’s plan was another matter, but it was an incredibly fortunate development for the Divine Order.

The Pope was holding and praying with the most ancient and precious relic that the Divine Order had found among the sacred artifacts of each order.

What he now held was Elimon’s relic—a necklace made of sea pearls. The Pope knelt beneath the altar, extending his hands holding the necklace toward the sky. He looked like a priest supplicating to God.

Whether his prayer was directed toward any particular deity, or indeed whether it was a prayer for God at all, was unknown.

The sacred relic slowly regained its original form, reversing hundreds, perhaps thousands or tens of thousands of years. Dusty gray, pristine white, then a radiance that seemed to capture the starlight of the night sea.

A sacred brilliance flickering within the white pearls. But the Pope did not stop. The pearls continued to revert further into antiquity. The history layered within the mouth of the oyster was being undone.

All the way back to fragments of earth and dust before they became jewels.

What remained in the Pope’s hands were just a few grains of sand—the remnants of the sea pearls—and the primordial divine power that had dwelled within them.

The Pope gathered the primeval purity and breathed it into the deep darkness behind the altar. Stars flickered in the darkness.

The cluster of divine light, shining like a comet, soon spread into the darkness behind the altar. Rather than being “swallowed” by the darkness, it “permeated” it.

The darkness pulsated with a certain rhythm, like a beating heart. Within it, diverse lights like a nebula tried to bloom, but then withered away.

“Still not enough…”

Rising from his seat, the Pope turned to look down at Kore.

“I heard you’ve obtained the Great Temple. Congratulations.”

Kore felt an inexplicable chill in those congratulatory words. For a priest to “obtain”—in other words, to possess—a temple dedicated to the gods was impossible.

No, it wasn’t a matter of possibility or impossibility; it was a blasphemous act that should never be done. How could a priest, a servant of God, covet what belonged to the divine?

From that irreverent expression, Kore could infer the Pope’s thoughts.

The Great Temple of Pluto was another focal point binding the Divine Order, and to properly operate it, Kore herself, as the priestess of Pluto, was essential.

It meant that the Pluto Order and its priestess, whose existence had only been known in secret until now, would be officially recognized as another center of the Divine Order.

In other words, Kore could emerge as a new figure capable of challenging the Pope’s authority.

As the Pope put it, “Kore who obtained the temple” could become the Pope’s sole competitor.

‘Could it be?’

Kore finally realized why Ortes had “handed over” the temple to her.

Now the trust between Kore and the Pope would never be the same, nor could it ever be. No matter what testimony Kore might give, the Pope would inevitably judge her claims with a certain prejudice.

The head of the Divine Order had been split in two.

The Order should have become the greatest enemy of the Demon King of Magic. But the day when the Order’s will would be unified was forever lost.

Perhaps things could be different if Kore were to fully support the Pope’s plan even now. But Kore still could not accept the Pope’s plan.

The Divine Order had grown stronger. With the sacred relics from the Great Temple and the Pope’s creation, which had moved one step closer to completion today, they might be able to recreate the prosperity of ancient times.

In other words, while the Order had grown to a level where it could rival the Ten Towers, there would never be unity of purpose within the Order itself.

Ortes’s declaration about “the enemy of the Ten Towers” came to mind again. He had returned the power of the past to the Divine Order so that it could become the enemy of the Ten Towers.

A dagger to pierce the Ten Towers, whose attention was focused entirely on Arguirion.

Ortes himself had advised that “the Order should bide its time until the vanished mage and the Ten Towers fight each other,” but would the Pope think the same?

How would the Pope interpret the prophecy about the return of the vanished mage? Would he think that if his unholy creation were completed according to his plan, it could defeat even the vanished mage?

Or would he not consider Ortes’s statement a prophecy at all?

Whether aware of Kore’s confusion or not, the Pope was merely smiling faintly.

The Pope recalled the flickering lights on the altar.

The altar where Phoibos’s light had been extinguished, leaving eleven. Five sacred relics connected to the altar had been discovered in the Great Temple of Pluto, and he had just retrieved one of them.

Having extinguished Elimon’s light with his own hands, there should be ten flames remaining.

However.

Only nine flames remained, flickering.

Someone, somewhere else, had extinguished the soul of an ancient priest.

***

Haltos received news that was clearly joyful, yet suspicious.

A unit dispatched by Arguirion had clashed with an elder of the Ten Towers.

—It couldn’t be helped. That suspicious distress signal was very likely a trap. That’s why they had sent only a small unit composed of volunteers.

As a result of the clash, the dispatched unit was annihilated, and the follow-up unit, which had hurriedly set out to track them when the signal was cut off, had to return without even recovering their bodies.

—The Ten Towers had always been absolute powers. Haltos, who had been the vice-commander of Blasphemia, knew their might better than anyone. Given that the enemy was an elder of the Ten Towers, just learning that they had been annihilated was an achievement beyond expectations.

However, thanks to the valiant efforts of the unit members, the elder of the Ten Towers had also died.

—Could that be possible?

Even assuming the art of angelification had produced better results than expected, the opponent was an elder of the Ten Towers!

But the discovery of the elder’s corpse was reality.

The fact that no one had directly witnessed the battle scene was a factor that made its credibility questionable. At the same time, the battle had reportedly taken place within a barrier created by the Silver Elder’s spatial alchemy. It was natural that the interior of the barrier couldn’t be observed.

The follow-up unit had observed the deployment of a massive barrier, and by the time they arrived, the barrier had been dismantled. And at the scene where the barrier had disappeared, the elder’s corpse remained.

The circumstances were unmistakably clear. No interpretation other than that the elder maintaining the barrier had been killed, causing the magic to dissipate, was possible.

The question of who killed the elder would be laughable. The bodies of the unit members who had become angels were scattered at the scene.

Moreover.

In this day and age, who else but Arguirion would rebel against the Ten Towers?

To anyone’s eyes, it was the scene of a miracle created by the life-risking struggle of the unit members.

An indescribable sense of discomfort. While cautioning his men against rash actions, Haltos sought ways to exploit the shocking fact of the elder’s death.

“Indeed, the most effective method is exposure.”

Authority invites doubt the moment it tarnishes even slightly.

If they publicly announced the fall of the absolute power of a Ten Towers elder, more people would turn away from those arrogant traitors of the Ten Towers and open their eyes to the greater cause.

The effort to make rational conjectures ultimately converged into chaos.

It was the moment when the seeds of illusion planted and nurtured by Ortes finally bloomed.