CH 171 Always A Dragon Slayer

"Changing one's destiny can be very difficult but also very simple."

Theolde comforted Sisian, who was reporting the news to him. The candle was burning on the golden candlestick, and the light and shadow merged in a blur.

Sisian brought him unexpected news.

Herid City sent an urgent message through a special method, and as expected Queen Eleanor of Kriya led the alchemical knights to attack the Throne of God. After receiving the news, Sisian became very worried. He tried to communicate with Herid City again through special methods, but the contact was interrupted. They had no way of knowing what the situation was like at the Throne of God Pier.

"If the Holy Ark is destined to appear in this world, then even ten Kriyan queens leading ten cavalries of alchemist knights cannot change it."

"But how do we confirm whether the Holy Ark is destined to appear in this world?"

Sisian asked back, he didn't understand why Theolde could be so calm, as if Theolde actually didn't care at all whether the Holy Ark could arrive smoothly——but that was clearly the key to them turning the tide of the war.

"I think maybe my attitude caused you to misunderstand something. My dear old friend." Theolde smiled. He turned his head and glanced in the direction of Herid City, “The Holy Ark may be very important to our battle situation, but its real significance does not lie in how many cities it can help us destroy and how many people it can kill.”

"What do you mean?"

Sisian was confused. 

“I am only waiting for them to attack Herid City." Theolde put down the book, "Our old enemy was well hidden, and it wasn't until the evil dragon appeared again that the alchemist knights from a thousand years ago appeared on the battlefield. This was our oversight regarding Legrand's plan. Until this battle, I was still thinking about how to deal with this most brilliant invention of the alchemists."

Sisian vaguely captured something: "So Herid City is a trap? But..."

"Why did we choose to land at Porto Port?" Theolde asked rhetorically, but did not give Sisian a chance to answer. "A raid by the alchemical knights with terrifying offensive power and fast action is fatal towards the Holy Army movement organized by different armies. Our Knights Templar can't stop their charge, let alone an ordinary army? The real significance of the existence of Herid Port and the Throne of God Pier is to contain this terrifying army and prevent it from freely joining the battlefield.”

"Your real goal is not to summon the Holy Ark down onto this world, but to destroy the alchemist knights?"

Sisian was vaguely shocked.

"God will punish the world with His wrath when sinners do not repent." Theolde read out one of the teachings of the Holy See, "The Holy Ark is a ship of salvation and a ship of disaster. Those who destroy it… will be punished forever."

If the alchemical knights did not attack Herid City, then the Holy Ark would really come to reverse the situation of the war. If the alchemical knights did attack Herid City, they would be shattered into pieces together with the Holy Ark and the Throne of God.

This was a conspiracy.

Even if Legrand knew the truth, there was nothing they could do, because they simply could not bear the consequences of the Holy Ark descending on this earth.

"The Holy Lord protects us."

Sisian lightly drew a cross on his chest. He bowed and exited the Pope's chamber.

Theolde watched his friend leave and put the ancient scroll in his hand on the table. Sisian would have been astonished if he had seen the contents of the scroll he was reading. Because it recorded the miracles of the old gods believed by the Abyss Strait city-states and some related ancient prophecies. The Holy See had already defined these as "heresies" and strictly prohibited anyone from reading about them.

As the Pope, the spiritual symbol of the Holy See, Theolde should have thrown these scrolls into the holy fire and burned them.

"It is very difficult to change one's destiny." Theolde gazed at the past of the old gods, "Even the gods cannot escape death."

In the scroll, in simple drawing was depicted a doomsday scene in BC.

Temples collapsed, statues turned to dust, and the Kingdom of Gods in the sky crumbled.

"Let us see who will win against destiny in the end."

Theolde whispered to himself.

………………

The scholar of Kriya walked quickly through the ruins, stepping over the burned city and the dead bones on the ground, towards the Swan Harbor dock in Herid City. Eleanor did not let him participate in tonight's operation, but left him outside Herid City. Since then, the city was in complete ruins.

This was a scarred city, and its destruction was destined to be written into history.

The scholar witnessed the entire process of the city's destruction.

In fact, its destruction was in their prediction.

Tonight, they were preparing for the worst when attacking Herid City, so things were completely different from Eagle Beak Bay. According to the scholar's observations of the weather and corresponding stars in Herid City during this period, they have already understood that the nature of the “Throne of God” in Herid City was completely different from that of the “Throne of God” in Eagle Beak Bay. When the Holy Ark appeared in Eagle's Mouth Bay, there was a resonance caused by the almost complete Throne of God before it was destroyed, but the Throne of God in Herid City was purely built to summon the Holy Ark as quickly as possible.

The moment the throne was activated was the moment it was destroyed. They simply could not stop the arrival of the Holy Ark by destroying the throne.

Their only option was to destroy the Holy Ark as it arrived.

The process of the arrival of the Holy Ark was at the moment when the human world and the power of the collapsed Kingdom of Gods met. It was also the moment when space was the most chaotic and unstable. They only needed to destroy the passage, and there was a high chance that the incomplete Holy Ark would be destroyed in the turmoil of power. However, the ensuing problem was that the destruction of the Holy Ark was likely to trigger the arrival of another power.

The Holy Lord.

It was said that at the end of the legendary age, all the gods fell, but only the Holy Lord could always perform miracles on the earth through the Holy Court. The existence of the Holy Blessed Ones and the angelic hosts all proved that the Holy Lord had not completely fallen.

Regarding the divine punishments sent down by the Holy Lord on the earth, the clearest record in the holy book was related to a prophecy. A wise man made a prophecy outside a city gate that would be wiped from the world. That prophecy alarmed the Holy Lord, and He sent down thunder and fire, destroying the city overnight. From then on, the place where that ancient city was located was no longer inhabited.

But should they really bear such a price to destroy the Holy Ark? At the cost of a city, even if the city's population had long been depleted due to war.

"If the Holy Ark really comes, the land will become barren and the rivers will all dry up, not just one city will die." Eleanor said, "We always have to pay some price in exchange for victory. It was like this before, and it is how it will be in the future.”

So, he witnessed the scene when the Holy Ark was destroyed and the true divine punishment came.

The white, majestic Holy Ark had its mast broken in the violent whirlpool, and thousands of oars made of unknown divine bird wings scattered across the sky, as gorgeous as a meteor shower. Immediately afterwards, the entire space shook, and the city walls collapsed in the shaking. He felt it was difficult to stand even outside the city.

The world was filled with an ominous atmosphere. Thousands of thunderbolts fell from the sky, and the world was illuminated brightly at that moment. God wanted the people to witness their own destruction. The scene that happened long ago in the ancient city where the prophecy was born occurred again, and God vented His wrath with thunder and fire.

The divine power was so powerful that the buildings and houses in the entire city were destroyed and shattered one by one in the thunder. The fire burned close to the ground and the flames engulfed the city.

Like doomsday, like judgment.

By the time the thunder stopped, the entire city had been razed to the ground, with only flames burning on the ruins.

The city that was reduced to ruins was extremely silent.

Holding a crystal pendant, the scholar walked through the unextinguished fire and found Swan Harbor.

"Teacher."

He was searching among the ruins, where there were also scattered the wreckage of some holy ships. The faint white light emitted by the wreckage was a bit out of place among the scorched black surroundings.

The alchemist knights’ armors were also scattered on the ground.

The guardians of humans who once slept in the long night accomplished what they wanted to do. They eventually became the shield for mortals in the face of the wrath of gods. They fought for this while they were alive, and finally extinguished in this mission after their death. From now on, there were no more alchemists in this world.

The scholar trudged among the armor fragments on the ground, feeling dizzy.

"Teacher!"

He suddenly became ecstatic and staggered forward.

The black-haired queen sat quietly on the ruined pier, sitting among the alchemical armors on the ground. She was not dead.

"You...you…how wonderful, how wonderful..."

The scholar's words stopped abruptly.

"How could I die?"

The black-haired queen smiled.

Her child, her little Pureland. He only had so little. If she left, how much would her child have left then?

"Please don't leave me."

——This was her child’s only request.

As a mother, she would always fulfill the wishes of her child, including this.

The scholar felt as if his throat was blocked by cotton.

He looked at Queen Eleanor dazedly.

He didn’t know what method Eleanor used to survive such fearsome divine punishment. But he had already seen the price she paid——most of Eleanor's bones were exposed to the air, and the blood vessels and muscles wrapped around the white bones grew rapidly and then became torn apart by the remaining silver lightning in a never-ending cycle.

Life was constantly dying and growing on her body, her flesh and blood becoming a battlefield.

Just looking at it made one feel unbearable.

It would have been better to die.

Eleanor behaved as normal, as if she was not the one suffering unimaginable pain. She stood up from the ground, stretched out her hand which was a gruesome weave of bone and flesh, and asked for the cloak from her student, simply covering the body cursed by God.

"Don't tell him what happened," Eleanor said. "That's an order."

“As you will it."

The scholar nodded with difficulty.

Eleanor looked around: "Now, it's time to erect monuments for our warriors and bury them."

A touch of sadness flashed across her face.

The night was long and the fire was raging.

………………

There was a violent storm outside, and the sky and the earth lamented.

The dean of the Legrand Royal Academy of History and the Hanging Sword Earl Wally, stepped into the King's room dripping wet. He had rushed from the Rose Palace to this dangerous front line of the war without stopping.

"We have discovered what happened at the end of the Legendary Era." Earl Wally said crisply, his face pale, "We finally know the origin of the Holy Court."

The King glanced at the Head of the Households.

The Head of the Households left the room, shut the door, and from that moment no one was allowed to approach the King's chamber.

"Your Majesty, before that, please forgive me for my presumption." Earl Wally, who wore the badge of the Hanging Sword on his chest, spoke slowly but firmly. He looked directly at the King, "I want to know your opinion——"

"Will the warrior who slayed the dragon eventually become a dragon himself?"

The air fell silent.

“A dragon slayer will always be a dragon slayer."

The King said, as solemnly as swearing on his life.

Earl Wally bowed deeply to him:

"Then I shall begin the story."