Chapter 1000: Act 172 – The Legacy of the Divine People III
Brendel assessed his surroundings and determined that he must be in the latter half of the valley; the hidden door of the Hallowed Temple of Earth was at the entrance of the valley, at least two or three miles away from here. He was unsure exactly where the fighting had taken place within the valley, but he estimated it couldn’t be too far. He used his communications crystal to contact his senior, but there was no response, leaving him somewhat uneasy. When he tried to reach Medisa this time, he successfully got through and sighed with relief upon hearing the crackling noise on the crystal. Medisa’s weak voice informed him that she was fine, Andrigraphis and his sister were also there, but Himelam was unconscious, and Lady Nemesis was in trouble. Brendel’s heart dropped; he quickly inquired about the problem. Medisa took a couple of shallow breaths and said that she wasn’t sure what had happened, only that it seemed Lady Nemesis had been wrapped in a cocoon and urged him to hurry back.
Cocoon? Brendel froze for a moment, realizing from Medisa’s tone that she was still heavily injured. He hurriedly reassured the Silver Elf Princess not to move around and told her he would be there soon. Medisa, as always, was docile and obedient, and she handed the communication crystal to Andrigraphis without hesitation. Brendel then asked her in which direction they were, and the vampire princess, as usual, replied impatiently that she saw him falling towards the southwest, which shouldn’t be too far. After hearing this, Brendel looked up at the valley and realized that the place where he had fought Bai was indeed in the middle of the gorge.
This meant that the holy tomb intended for sealing must stretch through the entire valley underground, with entrances on both ends; Bai and the others had entered through the opposite end.
Brendel instructed Andrigraphis to take care of the injured and inquired about Bai’s situation. The response he received indicated that Bai had fallen alongside him, which startled him momentarily, as he realized that the woman might truly have perished. Coupled with Medisa’s current condition, he felt a pang of worry. He put away the communications crystal, knowing that worrying was futile; his primary task now was to reunite with Medisa and the others. He pondered for a bit and decided to proceed along the stream, as the terrain gradually sloped downward, extending the valley further down. The stream, after passing through the lush greenery, would inevitably flow through the midsection of the valley, so he was confident he wouldn’t go off course.
He stepped onto the rocks by the stream, with Archbishop Sidney following silently about ten meters behind him. Brendel glanced back at the woman and felt a bit awkward. She was one of the high-ranking members of the Temple of Fire, always someone who stood above others, and he didn’t dare treat her like a subordinate. He thought for a moment and decided to bring up a topic, so he stopped and asked, “Lady Sidney, could you take this opportunity to tell me about Odrefice? I’ve heard the name in Erluin, but that’s about all I know.”
Sidney nodded and moved a bit closer. She thought for a bit before saying, “It is widely known that Odrefice is the sword of the Flame King. A thousand years ago, various races oppressed by the Minren fled from the Maldost Empire towards Goonshato, entering the great plains. In the wilderness, they saw a meteor falling from the sky, and where the meteor fell, a golden holy sword burned fiercely in the flames. This is the most widespread legend about the Flame Blade.”
Brendel nodded; he had also heard this legend in “The Amber Sword.” In Cruz, it was a well-known bedtime story, and it was widely circulated in Erluin as well. However, he had also heard differing accounts from the master craftsmen in Cold Fir Territory and even from Saint Ausoor herself. The latter two accounts were far more reliable than this popular folk tale, but he wasn’t planning to discuss the deeper truths with Sidney this time, so he remained a good listener and didn’t interject.
“However, in fact, Odrefice is part of a staff that was divided into three parts; the Flame Blade is merely one of them.”
“Divided into three?”
“There’s also a saying that it was divided into four, but that’s not entirely accurate, as the Flame Gem and the Flame Blade are integrated. The Flame Blade was forged with the power of the Flame Gem; without the power of the Flame Gem, the Flame Blade is incomplete—”
Brendel suddenly interrupted. “Wait a minute, what did you just say?”
“I said the Flame Blade is incomplete without the power of the Flame Gem, just as you see it now, My Lord Earl.”
“No, I’m talking about the previous sentence.”
Sidney paused for a moment. “The Flame Blade was forged with the power of the Flame Gem…”
“No, even earlier.”
“The Flame Gem and the Flame Blade are integrated?”
“Did you just say the Flame Gem?”
“Yes,” Sidney looked at him seriously and nodded, “the power birthed within the Flame Gem is the sword soul of Odrefice.”
Brendel’s expression shifted. He asked, “I’ve heard that there are also Dark Gems and Ice Gems in this world. What is their relationship with the Flame Gem?”
A flicker of confusion passed through Sidney’s platinum-colored eyes, likely surprised that Brendel would ask this question. After pondering for a moment, she nodded seriously, “Indeed, there are such legends. I’ve heard that your sword is the Earth Sword from the Stone Sanctuary; is that true?”
“That is true, but I lost that sword previously, and I need to retrieve it later,” Brendel replied. There had been rumors that the Gold-maned Lionmen had attacked the human world in order to reclaim the sword he had. This rumor had once made him extremely uneasy, fearing he had inadvertently shaken the structure of the world. However, it had now become evident that the interests involved in the Hallowed Temple of Earth’s participation in the Holy War were far more complex than the fantastical stories that circulated in the countryside.
“The Earth Sword in your possession must have been damaged,” Sidney inquired.
Brendel nodded again. Returning to the original topic, if he had a true Earth Sword, his situation would likely be even more difficult. That was a relic comparable to the Celestial Spear, perhaps even ranked higher than things pertaining to mountains and rivers, after all, it was a sacred object symbolizing the earth, just as Odrefice was the ultimate artifact of fire element treasures, representing the highest order of the fire elemental realm.
Wait—Brendel vaguely felt he had grasped something.
Noting the change in his expression, Sidney realized he had figured it out and answered, “The situation with Harangaya is somewhat akin to Odrefice; it had been divided into three even before its loss. The Earth Sword was taken by a clan of dwarves, while the power of the Earth Gem slept within that segment of the staff. Because the staff was seized by Kehua during the Twighlight War, this holy relic effectively became useless. Conversely, the situation with Odrefice is just the opposite; the power of the Flame Gem is in the sword section, while the staff segment has long been lost. The Ice Gem was used by Sibers to forge the Frostcaller Xina, but this holy sword was also damaged in the Saints’ War—”
Brendel thought to himself, am I truly the legendary King of Ruins? Not to mention Odrefice and the Earth Sword, but seems like I also have the Frostcaller Xina in my possession, and it’s all broken. King of Ruins Brendel—he felt that if he were still in “The Amber Sword,” he would definitely be awarded this title by the system. It was well-known that at the time, the system would reward players with titles without any sense of propriety; such as the Rat Slayer Log, which was bestowed upon a player who leveled up by slaughtering plague rats multiple times, but this title had several upgrade versions—what a pathetic title like the Doom of Mice or the Sewer Destroyer sounded enough to make one want to cry.
Brendel hurriedly opened his character menu, fearing a title like “King of Ruins” or “Lord of Scavenging” would suddenly appear. Fortunately, this nonsensical system didn’t seem to intend to play such a joke; he let out a sigh of relief while cautiously deciding to keep quiet about it. Odrefice and Harangaya had already been exposed, but adding in the mountains and rivers and the Frostcaller Xina made the target too great. It really gave him the feeling of being a walking treasury.
Sidney, unaware of his mental turmoil, continued, “The Gem of Light sleeps within the Sacred Staff of Olamisoul, as for the Dark Gem, it appeared in Cruz hundreds of years ago but vanished thereafter, while the Wind Gem has never been seen. There is also legend of a Nature Gem, said to lie beneath the World Ring, yet it has never appeared in the world either. These seven gems are, in fact, the cornerstone of the seven elemental orders, symbolizing the supreme powers of their respective elements. Most of them are tokens of the various elemental gods, like Harangaya and Odrefice.”
“I see,” Brendel thought he finally understood; the Gem of Light was indeed within the Sacred Staff of Olamisoul. He had a premonition that among the four artifacts that the Flame King and the others retrieved from the Four Holy Valleys, the other two should, more or less, have some relationship with the remaining two elemental gems. Based on the notion that the sacred objects of fire and earth were both staves, perhaps the Celestial and the Queen Wind’s sacred texts should also be part of the Nature and Wind staves.
He then inquired about the details of the other three artifacts retrieved from the Four Wise Men Valleys. This segment of history was actually connected to the teaching history of the Temple of Fire. When it came to teaching history, Sidney’s serious expression lit up somewhat. Although her demeanor remained unyielding, her narration became much smoother. She explained that the people who left the Maldost Empire were not actually rebelling against oppression or evading tyranny; rather, they were exiled criminals by the Minren. She cited the description from the scholarly master’s work “The Millennial Chronicle” from 166 AD by Rontien Difoer as evidence, showing how harsh the laws were in the Maldost Empire at the time, where there were multiple forms of banishment, often involving entire tribes being penalized and exiled to the Great Glacier or the plains.
The Flame King was a second-generation born among the refugees, and he just happened to experience the event documented in history, where they saw a meteor falling in the wilderness as he came of age. Sidney stated that many historical documents contained unanimous records of the meteor falling in the wilderness, and she cited the most authoritative source—the astronomical records made by the empire’s astrologers in the Year of Dragon Fear, which described: ‘The night was as bright as day, a star like a ring fell from the lyre star domain from west to east.’ The lyre star domain today corresponds precisely to the east of the Four Realm Wilds. It was said that this astronomical record corroborated with the accounts of later witnesses.
As an archbishop, Sidney recited these teachings from memory, sparing no need to reflect; it was as if she had experienced them personally. Vast as the ocean, the scriptures were all stored in her mind, and she could easily reference them. As she discussed the history of the Temple of Fire with Brendel, the gap between them finally lessened, no longer that silent relation like a subordinate. Nonetheless, Brendel still felt as if he added a statue-like teacher that resembled the saints in the temple to his repertoire. Sidney occasionally snapped back to the reasons and doctrines behind the establishment of the temple, which were self-evident, but Brendel was not interested at all; he was more focused on their previous conversation.
If the power within the Dark Gem is actually the blood of a dark deity, do the powers sleeping within the other gems also originate from divine blood? If so, where did these pure elemental divine bloods come from, and for what purpose were they created? Was it the hands of cultists, or was it the legacy of the Divine People?
Once this thought emerged, it could not be quelled, spreading endlessly in Brendel’s mind.
“Of these four holy objects, Odrefice was obtained by the former king Gilt, the Celestial by Erlandta, the Queen Wind’s sacred text by Di Ruht, and Olamisoul by Albert Fanzan; among these four, the first two were the leaders of the refugees. The former king Gilt was human, Erlandta possessed half of the silver lineage, while the latter two were a noble daughter of the Mist Elves and a noble offspring of the Inier…”
Finally, as Sidney recounted how the four sages retrieved the four artifacts from the Four Holy Valleys, Brendel spotted Medisa resting up ahead in the woods.
“My Lord!” Medisa noticed them first.
Brendel turned back and apologized to Sidney; the archbishop, however, displayed a pleasant demeanor, merely nodding. He hurried to Medisa’s side as the Silver Elf Princess attempted to stand up in excitement but abandoned the idea due to her serious injuries. Brendel gently pressed down on the young girl’s shoulder and took out a vial of holy water to give to her. Just then, Andrigraphis and Medephis emerged from the woods behind, the vampire girl severely injured, yet vampires had a natural recovery ability; other than the tattered armor, no significant wounds showed, though her originally pale face was even whiter than paper due to her current state.
Since Brendel had already briefed Sidney about Andrigraphis and the situation over the communications crystal, she no longer seemed like a stranger. He introduced his subordinates to the archbishop one by one, hesitating slightly when introduced to the two vampire siblings, but he still spoke candidly. Sidney had long seen that they were a pair of vampire sisters, but she did not say much and merely regarded them with an extra glance.
“Where is Lady Nemesis?” Brendel asked again.
“She’s behind,” Medephis answered weakly.
This adorable boy shyly smiled upon seeing Brendel but, due to his injuries, needed to drink his master’s blood to recover. Brendel nodded to him, not minding; in fact, he felt quite touched by his earlier reckless rush to protect him.
“I want some too,” Andrigraphis demanded.
“Why? You’re not hurt.” Brendel asked irritably, genuinely feeling like he was some kind of dessert after a meal.
Then Andrigraphis produced a dagger from somewhere and made a tiny cut about half a millimeter wide on her fingertip, then looked up at him with her blood-red eyes.
