Explosives?"
Alger, the "Hanged Man," was startled by the "magician's" description and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.
His intuition told him that the explosives chosen by the "angel with the lamp" were not the same as the gunpowder products he knew.
"Explosives?"
Fortunately, the "world" has raised the same question.
Klein also couldn't understand why Zarathustra would plant explosives around the Backlund branch as a "contingency plan".
Did this angelic "fortune teller" foresee some possible future and decide to protect the secrets buried underground by self-destructing when the branch was about to fall?
This is not incomprehensible.
Based on the setting of the underground section of the archipelago, the Ark of the Backlund branch is also likely equipped with a sealing artifact of the "Mystic" pathway as its core, directly communicating with the true creator body far away in the southern continent.
To take it a step further, perhaps the foundation of the Backlund branch's Ark is an angelic attribute from the "Mystic" pathway.
With Zarathustra's abilities, coupled with the high-sequence mobility of the "Apprentices," it wouldn't be a problem to teleport away the vast majority of the branch's members, including classified files and collections, before self-destruction.
They could easily leave the Rune government with nothing but a worthless ruin... a trap that might contain a newly awakened "divine vessel" waiting for its prey.
The people of Trensost, believers of the true Creator, are very skilled in divine initiation rituals, a fact that Klein has personally verified.
Faced with the questions from two fellow members, "The Magician" Fors was unable to provide a definitive answer.
"I have no right to know about the contents of the Ark of the Sacred Relic."
"Within the department, there is a strict ranking system based on sequence and seniority. This ranking is confirmed by the members of the High Council through consultation, excluding factors such as family background. Even if one is a descendant of an angel family, one is not allowed to enter the outermost part of the Holy Ark before the sixth sequence."
"So how do you ordinary members borrow sealed items?" "Justice" Audrey asked curiously.
She had heard Constance, who worked for MI9, vaguely mention that MI9 members could apply to temporarily use sealed artifacts held by the department when carrying out dangerous missions.
The "magician" glanced at her and said in the same tone.
"The Ark is the core of the branch. The branch does not only have one facility for containing sealed objects. In other places, some safe houses under the responsibility of group leaders are equipped with level 3-2 sealed objects, which are low-sequence and mid-sequence level sealed objects. Those are the ones we can apply for."
Sure enough, no wonder I only saw "The Victims," "The Redeemers," and "The Three-Headed Church" in the Ark of the Archipelago branch... Klein nodded slightly.
Then it suddenly occurred to him that although he had obtained partial permission for the Ark, he seemed to have never heard of any other facilities that contained sealed objects.
Although he hardly needs to access other sealed items.
Regardless of their power, sealed artifacts always come with negative effects. The "Crawling Hunger" in his hand corresponds to the "Shepherd." As long as the shepherding soul is switched, it can achieve a certain degree of "omnipotence," and it only has one negative effect: "feeding."
The key is that I can still buy on credit, and "the creeping hunger" won't get angry with me... Klein breathed a sigh of relief, looked at "the sun," and changed the subject.
"Did you find anything in the Grand Librarian's archives?"
Derrick did not disappoint him; looking at everyone, he said sincerely:
"Yes, the Grand Librarian's collection contains far more documents than I expected, and I also discovered a strange mural."
"Um, it was Elder Lovia who guided me. She is the only demigod in our Silver City who did not follow the 'giant' pathway."
A female demigod who is not a "warrior"?
Klein's brown eyes darted around, and the "world" hidden under his hood probed.
"Is that Elder Lovia a 'Black Knight' from the 'Mystic' pathway?"
"Yes, Mr. 'World'." Derrick was quite surprised, not expecting that "World" had guessed Lovia's true sequence so quickly.
Could the strange murals inside the Grand Librarian's Archives be something the true Creator deliberately showed to the little "sun"...? Klein wasn't sure, so he let Derrick continue.
"After entering the city of Shanmen, the chief did not visit the Grand Library with us. He and the leader of Shanmen City seemed to be discussing something."
"Elder Lovia, who is temporarily acting as the team leader, divided us into several groups. After setting a meeting time, she allowed us to move freely. Elder Lovia and I happened to be in the same group."
As he spoke, Derrick first looked at "the world," and then turned towards "justice."
"I mainly read the sections that record the legends of the ancient gods and the history books of the Glorious Era... Well, Elder Lovia was standing in the hall admiring the mural when I entered the bookshelf area, and she didn't move until I returned to the hall."
"It was already a little past the agreed time, and I thought the elder would scold me, so I wanted to admit my mistake. But she just nodded and invited me to admire the mural together."
"Because it was in the Grand Library, the mountain city that inherited the purity and glory of the Lord, I had no doubt that the elder might have been bewitched by evil, so I went to see it."
"So, what exactly does that painting depict?"
Fors couldn't wait any longer; as a seasoned novelist and intelligence agent, she sensed a big secret.
Derrick swallowed hard, his expression suddenly becoming solemn, and he straightened his back with a mixture of awe and excitement.
"That painting records the end of the Dark Ages, when the Creator unified the world and drove out the brutal ancient gods."
"It is also a painting that records the last moments of the glorious era, when the loyalists faced the rebellion of three kings who raised an army, and bravely and unyieldingly practiced the glory of the Lord."
"It occupies the entire dome of the hall, and its contents span the beginning and end of the Glorious Era. It should have been added after the Great Cataclysm when the Lord of the Mountain Gate City was repairing the damaged Grand Library."
Blinding light, almost tangible, shone in Derrick's mind. It spontaneously coalesced, rising above the faint flame that symbolized Derrick's spirit, and dispelling the corrupted parts of the flame.
"Elder Lovia wanted me to focus on appreciating the last part of the painting, which corresponds to the Great Cataclysm."
"There are three blurry figures above, corresponding to the three fallen kings. Some of them hold thunder and ride storms, some hold books and sit on white towers, and some bear the blazing sun and are scorching hot. The last one is exactly the same as the image I saw in an old painting in the ruins of the afternoon town. His past title was probably 'Pure White Angel'."
"It's the 'Eternal Sun'..." Klein calmly assessed.
There's really no need for any judgment; it's too obvious.
The Church of the True Creator has always referred to three of the seven gods as traitors. Anyone with discerning eyes can see by listing visions such as thunder, books, and the sun which played a dishonorable role in the Great Cataclysm and subsequently stole the Creator's glory.
Of course, we shouldn't only listen to one side of the story; there's also the possibility that the Creator himself fell and the three gods saved humanity.
However, judging from what happened later, especially the choices made by the three gods during the Pale Catastrophe at the end of the Fourth Age, the possibility of the Creator falling into depravity is actually the smallest.
The true creator may be mad, or cruel, and how much of this is a consequence of that rebellion, or the influence of the "Hanged Man," the only remaining negative influence... Klein has no way of knowing.
Legend has it that when the Creator was born, He hunted down the ancient gods to reclaim His power, but He held two of them firmly in His hands from beginning to end and never lost them.
"The Sun" and "The Hanged Man"... Klein suspected that among Trensost's strategic goals, the preparation for godhood of Rune was far from being the top priority; Intis, who believed in the "Sun," was the most important.
They've already rehearsed it once in Intis, haven't they, if Rosell hadn't failed...
etc!
Klein suddenly recalled a piece of information he had received at the last Tarot gathering. He remembered that Rosell had mentioned in his diary that even if he kept a close watch on the "Faceless Man" around him, the new research of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery would still be stolen. Meanwhile, despite being closed off from the world, Trensus never fell behind in the world's development and was even more advanced in some areas.
This… a crazy conjecture was presented to Klein, but he didn't dare to look into it.
That said, the "God of Steam and Machinery" only became a god at the end of the Fourth Age, and never had any conflict with the true creator...
Derrick's story continues.
"That part of the painting vaguely records the general process of the rebellion; the only detailed part is the 'Giant's Court,' which serves as the background of the painting."
"Legend has it that the rebellion was plotted there and started there."
"Besides the participants in the rebellion, there are two other figures in the painting: one is a defender against the rebels, and the other is an object being punished."
Finally, getting to the point, Derrick, beaming with excitement, even waved his hand and uttered the names of the two shadows.
"The one being punished is Bradel, the youngest son of the giant king who once publicly denounced the Lord; the one who defended against the rebels, and who also inherited Bradel's crown and resolutely defended the Lord's honor, is His Highness Milgongen, the former leader of the 'Royal Court Hunters,' known as the 'Light Slayer'!"
"He became the new 'Glory One' during the rebellion and still holds fast on the Eastern Continent, right there in the 'Giant's Court' that we are planning to visit."
"It turns out that there was an angel of the Lord who had been watching over the Eastern Continent all along; He had never left!"
Silence fell over the long table at the party, broken only by Derrick's excited, high-pitched voice.
Most of the people at the gathering live in the normal world and find it hard to understand what the watchful eye of an angel truly means.
In the Eastern Continent, some residents had known for a long time that their homeland was called "the land forsaken by the gods" by outsiders, but they had never acknowledged it.
The Lord is still watching over us; He has not abandoned us. By what right do you cast us into the separate category of those abandoned by God, labeling all the victims who have held fast to the Eastern Continent with a wretched and disgusting "land of God's forsakenness"?
Despite firmly holding this belief, most of the residents of the Eastern Continent still harbored a slight lack of confidence.
The "Angels of the Word" would patrol between city-states every so often, but more often than not, they would encounter dangers in the darkness and could only rely on their swords to solve them, praying that the Lord, who suffers in place of humanity, could spare some energy amidst all difficulties to save the mortals who believe in Him.
Miracles are rare and hard to come by. Almost everyone in the Eastern Continent thought how wonderful it would be if there were an angel of the Lord who could reside here permanently.
They never voiced this expectation, because they also knew that the Lord's angels and their fellow believers faced a far more brutal war on the outside, fighting against evil gods, rebellion, and heresy.
So they endured silently, united as one, and survived one decade after another.
Until 121 years before the Council of Five Hundred Cities was convened.
The first rays of dawn pierced the eternal night, tearing apart a monster that nearly slaughtered the entire city-state. At that time, people knew nothing of the savior's identity and naively attributed it to the Lord's mercy.
It wasn't until such things happened repeatedly in what was considered a barren land even in the Eastern Continent that some people finally became aware of His existence.
First came the people living in the valley, then the leaders of the various city-states. As the city-state tasked with recording, the City of the Mountain Gate recorded His image and name in the Grand Scriptures, placing Him in the same hall as the angels, praising His virtues.
This is Milgongen, the "Light Killer".
Without Him, half of the five hundred city-states might have disappeared in just two hundred years, leaving only twenty of the larger ones.
Younger generations like Derrick, living in powerful city-states, often had the opportunity to see the "Angel of the Word," but few had heard of Milgongen's name; his faith was mainly scattered in the central part of the Eastern Continent.
After all, that angel disliked others praising him and never revealed his identity.
Finally, after a brief silence, the most quick-thinking "magician" was the first to react, followed closely by Audrey, who had been fond of browsing myths from various countries and had read the legend of the giant Furst. The two asked the question almost simultaneously.
"Royal Court Hunters..."
"You mean the hunters inside the 'Giant's Court'?"
"Is that prince a pure-blooded giant?"
The last question was asked by "The Magician" Fors.
She knew that there were several non-human forces in the Empire.
"Yes," Derrick replied quickly.
As a descendant of giants in some sense, he simply couldn't contain his heartfelt joy and excitement.
"Prince Milgongen initially followed the giant king Ormir, fighting against wolves, monsters, elves, and dragons. Later, he submitted to the Lord and joined the Lord's royal guard. He never betrayed the Lord and was given the title of 'Angel of Justice'."
No wonder Fors and Derrick were so amazed, since in the Creator's holy book, the experiences of some angels were only briefly mentioned, with only abstract symbols and titles bestowed by the Lord for believers to worship.
Without the aid of historical accounts, who would have imagined that the renowned "Angel of Justice" was actually a bloodthirsty giant?
Unlike the other members who were still in shock, Klein was somewhat detached from his rationality.
He noticed that the codename and title of "Light Killer" Milgongan were quite interesting.
In the Third Age, the Creator is the embodiment of light. His proclamation caused the sun to appear, and its light shone on the earth. So, which "light killer" does Milgongen intend to kill?
The term "angel of justice" is a Christian term that aligns with the Creator's consistent style. It likely refers to the state that can only be achieved after a person completes atonement and is a result of complete renewal and sanctification.
The latter corresponds to Milgongen's conversion to the Creator, but what if this "justice" is the former?
What crimes did Mirgongen bear?
Was His stay in the Eastern Continent also a process of atonement?