Chapter 224: Humiliation of Mytilene (5)
「The night settled over the grasslands.
Four figures sat around a bonfire.
“Can day and night exist together?”
The Sage’s question silenced the Hero.
Beside him, the Sorcerer King sat with his arms crossed, quietly nodding, while the Last Saintess, seemingly indifferent, dusted her mace.
The Sage snapped his fingers towards the young Hero who had fallen into this world.
Snap.
A circle formed in the air, dividing itself into four pieces.
“Unfortunately, Spring is dead. We might be able to awaken it if we eliminate ‘all the kings of this world’ and God looks upon this place again……”
The Sage flung the topmost quarter of the circle far away.
“But that’s impossible for now.”
The Sorcerer King accomplishes anything with his power.
The Sage, on the other hand, determines whether what he deems impossible truly is.
He possessed the power of Omniscience, allowing him to instantly discern even the faintest glimmer of hope.
Therefore, John Doe nodded in agreement with the Sage’s assertion.
“And fortunately, Summer has chosen us.”
The Sage’s eyes moved downwards.
The golden short sword hanging at John Doe’s waist glimmered.
〈Sacred Treasures of the Four Seasons〉.
A symbol of God’s promise for the beginning and the end of this world.
Their creation, their form – nothing was known, not even to the Sage. However, he knew the value of the 〈Sacred Treasures of the Four Seasons〉.
“And Autumn did not reject us.”
Swish.
The three turned their heads towards the Last Saintess.
She, who had been meticulously cleaning the chain of her mace with a feather duster, smiled gently.
Flash.
The Holy Crown, ‘Autumn,’ on her head shone brightly.
“But Winter has rejected us.”
“……”
The reason the four of them gathered was because of the magic sword, ‘Winter’. They located and sought it out, but ‘Winter’ coldly pushed them away.
【You have your God’s promise, so I will lend you my power. But that’s all.】
With an icy voice that seemed to embody winter itself, ‘Winter’ rejected John Doe and his companions.
John drew ‘Summer’ and tried to persuade her once more, but the holy sword almost snapped in half at ‘Winter’s furious reaction.
At that point, they knew they could no longer persuade ‘Winter’.
“Fortunately, you can wield the power of ‘Winter’ even without holding the magic sword, so three of the Four Seasons reside within you.”
“……Yes.”
John Doe clenched and unclenched his fists.
‘Summer’ glimmered at his side as if to reassure him, but it wasn’t enough to brighten his dark eyes.
“I believe that just as day and night cannot exist together, perhaps summer and winter cannot coexist either.”
It was an uncharacteristically uncertain statement from the Sage, who always had a definite answer.
The Sorcerer King, who had been listening silently, nodded.
“Indeed, conceptually, summer and winter cannot exist simultaneously, just like day and night.”
“That’s probably why the magic sword lends us its power due to the promise with God, but cannot join us.”
“……”
John Doe remained silent.
But he had a hunch.
That both the Sage and the Sorcerer King were wrong.
“Perhaps that’s only half true.”
It was the Saintess.
She smiled in satisfaction as she rolled up her now-clean mace and placed it in her pink carrier.
“Because God embraced all four seasons.”
“You mean that because Spring exists, all four seasons can coexist as they cycle?”
The Sage posed a sharp question.
The Saintess shrugged.
“I wouldn’t know about that. But when God brought forth the seasons, the beginning and the end of this world, there were no such restrictions.”
“Then it seems we are lacking.”
They laughed bitterly.
It was disheartening that even with the most skilled individuals in the human realm gathered, the symbols of God rejected them.
“Or perhaps……”
John Doe lifted his head.
Countless stars twinkled above them as if blessing them, and the Milky Way stretched across the black sky like spilled milk.
“We are not worthy of embracing it all.”
“Embrace?”
“It is said that any story can be summarized in a single sentence. If it cannot, then it’s scattered and disorganized.”
“A single sentence……”
“From what I’ve…… learned, if it cannot be encompassed by a Metadiscourse, then that is its limit.”
John Doe mumbled, covering up his near-mistake, and rose from his seat.
The Hero holding the holy sword.
His back to the starry sky.
The loneliness of having crossed over from another world, untouched by God’s gaze.
“It seems our story is like day and night, where summer and winter cannot coexist.”
“Then someday……”
The Sorcerer King stared into the blazing bonfire.
The Sage, imagining the grand narrative that even his Omniscience couldn’t decipher, spoke.
“Perhaps a story of the Four Seasons will unfold, where dead Spring returns, summer and winter coexist, and even autumn cycles.”
“Someday, indeed.”
John Doe also looked back at the bonfire.
He stretched out his hand, as if to cup the flames.
Winter may have rejected him, but its power resided within him nonetheless.
It was a start.
And anything that didn’t bend to his will, he would simply incinerate.」
🔹🔹🔹
Cain jumped straight into the hole he had created.
Nicholas and the reporters also rushed to peer into the tunnel the Hero had just made.
A pristine ice cave stretched deep below.
The walls were covered in white ice, as if they had been frozen for eons, giving the impression of a tunnel carved through a glacier.
“Please come down slowly.”
And down below.
Cain stood, looking as small as a finger from their vantage point.
“Acting manager, do you have any comment regarding…”
The reporters, their faces etched with astonishment, shoved their recording Communication Orbs towards Nicholas.
But Nicholas was in no state to answer.
“How can a Hero wielding a holy sword create something like ice?”
He racked his brains.
He knew better than anyone the security measures protecting this underground facility.
Even a meteor impact wouldn’t leave a scratch… yet it had been frozen solid with extreme cold and then shattered with brute force.
A scene straight out of the heart of winter.
“Could it be that summer and winter……”
Nicholas shook his head.
Knowing the whereabouts of the magic sword, he was certain Cain hadn’t come into contact with it.
But if not, how could he have accomplished such a feat?
How else could he have weakened the bedrock with freezing before shattering it, if not with the power of the magic sword, ‘Winter’?
“Let’s go!”
Nicholas shouted, jumping into the tunnel without hesitation.
“Yes, sir!”
His burly guards followed suit.
The reporters stared blankly for a moment before…
“No matter how you look at it, it seems like they’re trying to cover up evidence.”
Aurelia’s words snapped them back to reality.
The age of reason and logic.
An era where magic and swords were no longer revered as they once were.
Having never witnessed such a grand spectacle, they blinked in astonishment before diving into the tunnel themselves.
“We have to film this before the acting manager destroys the evidence!”
“This is huge, a real scoop!”
“The true faces of the Seven Wise Men are right here!”
Or rather, a burning ambition pushed them forward.
Swoosh.
Aurelia made a small sign of the cross and cast a protective spell on them.
The reporters, lacking in physical prowess, were bound to get hurt if left unattended.
“Cardinal.”
A priest clad in black addressed her in a low voice. Aurelia turned her head slightly as he whispered.
“Are you sure about this?”
“……”
If what lay below was revealed, the public would focus on the Commons’ treatment of witches.
Connecting them to the Seven Wise Men and exposing their atrocities was acceptable.
However, the problem was that the Holy See itself wasn’t innocent when it came to witches.
They had employed witch hunters in the past and even dispatched their own heresy inquisitors to massacre witches.
For the Holy See, who had condemned them as heretics and called for their deaths, having the witch issue resurface was far from ideal.
“There have always been debates about whether witches are truly heretics.”
As the overseer of the Holy See’s knowledge, Aurelia herself harbored doubts about witches truly being heretics.
Other clergymen shared similar sentiments.
However, since it was explicitly stated in the ‘Scripture of Light,’ it remained unspoken and unchallenged.
For even the slightest refutation of the Scripture could cast doubt on its other pronouncements.
“We shall return to the Holy See immediately. And formally submit this matter as an agenda item for the upcoming 〈Autumn Council〉.”
“……! Cardinal, that’s……”
“I am aware.”
It was a move that could potentially jeopardize Aurelia’s own position.
Throwing a bomb into an empire already divided.
Raising the issue of witches’ heresy at the 〈Autumn Council〉, where clergymen and theologians from all over the world gathered for open discussion, was a significant gamble.
“But if the Hero is always fighting, then I must do my part as well.”
“Witches are witches. Even if there are innocent ones among them……”
“If even one innocent soul exists, shouldn’t we embrace them with the light?”
Aurelia smiled faintly.
It was an expression she could never have mustered before meeting Cain.
“Besides, with one already awakened as the Demon King and most of the other Demon Kings having appeared, the justification for persecuting witches no longer exists.”
Perhaps the dire situation would make things easier.
Aurelia watched as the reporters descended before following suit.
“All things are by the light.”
The black-clad priest made a small sign of the cross and followed her.
🔹🔹🔹
“…”
Cain frowned.
Nicholas, on the other hand, was all smiles.
“It seems there was something here.”
“There’s nothing.”
The reporters looked around the underground space with puzzled expressions.
The field where ‘pureum’ had been cultivated was understandable.
And when Cain boldly opened the door there, revealing the storage area for the witches’ fragments, they had been filled with anticipation.
Woooosh—
There were tanks.
However, contrary to Lourens’s words, there were no eyes, noses, ears, organs, or fingers of witches to be found. Only a piercing blue light emanated from within.
The crucial evidence was missing.
“Well, it seems the hero was mistaken.”
Nicholas inwardly cursed Purple’s plan but decided to approve of it.
Thanks to the removal of the witches’ fragments stored in Mytilene’s underground to feed the devil, they were able to deceive Cain.
“……”
Cain slowly looked around.
[‘Summer’ says that these guys moved really fast.]
[‘Winter’ says that there is something over there.]
His violet eyes gleamed.
Beyond the tanks that stood like trees in a forest, a small tank came into view.
Tap.
A faint sound reached his ears.
Cain walked towards it without hesitation, the reporters and Nicholas trailing behind like a cloud.
Tap, tap—
It was a tiny finger.
Judging by its shape, it was an index finger, but it was incredibly small, like that of a child.
The index finger, hidden in a tiny gap beneath the tank, desperately tapped on the glass as Cain approached.
“……!”
Nicholas, shocked that they had missed a finger, was aghast.
“It’s a witch’s finger!”
The reporters excitedly raised their magic cameras.
Like the final sparks of a shooting star, the finger, with the last of its strength, pointed further inwards.
As if the witches’ resentment couldn’t be erased, no matter how hard the Seven Wise Men tried.
“Alright.”
Cain made a small vow.
He had heard the prayer of the tiny finger.
The Hero had listened.
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