The downfall of the Ancient Austine Empire was an enigma in history, be it the Spirit Cataclysm of the Capital or Charles Ackermann’s death.
Carolyn’s appearance now and the connection between Charles and Paul only added to the mess, further confusing Roel.
There was too little information about the events a thousand years ago, so Roel could only make logical deductions to guess what happened back then. However, a chance to make sense of this mystery finally presented itself before him.
Astrid seemed to know about Carolyn and Charles’ history, which was understandable since she had shared the same era as them.
So, after confirming that Alicia was not in danger, he turned to Astrid and asked about the past. Astrid and Antonio exchanged glances and nodded.
Astrid glanced at the collapsed Paul and Carolyn and sighed before looking at Roel. “I understand. It’d have been better for Paul to tell you in person, but they are rather busy at the moment. It might be better this way, since it’s not anything good. It’ll probably be tough for them to share it themselves. All right, let me fill in the blanks for you.”
Her eyes glimmered a little as she started with a question. “Before that, I’d like to ask your opinion on a matter.”
“My opinion?”
“Yes. How do you intend to deal with the doomsday prophecy?”
“This…” It was such an abrupt question that Roel didn’t know where he should start from.
Knowing that this was a tough question to answer on the spot, Astrid heaved a sigh and changed her question. “Forget it. I know you better than Carolyn, so I’ll get straight to the point… Roel, what’s your view of the Mother Goddess?”
“!” Roel was taken aback by the candid question.
Antonio opened his mouth, looking as if he wanted to say something, but he glanced at Astrid and eventually decided to hold his tongue.
Silence loomed over the three of them.
Roel knew that he had to explain himself. As Carolyn had previously mentioned, the aura of the Mother Goddess around him was too strong. Most people, including top experts like Antonio, couldn’t detect the aura, but the Ardes from the Second Epoch were exceptionally sensitive to it.
“First and foremost, I’d like to confirm that I’m not the Mother Goddess’ worshiper.”
“I believe you, or else I wouldn’t be chatting with you right now. But my question still stands. What’s your view of the Mother Goddess?”
“This…” Roel pressed his lips together, but he struggled to find a way to express himself.
The first word that came to his mind when he thought about the time he had spent with the Mother Goddess was ‘mother’, but this wasn’t a good term for him to use here. Astrid wouldn’t be able to take it.
He took his time to construct his answer before replying, “I personally believe it’s possible for us to reach a settlement with the Mother Goddess and even establish a relationship of trust… If I may ask, have you seen any of my memories concerning the Mother Goddess in my dreams?”
“I did, but I can only see bits and pieces, and I struggle to string them into something coherent. There’s a limit to how much I can see from dreams, you see. I only managed to decipher what you experienced in the Witness State four hundred years ago because I was in it.”
“I see,” Roel replied with a nod.
He proceeded to share what he had been through in the Witness State he had entered via the guidance of the Ascarts’ hereditary ring.
Both Antonio and Astrid were taken aback by what they heard.
“I would have never thought that’s the purpose of the ring. Inconceivable.”
Ad
“Ancestor Astrid, you know about the ring?”
“You can say so. I saw it once when I was young, but it has such a long history that no one knew its purpose by the time it was passed down to my generation. We only know that it’s something our ancestors prepared to deal with the doomsday prophecy,” Astrid replied.
Roel nodded in comprehension.
The one who created the ring was indubitably an ancestor of the Kingmaker Clan, but its use was so shocking that others must never learn about it. Otherwise, the worshipers of the Savior and the Mother Goddess would surely go after it.
It was a wise decision to emphasize its importance instead of its use. This decision was the reason the Kingmaker Clan retained possession of the ring till the current era, giving Roel the opportunity to salvage their relationship with the Mother Goddess.
“That explains your feeling of intimacy toward the Mother Goddess. It’s a pity those from our generation had no such opportunity, which is why we always viewed the Mother Goddess and the Savior as our enemies.”
“It was the same for me too…” Roel nodded.
He wasn’t surprised by his ancestors’ stance.
While it was the Savior who had a blood feud with the Ardes, Roel was still more wary of the Mother Goddess at the start. He was hunted down by the Saints Convocation, Isabella Sofya had died to Sire Darkness in the real timeline, not to mention that the Mother Goddess had expressed Her hostility toward him through Her gaze every now and then.
If anyone had told him then that he would come to see the Mother Goddess as his mother, he would have cracked that person’s skull open under the suspicion that the latter was an evil cultist.
The events that transpired later didn’t help, either.
Shrouding Fog devoured Tark Stronghold, shocking all of humankind. This incident shook Nora up, and the ensuing mishap in her bloodline awakening nearly took her life. Following that, Charlotte nearly lost her life to Flooding Death.
How could he harbor any goodwill toward the Mother Goddess under such circumstances?
But after he learned the truth—the Mother Goddess and the Six Calamities weren’t one entity, and there was a reason behind Her hatred for the Kingmaker Clan—his perspective of Her began to change, especially during the period She took care of him.
The more he learned about the Mother Goddess, the more he could feel the true sentiments lying beneath Her cold exterior. He thought that the animosity between them was a tragedy. Humankind shouldn’t have been enemies with Her; coexistence should have been possible.
Such thoughts spurred him to take on a different stance from Carolyn and the others, resulting in a divergence. However, it looked like it might be possible to resolve these differences.
“Astrid, have your thoughts changed from before?”
“You can say so, but I don’t think Carolyn will take this well. She has been through tough times.” Astrid glanced at Carolyn before diving into the details surrounding the final plan.
…
The final plan was first conceptualized a long time ago, around the middle of the Second Epoch. Its goal was extremely straightforward—weakening the Savior and the Mother Goddess through all possible means, so that humankind could survive.
What surprised Roel was that there were many versions of the final plan.
The final plan was an extremely important scheme, so each patriarch of the Kingmaker Clan would make sure to revise it. This meant that the details of the final plan were greatly influenced by the stance taken by the incumbent patriarch of that generation.
In the era when the Ardes were at the peak of their power, and humankind was more united than ever, the final plan was much more aggressive and ambitious, requiring a great mobilization of resources.
After the first generation of the Twilight Sages Assembly paid a heavy price while searching for the Chaos Dream, and sorrow and despair inevitably infected the Ardes, the final plan was forced to undergo significant revision.
Since then, every succeeding patriarch of the Arde House would tailor the final plan to fit the on-the-ground situation.
Near the end of the Second Epoch, the Ardes fell to their weakest ever state, the Twilight Sages Assembly was dissolved, and the Ackermanns descended into internal strife. Whether it was in terms of strength or rallying power, the Ancient Austine Empire didn’t have the means to exercise the final plan anymore.
It was then that Charles Ackermann proposed a revised version of the final plan.
“The previous versions of the final plan were conceptualized on the notion that the Savior and the Mother Goddess were humankind’s enemies, and that a battle against Them was inevitable. However, Charles had a different take on the matter. He proposed using the strength of One to attack the Other.”
“You mean to turn the Savior and the Mother Goddess against each other? We don’t need the final plan to do that,” Roel remarked.
Antonio shook his head and clarified, “No, Charles’ plan was to plunder the Savior’s power to nurture a new god to defeat the Mother Goddess.”
“What?” Roel stared at Antonio as a wave of shock washed over his heart.
Nurture a new god? Is it even possible to do that?
Roel took a deep breath to calm himself before breaking down the plan to analyze its feasibility.
The first step was for them to plunder the Savior’s power.
If they had to choose between plundering the powers of the Savior or the Mother Goddess, the answer was definitely the former. The Kingmaker Clan was the one who had sealed the Savior in the Abyss, and it was currently under their jurisdiction.
In contrast, no one had found the place where the Mother Goddess was hibernating to date.
It was easy to find the Savior, but the same couldn’t be said about absorbing His powers. That was as good as swallowing arsenic!
As a matter of fact, Charles wasn’t the first one to consider doing that.
There was another group of people several thousand years ago who thought that they could reach greater heights by absorbing the Savior’s powers too… and they were now known as the Fallens.
“Putting aside the matter of nurturing a god, just the act of absorbing the Savior’s powers is…” Roel simply didn’t think that it was a good idea.
Unsurprised by Roel’s response, Antonio further explained, “Roel, do you remember the Diffusion Plan I mentioned?”
“Diffusion Plan?” Roel paused for a moment before replying with a nod, “Yes, I remember that.”
The Diffusion Plan was one of the ways to weaken the Savior—exponentially increase the number of the Savior’s worshipers within an extremely short period of time, so as to drive the Savior into a weakened state.
It was an insane plan, as the Savior’s worshipers would not only attain greater strength but be inflicted with the Savior’s depravity as well. Furthermore, there was the risk that the Savior might snap out of his madness and regain his sanity, so the plan was eventually scrapped.
Roel frowned at the mention of the Diffusion Plan, not knowing what Antonio was driving at.
“The idea Charles thought of was fundamentally similar to the Diffusion Plan, just that the absorption of the Savior’s powers would be done not through humans but magic tools.”
“Magic tools?”
“Yes. The Diffusion Plan was scrapped because it requires a great number of sacrifices, not to mention that we could be self-sabotaging by producing so many new Savior worshipers. However, this problem can be resolved if we use magic tools in place of humans.”
Antonio proceeded to explain the details, which enlightened Roel to Charles’ goal.
Humans might not necessarily become stronger after attaining the Savior’s powers, but they would be driven insane. This was how the Savior expanded his own following, and there was no way to reverse the process.
There was only one known way to deal with the Savior’s worshipers, and that was to kill them. This meant that they would have to kill all of the sacrifices in the Diffusion Plan. Not only was it inhumane to do so, but this was beneficial to the Savior too.
Thus, the Diffusion Plan was scrapped.
A thousand years ago, after browsing past records, Charles Ackermann came up with a bold idea. With his strength, he would create magic tools to substitute for humans in the Diffusion Plan.
Humans weren’t the only things who could absorb mana—some magic tools could do so too. For instance, Roel’s Ascendwing was a powerful magic tool that manifested new abilities by taking in the mana contained in the wielder’s and an angel’s blood.
The Ardes had previously excluded this possibility from their Diffusion Plan because it wasn’t feasible for them to do so. Normal magic tools could only absorb a small amount of the Savior’s mana, whereas those that could absorb a larger amount were invaluable and limited in quantity.
However, this wasn’t a problem to Charles at all.
“Charles’ ability is a mutation of the Kingdom Origin Attribute. He has the power to replicate legendary swords and armor from past ages, and those equipment can absorb mana equivalent to millions of people. That’s also the foundation of the current final plan.”
“I see.” Roel glanced at Paul and nodded.
He was familiar with Paul’s power. The latter had created his first legendary armor from the Second Epoch when he was at Origin Level 4. Given his growth trajectory, it was possible for him to replicate hundreds of powerful magic tools by the time he reached Origin Level 1.
Still, there was a question that bewildered Roel. He pondered for a moment before asking, “Principal Antonio, while it’s true we can minimize the casualties by replacing the humans in the Diffusion Plan with magic tools, the fact remains unchanged that the Savior will benefit from it. Anyone who wields those magic tools will also be afflicted with His madness and become His worshipers. Furthermore, these worshipers will be able to cause even greater devastation with the concentrated power in each magic tool. They’ll be an even greater menace to humankind.”
Magic tools in the Sia Continent didn’t possess a sense of self, so they wouldn’t side with the Savior by themselves. However, a human would still be required to channel the magic tools, and the moment someone attempted to do so, they would be afflicted by the Savior’s madness and turn into His worshiper.
While this revised plan reduced the number of casualties, it failed to resolve the key issue. Those magic tools would harness the concentrated power of the Savior. If things went wrong, they might just end up with the most depraved and dangerous Fallen humankind had ever seen.
Imagine the most fanatical Savior worshiper wielding an unimaginably powerful magic sword. This could result in bloodshed and massacre, and it would be a nightmare to deal with them.
Just thinking about it sent shudders down Roel’s spine.
Antonio understood Roel’s concerns and replied, “Yes, the Savior’s madness would indeed be channeled toward the wielder of the magic tools, but what if we choose someone special to wield them?”
“Someone special? Wait a moment; do you mean…”
“That’s right.” Antonio nodded. “I’m talking about the executor, Carolyn Ascart.”
The downfall of the Ancient Austine Empire was an enigma in history, be it the Spirit Cataclysm of the Capital or Charles Ackermann’s death.
Carolyn’s appearance now and the connection between Charles and Paul only added to the mess, further confusing Roel.
There was too little information about the events a thousand years ago, so Roel could only make logical deductions to guess what happened back then. However, a chance to make sense of this mystery finally presented itself before him.
Astrid seemed to know about Carolyn and Charles’ history, which was understandable since she had shared the same era as them.
So, after confirming that Alicia was not in danger, he turned to Astrid and asked about the past. Astrid and Antonio exchanged glances and nodded.
Astrid glanced at the collapsed Paul and Carolyn and sighed before looking at Roel. “I understand. It’d have been better for Paul to tell you in person, but they are rather busy at the moment. It might be better this way, since it’s not anything good. It’ll probably be tough for them to share it themselves. All right, let me fill in the blanks for you.”
Her eyes glimmered a little as she started with a question. “Before that, I’d like to ask your opinion on a matter.”
“My opinion?”
“Yes. How do you intend to deal with the doomsday prophecy?”
“This…” It was such an abrupt question that Roel didn’t know where he should start from.
Knowing that this was a tough question to answer on the spot, Astrid heaved a sigh and changed her question. “Forget it. I know you better than Carolyn, so I’ll get straight to the point… Roel, what’s your view of the Mother Goddess?”
“!” Roel was taken aback by the candid question.
Antonio opened his mouth, looking as if he wanted to say something, but he glanced at Astrid and eventually decided to hold his tongue.
Silence loomed over the three of them.
Roel knew that he had to explain himself. As Carolyn had previously mentioned, the aura of the Mother Goddess around him was too strong. Most people, including top experts like Antonio, couldn’t detect the aura, but the Ardes from the Second Epoch were exceptionally sensitive to it.
“First and foremost, I’d like to confirm that I’m not the Mother Goddess’ worshiper.”
“I believe you, or else I wouldn’t be chatting with you right now. But my question still stands. What’s your view of the Mother Goddess?”
“This…” Roel pressed his lips together, but he struggled to find a way to express himself.
The first word that came to his mind when he thought about the time he had spent with the Mother Goddess was ‘mother’, but this wasn’t a good term for him to use here. Astrid wouldn’t be able to take it.
He took his time to construct his answer before replying, “I personally believe it’s possible for us to reach a settlement with the Mother Goddess and even establish a relationship of trust… If I may ask, have you seen any of my memories concerning the Mother Goddess in my dreams?”
“I did, but I can only see bits and pieces, and I struggle to string them into something coherent. There’s a limit to how much I can see from dreams, you see. I only managed to decipher what you experienced in the Witness State four hundred years ago because I was in it.”
“I see,” Roel replied with a nod.
He proceeded to share what he had been through in the Witness State he had entered via the guidance of the Ascarts’ hereditary ring.
Both Antonio and Astrid were taken aback by what they heard.
“I would have never thought that’s the purpose of the ring. Inconceivable.”
Ad
“Ancestor Astrid, you know about the ring?”
“You can say so. I saw it once when I was young, but it has such a long history that no one knew its purpose by the time it was passed down to my generation. We only know that it’s something our ancestors prepared to deal with the doomsday prophecy,” Astrid replied.
Roel nodded in comprehension.
The one who created the ring was indubitably an ancestor of the Kingmaker Clan, but its use was so shocking that others must never learn about it. Otherwise, the worshipers of the Savior and the Mother Goddess would surely go after it.
It was a wise decision to emphasize its importance instead of its use. This decision was the reason the Kingmaker Clan retained possession of the ring till the current era, giving Roel the opportunity to salvage their relationship with the Mother Goddess.
“That explains your feeling of intimacy toward the Mother Goddess. It’s a pity those from our generation had no such opportunity, which is why we always viewed the Mother Goddess and the Savior as our enemies.”
“It was the same for me too…” Roel nodded.
He wasn’t surprised by his ancestors’ stance.
While it was the Savior who had a blood feud with the Ardes, Roel was still more wary of the Mother Goddess at the start. He was hunted down by the Saints Convocation, Isabella Sofya had died to Sire Darkness in the real timeline, not to mention that the Mother Goddess had expressed Her hostility toward him through Her gaze every now and then.
If anyone had told him then that he would come to see the Mother Goddess as his mother, he would have cracked that person’s skull open under the suspicion that the latter was an evil cultist.
The events that transpired later didn’t help, either.
Shrouding Fog devoured Tark Stronghold, shocking all of humankind. This incident shook Nora up, and the ensuing mishap in her bloodline awakening nearly took her life. Following that, Charlotte nearly lost her life to Flooding Death.
How could he harbor any goodwill toward the Mother Goddess under such circumstances?
But after he learned the truth—the Mother Goddess and the Six Calamities weren’t one entity, and there was a reason behind Her hatred for the Kingmaker Clan—his perspective of Her began to change, especially during the period She took care of him.
The more he learned about the Mother Goddess, the more he could feel the true sentiments lying beneath Her cold exterior. He thought that the animosity between them was a tragedy. Humankind shouldn’t have been enemies with Her; coexistence should have been possible.
Such thoughts spurred him to take on a different stance from Carolyn and the others, resulting in a divergence. However, it looked like it might be possible to resolve these differences.
“Astrid, have your thoughts changed from before?”
“You can say so, but I don’t think Carolyn will take this well. She has been through tough times.” Astrid glanced at Carolyn before diving into the details surrounding the final plan.
…
The final plan was first conceptualized a long time ago, around the middle of the Second Epoch. Its goal was extremely straightforward—weakening the Savior and the Mother Goddess through all possible means, so that humankind could survive.
What surprised Roel was that there were many versions of the final plan.
The final plan was an extremely important scheme, so each patriarch of the Kingmaker Clan would make sure to revise it. This meant that the details of the final plan were greatly influenced by the stance taken by the incumbent patriarch of that generation.
In the era when the Ardes were at the peak of their power, and humankind was more united than ever, the final plan was much more aggressive and ambitious, requiring a great mobilization of resources.
After the first generation of the Twilight Sages Assembly paid a heavy price while searching for the Chaos Dream, and sorrow and despair inevitably infected the Ardes, the final plan was forced to undergo significant revision.
Since then, every succeeding patriarch of the Arde House would tailor the final plan to fit the on-the-ground situation.
Near the end of the Second Epoch, the Ardes fell to their weakest ever state, the Twilight Sages Assembly was dissolved, and the Ackermanns descended into internal strife. Whether it was in terms of strength or rallying power, the Ancient Austine Empire didn’t have the means to exercise the final plan anymore.
It was then that Charles Ackermann proposed a revised version of the final plan.
“The previous versions of the final plan were conceptualized on the notion that the Savior and the Mother Goddess were humankind’s enemies, and that a battle against Them was inevitable. However, Charles had a different take on the matter. He proposed using the strength of One to attack the Other.”
“You mean to turn the Savior and the Mother Goddess against each other? We don’t need the final plan to do that,” Roel remarked.
Antonio shook his head and clarified, “No, Charles’ plan was to plunder the Savior’s power to nurture a new god to defeat the Mother Goddess.”
“What?” Roel stared at Antonio as a wave of shock washed over his heart.
Nurture a new god? Is it even possible to do that?
Roel took a deep breath to calm himself before breaking down the plan to analyze its feasibility.
The first step was for them to plunder the Savior’s power.
If they had to choose between plundering the powers of the Savior or the Mother Goddess, the answer was definitely the former. The Kingmaker Clan was the one who had sealed the Savior in the Abyss, and it was currently under their jurisdiction.
In contrast, no one had found the place where the Mother Goddess was hibernating to date.
It was easy to find the Savior, but the same couldn’t be said about absorbing His powers. That was as good as swallowing arsenic!
As a matter of fact, Charles wasn’t the first one to consider doing that.
There was another group of people several thousand years ago who thought that they could reach greater heights by absorbing the Savior’s powers too… and they were now known as the Fallens.
“Putting aside the matter of nurturing a god, just the act of absorbing the Savior’s powers is…” Roel simply didn’t think that it was a good idea.
Unsurprised by Roel’s response, Antonio further explained, “Roel, do you remember the Diffusion Plan I mentioned?”
“Diffusion Plan?” Roel paused for a moment before replying with a nod, “Yes, I remember that.”
The Diffusion Plan was one of the ways to weaken the Savior—exponentially increase the number of the Savior’s worshipers within an extremely short period of time, so as to drive the Savior into a weakened state.
It was an insane plan, as the Savior’s worshipers would not only attain greater strength but be inflicted with the Savior’s depravity as well. Furthermore, there was the risk that the Savior might snap out of his madness and regain his sanity, so the plan was eventually scrapped.
Roel frowned at the mention of the Diffusion Plan, not knowing what Antonio was driving at.
“The idea Charles thought of was fundamentally similar to the Diffusion Plan, just that the absorption of the Savior’s powers would be done not through humans but magic tools.”
“Magic tools?”
“Yes. The Diffusion Plan was scrapped because it requires a great number of sacrifices, not to mention that we could be self-sabotaging by producing so many new Savior worshipers. However, this problem can be resolved if we use magic tools in place of humans.”
Antonio proceeded to explain the details, which enlightened Roel to Charles’ goal.
Humans might not necessarily become stronger after attaining the Savior’s powers, but they would be driven insane. This was how the Savior expanded his own following, and there was no way to reverse the process.
There was only one known way to deal with the Savior’s worshipers, and that was to kill them. This meant that they would have to kill all of the sacrifices in the Diffusion Plan. Not only was it inhumane to do so, but this was beneficial to the Savior too.
Thus, the Diffusion Plan was scrapped.
A thousand years ago, after browsing past records, Charles Ackermann came up with a bold idea. With his strength, he would create magic tools to substitute for humans in the Diffusion Plan.
Humans weren’t the only things who could absorb mana—some magic tools could do so too. For instance, Roel’s Ascendwing was a powerful magic tool that manifested new abilities by taking in the mana contained in the wielder’s and an angel’s blood.
The Ardes had previously excluded this possibility from their Diffusion Plan because it wasn’t feasible for them to do so. Normal magic tools could only absorb a small amount of the Savior’s mana, whereas those that could absorb a larger amount were invaluable and limited in quantity.
However, this wasn’t a problem to Charles at all.
“Charles’ ability is a mutation of the Kingdom Origin Attribute. He has the power to replicate legendary swords and armor from past ages, and those equipment can absorb mana equivalent to millions of people. That’s also the foundation of the current final plan.”
“I see.” Roel glanced at Paul and nodded.
He was familiar with Paul’s power. The latter had created his first legendary armor from the Second Epoch when he was at Origin Level 4. Given his growth trajectory, it was possible for him to replicate hundreds of powerful magic tools by the time he reached Origin Level 1.
Still, there was a question that bewildered Roel. He pondered for a moment before asking, “Principal Antonio, while it’s true we can minimize the casualties by replacing the humans in the Diffusion Plan with magic tools, the fact remains unchanged that the Savior will benefit from it. Anyone who wields those magic tools will also be afflicted with His madness and become His worshipers. Furthermore, these worshipers will be able to cause even greater devastation with the concentrated power in each magic tool. They’ll be an even greater menace to humankind.”
Magic tools in the Sia Continent didn’t possess a sense of self, so they wouldn’t side with the Savior by themselves. However, a human would still be required to channel the magic tools, and the moment someone attempted to do so, they would be afflicted by the Savior’s madness and turn into His worshiper.
While this revised plan reduced the number of casualties, it failed to resolve the key issue. Those magic tools would harness the concentrated power of the Savior. If things went wrong, they might just end up with the most depraved and dangerous Fallen humankind had ever seen.
Imagine the most fanatical Savior worshiper wielding an unimaginably powerful magic sword. This could result in bloodshed and massacre, and it would be a nightmare to deal with them.
Just thinking about it sent shudders down Roel’s spine.
Antonio understood Roel’s concerns and replied, “Yes, the Savior’s madness would indeed be channeled toward the wielder of the magic tools, but what if we choose someone special to wield them?”
“Someone special? Wait a moment; do you mean…”
“That’s right.” Antonio nodded. “I’m talking about the executor, Carolyn Ascart.”
