Chapter 227: The Falling Moon (Part 2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 227: The Falling Moon (Part 2)
"You've got the 'respecting elders' part down, but what about 'loving the young'?!" Hezekiah barked, his beard bristling and eyes wide with indignation.
"What?"
Mela looked at him with an expression of pure shock. "You're over four hundred years old and you're still trying to act like a spring chicken? Have you no shame!"
"You..."
Hezekiah nearly coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Who's acting young?
In this entire world, isn't it you, your ladyship, who loves acting young the most?
And who's the one without shame!
Hezekiah was choked with rage, but there was nothing he could do. The thousand-year-old loli before him was merely a projection; he couldn't exactly stake his life on a fight with a shadow.
Moreover, at a time like this...
Hezekiah took a deep breath, abandoning the argument with Mela. His gaze swept across the void, searching for another opening.
But just as he prepared to make a move on a new fragment of the divine body, his expression shifted instantly.
Giving up on picking and choosing, he snatched the nearest fragment into his possession, stepped through the golden door, and vanished from the spot.
The Crow took flight into the distance; the White Pigeon fled in a panic.
The Mangy Rat, having scavenged nothing at all, muttered a low curse and scurried away just as fast, showing not a hint of lingering attachment.
Mela was even more decisive. Reacting before anyone else, she tossed her fragment into a warp in space and immediately dissipated her projection.
In the void, only the Withered King remained, slowly encroaching upon the Authority of the Moon.
Suddenly, that massive, hideous pupil shuddered. The King jerked its head up, staring into the depths of the void with burgeoning fury.
In that place of void, even higher and more distant than where the Withered King stood, the darkness suddenly deepened—as if endless ink had been splashed across a canvas.
Upon that profound backdrop, starlight began to twinkle, yet those pinpricks of light carried an inexplicable, eerie quality.
A will no less powerful than the Withered King’s drifted through the starlit sky like a shadow obscuring the void, and then... it descended!
The Evil God, Lord of the Stars!
As if sensing a threat, the Withered King’s infinite crimson flames surged upward to meet that terrifying will. It was like a beast baring its fangs at an uninvited guest trespassing on its territory.
But in the next moment, the Withered King sensed something else. Its countless withered hands turned in another direction.
In the void, flowers began to bloom.
One by one, swaying blood-colored lotuses blossomed in the empty air, paving a magnificent river of flowers.
Then came the grass.
Then the trees.
A crimson wilderness.
Deformed fruits and infinitely multiplying crops manifested here, displaying a staggering, hair-raising vitality.
Upon that river of flowers, a woman in a swaying black dress, her face obscured, walked forward barefoot, step by step.
She seemed to be looking down, gazing lovingly at the abyss-like swaddle held in her arms.
The Evil God, Mother of Abundance!
But it wasn't over yet.
A golden sacred tree had rooted itself there at some unknown moment.
The tree was so vast that its crown seemed to have no end. An aura of supreme holiness radiated from it, as if a primordial holy spirit was being born. As its branches swayed, it seemed capable of purifying all filth.
Yet, if one were to peer through that purest golden light to see the tree’s true form, they would see countless white bones hanging from it, countless corpses rotting, and countless souls wailing in agony.
The Evil God, Fallen Sacred Tree!
...
It turned out that those human ants—whom the King hadn't even deigned to look at—weren't the only ones intending to scavenge. At this moment, three unexpected Evil Gods had descended upon this place.
No, not just three.
The Withered King’s gaze fell even further away. There, white feathers seemed to drift through the air as holy hymns played. A ball of deformed flesh, its shape defying description, was lingering on the periphery, not daring to draw too close.
The Disgrace of Evil Gods, the Corrupted Love God!
He was fucking here too!
The Withered King roared in fury, its crimson flames erupting. Its countless withered hands, carrying the projection of the red earth, suddenly... retracted.
No longer caring to savor its meal slowly, the Withered King tore apart the remaining divine body of the Silent Moon. Its withered hands clamped shut, seizing the brilliantly radiant Authority Core within its palm.
And then, the Withered King finally realized something was wrong.
The Authority Core it had worked so hard for, the prize it had spent so much effort to obtain after killing the Silent Moon... was incomplete?
With an incomplete Authority, it could never achieve the effect it desired.
Motherfucker! Who was it?! Who did this?!
The Withered King’s gaze swept over its surroundings... naturally, it couldn't have been them.
But now, the Withered King had no time to pursue the matter. Under the oppressive weight of three—no, four—Evil Gods' wills, it had absolutely no chance of winning a direct confrontation.
Clutching the radiant Authority Core, the Withered King abruptly retracted its countless hands before the other wills and Authorities could fully seal the area. Like a closing flower bud, it vanished rapidly into the depths of the void.
The other Evil Gods did not choose to pursue the Withered King.
Their Authorities were incompatible with that of the Silent Moon; even if they stole the core, it would be useless to them.
Therefore, compared to an Authority Core that was essentially a chicken bone to them—little meat but a waste to discard—there was something far more attractive...
This divine body!
Even if those ants had managed to make off with a few pieces, compared to the massive divine corpse of the Silent Moon, those were merely scraps.
And so, the wills of the Evil Gods slowly drew closer. As if by some unspoken agreement, they each carved out a different section for themselves.
A silent, gluttonous feast among Evil Gods began to play out.
*
The golden door swung open, and Hezekiah stepped back into the sanctuary of the Church of Human Life.
He was visibly disheveled; his pure white divine robes were tattered, and the beard on his chest was slightly singed and blackened.
But fortunately...
"It wasn't a waste of effort."
Hezekiah glanced at his sleeve. His usually indifferent eyes couldn't help but flash with a hint of joy.
A fragment of an Evil God’s divine body—and one that could be studied at will—was an unprecedented windfall in the thousand-year history of the Church of Human Life.
However, when he thought about how he could have gained even more if not for a certain someone... Hezekiah’s eye twitched involuntarily.
"Still... the Moon is truly gone for good."
Hezekiah took a moment to compose himself, then gave a light wave of his hand. His divine robes instantly returned to their clean, holy state.
"Someone, come."
"I am here. What are Your Majesty's orders?" A bishop had been waiting outside the hall for some time.
"Tell the Temple of Mechanism to construct a new moon and hang it in the sky. I don't want those wandering poets losing their minds and running to my church to throw a fit when they realize the moon is missing tonight."
"As you command."
"Oh, right."
As if remembering something, Hezekiah suddenly asked, "I heard that Grand Magister Mela Domir has taken a new disciple?"
"Uh..."
The bishop hesitated. "There are rumors to that effect, but they're only circulating among a very small circle. I cannot confirm their truth."
"The fewer people talking about it, the more likely it's true."
The corner of Hezekiah’s mouth curled slightly as he said tonelessly, "Bring me the files on that fellow. I want to see exactly what kind of 'exceptional talent' could possibly catch Mela Domir's eye."
*
Atop the Great Clock Tower of St. Maria Academy.
Mela had made a rare departure from her sea of flowers to watch the moon from this vantage point.
Though the sun had already risen and the moon was nowhere to be found in the sky, Teacher Mela reached out her small hand, gently stroking the air as if she were tenderly caressing that bright orb.
"The moonlight was so tragically beautiful..."
She murmured in a voice like a soft elegy. "A pity we'll never see it again."
"But speaking of which..."
Her mourning finished, Mela lowered her eyes, looking toward the distant, lingering Dark Moon Mist. She sighed with immense feeling.
"Those two fought until their brains were practically leaking out for that thing, only for it to fall into the lap of that little girl who was just taking a nap?"
"No, the one who really made out like a bandit... is that kid, isn't it?"
"Hehe. Now, this is getting interesting."