Chapter 293.1: Old Days Unlocked, Beseeching the Saint’s Return |
See of the God of Order, the Pope’s private prayer room.
Erigma stared at the potion formula and the transcription of the reconstitution ritual before her, as well as the bizarre summoning ritual placed to the side. She sat in silence for a long time, unable to process it.
Archbishop Henry had already led the red-haired girl to the church’s Sanctuary Library. Now, Erigma was alone in the private prayer room.
Just a moment ago, Erigma had experienced an unprecedented mental shock.
A mysterious girl told her that every transcendent on the "Detective" path had taken the wrong road... and then produced a complete advancement plan that appeared entirely flawless, handing it directly to her...
As if she were handing over a newspaper or some common information, the girl showed absolutely no regard for these top-secret materials. It had reached a point where Erigma even doubted their authenticity.
But rationality told her that everything the girl said was true...
Especially after the girl briefly demonstrated the abilities of a Tier 1 "Knight," every doubt in Erigma’s mind regarding this path vanished—to the point that when the Other Side summoning array was shown afterward, Erigma didn't even experience much of a psychological ripple.
The girl told Erigma that this path was given to her by the entity within the Other Side node...
The goal she and other sages had pursued for their entire lives, the road they had exhausted their hearts to walk, was a completely incorrect path... and one that was nearly impossible to continue... It was a testament to her mental stability that Erigma hadn't gone mad.
She likely needed some time to settle her spirit. Once her emotions stabilized, she would seek out the girl named Ciel.
Meanwhile, under the guidance of Archbishop Henry, Ciel had arrived at the Sanctuary Library.
This was not a library for priests; it housed theological treatises and rare volumes passed down from the Holy War era that only transcendents were eligible to read. Some were not even written in Old Ansu.
After giving Ciel the keys to the collection and explaining the precautions, Henry left the Sanctuary Library, leaving Ciel, Tara, and Percy to browse at their leisure—a privilege normally reserved only for those of Archbishop rank or higher. Ordinary church transcendents could only borrow items for a limited time.
Ciel did not stand on ceremony. Starting from the first bookshelf, she scanned the directories of every single shelf.
Soon, every book stored there was firmly imprinted in Ciel’s mind. She directly began to search through the book catalog she had memorized.
Ciel could understand some of the Old Ansu directories, but many materials were in another ancient language that was not Old Ansu. Knowing nothing of it, she could only temporarily turn to the books she could read.
After spending half an hour reading a small portion of the Old Ansu texts, Ciel’s understanding of the Church of the God of Order deepened. Simultaneously, she could roughly decipher the commonalities in how the Church of the God of Order recorded the Holy War Era.
Ciel applied a single label to all the Church of the God of Order’s records of the Holy War Era: "Functionality."
These volumes essentially weaponized theological knowledge to serve the wars of faith; they were more akin to the church brainwashing its believers, deepening their faith and the perceived legitimacy of the Holy War. The content Ciel actually wanted to find was scarce.
However, one conclusion Ciel could draw by cross-referencing these with the Divine Advent Church’s records was that from the Holy War Era onward, no more Ascenders seemed to have appeared.
It seemed that after the transition from the Chaos Era to the Holy War, Ascenders completely vanished... coinciding with the loss of contact with the gods.
This thousand-year Holy War had almost drained the resources of the major churches and wiped out a vast amount of inheritance, making the Chaos Era even more blurred...
Nevertheless, Ciel remained patient, searching bit by bit through these heavily subjective, religiously narrated volumes until she had scanned the entirety of the already limited collection.
Finally, Ciel picked up the documents and literature she couldn't understand and began to flip through them. Although she couldn't comprehend what was written, she could memorize the characters perfectly. Once she learned these scripts in the future, she would naturally understand them.
After recording this information, Ciel hurried to the Archbishop’s residence of the Church of the Savior Goddess to find Eleanor.
In previous simulations, Ciel already had multiple experiences in turning Eleanor to her side. This time, she chose the simplest method—the pendant of the faceless goddess.
Utilizing "Omniscient," she successfully gained Eleanor's trust, leading Eleanor to take her to the Cloister Archives within the See of the Savior Goddess.
Here, Ciel obtained a small portion of the Church of the Savior Goddess's ancient texts, all written in Old Ansu.
While the volume of books here was nowhere near that of the Great Cathedral in North Ansu, it was enough for Ciel to compare this knowledge with what she had acquired from the Church of the God of Order.
The more she compared the knowledge from both sides, the more the confusion in Ciel’s heart grew rather than diminished.
Where did the gods go?
The Ascenders... why did they suddenly disappear?
Perhaps due to the nature of church records, mentions of gods and Ascenders were almost non-existent. What remained was mostly evasive, focusing instead on Holy War battles and promoting the church's main narrative.
If the gods had all disappeared...
Then what exactly was Sadhana?
Was She a proxy of a god? One of the remaining fragments?
If She was, then what were the Pure White Knight and the Grim Worm?
What were the Divine Servant and that first Grim Worm? Why did they have different perceptions of her?
The Divine Servant and the first Grim Worm mistook her for Sadhana.
The second Grim Worm seemed to make no attempt to learn anything about her, thinking only of how to get more blood from her to consume.
And the Pure White Knight directly spoke the name "Time-Binder"…
Ciel felt herself surrounded by chaotic information. No matter how she searched, she could not fathom the secrets of the Other Side or the Chaos Era.
It was as if… something or some entity had completely erased this period of history.