Chapter 80: Chapter 80

As the two people's gazes met, the hymn drew to its close.

The gloomy chorus ended.

The Pontiff slowly closed his eyes and spread his arms. He smiled benevolently.

The Northmen joined their hands. The heavy fog lingering above them sagged down, thick and oppressive.

The Pontiff's voice resounded.

"Today, once again upon this land, the glory of creation and prosperity and the chance bestowed by the Mother Asriel―

"We believe in the Mother―

"The will of the Father, who prepared the land in advance and accomplished the sacrament―

"In accordance with the Mother's will―

"We believe in the one and only baptism that washes away sin through prayer alone―

"We await the life of the afterworld―

The Pontiff led, and the Northmen responded in unison as their prayer exchanged a few more lines.

Standing at the back and watching all this, Ran glanced sideways at Hodin. He too had his head bowed low, muttering the prayer.

As a Priest of Quersa, it was almost comical to watch these people.

All creation undergoes countless changes from the moment it is born into the world until it exhausts its fate and passes away.

A river flows on to become the sea; dust blown by the wind mixes with the earth; fallen snow melts and disappears.

People. Humans live their short lives in dramatic and colorful change.

Everything born from humans meeting humans grows old, is destroyed, regenerated, and transformed in endless cycles.

Ran had observed with his own eyes how the Holy Church, germinated in Quersa, had flowered into something else on the mainland.

'Perhaps even Quersa itself...?'

Suppressing the rising excitement deep within his chest, Ran calmly watched the scene unfold before him. He traced the flow to see precisely where and how these artificial changes began and acted. He saw desires and dissonance intertwined.

His focus remained on a single person.

"I ask my brothers and sisters."

The Pontiff spoke softly. His was the only voice in the vast silence. Even Ran, standing far away, could hear him clearly.

"Do you believe that a new creation will begin on this land?"

He descended the stone steps of the altar, one by one, slowly.

In the silence, someone answered.

The man who had called out trembled violently, pressing his forehead to the ground.

The Pontiff approached and bent down to him.

"Simon, lift your head."

"Ye-yes, Your Holiness."

"To all the brothers and sisters gathered here, and to the Mother herself, confess your sins."

Simon's voice broke. He began to sob.

"I am a sinner once called Simon, warrior of the Sabertooth Tigers..."

Ran's eyes opened wide. Not just because Simon was a Sabertooth Tigers warrior.

The Pontiff took Simon's hand and lifted it high for all to see. Simon was missing his little finger on his right hand.

"Simon, what has cleansed your soul?"

"The grace of the Holy Mother, Asriel."

"And what granted peace to your soul, so weary from persecution?"

"The compassion of the Holy Mother, Asriel."

Their ritual chant grew ever more fervent.

"Do you believe that the Holy Mother, Asriel, speaks only truth to us?"

"Do you believe that this shepherd before you is the true servant of Hers?"

"Do you believe the end prophesied in the Revelation, proclaimed by the Lord's faithful servant, will soon come?!"

The Pontiff's gaze lingered on Ran. He looked as if he were basking in a peculiar joy, like one who had triumphed after a fierce match.

Fixing his stare on Ran—who struggled to hide his shock and appear nonchalant—the Pontiff spoke quietly.

"To everyone present, brother Simon, please once again confess the revelation of the end with your own lips."

"The savior shall appear, the savior shall be with the Saint. And so, that Saint is the guide."

The Pontiff flashed a broad grin at Ran.

Their expressions were a striking contrast.

The service was over. The Northmen stood up one by one. Like wandering souls, they each melted away into the dense fog.

"You have waited long, brother."

The Pontiff approached, speaking in Northlandic. Hodin gave him a respectful bow.

"Hodin, did you guide the woman to Shairach safely?"

"Yes, Your Holiness."

"You have done well. I will speak with these brothers for a moment."

Again, hodin bowed and withdrew. Ran watched as Hodin's black robe fluttered away into the distance.

The Pontiff addressed Ran in the Imperial tongue, making both Ran and Rev blink in surprise. Rev subtly covered his mouth. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs NoveI-Fire.ɴet

"May I first ask how the two of you came all this way to Northland?"

Unlike during the chanting of prayer, his tone was calm. Ran sensed no ill intent in the question.

While Rev hesitated, Ran replied.

"There was an incident on Astana Mountain. One thing led to another, and here we are."

"Ah, is that so? Surely, it must be the Lord's guidance. In any case, you've suffered much."

Ran moistened his lips with his tongue instead of replying Amen.

The Pontiff turned his gaze on Rev. His eyes seemed genuinely warm.

"You are a demon, aren't you? Do not be afraid. Here in 'Quersa', we do not despise demons as they do in the Empire. Welcome, brother."

Both Ran and Rev were shocked. Rev bowed awkwardly in response.

Ran quickly collected himself and asked, trying not to show his bewilderment.

"The name matches the archbishop's dominion: Quersa."

"As I declare, that place is false. This is the true Quersa."

The Pontiff extended a hand forward.

"Shall we walk a little?"

The three walked side by side.

Through the fog, a view of the village appeared. Like Aburota, small mud houses clustered together. There were plenty of people—sickly elders, children, all sorts.

As the Pontiff passed, people pressed their palms together in greeting. Though he limped, the Pontiff stopped to smile gently at each and every one.

This time, Ran asked first.

"Did you come all the way to this distant land with your frail body just to spread the Lord's word?"

"That's basically it. The Lord led me here."

Gradually, the surroundings grew quieter. They approached a lakeside seldom visited by people, heavy with drifting fog.

The Pontiff stopped and looked out across the lake. His face was serene.

"How is it, brother? Beautiful, isn't it?"

"It's well past dawn, yet it looks like a lake at sunrise."

Everything was a blue hue. At the edge of sight, the boundary between water and sky blurred. It felt like the very heart of the fog that blanketed the village.

"Until I came here, I had no idea such a peaceful place existed in Northland. To behold this view with my Northland brethren—what a feeling it is."

"When did you come to Northland?"

"It's been about two and a half, or maybe three years? I can't remember exactly anymore."

"And you've been preaching ever since?"

Rev gave Ran a surprised glance. After all their time together, he could usually guess Ran's feelings from his tone alone.

'That's not the Ran I know. He seems...oddly excited.'

The Pontiff turned at an angle toward Ran, smiling as if intrigued.

"Preaching. Preaching, you say..."

Ran did not avert his gaze from the Pontiff.

'This man knows of the Revelation.'

Not only that, but even his followers could recite parts of it.

"The savior shall appear, the savior shall be with the Saint. And so, that Saint is the guide."

He recalled Simon's earlier prayer. The Pontiff, coaxing Simon, had seemed desperate to have that recited.

Memories scattered in his mind aligned themselves in order.

'The black-robed priest I first met in Northland, and these Northmen here, they all kept repeating the word "creation."'

The Pontiff heavily emphasized that word in the prayer too, declaring that a new creation would unfold here in Northland.

Maybe it wasn't just a phrase for reverence.

"Why is it that not just you, but these Northmen speak of the Revelation?"

The ultimate goal of leaving the capital Gerinhild for Igraine was to ascertain the true nature of the Revelation. It was not some grand ambition to save the world. Ran's resolve tied together Cyrano's salvation and Zima's survival.

Ran's eyes suddenly glinted with chill clarity. He didn't want to keep circling around in disguise like a secret Apostle.

The Pontiff's voice grew calm and low. He gazed off into empty space again and slowly opened his mouth.

"The Lord foresaw everything. Even that the world He created with His own hands would one day come to ruin."

Ran listened without interrupting.

"In the end, the Lord's words were true. As time passed, humans lost their faith, denied the divine, and started pursuing wicked desires."

"Yes. And at the end of humankind's obsession with desire comes a world filled with hatred, violence, and resentment."

The Pontiff bit his lips and held his trembling jaw.

"Humans are fundamentally evil beings. Exceptionally cruel. A foolish species living with an unquenchable flame of desire."

Ran intuitively realized the Pontiff was referencing the background of the Revelation.

The Revelation was an entity shrouded in mystery. Ran had long suspected that the true force behind the civil war might be the Revelation. He had seen the hidden struggles and power plays beneath the surface. Even the Emperor, the pinnacle of the world, was after the Revelation.

"How did you come to know of the Revelation?"

"That is a contradictory question."

Rev, listening alongside, had his mouth agape, unable to understand a word of their conversation.

All he could tell was that Ran seemed a little different than usual and the Pontiff was as composed as ever.

"It is not important, brother. Only this matters: that I serve the Lord with all my soul and do what is required of me here. Along with me, and..."

The Pontiff pointed his finger at Ran.

"...perhaps you as well."

Ran looked back and forth from the Pontiff to the finger, grime caked beneath its nail. His throat bobbed.

A sneer curled at the edge of the Pontiff's lips.

"To punish the foolish, the Lord declared ruin. But He is so loving; He arranged for a savior. That in itself is the proof of His love for humans, for us."

The Pontiff continued directly.

"Soon, ruin will come. As left in the Revelation by the Lord, all worlds but the savior's shall return to the beginning."

"So, have you received a revelation from the Lord?"

"Of course. All that is impure will perish, and a new world filled only with love and forbearance will arise. A world graced with the Lord's holiness, where life is spent in endless prayer and song?!"

The Pontiff lifted his hands as if holding up the sky. His eyes, awash in rapture, quivered faintly.

"To devote myself so that the great and glorious journey may begin safely in the savior's world...? That is my calling."

The once nebulous identity of the Revelation began to take shape in Ran's mind.

He still had many questions—what ruin exactly meant, how the savior's world would be judged, and how ruin could be averted—but he knew now was not the time to ask.

Ran simply recited a single name in his heart.

If all this were true, then the savior was surely that girl.

The Pontiff stepped closer to Ran.

"Might you, perchance, have more companions?"

Greed shimmered over the Pontiff's eyes.

"Yes. For instance, perhaps...?"

At that moment, a voice rang out nearby.

All three turned. It was the black-robed Priest Hakon, whom the Pontiff had put in charge of slave escort duties before departing Aburota.

"Hakon. You have arrived."

"Yes. The preparations for the ritual are complete."

Raising just one corner of his mouth, the Pontiff said to Ran,

"Come, brother. I shall show you the revelation of the Apocalypse."