Chapter 137: Incubation Chamber, New Enemies
“Do you think we should just leave right now?” Fidi proposed another possibility.
“Leave right now? For where?”
Athanasi didn’t quite register the meaning at first, but he soon realized that the “leave” Fidi was talking about actually meant slipping away without a word and heading straight back to the Oz Empire.
Unlike their grand and ostentatious arrival, if the two of them were to depart now, they could traverse the Kingdom of Helios directly and reach the Oz Empire, provided they avoided major cities. They wouldn’t need to take detours through other nations like they did on their way here.
Such a proposition was incredibly tempting to Athanasi, but in the very next moment, he extinguished that spark of thought. If it were still the era of the massive expeditionary force, his defection as a mere Senior Knight wouldn’t have mattered much.
But now, he and Fidi had become Ioneel’s final reliance. Under these circumstances, abandoning the Bishop and leaving on their own would invite repercussions, not just from Ioneel, but inevitably from other Bishops as well.
Senior Knights were indeed valuable, but not so valuable that they could be pardoned for capital offenses.
As for defecting to another nation, that was even more impossible. Among the six nations of the continent, the Oz Empire was the most powerful. If they truly fled, where else could they even go?
Furthermore, they all had families tying them down. Let alone actually defecting, they wouldn’t even entertain the thought.
“Fidi, tell me, is that truly what you’re thinking?” Athanasi asked in a deep voice, his gaze burning intensely as he stared straight at the man.
“No, no, I was just speaking casually,” Fidi hurriedly explained.
“Don’t let me hear you say that again. It’s one thing if I hear it, but if My Lord Bishop hears it, just think about what will happen to your family!”
Athanasi issued a mild warning, then made a firm decision to keep a close eye on Fidi, lest the man bolt and leave him to take the fall all by himself.
…
Wizard Ruins.
After the two Senior Knights departed, Nasar, the sole remaining Intermediate Knight, was sent away by Ioneel to prepare food. Ioneel himself then strode into the bounds of the ruins without encountering any obstacles.
The Aberrant Beasts that had originally been slumbering within the ruins were now fully awake, yet they showed absolutely no intention of blocking Ioneel, an intruder in their domain.
Ioneel walked through the debris until he arrived before the only structure in the heart of the ruins that could still be considered intact: a grand hall. He lifted his head to look at the towering edifice. Above it, a nearly shattered, mysterious rune still flickered with a faint, ethereal blue light.
“Hmph, these Abandoners!” Ioneel spat inwardly before stepping into the hall.
…
As a loyal follower of the God of Redemption, Ioneel held an intensely hostile attitude toward the Abandoners, also known as Wizards. Even though he frequently utilized those miraculous Wizard Relics himself, it did nothing to change his opinion of them:
They were nothing but a pack of sinners who had driven the world into chaos!
If not for the God of Redemption, who knows what this world would have become! Only the God of Redemption could save this world!
“O Great God of Redemption above, Your loyal follower begs You to reveal the path forward!”
After entering the hall constructed by the Abandoners, Ioneel went through his customary prayers. However, he failed to receive any further instructions from the God of Redemption; the Divine Oracle he perceived still urged him on concerning the mission for the Morning Star.
With a heavy heart, Ioneel approached a stone pedestal. Looking at the well-proportioned, robust wolf-like creature resting on top of it, a faint smile finally touched the corners of his mouth:
“These Abandoners did have some skill after all, to actually be able to artificially breed Transcendent creatures!”
Perhaps sensing the alien gaze upon it, the wolf-like creature on the pedestal suddenly snapped its eyes open. It locked eyes with Ioneel and let out a high-pitched, resonant roar.
“Rumble!”
But the pedestal holding the wolf-like creature seemed to possess some sort of restraint. Even the sound was trapped within it. The wolf’s roar echoed and reverberated above the pedestal, yet by the time it reached the outside, it was reduced to an imperceptible, low growl.
Hearing this, Ioneel paused his steps. He turned back to confront the beast on the pedestal, muttering incantations under his breath:
“Don’t be impatient, my little treasure! Your time to shine will come soon enough!”
He then turned and continued toward the other pedestals. The entire hall was lined with two rows of twelve pedestals. Apart from one that was damaged, the remaining eleven all had a creature bound to them.
However, only the one Ioneel had just inspected possessed a complete wolf form. The rest were grotesque, indescribable Aberrant Beasts. Whether they could metamorphose into true Transcendent creatures was anyone’s guess.
Ioneel inspected the Aberrant Beasts on the pedestals one by one, eventually stopping before one of them. He unclasped a metal scepter about half a foot long from his waist and inserted its tip into a groove beneath the pedestal.
As two grating screeches of stone rubbing against stone rang out, the bound Aberrant Beast above the pedestal instantly became agitated, continuously throwing itself against the invisible restraints surrounding it.
Seeing this, Ioneel’s heart tightened, but it was merely an instinctual reaction. He immediately stepped aside. In the next moment, an Aberrant Beast with the body of a leopard, the head of a wolf, and various extraneous biological tissues tumbling off it rolled right off the pedestal.
It then charged out of the hall without a single backward glance.
“A pity, another failed product!”
Ever since occupying these Abandoner Ruins, Ioneel had gradually figured out the original purpose of the site over the past few days. He had even learned how to operate the surviving facilities within the ruins.
This grand hall was currently the last intact Transcendent Creature Incubation Chamber. Utilizing the equipment here, he had even managed to personally breed a genuine Transcendent creature.
But before Ioneel could bask in his pride for even a few seconds, a voice echoing from the depths of the hall instantly soured his mood, making him feel even worse than when he had failed to receive a new Divine Oracle!
“Friend of the Salvation Cult, have you made up your mind? Tell me your choice!” the voice said.
Ioneel fell silent for a moment before walking deeper into the hall. With hatred burning in his eyes, he glared at a patch of deep shadow in the corner and couldn’t help but fire back sarcastically:
“Aren’t you afraid that I’ll expose your scheme?”
“Here in the Kingdom of Helios, the Salvation Cult is an evil cult. Who would believe the slander of a cultist?”
The flippant tone of the voice in the shadows irritated Ioneel immensely, but he had to admit that the other party was right. The Salvation Cult truly possessed zero credibility in Helios.
The Church had overdrawn its credibility during that previous failed redemption, so much so that the Kingdom of Helios stubbornly labeled them an evil cult.
At this point, no matter what he said, the people of the Kingdom of Helios would probably assume he was plotting some kind of conspiracy!
“Then what exactly do you want?” Ioneel asked coldly.
“I’ve said it more than once: leave this place, or make an enemy of me.”
“That is impossible. I came here under a Divine Oracle. Unless I die, I absolutely will not leave.”
On the matter of leaving, Ioneel’s attitude was resolute and entirely uncompromising. This infuriated the voice in the shadows, which spoke in a sinister, chilling tone:
“So, you wish to die, then?”
“Can you actually kill me?” Ioneel retorted.
This was the crux of their ongoing standoff. The other party couldn’t kill him, and he, in turn, held leverage over the other’s weaknesses. Once they tore off all pretenses, neither side would walk away unscathed.
The silence from the shadows was the greatest testament to the current stalemate.