Chapter 890: Murder |
The next morning.
Lumian and the others had just finished breakfast in their room and were waiting for Ludwig to clean up the rest when they heard the doorbell ring.
Outside the door was a half-giant youth about two meters tall, with slightly longer arms and legs, short curly brown hair that looked fluffy.
He had thick eyebrows and big eyes, with a square face. After his gaze swept over Lumian, Franca and Jenna, it involuntarily lowered to look at his own toes as he said, "I'm here to find Lumian Lee, uh, possibly Ms. Lumina Lee."
He spoke in ancient Feysac.
"That's me," Lumian understood this was probably the messenger sent by Mr. Sun to take him to the Twin Towers of the New City of Silver.
That Major Arcana card holder seemed to have deliberately found a youth, to ensure the height difference wouldn't be too dramatic.
The youth let out a sigh of relief and said awkwardly, "I've been ordered by the six-member council to take you to see Elder Derrick Berg at the Twin Towers."
"Alright," Lumian nodded to Jenna and Franca, then followed the youth out of the hotel towards the Twin Towers located in a corner of the New City of Silver.
He would turn his head to glance at Lumian from time to time, but not knowing what to say, he could only quickly turn his head back.
Halfway through the journey, he finally thought of a suitable topic. Half turning his body, he asked Lumian, "Aren't, aren't you worried that I might be a bad person? Maybe what I said about the six-member council's order and going to see Elder Derrick Berg at the Twin Towers is all a lie to trick you?"
I could kill thirty of your kind in one breath… Lumian only thought to himself, without saying it out loud.
On the one hand, they were both followers of Mr. Fool and not too familiar, so there was no need to mock. On the other hand, Lumian felt that if his sister Aurore was here, she definitely wouldn't answer in a similar way.
He smiled lightly and said, "I'm not worried, because this is the New City of Silver."
The half-giant youth suddenly became very happy and said in a tone of heartfelt pride,
"Yes, the Lord has always taught us to be kind and restrained. Our New City of Silver strictly cracks down on all kinds of crimes, especially guarding against theft, fraud and other such behaviors…"
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"Yes, the Lord has always taught us to be kind and restrained. Our New City of Silver strictly cracks down on all kinds of crimes, especially guarding against theft, fraud and other such behaviors…"
The half-giant youth opened up and began to talk endlessly about how Mr. Fool originally sent an Angel to save the City of Silver, how he gave the City of Silver this promised land, and how they, the people of the City of Silver, built the New City of Silver.
Lumian had heard these stories repeatedly when drinking in the New City of Silver before, but he wasn't impatient now, letting the half-giant youth continue his smooth narration.
He heard happiness of peace and tranquility in the other's description.
In this exchange, the two arrived at the Twin Towers, the core buildings of the New City of Silver. The left tower had a pointed top and housed public facilities such as the library, while the right tower had a round top and was where the six-member council that governed the New City of Silver worked.
Lumian instinctively turned his gaze towards the round tower and noticed that in the cracks between the bricks near the ground, tufts of black hair-like plants had grown out, sometimes drooping, sometimes swaying lightly as if blown by a gentle breeze.
When he came last time, Lumian had also noticed these black plants but didn't pay much attention. This time, however, he felt a kind of blood connection.
We are all parts or rather continuations of the life of the Goddess of Harvest, Omebella!
Even when sealed, does a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact still have some influence on the outside world? Lumian withdrew his gaze and followed the half-giant youth into the pointed tower.
They walked on large black stone slabs, passing huge pillars, and came to the library on the third floor.
In front of the intimidating bookshelves stood a tall man wearing a simple white robe.
The man was over two meters tall, with neatly combed brownish-yellow hair. He looked only about 22 or 23 years old, but had a very calm demeanor and an overwhelming aura. He was clearly Mr. Sun, whom Lumian had met last time, one of the top figures of the Church of The Fool.
"Elder Berg, Ms. Lumina is here," the half-giant youth said respectfully.
Mr. Sun, whose name was Derrick Berg, looked at Lumian and nodded, saying, "Follow me."
Lumian politely replied, "Thank you."
The half-giant youth then waved and walked towards the door. After a few steps, he turned around and called out to Lumian's back, "My name is Rugest!"
After saying this, Rugest quickly turned and ran down the stairs.
Lumian followed Mr. Sun deep into the New City of Silver library, entering the innermost secret room where a stack of documents made up of scattered records was placed.
"These are all the records regarding the 'Gift of the Land'. I have already translated them into ancient Feysac for you," Mr. Sun said simply, sitting down in a position against the wall and falling silent, as if he had turned into a statue.
Lumian understood this was to guard against any accidents that might occur while he was reading the materials, so he nodded lightly, sat down at the table, and picked up the stack of new papers.
He read very slowly, taking nearly half an hour to roughly understand the relationship between the Goddess of Harvest, Omebella, and the City of Silver.
In the Second Epoch, in the era when the ancient gods ruled the earth and sky, the City of Silver belonged to the Giant King's Court, and all its people were slaves to the giants.
But unlike other human vassal powers of the Giant King's Court, the City of Silver's situation was considerably better, because they believed in and followed the subsidiary god of the Giant King, the ancient god, the Giant Queen, the Goddess of Harvest—Omebella.
According to the City of Silver's records, the Giant Queen Omebella had descended to their city multiple times, displaying two images.
One image corresponded to light and goodness, with "the harvest's grace, life's precious embrace" as the core of faith, viewing the people of the City of Silver as Her own children, always ensuring bountiful harvests, abundant reproduction of livestock and poultry, and rapid population growth. This was the main reason why the people of City of Silver rarely suffered innocent slaughter and did not lack food.
The other would bring desolation and death. At that time, all the people of Certain Death knew phrases like "extreme harvest is inevitably accompanied by extreme desolation", "only life can quell the land's wrath", "death, like new life, is a common and beautiful thing, not to be feared", "we have accepted the land's gifts, so we must pay the corresponding price".
If Omebella descended in this form, She would inevitably demand bloody sacrifices, with large numbers of humans as offerings. Even if the people of the City of Silver did these things, sacrificing their own relatives, they would sometimes still suffer famines lasting up to a year—if they didn't do so, the famine might last three to five years.
Is this what the era ruled by ancient gods was like? Even the City of Silver, which was relatively well off, was like this… Lumian turned to the next page.
This page recorded the Giant King's Court's words of praise for the Giant Queen Omebella. What caught Lumian's attention most was one sentence: "The noble Queen used Her maternal nature to help the great King calm His emotions…"
What does this mean? Maternal nature… helping the Giant King—this ancient god—expel excess Beyonder characteristics and regain some sanity by giving birth to children? Lumian pondered as he continued reading.
After another fifteen minutes, he turned to the stage of the Giant King's Court's rapid decline.
The City of Silver, which had obtained another divine-level Sealed Artifact, had learned of the fall of the ancient god, the Giant King and feared falling into the hands of the more brutal Devil Monarch.
In such anxiety and unease, on a night without the crimson moon, the Giant Queen Omebella appeared outside the City of Silver.
This time, She did not descend directly, but walked over step by step.
She was in poor condition. She asked the believers of the City of Silver to perform a ritual, sacrificing half of their people to help Her replenish Her life force.
The record of the subsequent situation was vague, but the result was clear: "That night, man slew god, subject slew ruler, child slew mother."
In other words, the bizarrely resurrected Omebella finally died at the hands of the betraying believers of the City of Silver? Lumian wasn't too surprised.
After that day, the City of Silver discovered that Omebella's remains didn't have Beyonder characteristics in the true sense, but still possessed powerful force and terrifying authority. They completely buried this history, hid this secret, and even after converting to belief in the Ancient Sun God, they didn't tell that Lord the true origin of the divine-level Sealed Artifact, Gift of the Land, until Mr. Fool's Angel of Redemption came to save them.
At this point, all records of Omebella—the Goddess of Harvest—ended. Next came information about the Sealed Artifact—Gift of the Land.
"Gift of the Land can naturally create an edible plant in any environment and promote its growth, reproduction, and abundant harvest within a fifty-kilometer range.
"Gift of the Land will turn all dead humans within a fifty-kilometer range into terrible evil spirits, unless that human died by being murdered by a direct relative. Those who have eaten the food it creates and have a strong connection with it will turn into evil spirits within three hundred kilometers…"
Seeing this record different from the official Sealed Artifact description, Lumian suddenly raised his head and looked at Mr. Sun sitting by the wall.
He asked in confusion, "Every dead human will turn into an evil spirit?
"Even those who were below Sequence 5 in life?"
As far as Lumian knew, evil spirits were the strongest among soul creatures. Even the weakest should be at the level of Sequence 5, while the strong ones could be equivalent to demigods.
"Yes." Mr. Sun nodded steadily.
Wh— the ability of the Gift of the Land is terrifying. This is equivalent to being able to mass-produce Sequence 5 Beyonders, some of whom should even be demigods… Is this what a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact is? Lumian subconsciously began to evaluate from a combat power perspective.
He probed, "What's the maximum number of dead humans that can turn into evil spirits at one time?"
"We've never tried," Mr. Sun replied with a solemn expression.
Lumian suddenly realized and quickly apologized, "I apologize for my rudeness."
He continued reading the materials about the divine-level Sealed Artifact; in the New City of Silver, Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts were called divine-level Sealed Artifacts.
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