Chapter 800: Act 150 – The Age of Mortals II
Kehua suddenly seemed to go mad, turning the battlefield into this state without distinguishing friend from foe, floating above the hall while babbling nonsensical words. Brendel grabbed the bridge surface to keep from falling, and looked up to see the lizardman sword saint a bit higher than himself, also holding onto the wall, but with the other hand holding Duke Anlek. Brendel glanced around and didn’t see the Young Female Dragon anywhere; he didn’t know if she had succeeded, but the star-shaped stone in Anlek’s hand had already disappeared. Judging by his frantic expression, it seemed either it was lost or taken away.
The black-robed knights of the Everything Returns Society that Anlek had brought were already scattered; besides a few extremely lucky ones, most were above the elemental awakening level. Brendel counted and, including the few still floating in the center of the hall, there were actually as many as eleven. Even excluding two or three lucky ones, there were still eight or nine left, which was already terrifying. Just outside, there was Dejyar, whom he had played a trick on; the elemental awakened powers gathered here had already outnumbered Erluin’s entire upper echelon.
The current situation in the hall was as follows—
At the very top of the hall, there was only Mephistopheles, and just below were Veronika and the four or five black-robed knights from the Everything Returns Society who had engaged her. Lower down, floating near the shattered purple crystal, was Kehua, mumbling to herself. The platform that had held Milos’ throne had already collapsed under the impact of massive forces, rolling into the abyss. The black-robed wizards from the Everything Returns Society on the platform were almost entirely killed, with only that elemental awakened wizard staggering up from below later, obviously also seriously injured.
Around the hall, the black-robed knights and Erluin’s noble knights that had previously occupied the various long bridges suffered heavy losses. Except for a few that reacted quickly enough to cling to the cliffs, most had already fallen down. The hall was filled with dust; aside from Anlek, the lizardman sword saint, and Xi, Brendel had yet to locate any other familiar faces. He was very worried about Charles, Medisa, and the Young Prince’s safety, especially as the Frostbite’s Tooth below was slowly rising, its giant mouth opening little by little, countless teeth spinning like a meat grinder that made falling into it clearly unavoidable.
After the destructive force that had swept across the entire hall disappeared, the lines of laws began to stabilize again. Brendel quickly felt that he had regained his ability to fly, so he let go of the bridge surface and soared up. However, he didn’t dare get too close to that red-ringed lizardman sword saint; he sensed a greater threat from that sword than he had felt from Veronika during their time at the Loop of Trade Winds, even though both of their strengths were comparable. One specialized in defensive swordsmanship while the other was adept at offensive techniques; the difference was clear.
And since the star-shaped stone was no longer in Anlek’s possession, Brendel didn’t plan to stay here long. Taking advantage of the cover of the swirling smoke, he carefully flew toward Xi’s direction— the hall was buzzing, and the surrounding walls had visible cracks, indicating a possible second collapse. Brendel very much suspected that this time the dome of the spiral hall above would also cave in, which meant it was not safe to linger here.
“Kehua, what are you doing!” At that moment, Anlek’s deep and hoarse roar came from behind him.
No one expected Kehua to choose this moment to retaliate; her earlier hiding of her forces was actually to wait for the right moment. The demons were not wrong to say this woman was unruly. Anlek’s face turned a shade of iron, but it was already too late to regret; Kehua had turned the entire battlefield into a mess and completely overturned his plans.
“You will not imprison me, humans.” Kehua smiled with some arrogance, “You wanted to see the awakening god? Soon enough, you will see him.”
“What do you mean?”
Kehua did not answer; instead, an expression of extreme pain suddenly crossed her face. She opened her mouth slightly and let out a scream as a cloud of black smoke poured out from her mouth, followed by her eyes, nostrils, and ears; the rolling black smoke gathered above the girl, forming a vague human shape, while Kehua herself lost all strength to drop her head, curling up in midair, her skin pale as if devoid of blood, resembling a soulless, empty shell.
“You do not understand what happened in that war, humans.” A thunderous voice emanated from the rolling black smoke, and one could faintly hear Kehua’s cold voice, “It was the only time in several epochs that the Dusk was repelled.”
“This is impossible!” Anlek roared. “After the Battle of Babel, even the gods failed. The Golden race is nearly extinct, and the People of Silver have not revealed themselves. This is the greatest victory for Chaos in history.” The duke raised his arms, screaming madly, “What is left in today’s Vaunte? The gods have long abandoned this land, the most glorious era has passed; what remains is merely a bunch of petty insects. Once dusk descends again, what will these trashy beings use to resist? They are still fighting for power and profit, drunkenly lost over some temporary illusions; is this what is called civilization?”
In the end, he spoke with almost contempt: “It’s simply absurd.”
There was a moment of silence in the hall, but one could still faintly hear the fanatical chanting of the followers of the Everything Returns Society.
“You are insane, Anlek.” Veronika had never thought that someone could be driven mad to this extent. She had never believed in the fallacies of the Everything Returns Society; the war between the Duskgazer Dragon and the gods had long been untraceable. Only those with ulterior motives, the heretics, would elevate such ethereal myths to scripture. She did not know what would happen to Vaunte in the future, whether it would be destroyed or continue on, but these were unimportant; for humans whose lives were short, the most important thing lay in the present.
For her, as long as the Cruz Empire existed for a single day, she would fight for it for a day, whether for her family or for the empire itself.
Gray Saint Mephistopheles shook his head as well.
“Indeed absurd,” the voice from within the black smoke sneered, “Who told you that the gods left Vaunte after failing? Who told you that the Golden race perished entirely on the battlefield of dusk? The People of Silver did not reveal themselves not because of despair, but because some of those tales passed down among humans are not baseless myths, it’s just that you are unwilling to believe them.”
“However, there is one thing you did not say wrong,” the voice in the black smoke sighed, “Today’s Vaunte is indeed no longer that classical and glorious era.”
“When power is handed over to mortals, the age belonging to the gods will never return.”
Brendel was quietly traversing the smoke-filled lower region of the hall and was quickly approaching the place he had entered before—on the other side of where Anlek was. The debate between both sides above in the hall was growing intense; this scene resembled the lengthy opening speeches of many important bosses in games. However, a heavy atmosphere truly enveloped the entire hall, and everyone could feel a storm of energy gathering out of thin air—Brendel sensed this and realized that the key to summoning the awakening god actually lay with Kehua, and it seemed that no one in the game had brought Kehua here before.
Yet this design was indeed too painful; although it seemed plausible from a story perspective, Brendel couldn’t help but internally grumble about the planner for a bit.
He glanced down; Frostbite’s Tooth had risen over a hundred feet, almost within reach. This revelation startled him, and he quickly flew upward several times; Kehua and Veronika were nearly right above him. However, he didn’t dare fly up to let others spot him, especially Kehua—who knew if that demi-god-like entity would hold a grudge about the earlier incident?
“This is an era where each chooses their own fate; may you all act wisely,” the booming voice in the black smoke continued to resonate.
Underneath the black smoke, Kehua’s body stirred slightly as her eyelashes fluttered. “No.” She whispered softly.
The black smoke sighed, “You are free, Kehua.”
“And I shall be reborn as well.”
Mephistopheles’s expression suddenly changed: “Get out of the way!” he shouted. Just as his words fell, the cloud of black smoke that enveloped Kehua suddenly burst forth, rising to the dome of the hall. Several black-robed knights caught off guard were engulfed within, and before they could let out a cry of despair, they completely vanished without a trace. Assimilation. Veronika’s face also changed; this was the classic power of Chaos. She hurriedly flew diagonally upward, but unfortunately was a little late. The speed of Kehua’s dark soul rising was extremely swift, and it was about to envelop her. At this moment, however, the female captain felt someone above yank her away, pulling her from that fatal area.
Veronika’s face went pale; turning back, she discovered that the one who had acted was actually Mephistopheles. She was somewhat surprisingly stunned, but soon a hint of rouge appeared on her previously pale cheeks, as she frowned and complained, “What about your noble manners, Mr. Mephistopheles? How can you grab a lady’s hair?”
Mephistopheles did not answer; he merely glanced at her.
“Thank you.” The female captain paused for a moment before answering softly.
A tremendous change was happening in the hall.
The black smoke had completely merged with the dome; that voice let out a maddening laughter, a silver bell-like sound echoing throughout the hall, continuing without end. But the transformation did not stop there; the resonating sound within the hall was growing louder. Brendel saw that several long bridges had completely broken off, falling into the abyss below, bitten by the upward-climbing Frostbite’s Tooth. The latter had a hearty appetite, not picky in the least—whether it was stone or metal, it welcomed them all as if it were an encroaching black hole.
The walls surrounding the hall bore long, crisscrossing cracks, some already several inches wide. The entire hall seemed on the verge of collapse, as chunks of rock fell from above, soon opening a ‘skylight’ in the dome. However, what lay beyond the skylight was not a bright sky but a pitch-black mountain body. In fact, at that moment, the entire mountain was shaking, the rock face splitting into two parts, with one half beginning to slowly sink.
“Damn it!” Brendel finally reacted—this was about to be a mountain collapse.
“Get out quickly!”
He glanced around, finally locating the exit he had come through; but just a glance and already that place was collapsing like a sandcastle, reduced to a pile of ruins. In the hall, there had originally been seventeen archways, but it seemed as though half had vanished in the blink of an eye. Just as Brendel was dumbfounded, another third disappeared as well. He hurriedly flew toward the last remaining archways, but at that moment, he felt something hit him from above, knocking him down—what hit him let out a muffled grunt, and it was a girl’s voice.
There weren’t any women on Anlek’s side; Brendel subconsciously thought it might be Medisa, Xi, or Shi Do, but the voice wasn’t very familiar. He guessed it could be the scholar lady, so he reached back and pulled her into his embrace. However, this delay meant that the last few archways also completely vanished. Looking around, Brendel was immediately on the verge of tears, as it was clear that the entire hall had reached the end of its long life, with walls collapsing toward him from all sides, leaving him nowhere to hide.
…
At some point, the buzzing sound from deep within the mountain became increasingly loud, but Freya remained totally oblivious. She quietly listened to Milos’ tale, which was a long story that seemed to take her thoughts back to that distant and glorious era. Towers standing against the skies, temples floating like clouds, the People of Gold wearing white linen robes, crawling and praying outside the palace made of gold, with the air seemingly filled with a faint aroma of herbs; it was a world of order and civilization, while today, humanity appeared to be struggling in ignorance.
After a long time, she finally blinked and looked up to ask, “So, the gods entrusted the power to choose destiny to mortals? After that, the Knight of Azure led the ancestors and indeed defeated the Duskgazer Dragon. After the stars fell to earth, in order to fulfill that promise, the gods departed from Vaunte and completely handed this land over to us. That glorious era is irretrievable, and today’s Vaunte is an era where we choose our own destiny, be it destruction or rebirth in the future.”
“You are very clever,” a gentle voice replied.
“But I still don’t understand. Why can we do what the gods could not?”
There was a moment of silence in the room.
“I remember I mentioned that the blood of the Black Iron people flows with half of the bloodline of dusk, but unlike the Bronze Age, you have completely relinquished power. Therefore, you did not become those monsters whose reason was eroded by darkness.”
Freya nodded.
“Thus, that is the reason,” the voice continued. “Vaunte, this world, was woven by Martha from a chaos. When she laid the laws of Tiamat upon the chaos sea, the world was born. The roots of our world stem from establishing order over chaos; hence from the dawn of the world, this opposition was ingrained within. The stronger the power of order, the stronger the resistance from chaos, yet the power of chaos ultimately knows no limits. This means that one day, such power may even surpass the control of the gods, and our world would be reduced to ashes—this is the origin of the dusk.”
“Throughout several epochs, Vaunte has actually experienced several destructions, and the earliest history of the People of Gold is long gone. This is what we call the gods’ mistake; for countless ages, the gods, along with sages and wise men from other servant races, have been searching for a way to end this cycle of mistakes. We established countless civilizations and orders, yet every time, without exception, we failed.”
“Dusk descended six times, and we also failed six times.”
“And the one time we were closest to success was at the end of the last epoch. Your hero, the Knight of Azure, shattered the heavens, causing the stars to fall to the earth. Thus Vaunte was split apart, but at the same time truly ended the dusk. It was the only time when civilization was not completely annihilated; though still heavily impacted, we at least saw the possibility of success.”
“All roots originated from a suggestion by the Duskgazer Dragon.”
“Was it Odin?” Freya suddenly interjected.
“No, it was someone earlier,” although she couldn’t see it, the girl could feel the owner of the voice shaking their head slowly. “The previous Duskgazer Dragon had long perished in the battle of dusk, but like Odin, he was an extraordinarily wise figure. He made us rethink this issue, that it wasn’t just about enhancing the power of order; what we needed to do was preserve the sparks of civilization. Therefore, we could create a weak civilization that was no longer bright, one that could even be said to have compromised with chaos, lacking power, being ignorant and full of wounds inflicted by the Duskgazer Dragon. Yet it was precisely like this that we were nearly successful.”
“Because even chaos cannot devour itself.”
Freya slightly parted her lips; she vaguely sensed that Milos seemed to be concealing something, but what the voice spoke had already been the most fantastical legend she had ever heard.
The gods had actually compromised with the Duskgazer Dragon.
“As long as it exists, does it matter how poor it is?” Freya felt somewhat uncomfortable; after all, no one wanted to be seen as an insect.
“No, little girl, civilization will grow.” Milos’s voice grew somewhat proud. “This is precisely the greatness of Mother, for this time, it will be a civilization rooted in this world, no longer created and interfered with by us. It will carry the Duskgazer Dragon’s mark, gradually growing and ultimately merging with the essence of this world. At that time, no one will be able to destroy it.”
Yet, after all, civilization is civilization, and order is undeniably different from chaos. Freya faintly felt something was awry; she shook her head: “Then will the Duskgazer Dragon still descend?”
The voice fell silent for a moment.
“Yes.”
