Praise Order!

Black mist rose within the Administrative Temple. When it dispersed, Karen saw an expansive sea. Although the sky here was still shrouded in gray fog, it was incomparably cleaner than the Black Sea in the Garden of Life. A colossal creature floated upon the water—it was Basse. Karen had once stood upon its back as they sailed into the Garden of Life. Yet now, it looked utterly listless, as though every drop of its vitality had been drained away. Even its shell was spiderwebbed with fissures. Along the beach, Karen saw corpses neatly laid out in rows. They stretched boundlessly to the left and right, and beside Basse's massive shell, countless more drifted on the waves. Every single corpse bore the exact same face... Norton. Even having witnessed countless immense spectacles, the sight before him, paired with the High Priest standing right in front of him, still sent a wave of profound shock through Karen. Just how many times had he slaughtered himself here? "High Priest... please permit me to enter slumber." Basse's voice trembled, weighed down not merely by exhaustion, but by sheer terror. The raw materials for these avatars had come from Basse; thus, the High Priest's frenzied suicides were, in truth, carving away at Basse's very flesh. He had terrified this faith-guarding sacred beast of the Church of Order to its absolute core. It could already sense it had reached its breaking point. If this continued, it would collapse. Such a collapse would signify the total extinction of the Basse lineage, for not even enough remnant power remained within its body to nurture a new descendant. "Sleep." "Thank you for your mercy, High Priest." As if granted a profound release, Basse slowly sank beneath the surface of the sea. If the Church of Order did not pour external resources into its convalescence, it would remain asleep for at least a millennium. And under current circumstances, with the Church having pivoted entirely toward pragmatic urgency, it likely wouldn't foot the bill for such ethereal "wisdom" anymore. Otherwise, the elders of the Temple would probably be the first to protest. The High Priest lifted his foot and began strolling along the beach. The soles of his boots stepped continuously across faces, chests, and legs identical to his own, as though treading upon a freshly laid asphalt road. Karen first lifted off the ground, hovering in the air, but then descended again, treading upon the "High Priests" to follow the High Priest. The sea breeze carried neither the smell of fish nor the salinity of brine. It was, however, cool and refreshing, soothing Karen's originally anxious heart into stillness. The High Priest asked, "Foden and the others contacted you, didn't they?" Karen did not answer. "Heh." The High Priest gave a soft laugh. "They are men I brought up myself. I know them better than anyone, so I can already guess what they plan to do now." Karen remained silent. The High Priest stopped in his tracks. "I am quite gratified." Karen halted as well. The High Priest turned his body to face the sea. "Their actions can be considered the final consolation for 'Norton.'" Karen finally spoke up and asked, "Do you feel sorrow?" "What makes you think that?" "The ones laid out on the ground, the ones floating on the sea—all of them." The High Priest closed his eyes and raised his hand. The dead Nortons across the beach and the surface of the water all began to dissolve. A truly strong person never puts their weakness on display. Karen spoke in a grave tone, "Please revoke the decree of withdrawal." "Is that how you speak to your High Priest?" "I only respect a High Priest I acknowledge." "Is that also how you spoke to Tyrannus?" "I see no difference between the two." The High Priest spread his arms. "I will not revoke the withdrawal. I will go in person to the Garden of Life, taking the elders of the various churches with me, to welcome back my former close friend." Karen opened his palm, where a miniature teleportation rune began to circulate. The High Priest said, "Alas, this is the lower stratum of the Administrative Temple. Your weapons cannot be teleported in." The very next moment, the Blade of Sighs appeared in Karen's grip. How could the ancient defensive mechanisms left behind by the Holy See ever place restrictions on Ankara's weapon? "Where did you get your hands on such a fine thing?" Buzz! Karen raised the blade, resting it against the High Priest's shoulder. For a moment, nothing else could be heard around them except the whistling sea breeze. Karen had never imagined that a day would come when he would hold a blade against the High Priest. At one point, he had treated becoming the High Priest of the Church of Order as his goal. But once he climbed to a sufficiently elevated position, he had actually ceased longing for that ultimate seat. It was because he had realized that even if he sat in that position, he probably wouldn't do any better than Norton. Yet unfortunately, the High Priest he acknowledged had disappointed him. Karen said, "Revoke your previous decree." "What a pity. You've been my secretary for too short a time. If I could have given you ten more years—no, five—then should I be gone, you would truly have had the chance to sit in this seat. "Now, it's rather unlikely. Even if Foden and the others succeed in their uprising, they won't have the spare strength to suppress the backlash from within, much less push you into my position. "If I am no longer around, no one can keep them in check. "By the way, "when you made your plans, did you consider how to bring them to an end?" "High Priest, it was you who gave us no room to consider the aftermath. The footsteps of the returning gods forced us to make our choice based on the faith in our hearts." "You cannot blame me for this. This matter came far too abruptly for me as well, yet everything has already become unchangeable." The High Priest reached out, lightly pinching the blade, and asked, "Do you think you can kill me?" The moment the words left his mouth, a tremendous surge of power emanated from the blade. Karen immediately ramped up his own power, keeping the blade firmly anchored against the High Priest's shoulder. After a brief clash of forces, the High Priest withdrew his strength, murmuring in slight surprise, "You have already condensed a godhead fragment." "I thought bringing me here was your way of deliberately offering me a chance to take you hostage." "Before absolute power, most arrangements become mere jokes." Squelch! Karen's eyes narrowed. The High Priest had actively raised his shoulder, allowing the Blade of Sighs to sink into his flesh. "Cough, cough, cough..." A violent fit of coughing tore from the High Priest's throat. The sharp, tearing force of the Blade of Sighs was running rampant, wreaking havoc throughout his body. "Karen, what are you hesitating for? Kill me! Kill me!" Though Karen's hand gripped the hilt, he did not press it any deeper. "After you kill me, you will witness with your own eyes how those fellows who act so meek and obedient before me expose their naked ambitions. Your old superior, Foden, is actually the purest among them." Karen pursed his lips. "Retract your order. Even if we lose, I want the Church to fall standing. Otherwise... I will kill you." "Would you?" "After you die, what does it matter if the deluge comes?" The High Priest fell silent. Immediately after, a grayish-white cocoon began to envelop the Blade of Sighs embedded in his shoulder. Karen exerted his strength to break free, but at that moment, their surroundings began to rapidly compress. A colossal, terrifying pressure poured down upon him. Bang! It felt as though a sledgehammer had slammed into Karen's chest, forcefully hurling him back from the High Priest. Under the dreadful binding force, Karen could only drop to one knee. He stared in disbelief at the surroundings. The compressed environment resembled the interior of an enormous bell, riddled with cracks yet forcibly pieced together nonetheless. "A divine kingdom... domain?" The High Priest raised his hand, pulling the Blade of Sighs from his shoulder. "Your talent, your insight, and your intellect all astonish me. I originally thought that having a Diss emerge was already a grand blessing bestowed upon our Church by an era devoid of gods. I never imagined another like you could appear." Karen asked, "You have already achieved godhood?" "No, not quite." The High Priest flattened his palm, and a faintly glowing godhead floated up from it. However, it was densely covered in crisscrossing lines, looking like a temporary, forced patchwork. Karen knew that not long ago, his grandfather had condensed a godhead in a similar fashion. But that had been due to the possession of the God of Order, allowing his grandfather to briefly wield power akin to a god. A burst of starlight appeared beneath the High Priest's feet, expanding until it encompassed Karen as well. Immediately after, this starlight resonated with the teleportation array inside the Administrative Temple. The transfer was about to begin. "Although I ordered the Temple to monitor them, I know very well that those foolish elders cannot keep an eye on them. If they truly managed to, I would be the one losing face. "If I took drastic measures directly, heh, they wouldn't just wait around to die either. Chiefly, it was my earlier unwillingness and resistance that alerted them that something was amiss. "Ah, it is truly somewhat comical. I actually have to hide from them. I don't even dare remain in the Holy See, within this Administrative Temple. "Originally, this should have been the safest place in theory. Now, it has become the most dangerous and uncontrollable. "Even after hauling several tombstones from the Temple to place before the gates, I still didn't feel at ease." The High Priest walked up to Karen, crouched down, and continued, "Foden and the others had you contact Mink Street, didn't they?" Karen smiled. "I think that person wouldn't be interested in participating in the power struggles of the Holy See's upper echelons. As for whether I am Norton or Tyrannus, that person probably wouldn't care either. By all reason, that person and the deity beside him wouldn't come. "Yet for some reason, since you, Karen, were the one reaching out, I felt you might actually persuade them. "There is no specific reason other than that you, Karen, are always adept at accomplishing things others consider virtually impossible. "Therefore, I cannot remain here. I must move elsewhere." Buzz! The Blade of Sighs was rested upon Karen's shoulder. The scene mirrored the one from before, except their roles had reversed. The High Priest extended his other hand and gently patted Karen's cheek. "Why did you come in alone first? Did you think that after condensing a godhead fragment, you could control your High Priest?" "Because the Norton of the past was worth me coming in to ask him to his face." "Hahaha! You choose to believe in Norton, yet you refuse to believe in those 'Exalted Ladies' worshipped across countless ages? Don't you feel foolish?" "Are they worthy?" "Since you insist on blaspheming them, since you insist on forcing me to stop them, then I shall drag you along to welcome their return. I will make you kneel before them and... loudly praise them!" The teleportation array formally activated. The priests outside the Administrative Temple saw a beam of light shoot straight out from the peak of the hall. This sight shook everyone to their core. No one had anticipated that the High Priest of the Church of Order would suddenly abandon everything and choose to teleport away alone, without even bringing Mobiten's guard regiment. The knights concealed in various secret safehouses, poised to shed their disguises, reveal their armor, and converge on their targets, received orders to halt their operation one after another. The personnel stationed at critical nodes throughout the Holy See were likewise told to terminate their actions. Across divisions, departments, and factions swept up willingly or unwillingly, everyone was left utterly stunned. Outside the War Court, Kreid stood with his hands behind his back. Inside his office, six secretaries threw back their robes, revealing the sub-forbidden spell scrolls beneath, completely subduing the elder tasked with monitoring him. Yet as the teleportation beam faded into the distance, Kreid couldn't help letting out a laugh. The coup had already been pushed aggressively into motion; they had been on the verge of launching an overthrow against that man. Yet that man, at such a pivotal juncture... had departed the Holy See. Was this fleeing? Was this hiding? No, neither. The moment he vacated this place that seemed the safest, he had effectively forced them into a cage. He was not only the High Priest, but Tyrannus as well. Wherever he stood, there was the Holy See. "Haha... Ah, the boss is truly the boss." ... Diss, holding his dog by the leash, arrived outside the Holy See. Because Karen had arrived a step early, Diss had effectively arrived a step late. "Hoffen, calculate the teleportation destination." "The Garden of Life." "Good. Let us go." "Diss, I suspect the reason this High Priest lost control might be related to the method of realm suppression you imparted to him." "Woof!" ... The Garden of Life. Having concluded their unsealing assault, Silma's knight order had completed their withdrawal. Upon the former battle lines, only towering stone pillars remained. Elders from various churches had answered the summons, standing atop their respective pillars and gazing out at the divine silhouettes drawing closer across the waters ahead. The prophets and oracles of the Temple of Order were orchestrating and arranging matters as though hosting a grand, high-profile gathering. Finally, alongside the flare of a teleportation beam, the figures of the High Priest and Karen emerged onto the highest pillar at the very center. The moment the teleportation concluded, Karen saw the High Priest's aura plummet. The godhead he had briefly condensed to suppress Karen earlier shattered. Just like his grandfather, the High Priest could not maintain it for long. Karen stood up. The High Priest said, "You can kill me now, but killing me changes nothing. See for yourself." Karen looked toward the Black Sea. Three towering figures had already drawn near. "How can they be so fast...?" Originally, there should have been at least six days left, yet they were already right before their eyes. Originally, three knight orders had been deployed here, but now, not a single one remained. Though he had done everything in his power to stop it, the High Priest was still the High Priest. Who could truly stop something he drove with all his might? In essence, the coup was largely meaningless. The moment the High Priest went astray, the framework prepared specifically against the return of the gods was already null and void. "What is the meaning of this?" "Why has Order's High Priest come?" "Just what does your Church of Order intend to do?" The church circles were filled with competition and opposition, yet they did not lack cooperation and coexistence either. Particularly at the level of the various temples, where everyone was an old creature who had lived for centuries, the architecture of their relations was not as sharp as that between their respective holy sees. Still, the reason everyone had dispatched representatives this time was not purely out of past relationships; fundamentally, they were all intensely curious about the return of the gods. Unfortunately, the Church of Life, which should have been the most curious and excited, had lost its central leadership. As for the remaining former sacred grounds of Life, though nominally under Order's jurisdiction, they were all waiting for their main god's return. The oracle and the prophet exchanged glances in silence. The High Priest took a step forward, his form arriving near the shoreline. His dharma body manifested, facing the elders of the various churches with his back to the sea. "Everyone, array materials should have been pre-arranged upon every pillar. I presume you have all finished setting them up?" For a moment, none of the elders replied, because they truly had set them up. If Order's knight orders were still stationed here, they wouldn't have been too worried; even if the knights failed to hold the line, the elders could leave at their leisure. But now, they found themselves on the front lines of the spectacle. The instant the deities stepped out of the sea, they had no intention of remaining; they would flee at once. The teleportation array they had arrived through was near the former knight order logistics base, not far away, yet they were unwilling to waste even that short distance. They had simply arranged a short-range teleportation array at their feet to escape as quickly as possible. Not only that, but many elders had even taken advantage of their waiting time to arrange communication arrays, broadcasting the scene here to their home bases in real time. This created a rather absurd reality: the Church of Order, which had originally controlled this place, was busy with coups and power struggles, while foreign churches were far better informed about the situation here. "Next, please join me in welcoming the return of the great existences." After saying this, the High Priest left his dharma body in place while his true self returned to the central pillar. The elders standing on the pillars on either side exchanged divine senses. They genuinely could not fathom the High Priest of Order's objective. Similarly, the holy sees of the various churches in the rear were plunged into bewilderment, pressing their intelligence departments to discover why Order's policy had shifted so drastically. "Roar!" "Roar!" "Roar!" A baby's murmur was thunder to an ant. Three roars capable of shaking this expanse of space were likely nothing more than gentle sighs as those three main-god-tier existences approached their breakthrough point. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!... The Black Sea shrank rapidly, the earth trembled, and divine might gradually enveloped the area. Some elders on the pillars had already begun warming up the teleportation arrays beneath their feet. Clang. The High Priest tossed the Blade of Sighs before Karen. Karen bent down and picked it up. He did not point the blade at the High Priest again, but instead faced the three figures that made the heavens look low and small. The High Priest asked, "What, not killing me after all?" "There's no point. There are more important things to do." "I admire you. This is not merely Norton's sentiment, but Tyrannus's affirmation." "Heh." Right then, a fissure opened between the High Priest's brows, and another Norton split out from within. Karen had thought this was the real Norton, but after appearing, this Norton shouted at the High Priest, "Hahaha! Norton, look! I told you, nothing can be stopped! The gods shall return!" Puzzlement filled Karen's eyes. This newly split avatar was clearly not Norton. Then who was this High Priest...? The High Priest looked at Karen and said, "In the course of its existence, divinity inevitably incurs corruption. When a deity is powerful, corruption can be eliminated on its own, posing no issue. But once she falls into slumber or perishes, the progress of corruption becomes unavoidable." Karen pointed at the avatar and asked, "Who is he, really?" "He is a pitiful fellow who always believed he was Tyrannus's consciousness, unaware that he was merely the carrier of corruption—the rotting, degenerated portion of Tyrannus's divine body and soul during the process of being sealed." Hearing this description, Norton pointed at the High Priest in disbelief. "You're talking nonsense! You're talking nonsense!" Karen then pointed at the High Priest and asked, "Then who are you, really?" "I, too, am a pitiful fellow. I always thought I was steadfastly battling Tyrannus, upholding the purest Order, taking pride in being myself rather than Tyrannus... but in truth, I am Tyrannus." Shock washed over Karen's face. Immediately, he recalled the first time he had brought Kevin into the Administrative Temple, and the exchange between Kevin and Purr upon seeing the High Priest: "Woof." (Tyrannus) "Meow." (He is Norton; he suppressed Tyrannus) "Woof!" (He IS Tyrannus!) At the roots of the Tree of Life, during the dialogue between the High Priest and Augurev, Augurev had also adamantly addressed the High Priest as Tyrannus. When the God of Order possessed his grandfather and came before the Administrative Temple, seeing the High Priest emerge, she had smiled with satisfaction. What the God of Order had seen was not the High Priest of Order... but her most devout retainer. In truth, the reality had long been revealed. It was only that until the final moment, no one could comprehend what the truth pointed toward. Karen asked, "Then... what about Norton?" The High Priest closed his eyes, an expression of sorrow surfacing on his face. The countless corpses of Norton along the beach beneath the Administrative Temple had been his search for himself. His sorrow stemmed from this: "There never was a person named Norton." Karen murmured in repetition, "There never was a person named Norton?" The High Priest slowly opened his eyes. "Or rather, Norton existed solely to prevent myself from being corrupted." "No, impossible! This is impossible! I am Tyrannus! I am Tyrannus!" The avatar descended into madness, yet his body began to disintegrate, dispersing completely amidst his unwillingness. Once the true self had awakened, there was no longer fertile ground for the corruption to remain. Karen asked, "The messages relayed back by the branch gods... those conversations..." Curious, the High Priest asked, "You heard the dialogue between Augurev and me at the roots of the Tree of Life?" "Augurev..." At that moment, the canopy of heaven ahead began to collapse. Like ravenous madwomen, the two main gods of Life tore away the final remnants of their shackles. The clusters of temple elders upon the coastal pillars were the delicacy they craved most. Even if such a delicacy did not suit their tastes, when one was starved half to death, one would eat anything—let alone gods. Buzz! Lightning flared within Augurev's eyes. From the sleeve of his divine robe, the High Priest produced an exquisite box. When opened, it revealed a set of brass knuckles that looked both pocket-sized and delicate—the Silver Dust Knuckles. This was Augurev's exclusive divine artifact. Summoned by their master, the knuckles flew out on their own, expanding in midair before descending. Their sheer size, their overwhelming might... a casual blow could easily crush a giant dragon to death. The pair of knuckles slipped onto Augurev's joints. The lightning in his eyes instantly blazed several times brighter, offering a faint glimpse of his former peak! The High Priest smiled. "Delighted to see you again, my friend, my partner, my comrade-in-arms." Karen pressed on, "Then that will of Augurev was also a corrupted portion?" "Did you find Xiumile's coffin?" "I did." "What message did Xiumile bring?" "Believe in Order..." "Yes, believe in Order. "We once followed our Lord through the rise of the Divine War; "We helped our Lord establish the Church of Order; "We aided our Lord in laying the foundation of supremacy; "Our Lord's grand ambition, our Lord's ideal, our Lord's blueprint was likewise our longing. "The Four Great Retainers of the God of Order, the Twelve Knights of Order, all the branch gods under the system of Order—to stand behind our Lord was the lifelong glory of us all. "The Lord once described to us the world she saw. "The Lord said: "She wanted that world. "And so, "We turned ourselves into the seal, sealing the era for our Lord, to forge that world!" "No wonder... they still exist..." With Karen, the life and death of the Twelve Knights of Order were entirely within his grasp; he could decide in a single thought who to expel from the coffins. If he could do it, the God of Order could certainly do the same. Therefore, the very fact that the Twelve Knights of Order still existed... was the greatest proof. The God of Order did not want them to die, nor was there any reason to let them perish. "I asked him for a method to suppress my realm. He told me there was no need to deliberately suppress it, but rather to vent it actively—to skip the godhead fragment and attempt directly condensing a godhead, which was bound to fail anyway..." Karen knew this was the experience his grandfather had shared with the High Priest; his grandfather had done the very same thing. The High Priest smiled wryly. "Yet the moment I tried... I succeeded." The instant he succeeded, the High Priest learned the truth. He was not Norton; he was Tyrannus. Only a few strands of thread remained wound around the divine bodies of the two main gods of Life. They were a mere hair's breadth away from regaining complete freedom and descending fully into the mortal realm. The bells across every sacred ground of Life began to toll frantically. Countless believers of Life dropped to their knees, praying for their main god's return. Aloft on the stone pillars, all the teleportation arrays flared to life. Clearly, the elders were unwilling to become the first targets of the deities' wrath upon reaching the shore. Yet, at that very moment, the lightning in Augurev's eyes coiled swiftly around the two main gods of Life before him. Immediately after, Augurev raised both fists, the Silver Dust Knuckles radiating a blinding, majestic brilliance, and smashed them brutally down onto the necks of the two main gods of Life! Boom! The sky darkened, the earth cracked open, and the Black Sea boiled into steam. The gargantuan bodies of the two main gods of Life were battered straight to the ground. Originally, in the eyes of the entire church sphere, the return of the gods would upend the Church of Order's solitary dominance. That had also been what they understood as Order's primary motive for striving to block their return. They had mocked Order's naivety, considering it hopelessly beyond their depth; after all, before terrifying divine might, what room was there for insignificant mortals to resist or alter anything? All of Order's past history and glory would be ground to dust in this irreversible turning of the era, eventually meeting the same oblivion as Light once had. Yet the scene that followed tore all of that mockery and derision brutally to shreds. For Augurev threw back his head and unleashed a roar that had lain dormant for an entire era: "Praise Order!"