Translator: La0o9 Editor: La0o9
ã Letâs say she barely passed ãNegary was sitting on his throne inside his palace as he watched Nalaâs first battle and commented on it.
Regardless of what happened, Nalaâs prowess and composure in battle had managed to win the hearts of a few people, and with Rhysâ help, this bunch of rag-tag reinforcement soldiers was finally looking a bit like an actual army.
ã Nala is on her own from now on, Iâve given her enough help ãNegary squinted his eyes and turned to Granny Sealâe: ã Granny Sealâe, have you seen those people? ãn/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
ã That bunch who came with malice ãNegary tested her.
âLord Negary, Iâve already foreseen those peopleâs goalâ Granny Sealâe chuckled with her strange husky voice and replied: âThey are people from an organization called Hales, their name means âreturnâ. Theyâve been acting in secret while avoiding the Church of Divine Graceâs Heresy Huntersâ
âThey believe that people should discard their outer layer of ash and return to their original Godhoodâ Granny Sealâe explained: âAt the dawn of time, the White Light cut through a corner of the Black Abyss of the gods. The corner then fell down where the White Light could illuminate the true appearance of gods. What was originally an unfathomable God of was revealed by the light and became fathomable. The flames brought by the light burned the power of God and turned into ash that warped and obscured Godâs original appearance, thus God fell to become humansâ
âAnd so, in order to reverse the corruption and undergo apotheosis to return to Godhood, one needs to discard the ash, extinguish the flames and dispel the light, allowing the world to once again return to the Black Abyss. At that time, they would once again become the unseeable, unspeakable, unfathomable, unreasonable, faceless and formless God!â
ã This doctrine... how interesting ãNegary smirked.
âIt is indeed. They probably came to milord in hope of obtaining Lord Negaryâs powerâ Granny Sealâe continued: âRegardless of whether or not Halesâ doctrine of God is correct or not, some of it can be confirmed to be trueâ
âThe current order of this world is brought by the Light, the light is its skeleton while the flames are its fleshâ
âIn order for them to return to their ideal form of God, light must be dispelled and flames must be extinguished. Since Evil Spirits are the errors of this world, their very existence are the loopholes within the light and the flames, so the more Evil Spirits there were, the weaker the light and flames that constituted the worldâs order would becomeâ
âBecause of this, what Hales does most often is choosing a suitable target, then turning them into an Evil Spirit through various ritualsâ Granny Sealâe explained: âThe Mist Demon of 20 years ago that attacked the Interkam capital was actually created by this organizationâ
âTheyâve done thorough research on Evil Spirits, so they believe that they can control Lord Negary, thus they came with malicious intentâ Granny Sealâe once again chuckled with her unsettling tone: âBut they are mere humans! How could they understand that Lord Negaryâs power has already far surpassed that of humans and even that of Evil Spirits! True and pure invincible peerless powerâ
âHowever, even though Milordâs power is unrivalled, you should still pay attention to the power of the Black Abyssâ Granny Sealâeâs abruptly changed her tone.
ã The original appearance of the world, the Black Abyss huh? ãNegaryâs gaze seemed to be able to cut through all deception and obscurity, directly applying immeasurable pressure to those around him.
âIndeed, ever since the White Light cut through the Black Abyss and brought fire to this world, four Empires had been born and fell: âgloryâ, âlifeâ, âprotectionâ, and âhopeâ. But the flames that White Light brought has already dwindled, the power of the Black Abyss has started to moveâ
âThat power can surpass the limit of this world, although not by much, it is still very hard to deal withâ
ã Is that so? ãNegary waved his hand to allow the palace door to open, three people wearing fully black masks with a single white tear below their eyes were standing right outside.
âMay the Black Abyss shroud over all, manifestation of The Dazzledâ
âWe welcome the manifestation of The Dazzled, let us return to our origin!â all three individuals immediately began to walk towards Negary with black smog surrounding them.
ã How audacious ãNegary commented: ã You ignore the will of others and force your own beliefs on them to erode them away ã
ã How fitting that I am the same! ã
The ground below them suddenly turned into black sludge, countless tentacles rose from the sludge trying to catch the Hales members. But while they were cloaked in the black smog, their figures seemed to be illusory as they walked directly through the bindings of the tentacles and kept moving towards Negary on his throne.
God is unseeable, thus what you see is a shallow manifestation. While clad in this black smog, all attacks would not be able to reach their true self. This was one of the abilities that Hales relied on the most, each official member would be able to perform a ritual to obtain this black smog that originated from the Black Abyss.
âAll Evil Spirits are inherently weak against the members of Hales, because Evil Spirits are the errors of this world. They are the loopholes within the Light and the flames where luminance cannot reach, and where the power of the Black Abyss would reach its peakâ
âWhich means that we would also become terrifyingly strong!â the three individuals leapt into the air, the black smog that drifted around them turned into countless chains that tried to bind Negary.
ã What a bunch of clowns! ãNegary remained on his throne as an intense pressure accompanied by an ear-piercing roar erupted from his body, the air itself around him seemed to be breaking apart, everything else became insignificant, and the only thing that seemed to exist in this world was Negary.
The three individualâs lifeless bodies fell down from the air. The black smog that surrounded them before scattered to reveal their naked bodies.
Hales believed that clothing is born from the Light and the flames, thus using them would further warp and taint their original appearance. Their skins were filled with countless runic patterns and wounds, from which one could tell that these people had undergone untold amount of torture, including being whipped, stabbed, stripped of their nails and skin, castration...and so on and so forth.
âThe flesh is nothing but unclean ash born from the flames, since they rejected anything born from the Light and flames, they destroyed their bodies through pain and torture, believing that they would shed some of the ash by doing soâ Granny Sealâe explained: âSome even say that their ultimate fate would be to shed their own bodies and obtain a new body created by the black smogâ
ã Then what is this âThe Dazzledâ they spoke about? ãthe ground moved and completely swallowed the three individualâs bodies, unsurprisingly, they didnât produce any Soul Essence. The organization called Hales had obviously come into contact with even more Evil Spirits than the Church of Divine Grace, so they naturally had measures against the common abilities of Evil Spirits. Because of this, Negary could only rely on Granny Sealâe to know more about them.
After Granny Sealâe released her [Origin] once, she obtained the power of precognition and learnt countless secrets of many organizations and of this world in general, becoming a truly erudite person.
âHales believed that God is unseeable, unspeakable, unfathomable and unreasonable. Because of this, those who gazed upon God could only see the four states, or rather the four sides of God. The Dazzled represented the âunseeableâ, the Cut Tongue represented the âunspeakableâ, the Chopped Hand represented the âunfathomableâ, and the Decapitated represented the âunreasonable'â
âLord Negaryâs germs are invisible and boundless, because of that, they believe that you are the Dazzledâ Granny Sealâe explained: âIt was because the Cut Tongue had returned to their position that Hales had the courage to show themselves againâ