Chapter 78 – The Great Being (8)
“—, —.”
“Ha…”
Just in case, Leber quietly approached during the commotion and sent in the wind spirits. Thanks to them, I heard everything.
If everything had been resolved neatly, there would have been no need for this, but in the end, I had to step in. I couldn’t let that lunatic kill Leber and Maria like this.
I called for Arisa from outside through the wind spirits and hurried down to the underground sanctum of the order.
“Wh-who are you! This is… cough…”
There were holy knights blocking my way, but before they could draw their swords, I commanded the wind spirits to block the air around their faces. Unable to breathe without doing anything, they dropped their swords and desperately grabbed at their faces and necks, trying to breathe. One by one, they staggered and collapsed, their faces turning from red to purple as they lost consciousness.
This was a technique I had practiced as soon as I got the wind spirits, but it required much more precise control than I had anticipated, so I couldn’t use it extensively even now.
I figured that for now, I would only be able to quietly subdue a few of them.
“Handle those idiots.”
“—!”
The sanctum I entered looked like an underground cave and was, as I had heard, a complete mess. At the same time, the energy of the spirits became extraordinarily strong.
As I directed the spirits, they quickly subdued the enemies who were trying to rampage.
“Ugh, who are you?!”
When everyone’s attention was on me, one of the holy knights, who had sensed something suspicious about the wind and earth, swung his golden sword up and down to drive away the spirits and pointed it urgently at me.
“You’re the one who brought that girl whom you call a witch.”
In front of them, I removed my hood to reveal my face. I could see at least a hundred eyes widen in shock.
Yes, this is a normal reaction to seeing a high elf. It was Maria, who had only been staring blankly, who was the strange one.
Of course, this action would cause quite a stir, but I was prepared for it. Now that I had come this far, I had to let go of some things.
“Maria is the descendant of the Saintess from the Mythical Era, guaranteed by me, high elf Iriliana. Not like the mediocre saintesses you know, but someone who can directly purify the impending catastrophe.”
I pointed blatantly at them, guaranteeing Maria’s identity to their speechless faces.
They might not believe me. However, there was enough evidence to prove it. I could prove it through words and through strength.
*
“Did you all hear? Anyway, it’s all true. Lady Iriliana is indeed a high elf who has lived since the Mythical Era, ten thousand years ago.”
It was incredibly vulgar and pointless for me to speak about myself in such a way.
Instead, Leber took on the role of explaining and testifying about me. He was already someone who knew who I was and had accepted that reality.
“T-That can’t be! You can’t actually believe that, can you?!”
There were some who opposed or protested. Especially that instigator, Deus, who, even after Leber explained and certified it, remained doubtful and denied me.
“But you’ve heard the explanations regarding the recent events, haven’t you? The incident of erosion that originated from the great disaster ten thousand years ago has been revealed, and the momentum is unusual. Moreover, the gathering of the elf clan and external activities. Is this all just a coincidence?!”
On the other hand, some looked startled, as if they had decided to accept the doubts they had previously held.
Of course, it was true that I was responsible for the discovery of the erosion, the internal interference of the order, and the gathering of the elf clan, but it felt like some misunderstandings were growing larger.
Surely, they wouldn’t actually be having absurd delusions that I was pulling the strings behind the scenes!
“There’s no need to drag this out. Whether my words are true or not, whether Maria is a genuine saintess who only appears in history, you can verify that directly.”
I didn’t want to waste time explaining further, so I pointed at the shimmering holy water puddle.
The holy water infused with the power of the first saintess was a beautiful pool, about the size of a pond, radiating shades of blue and turquoise.
I had already shown Maria purifying an artifact, but if that wasn’t enough, she could just do it herself.
“What are you hesitating for? When the tower fell, this world was already doomed. Everyone should have died. Yet somehow a few survived and rebuilt this world, which the system cannot accept, is now making moves to wipe this world clean, and you hesitate?”
My patience was starting to wear thin. It was pathetic to see them dragging their feet while I bared myself and pushed for action.
I understood. Back when I had no knowledge of the tower, if a strange girl appeared and screamed that the great extinction would come again, I wouldn’t have flinched either.
The process of destruction due to the failure to conquer the tower was too long ago. It was treated as part of legend and myth beyond history.
It was difficult to convince the people of this era. I could see that my vanguard, Renia, was struggling against many scholars who considered the erosion simply as an accident or phenomenon.
“Even if you are a being that lived during that era, we have our own laws in this current age. The order cannot form alliances with outside forces; they have violated that command!”
“Outside forces…”
Deus still denied reality. I wasn’t suggesting we overthrow everything, and while others were cautious, he seemed to have something weighing on his conscience.
Since I opened my eyes here, I had never once leveraged my age. My age certainly wasn’t actually ten thousand years either.
However, as those who knew my identity steadily supplied their knowledge, and since most of what I knew in this world was left as relics from ten thousand years ago, a singular thought arose.
If I set my mind to it, I could truly act like a fossil that had waited for ten thousand years.
“How old are you?”
“Wh-what?!”
“You guys, claiming to be an outside force, are simply a group that emerged a mere few thousand years ago, and you dare call me an outside force?”
I glared at him with a cold voice. There were quite a few who looked ready to lash out, but at least the only one not reading my mood was that idiot Deus.
“You don’t even know what kind of world it was before the tower fell. You have no idea what the god you worship and follow originally was like!”
The descendants left after the end learned of the unjust world through their parents.
Because of that, they believed in things like electric lights as gods, and through the countless beliefs passed down for thousands of years, they formed true divinity. The world after the tower’s collapse was one where that was possible.
The reason the Church of Light established itself as the mainstream church in this world was solely due to the accomplishments built one by one by their ancestors, not some chosen fate as this arrogant descendant seems to think.
‘It must be the Great Chaos. It can’t be happening.’
I didn’t actually expose such matters. The world was already confusing enough, and I couldn’t make it even more chaotic.
“To me, the outside forces are people like you. Ignorant fools whose mouths run wild without knowing anything. Prove it to me.”
I looked at the speechless Deus and chuckled, pointing my finger at the shimmering pond.
I hadn’t stepped in without any countermeasures.
From the beginning, the being that called me here was still waiting for me to call upon them at this moment.
“This cannot be!”
“Se-Saintess?!”
The wildly churning water suddenly surged up, beginning to take shape.
The water spirit that intertwined with me was proving the secrets it had been holding onto all this time.
‘Is that the first saintess?’
The water spirit, using the holy water, took on the form of a young woman with long hair. She wasn’t the saintess I knew.
She was surely one of her descendants and could be considered the root of this order.
The water spirit, which had been infused with the memories of the saintess, now manifested at this moment with my power.
[The crisis will not end.]
She began to speak. The true holy water here was the sacred relic created by the first saintess “as she was dying.”
Within it, the spirit of the saintess resided. That spirit was now being expressed through the water spirit.
[In the past, and in the future. There is no room for complacency. The disaster will return. It will not stop as long as we live.]
The saintly figure made of flowing water looked around at the people with a sorrowful expression. In fact, I had only thought such a thing would be possible right after arriving here.
It was the result of finally meeting the other spirits and being bombarded by the water spirit.
“…”
In front of the saintess, a fist-sized water spirit rubbed its forehead and let out a sigh of relief. It must have gone through a lot of emotional strain all this time while harboring the memories of the saintess.
