Heaven

"So the one lying inside here is... Budalas?" Ukonga walked up to the sarcophagus and reached out to stroke it gently. Karen asked, "You and Budalas should have had the closest relationship, right?" Neo beat him to it, shaking his head and pointing to his own forehead. "Doesn't seem like it." Ukonga said, "My relationship with Budalas was the shallowest among the few of us. On the contrary, I was in more frequent contact with Philias, Dicarost, and the others." Although both were priests of the Church of Order, Budalas took the orthodox path. After graduating, he climbed step by step from the grassroots to the position of High Priest, and then led the Church of Order to win the millennia-long confrontation against Light, thoroughly establishing the Church of Order's status as the paramount church. Ukonga, on the other hand, had never changed his nature as a playboy and drifter. He disliked mundane church affairs. Despite having supreme cultivation talent, he squandered it freely, until in the end, falling in love with a sacred artifact turned him into a half-human, half-ghost creature who spent a thousand years as a "mummy." Budalas couldn't stand Ukonga's attitude toward life, and Ukonga disliked Budalas's stern rigidity. As a result, they had gradually drifted apart in reality. Yet time was the best sieve, filtering out the impurities and leaving behind only the fondest memories. Ukonga was no longer the young dandy sowing wild oats everywhere he went. Seeing Budalas's coffin now, melancholy and yearning welled up in his heart instead. "Are we going to awaken him?" Ukonga asked. "The High Priest's decree?" A figure of Budalas's historical standing could never be transferred out of the First Knight Order without a special authorization from the High Priest. "Yes," Karen nodded, walking first to Dicarost's display case. "Have you investigated it?" "We have. The difficulty of awakening him is immense," Ukonga cautioned. "You should call back that senior awakening team that just left." Karen shook his head. "No need." Neo chimed in, "I believe no one in this world understands awakening better than Karen." Ukonga said in surprise, "Are you really going to awaken him yourself?" Without a pre-arranged formation, without team coordination, and without matching sacred artifact materials, the cost of awakening was simply too steep, especially for beings whose cultivation in life had been anything but low, like Dicarost and Budalas. "Let's awaken Dicarost first. Come, remove the display case." The condition of Dicarost's remains was rather complex. By comparison, Budalas, whose body had been carefully preserved by the First Knight Order after his death, posed virtually no difficulty. Ukonga took a key from his sleeve. The display case itself was a sealing restriction. Before unlocking it, he asked once more: "Are you sure?" Neo said displeasedly, "You talk too much nonsense." Ukonga warned, "Right now we're drinking wine. If things go wrong, we can drink Dicarost-flavored pus in a moment." Karen said, "I have confidence." The key was inserted, and the display case's seal was lifted. The glass-like protective barrier peeled away like an eggshell. Immediately, black and white mists began to diffuse, automatically forming a new environmental quarantine. Ukonga warned, "Watch out for contamination." Karen didn't mind and walked straight into the mist. Neo was about to step inside for a closer look, but Ukonga stopped him: "Stay behind me. My body has a higher resistance to contamination." Neo pushed Ukonga aside and said, "Right now, contamination resistance is just about the only thing where I don't feel I'd lose to him." "What do you mean?" "Nothing. Just look out for yourself." There was indeed a slight contamination within the mist, but its primary effect was hallucinogenic. Upon stepping inside, one moment a holy square appeared before the eyes, and the next, a cruel hell. Karen stopped in front of the mummy and said softly: "Qianmei." Qianmei flew out from Karen's body and sank into the mummy before him. Using it to probe Dicarost's internal condition was definitely the most effective method. However, Qianmei had only been inside for a moment when the two tattered angel wings lying on either side of Dicarost suddenly began to tremble, showing signs of awakening. *Buzz!* *Buzz!* The eyes of both angels snapped open. The holy angel's eye sockets were pure white, while the fallen angel's were pitch black—different colors, but identical cold indifference. The holy angel spread its wings and raised one hand, a phantom holy grail appearing in its palm, exuding a potent purifying attribute. The fallen angel threw back its neck and crossed its arms, a phantom heart coalescing before its chest, emitting a chilling aura. "Uh-oh." Seeing this, Neo stopped moving forward and stepped back a few paces, standing behind the two of them. Ukonga raised his hand and shattered the halo around the holy angel with a slap. The holy angel opened its mouth, a hiss escaping its throat, but the screech was cut short almost immediately. Its body was forcefully pinned to the ground by Ukonga, its solemnly raised arms forced flat against the floor into a groveling posture. Ukonga turned around, intending to deal with the fallen angel, only to see that the fallen angel was already kneeling prostrate at Karen's feet, its face twisted as if letting out a silent wail. *So fast?* Karen looked over as well and nodded at Ukonga. The fallen angel had dared to launch a soul attack against him, only to be crushed in an instant by the hunger addiction inside him. *Whoosh!* Qianmei flew back out from the mummy's body. Karen closed his eyes, took a moment to digest the information Qianmei had gathered from its on-site reconnaissance, and spoke: "No big problem. As long as we ensure the degree of awakening, Dicarost can resolve the issues within his body on his own." With that, Karen pointed a finger at Dicarost and said in a deep voice: "Order—Awaken." A chain of Order spilled out from beneath Karen's feet and sank into the mummy. However, this time, Karen did not employ the traits unique to the God of Order, because he had no intention of taking Dicarost as his knight. Awaking him after a thousand years for a class reunion would be enough. As for Budalas, he had to be conferred as a knight; Karen needed him to stand in the shadows and hold down the fort for the upcoming High Priest vacancy. Yet, although Karen could perceive and confirm the remnant spiritual power inside, for a time he was unable to ignite it. It was as though an invisible seal had been constantly suppressing him. It had nothing to do with the bandages on the outside, but as for what it actually was, even Karen couldn't find it. Karen opened his eyes, doubt showing in his gaze. Ukonga asked, "What's the situation?" Karen raised a hand, signaling Ukonga not to approach, and closed his eyes again. This time, he increased the force. Karen, who originally hadn't intended to become entangled with Dicarost's memories, had no choice but to forcefully crash his way in. *Boom!* In an instant, Karen felt his soul tremble, as though he had slammed headfirst into a solid wall in reality, leaving him momentarily dazed. Deep within his soul, the Hunger Addiction statue began to wobble as well; clearly, even it was struggling to bear the impact. Yet this was no offensive attack. To be precise, he had literally crashed into it of his own accord. Within the memory space, Karen looked up and found a colossal gate before him, with city walls extending from both sides. In Samsara Valley, Karen had seen the true form of the Gate of Samsara, but even the Gate of Samsara could not compare to the gate before his eyes. At the same time, the extending walls seemed to have achieved some form of flawless fusion with space itself. Was this a pocket world? No, it wasn't. It seemed to be a spatial plane of an extraordinarily high tier. "This is... Heaven." A voice came from behind Karen. Karen turned around and saw Dicarost, his clothes ragged and his body covered in wounds. "In the beginning, it had many names, recorded differently across the scriptures of various religions, such as: the Divine Moon Secret Realm, the Marsh of Randikam, the Aurora World, the Eye of the Deep Sea, the Valley of Noisas... "From many eras ago, there were various descriptions and records of it. The gods and churches of successive eras pursued its traces, longing to find it... "In the end, it was found by my Lord, the God of the Abyss." Legend had it that the God of the Abyss planted her feet in the Abyss while her upper body touched Heaven; it was she who breached a path into Heaven. To outsiders, Heaven might just be an exceptional pioneering space—places like that were held in abundance by every major religion. Yet Karen knew that Heaven was decidedly extraordinary. First of all, no pioneering space would require a principal god to spend an entire era excavating it. Secondly, Karen knew even better that the God of Order had once led Order's branch gods and knight orders to assist the God of the Abyss in her Heaven pioneering project. One could say that Heaven was discovered jointly by Order and the Abyss. Yet for some reason, this period of history had been concealed; at the very least, no relevant accounts existed within the Church of Order. However, Tyrannus likely knew. Karen asked, "Didn't they say Heaven had collapsed?" "Heaven still exists, but the path leading to Heaven collapsed. That I was able to trace my way here following the fragmented secret histories of my church was truly good luck." This was by no means mere good luck. Finding a space that even a god had struggled so hard to pioneer was truly the pinnacle of an explorer's life work. No wonder even Purr had once regarded Dicarost as an idol and a benchmark. Looked at this way, whether that dormitory back then was counted as four people or five, in short... Ukonga really was the one who had turned out the worst. "Huh?" Dicarost seemed to have noticed something. He stepped closer to Karen, scrutinized him carefully, and asked in disbelief: "Classmate, you look very familiar..." The moment the form of address slipped out naturally, Dicarost realized at once: "It's you?" "It's me." "Why would you appear in my dream... No, I'm not in a dream, I'm in my memories. But there's no way you could enter. I've seen Heaven; even after my death, my memories should have been permanently sealed away by the severed path to Heaven. How did you manage to peer into my memories?" Karen understood now. So the obstruction he had felt during his first failed awakening had come from this. Just what kind of place was Heaven, that a single glimpse could suppress the rest of one's life? "Hey, classmate, who on earth are you?" Dicarost continued asking. "Do you know how long we searched for you afterward, only to find no trace of your identity? And what's more infuriating, as we gradually grew up and matured, the sense of your existence only became deeper and deeper?" "I intend to awaken you." "Awaken me? Awaken... That means I succeeded in exiling my body? My remains returned? Wait, how did my body end up in the hands of the Church of Order? You're wearing Order clerical robes too. Huh, what rank is that?" "When you wake up in a moment, ask them yourself. They're all here." "Them? Who?" "Me, Philias, Ukonga, and Budalas. We're waiting to hold a class reunion with you." "Hey, hey, hey, are you joking? Philias vanished along with the fall of the Church of Light, and Budalas is the high-and-mighty High Priest of the Church of Order. Aside from Ukonga, I honestly can't find a single idle person who could hold a class reunion." "Aside from Ukonga, the three of you are all dead." "What?" Dicarost's thoughts fell into chaos. "What happened? Exactly how much time has passed?" Karen was in no hurry to answer. Instead, he turned around and looked downward. He saw that beyond the gate lay pure nothingness, brimming with a thick aura of despair. *Wooooo...* A dreadful whirlwind suddenly materialized. Dicarost immediately dropped flat to the ground, wrapping his cloak around himself, and waved to Karen at the same time: "Hey, get over here and take cover with me, quickly! It's dangerous!" "This is your memory." "Memories are just as terrifying!" The gate of Heaven cracked open a sliver. Karen looked toward it, suddenly feeling his vision and consciousness violently yanked and dragged inside. He saw the scenes within Heaven—he saw the ruin and desolation of life, the withering of all things. Even the most brilliant writing could not describe the slightest trace of it; even the most exquisite paintbrush could not capture the faintest stroke. Even when he had seen the back of the God of Order back then, or faced the spectacle of the return of the gods blocked for an era, it had been far from the agony and distortion of this moment. *Thud!* The sliver of Heaven's gate that had just opened snapped shut. Karen's figure swayed, but in the end, he remained standing. Yet the tearing sensation from deep within his soul was painfully clear, and cracks had appeared on the Hunger Addiction statue. What kind of place was this? Even if a god stepped into here, they would surely perish! Dicarost pulled back his cloak and looked at Karen curiously: "Good heavens, you're actually still alive? You're still in my memory, and my memory hasn't collapsed either? How did you do that?" Karen glanced at him and asked, "Can you still find your way back here?" "I... cannot." He was lying, and he was deliberately letting Karen see that he was lying. "I need you to help me reopen the way here." "Classmate, I can sign attendance for you in class, help you cheat on exams, or even help you catch a breeding beast from the Monster Beast Academy to roast and eat, but with this favor, I really... cannot help." Karen noticed the detail in his words: from "cannot" to "cannot help." "Why?" "Do you know who severed the road leading to Heaven?" "Who?" "My Lord, the God of the Abyss." "Why did she do that?" The God of the Abyss, who had breached the way to Heaven, had severed the path to Heaven with her own hands, causing the "collapse of Heaven." "On my way here, I heard my Lord's roars and howls lingering in this place. Even after an entire era, they still remain. She was so unwilling, so furious..." At this point, Dicarost fell silent. "What was the God of the Abyss shouting?" Dicarost took a deep breath and said: "My Lord shouted: 'Order, you deceived me! This place... is not Heaven at all!'" "You died here, didn't you?" "Yes, that's right. You should be standing before my corpse right now, haha." "Don't you want to return here with a more professional team and mobilize more sufficient power?" "I... don't." "You're lying." Karen looked straight into Dicarost's eyes. "If you didn't, the first thing I saw when entering your memory wouldn't have been this scene. Don't deceive yourself. This is the sacred land of exploration you've dreamed of day and night. You yearn to conquer this place anew!" "Hehehe..." Dicarost spread his hands. "Still, I'm a believer of the Abyss. How could I help Order, who deceived my Lord, reopen this place?" "You are already dead." "Yes, I am dead. But even if you can awaken me, I can only live for three days at most. In those three days, I will still choose to be a devout believer of the Abyss." "No. I can give you three years, thirty years, or even a far longer life. I can give you a second life." Dicarost swallowed hard and chuckled, "Classmate, you're joking, right? Giving me a second life? Hahahaha, do you think you're the God of Order?" Chains flew out from beneath Karen's feet, swiftly sealing off this stretch of memory. At the same time, around Karen, a ring of active Order rules manifested. Dicarost looked down in astonishment. He found that around his own chest, a ring of rule power radiating the aura of Order's profound principles had also appeared. He instinctively reached out to grasp it, but each time he touched it, he could not hold it. "Ahhh... Rules, profound principles, Order knight, rebirth!" An excited expression surfaced on Dicarost's face. Karen asked curiously, "I had thought you would be a bit skeptical." "No, I wouldn't doubt it. I know it's real. I once explored the ruins of Lady Leftina, the Holy Light Knight. In the ruins, I pieced together that memory orb and read Lady Leftina's records about being awakened as a knight for the first time. It was identical to what I see right now. "Oh, that ruin was normally where she expressed her adoration for Tyrannus; diary-like memories like that were merely incidental. "A goddess's private sanctuary is truly hard to enter. I nearly died there." Karen asked, "Then are you willing to be conferred by me as an Order knight?" Dicarost let out a sigh, a wry smile spreading across his face: "As you know, betraying one's faith is an excruciatingly painful thing. I am sorry to inform you that I, Dicarost, will never betray my faith!" "Forget it, then." "My faith is exploration! Praise Order!"