Chapter 503 - 110: The Sun Falls
The Sanctuary. A Half-Plane.
On a relatively solid, milky-white cloud platform, Noe VII sat meditating in a traditional ascetic posture.
His plain white linen robe was spotless. His frame was gaunt yet straight as a pine, his hands forming a seal as they rested on his knees. With his eyelids lowered, his breathing was long and almost inaudible.
Even trapped in this eternal, lonely cage of clouds, even with the Papal throne long since passed to another, he adhered to his inner discipline and practice, just as he had for decades in the meditation chambers of the Church Court.
Just then, an incredibly faint voice slipped into his ear—or more accurately, echoed directly in the depths of his consciousness:
"Noe VII... great Holy Throne, a prisoner ’invited’ to ’meditate’ by your own loyal Cardinals... Can you feel it, too? That nauseating scent of change from the outside world... The knowledge of Wizards is defiling the holy land of Oriane..."
The instant the voice sounded, Noe VII’s eyes snapped open!
His response was a fist that suddenly clenched, its knuckles turning white, and a subsequent burst of brilliant golden light condensed purely from faith and Holy Power!
BOOM!
The cloud platform beneath him, along with a vast swath of the surrounding milky-white mist, exploded under the terrifying gale and Energy blast from his punch!
An enormous void over fifty meters in diameter instantly appeared in the sea of clouds. The roiling cloud waves looked as if an unseen behemoth had taken a vicious bite out of them, and for a long time, they could not settle.
The beguiling voice that had just spoken was also completely shattered by the shockwave from this eruption of pure power.
"Stop! Noe VII! I didn’t come here to cause trouble!" a flustered and terrified voice hastily re-formed farther away, sounding pathetic. "We’d thank our lucky stars if you didn’t come looking for trouble with us! Why would I ever be stupid enough to come and provoke you?!"
Noe VII slowly withdrew his fist, his stance as steady as a mountain, letting the violent air currents swirl his graying hair and simple linen robe.
His gray eyes gazed calmly in the direction where the voice had reappeared. There was only roiling mist, no physical form to be seen:
"Speak."
The voice seemed to let out a sigh of relief and hurriedly said, "I’ve come to ask you to join forces! Noe VII, something terrible has happened! The Enchanting Witch Margaret and the Mechanical Witch Othilia—those two outrageous traitors! They teamed up to raid the slumbering lair of ’Bone-Eroding’ Iskander, and they’ve killed that half-dead old monster for good, seizing his ’Withered Heart’!"
The voice paused, as if observing Noe VII’s reaction, then its speech quickened. "They didn’t seize the legacy for themselves! They’re going to forcibly tear open a temporary Plane Passage at a weak point in the Sanctuary to send the Withered Heart out! Out to that Holy Sword Murphy!"
"Do you know what that means? That legacy is enough to elevate his Spiritual Power to a terrifying level in a short amount of time! It might even help him stabilize his consciousness and resist Elementalization! When that happens, he’ll be able to permanently establish himself in the Old Realm, rule the Church Court forever, and wantonly spread the ways of the Wizards to every corner of the Continent! Noe VII, is this something you can tolerate?!"
Noe VII listened quietly, his expression as tranquil as an old well.
Seeing him seem unmoved, the voice grew urgent. "Think about it, Noe VII! Back then, you and Cyril worked together, coordinating from inside and out to blow up and seal the passage to the Sanctuary at all costs! Why did you lock us in here? Wasn’t it to stop us from entering the mortal world and prevent its destruction?"
"To be more practical, once the ways of the Wizards successfully spread under Murphy’s promotion and become the widely accepted ’righteous path,’ the path of Oriane that you uphold, the old order you represent, and the power you draw from them... will all melt away like snow in the sun! I know you don’t fear death. But at that point, you will lose even the power to stand guard here and keep us sealed away! Your life’s conviction will become utterly meaningless!"
At these words, Noe VII finally reacted.
He slowly rose from the re-formed cloud platform, his gray eyes fixed on the source of the voice as he shook his head.
"It seems you still don’t understand me."
"My ’path’ is not merely to keep you locked in here. My ’vow’ is certainly not to maintain the ’old order’ as you understand it."
His voice gradually rose in volume:
"My vow is to bring to this world the ’Age of Divine Revelation’ prophesied in the Holy Scripture of Truth—Oriane’s true gift. That will be an age where wisdom is accessible, where truth is manifest, where all beings can fulfill their potential and find their proper place in light and order. Ignorance, fear, oppression, and the monopolization and distortion of power and knowledge are all contrary to the meaning of that revelation."
He paused, a sharp light flashing in his gray eyes.
"Oh, and Calvin? You can die now."
"Wha—" The hoarse voice let out a cry of disbelief.
Before the sound had even faded, Noe VII’s figure vanished from where he stood!
The next moment, like an eagle swooping down on its prey, he charged straight into a seemingly calm patch of milky-white mist to his front and side!
"Noe VII! You’re insane!" Calvin’s piercing shriek erupted as that patch of cloud began to boil violently!
An endless, dark green gale, exuding an aura of wither and decay, surged madly from every fissure in the mist!
This wind carried a terrifying aura of rot, decay, and the devouring of all life. Wherever it passed, even the eternally flowing cloud Qi seemed to lose its vitality, turning gray and dim.