Rita led the group to a small stone cathedral hidden within the desolate city. Inside, they finally earned themselves some rest before proceeding with anything else. It was not the best place to rest, but everyone needed it after walking for so long under the red sun.
Now that they had a break, Luna decided to use this time to continue her research. She was currently seated alone, in one of the cathedral’s corners. Her suit’s projector was now on, displaying the texts and images she had scanned while in the buried temple.
Some of the texts were translated automatically by her brain while others remained a mystery to her. In other words, the people who used the temple didn’t speak the same languages. Each of them had added something to the murals. But without knowing the other languages, Luna was only translating bits of the truths she was looking for.
Also, the fact that she could translate some of this meant that the people of this realm probably had a connection with the people of the Mortal Realm a long time ago. This explained why some of these translations came naturally to her...one of her ancestors must have endeavored to learn something.
With that, Luna continued studying the texts and images displayed before her. She analyzed everything word by word. Then proceeded to try and translate what she could. She was no linguist of course…but as someone well-versed in many extinct languages, Luna was sure she could understand something. And after so many hours of taking notes and comparing, Luna managed to make out a few versions of her own translations with the help of the images on display.
Most of the descriptions were surrounded a being called the Eternal Light…or the Everlight. From the texts she could translate, they mentioned Everlight as one of the True Celestials who protected mortals from the madness of the gods.
It didn’t say what exactly made the gods like that. But Luna was certain this marked the beginning of the end for the divine realm. From the translations, the temple she was recently in had been solely constructed to serve as a place of worship for the True Celestial. The texts described her as a protector with godly powers and a Servant Of Light.
“The Servant of Light…” Luna halted at that statement. The title alone seemed to draw out some of her strength just from saying it. When she was younger, her father warned her that deities’s true names or titles were not supposed to be just called out because of the mysterious powers behind them.
She had forgotten that warning and now she felt slightly weaker.
The rest of the text appeared mixed and therefore impossible to translate.
But there was so much more that talked about the people of this desert. The images told tales of a place born under one of the “Give Great Suns”. This place happened to this very desert. And in this desert, humans of the Sun god’s Domain flourished with the blessings bestowed onto them by the great gods.
‘The priest was blessed.’ Luna recalled the creature’s mad words as she continued studying the images.
And she noted two things…there was no mention of zenshi or the spark of divinity.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“Maybe it's because they were born inside a god’s domain.”
As she read through the remaining texts, she landed on a specific prayer dedicated to the deity who saved them. It said:
“Hail, Everlight. Giver of light, servant of light, and warrior of peace. As your swords, we worship and humble ourselves in your presence.”
“Your power burns bright…your light ignites our hearts. And protects us from their wrath.”
Luna paused reading the text and thought:
‘Protects us from their wrath…the god’s wrath? Or Madness? Could she have been the one who created the darkness?’
Luna wondered.
Everlight was no goddess. She was a servant of “Light”, “Flame” or “Sun” depending on how you translated it. She was a weaker deity that served the god of the sun.
…She was a servant who the people of this realm began to look at as a true deity. They went as far as worshiping her and dedicating prayers to her.
One thing was clear though, she was powerful enough to rival gods. Those who had witnessed her powers decided to call her a True Celestial…
She froze. ‘The Servant of Light is probably stronger than a sovereign.’
Luna couldn’t imagine a being stronger than a sovereign. Sovereigns were powerful corrupted deities or devils. The Corruption might have destroyed their divinity, but they were strong enough to resist the madness that came with it. In other words, their looks might have changed…but their powers hadn’t.
That’s what sovereigns were, according to Human Understanding, at least.
‘Even if Everlight was corrupted, I doubt she would be an ordinary devil.’ She swallowed her saliva. It was strange…strange that they knew so little about the divine realm.
‘Maybe I should have remained ignorant.’
“I was told you were too busy to see me. I guess they were right.”
Luna suddenly looked up after sensing another presence. Her eyes remained devoid as if her brain was taking its time to process all the information she had just revealed herself to.
“Oh, cousin. Long time no see.” Her words came out very blank even though that’s not what she wanted to express.
“I would say the same to you. I see you also collected the text from the ruined temple.”
Luna was suddenly interested. She raised an eyebrow, then uttered the keyword of his sentence.
“Also?”
The curly-haired ascender smiled and nodded. “We’ve been collecting information that will be sent back to base after we defeat the undead king. If we’re able to get the full translations, we might find a clue to how can end this overstaying apocalypse.”
“Hehe…You’re pretty smart for someone like you.” Not offended by her statement, Snow raised his hand and karate-chopped Luna on the head.
“Uh!” the small girl hissed and rubbed her head.
“You forget I’m seven years older than you. Have some respect, would yeah?”
Luna winced. At that moment, she realized that this scene looked like she was being scolded by her older brother.
“Hitting me on the head should be a crime. Do you know how valuable my head is? It carries centuries of knowledge.” She growled, her dark eyes staring at the stoic Snow with fake intent.
“I don’t care, Lady Lunaris,” he replied, lifting his chin and crossing his arms. “Disrespecting your elders is punishable. Back then, seppuku was the only worthy way one could redeem themselves for disrespecting some of the high class like mine.”
He grinned with satisfaction.
Luna gave her cousin a dead stare. Then, after a minute or two, she said, “I won’t say more, Shogun of Lies. I don’t know much about the old ways, after all.”
Snow laughed and then moved his gaze to the displayed text being projected by Luna’s suit. Since there was no paper to write on, the young girl had improvised and was using the floor as a board to write on.
There, she had made comparisons between the languages she knew with the ones of the divine realm.
The legacy clans believed the godlike beings once stepped down on the mortal realm and shared some of their knowledge thousands of years ago. The knowledge of qi and languages that were written down by ignorant humans as extinct languages from cultures long gone due to the Modern Age.
His eyes widened when he started recognizing the characters.
Luna almost jumped when she noticed his reaction to the inscriptions and stared at the same text he staring at. She hadn’t translated it but it looked like Snow understood it right away.
“This…it talks about her, doesn’t it?”
“If that ‘her’ is Everlight, yes. The people of this ruined town technically worshiped her.”
The curly-haired man crouched down and started studying the displayed text. The more he translated, the more pale he turned. It seems this was the first time he had seen all of this.
When he was done reading through, which surprisingly didn’t take long, Snow stood up and faced Luna with a dark expression.
“Where did you find these texts?”
“A half-buried temple. What is it?” Luna asked, her curiosity on the verge of exploding. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
Snow nodded. “There is a shrine dedicated to her under this cathedral. You might want to see it yourself.”