Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
A young man covered in scars and bruises crawled along the coast of a small town in the Kingdom of Rosa d’Oro. It was a lively town, with neat streets, tall lighthouses, concrete docks, and small steamships.
The local fishermen found him severely injured and dying. They immediately realized that something was unusual about him. The man’s robe was ragged, but one could still recognize it as a robe from the Church of the Dark Night.
The priest was covered in blood. Black veins were twisted together in his arm. A giant eye grew out of his chest. The black pupil trembled and moved constantly as if it was sizing up every individual on the shore.
“Devil! Devil!” a fisherman screamed with great fear. He stumbled backward off the ship and fell into the water.
“It’s the eye of the devil! Do not look! Do not look!” The crowd dispersed.
“Go find Sir Ankeru, now!”
When Ankeru, a priest of the Church of Light, finally arrived, the young priest of the Church of the Dark Night was trembling and vomiting something black and foul-smelling. The afflicted young man clenched an exquisite silver wand in one hand. It was the status symbol for red cardinal bishops of the Church of the Dark Night.
“I am…the high priest of the Church of the Dark Night, following Bishop Arthas…”
The dying man leaned against the posts on the dock, confessing to Ankeru!
Ankeru greatly feared the power of the devil spreading through the air. He was merely an apprentice priest who had never seen anything so evil. The demon power within this man was about to break out.
“Almighty Goddess, I am calling your name, please give me your power…” Ankeru murmured.
Ankeru could feel his legs are quivering with fear. A level-three official priest was in front of him, using his last of his strength to suppress the power within him. Ankeru hoped that with the power of the light, he could control the demon within the priest’s body. He could sense that, if the power broke out, no one on the scene would survive. The priest was a powerful clergy member, and at this moment, he was struggling under the demon’s attack.
“Demon…demon…evil is ruling the entire Hollyma Kingdom! The Church of the Dark Night…has…has fallen…Everyone turned into apostles of demons! That man… that man has resurrected… The King of the Dead…Ado…nis…has come back…The fearful being has emerged from the abyss! He wants…he wants…” the possessed priest mumbled.
Ankeru was holding the sigil of the sun and activating the divine power within it. However, it was only a small comfort. Ankeru gulped when he heard the terrifying news and the name of Adonis. The representation of death and terror in countless fairy tales and myths, the origin of sins and evil, the damned soul sent to hell by God, had come back to the world.
“What…does he want?” Ankeru asked, his hands trembling as he held the sigil of the sun.
The priest of the Church of the Dark Night clawed at the dock. The power within his fingers sunk into the ground beneath him. The ground cracked and spread out more than 10 meters. It seemed that he could no longer bear the torture.
“He wants…” The young priest looked to Ankeru with his blood-red eyes and said, “He wants…deicide!”
At that very moment, the darkness in his veins climbed up to his face. His eyes turned pure black instantly, and he burst into laughter.
“Too late, too late, it’s already too late! He has only one last step left!”
The power of the abyss spread out from his body, burning the ground around him. Then in the next moment, the priest of the Church of the Dark Night awakened and used the forbidden witchcraft of the Church of the Dark Night, Soul Flame, to ignite his soul and all his powers, giving up all chance of redemption and entering the divine kingdom, and perished together with the demon.
“Spread my word! I hope it’s not too late! No, no, it’s already too late!” the priest of the Dark Night screamed.
He lingered for a moment in pain, despair clouding his face. He slowly burned into ashes, along with the demon from the abyss, perishing with painful screams.
Everyone was silent. Everyone at the scene felt that their hearts were about to explode. No one had ever imagined a being so evil, no one had ever heard a tale no horrifying, no one had ever dared to do such sinful deeds. In no stories or tales had anyone ever dared to kill a god.
The shocking news spread out among the priests in town. Before long, airships displaying sigils of light from the Church of Light arrived at the town. The town was locked down by the army.
The news about Adonis’ resurrection and the fall of the Kingdom of Hollyma reached the pope of the Galton branch of the Church of Light in the Kingdom of Rosa d’Oro. With no need to look him up in the books, most priests were haunted by their deepest nightmares when they heard the name of Adonis. More importantly, they understood that something unforeseen and horrifying awaited them.
“Disaster, it’s definitely going to be a terrible disaster!”
“What should we do? Help the Hollyma Kingdom?”
“Did Hell not realize that such evil had escaped from it?”
“He was a being who once challenged the gods. The King of the Dead who destroyed the Holy Seville Empire with the undead army. The evil god from legends who took the divine artifact from the Goddess of the Night. He now has control of the entire Hollyma Kingdom and even the foreign lands. Help them? How? We should be on the defensive, defending against the evil army which could rush out of the foreign lands at any time.”
“What is he going to do? Did you see that? Deicide…deicide…he is going to kill a god, even if it’s a pagan god!”
In the divine hall, the powerful priests fell into chaos.
The pope of the Galton branch of the Church of Light made up his mind and said, “An evil god who has escaped from hell can only be judged by the gods. Send a message to the other churches through the magic transceivers. In the meantime, perform the divine ritual of prayers immediately. I wish to ask God what we should do.”
As the news of the change in the foreign lands spread out across the Alen continent like an unstoppable flood, Adonis’ plan had reached its last step.
—
In the foreign lands of the Hollyma Kingdom, priests of the Church of the Dark Night, kings, and nobles crowded the streets of Biketo City.
The city was in a frenzy. It had fallen under an abnormal, manic tide of fearful reverence. Day and night, everyone prayed nonstop. In churches, royal palaces, streets, and alleyways, frantic believers kneeled on the ground, chanting prayers.
Tents and temporary buildings were popping up everywhere in the city. Craftsmen, farmers, fishermen, and factory workers from all kingdoms gathered here, knelt on the ground, and faced the city.
In front of the Church of the Dark Night, all streets and areas surrounding the divine palace were filled with the clergy of the Church of the Dark Night. All the clergy from foreign lands gathered here in a hurry, searching for the reason why their power had faded, for the reason of their pain, and for their redemption.
The reason was that the day belonged to their god. It was the day of resurrection of the great Ruler of the Night, and he would finally return from the dark night.
Adonis was wearing a red priest robe and the Mask of the Moon, standing next to the Alice, the pope of the Church of the Dark Night, holding high the Candle of the Night, the church’s divine artifact, looking down on everyone below.
In his eyes, every individual was completely swallowed by the power of the dark abyss. They believed that it was because of the resurrection of their god that their powers were weakened. However, it was actually the power of the abyss spreading through the system of the divine power of the Ruler of the Night, even spreading to the Ruler of the Night himself.
“Let us pray to the great Ruler of the Night! We are calling your divine name. You are the ruler of the night, the controller of stars and dreams… We long to enter your kingdom, enjoy immortality and…” Adonis chanted.
Adonis howled and cheered until his voice reached every corner of the city. He sounded so faithful, but no one could see the evil, manic smile of the skull behind the mask.
