Storm Province, Wanren City, Cain Cathedral.
Two statues of the Holy Spirit made of pure gold stood on both sides behind the pulpit. One wore a bronze crown, held a gorgeous ceremonial sword in his right hand, and stroked the giant dragon crawling under him with his left hand; the other held a simple straight sword and was blowing an ancient horn.
Unlike the other seven holy spirits who have been stripped of their personalities and are only allowed to be symbolized by holy light patterns, the eighth holy spirit, “The Hermit”, is allowed to have statues of the holy spirit worshipped.
Because of this, the Eighth Order is often criticized by the Holy Spirit Church. Of course, this criticism usually only remains at the verbal level.
After all, that was the Holy Spirit Kane who had walked on earth twice and left countless holy signs. No matter how you prohibit related idolatry, it will always be hard to convince people.
Adrian, the Patriarch of the Eighth Order with gray hair and beard, is sitting on the pulpit at this moment, and behind him is the rough upward-angled sharp-angled holy emblem that symbolizes the Eighth Holy Spirit.
The silver holy emblem was stained with a faint flame color by the candles in the surrounding candlesticks, and the air was filled with a rich scent of incense.
Adrian closed his eyes, crossed his fingers, and listened patiently to his men reporting the latest news from all parties.
Most of it was trivia, whether it was preparations for the annual sacramental arrangements for the royal family of Riel or arrangements for collecting religious donations in the provinces, except for the rebellious Blackwater Province.
These are things that have been planned for a long time and there won’t be much change from year to year.
But since we're talking about Blackwater Province...
"...It is believed that the Silver-Blooded Daughter Nezemar has reached a cooperation with the Bishop of St. Dewey's Church, and may be able to recover Judgment IV..."
The deacon in gray said with a little concern.
"No problem."
Adrian said slowly.
He knew what the other party was worried about.
Once anything reaches more than two, there will be a distinction between closeness and distance, just like the two statues of the Holy Spirit behind him at this moment, which respectively symbolize the two advents of the Eight Holy Spirits one thousand years ago and eight hundred years ago.
Within the church, there has been a long-standing debate about which one better represents the essence of the Eighth Holy Spirit. After eight hundred years, the final result of this debate was the emergence of the Charismatics and the Holy Orders.
As the Patriarch, Adrian's most important task when in charge of the order is to maintain the balance of power between the two major factions of the order, the Charismatics and the Holy Orders.
The gray-robed deacon said worriedly: "The last time Nezemar successfully recovered the 'Judgment Eight' from Dragon's Breath Province, it greatly increased the influence of the Holy Cultivation Sect. If she is allowed to recover the 'Judgment Eight' from Blackwater Province again this time..."
"Don't worry, Blackwater Province won't succeed."
Adrien said in a very confident tone.
"Why?"
The gray-robed deacon asked doubtfully. In his impression, the patriarch rarely spoke in such an affirmative tone.
Adrian opened his cloudy eyes, looked at him and said:
"Do you know why the Holy Spirit Church, including the Eighth Order, began to gradually withdraw its influence from Blackwater Province fourteen years ago, and has basically withdrawn all of its forces in recent years?"
The gray-robed butler replied nervously when suddenly brought up this rather sensitive topic:
"That's not because of the current Duke of Thorns..."
"no."
Adrien shook his head, then closed his eyes and continued;
"Simon Walder is just a cover. The real reason is not that Blackwater Province abandoned us, but that we abandoned Blackwater Province. So now Nazemar is destined to be unable to accomplish anything by going to Blackwater Province. Well, the deeper things are not your concern... Is there anything else to report?"
The confused gray-robed butler immediately replied:
"The seventeenth search for the Kane Horn also ended in failure. The Platinum Palace has expressed great dissatisfaction with our progress..."
The gray-robed deacon stopped talking before he could finish his words because a horn suddenly sounded from not far away.
Continuous and long.
He stood there frozen like a statue, staring blankly in that direction, unable to make any sound.
After hearing the voice, Adrian turned around and looked behind him in confusion.
Then he also froze in place.
The sound of the trumpet came from the statue that symbolized the descent of the Holy Spirit more than a thousand years ago.
The statue made of pure gold was trembling slightly at this moment, and the long trumpet sound resounded throughout the interior of the church.
A feeling that his own soul was trembling made this old man, who had been the Patriarch for more than 40 years, only utter a cry that was almost a whine:
“Holy Spirit…”
But before he finished his words, the sound of the horn suddenly stopped.
Immediately afterwards, with a "click", a fine crack quickly extended from the top of the Kane statue.
The icon is cracked?
It was like a bucket of cold water poured on Adrian's head.
As the Patriarch of the Eighth Order, he certainly knew what this meant. This was the sign of the persecution predicted in the Revelation, the last chapter of the Kane New Testament, and it meant that the Holy Spirit, who had walked on earth twice, was about to bring down his wrath on earth.
But, why?
The two of them stared at the cracks in the statue for a full three minutes. No one dared to move, and no one dared to say anything at this time.
After a long while, Adrian lowered his voice and said to the deacon beside him:
"Notify the Sealing Temple and help me prepare the teleportation array to Platinum Province."
…………
At this moment, all the Kane statues that had been blessed by the Holy Spirit Church in the entire Vic continent trembled slightly as Vincent blew the Kane horn. Countless people stopped and watched the miracle that was happening.
The trembling ended, and with a slight "click" sound, all the blessed holy statues across the continent cracked with a tiny crack.
At this moment, after discovering that the statue was cracked, countless cries, excitement, sadness, ecstasy, anger, doubt, fear, suspicion, and confusion resounded in every corner of the continent of Vic.
Such majestic emotions echoed at the same time, even stirring up ripples in the Moon Realm and disturbing the dreams of many beings in the high Moon Realm.
And back to the center of this storm.
Vincent blew the ancient horn facing the vast sea of ​​the dead.
The ocean of emerald green soul fire reflected in his pupils suddenly turned into bubbles and disappeared with the sound of the distant horn he blew.
The tens of thousands of undead in front of him instantly fell down powerlessly like puppets with their strings cut. Only the countless crisp sounds of bones colliding when they fell proved that they were still moving towards this side a few seconds ago.
Vincent stood there in a daze for a long time before he looked at the horn in his hand with awe.
"The Kane Horn, and Chief Inquisitor William Kane..."
He murmured.
For some reason, at this moment he suddenly recalled what the man said when he first met him, remarks that seemed extremely arrogant to him at the time.
"Liberate the fate of all mankind from the hands of God?"
Even now, this sounds like an extremely arrogant idea.
But at this moment, to Vincent who witnessed this miracle before his eyes, it no longer seemed like an unattainable goal.
…………
"He is real. At least the horn is real. No, he must be the real Khaine."
Nazemal held the silver Cain statue with a crack in its hand and said while suppressing his excitement.
She was usually very indifferent, but at this moment her whole body was shaking uncontrollably, and her eyes were filled with a faint silver color.
The bishop at the side frowned as he looked at the silver statue of Kane, or more precisely, the crack on the statue, and said:
"You should know what this means, right?"
In response, Nezemar simply turned his head and replied in an almost fanatical tone:
"Of course, it means judgment, judgment for all filth!"
The fanaticism in the other party's tone and the sudden silver light in his eyes made the bishop take a half step back.
Is it the same as the legend? The relic recyclers of the Eighth Order are all the most fanatical radical believers.
The bishop was secretly shocked.
When the other party approached him for cooperation, his subordinates urged him not to have too much contact with those crazy people. But at that time, he saw that the other party was very normal in both speech and behavior, and thought that those were just some exaggerated rumors, so he agreed to cooperate. But now it seems...
Thinking of this, the bishop looked back at the receding tide of the undead in the distance.
Although as a conservative in the church, he only believed in the seven holy spirits creation model and did not believe in the eighth holy spirit who was sanctified by mortals, he had to admit that what was happening before his eyes was an absolute miracle.
So is the guy claiming to be "William Kane" real?
If he is real, then could the prophecy of the persecution that is about to befall the world be true?
…………
Not only the 50,000 undead that broke through the wall, but also the hundreds of thousands of undead that had been awakened in the cemetery fell silent at the sound of the requiem horn.
William, who was under the Holy Sepulchre at this moment, also heard the distant horn sound, and then noticed that the vibration outside that had never stopped suddenly disappeared.
This surprised him himself.
No way, that horn doesn’t have such an exaggerated effect in the game.
It only expands the effect of the aura that soothes the undead five times, and can affect an area of ​​one kilometer at most. How can it possibly silence all the densely packed undead in the entire cemetery?
William thought with some doubt.
Then a possibility came to his mind that made him feel toothache.
Could it be that the "Eighth Holy Spirit" worshipped by later generations really appeared?
Strictly speaking, the "Horn of Cain" is not a magic item, but a holy object. It is the product of special processing of the fragments of light realm remaining after the Holy Spirit created the world. It is the creative substance itself that is still flowing.
And he named this holy object after himself, and coupled with the resonance of their continuous belief in the "Holy Spirit Kane" over the past few hundred years, who knows what kind of thing he might come up with.
Thinking of this, William added another item to his to-do list in his mind - confirm the status of the so-called "Eighth Holy Spirit".
The gods in this world cannot be worshipped randomly.
Back then, the Holy Spirit Church's personified worship of the seven holy spirits gave rise to the "Seven Great Disasters," which ravaged the entire continent and poisoned thousands of miles.
If they had forgotten the pain now that their wounds had healed and created another "Eighth Disaster" and used their name on it, he wouldn't even be able to laugh.
"What's wrong? Is there a problem?"
Cass looked at the man in front of him and saw a sudden change in his expression, and asked with a nervous heart.
Cass's words brought William back to his senses. He squatted down, gently picked up the remains of the dead witch and said:
"Nothing... Let's continue. For witches, extraordinary creatures that do not rely on natural reproduction, their death and rebirth are one and the same. Every witch will leave behind the seeds of rebirth after death."
As he spoke, a faint golden flame ignited in his hand, and Liz's old body instantly turned into golden dust all over the sky.
Cass's breathing suddenly quickened when he saw this scene, and the flame in William's hand went out at this moment. When the dust dissipated, a golden gem the size of a pearl floated in the palm of his hand.
Cass looked at the gem and asked nervously, "What is this?"
"Dream Egg, also known as Witch Seed. Place it in a flower bud that has not yet opened during a full moon. When the flower blooms during the next full moon, a new witch will be born."
Seeing Cass's eager eyes, William suddenly felt a little reluctant. After hesitating for a while, he finally told the truth:
"Of course, that is not resurrection, but the birth of a new witch. Although the new witch will inherit some of the previous witch's memories and personality, but..."
But that's not the Lizzie you know.
William was ultimately unable to utter the second half of his sentence.
Generally speaking, it takes a very long time to condense the witch seed from the remains of the witch. But after William asked about the story of how Cass came here, he decided to help speed up the process a little.
If hatred is the only driving force in one's heart, it is easy for a person to go down the path of gradual collapse.
Once the heart collapses, it will give the Moon Realm monsters the opportunity to take advantage and sneak in.
Therefore, the motivation that makes people fight must be something beautiful, something that people are willing to protect.
Otherwise, fighting against the Moon Realm itself will become food for the Moon Realm to become stronger.
"Thanks……"
Carefully taking the golden gem from William's hand, Cass thanked him in a hoarse voice.
"After that, I will take you to a place and train you to use this power well until you can fully control it. Can you accept it?"
As William spoke, he walked towards the black stone tablet in front of the central sarcophagus.
He had heard from Cas's story before that the Judgment IV was pulled out from there.
So, was Blake also buried here?
With an uneasy heart, William blew away the thick dust covering the stone tablet.
…
Cas seemed to answer him something behind him, but he could no longer hear it clearly.
All his attention was drawn to the words on the stone tablet.
The inscription reads as follows:
This monument is dedicated to my colleagues in the Tribunal: Coles Jackdaw, Black Seba
To seal the vengeful spirits of the rotten moon, they sleep here forever
Warning to future generations: Do not open the seal within a thousand years before the resentment dissipates.
Platinum Calendar 899 Year of the Grain Month 24th
"Are you…are you kidding?"
After being stunned for a long time, William walked towards the sarcophagus with almost anger.
With the strength of those two people, how could they risk their lives to seal the Corrupted Moon Spirit?
He placed his hand on the sarcophagus, took a deep breath, and opened it.
There was nothing inside except a large pile of scattered crow feathers and a giant sword as big as a door panel.
This is an empty tomb.
Epilogue: Interrogation
The fat crows huddled in a small cage surrounded by shadows, lying motionless with their eyes closed.
After that person left, it tried every means to break through the cage but couldn't do it at all. No matter it tried to break through by force or turned into a whirlwind to get out, no matter what method it used, it would be blocked by the restrictions on the cage.
Finally, it had to admit that it was helpless and finally chose to close its eyes and rest helplessly.
At least judging from the other party's previous remarks, his life would not be in danger for the time being.
Moreover, now that I am in the real world, if I die I will simply return to the Moon Realm.
I don't know how long it was before it was awakened by the sound of heavy footsteps.
It opened its eyes and saw the terrifying man sitting in front of it. He was holding a staff made of pure frost in his hand and looking at it with cold eyes.
"Next I'll ask questions and you'll answer them."
The other party said calmly, but beneath this calm appearance, Crow noticed that he was in a very bad mood at the moment.
The crow opened its beak and was about to say something when a streak of emerald green flame instantly spread to the cage. It was tortured by such intense pain that it could not help but let out a scream.
The flame was fleeting, as if the other party was giving him a demonstration.
After it recovered, the man looked at it and asked the first question:
"Who is your master?"
"Father of... Father of Crows, Caller of Storms, Prophet... Ah!"
Before it had finished announcing its master's name, the flames started burning again.
"That's not what I'm asking about. Its name, its real name."
Looking at the crow bathed in flames, the man continued calmly.
"Real name... How could I possibly know my master's real name? Every Moon Realm spirit will protect his or her own real name..."
The crow shouted loudly in the midst of the painful burning of his soul.
The Moon Realm is a reflection of the real world. Each Moon Realm spirit naturally has its own origin in the real world, and their true names are determined accordingly. When facing an enemy who knows their true name, as long as their true name is revealed, the power of this Moon Realm spirit will be greatly weakened.
It is said that the twelve Judgment Arms are each engraved with the true name of the twelve Void Kings, and this is one of the reasons why the Judgment Arms can cause damage to the essence of the corresponding Void Kings.
The flames stopped, and the crow continued to speak in a broken voice:
"I... I am just a messenger... who was created not long ago. It is impossible for me to know ..."
The man looked at the crow for a while, as if trying to determine whether it was lying, and finally he continued to ask:
"Okay, second question, what are you going to bring to Nightmare Swamp as a messenger?"
The crow looked at the flickering flame on the cage, and after a moment of silence, he answered honestly:
"A deal, exchanging a fragment of a dream for a fragment of a soul."
"Fragments of a dream?"
"The remains of Lady Jawmara's nightmare incarnation that was shattered a thousand years ago."
The crow replied, and then he looked at the flickering flames around him, shuddered, and continued:
"And that fragment of the soul is..."
"That's it, isn't it?"
The man opened his palm and an illusory crow's tail appeared in his hand.
Crow nodded subconsciously and said:
"That's right, that's it... huh?"
It reacted and realized that it was indeed this, but... why was it in his hand? Shouldn't it have been recovered by the Nightmare Lord?
Before it could ask the question in its heart, the man continued to ask:
"Next question, whose soul fragment is it? Your master's?"
The crow nodded and said:
"My master's soul was shattered into pieces in the distant past, causing it to fall into a long sleep in the Moon Realm. Every time it wakes up briefly, it will try to collect the fragments of the past."
"Do you know when and by whom its soul was shattered?"
The crow shook his head and said:
"I am just a messenger created for this transaction to the Nightmare Swamp. Apart from the purpose of this trip, I know nothing about my master."
After saying this, it shrank its head, fearing that the fire would fall on its head again.
"I understand..."
The man's expression changed for a while, but he didn't continue to torture it. He just stood up after thinking for a while and walked out of the room slowly.
After the other party walked out of the door, he suddenly turned back and asked:
"Come to think of it, have you ever seen what your master looks like?"
The crow shook his head.
"My master sleeps deep in his chambers most of the time. Even when he wakes up occasionally, he only issues orders or makes predictions to his crows."
The other party didn't say anything else. With the sound of a heavy iron door closing, the whole room fell into darkness again.
…………
Back in the room, William took out the two trophies he had snatched from the shadow of the Void King without saying a word and placed them on the table.
An illusory crow feather and a seed emitting white light.
He recalled the empty tomb, the sarcophagus covered with scattered crow feathers, and the iconic black giant sword.
And the contents of that stone tablet.
Could the owner of this soul fragment be the person he thought it was?
Is he still alive? What is his current condition?
Moon Lord, Father of Crows...
William recalled the summoner he interrogated in the Scar of Sorrow. Just by saying that title, the other party's entire soul was torn apart and shattered, and even he could not stop the process.
"Coles...is this really something you would do?"
Thinking of this, William turned his gaze to the seed emitting white light on the side.
If what happened before only made him feel heavy-hearted, then the appearance of this seed made him feel extremely uneasy.
"The Seed of Hope...but why is it here?"
This is a seed that has been condensed in the depths of the Moon Realm with the hope of salvation for an era. Simply holding it can greatly enhance the morale of the comrades around you.
Moreover, this seed is the only item in the game background that can completely revive a person without any prerequisites.
But all of the above are not the most important value of this thing.
Looking at this thing that definitely shouldn't be here, William recalled his past memories, and recalled the save file that he deleted after it was completed.
The Seed of Hope is one of the prerequisites for achieving the Lunar Eclipse ending and becoming the fourteenth Void King - the King of Hope and Despair.
(Volume 1: End of Stranger in a Foreign Land)