Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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By now, Luo Mi was no longer surprised that Saint Gregory III had mastered alchemy, which was considered heretical. What surprised him more was that the old pope had also used alchemy on himself, seemingly in a similar situation to Anos.
He asked cautiously, “Does a fragmented consciousness count as living?”
The old pope shook his head: “This is just a medium for storing memories and information, used to facilitate the retransmission of information after the original body has been brainwashed.”
That’s a lot to say… Did Saint Gregory III think he would be brainwashed more than once? Luo Mi pondered for a moment, then tentatively asked, “So what do you plan to do now?”
The old pope’s aged gaze fell on Luo Mi: “Since it wasn’t Anos who succeeded as pope, it means I haven’t completely failed. What I can do depends on your stance.”
Luo Mi thought for a moment and replied, “You might not believe it, but I’m actually a demon.”
The old pope paused for a moment: “A demon?”
He examined Luo Mi for a moment, then frowned. “Your soul does indeed have the aura of a demon… Has the Holy City already been breached by the Demon Realm?”
“No, not at all.” Luo Mi didn’t intend to tell the old man what had happened in the Holy City for the time being. “Before your original body died, I went to see him and heard some of his last words, but I didn’t understand what they meant.”
That was indeed the case, but he concealed the fact that he had forcibly broken through the mental defenses of Saint Gregory III, making it sound as if he were the Pope’s confidant.
The old pope’s wrinkles smoothed out considerably: “Is there anything you don’t understand?”
Luo Mi originally intended to ask Anos directly, but after a moment’s consideration, he chose to ask a relatively mild question: “Tell me, is this apocalypse the biggest apocalypse in history?”
The old pope’s expression turned serious: “Yes. This apocalypse will be the destruction of the entire world. If we do nothing, in the end only God may survive.”
“Why? How did you know?”
“Now that you’ve become Pope, you should have already received the Scepter of Glory.” The old Pope glanced at him. “When I used the Great Prophecy spell, I saw a scene of the end times.”
At this point, Luo Mi’s vision suddenly blurred, and he realized that the surrounding scenery had changed.
An endless expanse of pure white, so bright it almost blinded Luo Mi.
He instinctively searched for any unusual color in the white expanse of his vision and finally spotted a shadow in the distance.
The shadow was roughly human-shaped, surrounded by holy light, and was silently gazing up at the sky.
High above this pure white expanse, a faint blue star appeared, too ethereal to be clearly seen.
Then, the scene disappeared, and the old Pope reappeared before Luo Mi.
Luo Mi rubbed her eyes: “Did you foresee this?”
The old pope nodded, his tone heavy: “The essence of the Great Prophecy is to communicate with the world in order to gain knowledge of the future. This scene is mostly symbolic. According to my interpretation and speculation, pure white symbolizes nothingness, the human figure symbolizes God, and the star symbolizes the ‘ark’ that can survive the end of the world.”
Luo Mi seized the opportunity: “‘Ark’?”
The old pope raised his head, paused for a long while, and then said, “The Papacy was established in the Third Age. Almost no documents from the First and Second Ages before that have survived, making it difficult for us to glimpse the past. Fortunately, the Scepter of Glory can intermittently trace the past, so every pope, in his spare time, tries to find the footprints of God and angels in history to better understand God’s will, and I am no exception.”
At this point, the old pope paused before continuing, “‘The Ark’ is what I learnt about when I heard from the conversation between the ‘God’s Heart’ and the ‘God’s Wisdom’ when I traveled back to the Second Age.”
Luo Mi paused for a moment, recalling the ancient texts he had read and the statue still in his system’s inventory: “Those two angels? Weren’t they supposed to be forged records?”
The Pope did not answer the question but continued: “Both angels truly existed. At that time, God’s Heart asked God’s Wisdom how we should survive the end times. And God’s Wisdom answered him that only the ‘ark’ could help.”
Luo Mi pondered this passage for a moment and pointed out a point: “According to the Vatican, the end times were caused by God, right? Shouldn’t angels be talking about doing good deeds and having devout faith?”
The Pope nodded: “To the angels, the end times of the past were not the end times at all. What the two angels are seriously discussing must be a far more serious end times.”
Luo Mi stroked her chin: “So, what exactly is the ‘Ark’? Did the two angels tell?”
The Pope shook his head with a somber expression: “Unfortunately, I cannot recall the conversation that followed. The Great Prophecy still relies on the power of God.”
Luo Mi paused again, her expression becoming somewhat subtle.
Did the Pope mean that the crucial information was concealed by God? Did God not want humanity to know about the existence of the “Ark”?
Combined with the fact that the Pope had even made preparations in advance for his brainwashing and amnesia, Luo Mi vaguely grasped part of the truth behind Saint Gregory III’s blasphemy and the divine punishment he was subjected to.
He had touched upon a forbidden zone of God!
After a moment’s hesitation, Luo Mi asked the crucial question: “Is Anos related to the ‘Ark’?”
The Pope remained silent for a long time before answering: “He is the key to the ‘Ark,’ the essential element for finding and opening it.”
“How do you know?” Luo Mi frowned, not liking the idea that the Pope treated Anos as a prop. “Did you find the ‘Ark’?”
The Pope answered the following question first: “Not yet— at least not when this part of my memory was sealed in the book. As for the source of this information, it is a statue of ‘God’s Wisdom,’ which I hid in an alchemical laboratory.”
“I’ve found that lab.” Luo Mi muttered to herself, then asked, “Is there information inside the statue? How do we interpret it?”
“There was no information, only a remnant thought of God’s Wisdom. He told me that the end of the Seventh Age would be the greatest catastrophe in the world, and the angels who were about to descend were the key to surviving the end of the world, the key to the ‘Ark,’ and would lead us to find the ‘Ark.'”
Luo Mi frowned: “If that’s the case, why use alchemy to extract Anos’s divine blood and split Anos’s soul?”
The Pope turned to look at him, a hint of sadness flashing in his eyes: “Because God does not want mankind to find the ‘Ark’.”
This was consistent with Luo Mi’s guess, so he wasn’t surprised.
Seeing that his expression remained unchanged, the Pope instead showed a relieved expression: “Very good, it seems that my successor has also realized it. God does not want mankind to find the ‘Ark,’ but the angel who brought the key to the ‘Ark’ was born into the world, either as a test for mankind or as a way to mislead them. In either case, taking away the divine blood ‘given’ by God is an important step in freeing the angel from his bondage.”
Angels are all creations of God, and it’s normal for God to have strong control over them… Why does this setting feel so familiar?
Luo Mi pondered for a long time, then frowned: “Did the statue of God’s Wisdom tell you this too? It doesn’t seem to care at all.”
Anyway, it’s your colleagues who are being tormented, not you, right?
The Pope nodded, and after a moment of thought, said, “Actually, I suspect that Anos is the reincarnation of ‘God’s Wisdom’.”
Luo Mi was somewhat surprised: “Why?”
“The statue of God’s Wisdom told me that the soul of the angel about to descend is very fragile. Even alchemy can cause it to split. This split means that the constraints God places on the angel will only confine one part, allowing the other part to awaken and seek the ‘Ark’.”
“In the records we can currently recall, angels would return to God’s paradise after they descended to earth to fulfill God’s will, but God’s Wisdom was severely wounded on earth.”
Luo Mi truly didn’t know this secret: “What injury?”
The old pope suddenly frowned: “You haven’t memorized the entire Bible?”
“…” Luo Mi said, “No.”
The old pope sighed, seemingly unsure of what he was sighing about, and chose to begin his explanation from the beginning: “In the First Age, God walked on the earth and created a paradise for mankind. However, mankind became arrogant and decadent, which angered God. God destroyed the holy city of Ionia and returned to heaven, cutting off the steps to the paradise. From then on, disasters and suffering came to earth.”
“In the Second Age, humanity began to worship and revere God, rebuilding Ionion on the ruins of the holy city. God changed his mind and sent angels to help humanity, teaching them divine arts, and occasionally descending in person. However, by this time, humanity, having learned divine arts, harbored ambitions, betrayed the angels, and plotted to have them exhaust their power to strengthen the holy city. Afterwards, they killed the angels, devoured their flesh and blood, and gained immense power. This enraged God, and divine punishment descended from the heavens, destroying Ionion once more.”
“Moreover, after that, God created demons— some say that demons are the descendants of sinners who devoured the flesh and blood of angels. The power of the demon realm quickly grew, almost wiping out humanity. It was because of the pressure from the demon realm that the Church was born in the Third Age. Relying on devout prayer and atonement, it progressed step by step and has reached where it is today.”
Luo Mi almost yawned while listening. After the Pope finished recounting the lengthy mythology, he summarized: “So, the angel who was betrayed and devoured was the God’s Wisdom? You suspect that the soul-fragile Anos was the only angel who was wounded?”
The Pope nodded.
Luo Mi twitched the corner of his mouth, feeling like he was about to laugh out of anger: “So, that God’s Wisdom was betrayed and devoured during the Second Era, and now it’s going to be betrayed again, its soul torn apart?”
He really wanted to punch the Pope in the stomach but remembering that the Pope was already dead and that the person in front of him was just a memory vessel, he held back.
The Pope remained silent for a long time before replying, “This is the sin I have committed, and I have nothing to say about it.”
Having roughly understood what had happened, Luo Mi didn’t really want to see the Pope’s old face. So he kept a straight expression for a moment, thinking about what else he could ask.
After thinking for a while, something actually came to mind: “What color are the eyes of the God’s Wisdom? Are they silver-white?”
If Anos was indeed related to the God’s Wisdom, then the one who possessed Anos and killed John and Lina might be the God’s Wisdom!
As for what feeling this God’s Wisdom truly harbored towards humanity, Luo Mi cautiously left it as a question mark.
The old pope fell into deep thought again, and after a long while answered, “No. The eyes of the God’s Wisdom are a fiery orange-red. The one with silver-white eyes is another, the God’s Heart.”
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