Chapter 552 - 16: World
Divine Spirit.
’If this referred to Oriane, then in Murphy’s memory, obtaining power from Oriane was a Path. Spreading and embodying Her teachings allowed one to gradually gain strength.’
’As for Elementalization—which the Church Court called Sanctification—it was the process of uniting with Oriane as one’s own morality and Spirituality became sanctified through walking the Path.’
No matter how complex all of that sounded, Murphy could summarize it in a single phrase.
The unity of knowledge and action.
’Understand what you think, then act on it. Establish your own anchor, and you can safely endure the loss of self caused by Dao Transformation.’
’Does Oriane need believers?’
’The Holy Scripture of the Old Realm stated it clearly: "The God who made the universe and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else."’
’She doesn’t. It is people who need Oriane.’
’But regardless, Oriane was just one Path to obtaining power.’
’You didn’t even need Her to be real.’
Yet here in the New Realm, Murphy had not seen any Priests who gained power by following Oriane’s Path. Instead, he had heard excerpts from a Holy Scripture completely different from the one in the Old Realm.
Furthermore, in the Nightmare World, he had encountered beings who explicitly referred to the existence of Divine Spirits like Oriane and Dumasong.
Oriane was even called a "false god."
’Of course, whether She was false or not wasn’t important.’
’It was standard practice for every Divine Spirit to denigrate the others as false gods.’
What was important—and rather interesting—was the series of descriptions used for Oriane: "the one who stole light and dreams, who brings eternal night and maddening nightmares."
Murphy continued forward through the darkness, mulling over these thoughts.
The abyss on either side of the stone path remained, but the torrent of gray-skinned people was finally beginning to thin.
Up ahead, the constant "CLANG! CLANG!" of metal striking metal and the searing heat gradually weakened, replaced by a profound silence.
After walking a bit further, there were no more gray-skinned people ahead.
Murphy glanced back. The gray-skinned people were still sparse here, growing denser further along the path in the direction of the procession.
But behind him, the ranks remained sparse.
And the spacing of this sparseness was unnervingly uniform.
Three meters away, the gray-skinned people were spaced two meters apart.
Ten meters away, they were one meter apart.
Thirty meters away, they were half a meter apart.
It was all incredibly... uniform.
’Wait!’
’Where are the gray-skinned people coming from?’
’If the furnace represents the end point, where they are culled...’
’...then what about the starting point?’
’Why is it that even after I’ve walked to the empty end of the path, the spacing remains unchanged when I look back?’
Murphy clearly remembered what the last gray-skinned person looked like, and the second to last, and even the third and fourth.
They were still the first, second, third, and fourth from the end.
By all rights, the distance between them should have changed as they moved.
But it hadn’t.
Neither had their distance from Murphy.
To Murphy’s eyes, it *looked* like the gaps between them were shrinking and that they were moving away from him.
But as soon as he shifted his gaze and looked back, or even let his mind wander for a moment, everything would snap back to its original state.
’Unchanging? A reversion?’
’No beginning and no end.’
Murphy stopped thinking about it. To him, this Dumasong wasn’t necessarily a good thing, but Oriane wasn’t necessarily dangerous either.
He turned his gaze back to the end of the path ahead, where a cave mouth leaking faint white light had appeared.
It was about two men tall, and the light from outside was filtering in through it.
Beyond the opening, he could vaguely make out a barren, rocky landscape and, further in the distance, a gloomy sky.
Without the slightest hesitation, Murphy strode out.
He emerged onto a relatively open platform.
At the edge of the platform stood seven or eight figures, their backs to the cave mouth, gazing at the scene below.
They were dressed in varied attire: gleaming half Plate Armor, a deep blue Magic Robe, brown Leather Armor, a longbow slung across a back... One of them, seen in profile, had sharp features and pointed ears.
’An elf?’
Murphy’s gaze lingered on the pointed ears for a moment.
"What are those things? Gray Dwarves? Or some other kind of monster?" came the voice of the Elf Ranger, Lelas.
"Whatever they are, the Spatial Positioning Magic couldn’t be wrong. This is it..." Elvin, the one in the deep blue Magic Robe, sounded urgent yet tinged with excitement. "Dumasong’s furnace... the place where the purifying flames rise..."
Their leader, Captain Keynes, frowned deeply, his hand resting on his sword hilt as he silently stared at the gray procession below.
Just then, a voice from behind them shattered their concentration.
"Interesting."
Everyone on the platform started, spinning around abruptly!
Lelas was the fastest. The instant the voice sounded, he had already spun, stepped back, and nocked an arrow to his bow. The entire sequence was a single, fluid motion, the arrowhead instantly locking onto the source of the sound.
A dark figure who had appeared at the edge of the cave behind them at some unknown moment.
The others instantly went on alert.
Captain Keynes took half a step forward, shielding Elvin behind him. Though his Longsword remained sheathed, the veins on his gripping hand bulged slightly.
Several guards quickly fanned out, cutting off any potential routes of advance or retreat.
Milton, wrapped in a gray cloak, lifted his head slightly. A faint glint seemed to flash from within the shadows of his hood.
Every gaze was now fixed on Murphy.
Surprise, caution, astonishment, and a faint, almost imperceptible trace of horror.
They hadn’t sensed anyone approaching from behind at all!