Chapter 132: Creation
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 132: Creation
"The Withered King's... flames."
Muen instinctively looked down at his wrist.
Under normal circumstances, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. However, when a faint spark of fire ignited within his pupils, he could clearly see marks extending from beneath his sleeve, swirling like fingerprints.
It was the mark the Withered King had left upon him.
Although that power was no longer a simple gift, but rather a "Divine Blessing" the Black Book had bartered for using vital intelligence, Muen still felt a lingering sense of unease.
After all, it came from an Evil God.
Yet, he had to admit that the power of a Divine Blessed was formidable.
He could see that strength in both Anhelia and Celicia. If he wanted to gain power as quickly as possible, this was undoubtedly the shortest path.
"Actually, the reason I started learning magic in the first place was to find a way to excise this power," Muen said with a bitter smile. "But I never expected I’d end up at the point of actually accepting it."
"Didn't I tell you? Power itself is neither good nor evil. What matters is the person using it—even if it's the power of an Evil God."
As Mela spoke, she gave a light flick of her finger. A delicate flower drifted up and landed in her hand.
She stroked the petals gently, making them bloom even more vibrantly, before suddenly crushing them in her palm.
"So, if there ever comes a day where you aren't satisfied with this power and turn to the Withered King to beg for more..."
In that instant, a chilling aura surged.
Muen’s vision was suddenly stained crimson. The countless flowers competing to bloom around him seemed to transform into blades dripping with blood.
Teacher Mela stared at him silently, her expression calm, yet Muen felt his Death Premonition screaming in his mind.
"I will kill you myself."
The blood-red hue vanished. The sea of flowers swayed in the breeze, a scene of breathtaking beauty.
It was as if everything had been an illusion.
But the cold sweat soaking his back told Muen the truth: if he ever truly threw himself into the Withered King's embrace, Teacher Mela would not hesitate for a second to execute her newly minted disciple.
"I won't," Muen said, wiping away the cold sweat and speaking with total sincerity. "Don't I have you now, Teacher Mela?"
"..."
Mela looked slightly taken aback, then let out a low chuckle. "It seems the rumors weren't entirely false, then?"
"Huh?"
"Nothing. Do you have any other questions about your weapons? Time is short, so ask quickly."
"Questions?"
Muen brandished the short blades. With the enhancement of these two daggers, he felt his Dagger Combat Technique—which hadn't progressed in a long time—showing signs of reaching a higher level.
"I don't have many questions left. I just wondered if there are any precautions I should take during daily use? Like, how often do they need maintenance?"
"Generally, weapons with living spirits have the ability to self-repair and self-clean, so you don't need to worry about that. As for precautions..."
Mela thought for a moment and said casually, "Other than making sure you don't wave them around in front of people from the Life Church, there shouldn't be any issues."
"Oh, I see. Then I definitely won't... Wait. What?"
Muen snapped out of it, his eyes widening. "What do you mean 'don't wave them around in front of the Life Church'? Is there something about these weapons they shouldn't see?"
Muen started to panic. That was the Church. If he provoked them, he’d be in massive trouble.
"It's nothing much," Mela said, shrugging nonchalantly. "It's just that the materials used to make these two blades were the Life Church's Holy Swords. It wouldn't be good to let those petty believers see them."
"Oh, I see. So you just melted down a Holy Sword to make daggers. That doesn't sound like... Like hell it doesn't!"
Muen let out a terrified roar. "Which Holy Sword? Teacher Mela, don't tell me you mean one of the five Holy Swords of the Life Church!"
"Five? Weren't there seven?" Mela looked confused. "Did they lose another two while I was asleep? Well, whatever. It doesn't matter. There are only four left now anyway, right?"
"So it really was a Holy Sword?" Muen’s hands began to tremble as he held the blades. "Wh-why would you do that? Wouldn't it have been better to just use it as it was?"
Every man has a dream of being a Hero, wielding a Holy Sword to slay evil. Muen felt that if he could use a Holy Sword, he might even be willing to retrain his swordsmanship from scratch.
But he never expected Teacher Mela to go this far. She actually refined a Holy Sword?
If the Life Church found out, Teacher Mela—being a top-tier powerhouse—might be fine, but he, Muen, would definitely be tied to a cross and burned alive!
"I had no choice. The Holy Sword had the Church's mark on it, and cracking it would have been a huge pain. So, I just melted the whole thing down."
Mela spoke with the casual air of someone who found a vault lock too hard to pick and decided to just demolish the entire vault instead.
"..."
"Relax, relax. It's not as scary as you think." Seeing Muen standing there like an idiot, Mela continued to comfort him. "Since I've refined them into this state, it won't be easy to notice anything unless you're unlucky enough to run into someone at the Archbishop level."
"...And what if I really am that unlucky?"
Muen wasn't sure about much, but when it came to being unlucky, he didn't fear anyone.
He could easily see himself going out to show off his new blades only to run into a group of Life Church Archbishops having a team-building retreat.
"In that case..." Mela thought for a moment. "You can try to resist with all your might."
"Oh? Does that mean you have a backup plan, Teacher?" Muen’s eyes lit up.
"No," Mela said seriously. "It's just that you'll die with more dignity that way."
"..."
*
"Alright, pleasant chat time is over. Shall we get to the main topic?"
Mela stretched, her small face becoming much more solemn. She looked at Muen and asked, "Do you know the essence of a deity?"
"The essence of a deity?"
Muen was stunned. He hadn't expected Mela to start with something so profound.
But...
"A deity... is just a deity, right?"
Muen thought back to the original novel and realized that its descriptions of gods were quite vague and ambiguous.
This annoyed him.
As it turned out, you really shouldn't stop reading a novel halfway through. You should at least finish it; otherwise, if you ever transmigrate into the book's world, you won't even know the most important lore settings.
"The so-called deities are..."
Mela was about to explain when she suddenly froze. She tapped her head and stuck out her tongue. "Oops, I almost forgot. I'm one of the seven who signed the Original Silence Contract. I can't talk about that."
"Huh?"
Muen stared at the white-haired old loli acting cute and said indignantly, "Teacher Mela! Do you know the two types of people I hate most in this world?"
"Hmm?"
"One is people who leave their sentences half-finished. And the other..."
"And the other?" Mela tilted her head, waiting for the rest.
"..."
"..."
*
"Alright, back to the main topic."
Mela expressionlessly withdrew her tiny fist. She looked at Muen, who was writhing on the ground like a maggot while clutching his stomach.
"You've been in here for a while now. Have you noticed anything different about this place?"
"Different?"
Muen, still "maggoting" from Mela's Ethereal Punch, painfully lifted his head to look around.
The artificial sky was still a brilliant blue, and the breeze from afar was still fresh and pleasant. If there was anything different...
"The flowers," Muen said. "It's the flowers. The color of the flowers now is different from when I first came in."
When Muen first entered, the sea of flowers was multicolored. But now, every flower in sight was a uniform, pure white.
"Correct. The flowers are different."
Mela nodded in appreciation of Muen's perceptiveness, then asked, "And do you know why they are different?"
"Because..." Muen thought for a moment. "These flowers can change color?"
"A good guess, but that's not the reason. The flowers look different because they are different."
"What does that mean?" Muen was getting dizzy from Mela's riddles.
Mela didn't answer. Under Muen's confused gaze, she picked up her watering can again and began to water.
As the flowers were nourished by the water, they became even more vibrant and fresh. Even the stems and leaves seemed to stand taller.
No, it wasn't just an impression.
Before Muen's horrified eyes, all the flowers centered around Teacher Mela began to bloom and spread at a visible speed. Then, after a momentary peak of splendor, they rapidly withered.
The sea of flowers vanished, turning into barren earth.
Then, from that naked black soil, new sprouts rapidly emerged.
They germinated, grew stems, branched out, and the flowers bloomed.
A riot of red filled Muen's entire field of vision.
And then, they withered again.
"A pity. I still can't grow the pink I want."
Mela gave a low sigh, then looked at Muen. "Did you notice anything?"
"This is..."
Muen was still in a daze, but having faced an Evil God before, he recovered quickly. "Time?"
"Good intuition. This is the power of time."
Mela said, "While I can't tell you exactly what a deity is, there is one thing you can know: among the many Authorities possessed by the gods, Time and Space are the only ones that do not exist. In other words, the laws of Time and Space are, in a sense, masterless."
"Masterless?"
Muen couldn't help but widen his eyes.
From Mela's tone, it sounded as if these two laws—which even gods could not master—could actually be controlled.
"So—keep your eyes wide open and watch, my dear disciple. Behold the culmination of your teacher's life's work!"
Mela spread her arms as if to embrace something, her long white hair fluttering even though there was no wind.
The ground suddenly began to tremble. As if experiencing the passage of eons in an instant, the black soil beneath their feet rapidly vanished, revealing a massive mechanical structure hidden below that radiated a terrifyingly beautiful aesthetic.
Tens of thousands of giant gears meshed together, striking brilliant sparks as they collided.
Millions of mechanical components operated with precision, driven by an immense amount of mana.
It was as if a planet composed entirely of machinery and gears had appeared beneath his feet. At this moment, Muen couldn't help but tremble at his own insignificance; he even forgot to breathe.
It felt as if, before this terrifying and beautiful ultimate creation, all things in the world—even the rules themselves—could be rewritten!
"Look!"
Standing at the very center of it all, the white-haired girl shouted with fanatical fervor.
Behind her, the faint silhouette of a colossal clock emerged. Its hands shifted, counting the passage of vast stretches of time.
"This is the pinnacle of alchemy and magic. The union of the ideal and the material. A masterpiece born from a thousand years of painstaking effort. The true core of the Grand Ritual. The supreme creation that would make even the gods tremble.
An Artificial Authority.
—The Eternal Clock."