The blinding light was boundless. It set Raphael’s mind into a resting state, like a net caught his drifting soul between the ever-changing reality and an eternal still dream. The white light was warm and somehow familiar. Seeing it made Raphael feel as if an anchor somewhere deep in his consciousness was being hooked toward it, then his heart suddenly longed for the light – as if longing for his home of origin.
Raphael dropped his guard involuntarily, forgetting the pain and tiredness from before.
In the curtain of white light that he was seeing, a dark cube suddenly appeared. It made its way into his consciousness like a boulder slowly slid down the flowing river. Raphael could feel his thoughts like the river water cycling the object. His thoughts were still clear: he wanted to snap out of the current state. However, Raphael was unable to make actions accordingly.
“Something is being injected into my soul…”
The words spoken by his mind lost its supposed-to-be uneasiness emotion. Raphael was being dazed no matter what he tried to do just like a fool...
The dark cube that invaded his consciousness had a marble-like surface. Pitch black and crimson patterns were weaving with each other into a net that covered the smooth cube's sides. Raphael noticed a flash of white inside the matrix. The white color was bouncing around to avoid the grasp of crimson and darkness. Wherever the splash of white color emerged, the matrix shrank into a vortex to isolate it, trying to bury the white color beneath the red and black crisscrossing. Yet the white flash always managed to escape every time. It seemingly had intelligence of its own that it always discovered gaps in that dense arrangement to change location at perfect times.
Raphael yearned for that white color uncontrollably, as if there was an unknown force that drove his psychological desire. His mind clearly knew the abnormality - yet he was unable to resist or even feel scared.
The white flash seemed to establish a connection through his thinking. Right before the red and black vortex could completely engulf it, the white flash suddenly shot out from the cube into Raphael’s river of thoughts.
A voice then reverberated in his head.
Its language was old and profound. The sound traversed through every single cell on his body, resonating with the life force in Raphael - just like an echo of nature from a long-lost history!
“--- --”
The blinding light and the cube before Raphael’s eyes disappeared as he fainted.
…
When the Saint opened his eyes again, he found himself lying between the mess that he created. His body had no serious injury except the nose bleeding.
Raphael checked his pocket watch. Only ten minutes had passed.
“Phew!”
He exhaled in relief. Thankfully, he awoke early that nobody had found out what he had done.
Obviously, doing something like divination without the Goddess’s approval would be considered a taboo in the Peace temple.
Raphael returned the medium – the glass sphere back to the offering table beneath the Goddess’s feet.
The huge statue was still looking down at Her believers in benevolence, with an everlasting bouquet in Her hands, She would bless the people from Her divine kingdom as stated in the Bible of Peace.
“…”
The Saint tiredly cleaned up his mess and sat down on the wooden bench in the prayer hall.
Candles were melting down. The tips of flame swayed gently in the flow of wind coming from the doors’ gaps. They illuminated the opulent hall and his pale face. Darkness was still a major part of this space at that time.
Raphael thought about the earlier phenomenon. He had attempted the most dangerous divination that he had ever done. Normally, a divination would give three types of results:
One, the Truth – what truly had happened or was happening in the flow of time and history, the true nature of all entities existed within Fate. Raphael had learned a part of the Truth about the darkness’s nature, of how it could convert normal animals into beasts by changing the Law of Nature. The Bible defined Fate as the arrangement of all occurrences in the World. No Bible said that any God could totally hold control of Fate. The concept of Nature’s Laws was still ambiguous until this point. Some believed Nature was the manifestation of Fate, some argued they were individual lines of concept. Anyhow, both of them existed.
Two, high chance of attack from high-level creatures. Those creatures were sensitive with Fate’s movement and could sense someone spying on them through divination. Only the level of Saints and above could know this confidential information. The high-level creatures on demi-god level could inflict a part of damage to the fate observer. However, the damage was usually small. Raphael had been unlucky enough to encounter a terribly strong existence that almost killed him by its corruption.
Three, hints of the future. It was usually represented as an abstract image that needed deciphering. Raphael received no hint of the future as he didn’t divine about the future.
“And that ominous cube…”
The Saint shivered as he thought. A strange power had been irresistibly put inside his consciousness. He heard the voice but he did not understand it.
“What does it mean…?”
It was not the Ikyal language that the priests normally used in rituals. Ikyal was said to be the oldest language of humans ever, yet it still seemed to be inadequate in terms of vocal complicacy.
When Raphael was pondering, something was triggered deep in his soul. The blinding white light appeared again, but this time, a knowledge emerged in his river of thoughts.
He muttered an unfamiliar sound, but Raphael oddly understood what it meant.
“Chaos…”
Gasp!
The Saint quickly used his hand to seal his mouth. Raphael’s eyes shook. He clearly lost control of his body earlier than his mouth spoke on its own!
The name was spoken like a starting signal of entropy. His mind suddenly fell into vagueness.
The huge statue of the Peace Goddess was blurred away behind mismatched translucent shapes that appeared out of nowhere in his vision. All the chairs, candles, and the entire prayer hall around him dispersed like a realistic illusion being blown away. Everything retreated to obscurity, then a distant and gigantic curve that rose up and illuminated the entire space with its blinding white light.
“Urgh…”
Raphael curled up in pain as mystical knowledge was infiltrating his river of thoughts...
_____
After a while, the blinding light disappeared. His vision had returned back to normal. He was back to his original spot, on the bench in the opulent prayer hall of the Peace temple.
“The path to become a true God…”
Raphael murmured. When he said that, Raphael knew the knowledge was absorbed in his mind entirely. He felt something essential was changing inside him –in his heart, his mind, his beliefs, and thoughts…
The Saint looked at his hands which were slightly trembled.
He sat in a daze, talking to himself in a hoarse voice.
“I wonder if my fate is twisted because of this…”
Daring to stare at the bare Truth manifested from Fate, mortal one certainly had to pay a price. Without a deity’s protection, the fate of the divination performer would likely be deviated. It was normally in a bad way that pushed forward their death.
Raphael used the influence of the Peace Goddess in the temple to avoid corruption, but even the temple’s aura of serenity could not stop the darkness from breaking his summoning of the jade sword.
The Saint conjured the jade sword illusion in his hand again. However, the illusion was not as bright as before.
“This sword is my shield against Fate, but it was damaged so easily by that darkness…”
The mysterious cube likely had discovered Raphael’s location through Fate when the jade sword’s protection was inhibited. It was also possible that the cube was a part of the darkness’s corrupting attack. However, after experiencing the blinding light that was full of vigorous energy, completely opposite with the empty-feeling darkness, Raphael supported the theory that the cube came from a different source.
“Become a god… Would it be a fraud or a fortuitous encounter?”
His mouth’s corner twitched. As a Saint of Peace temple, Raphael was familiar with many crimes involving demon’s disciples deceiving people into believing they could become gods after committing atrocities. To him, a mere mortal turning into a god sounded sillier than a bedtime story.
Magic users like mages and priests were popular with people. Insiders would know about Pontiffs or High Priests who were even more powerful. Their abilities were so incredible that normal people often related them to a supernatural being, similar to a god. Since the Pontiffs or High Priests had deep connection to the deities and divine kingdoms, the humans used the term ‘half-gods’ or ‘demi-gods’ to describe the supreme figures. Sometimes, the people would call them ‘Angels’ as well, for they were the attendants next to God's throne.
Saint Raphael was familiar with this kind of system.
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However, everything was just an arrogant delusion of mortals. They thought of themselves being able to control a part of nature equivalent to closer being gods.
Raphael knew the High Priest of War, the Supreme Pontiff of Peace and the Empress of Lumovas… They were all ‘half-gods’.
The Saint looked up at the gigantic statue of the Peace Goddess. The opulent temple had a very high ceiling with intricate frescoes. The paintings told the legends of the Goddess: She travelled with dragons and spirits, She danced with the Sun and the Moon, sang a smoothing song for the Stars; She plundered the land of devils under a dreamy meteor rain, She ruled the holy land of spirits that purify all filths of the world…
All offering treasures of gold, silver and flowers, the exquisite candle stands with scented smoke… Millions of believers came here each year, they preached the teaching of Peace. They swore using their deity’s name, they rejoiced under the Goddess’s gaze, they cried while praying to the Goddess….
The Peace Goddess was the symbol of faith for thousands of years. Her existence must not be questioned.
Compared to a true deity, a huge religion, the figures of ‘half-gods’ were too insignificant. The humans’ tricks of magic – tiny bits of moving flames, water, plants, shaking earth… were like a flickering candlelight beneath the blazing aura of Gods.
Raphael never had an idea of himself being worshipped with huge statues and temples.
Becoming a god was a faraway concept. It did not even sound realistic. Moreover, one had to rely on a god to achieve the power - it was a common knowledge, the history recorded no one could just be a god on their own.
“There’s no way… No way…”
The Saint sat in a daze even when all the candlelight died out. The prayer hall seeped into the silent darkness until the sunlight shone in through the colored glass windows…
__
Eithne sat on the golden throne, hunching her back.
In the dream-like castle, the feeling of pain was apparent. The pain came from the uncertainty of her identity. Without a firm determination of who she was, while the corruption from the Void’s Mother was still going on, Eithne’s soul underwent a struggle in order to keep her sanity.
Fragmented memory of the priestess Eithne Noceur was colliding with the memory of a reading hobbyist from modern society. Had she ever touched a real smartphone, or was it just an illusion while she day-dreamt in the War temple as a kid? Was the story “I don’t want to be a Saint” truly a work of imagination? Or was it a type of future forecasting in her fantasy?
The nine eyes carved on the back of the golden throne were blinking constantly, making the abstract images in those eyes change after each blink like a running slideshow.
In a second, Eithne was seeing the bright animation of modern culture blend with the reality at the same time. From royalty, aristocrats or priests, she saw drawings of unrealistic human figures from romance comics interacting with humans that the priestess knew.
Eithne scoffed at the illusion.
“It really reminds me of the 1998 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”
“Wait… have I actually watched that film?”
She fell into the dilemma of whether she had experienced that show of a faraway world.
Then, she started to see lively commercials popping out from ancient-looking temples.
“Shit…”
Eithne opened her eyes helplessly to the chaotic illusions.
LCD screens were advertising cosmetics, video games, colorful fashion and all kinds of things. However, they looked ridiculous with the background of solemn gods’ statues. Eithne heard some familiar voices from the screens, they were telling slogans like:
‘Everyone is unique in their own ways… we love ourselves by wearing — products…’
“Ha…”
She scoffed again, but this time, her mouth curved up in reminiscence.
“I remembered those exuberant scenes…”
Eithne then sighed.
“Both of the memories are real and incomplete.”
The priestess of War had her real name, her real interaction with the people, despite lacking a few parts of memory in the past. Whereas the girl who liked to read comics through a smart phone got no name and no socialization, but her experience in the modern world was evident.
Eithne noticed an abnormal hatred in her heart when looking at the figure of that black-haired girl, so it seemed the identity of the priestess was closer to Eithne. However, she could not be sure what had the Primordial Serpent altered in her consciousness. Eithne could be made to hate her real past on purpose, or it was the hatred from the original priestess to the Primordial Serpent. There was no evidence to support both.
“Advertised slogans actually make sense… I’m a new and unique thing now…”
The pain from psychological disorder subsided as Eithne accepted the memory as a part of her new person. From now on, she was neither entirely the priestess nor a modern person. She was just Eithne, who knew about the priestess and experienced the advanced technology of a future world.
“My soul is getting stabilized. I feel much better.”
Her soul felt connected to her thoughts and senses again. The chaotic illusion also disappeared gradually like a fading light of an ending show.
She saw the mysterious hall again, devoid of any attendant figure. On the opposite was a huge mirror placed above the closed gates of the hall, inside the mirror was the halved Primordial Serpent being tied down below layers of crimson chains. The monster collapsed on a golden throne that looked exactly like Eithne’s throne.
Eithne rubbed her temple.
“Let’s get back to the main problems.”
Earlier, she had heard the voices of the Order and the Chaos.
“I couldn’t understand them at all.”
All she heard was a strange buzzling of sounds.
The issue lied at her current level of strength. From what Eithne learned from the castle’s chaotic walls, higher-level existences would exert greater complicated influences on nature, which lowly creatures were unable to perceive. As a result, the appearance and voices of high-level creatures became incomprehensible to the puny ones, unless the mentioned existence attempted to communicate using common human’s languages.
“It seems like They don’t want to speak human…”
Eithne recalled the images of the magnificent white sun Chaos, the crimson chains Order and the silent dark Void. Her mouth corners twitched.
“This is why Gods are always ambiguous.”
And because of Eithne’s current humble strength, many of the high-level knowledge from the castle’s walls failed to establish their stand in her mind. Eithne could not learn them because she was not ‘qualified’ enough. It was good and bad at the same time. The good thing was that the level of madness in her consciousness reduced as the knowledge dispersed. The only thing that Eithne had to deal with right now was the corruption from the Primordial Serpent.
She could see her body of consciousness was deteriorating at a considerable speed. If she would not do anything, soon her soul would be eaten away by corruption.
“There’s no choice. I must get stronger to fight back the corruption.”
Eithne clenched and unclenched her fist, as if to test her newly formed body’s flexibility.
What she had successfully learned from the castle’s walls, including a strange system of ancient language, the abstract existences and … a structured path to evolve.
“Seeing that I grasped the knowledge in an eyeblink, the technology of sealing information may have a more ancient origin than I thought. The information just flowed right in my head.”
Eithne still remembered the priests of War had been transferring scribed texts from paper to other mediums. She used to think the trend was just invented in this era, however, the truth lying before her eyes in this strange castle might prove her wrong. The Primordial Serpent could be as old as Gods.
“Chaos and Void… The path to transcend mortality…” – Eithne muttered.
Every creature had elements of Void and Chaos coexist in their body. Together, they formed elements of Order - manifest into the laws of Nature to create the characteristics of a creature. The Chaos symbolized power and energy, the capacity to use power or controlling mana. Whereas the Void symbolized emptiness, the vessel, the space to contain Chaos.
All existing creatures had the level of Chaos slightly higher than Void to be ‘living’. Just like a slightly overflowing water in a vase. The water rose a bit higher than the vase’s edge, but it managed to stay in.
If the creature’s Chaos was reduced to the same level with their Void, they would be considered as completely dead, unable to move voluntarily and exert no influence on the environment, like dirt and rocks. The same rule also applied to the Undead since they still relied on energy to move, only their law of Nature was distorted into Undead path. Their choice of energy consequently was inclined to wicked features… Regardless of whether it was evil, sinister or holy, serene, all forms of energy belonged to the Chaos. A living creature existed meant the law of Nature - the Order existed, so the Void and the Chaos must also exist. However, the Void and Chaos could exist without the Order.
To get stronger, one must absorb more elements of Chaos, like stacking a column of water from the vase of Void. The higher the column, the more unstable it would be. If the column collapsed, madness and mutation would be the only end.
Increasing Chaos would increase the mana storage or power usage capacity in creatures. When the amount of Chaos reached a certain level, they would become a true god. However, the element had a nature of unpredictable destructiveness. Information regarding latent dangers on this path of Chaos accumulation was unclear, or at least with Eithne’s current level, she was not ‘qualified’ to learn.
“Religions had hidden this information for thousands of years. May it be the fear of blasphemy to the Gods or something else?”
The priests blindly believed that their Gods granted them power without knowing what the nature of that power was.
Eithne clenched the handles of the golden throne. Now she had understood, the Power Bestowment Rites that the priestess knew from the temples were meant to be the ritual of Chaos injection into the chosen people. The War God would occasionally give His believers tiny bits of Chaos to strengthen them. Normal humans required a period of time to adapt to the progression; if too much Chaos was injected, they would mutate and lose their sanity.
Only true god level could control the flow of Chaos. It explained why nobody could become god on their own.
Eithne looked at the corruption of the Primordial Serpent in her body. Several crimson crevices opened on her skin, inside each crevice were nine eyes darting around in madness.
This was the Chaos that the Primordial Serpent forcefully put in Eithne’s body. The mutation had successfully killed her once. If not for the golden throne that had a mysterious restraining effect, she would have died twice.
“I cannot absorb them all at once. If only I can transfer them somewhere…”
Suddenly, Eithne thought of the fox-headed attendants. She could divide her madness into their consciousness before, how about this excessive amount of Chaos?
Eithne summoned a fox attendant through her connection with the golden throne to the mysterious castle. As her demand was sent out like a wave of signal, ripples spread out on the ground like water. Then, a fox-headed attendant rose up from the floor.
It bowed to the person who sat on the throne.
Eithne raised her hand. Terrifying aura emanated from her body, then a dark power escaped her fingers to enter the fox attendant. Only in this castle that Eithne had received the help of the godly existences, that she could move the element of Chaos without actually reaching the level of a true god.
She transferred all the Chaos until there was only one-tenth of the original amount. Eithne could feel the impulses of her power gradually calmed down after losing her Chaos. Her aura’s strength decreased instantly, but it became more stable.
“Frankly, it’s still excessive to me, but it’s much better than before.”
Eithne saw the flows of madness on her skin were slowing down. They hardened into dark scales on her arms and legs like a layer of serpent’s skin. She used her knuckle, which was also covered in dark scales to knock against the other scales on her arm. It gave out a rough sound of crashing rock surfaces.
“I can only get rid of madness entirely when I break all the scales. But this thing is quite sturdy, it would be a shame if I don’t use it as good armor for my soul… Hm?”
Eithne gazed at the fox-headed attendant that she had transferred the Chaos to.
The fox attendant’s outfit changed when she did not notice. Its black servant suit had changed into an elegant light grey suit. The half top hat also changed into light-grey color, whereas the plain wooden cane became a gold inlaid cane with a serpent head at the handgrip. The fox attendant bowed at Eithne in a very gentlemanly manner; its etiquette was now upgraded to an aristocratic style, no longer of a humble servant.
“Ha...”
Eithne smiled in amusement. When the fox did its exacerbated bend down, she noticed nine fluffy tails behind its butt. The orange tails had white hair at their tips. They were not very long, yet so fleecy that nine of them looked like a huge fluff pillow.
The tails destroyed all the solemn look of the suit. The fox attendant also noticed that fact, so it quickly hid the nine tails under its coat.
“Pfft!”
Hearing Eithne’s laugh, the fox attendant became frustrated. Its arms hugged the fleecy tails behind, trying to make them stay in shape somehow.
Eithne tried hard to hold down her grin.
When her consciousness entered the mind of fox attendants earlier, Eithne felt that their mind was primitive like a blank paper. They might be created like that on purpose, so that their owner could control them like lifeless puppets.
This fox attendant had developed a personality after she transferred the Chaos over.
“It seems that I will have a lively friend in this castle from now on.”
After Eithne finished digesting the Chaos in her body, she would transfer the Chaos back from the fox attendant. She was not sure how far she could go with this much Chaos, but Eithne believed she would know eventually when she was stronger.
Only when she was ‘qualified’ that Eithne could hear the voices of the godly existence, to find out the truth about everything that had happened to her. She needed to protect herself from becoming a sacrificial chess in the game of others.
“The unknown God with a severed head, the prayer hall similar to the temple of War, the Primordial Serpent….” – Eithne recalled what she had been through. “I must find out the truth about them.”