Ankara Resurrected!

Ankara—the daughter of the God of Order. There were many stories about her, the two most famous among them being: First: When the daughter of the God of Order was young, she grew angry over something. The God of Order handed her a bookmark and told her to write down the name of the deity she hated most. Soon after, that deity fell. And Ankara smiled. Second: The God of Order established the laws of Order, and the very first to violate them was his daughter, Ankara. In the end, the God of Order chose to cast his own daughter into the jaws of a ferocious beast to uphold the dignity of Order. This was the Light of Order. The protagonist of both stories remained the same, yet together they depicted the arc from beginning to end, from nothing to everything. Ankara was held in high regard in the mythological narratives of the Church of Order, not merely because she was the daughter of the God of Order, but because her life served as a perfect testament to the image of the God of Order. Thus, even though Ankara had ultimately suffered the final punishment for violating Order, she still retained a positive image within the Church of Order. The top floor of the Ankara Hotel was her memorial hall. Every year, various departments would organize "team-building" activities here, coming up to the top-floor memorial hall to first view Ankara's life and the story between her and the God of Order, and finally to witness Ankara's tragic end. It was considered a classic legal education program in the York City Region. Most of the time, however, the place sat vacant, especially when the hotel had official reception duties, during which it naturally would not host departmental team-building events. And so, when the elevator arrived at the top floor and the doors slid open, it was completely empty inside. "Out!" Karen shouted and leaped outward. The others followed immediately; no one remained in the elevator. Once everyone had cleared it, the elevator began to melt and contract, ultimately forming a thick slab of special metal that sealed off the elevator entrance. *Hum!* Light surged all around. Spanning the entire floor, the memorial hall was vast and spacious. The portraits hanging along the surrounding walls began casting projections, reenacting the story of Ankara from childhood to adulthood. "What is going on?" Sains demanded. "Is this some trick played by your Church of Order?!" Before Karen could answer, Salayina shot Sains a glare and snapped, "No one will think you're brainless if you just keep your mouth shut." Because whether or not the Church of Order was behind it, asking such a question was completely pointless. Karen replied, "All I can say is that this wasn't on the itinerary I received." At this hour, he should have been escorting Salayina to the third-floor banquet hall, after which he could have enjoyed some delicious food. A banquet of that caliber would be serving rare, costly delicacies that could typically only be purchased with point coupons. *Screeech...* A rasping friction sounded from ahead as a near-transparent membrane was torn away. From within stepped a figure clad in gray armor. There should have been an insignia on the breastplate, but it had been deliberately ground off. Behind this armored figure appeared a woman with an ordinary face and an unassuming stature. But when she spoke, it became clear the speaker was actually a man: "Captain Karen, I order you to stand down with your people right now. This is an order." Karen said, "I'd like to know who is giving me orders." "Lilith." "An unfamiliar name." "My apologies. I just picked it. Since I was able to appear here, and since I was able to route you up to this floor, I imagine there is no need to explain my identity or what I represent, is there? Take your people and back away. Tonight, this is the place where Order executes judgment upon the Moon God." Karen shook his head and said, "I'm sorry, but that's not on my itinerary." "Of course it couldn't be written in." "Nor have you shown me an official reassignment order." "Obviously that couldn't be put in writing either." "Therefore, I must carry on with my duties, fulfill my mission, and protect the Holy Child of the Moon God Church." "*Sigh*, why bother?" Lilith sighed. In truth, Karen wasn't particularly eager to protect this Holy Child. Her target was very likely himself, even if she didn't know it yet. Salayina was thus a threat to him. Moreover, she had tested him so bluntly and roughly in the car earlier. If she met with an accident and died after his security escort mission concluded... Karen would probably have had Alfred take some point coupons to buy lizard dragon meat to make wontons. His household had a lot of mouths to feed, so that way everyone could have a taste. But now, one had ground the crest off their armor, and the other was a man cross-dressing as a woman. What was that supposed to mean? Was he supposed to stand foolishly aside with his squad, waiting for them to finish off Salayina before turning around to silence him and his team? As for the justification offered, Karen didn't buy it. His own existence within the Church of Order was already plenty "fantastical," so he saw nothing unimaginable about bizarre things taking place here. Lilith waved a hand forward, and the armored figure charged. Its heavy footsteps fell with dull, solid thuds, leaving no room for escape. As it raised its battleaxe, the air before it seemed to congeal. Sains stepped forward, yellow light gleaming in his left eye to conjure a barrier before him. When the axe slammed down, the barrier caved under the pressure but did not shatter. What was more, the barrier "flowed" along the floor and clamped tightly around the armored figure's legs. Salayina vanished from where she stood and reappeared behind the armored figure. Her hand patted the top of its helm with great gentleness, leaving behind a single red petal. By the time her feet touched the ground, the red flower bloomed, discharging a thick crimson beam of light that diagonally pierced through the armored figure's head. With its head pierced through, the armored figure froze in place. The axe slipped from its grip, clattering against the floor with a loud clang. Its massive frame followed, toppling to the ground with a heavy *thud*. Lilith froze, clearly not having expected things to turn out this way. Karen glanced at the armored figure on the floor, rather surprised himself. He had known that as the Holy Child of an orthodox church and a candidate for the future head of the Moon God Church, she would definitely be powerful, but he hadn't anticipated she would be strong to this degree. The armored figure had previously given him a feeling reminiscent of that giant mantis, Culisha, in front of the Congers family crypt—the oppressive pressure brought by its immense defense had been unmistakable. Yet even so, it had been pierced straight through by Salayina's casual strike. This meant that the Holy Child's raw power had already surpassed a certain threshold. Salayina then turned her gaze to Lilith standing in the distance and floated straight toward him. Yes, floated—her bare feet didn't touch the floor at all, giving her an ethereal, otherworldly presence. Karen suddenly realized what her aura reminded him of. She had a kind of Eastern aesthetic charm from his past memories, a beauty he had rarely encountered in this world. "Order—Hell of Atonement!" Lilith spread his arms wide, and an enormous halo of light materialized before him. Phantom silhouettes of vicious beasts crawled out roaring, eager to seize the living person in front of them and drag her into hell. Hell of Atonement... Karen remembered this was an obscure Order spell. It was notoriously difficult to master, and boosting its power required substantial personal investments. With such a low return on investment, normal Order priests rarely practiced it. Yet when Lilith unleashed it now, the momentum was genuinely astonishing. Karen couldn't help wondering where on earth the man had gathered so many soul fragments of ferocious beasts. After all, Karen, who liked reading spell pamphlets over meals, had passed on learning this technique simply because he hadn't had the time to scour the world for spell reagents, and buying them on the black market was far too expensive. Yet, facing the thick arms reaching out for her, Salayina merely closed her eyes. A yellow crescent moon surfaced between her brows. Then, flicking her fingernail across a fingertip, a bead of blood flew out and condensed into a crimson droplet. Lilith, who was controlling the spell, felt his chest tighten, as if gripped by an invisible hand. But he had no other choice now and could only pour everything into driving the beasts toward Salayina. The droplet of blood before Salayina dispersed like ink blossoming in water. At the same time, a flower bloomed across Lilith's chest, and his entire body began to warp. "You're not... the Holy Child..." *Smack!* Salayina waved a hand, dispersing the bloody mist before her. Lilith's body disintegrated into nothingness along with it, and the beasts that were about to grasp her vanished into thin air. "I am. I'm just not what you imagined." Salayina turned around and looked toward Karen and the others. Fortunately, Karen had always viewed his role on security details more as an honor guard, so he was quite at peace with the fact that the person he was protecting was stronger than himself. In fact, during his previous two security missions, the VIPs had both been stronger than him at the time, including Ophelia back then. Still, judging from the outcome, this assassination attempt was truly quite comical. They were Order priests; it took place inside the heavily guarded Ankara Hotel; and they had even compromised the formation of the core elevator. One could say the faction orchestrating the assassination had executed the preliminary preparations to perfection. Their fatal flaw, however, was that while they successfully created an isolated one-on-one scenario, they couldn't win the duel. So when the target was unfathomably powerful, no matter how flawlessly your preliminary plan was realized, it all became meaningless. Sains looked at Karen and demanded, "I demand a reasonable explanation from Order!" "Sains, you can keep quiet." "Yes, my lady." Salayina looked at Karen once more and asked, "Can you keep your subordinates under control?" "Without a problem," Karen replied. "What about her?" Salayina pointed at Ophelia. "The same." "Good. With an incident like this, you would surely bear no small responsibility, right?" "Yes." "I can help you turn this fault into merit. Would you like that?" Karen asked, "You wish to make yourself look injured?" "Yes. I need to appear as though I was attacked at the Ankara Hotel so your Church of Order will offer some concessions during negotiations. As for you, you can turn your liability into the merit of fighting desperately to protect the target and successfully helping her survive the assassination. Do we have a deal?" "Deal." "Very good." Salayina lifted her long hair, and blood seeped from the corner of her lips. Her complexion instantly turned remarkably pale. It looked like acting of the highest caliber, but Karen had a sneaking suspicion that this wasn't an act. The use of certain powers inherently brought severe backlash. Karen turned to the squad behind him. "Dress yourselves up. Make it look like you've just come out of a bitter struggle." "Yes, Captain." An incident having occurred with the elevator, the Ankara Hotel's response wasn't actually slow. But because no drawn-out battle had materialized and Salayina had dispatched the assassins far too swiftly, Karen and the others were bound to wait here for quite a while longer. With his head "battered and bleeding," Sains couldn't help grumbling to Karen, "Your Church of Order is dreadfully slow." "Each floor has an independent formation. Even knowing the elevator malfunctioned and that we're in danger, it's very difficult for the people below to come up to our rescue. Haven't you noticed there are no windows on this floor? You can't fly this high from the outside either—the hotel's defensive array would automatically target and shoot you down. It is precisely because the security here is so tight that the rescue team needs time." "Security this tight, yet assassins still got in? If our Holy Child weren't so formidable, our ending wouldn't be anywhere near this fortunate—and that goes for you people, too." "Mr. Sains, perhaps what you should consider right now is this: if this is a plot specifically targeting your Moon God Church, how can you be sure the rescue team won't arrive just to finish you off?" "You..." Her hair disheveled, Salayina brushed away the strands obscuring her vision while watching the moving projection ahead, which depicted Ankara receiving the bookmark from her father. She asked: "Captain Karen, don't you suspect that this assassination was orchestrated by our Moon God Church?" Karen shook his head. "No." "Why?" "Because the return on investment is far too low." To win a few compensatory concessions at the negotiating table, sacrificing an embedded spy placed inside another mighty orthodox church couldn't strictly be called a loss, but it certainly wasn't a great bargain either... Making such a commotion simply wasn't worth it. Salayina nodded with a smile, pointed at the animated scene before them, and asked, "I hear that among your Church of Order's Bishops and higher figures, there is a popular custom of gifting bookmarks?" "There is." "Have you ever received one, Captain Karen?" "No." His grandfather had given him two bookmarks. One had gone to Allen Manor as a betrothal gift; Earl Rekar had been thrilled when he first learned of it, only to nearly gnaw his table in half with rage upon discovering that his descendant had written the grand surname "Raphael" on it. "To tell you the truth, I admire the God of Order immensely. I find him exceedingly charismatic, so I believe there must have been some romantic spark between the Moon God and the God of Order back in the day." Hearing this, Karen couldn't help recalling the image of his dog tearing at a cushion with its paws. "I suppose so. As the greatest deities of the same era, it would be only natural for them to appreciate each other." In any case, barring any surprises after this summit, the mythological narrative would soon have the God of Order playing coy and flirting with the Moon God Artemis. Thus, whether the descendants and followers made something of themselves mattered a great deal: they couldn't just recruit underlings for their god, they could even arrange lovers for them. This tied back to a widespread conjecture of late—that the gods were merely sequestered somewhere, residing in another dimension. It felt remarkably like later generations burning paper effigies for their ancestors, hoping they could enjoy them in the afterlife. "I truly hope that one day, Dark Moon Island can join us," Salayina said, looking at Ophelia with a faint smile. Then, she revealed a secret: "There is a strong chance that the Church of Order will use Dark Moon Island as a bargaining chip to hand over to our Moon God Church." "That's impossible!" Ophelia said, utter disbelief on her face. "There's nothing impossible about it. Dark Moon Island is too small—so small that before an orthodox church, it's merely an amusing trinket. So long as our Moon God Church can afford the price, why wouldn't the Church of Order let go?" Karen chimed in, "My lady, please do not frighten her." Salayina looked at Karen. "Oh? You think it's impossible?" "Yes, I believe it is impossible. As you noted, Dark Moon Island is indeed insignificant compared to an orthodox church. However, the subsequent repercussions and losses of losing or selling off Dark Moon Island would vastly outweigh any value it could bring. If we sell Dark Moon Island, what would the Church of Pamires think of us? What would the Church of Samsara think of us? How would the other churches and factions that have allied with our Church of Order view us? That is a price the Moon God Church cannot afford to pay. So please, stop frightening her." "Heheheh." Salayina chuckled. Karen chuckled along with her. Salayina kept laughing. Karen had no choice but to keep smiling along. Salayina was still laughing. Karen's cheeks began to ache, so he finally stopped. Yet Salayina's laughter didn't cease. Suddenly, everyone present looked at her with alarm, sensing that something was wrong. The Holy Child of the Moon God Church, who had displayed such formidable might just moments ago, now seemed possessed. Her laughter grew clear and sharp, echoing continuously throughout the space, and stirred the figures of Ankara in every portrait along the walls into laughing along with her. The portraits of Ankara across every era, in every style of attire, broke free from their looping reenactments of her life story and joined in the laughter. The scene was eerie enough to make one's scalp prickle with dread. What was most terrifying was the final, enormous painting titled *Light of Order*. In the painting, Ankara—her body already torn to pieces—was laughing with sinister, chilling malice. Suddenly, the laughter snapped to a halt. Salayina jerked her head up and looked at Karen. Then, she spoke—and as she did, every projection of Ankara around them spoke in unison: "Well said. Truly worthy of a follower of that bitch Artemis. Just like that bitch, you always love to indulge in such sweet dreams. Heheheh..."