aircannonsinc Page 400
Page 400
It's really complicated, the layout of the capital, or rather, that woman's methods and goals.
Latis slowly conjured up images of Cindy and Whiteley in his mind. For some reason, although he felt he was about to face the intricate web that the twin queens had been laying for over a decade, he felt a faint sense of excitement.
Now that he was the lord of Titania, he was finally qualified to challenge the Queen. Even if it was just a little finger, he could personally see just how many things were involved in her elaborate scheme.
……
After flying in dragon form for ten minutes, the three landed not far from the holy city of Romnia.
Latis found the holy city of Romnia quite magnificent when he saw it in real life for the first time.
Unlike the vibrant Promian Holy City, built by the Pope who loved to play with "fate gods," the Holy City of Romnia was much taller, with towering fortresses standing at each of its four corners. The connecting walls concealed everything within, leaving only eye-like viewing holes scattered at varying heights on the surface of the walls. Through the distribution of these viewing holes, one could vaguely imagine the staggered layout of the inner layers of the city.
Latis looked up and seemed to see the white-robed disciples near many of the watchtowers. When he looked at the disciples, he also felt a sense of being watched. Fortunately, he always wore a pale mask when acting as the lord of Titania, which reassured him a little.
He gazed at the white-robed disciple silently watching him from the watchtower, exchanged a glance with Jennifer, and together activated the light energy within their divine rings, shouting:
"Lord Latis of Titania and the Knight of Light Jennifer have come to pay a visit to His Holiness the Pope of Romnia. Please convey their message to His Holiness!"
"..."
The white-robed disciple did not reply. Latis frowned and waited for a moment. Just as he was about to announce it again, a sound of hinges turning came from the city gate, and then the tall city gate slowly opened inward.
A strange pressure slowly rose in his heart. Latis shook his head, immediately dispelling the feeling. Then he looked back at Jennifer and Leafa and saw that they seemed to feel the pressure as well. After thinking for a moment, he took the two girls' hands and activated the life energy of the Holy Grail within him.
"Thank you, thank you, Master..."
Little Leafa's somewhat shy voice came from inside the helmet. Even so, she obediently grabbed Latis's hand, letting Latis help her resist the pressure from the Holy City.
"Phew...it seems this place is indeed a bit unusual."
With Latis's help, Jennifer felt a surge of energy. She clenched her fist slightly, and the pure light within her silently swept away all the pressure.
Latis breathed a slight sigh of relief upon seeing this; it seemed that the level of pure light was still sufficient to resist these wandering wills of light.
He composed himself, looked at the silent holy city, and took the first step.
……
……
There was hardly any human voice in the holy city of Romnia.
The ascending steps unfolded before Latis's eyes the moment they entered the city. At the top of the steps, the sanctuary, standing alone in the light, silently overlooked them. In the streets, which were slightly narrower than those of other cities, white-robed disciples seemed to stand in the shadows of every alleyway between the row of houses.
Latis's ears twitched slightly. His powerful physique allowed him to detect movements within hundreds or even thousands of meters around him. However, even with such powerful hearing, he could not hear any conversation.
What a strange place... Don't those white-robed disciples need to change clothes, eat, and rashi?
The air was filled with a sense of stillness mixed with a slightly restless power of light, yet this power seemed to be suppressed by something, drifting aimlessly and unable to coalesce.
The three of them stepped upwards, climbing the steps one by one towards the sanctuary at the end.
As Latis passed through the alleyways between the houses, he expected to see white-robed saints, like a leech, but instead he found only white robes drying in the sun.
The houses on both sides seemed to look exactly the same, without any signs or numbers. Latis glanced at them briefly, then suddenly stopped, seeing a white-robed disciple behind a brown curtain.
The disciple exchanged a glance with him and then silently retreated from the window.
"Tsk, this feeling..."
Latis scratched his head and glanced back at the road he had come from. He could no longer see whether the gate was open or closed below the steep steps.
He shook his head. Although the scene was quite bizarre, he wasn't nervous. He just silently complained to himself:
"It feels like I've stepped onto the set of the Ancients or the Deep Ones... It seems the entire Holy City of Romnia has fallen into some kind of corruption. The Will of Light? Interesting..."
Latis walked forward with the two girls, lost in thought. Their footsteps echoed along the stone steps into the distance, only returning to Latis's ears like a surging tide when they struck the high city walls.
He paused almost imperceptibly, then continued walking uphill.
Just now, he seemed to hear faint footsteps, following them in a rhythm similar to theirs, all the way down an alley, as if spying on them.
Thinking back to the white-robed disciple I just made eye contact with at a certain window, could it be that disciple from before?
After a moment of thought, an extremely bright light suddenly filled Latis's vision. He looked up, squinted, and after his eyes adjusted to the light, he realized that they had arrived at the entrance of the sanctuary.
He glanced back; about a thousand steps were hidden in the shadows between the high walls and houses, and the city gate, which was already barely visible, was completely dark.
For some reason, this scene seemed to have a strange symbolic meaning for him. Could this be some kind of teaching from the Pope? That the dark path we came from will eventually lead to the sanctuary of light?
Considering that at the end of the last simulation, Pope Doyle released his will of light, could it be that he believed that true light would arrive after releasing his will of light?
Pope, you're still too naive.
Latis muttered to himself, stepped forward, and knocked on the ancient door of the sanctuary.
Just as he knocked for the third time, the door inexplicably opened automatically. Latis scratched his head. He hadn't felt any magical fluctuations and didn't know whether these strange phenomena in the Holy City were caused by divine power or some other force.
Could it be the will of light...?
He raised his head and looked at the Pope, who sat on a high seat at the end of the long red carpet, wearing a tall crown. His expression suddenly became calm, and he and Jennifer Lifa bowed in unison.
The Pope's face was obscured by the dappled light projected from the stained glass behind him. He raised his hand, adorned with several rings, and gently beckoned. Then, he slightly lifted his papal scepter and tapped it on the ground.
The three of them stood up and walked onto the red carpet in unison, while the open, ancient door silently closed itself until it was tightly shut.
hum...
Suddenly, the sanctuary standing at the highest point of the holy city emitted bursts of light, radiating outwards to the villages and towns within its "territory," until those villages and towns were enveloped in light, at which point the strange noises in the dead silence gradually dissipated.
……
……
"Brother! Brother! Oh no! Outsiders have come to see the Pope!"
A disciple in white robes, carrying cloth shoes and barefoot, rushed into a basement and called out to a man inside who was also barefoot, sitting on the floor flipping through scrolls:
"Go and see! There are three people there!"
"Three people?!" The man's face instantly turned serious. He stood up from the ground covered with short, thin rice stalks, and while putting on the white robe hanging beside him, he asked:
“Snyder, are you sure they went directly to see the Pope?”
"Yes! I saw it with my own eyes!"
The white-robed disciple, known as Snyder, removed her hood, revealing short, curly, dark brown hair. She put down her cloth shoes and said softly:
“There was a man who looked like a lord, and two others, one big and one small… I think they were knights from the Church of Light.”
"Holy Knights?!"
The man gasped, seemingly stunned for a moment, then suddenly quickened his movements as he donned his white robe, speaking rapidly:
“Snyder, you stay here and don’t let the other white-robed knights discover this place. The knights of the Church have done a great favor for the civilians of our Mountain Wasteland. I, Astin, swear on my life that I will rescue them!”
Without time for further instructions, he nodded hastily to Snyder, grabbed his cloth shoes, and rushed out of the basement.
Snyder quickly followed him out, watching Astin's figure disappear rapidly at the end of the corridor. She glanced left and right, then silently closed the hidden door to the basement and pressed her ear against the wall.
A few minutes later, after confirming that he had not been discovered by the other white-robed disciples, Snyder breathed a sigh of relief and tiptoed carefully onto the carpet of straw, picking up the scroll that Astin had just been reading.
The dimly lit basement was only illuminated by a few rays of light filtering through the cracks in the ceiling. Snyder, clutching the scroll, climbed to the wall and began to read the text on it by the faint light.
"God of Light... I beg for your mercy..."
This is a scroll given to each village and town by the knights of the Holy City of Promia during their patrols. It contains a general map of the Wilderness Territory and markings of dangerous areas, as well as a notice from the Holy City of Promia recruiting prospective knights. The last few pages contain some prayers.
According to the results of Snyder and her brother Astin's experiments, most of the prayers did elicit a response, although initially there were only subtle luminous responses that did little more than what was needed to do.
But gradually, the two became more skilled at calling upon the light, and sometimes they could even ask for light in the wild to briefly blind monsters and escape safely.
As a commoner girl of fifteen or sixteen, she naturally did not know whether it was the God of Light responding to her or whether her faith in the light had given her the power of light. She only knew that with this power, she could take on responsibilities that did not actually belong to her.
"White robe..."
Snyder pondered for a moment.
Her hometown is called Jidian Village, located in the central-eastern part of the Mountain Wasteland. There are many towering rocky islets near the village, and the villagers often judge whether there are monsters around by the number of crows and vultures perched on the rocky islets.
Although it lies within the patrol range of both Promia Holy City and the radiation range of Romnia Holy City, Isopin Village rarely receives assistance. Perhaps the two holy cities have some kind of tacit understanding that makes them naturally abide by a rule of not seeing each other. In any case, Isopin Village has to rely on itself to defend against the invasion of monsters most of the time.
However, this did not diminish Snyder and his followers' reverence for the Church of Light, as knights would often sneak over during their off-duty hours to teach the villagers martial arts and give them supplies.
Unfortunately, their good fortune didn't last long. The knight was accidentally injured in a battle to help them fight off monsters, and then a white-robed disciple suddenly arrived at the scene.
The knight assumed they were both believers in the light and that there should be no conflict between them, so he accepted the white-robed disciple's treatment. However, not long after, the knight was suddenly drawn by some mysterious call, removed his armor, left the holy city of Promea, and went to the holy city of Romnia.
When they passed through Isokyo Village, the knight in civilian clothes greeted Snyder and his companions warmly, and then took a brand-new white robe from the white-robed disciple who suddenly appeared and put it on.
They never saw the knight again after that.
The young men and women, wanting to find the knight they once knew, secretly followed the caravan of the imperial tax officials who were going to various villages and towns to investigate taxes. After a long journey, they finally found an opportunity to sneak into the holy city of Romnia.
As time passed, they hid in the basement of Romnia, relying on the power of light brought by their devout faith. Although they ultimately failed to find the knight, their purpose had already quietly changed.
In the name of light, they wanted to save this light.
Chapter 396 The First Clash with the Pope
"Guests who have come from afar, please have a seat."
Amidst the dazzling, multicolored light that obscured the surrounding space, the Pope's dry, hoarse voice resounded simultaneously from all directions, its exact location indiscernible.
"Thank you, Your Holiness."
Latis bowed, and his brows furrowed as he looked at the dimly lit environment around him, where things were almost indistinguishable.
Is the Pope giving them a warning?
"With this blindingly bright ambient lighting, does Bro just throw a rave in the cathedral every day?"
He mentally scoffed, narrowed his eyes slightly, and quietly released his personal magic network. Then, he reached out and accurately grabbed the two girls beside him from the mingled light, steadily walking to the seats on the side and sitting down.
"Lazi, this light is strange... it's like some kind of diffused light energy. This is the first time I've ever sensed such light..."
Jennifer's whispered voice sounded in his ear. Latis stroked his chin, about to ask Jennifer how she felt, when the Pope suddenly spoke:
"Knight of Light, your senses are quite sharp, which surprises me somewhat."
He paused, chuckled twice in a dry voice, and continued:
"Yes, in the sanctuary, I broke the light down into different states, some visible and some invisible. The dazzling, chaotic light you see is simply the result of these states of light not being combined into one."
The Pope stood up, supporting himself with his scepter. He raised the scepter and inserted it into the base beside him. Suddenly, the sound of a hinge turning came. Latis's vision blurred, and he subconsciously closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, the Pope's gaunt figure appeared in his field of vision without any obstruction.