Chapter 193: Reversing Hourglass (1)
The Pope slowly stepped forward. With each step he took, the long, trailing hem of his robes rustled.
The robe, pleated like an ancient toga, was a single, unadorned color. However, though the color of the robe was monochrome, it was not monotonous. It was definitely a single color, but each time one looked at it, the color appeared different.
To be more precise, the base color of the robe was indeed white. But the accumulated years deposited on the robe changed every moment. It was sometimes a dazzling white color, as if a craftsman had confidently just finished it, and sometimes it looked decayed to the point of being close to gray, as if it had deteriorated for dozens, perhaps hundreds of years.
Time changes with each step he takes. The Pope's own appearance was the same. Sometimes he looked like a boy, sometimes like an old man.
It was the moment he passed Carisia and reached out to The Ten Magical Commandments.
Kang—!
In the stopped time, a sound that was not the Pope's echoed.
It was Halto.
He refined the torrent of the extra-dimension and held it in both hands as bladed weapons. The extra-dimensional magic power flowing around Halto's body writhed like a snake, heading towards the Pope.
"What is it, you…!"
The Pope gave him a benevolent look.
"I'm sorry, brother. You have been deceived by a false king and your eyes have been blinded."
Halto's eyes widened at the calm blasphemy.
“But rest assured now. Everything will return to peace, to the way it should be.”
The Pope looked down at his own appearance from a third-person perspective, and further at the appearance of the battlefield.
The most dangerous ones. The Ancient Elders, who exist as independent providence and can evade even the influence of time stop, could no longer move.
It was thanks to the consumption of magic power. As the formulas and magic power that maintained their existence were leaked, their incomplete bodies lost some of their independence, and were incorporated into the influence of time stop.
The same was true of the Tower Lord of Nokmok. The Pope only moved after Hyacinth observed the point at which the connection with The Ten Magical Commandments was damaged, so all of this was within his expectations.
What was beyond expectation was Halto, who was moving here now. The Pope could easily see through the principle by which Halto overcame the stop. The Mage King's power imparted to Argyrion and Eidolons.
Something writhing in the shadows. The nebula living in the gap of the extra-dimension gathered all of the Mage King's power in this place and concentrated it on Halto alone. Halto, blessed by the grace of divinity, was therefore able to move even in the stopped spacetime.
But it was a meaningless act. The Pope drew a circle with his scepter. A gentle movement. It was counterclockwise.
As the scepter moved, all of Halto's movements began to go backwards. The flowing water of the extra-dimension, and the trident held in both hands.
The outstretched arm returns to its original place.
"What is it, you…!"
The exact same sentence as the sharp words first thrown at the Pope. Halto tried to attack again, but then stopped.
"What?"
“Don’t believe the one you call the Mage King. Find the peace within yourself. Brother, why are you wasting your time in a futile fight?”
The Pope replaced persuasion with a single smile and moved again. Halto thrust out the trident like lightning. But the moment the spearhead of the trident was about to touch the Pope's spine, it brushed past Halto's hair rather than the Pope's body and soared upwards.
Seogeong. His sideburns were slightly cut off. At the moment Halto stabbed the spear of solidified extra-dimensional magic power at the Pope, the space through which the spear was moving was distorted and connected to the side of his head.
It was a technique that was impossible to understand. Did the Cult of the Vanished Gods have such powerful Holy Incantation? Why haven’t they used it until now?
But Halto did not give up here. He had a duty to realize the cause. Even as Halto pondered how to break that superstition with magic, the Pope's movement did not stop.
It was the moment when the Pope approached Carisia's side. Right before The Ten Magical Commandments.
“Haha, I think it’s our first time meeting in person?”
A voice of an uninvited guest was heard.
***
The Pope knew the identity of that uninvited guest well. Orthes, who had been steadily contacting the Divine Cult as a spokesperson for Hydra Corporation. Although his appearance was somewhat unclear, he remembered that voice clearly.
“That’s right, it’s our first time meeting. As you know, I am the Pope. I am in a shamefully undeserved position.”
The Pope responded gently. About ten steps ahead of the Pope. Orthes appeared with a knife pointed at the neck of the stopped Commander.
“Indeed, I had a hunch, but you really were the Pope. I am Orthes, the head of the Divine Investigation Office at Hydra Corporation.”
It was a conversation as if the company's working-level staff were exchanging business cards at their first meeting. The tone was quite peaceful, and the courteous conversation seemed as if it would lead to a handshake at any moment.
Orthes' faint smile was also there. But his eyes were not smiling. Between the slightly opened eyelids. A cool blue light surged.
“May I ask, as a business partner, what you are trying to do now?”
A greasy voice. It was a different kind of composure from the Pope's gentle composure.
“I am trying to correct the world.”
“That’s quite a familiar statement. That person who is trying to ambush you from behind, Pope-teacher, is also claiming the same thing.”
The Pope raised his scepter. And he let go of it in that state. The scepter floating in the air was frozen, neither moving nor falling.
The same was true of Halto's body. However, the extra-dimensional magic power that surrounded Halto outwardly appeared to be stopped, but the ominous light inside constantly flickered, proving that it had not reached complete stop.
“Unlike those poor brothers who follow the will of the false king. We are trying to bring back the correct era, when this world was not contaminated by magic."
"Are you trying to get rid of all the magic power?"
“Ah, similar. But it is a more certain method than that.”
Orthes could feel some kind of obsession and madness in the Pope's soft tone. Get rid of magic power. Get rid of magic.
If it could be achieved, it might be a good method. We wouldn't have to be afraid of when the Mage King will come. But the problem was Carisia.
Carisia was born from magic itself. What would happen to Carisia when the Pope's purpose was achieved?
“What about the people of this world now?”
"People of the age tainted by magic power have already lost their purity. A tainted life is inevitable suffering. I will liberate everyone from suffering.”
“Is it possible. With just one set of The Ten Magical Commandments.”
“Of course it’s possible. Not only The Ten Magical Commandments, but many preparations have been added.”
“Even if I kill the Commander?”
***
It was a complex silence. The Pope was probably calculating how much of his tricks I knew, and Halto was trying to smash something, whether it was the Pope's Holy Incantation or his power.
“If you had no burden in using the power of the Primordial God, the Divine Cult would have been fighting in a better environment than it is now. I think the Commander is playing the role of a kind of living catalyst.”
It was the result of analyzing the Commander. She had Reliquaries densely mounted on her whole body, and the fact that there were many relics was functioning as a special symbol.
A collection of numerous gods, with the Twelve Olympians at the forefront. In other words, a living pantheon. I couldn't interpret all the meanings, but it was clear that the symbolism of the totality of those gods was playing a certain role.
"You know a lot."
“It’s an occupational hazard.”
The Pope's smile. Even in this situation, a smile is creepy.
"Indeed, you are the same being as me."
"Pardon?"
“Artificial Demi-god. The ultimate weapon created by the ancient Divine Cult.”
I could see why the Holy Incantation that the Commander had unleashed had awakened my eyes. Strictly speaking, it was not a Holy Incantation. A Holy Decree, a higher stage than Holy Incantation.
Holy Incantation is manifested with Divine Power, a degraded form of divinity that individual priests accept. However, Holy Decree was a miracle that could only be reached through divinity, not Divine Power.
My eyes could be reactivated because I came into contact with a fragment of divinity itself, not Divine Power. I suppressed my impatience and replied.
“I’ve been accused of being a Demi-god here and there, but I don’t really know exactly what I am either.”
“Hyacinth was very worried about you. He said he couldn’t figure out what you were. Even when he tried to foresee the future, it went wrong at some point. But I guessed it from the moment I heard the story about you.”
The Pope reached out his right hand to me. I stared at the tip of that hand.
“I wondered if you were the same as me,”
***
The Pope extended his hand toward his brother–not a ‘brother’ in the metaphorical sense of the world, but a real brother who shared the same origin of creation.
He was bound to be the only remaining member of his race in this world. If they joined hands, his plan would be achieved much easier and faster.
But Orthes retorted in an unwavering, businesslike tone.
“I have no intention of being on the same family register as you.”
"Is that so. Does the family register have someone else’s name written on it?”
A moment of silence. Orthes shook his head.
“For now, it’s just me alone. Pope-teacher. I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but stop it. Once we take over Nokmok, the Ten Magical Commandments Front will be our victory. The Divine Cult will no longer have to be oppressed.”
“Brother, I’m sorry, but that’s not enough. The positive attitude of overcoming tragedy may also be beautiful, but wouldn’t it be more beautiful if the tragedy itself did not happen in the first place?”
Silence again. The man whose eyes could not be read because his age was constantly changing. The man who could not read the eyes because he only saw the world with narrow eyes faced each other.
The Pope clenched his outstretched hand. Particles of divinity gathered and formed a second scepter. The Pope pointed the scepter. As soon as the light gathered, Orthes stabbed the high-frequency blade aimed at the Commander without hesitation.
Kang!
A strange sound that no one would imagine to be the sound of stabbing a person. The target that the Pope aimed the scepter at was not Orthes.
It was the void.
The space between the Commander and the high-frequency blade froze, becoming a barrier in itself. Orthes’ eyes interfere with the Holy Decree. But at that point, the time stop that had been applied to the Commander was lifted.
The Commander, wielding the scythe, attacked Orthes. Certainly, if Orthes killed the Commander, a serious error might occur in the Pope's plan.
But if Orthes tried to interfere with and kill the stopped Commander with his power, the Pope only had to release the stop. He could buy time until he applied a small carving to the components of The Ten Magical Commandments.
Orthes, who was dealing with the Commander, used several magic engraving drives in a row to cover the formula and cause an explosion. It is never a meaningful attack on the Commander or the Pope.
However, it was suitable for moving through the smoke. It is impossible to surprise the Pope. Because he must be prepared.
Carisia was too close to the Pope. It's fortunate that he didn't come up with the idea of using Carisia to stage a hostage situation.
A variable was needed.
Orthes slashed down with the high-frequency blade. The formula of the high-frequency blade collides with the Holy Decree of time stop.
The freed Halto blinked his eyes.
"You…?!"
Orthes shouted, gritting his teeth.
"It's a temporary alliance!"