Chapter 596
I Will Tell You an Old Tale. (1)
"Hmm."
Ghislain fell into brief contemplation.
How did Ereneth know about this?
It wasn’t as if she had regressed like him.
He had long suspected that Ereneth was hiding something. However, she had never directly spoken of danger like this before.
Since the topic had already been brought up, he figured he should ask for more details.
Ghislain led the group to a different location. Once they arrived at a spacious conference room, he asked,
"Explain in detail. Why is the dragon attacking humans?"
Even in his past life, he had never known the reason.
One day, a dragon had simply appeared and displayed immense hostility toward humanity.
The dragon destroyed indiscriminately, attacking humans alongside the continent's monsters.
Of course, the Salvation Church was not spared either. The dragon ruthlessly struck at both the church and the Riftspawn.
Perhaps they could have been on the same side. However, by the time the United Human Army had a chance to consider it, the dragon had already annihilated several human kingdoms. There was no choice but to fight against it.
While he was curious about the dragon’s rampage, what intrigued him the most right now was the timing.
In his past life, the dragon had appeared several years later.
'Did I change the future again? But I’ve had no involvement with dragons…'
He was already aware that his constant alterations to the future had caused events to occur earlier than they originally had. The Salvation Church’s rise had also happened faster than in his past life.
Because of that, he had managed to eradicate them before they could grow too large.
However, he had never interfered with anything related to dragons.
After hearing Ghislain's question, Ereneth took a moment to gather her thoughts before speaking.
"The dragon wants to kill someone."
"Who?"
"The one called the King of the Salvation Church. In the old war, we called him the Adversary."
"So that dragon is killing humans because it wants to eliminate this so-called Adversary?"
"Yes. If the dragon cannot find the Adversary, it intends to kill all humans."
As she spoke, Ereneth glanced at Julien.
"Hmm…"
Ghislain folded his arms and sank into thought.
Ereneth still seemed to suspect Julien. Before addressing that, there was something else he needed to clarify.
After organizing his thoughts, Ghislain asked,
"We don’t know your past. What exactly is the true goal of the Salvation Church? Who is this King they seek the Adversary?"
"……."
"And what is this old war you're talking about? We need to understand that before we can make sense of your words. Why are you and the dragon so desperate to kill the Adversary? Are they just power-hungry tyrants trying to conquer the world? That doesn't make any sense."
Everyone knew that Ereneth despised the Salvation Church. She had suddenly appeared one day, aiding Ghislain in the fight against them.
At the time, she had claimed that she had been hunting the Salvation Church for a very long time. However, she had never shared any details beyond that.
Back then, they had let it slide. But now, things were different. To understand her words, they needed prior knowledge.
That was what Ghislain was demanding from her now.
"……."
Ereneth remained silent for a moment. Humanity was already at war with the Salvation Church, so she had seen no reason to speak of it before.
However, for the battles ahead, she needed to reveal at least some of what she knew.
Letting out a long sigh, she slowly opened her mouth and began to speak.
"I will tell you a tale of an ancient, forgotten myth and war."
* * *
A long, long time ago, this land was a prosperous and peaceful world, ruled by four goddesses.
All beings revered the goddesses and lived lives of abundance, free from any conflict.
A paradise, an idyllic utopia.
That peace was shattered by the arrival of an uninvited guest from a distant place.
The intruder was a deity from another world.
He sought out the four goddesses and pleaded for their aid.
His world had been destroyed, and his creations were on the brink of extinction. He begged them to save his people.
To reach them, he had even expended his own divinity, piercing through the dimensional barrier something thought to be unbreakable.
The goddesses decided to save them. Thus, they permitted the refugees to migrate into this world.
The pitiful beings bore a striking resemblance to the humans of this land, so the goddesses saw no reason why they could not coexist.
Though they possessed strong wills and burning desires, such traits could serve as a driving force to propel the world forward.
But then, a problem arose.
The beings from the other world could not withstand the great order of the universe. As they crossed the dimensional barrier, they lost their sense of self, leaving behind only their destructive instincts.
One by one, they transformed into grotesque monsters, seeking only to destroy.
The goddesses were left with no choice but to shut the dimensional gate. They could not allow this world to be ruined as well.
The foreign deity was enraged. Though his creations had become hideous abominations, they were still his children his beloved progeny.
He believed the goddesses had broken their promise and forcibly reopened the gate.
Countless beings from the other world poured into this realm. The people of this land fought against them, suffering greatly.
The world’s inhabitants gave the foreign deity a new name, one that reflected their fear and hatred.
The Demon God.
Thus, the deity from another world came to be known as the Demon God.
His lesser deities and creatures continued to flood into this world, and the goddesses had no choice but to stop them.
Thus began the war.
The army led by the Demon God clashed against the army led by the Goddesses.
It was a war that shook the very foundations of the world. Countless beings perished, and the war seemed as if it would never end.
Yet, after a long and arduous struggle, the war ultimately ended in the Goddesses’ victory. This world had been overflowing with their divine presence.
The dimensional gate was sealed once more, and all the otherworldly beings that had invaded this realm were annihilated.
However, it could not be called a complete victory.
The Demon God was powerful. Though the Goddesses triumphed, they lost their physical forms in the battle, leaving them unable to directly intervene in this world ever again.
Thus, only their will remained, watching over the world. And only a select few, those attuned to that will, could barely communicate with them, these individuals became priests.
A world devoid of the Goddesses’ care.
Paradise had crumbled.
Now, those who remained had to fight for survival.
And survival was no easy task.
The Demon God’s corpse lay fallen upon the earth, while his soul had vanished into the cosmic order.
But, having once held divinity, even his corpse was far from ordinary.
The energy and lingering thoughts it released gradually altered the world. Various animals and plants were affected, transforming into beings that came to be called monsters.
Humanity was forced to battle these creatures, suffering once more.
Yet even this was a minor concern in the grand scheme.
The lingering will of the Demon God sought to reclaim this world, filled with the desire to save his people.
As time passed, there were those among humankind who became tainted by that will.
These individuals sought to reopen the dimensional gate, to rescue the inhabitants of another realm, and to conduct a ritual to resurrect their god.
Thus, the Salvation Church was born.
But the ones they sought to save were not the people of this world.
They sought to rescue those trapped in the dimensional rift, those who had suffered in agony for eons.
The Salvation Church first took root upon the land where the Demon God’s corpse lay.
A land overflowing with malice and wrath, where none dared to tread lightly. The people of the world came to call it the Demonic Land.
Those who followed the Salvation Church were safe within the Demonic Land, but they could not easily step beyond its borders.
For the Dragons the strongest creatures ever created by the Goddesses to combat the lesser gods of other realms kept watch over that place.
Yet even the Dragons could not recklessly enter the Demonic Land . The energy that pervaded it was overwhelming, even for them.
For countless years, the followers of the Salvation Church searched for a way to harness the Demon God’s power.
Eventually, they succeeded in wielding a portion of that power and even managed to open the dimensional gate though only slightly.
And so, war began anew.
Human history had been defined by its battles against the Demonic Land.
But it was not only the Salvation Church that had advanced by harnessing the Demon God’s power.
The Elves nurtured their forests, allowing them to flourish, while the Dwarves constructed vast underground cities.
Humanity, on the other hand, built empires across the vast lands, cultivating brilliant civilizations.
They pondered how they might seal the Demon God's land and eradicate the Salvation Church.
At the same time, the Salvation Church sought ways to resurrect the Demon God and claim this world as their own.
For thousands perhaps even tens of thousands of years, these two forces had been locked in conflict.
Until the war that broke out a thousand years ago.
* * *
"……."
The people listening to Ereneth’s story were left speechless.
It was an absurd and utterly preposterous tale. It sounded somewhat plausible, yet it was far too unrealistic to be believed outright.
Seeing their expressions, Ereneth nodded as if she understood their doubts.
"It is merely a myth that explains how this world came to be the way it is. Naturally, it won’t be entirely logical, and there may be distortions. I only shared it because understanding this myth is key to grasping the Salvation Church’s true objectives."
She took a brief breath before continuing.
"The Salvation Church’s myth differs somewhat. They claim that this world originally belonged to them and that we were the ones who drove them out. But in the end, their goal remains the same as the one described in this myth."
The people nodded. Myths were often like that. They couldn’t be taken at face value. Most simply accepted it as an interesting story, one that offered some insight into the motives of the Salvation Church.
But one person reacted very differently.
All eyes turned toward a single figure, radiating an overwhelming presence and seething with rage.
It was Parniel.
"How dare you… speak such blasphemous myths before me?"
Boom!
She, the devout servant of the Goddesses and the one known as the Saintess, was truly enraged.
What was a myth? It was the foundation of religion, the basis of holy scriptures meant for worshiping the divine.
No one had the right to fabricate or distort it as they pleased. To do so was an act of defiance against divinity itself, a direct rejection of the Church.
Parniel had never heard of such a myth before. How could an Elf claim to know a myth that even the Church’s Saintess had never encountered?
"You… are a heretic."
But Ereneth simply smirked in response.
"A thousand years ago, this was a widely known and common myth. The Church deliberately erased it from history and concealed it."
"Where do you get such outrageous lies from?!"
Kwaaaang!
Parniel’s massive mace came crashing down toward Ereneth. But she did not so much as blink.
KWAANG!
Ghislain had drawn his sword and blocked the strike. However, the sheer force behind it sent him staggering, his knee nearly buckling.
‘What the hell?’
The power she wielded was incomparable to usual. She was truly furious.
He needed to calm her down. If they started fighting here, they wouldn’t be able to get any real answers.
"Parniel, wait a moment."
"Step aside."
"Let’s hear her out first. We haven’t even gotten to the Adversary yet, have we?"
"……Haa."
Parniel glared at Ereneth for a long moment before finally lowering her mace.
Meanwhile, the people of Fenris covered their mouths, chuckling and exchanging amused glances as they watched Ghislain intervene.
‘You get how we feel now, don’t you?’
‘The one trying to stop the fight always has it the hardest.’
‘Man, this is entertaining.’
There was no one else who could mediate between such powerful figures besides Ghislain. That was why he always ended up in these situations.
Seeing their amusement, Ghislain twitched his lips. He didn’t even need to hear their thoughts to know what they were thinking.
Shooting them a sharp look in silent warning, he then turned to Ereneth.
"If that myth is true, then are you saying the Riftspawn are actually inhabitants of another world?"
"That’s right. And the light that creates the Mutants is the souls of those who were trapped in the dimensional rift."
"They keep coming to this world because they want to live here?"
"Exactly. To them, this world is their promised land, their paradise."
"Heh, well, this place is a pain to live in, too. Looks like they’ve got the wrong idea. But then again, people always think someone else’s land is better than their own."
"……."
"Fine, let’s set the myth aside. What about the Adversary and the war from a thousand years ago?"
Ereneth fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking.
"For ages, humanity had fought against the Demonic Land. But then, a new enemy appeared. The greatest genius in history emerged from within the Salvation Church."
And so, Ereneth began her tale once more.
The story of the Adversary the one who had been stronger than anyone else a thousand years ago.