It rained black.
The sky, which should have been blocked by the ceiling, poured rain down. The falling black raindrops landed on the ground with a thud, thud.
Whooooosh!
The drizzling rain started to pour like a downpour. Black droplets splashed in all directions. Filthy water flowed along the circuit carved into the floor. It kept flowing and flowing.
“…”
Raniel’s expression hardened.
The black rain was a symbol of magic (魔), a symbol of the shadow of the false god. Why is this rain falling here? What is the heretic up to?
Boom, rumble, rumblerumble.
The walls of the temple shook. The ground trembled. The sky echoed. Within that resonance, everything began to collapse. Amidst the crumbling debris, Raniel raised her head to look at the sky.
There, was the answer.
Certainly, the place where she stood was Alkeia, located at the deepest point of the vertical pit, at the edge of the abyss. But when she looked up at the sky, what she saw was the twinkling night sky filled with stars. Not an illusion, but the real sky.
That sky was shaking.
As if it were about to collapse at any moment.
【Welcome.】
At the sound of the voice, Raniel lowered her head.
Tilting her head down, she looked straight ahead. The side of the severed space crumbled away, revealing a long road. The road leading to the center of the temple.
【To my land.】
She wasn’t the only one to see the opening road.
Draka, Kelharlem, and Destel also saw the same path. Everyone gathered here looked ahead.
【To my sanctuary, my workshop, my womb.】
The center of the temple.
There was a tower standing.
【This is Pandemonium, Alkeia.】
Not a temple of all gods, but a palace of all demons (萬魔殿).
Not a pantheon, but Pandemonium.
A colossal tower that seemed to touch the sky. The tower was not made of wood or stone, nor was it made from human corpses or the corpses of beasts.
【It is the grave of the nameless gods.】
Nameless gods.
Beneath the tower built from the corpses of primordial gods, the heretic laughed. Reveling, he screamed in joy. Amidst the echoing laughter, pouring black rain, the chaotic situation in which voices reverberated and raindrops assaulted the eardrums…
Shhhsssh!
Everyone heard the same sound.
To the strange sound that echoed throughout the area, everyone looked up at the sky. The faces of those looking at the sky turned rigid. Their pupils trembled.
【Aha.】
The sky.
【It is time to open the sky.】
The sky was opening.
2.
The First Saint Gleria Bel Armias was betrayed by God. At the final moment, she realized that the salvation she desired could not be established beneath the stars. All she had devoted her life to achieve was meaningless.
In the final moment, the stars turned away from mankind.
The stars did not respond to the Saint’s prayers.
At that moment, Gleria felt it. She had to realize.
She was a being connected to the stars, the Saint who was closer to the stars than anyone. Therefore, in her final moment, she understood why the stars turned away from her.
…The stars are a balancing existence.
They are neither the perfect being, the beautiful being, the being that helps humanity, nor the being that administers salvation as told by the Church. The essence of the stars was closer to the very scales spoken of by mages.
Scales, balance, equality.
An existence that maintains the world within a stable balance.
“It was wrong from the very beginning.”
Gleria laughed.
“We set out to exterminate the shadows in accordance with the will of God, but that was never God’s intention to begin with. God never wished for the extermination of the shadows.”
Gletus scoffed.
“The stars merely hoped that the shadow’s influence would diminish. That it would fall to the same level as themselves. They hoped for an existence that could achieve balance with them.”
The task of leveling the scales.
It meant ‘removing’ what was placed on the opposite side, not completely eliminating it.
“When that balance was achieved.”
Gleria despaired.
“The stars abandoned us.”
Gletus rejoiced.
“In the end, we were used. My salvation, Ganikalt’s glory, Cardi’s blindness, Belial’s desire, all of it was merely used by the stars. We cannot be saved.”
For eternity. For infinity. Endlessly.
“Yet.”
Gleria looked up at the sky.
“I still desire salvation.”
Gletus did not give up on saving her. Although the method may be wrong, although it may be twisted, Gleria still wished for salvation.
Under the false god, salvation lost its value.
The false god deceived everyone.
Then what should a betrayed priest do? What should the First Saint do? What should the one closest to the god become? She had pondered that question for a very long time.
After much contemplation, she found the answer.
She grasped the answer in a place beyond the stars.
In this land, Alkeia, the deepest place in the world, was both a sanctuary and a grave for gods. It was where countless gods had fallen on the day the sky opened thousands of years ago. Beneath Alkeia lay the corpses of those who were once gods, thereby proving a certain fact.
That gods could be cast down.
By casting down the false god.
And that a single god could be hung above the sky.
She realized the taboo that the ancient Mage of Dragons had broken. She understood the atrocities committed by a single human. Having understood it, she chose.
“I have not forgotten the promises, oaths, and wishes of that day.”
As if in prayer, she brought her two hands together.
Click, creak.
She tilted and twisted the palms touching each other.
The hands that once aligned vertically with the sky became horizontal. The back of her left hand faced the sky, while the back of her right hand faced down.
“May it be.”
The Saint, Gleria, was betrayed by the god.
The Braver, Gletus, chose to betray the god.
“Open the sky, cast down the false god.”
The martyr, Gleria, believed in herself.
The heretic, Gletus, yearned for the purity of others.
“I will hang my god in the sky.”
Gleria extended her left hand toward the ground.
Gletus extended his right hand toward the sky.
The moment their touching hands fell apart, she opened her eyes. She no longer laughed with ecstasy. She no longer rejoiced. She did not even separate her own persona.
The heretic, Gleria Bel Armias, opened her eyes.
【Arise.】
She shouted.
【Awake, forgotten ones.】
The divine essence accumulated in Alkeia over the past few centuries responded to her voice. The pouring raindrops all stopped. Amidst the black raindrops suspended in the air, Gleria’s eyes gleamed with a green light.
Illustration view Click
【You shall return to your most radiant time.】
Illustration view Click
Divine Art, Resurrection (回生).
Illustration view Click
A black inverted cross shot up toward the sky.
Following the inverted cross, the raindrops began to rise. The raindrops no longer fell downward. As if the providence had been overturned, the filthy water that had pooled on the ground began to soar toward the sky along with the cross.
The black raindrops soared toward the heavens.
The filth created by humans aimed for the sky.
Thud, thud, thud.
In contrast, from the mouths and eyes of the forgotten gods, black blood fell toward the earth. The blood of the gods drenched the ground crimson. The bodies of the forgotten gods began to writhe violently.
Boom, rumble, rumble.
Amidst the colossal resonance.
【■■■■, ■■■■. ■■■■■■■■■■■■.】
【■■. ■■■■. ■■■■. ■■■■■■.】
【■■. ■■■. ■■, ■■■■■.】
【■■. ■■■■. ■■■■. ■■■■■■. ■■■■■■.】
The forgotten gods awoke.
3.
The black inverted cross soared toward the sky.
The slender pillar of light finally touched the heavens. Shhhsssh, the sound echoed as the sky began to open, and the moment it was pierced by the cross, the rift became even greater. As the sky tore apart, the outside world began to reveal itself.
“What is this…?”
Destel groaned, unconsciously stepping back, but as he took a step back, he realized. There was something he needed to see before this mythical scenery.
“…Blood?”
Destel looked down at the ground.
Black blood flowed through the channel. It was the blood that flowed from the tower at the center of the temple. Where was that blood heading?
To the massive tree positioned at the center of the Grand Chamber.
The moment the blood seeped into that massive tree…
Boom.
A massive presence crushed the Grand Chamber.
In the suddenly heavy air, Destel observed. The roots of the massive tree in the center of the Grand Chamber began to move.
Immediately after.
The owner of the cursed land opened its eyes.
*
The black blood that flowed from the tower touched the rotten water pooled at the center of the Grand Chamber. For a moment, as the rotten water sloshed, a surge of current flowed from the center of the Grand Chamber. The suddenly risen water began to fill the Grand Chamber.
The cursed lake overflowed.
*
The bones resembling the King of Beasts. The black blood that seeped into those bones became flesh and muscles. In an instant, the beast that had gained a body slowly rose.
In the dark, the beast’s eyes glowed eerily.
Swish!
The King of Beasts drew his sword.
*
Raniel van Trias laughed.
She saw the sun rising before her. The black sun drinking the blood hung in the sky. In an instant, the air heated up, and the suffocating heat filled the Grand Chamber.
Mirages began to rise. The ground cracked and dried up, splitting crack, crack under the inflow of heat.
The sun reflecting the curse rose.
Beneath the rising sun, Raniel looked around. The path to the heretic was blocked by the ancient calamity. Destel, Kelharlem, and Draka were in the same situation. To reach the heretic, they first had to defeat the ancient calamity.
“…Well then.”
Raniel stepped forward.
Keeping her gaze fixed ahead, she moved her steps.
The smile that had been on her lips had vanished. With a rigid expression, Raniel smashed her foot down onto the ground with a boom.
What she was looking at was the center of the temple.
There stood a woman surrounded by forgotten gods. The forgotten gods knelt beneath the woman, bowing their heads in submission—as if swearing loyalty to the one who revived them, to the one who would become the only god.
The woman who opened the heavens looked at Raniel.
Raniel looked at the heretic.
As their gazes crossed, the heretic smiled at Raniel. With a gentle smile, she opened her mouth. The words that should not reach Raniel echoed in her head.
“This is the salvation I pursued.”
This is my destination.
“If you wish to prove that my salvation is wrong.”
If you wish to demonstrate that my path is misguided.
“Come here. Stand before me.”
And prove it.
“Negate all of me.”
The heretic, Gleria Bel Armias, smiled.
“My lovely junior.”
At that laugh, and that almost benevolent smile, Raniel replied with a sneer. Raniel snapped her fingers lightly. She tapped the ground a few times with the tip of her boot, then exhaled sharply.
“Alright.”
Raniel spread her arms wide.
“If that’s what you want, then you’ll have to show me.”
The fluttering hem of her clothes.
The swaying sleeves.
The scarf wrapped around her neck billowed in the wind.
Boom, the mana pressed down on the area.
The circuits engraved all over Raniel’s fingers, hands, arms, and collarbone ignited. A platinum flash shone brilliantly as a ring of light appeared in Raniel’s eyes. Drawing the ring of light, Raniel walked forward.
Clack.
Without even looking toward the sky, Raniel walked toward the heretic. As she moved forward, she flicked her finger. Snap, a sound echoed in that fleeting moment, and in front of the black sun, a similarly-sized sun rose without any omen. What rose was a platinum sun.
Clack.
Continuing her steps, Raniel flicked her finger again. Once, twice, three times, four times…
“Hey.”
Raniel smiled.
The smile directed at the woman looking down at her from the center of the temple. Raniel sneered at the heretic.
“Is one enough for you?”
Pointing at the heretic, Raniel gestured toward the sky.
The black sun hung alone in the sky.
“I have seven.”
Seven platinum suns surrounding the black sun. Pointing at the suns, Raniel chuckled.
“Bring it on, you brat.”
Raniel swung her arm.
The seven suns descended.
