Chapter 118: A glimpse at the lore
"You? It's you! How? You are supposed to be trapped in the prison realm! How did you escape?" For the first time, Noon displayed a shocked expression as he looked at the moving corpse. He immediately recognized the aura, but he could not understand how that person managed to take possession of the corpse.
"What? Did you really think that I would be banished forever? You are aware that the seal is gradually weakening, right? In just 20 years, I won't need to resort to petty tricks like this one to come to Zero." The Commandment of Faith answered. Although it was a different person speaking, the voice was exactly the same.
Noon was on his guard, the man in front of him was really terrifying. One wrong move and this might be the end. "This is not necromancy... How did you manage to do to it? Is it the unique skill you gave that man?"
The Commandment of Faith let out an amused expression, "Bingo. I knew you would eventually learn about it. I treat all those who chose to follow me equally and that includes the Shrine of Faith. Their Commandment is not any weaker than any of the others. It is just that they are unaware of his potential."
Noon looked confused, "Did you somehow make a link with that man? The seal we made is not supposed to allow you to get through. At most, you can allow your consciousness to escape once every five years, but that is it."
"That is indeed correct. This is why I had to leave my mark on this man. His gift is called [Absolute Faith]. It requires him to fully trust me to allow me to exchange part of our soul. Naturally, my soul is stronger. In exchange for 33% of his soul, I just have to give him 1% of mine. It's not a bad deal if you ask me. Now, even if he died, a portion of his soul is still with me in the prison realm. I just need to send it back here to revive him. Not a bad way to revive, isn't it?"
Noon's eyes widened, "Revive... This is not a true revival. You are crazy! You even dare to play with souls like this? This is disrupting the natural order! With the number of Commandments that existed, you should have already given up a large portion of your soul! I knew you were crazy to walk the path of godhood but to even sacrifice your own soul?"
He looked at the Commandment of Faith as if he was looking at a lunatic. To achieve his goal, that man was really ready to do anything.
"There is a price to pay for success. If you and your friends did not trap me in the prison realm, all of this would not have been needed! Look at you, despite being much older than me, you are still merely a transcendent being. You are unrivaled on Zero, but when it comes to the grand scheme of things, you are nothing but an ant. You are only a Sacred Beast. What do you know about me? Nothing! You don't know how hard it was for me to build up the church, you don't even know why I am working so hard!"
Noon stared at the corpse. "You are our persecutor; of course, I did my research. I know everything about you. Hundreds of years ago, before the empires were even created, there was a man called Joseph. The world was in chaos, people fought everywhere for their own survival. Joseph was just a regular human being but one day, he decided that he had enough. Humans were at the bottom of the pyramid, they were essentially bullied by all the other races."
"Joseph could no longer tolerate this. He decided to take his fate in his own hands and started training. He no longer cared about himself and trained like a madman. He traveled through the endless archipelago, he visited the most dangerous regions of Zero and in the process grew stronger and stronger."
"Soon, Joseph became an unrivaled powerhouse. He could hold his ground against all the races of the continent. The elves were forced back to their forests, the dwarves had to hide in their mountains, the mermaids went back to the depth of the ocean, the orcs retreated to the wastelands and the Giants returned to their canyons. He has succeeded. Joseph became one of the leading forces of humanity and manage to secure a massive territory for humans. However, as strong as Joseph was, he knew he would not last for very long."
"A human can only live so many years, regardless of how strong Joseph was, the other races just needed to wait for a few years for his strength to plummet. Compared to humans, the other races had a much longer life span; unless Joseph managed to exterminate all the existing races, humans would never truly have their place on the continent."
"All of Joseph's hard work would go to waste. Why? Because of the imperfection of being human. At that moment, the seeds of a crazy plan were sowed in Joseph's mind. Since humans could only live for a limited amount of time; he needed to give up his humanity and become a god! Only gods could live forever. It was only when he would be immortal that Joseph could ensure humanity's prosperity."
"His plan was crazy. To become a god, he needed to be treated as a god. As he essentially just saved humanity, it was not hard for him to be acknowledged by all humans. They started to worship him, to pray to him. Joseph absorbed their beliefs, their hope, their aspiration, and their faith. He was the only one who could create an environment for their dream to become reality."
"Against all the odds, Joseph actually grew stronger and his lifespan was extended. With him alive, humans were able to maintain their supremacy on the continent. As the human population grew, Joseph gained more and more followers and soon, the people worshipping him created the church."
"The church grew in size over time and soon, Joseph felt that he became strong enough to even fight the original gods and take their place. He went on through the dimensions, directly confronting the gods but as it turned out, he was far from reaching the level of a real god. Defeated, Joseph was forced to return back to Zero. There, he made the decision to go into seclusion to train but he could not leave the church without a spiritual leader."
"Therefore, Joseph used his own power to create 4 existences to manage the church in his absence. They became known as the four virtues: 'Dikaiosynē' the justice, 'Sōphrosynē' the temperance, 'Andreia', the courage and 'Phronēsis', the prudence. Those four artificial existences managed the church in Joseph's absence, maintaining the flow of faith toward the ambitious man."
"The continent was at peace, as time went by, the people started to divide themselves and soon, they separated themselves into 10 large regions that became known as empires. New wars broke out and this time, it involved the demons from the shadow realm. They invaded Zero, in an attempt to make a place for themselves but the humans fought back. The church that Joseph created led the armies and fought the invaders."
"Joseph did not need to personally intervene in this war but soon, he noticed something peculiar in those demons. Just like the powerful monsters of Zero, the demons also possessed a core and could use their core to acquire a lot of power. What was Joseph needing at the moment? It was power, he needed enough strength to face the original gods."
"The demon cores were powerful items, but they were not enough to enhance his power! Therefore, Joseph decided to turn his attention to the existing monsters on Zero. The stronger the monster, the more powerful its core was. And naturally, Joseph decided to target the Sacred Beasts as they were the strongest ones."
"However, how could the Sacred Beasts give their life away to their creator's enemy. The Sacred Beasts were all born out of Gaia and remained on Zero to guard this world. They promised to maintain absolute neutrality but when their life was endangered, they could no longer afford to do so."
"Both Joseph and the Sacred Beast joined the fray. The battle reached an unexpected level of brutality. Although Joseph was without a doubt the strongest existence on Zero, when the 12 Sacred Beasts fought together, their combined strength matched that of Joseph."
"The battle was at a stalemate. To break the balance, Joseph took a step back and chose to sacrifice part of his power. He gave up his own divine powers and bestowed unique abilities to 10 loyal individuals who became known as the Ten Commandments. Such a reckless act temporarily weakened Joseph but with the help of the Commandments and the Great Virtues, Joseph was able to get the upper hand on the Sacred Beasts."
"The Sacred Beasts were in a predicament. They knew they would all perish if they did nothing. As a result, Sagittarius, Aquarius and Capricorn sacrificed their lives and used a forbidden seal. As the 3 Sacred Beasts gave up their life, the power of their spell grew exponentially. By losing three comrades, the Sacred Beasts managed to seal Joseph in a prison realm, far away from Zero."
"Three Sacred Beasts gave up their lives to get rid of the biggest threat but the rest of the Sacred Beast still had to go into hiding. Despite losing the battle, the church managed to collect three cores of the Sacred Beasts. Using the same technique used by the demons who lost their war, the church decided to use the cores to form a massive dungeon right under their headquarters."
"The dungeon would serve as a secret training ground for the most loyal followers. At the same time, it would allow the church to bend the rules of the world and obtain a plethora of items. However, as the Beast Cores were not exactly demon cores and due to the church's inability to properly control them, the dungeon was unstable."
"The church would need to use a huge regular amount of normal beast cores just to maintain the dungeon. But it was worth it. The benefits obtained from owning a dungeon easily outclassed the price of a few tons of beast cores. The Sacred Beasts managed to get rid of the imminent threat, but they unknowingly gave a terrifying weapon to the church."
"Unfortunately, as the seal was made in a hurry, it was not entirely perfect. Joseph was still able to communicate with the church once every few years. He knew it would take a long time before he would be able to come back and therefore made several changes to the church. As he was sealed, the faith he would receive became extremely limited. He made an extreme move and decided to convert the church; instead of praying one god, they would pray three different gods. These three gods were the members of the 4 great virtues. The remaining virtue, Phronesis, the Prudence was appointed as the Pope of the church."
"It was a drastic move, but it was the only way he could avoid wasting all the faith of his followers. The foundation of the church was shaken. It took a lot of time to stabilize it again but the church managed to return to its former glory, even without having a real god behind it. Decades flew by and now, the seal that kept Joseph away has weakened considerably. It would only be a matter of time before he returned and that is the long-awaited event of the church."
"And that Joseph is none other than you! Your goals were indeed noble at the start. Your only aim was to create an environment for humans to live in peace. But somewhere along the way, you lost track of your real aim. You became obsessed with power! So much that you were even ready to sacrifice your followers to become stronger! Moreover, to achieve your goal, you are aiming to destroy all the other races; you have no plans to live peacefully!"
Noon took a deep breath as he finished the long explanation. He stared at Joseph who remained silent during the entire explanation.
Despite the distance, Five was able to clearly hear Noon. He was very attentive to every move made by the mysterious totem spirit. Their exchange revealed a lot of information about the lore of the game; much more than what was explained during the trailer. "So Noon is a Sacred Beast... The Aries... They should have just called them Zodiac beasts instead."
"Clap Clap Clap."
Despite the heavy atmosphere, Joseph smiled and clapped his hand with an amused expression. "Not bad, you know quite a lot about me. Just something I would expect from Gaia's Sacred Beasts. However, I disagree with the last part. I have never been swayed by materialistic needs. It is the gods who persecuted humans. They sent us into this hole and pitted us against other races who were clearly favored by them. I am here to change that. As soon as I surpass the original gods, a new era shall begin! One where humans would truly rule supreme."
With a fervent gaze, Joseph stared at Noon and continued, "Despite knowing all of that, you still decided to face me. You realize that even if I can only use a fraction of my strength, dealing with you should not be much of an issue."
Noon stayed on his guards but did not panic, "Then what are you waiting for? Oh, I forgot. Attacking me would probably cost you quite a bit of energy and would delay your comeback by at least a decade. It does not sound like much, but those 10 years might very well be all we need to completely eradicate the church from the surface of Zero. Without the flow of faith, your life span will stop increasing and it will only be a matter of time before you die."
"You want to threaten me? It does not matter what you are planning. With your death, the church will now have 4 Sacred Beast Cores. Since you are asking for it, then, let us see what you and your friends have prepared for me." The light particles around Joseph became denser and denser as he threateningly took a step forward.
"I have a bad feeling about this," Five, who was at a reasonable distance from the two powerhouses suddenly had the urge to run away. His instincts were warning him of the danger. Harriet also reacted. She pulled Five's arm and said, "We need to run away. We won't even survive the collateral damage of this fight."
Five nodded. Even if he wanted to have a look at this fight, his life was more important. He quickly searched through his inventory and took out two Escape Scrolls. "I am cursed and I cannot leave this area. You will need to kill him first."
Harriet looked in the direction Five was pointing at. She was surprised to see that someone managed to survive her attack. She furrowed her brows and moved quickly. Her top priority was to ensure Five's safety; she needed to quickly get rid of the curse.
However, before she could reach Two, Five received a system prompt:
[System prompt: You have been trapped within Joseph's Dimensional Prison. Player will have all stats reduced by 2. Player is unable to leave the Dimensional Prison.]
"What? Another skill that will prevent me from escaping?" Five turned gloomy. He did not expect to be pulled in Joseph and Noon's battle like that. The environment did not change at all, Harriet, Two and even the baron and his army; they were all still there, trapped in the Dimensional Prison.
"What is this? There is an invisible wall in front of us!" The men of the Baron started to panic. They had been on their way back to the fortress but suddenly, they became unable to proceed forward.
Two also received the system prompt. He was at a lost. Everybody was just trying to survive but the situation looked grim.
Joseph and Noon did not care about the others. They focused on each other. "Even if you are proficient in Space Magic, you won't be able to escape now! You should have run away when you still had the chance to." The light particles around Joseph started to flow around him, concentrating on his arms. In an instant, Joseph unleashed all the light particles at Noon.
[Armageddon]
Five was completely blinded by the bright attack. He was not even Joseph's target but just the collateral effect was enough to completely blind him and lower his health despite the large distance between them.
Five saw Harriet's silhouette move. She positioned herself in front of Five and spread open her wings to protect him. However, despite acting as a meat shield, it was far from enough; Five's vitality was simply too low and, in an instant, his HP dropped to Zero.
[System prompt: you have been slain by the Joseph, level -2, applying death penalties]
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