Volume 2: Funeral Song of Crows Chapter 39: The Broken Crow
Coles felt that he was sitting alone on the old throne, but at the same time he felt that his consciousness was scattered in all directions, passing through the storm raging between the sky and the sea.
This strange feeling of detachment made him feel as if he was dreaming.
But ever since he inherited the curse and became the immortal Crow Man, he hasn't had a dream for over a thousand years.
The crows passed through the storm and gathered one by one on the reef to form a human shape.
Because those Crowmen are all carriers of his curse, each of them has a similar face.
Pale skin, thin face, and charcoal-black hair.
Of course, there are also those amber, crow-like eyes.
Most people's hair was wet by the sea water, and strands of it stuck to their foreheads. But they didn't care at all, and after they were formed, they half-knelt in front of the ancient throne in unison.
"leader……"
The Crow Feather Prophet who had been directly controlled to come here before, looked at the shattered man sitting on the ancient throne in front of him and said with a complicated expression.
This was the first time he had truly seen the leader of the crow pack.
The crows are roughly divided into three levels: "Feathers, Claws, and Beaks". As far as he knows, only the highest-level "Beaks" are qualified to meet this legendary figure who is said to have lived for more than a thousand years.
Ever since the last "Beak" was killed by the keeper of the Star Lighthouse fifteen years ago, there has been no "Beak" who has been promoted to the legendary level within the crow group.
Before this, he had never thought that the mysterious and powerful leader would be the current...
+Broken and miserable appearance+
A familiar soul voice appeared in his mind, which made the Crow Feather Prophet lower his head.
Then he heard a sound like a leaky bellows coming from the throne in front of him.
"If I were not like this, you would not be born."
Coles slowly raised his lowered head, then opened his cracked mouth and spoke.
More than a thousand years ago, Judgment IV caused irreparable damage to Coles, and after that, his body gradually began to be unable to bear the severe Raven Man Curse. In desperation, he had to continuously disperse the power of his curse and created the so-called "Pseudo Raven Man".
They were his hands and feet, his clones , his puppets.
But even so, the curse continued to worsen and inevitably invaded his body. A hundred years ago, his body had completely become fragmented, and he had no choice but to hide in this place and let his body fall into silence in order to maintain his existence.
Therefore, he could only interfere with the real world by manipulating the crows.
Coles twisted his neck and looked around at the crows kneeling on the reef, then said:
"I have called you here to announce something: your Lord will soon be complete, and your destiny will be fully fulfilled."
No cheering, no applause, no screaming.
The crows all listened to Coles' words quietly.
Only one person had a different reaction
"Master Chief, I still don't understand why you asked me to come here directly. It is clear that the Chief Judge is about to get the soul fragment sealed in the Crazy Box..."
Prophet Crow Feather couldn't bear the doubts in his mind any more, so he asked directly.
Coles turned his gaze towards him upon hearing this.
"Because I will never get that piece of soul."
He answered thus, and then continued:
"Weren't you curious before, why the Viper Constellation Star Lighthouse knew our action plan in advance fifteen years ago?"
Prophet Crow Feather nodded subconsciously and said:
"Could it be that there is someone among the crows..."
A strange smile appeared on Coles's face full of fine cracks, and then he said:
"There can be no traitors, and no secrets will be leaked. The defense measures were strengthened at that time only because the Crazy Box suddenly became unstable, and the Star Council sent more people."
"The reason why the Crazy Box became unstable is because someone behind the scenes didn't want me to get the soul fragment. This is also the reason why I never tried to attack the Star Lighthouse again after that failure."
After realizing that was the attitude of the Mad Fool Valk, Coles no longer had any intention of seizing the soul fragment.
But Coles's answer made Crow Feather Prophet even more confused. He asked doubtfully:
"But didn't you, the leader, ask me to assist the Lord Judge to collect the remaining soul fragments?"
The Crow Feather Prophet still remembered that after the apparition of the Eighth Holy Spirit's holy image, the leader told him overnight that the Father of Crows had predicted that the great Judge would soon return, and asked him to go to the nearest Sealed Temple to wait for his arrival and assist him in retrieving the remaining soul fragments.
Upon hearing this, Coles stood up with difficulty from the throne covered with barnacles, and then walked unsteadily to the front of the Crow Feather Prophet.
Every step he took made a dangerous cracking sound.
The Crow Feather Prophet did not dare to look up until Coles gently helped him up, and then he looked at the other's broken face.
Then the man said:
"You are right, so you were born from that moment as well."
The hidden meaning in the other party's words made Prophet Crow Feather feel extremely uneasy.
"What does this... mean?"
Upon hearing this, Prophet Crow Feather looked around in panic.
Since when, the gazes of all the Crow People around him turned to him. There was the same emptiness and nothingness in the eyes of each of them, as if each of them had no soul.
"Think carefully, do you still remember your former name?"
Coles asked patiently.
"My name is..."
As soon as the Crow Feather Prophet opened his mouth, he felt that this memory seemed to be locked. It should be something that could be easily recalled, but when he thought back to the past, his mind was blank.
"After becoming Crowmen, we all have to abandon our former names, so I..."
Prophet Crow Feather answered with difficulty, but it was obvious that he couldn't even convince himself.
Thinking back carefully, it seemed that his memory only went up to the time when he was imprisoned in the dungeon of the Sealed Temple, and everything before that seemed hazy and vague as if separated by a thick fog.
Looking at the gradually desperate expression on the other party's face, Coles said slowly:
"This can be considered an attempt. After all, I think I gave up on creating personalities for my puppets more than four hundred years ago. If it weren't for the Whispering Queen telling me that the Inquisitor had returned, I probably would never have tried it again."
At the beginning, when Coles created the "pseudo-crow people", he gave them complete personalities.
However, because these "pseudo-crows" would inevitably come into contact with the existence of the Father of Crows, and in the process they would be easily obliterated by the Father of Crows, resulting in the loss of their own power, Coles gave up giving them personality a long time ago, and instead directly created puppets without self-awareness.
Coles relied on these puppets to manipulate the entire outer organization of the Crow Pack, and this was why no one on the continent had been able to figure out the organizational structure of the Crow Pack for so many years.
After hearing what the other party said, Prophet Crow Feather asked dully:
"But why?"
He wasn't asking why Coles was treating him this way.
After all, as the other party's creation, he had no right to question his master like this.
But what he didn't understand was why the man in front of him, named Coles Jackdaw, would betray the Chief Inquisitor, whom he once regarded as a god.
