Chapter 145 Ascend to Divinity (Two-in-One)
At 2 PM, Paradise City.
In the inner city, the plaza next to the magnificent palace was already filled with a sea of people, bustling and lively.
Although an announcement had been made from the beginning within the royal city—that during this sacred rite, the range of the eternal blessing would encompass the entire royal city, and the public would not need to scramble to receive the protection of the Lord of the Netherworld.
However, the people who came to participate in the sacred rite still tried every means to get closer to the high platform where the ceremony was held.
The reasons were quite simple… Firstly, many people speculated that perhaps being closer to the sacrificial high platform would allow them to receive a deeper blessing.
And the second reason—
Many citizens genuinely wanted to see the true face of that wise king.
After the old king’s disappearance, most likely fallen, and with the palace vanishing in the ensuing chaos…
This realm of the Netherworld should have fallen into turmoil and disintegration in a very short time.
Yet, this new king cleared all obstacles in merely six months and ascended to the throne.
Then, in less than three years, he had revitalized this originally oppressive paradise, breathing new life into it.
The name of the wise king was not just a slogan of fervent supporters, but the true voice from countless citizens’ hearts.
…
“His Majesty Rast has come out!”
Suddenly someone shouted, causing a stir among the crowd.
Countless eyes turned to the high platform—
Then, everyone saw the young man with black hair and black eyes, stepping out of the magnificent palace, his expression calm.
Clearly, he was dressed simply, wearing only a black robe, and he didn’t even don a crown… In terms of the richness of attire, he was even less luxurious than the accompanying attendants.
Moreover, his appearance exceeded the expectations of most attendees of the rite; he looked to be only around twenty years old.
This was in stark contrast to the image of a middle-aged man in his forties or fifties that many citizens who had only heard of the wise king imagined.
However, something was strange.
When that black-haired, black-eyed young man stepped out of the palace and stood on the sacrificial high platform, no one questioned his identity.
Not even in doubt—there wasn’t even a flicker of suspicion.
His facial features were so soft, with a unique dreamy quality belonging to youth, yet his demeanor exuded such solemnity, commanding respect without needing to speak.
“The sacred rite begins at this moment.”
Behind the black-haired young man, that loyal attendant declared solemnly to the crowd below.
In the next moment.
As the entire palace and the sacrificial high platform served as the center point.
A dim golden halo quietly spread out.
It expanded at an incredibly fast speed.
Then, in a very short time, it enveloped the entire royal city.
That was a domain called royal authority.
The buildings of the royal city, the citizens residing within it, even the sky, earth, and ocean… all within sight were enveloped in that solidified dusk, within the majestic presence of royal authority.
Clearly, it was a huge city accommodating hundreds of thousands of people, yet at this moment, the entire city had fallen completely silent.
In the dim golden aura of royal authority, only the figure of the black-haired, black-eyed young man standing among the masses remained, becoming the center of the entire world.
…
Grey mingled among the crowd in the plaza, carefully using her hood to conceal her figure.
Beside her, almost all the citizens displayed an incredibly fervent light in their eyes, their expressions turning exceedingly pious.
They all closed their eyes, solemnly placing themselves within the aura of royal authority, becoming subjects who bowed to that magnificent power.
In Grey’s eyes, a silvery light silently moved, allowing her to perceive all the strange happenings around her, understanding the full scope of what was occurring within the royal city at this moment.
Within the royal city, the existence could generally be divided into two categories.
One was the outsiders who came to Paradise, having lingered in the Netherworld for too short a time, who had not yet been fully assimilated; they still maintained their human forms, being living beings with flesh and bl**d.
Within the dim golden domain of royal authority, these humans’ reverence and admiration for the wise king… became faith energy, perceptible within the spiritual realm, continually converging towards Rast.
The second category consisted of the true inhabitants of Paradise, the deceased who had been completely assimilated in the Netherworld.
Their lives had long since faded away, turned into indestructible spirits corroded by the power of Paradise, eternally wandering in this land of the deceased.
Although they seemed indistinguishable from ordinary flesh-and-bl**d human beings from an average person’s perspective… they were merely those who had been able to exist for long durations due to the faint power emanating from the God of d*ath’s remains beneath Paradise.
These were the illusions retained within the Netherworld, appearing to be alive, yet having lost their fate and future… Once these illusions departed from their homeland of the Netherworld, losing the support of the God of d*ath’s residual power…
What awaited them was an end as fleeting as morning dew; when the sun rose, all illusion and phantoms would evaporate into nothingness.
At this moment, in Grey’s spiritual vision, these deceased mixed among the living, their “existence flames” symbolizing their being, were now flickering weakly within the dim golden domain of royal authority.
The lifeforce of these deceased was gradually weakening, wavering… as if they might disappear entirely at any moment.
In contrast, atop the high sacrificial altar, an utterly oppressive and dense energy was gathering.
There, countless points of faith from the living were converging, while also draining the existence flames of the millions of deceased… Under such offerings, an extremely terrifying entity was about to be born.
Witnessing this scene, Grey exhaled softly.
It appeared… the intelligence report she received from Leader Ciser was correct.
This new king of Paradise, in the name of the sacred rite, had summoned all the citizens of Paradise to the royal city—
What this meant was certainly not about conferring eternal blessings upon his subjects.
But rather, a sacrifice.
A sacrifice of the entire Paradise, the faith of millions of living beings, and the very existence of the departed, to pave a way to the divine realm.
Only to allow himself to truly ascend to the divine seat.
In Grey’s eyes, the mysterious hue quietly vanished, returning to neutrality.
This was a certain sensing ability, allowing her to perceive everything happening around her through spiritual vision.
Originally, as the holder of the singular Sequence of “Fate,” Grey was likely never to possess any ability.
After all, according to Leader Ciser’s guesses, an excessively powerful Sequence would suppress an extraordinary individual’s own mental landscape… If nothing unexpected happened, then on her own, Grey might never be able to awaken her own mental world, merely remaining what was termed a “non-ability user.”
However, at this moment, Grey could skillfully wield abilities of different categories.
Her spiritual vision was quietly closed, yet simultaneously, the golden aura of royal authority surged beside Grey—
However, the realm of royal power seemed to encounter some obstacle, quickly dissipating, without truly affecting Grey in any way.
All of this was due to the power of the Flame Seed that Grey had obtained three years ago.
That was a legacy from Leader Ciser, a fire passed down among generations of Guardians of the Shore.
After three years, Grey had truly grasped the great power known as “Fate,” as well as the inheritance of the Flame Seed.
If not so, she could never have survived through one dangerous mission after another.
“Brother Rast…”
“So this is what you look like now?”
Grey gazed up at the high sacrificial platform, at the thin figure looking down upon the multitude with indifferent eyes, uttering her murmured words.
This was the first time in three years, since the betrayal on that rainy night, that Grey saw Rast again.
Atop the platform that the masses revered, his appearance and form remained unchanged, just like the young man who rescued Grey from the cycle of despair back in Frozen Water Town.
However, at this moment—
That once overwhelmingly familiar figure felt so strangely distant.
The boy’s dark pupils reflected the glaring sun overhead, resembling molten gold.
He stood atop the sacrificial platform, gazing disdainfully at all life below, his expression calm yet carried a weight of authority like a mountain.
Never had there been a moment where Grey felt the figure before her seemed so unattainable.
In this moment, Grey couldn’t help but recall the indifferent words Brother Rast had spoken to her during their farewell.
“A long time is enough to change many things.”
“The sincere ideals of the past, along with the decay of time, will also eventually wither into the dust of nothingness.”
“You, who have not experienced the wear of a long time, have no qualification to empathize with me.”
…
“So, is this what you pursue, Brother Rast?”
“To gain power at the cost of betrayal, even wielding slaughter against your companions.”
“Even sacrificing an entire nation, using the whole Paradise as a offering…”
“Only to ascend to that so-called divine seat.”
“I once regarded you as the direction to pursue, as the meaning of life, taking your ideals as my own and spending my life to chase after them.”
“But this ideal of yours now, I cannot empathize with, nor do I wish to acknowledge it!”
In Grey’s beautiful emerald eyes, a fleeting moment of confusion passed.
But soon, that look of bewilderment swiftly vanished, leaving only ironclad determination.
She didn’t move again, just silently concealed herself among the crowd, quietly waiting for the continuation of the sacred rite.
She knew very well that it was not yet the time for her to strike… Although it seemed Brother Rast had fully immersed himself in the sacred rite, in reality, this was precisely when he was most vigilant.
With Brother Rast’s wisdom, he could not fail to guess that the Guardian of the Shore Organization might send someone to disrupt the sacred rite.
Although he appeared unguarded, he must have secretly retained strength to deal with any disruptor.
Moreover, on the Gravekeeper’s side, the legendary Noah of the Bounty Sequence may also be observing from the shadows.
To rashly act now would be like sending oneself to d*ath.
The Broken Coast defense line was already in urgent crisis, and the entire Guardian of the Shore Organization had to divide its attention to guard against the Broken Coast; only she had come to Paradise this time, without Leader Ciser backing her up.
To shatter the conspiracy of Brother Rast and the Gravekeeper… she must endure, she must wait.
Awaiting that moment when the sacred rite was fully completed, and the path to the divine seat was completely opened.
That would be the critical point when all changes would erupt; whether it be Brother Rast or the latent Gravekeeper, at the moment the key to the divine seat manifested, they would all invest their utmost and could no longer divert their attention elsewhere.
Of course, such a long wait was agonizing, time felt like years.
But Grey was very clear that to realize her wishes—even if it meant breaking the boy’s legs, she must bring him back to the Guardian of the Shore.
Thus, she had no right to be willful.
She had already waited three years for this humble wish, even returning from hell for it.
At this moment, naturally, she wouldn’t mind waiting even longer.
…
In the present world, Tower of Secrets.
“Wow, Rast’s acting skills are really something.”
“Just look at him…the way he plays the king, he deserves a little golden statue, right?”
“I feel like he’s acting as the God of the Netherworld more like a true emperor than Aaron does.”
Before the light curtain, Mr. Silver rolled up fish strips with his tail, stuffing them into his mouth, enjoying them immensely.
While eating, he mumbled as he complained to Ophelia, “By the way—this guy’s acting is a bit too real.”
“You’re not worried at all about your sister being deceived in terms of wealth and affection by his acting skills?”
On the other side, the mercury avatar taking the form of the small girl did not initially pay attention to the silver weasel treating the Tower of Secrets as his camping ground.
However, when she heard the last sentence, a glimmer of humanity crossed her eyes.
“Although my sister can be a bit stubborn… there shouldn’t exist anyone who could truly deceive her intuition.”
“So, I can’t understand your sister complex.” Mr. Silver swallowed a fish strip that had lodged in his throat with some joyful water, satisfied, he patted his fluffy little belly.
Sure enough, watching live broadcasts must go with happy beverages and snacks.
It’s a treat, refreshing.
“This is not about being sister complex.”
“It’s just that someone as brilliant as my sister deserves to be followed by everyone.”
“For those classmates at Starry University who can’t see the shining side of the elder sister… it’s truly a sad and ridiculous bunch.”
Ophelia muttered softly.
But soon, her gaze flickered, refocusing on the light curtain.
Within the light curtain, atop the high platform.
Countless stars were slowly condensing.
Then, it formed into a solid entity.
“The ancient path to the divine seat—”
“Is opening…”
(End of this chapter)
