Chapter 449
Chapter 449
Chapter 449
'The Great Sage?'
Zeke recalled the message that appeared when he revived Agamemnon's mask.
[The name of ???'s mask has been confirmed.]
[The mask of the Great Sage Atrahasis has been restored.]
Atrahasis, the true name of the Great Sage that was unknown to the world.
Only Zeke knew that name.
He raised his head and asked the one who revealed himself as the Great Sage.
"Are you saying you're the spirit of the Great Sage?"
When the sage nodded at Zeke's words, his snake-shaped earrings on both ears made a jingling sound.
"Though the situation is somewhat different from other spirits, that statement is generally correct."
Though the answer was vague, since that was how most mages typically spoke, Zeke let it pass.
He looked at the Great Sage and asked.
"Why is the Great Sage's spirit here in the Primordial Temple? Also, how did you know my name, and what do you mean you were waiting for me?"
The Great Sage nodded with a smile at Zeke's flood of questions.
"You must have many questions. Since this will be a long conversation, we should move somewhere else."
When he snapped his fingers, the surroundings suddenly changed.
SWISH!
Before they knew it, the temple disappeared and a room decorated with elegant patterned tiles and white cloths appeared.
Since he had a similar experience when meeting Hoshgar's spirit body before, Zeke calmly looked around without panic.
The Great Sage offered Zeke a seat.
"Please sit here. I know you like tea, so I'll serve you a specialty from Carcosa."
Carcosa, the legendary city that perished long ago.
The very idea of being able to drink tea that was a specialty of Carcosa felt like an unbelievable joke to Zeke.
Soon the Great Sage brought tea sets of an unfamiliar style.
He heated the water, put the dried tea in the pot, and waited for it to steep.
Once the tea had steeped, he strained the tea leaves through a filter while transferring the tea to a separate teapot.
He then lifted the teapot and poured tea into the teacups.
The Great Sage handed the tea to Zeke and said.
"This is black tea, a specialty of Carcosa. Please try it."
Zeke smelled the tea the Great Sage handed him.
"The scent is different from ordinary tea."
"You can think of it as the tea you know being processed and oxidized. Various types of black tea were produced in each city, but I prefer Carcosa's black tea. It's elegant, clean, and dignified."
The Great Sage lifted his cup and savored the tea.
Zeke also savored the taste while experiencing the aroma of black tea, this new type of tea.
After finishing his tea, Zeke looked up at the Great Sage and spoke.
"The Elder Dragon led me here."
The Great Sage looked up at his words.
"I see you visited the pyramid of Carcosa."
Zeke recalled the massive central structure he had entered.
"Pyramid... so that's what that structure was called."
"It's the great structure that symbolizes Carcosa, which was a marvelous city. King Solomon used his wisdom to gather the power of all races to complete the pyramid, and Carcosa became a city beloved by all constellations."
Zeke calmly spoke while looking at the Great Sage.
"You're known as a great figure from the Hero King era, but with this black tea and... listening to you speak, you seem to know the Age of Constellations well."
The Great Sage put down his teacup and looked at Zeke as he spoke.
"Hero King Kaisir. The world I know is divided into before and after the birth of that special being. After Kaisir, the physical world became the age of heroes rather than constellations."
Zeke pondered the Great Sage's words before speaking.
"Could it be that you lived through from the Age of Constellations to the Hero King era?"
To those words, the Great Sage answered with a smile.
"I have lived for a very long time, Sir Zeke. Though it wasn't by my choice, that was the wheel of my fate, I suppose."
At the Great Sage's enigmatic words, Zeke fell silent for a moment before opening his inventory and taking out the holy relics.
The Holy Grail brought from the Ark, the scabbard received from the Battle God Tyr, and Agamemnon's mask.
The three holy relics appeared gathered in one place.
Seeing this, the Great Sage showed an interested expression.
"The original holy relics containing the power of primordial light... it's been a very long time since I've seen these Three Sacred Treasures gathered together."
Zeke looked at the Great Sage and said.
"The Elder Dragon's power gave me a mission to bring these Three Sacred Treasures to the Primordial Temple."
The Great Sage nodded at those words.
"You mean the main quest of the Kabbalah System."
When the Great Sage mentioned the Kabbalah System, Zeke asked in surprise.
"So you knew about the Kabbalah System too?"
The Great Sage smiled and said.
"I had to know. I was the one who designed it so Solomon could share this system with the Elder Dragon."
Zeke's eyes widened at the Great Sage's words.
'The Great Sage created the Kabbalah System?'
Then, as if knowing Zeke's question, the Great Sage made a gesture and amazingly, the same system window that Zeke could see appeared.
He looked at Zeke and said.
"Though I couldn't compare to King Solomon, as the Master Administrator, the Elder Dragon and I could also handle Karma to some extent using the system."
Karma - the power to handle causality.
Using it, one could even change the laws of the world.
Zeke asked the Great Sage.
"Is it possible to handle Karma without the system?"
When Zeke asked this sudden question, the sage nodded.
"Though it's not easy, it's not impossible either. Solomon learned to handle Karma using power received from the God of Chaos, and shared this with me and the Elder Dragon in the form of a system."
"So handling Karma itself is possible even without specifically using a system."
"Actually, handling Karma isn't that special. Magic and aura are also just ways of handling Karma. The difference lies in how much 'causality' one can bear."
Zeke tilted his head at the Great Sage's words.
"What does it mean to bear causality?"
"To put it simply, it's like this. Right now, I have Carcosa black tea in front of me. According to normal causality, making this tea would require a very long process. Wouldn't you agree?"
Zeke nodded.
"...Yes, you'd need time and effort to grow tea leaves, dry them, process them, and so on."
"Exactly. That's causality. But watch this."
The Great Sage placed his hand on the container holding the black tea.
Immediately, the container with black tea became two.
Zeke was surprised to see the tea container suddenly become two.
"Did you bring another tea container?"
The Great Sage shook his head at those words.
"I just realized a causality where another one of this tea exists here by substituting it with Karma."
The Hermit of Stories had shown Zeke something similar before.
And Zeke now recalled that the Hermit of Stories had handled Karma without a system.
And at that moment, something crossed Zeke's mind.
"Karma points... so you're saying they can substitute causality."
The Great Sage nodded.
"Handling Karma is originally a unique power of the constellations. They received authority from the primordial light to adjust and handle the laws of the world. But as always, excessive power causes problems. The constellations wasted Karma excessively, and causality became distorted."
The Great Sage's face darkened as he said this.
"The ground where causality was distorted changed horribly. Some places suffered floods, while others dried up from severe droughts. Some places had so many products wasted that the land and rivers rotted, while others froze to death from cold."
The backlash began to appear due to the Karma that the constellations used indiscriminately.
But the constellations didn't care and recklessly used Karma however they and their sponsors wanted.
Because of this, existing laws were distorted and things that couldn't originally happen began to occur.
Zeke could feel the devastating emotion flowing from the Great Sage's voice.
The Great Sage raised his head again and spoke.
"Except for a few cities under the protection of constellations, the ground turned into a terrible hell. King Solomon and the Elder Dragon joined forces to correct this."
Zeke nodded at those words.
"I heard from the Elder Dragon. That King Solomon saw this and tried to make a contract to overcome his limitations, becoming an immortal."
The Great Sage nodded at Zeke's words.
"That's right. King Solomon eliminated or sealed countless beings threatening the ground. There were too many to count. From cursed evil spirits to ancient races with powerful abilities, to monsters created by the constellations' mischief..."
Zeke recalled Blood King Caligula who was absorbed into him.
He was the king of the White face race who sealed himself while fleeing from Solomon, who had become a god slayer.
'So Solomon dealt with not just demons and blood kings, but all beings disrupting the ground.'
The Great Sage continued speaking.
"While stepping up to solve the wrongs committed by the constellations, Solomon suddenly realized something."
"What was that?"
"That this would never end and the fundamental problem needed to be solved."
"The fundamental problem being...?"
The Great Sage looked at Zeke and said.
"The constellations themselves."
In the end, it was the self-centered constellations that caused all the problems on earth.
The Great Sage continued.
"While some constellations were wise and wanted to protect peace on earth, most were only focused on what they wanted to do. King Solomon initially tried to persuade the constellations. However... those arrogant beings never listened to his words."
The constellations who imprisoned even the primordial light and stole its power for their own entertainment and desires.
Zeke felt his blood boiling just hearing about the atrocities of these constellations.
"So that's why King Solomon started the God-Slaying?"
The Great Sage shook his head.
"King Solomon didn't start the God-Slaying from the beginning. The Ring of Sealing, created jointly by the Fairy King and Elder Dragon - that's what changed Solomon's mind."
Zeke couldn't readily understand the Great Sage's words.
So Zeke took Solomon's ring from his inventory and asked the Great Sage.
"How did this ring become the catalyst for King Solomon's God-Slaying?"
The Great Sage looked at Solomon's ring in Zeke's hand with a troubled expression.
Then he nodded and spoke heavily.
"That ring created by the Elder Dragon and Fairy King - its initial purpose was to seal beings that couldn't be destroyed by King Solomon's power. Such beings could only be dealt with by the Fairy King, so it was meant to be a temporary storage concept. However..."
The Great Sage continued speaking with a hardened expression.
"After discovering that the ring could imprison constellations, King Solomon made a different choice."
Unlike mortals, constellations were known to be immortal and perfect beings.
It was impossible for mortals to fight constellations, and only battles between constellations themselves were possible.
However, when constellations fought each other, the damage was entirely inflicted upon the earth.
That's why King Solomon also tried his best to persuade the constellations.
But after learning that the ring could seal constellations and partially use their authority, Solomon chose a different method.
"He began hunting stronger constellations by sealing constellations who distorted causality in the ring and using their power. At first, the constellations who mocked King Solomon began to feel the gravity of the situation as stronger constellations were sealed. But the bigger problem came next."
The Great Sage who had briefly paused spoke to Zeke in a subdued voice.
"King Solomon once again went to find the God of Chaos imprisoned in the name of Goddess Theia. And then he made a request."
He closed his eyes and spoke slowly.
"He wanted to learn how to destroy the constellations."