novelCombat Report from Afar (3)
| ← Ch.360 | Ch.362 → |
Chapter 361: Combat Report from Afar (Part 3)
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
It wasn't necessary to describe how Victoria met up with Diana. But, from a certain standpoint, the passionate meeting between the "emperor" and "empress" from the game's history was something worthy of paying attention to.
Unfortunately, most of the time, the relationship between people was based on many factors working together, rather than love at first sight. Although these two "lovers" from the game's history indeed met each other at Darsos' welcoming party, no sparks of love flew between them at all, which made the person in the know really regret that nothing happened once he learned about it.
Yep, that person in the know was me. I was more than happy to enjoy the spectacle.
"You're not afraid that if Darsos really does fall in love with Victoria like in the game's history, and discovers that yet another woman that he loves is also in love with women, that he'll completely despair and break? Perhaps he'll turn gay due to the shock and then come to find you."
Well, this type of unreliable threat naturally wouldn't be able to scare me. But the consequence was that the silly cat was absolutely disgusted and ended up ravaging me.
But now, right before a major battle, the two elves and their Moonlight Goddess squad's arrival was doubtlessly good news.
"Praise forever to our majestic Moonlight Goddess, Patricia. May her love encompass us, may her light illuminate the path before us, and may her presence forever be among us."
The Moonlight Goddess Patricia was one of the most powerful Gods in the Ayer Faction. As a powerful True God, she possessed many Divine Concepts. Her Divine Concepts included the Moon, Moonlight, Protector of the Lost, the Asleep, Dreams, Cleansing, Guardianship, and Hunting. Although she was technically an Elven Goddess, her believers included not only elves but also humans, rangers, hunters, and others. There was plenty of equipment enchanted by her divine powers as well. She was one of Ayer's earliest close allies. However, after she used most of her divine power to create the forbidden spell star net, her power level dropped to only a Medium God's level.
The star net was a tracking and spy spell for the entire dimension of Eich, the mortal plane. Every single existence from another plane that crossed into the mortal plane would instantly be detected. The Moonlight Goddess would receive achievements and faith through the star net, eventually making her more powerful than ever before. And the Moonlight Goddess Church's priests would become the most reliable hunting hounds of all.
Originally, just doing this would have been enough. But as one of Ayer's staunchest allies, she had no intentions of simply passively remaining under Ayer's protection. In fact, she even proactively took action long before the start of the Holy War.
Patricia was a powerful Goddess to begin with. She had plenty of believers and mortal combatants. Since Patricia had been enemies with Lorci and the other Evil Gods for a long time, there were plenty of powerful fighters under her banner. If they banded together and were well equipped by her, then they would become quite a solid powerful fighting force.
Since Patricia was one of Ayer's staunchest allies, her warriors naturally became Contract Heroes. That was also why they joined this battle of their own volition.
Gray Elves Under the Moonlight—that was the name of these former Dark Elves that had chosen the path of justice. The holy emblem of Moonlight on their shoulders was their symbol.
After Lorci perished, the "heretics" she suppressed among the Dark Elves now had the opportunity to choose for themselves. Although only two short years had passed, the Gray Elves had already multiplied in number by more than ten times. If it weren't for the fact that two years was too short in the grand scheme of things, the Gray Elves' number would likely multiply exponentially as more and more Dark Elves joined their ranks.
Diana, who sought after the source of faith, also answered her Moonlight Goddess's summons and joined this combat squadron consisting of Gray Elves.
Yet perhaps only Diana herself knew that her solo travels throughout the land wasn't in search of faith, but rather the opposite. Instead, since she was overly close to the Gods and understood the truth about them, her faith was showing signs of collapsing. Her journey appeared to be one in search of glory, but it was actually more of an attempt to escape the truth.
Belief was a power common in this world, and it was even one of the most basic foundational Concepts in Eich. For most ordinary mortals, True Gods were existences far more important than their own lives. It was no exaggeration to say that a True God's will was greatly superior to a person's life.
As a Holy Knight, Diana used to believe in the Holy Light, expecting the Holy Light to give her a path to salvation. But one day, a casual statement from a certain person just about broke all her faith in the Holy Light.
"I don't worship the God of Holy Light despite being a Holy Knight? Of course I don't worship the God of Holy Light. I only believe in the Holy Light itself. Why would I worship an existence who doesn't even have his own sense of self?"
That man, or perhaps it should be said that he was the incarnation of a certain God in Eich, told her the truth about the Gods. Or, more accurately speaking, he used concrete actions to let her know that Gods were nothing special. They were simply older, stronger existences. All their so-called Divine Miracles could actually be explained by foundational laws.
If that was all there was to it, Diana could have still accepted it all as the ramblings of a non-believer. But the unacceptable part to her was the source of his understanding of the True Gods. It would have been whatever if he was just a random non-believer, but he just happened to possess inexplicable divine power, and he was even a God himself.
"If in the future you choose the power of Law, I would also recommend against worshiping the God of Law himself. Instead, you should study Law to its fullest; understand it, like it, love it, and even make what Law represents into your very way of life. And if you cannot bring yourself to agree with what Law represents, then you should unhesitatingly abandon it. Worship is the farthest path possible from the truth."
"Belief? Of course I have beliefs. Otherwise, how could I possibly become the God of Law? You feel that something's different between what you and I mean about belief? Of course there's something different. Honestly, I actually feel that most people's concept of belief is filled with expectations of receiving something in return, which makes me feel rather uncomfortable. Most people's belief is far too impure."
"Wealthy merchants worship the Goddess of Wealth, hoping she can make them wealthier in return. Farmers worship the God of Harvests, hoping they'll have an excellent harvest in the next year. All sorts of War Gods forever have an unending supply of faith in them, but that's because everyone wants that sweet taste of victory. Perhaps I'm actually the most devout believer of all. I believe in the True Gods, but only to recognize the Concepts that they represent. I believe that Law is just and correct, which is why I'm spreading Law in the world. I hope that Law can make the world a better place, but I don't have any expectations that Law can do anything for me personally."
Pure belief? Diana understood what Roland meant and carefully considered the topic. But she almost lost her job class as a Holy Knight as a result. In a way, Diana the female knight was far too simple of a person. She was simple to the point of being cute as well as foolish.
Because of her simplicity, she rejected all the temptations and desires in Dark Elf society. Because of her simplicity, she believed that the Holy Light could save her species. Because she was simple, she had incredibly pure faith and handed her all to the Holy Light. This actually allowed her to grow faster and stronger than her peers. And in the end, due to being simple, she believed a certain person's words and almost confused herself to death.
Actually, every generation would have a different understanding of belief. Back in the Dark Ages of my original world, Diana's attitude of giving her everything to a God would be the most common choice of the majority. As for my understanding of the Gods and belief, it was a more pragmatic view suitable for an Armageddon age. Basically, it was like "Oh, you look useful, so I'll follow you. But if you stray away from your original Concept, then I apologize. I'm going to rebel against you."
"Belief? Holy Light is just like an automated divine server? He's a God himself, but looks down upon the Gods?"
The most dangerous part was regarding what Roland didn't even realize at the time—that his identity was leaked. Wumianzhe was the lich Roland, and the lich Roland was also the Holy Knight Roland. Once Diana realized all of this, she felt as if a True God had descended before her and told her the truth of the world.
"Perhaps only recognizing and understanding a Concept and teachings of a God is necessary in order to borrow that God's power. In that case, perhaps we are also capable of proactively stealing a God's power and becoming True Gods ourselves."
Alright then, quite obviously Diana misunderstood part of Roland's words. She simply considered this issue from the angle of how to obtain more power. This was indeed a common way of thinking in this world. Most people that became Holy Knights didn't do so at the very start because they believed in the Holy Light—they did it to have a job to do along with obtaining power. People in other divine job classes were mostly the same. But the price for the power they obtained was to give everything about them over to the True God they worshipped.
Holy Light job class members would remain as Holy Light job class members until their death. Any so-called former Holy Light job class members were mostly dead—they were hunted down by the Holy Church.
Due to Lorci's death, the Dark Elf society which was a divine dictatorship ruled over solely by Lorci had collapsed. A large number of former priestesses and former divine job class members appeared.
Many Dark Elves who lost their faith in Lorci also lost their reason to live and committed suicide. But a greater majority of these former priestesses and former Lorci warriors kept searching for a new source of power. One of the most representative among these Dark Elves was Diana's younger sister, Victoria.
It would have been fine if Diana was the only one who thought such things. But her "younger sister" was once the candidate to become Lorci's highest ranking priestess, so she possessed great amounts of divine knowledge. Victoria also had many former Lorci priestesses as subordinates, and was an outstanding priestess herself. Once Diana told her thoughts to her younger sister, Victoria decided to experiment for herself.
That's right, herself—not for the sake of any of her subordinates. While Diana was a classic example of a Lawful Good individual, Victoria was a typical Chaotic Evil Dark Elf who cared only about the results. How the results were obtained or any sacrifices along the way wouldn't even be considered by Victoria. [1] 1
In this world where selfishness was the norm, often times there would be more than one "correct" answer. Extreme stubbornness was often capable of creating a brand new path. After a year and a half of searching for their paths, a pair of creations that shouldn't originally have been in this world appeared.
"Desecration Priest and Anti-Holy Knight: The Stealer of Divine Power and the Desecrator of Divine Concepts."
Roland never expected that the words he casually told Diana finally ended creating such demonic job classes.
And in this battle, the first to fall victim to these new job classes were the Sea Tribe. From the very start, the main characters of this battle weren't the people of Auland but rather the girls from the Northlands. The new faction from the north showed off their astonishing potential on this most excellent of stages.
Note:
[1] TL/N: Lawful Good and Chaotic Evil are Dungeons and Dragons character archetypes.
| ← Ch. 360 | Ch. 362 → |