Chapter 505: 122. The Curtain
At this moment, inside the vast and dim cave, two Nineteen Rank archangels stood one in front and one behind, completely blocking Hela’s space to move, sealing off both her forward and backward paths.
Faced with Pandora’s question, Hela forced a smile but did not answer immediately.
Seeing this, Remiel, the white-haired and brown-skinned archangel behind her, raised a finger, and extremely dangerous arcs of electricity began to activate from the corners of the cave, slowly making their way to the center.
“Thinking about stalling for time until the World Tree arrives? It seems that the usually carefree you doesn’t really know what our true purpose is, does it? A bit unexpected at this moment?”
“Don’t be like that, Lady Pandora. With such tension… I don’t even know what you all want to do, so why make things difficult for me?”
“Didn’t you understand already? What I want is the tears of the World Tree, to forge a holy relic that will replace my cursed eyes which are burdened with the secrets of the True God. This is common knowledge among the angels of the Holy Realm, and you should understand it too.”
Hela shrugged her shoulders and said to Angel Pandora, “If your goal right now is truly just the tears of the World Tree, you just need to wait for Margaret above to die, right? Why bother having Fisher give me this mark… Angel Pandora, you want everything: the Loom of Fate, the tears of the World Tree, and this mark.”
“That Trans, Fisher, wants to see the Holy Grail because he intends to use the mark in his possession to break the rules of the Holy Grail, using the power of the Heavenly Lock to help him drive away death. But he doesn’t realize how much can be achieved if that mark actually breaks the rules of the Holy Grail… Unlike Margaret stealing part of the authority of death, the Holy Grail contains all the power of the Heavenly Lock — including the authority granted to him by the gods.”
Pandora’s head lowered slightly, her vacant eyes gazed at the ribbon lying in her palm as if it had ignited with a fierce desire,
“I’ve had enough of the Heavenly Lock and his foolish Holy Realm; no wonder he is the creator of angels, his arrogance surpasses that of any one of us. In his eyes, I am merely a tool to monitor the Holy Realm and the mortal world; he thinks it’s a blessing, and I should bow and thank him? Blame it on his arrogance; he probably still doesn’t even know what is happening here, far away in the depths of the cosmos…
“And before he finds out, I will possess the Loom, seize the authority of death, and reach the level of a demigod; I will have the tears of the World Tree to heal the wounds from the curse of the True God, forging an unprecedented great holy relic in history; I will use the power of that Trans to steal all the life authority from the Heavenly Lock and create a race that transcends the limitations of mythical beings.”
“I will forge my own ‘Divine Kingdom on Earth.'”
Above the cave, Margaret’s aura had completely dissipated, along with the Loom of Fate and the authority of death that connected to her also beginning to fade.
If Pandora did not turn against them, by this moment, the Duke of Peach’s objectives would have been fully achieved.
The arrival of the World Tree truly held no urgent concept of time; for a demigod like her, a second, an hour, or even a day or a month is just a fleeting moment. The fact that she confirmed the arrival this morning was already a display of her wrath, which also gave the fleeting humans an opportunity…
Of course, this opportunity now belonged to Pandora.
The expression on Hela’s face gradually faded, and she questioned,
“How can you be sure that the mark given to me by Fisher can indeed break the rules left by the Heavenly Lock on the Holy Grail? What if he is just making a desperate attempt to fight off death and cannot guarantee success himself?”
“That’s why, when you returned from the Tree Continent to the Holy Realm to recuperate, I left some means on you. Only by being with him day and night could I finally confirm the effectiveness of that thing… Of course, I wouldn’t mind hearing how you, as an angel, flirt with that Trans.”
Pandora’s head did not move, but the feeling’s aura brushed past the crown atop Hela’s head, as if verifying her earlier words through the gift that Fisher had given her.
Hela took a small step back, as if she had understood something. She sighed and looked up toward the direction of Fisher in the stone tower, murmuring,
“Truly, how awkward…”
“Zizz!”
But in the next moment, a lightning bolt as swift as light crashed down from behind her.
The immense power of the Nineteen Rank archangels was something Hela could not resist; she barely had time to react before the blade-like lightning had pierced through her neck.
With a piercing sound of flashing arcs, Hela’s crowned head shot into the air, rolling down to the ground while still wearing a sorrowful expression from the moment before.
“Thud… thud…”
Golden divine blood instantly sprayed forth. As her head rolled on the ground, the crown gifted to her by Fisher fell as well, dimming like an angel’s halo.
“Thud!”
Then, her headless body collapsed to the ground, completely losing its life.
Pandora could not see her death, but she felt the complete disappearance of her aura. She mockingly raised her hand, pulling out from her bosom the mark that Fisher had entrusted her with earlier, that came from Renee,
“What a pity, as an angel, you changed your lifeworld for this human. I just don’t know what draws you to him so much.”
Even though Pandora understood Hela’s nature, she was still puzzled by Hela’s affection for Fisher.
Perhaps this was indeed a worthy question to explore, but now that Hela was completely dead, it became irrelevant.
Behind her, Remiel, who had effortlessly taken Hela’s life, stepped forward and looked at the mark faintly glowing with purple light in midair, unable to stop himself from saying,
“This chaotic mark is not just at the level of a demigod, but has probably reached the True God… Earlier on the Tree Continent, that Fisher probably drove back the Duke of Peach using such power.”
“Not just the Duke of Peach; he has been chased by death all the way to now and hasn’t died because of this level of chaotic power. But that power cannot protect him forever; death will soon catch up to him, or else he wouldn’t have come to beg for the Holy Grail in a desperate bet… But there is no need to worry about that anymore.”
Pandora smiled slightly, then reached down to stroke her abdomen. Soon, the black Holy Grail that Fisher and others had seen previously slowly began to take shape from her abdomen.
The Holy Grail, which contained the power of the Heavenly Lock, was filled with countless wishes, which Pandora had gathered before.
But in Pandora’s view, these wishes contained in the cup were so ironic.
From today onwards, these disgusting things would leave her far behind.
Following that, she made a gesture with her fair hand and tossed Renee’s mark into the Holy Grail. The moment the purple mark fell, the entire Holy Grail began to boil, and then, amidst countless exploding ∞ symbols, power linked to some distant starry sky began to be transmitted uncontrollably.
In that instant, the fleshy buds in Pandora’s eyes began to move again, the symbol of the Heavenly Lock was calling her…
Ha… The Heavenly Lock must be very confused now, right?
What happened in the mortal realm?
Why was its power suddenly dwindling?
Why did the slave Salie it appointed dare to resist its summoning?
Pandora’s expression of joy increased; the wishes accumulated in that Holy Grail seemed to become endless, instantly transforming into a deep purple like stars, gradually elevating Pandora’s rank as she clutched the Holy Grail.
She was about to become a true demigod!
And her Divine Kingdom on Earth was about to be established right here and now!
The ground of the Ideal Nation began to tremble. With unparalleled immense power, Pandora waved her hand, causing the Loom of Fate and the tears of the World Tree that had been severed from Margaret above to uncontrollably fly up from the ground, coming straight from the cracks into the cave, into Pandora’s hands.
The Trinity, time was still amply flowing, everything had already settled.
She had won.
“Clap! Clap! Clap!”
But at that moment, unexpectedly, a distant applause suddenly rang through the cave, one that both Pandora and Remiel had not foreseen.
Pandora’s expression of joy abruptly halted, and Remiel’s body stiffened slightly.
At that moment, they both felt a similar sensation.
“Whoosh… whoosh… whoosh…”
First, there was the sound of waves crashing against the rocks, seemingly eternal, unclear in regulation, almost infinite.
The sound, though crisp, became jarring as it reached their ears.
Clearly, they were both Nineteen Rank mythical beings, yet the two angels felt like they had returned to infancy, so terrified of that noise.
“Congratulations to you both, Remiel and Pandora…”
Remiel turned to look, only to find that he didn’t know when the entire cave seemed to have been covered by an impenetrable darkness that even they could not see through. This darkness spread like formless mist and shifted like a tide, slowly but inexorably swallowing the entire cave.
Clearly, this was a closed cave, but now it seemed like a hidden coastline shrouded in the night.
From that vast coastline, the sound of waves crashing continuously resounded.
“Whoosh… whoosh… whoosh…”
In an instant, darkness enveloped the entire cave, and the surroundings of the two angels transformed into the profound abyss of boundless space.
As if losing gravity, in that infinite darkness, Pandora and Remiel suddenly felt their steps light, as if they were about to fall into the abyss.
From that chilling darkness, Hela’s gleeful voice slowly came from a certain direction; it seemed she was clapping, and following that echo of applause, her congratulatory words also followed.
“Hela?”
However, the congratulations at that moment could bring no joy to anyone. Both Pandora and Remiel could only feel a surge of terror that felt like a haunting presence.
That angel? Impossible! She couldn’t have survived Remiel’s attack.
But the fact was, as Remiel looked toward the direction of the voice, he saw a vague silhouette draped in an angel’s white robe within that shadowy darkness.
The figure had no head, yet an unnameable black substance flowed endlessly from the neck’s gap. Within that black substance, a brilliant light akin to a starry sky twisted obscuredly, yet once you attempted to investigate, you would suddenly realize you were falling deeper.
“Ah, you have indeed been lurking for long enough, and your ability to seize opportunities is quite admirable. This time’s story should indeed be your victory. To be honest, watching Hela exit like this while you establish a Divine Kingdom on Earth does seem interesting…”
Behind that headless figure in the darkness, countless unnameable arms slowly extended, each different and seemingly from vastly different beings and existences.
At the same time, an indecipherable song resonated with the dance of shadows in the dark.
Those unnameable terrifying arms seemed to drag along the dark celestial bodies, flickering with the light of dawn. Yet ultimately, that which lifted the stars abruptly turned into the head of the angel with closed eyes, being placed gingerly atop that headless body.
After a brief pause, the crown gifted by Fisher was placed atop the head that had now been stained with much golden angelic blood.
Hela’s head and body were not completely reconnected; there remained a grotesque gap in between, but “Hela’s” head seemed to have come back to life. Even before she opened her eyes, that familiar smile spread across her face again, continuing from the earlier words,
“But, I’ve changed my mind.”
“You… what exactly are you?”
Pandora’s question had not finished before a brilliant bolt of lightning erupted from Remiel beside her, shooting toward Hela.
Yet that lightning pierced through the dark space and made no sound, as if it were lost in the endless sound of waves and darkness.
“What am I?”
“Click, click, click…”
The closed-eyed head of Hela was held up by countless unnameable hands from behind her. Tilting her head, she suddenly smiled and asked back,
“Pandora, why can the tears of the World Tree from the Loom of Fate, which you so desire, endow the holy relic with consciousness? What do you think is the reason?”
As her melodious voice sounded, space fissures began to shatter before the head of “Hela”; from those spatial rifts, different dimensions reflected a face, as if they were emanating from that darkness.
The head held by countless arms seemed to change into that of a dark-haired elf at this moment.
With golden scattered pupils, the dark-haired elf bore a striking resemblance to Renee; the silver earrings on her long ears swung as the alluring fragrance that had tempted Fisher many times once again wafted through the darkness.
That was one of the triplets, “Ch.”
The figure of Ch overlapped with Hela’s appearance, merging distinctly but clearly.
At the same time, the voices of Ch and Hela harmonized in a song,
“Because, I was born through the Loom, so the little guy’s gift to creation’s Loom carries my essence.”
Could it be that Ch, who had long since vanished from the Tree Continent, is also Hela?
When was she infiltrated?
But neither Ch nor Hela should have been created by the demigods themselves…
Beneath Pandora, the endlessly flowing black substance slowly began to cover the ground, and as they came into contact with it, they drew closer to that profound darkness.
In that darkness, it seemed they understood more.
They seemed to see things hidden in the darkness.
Behind that “Hela,” whose body and head were severed, there lay something indescribable hidden in the darkness, resembling an unseen entity from afar.
Within that nearly omnipresent body, myriadSymbols of authority flashed, arranged chaotically yet appearing endless.
The first among them opened with the symbol “∞”.
“You aren’t curious why the Holy Realm forbids you from forging gospel relics using sentient beings as materials?”
Underneath “Hela’s” continuous prompts, at that moment, Pandora seemed to comprehend everything.
Because she suddenly realized a question within the makeup of countless beings in this world, from zero-rank humans to demigod tier beings, there is something that all beings rarely realize yet inherently possess.
That thing comes from the Spirit Realm, which the gods cannot impose limits upon. Since the beginning of creation, no legend has recorded where they originate.
Perhaps even gods like Ramastia could not specify their source, thinking of them as a gift from the heavens…
But now, Pandora had come to the realization that this heavenly gift indeed has a source.
This gift is the “soul.”
Whether it be Ch or Hela, at the moment of creation, their souls came from the Spirit Realm!
“It seems you have figured it out, truly clever; the Heavenly Lock put a lot of effort into selecting your souls back then.”
“Originally, I planned to be a sincere audience, occasionally cooperating with you to enact interesting stories, which wouldn’t be devoid of fun… But, who could have thought I found something quite precious…”
In that instant, both Pandora and Remiel sensed the dark, infinite ocean, feeling it approaching them from a distant place.
Yet powerful as they were, just sensing the approaching ocean drove them almost mad; they were on the brink of destruction, not to mention gazing upon the true form of that ocean…
Even though their consciousness once came from that ocean.
Their consciousness grew increasingly chaotic, accompanied by originally incomprehensible, cosmic-like songs, they gradually became dulled and rendered meaningless.
What are those songs…
【……】
【Through the light and dark of the cosmos, across the fleeting moments of fast and slow, reaching the irresistible void】
【Behind that curtain, hidden within layers of dimensions and the universe, like an audience in an omnipresent grand theater】
【On the stage, endlessly resounding voices came from the dark world that transcended time and imagination, reverberating great meanings of desecration with different civilizations and traces】
【Small, blind, and fragile beings struggling below the dimension; powerful, wise, and great deities overlooking the world…】
【And their souls are that ocean.】
At the instant when that voice was captured, even the one who knew the secrets of the True God, Pandora, trembled all over uncontrollably.
It was then that the figure of “Hela,” whose body and head were slowly connected by countless hands, also reopened her blue-golden scattered pupils.
She raised her hand to straighten the crown she had just donned, which sat slightly askew.
Then, a familiar smile blossomed on her face once more.
And behind her, that shadow hidden in darkness, as if lurking behind the depths of the curtain, also spoke simultaneously,
“And before that, let’s revert to the question we started with…”
The question referred to earlier when Pandora inquired, “What exactly are ‘Hela’ and ‘Ch’?”
“In terms you can understand here…”
Hela smiled, extending her hands toward Pandora and Remiel, who were already half-covered by darkness, and replied,
“I am ‘Chaos.'”
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(End of Chapter)
