Myths Reawakened

Elian opened Her eyes once more. The green robe shrouding Her had turned grey, and the divine throne behind Her shifted accordingly into a tall, wholly green warhorse. As She mounted it, Her robe emitted grey fog and turned the horse a light grey, reminiscent of a cadaver.

A swirling passageway emerged, sweeping Elian and the horse in before fading gradually. The pale raindrops could not capture Her, and Ines and Aztimor’s sneak attack failed to stop the swirling currents. The balance of the spatial patterns crumbled at that moment, rendering all of them obsolete.

Wayne hadn’t attacked. Instead, he turned his thoughts into a thread and tracked the world behind Elian.

It was a complete void. There was nothing.

“It’s not yet time for me to descend, so you’ll have to wait to challenge me...”

Elian ignored the four goddesses. She had no intention of sharing afternoon tea with them. Her eyes remained fixed on Wayne. “Remember, I’m not the Death Knight. I’m a knight named Death. Do not confuse the two next time.”

The passageway disappeared, and Elian’s twisted body vanished along with it.

Wayne stared at the empty sky with a stiff face, failing to identify Elian’s destination. Since he couldn’t locate Her main base, he could not execute a decapitation operation.

The rain stopped. Wayne turned to Ines and said, “Let’s get out of here. I have information to share with you.”

Aztimor gritted Her teeth, Her face dark. “What about the Divine Realm of Nature? Do we just leave it?”

Seeing Her resentful expression, Wayne offered reassurance, “Elian’s trying to replace me as the Death Knight, so I’ll replace Her as the master of the Divine Realm. From now on, I’m going to be the Goddess—the God of Nature!”

Ines didn’t demand him to choose between being the Death Knight and the Darkness Knight. Thinking back to the conversation between Wayne and Elian, She observed Her lover curiously.

Are you hiding something from me?

***

Manor of the Holy Maiden of Darkness, Londan.

The manor was bustling with activities today. Except for Nature, the Holy Maidens of all four other churches had gathered, possessed by their respective goddesses.

The living room was quiet enough for the drop of a needle to be audible. The four goddesses circled a table wordlessly, making Vichy and Darienne incredibly anxious. They felt like something was missing.

Two minutes later, the missing ‘thing’ opened the door.

Wayne stalked into the living room with the newly drafted Sacred Tome and laid it on the card table for the goddesses’ perusal. Unfortunately, he hadn’t seen Mikhael glowing while lying down on a bench today. The explanation Reza gave him made him speechless.

Apparently, while Mikhael was basking in the sun in the garden of Buckingham Palace, a man had barged in and started cursing. Reza had never met the man before, but according to what he knew about the Tulip Families, he was able to identify the man.

It was Forest Julian, running tobacco and lottery businesses. With his disposable income, he had built many orphanages for homeless children. Because of the alarming combination of orphanages and children, Reza had at first labeled Forest an evil priest and a heretic.

He changed his mind when he saw that Forest knew Mikhael. An acquaintance of the Viceroy of Heaven couldn’t have been an evil priest. He must have misunderstood something. Taking off his pessimistic lens and looking at the facts through the lens of Holy Light, he assumed that Forest was working for the Viceroy of Heaven. Under the guidance of Holy Light, he was running legitimate orphanages.

And that much was true. Forest never laid a hand on the children. He was only attracted to female college graduates who could dance and sing in a choir. He had a particular taste.

Reza told Wayne that as soon as Forest showed up, Mikhael whisked him away to who knew where. It seemed that they were going to get physical.

Wayne immediately put two and two together. Forest, who always agreed with whatever was said, was another replica of Mikhael. Pride had been staying in the mortal realm as a spectator.

Since Wayne was in a rush to share his information with the goddesses, he grabbed the Sacred Tome and left rather than seeking Mikhael out. Mikhael might have escaped Hell, but he couldn’t escape from Heaven. It was only a matter of time before the Anointed One took care of the Viceroy of Heaven.

Ines was the first to open the new Sacred Tome. She browsed the text and spotted Saint Silvia, then She saw that Saint Auston, Her Darkness Knight, was raising someone else’s child. She made a face and turned to Wayne with exasperation.

“What’s the meaning of this? Since when are you Elohim’s child?”

“Context matters. I’m not Elohim’s child. The Heavenly Father, the Anointed One, and the Holy Spirit form a trinity, with no hierarchy...” Wayne waved at Her. “It doesn’t matter. It’s just fiction for entertainment, so skip to the Revelation, the last chapter. It says everything about the Final Judgment.”

The four goddesses perked up and huddled together to read the new Sacred Tome, named ‘the New Testament’ by Mikhael.

Wayne crossed his arms and waited. When he saw the black and white knights from the corner of his eye, though, his attention was immediately drawn. He had had the thought for a while: Vichy, dressed in black, bore an incredible resemblance to Darienne, in all white. Better yet, they were rivals. If he could line them up in front of him and—

“Ahem!” Ines cleared Her throat with Her fist held to Her mouth—She used Her left hand, showing off Her ring again. There was no telling if the gesture was intentional.

Wayne looked back at Her. “Have you finished it, my goddess?”

“More or less. That and your conversation with Elian tell me about the final judgment...” Ines looked bitter. “The prophecy is false. Elohim has long prepared everything and even worked with Elian... But why would He write everything down in the Sacred Tome? How does it benefit him for us to be prepared?”

“Because this Sacred Tome isn’t Elohim’s prophecy. I made it up.”

That stunned the goddesses. Kaleb said bluntly, “You made it up? So the one who foresaw the future isn’t Elohim, but you?”

She asked what all the goddesses were curious about. Their imagination ran wild when they thought of the relationship between the Anointed One and the Heavenly Father, the fact that Elohim had laid down the groundwork, then Wayne wrote this book, and how they both went down the path of Astral evolution.

Once again, Kaleb voiced all their thoughts: “Is that you, Elohim?”

“Of course not,” Wayne said. “I have nothing to do with him. I’ve only offered some idea for reference in this Sacred Tome, and it happens to overlap with Elohim’s setup.”

It can’t be a coincidence! x4

The four goddesses shook their heads. The similar setup could be a coincidence, but not the identical names for the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

“I’m not Elohim. He’s still in the Chosen Land, while I merely seem connected to Him because of coincidences. I’m not related to Him,” Wayne said honestly. “If you don’t believe me, I can guess where He is. Just follow me to Hell.”

“Is Elohim in Hell?”

“Yes, very likely, according to my deduction.” Wayne adjusted his imaginary glasses. “Before learning magic, I was a renowned detective in Londan. I’ve always been good at deduction.”

“A renowned detective who was so poor you could have nothing but potatoes?” Aztimor asked dryly.

“How do you know?” Wayne asked in shock.

Aztimor simply pointed at Her head. Her Holy Maiden was Sukra, the first person from the magic world to pay attention to Wayne. In her memory, Wayne had had a potato phase.

“I wasn’t poor. I was in love, okay? Don’t you know Windsor? Potatoes are part of her culture!” Wayne stared at the goddesses seriously. “We’ll face formidable enemies on the Final Judgment, including the ones we know, Elohim and Elian. I hope that you’ll all work together and put aside your personal grudges. Once the Final Judgment concludes, I won’t stop you from doing anything.”

It had little effect. The four goddesses fell silent.

Ines pointed at the Revelation chapter and asked Wayne to explain why he was able to foresee the Four Horsemen.

He sighed. “There’s no point explaining it. Just come to Hell with me and find Elohim in His slumber, and you’ll know I didn’t lie.”

“If you didn’t lie, it would be too much of a coincidence.”

“That I agree...” Wayne frowned. Was the world outside the box... his original world?

Did Elohim come from outside the box?

***

Forbidden Zone of Remains.

Also known as the Land of the Forgotten or the Great Prison of the Forgotten, the special world was said to exist in the distant Astral Plane, forged by numerous demigod-level individuals according to the Church of Heavenly Father. It was a facility for the placement, imprisonment, and treatment of those who had been corrupted by knowledge.

It wasn’t a Divine Realm or a Divine Domain. It was more similar to a space within a Philosopher’s Stone—according to the Church of Heavenly Father’s records, at least.

The Forbidden Zone of Remains was connected to the mortal realm, with the Redleaf Asylum in Londan serving as one of the entrances. The asylum used to belong to the Church of Heavenly Father but was later claimed by the Ministry of Magic in Windsor. Whenever there was an insane person who couldn’t be cured, they would be tossed into the Forbidden Zone of Remains through the passage.

That was why it was also known as the Land of the Forgotten and the Great Prison of the Forgotten.

Due to its straightforward environment and it being the middle of nowhere with no profit to be made, it attracted little attention from the outside world. Only scholars who studied it knew that it was considered a grey space—a piece of a fallen Divine Realm.

No one knew which Divine Realm it had been.

It was a wasteland with no signs of life, filled only with infinite decay and whispers in the wind. The sky was perpetually shrouded by a layer of pale fog, and the ground was covered in broken rocks and dried riverbeds. The water that had run across the land had vanished, leaving only cracks on the ground.

There, even wind became scarce. On the rare chance that wind blew, it carried no dust, but a whisper with an unknown source.

A figure riding on a grey horse stepped into the Forbidden Zone of Remains, riding along the dried riverbank. The Horseman and horse stood out so much that a few predators approached.

They differed in form but shared their pallor, known in the world of magic as the Wanderers. It was said that Wanderers might turn into Astral Beasts as they wandered. The head of the Redleaf Asylum was a staunch advocate for the hypothesis.

Within the thick Death energy, the Wanderers following the Horseman turned to ashes. A figure riding a white horse emerged when the Death energy spread. He said with displeasure, “Death, it’s not yet time for you to descend. War has made an appearance first, and they will bring Death, Pestilence, and Famine.”

“I know. I don’t need your reminder.” Elian pulled down the hood obscuring Her face, looking at the Horseman of Pestilence, whose appearance remained hidden. “Where’s Elohim?” She asked coldly. “I want to meet him.”

“My old name was Elohim.”

“Ha, as if I’d believe you.”