If not for the Pope’s glorious martrydom, the fate of the civilisations in Holletta would have been very different.
Even though the giant that Hao Ren captured was still of sound mind, he still bore thoughts of annihilating Hollettan Civilisation. And at that point of time, the guardian was threading on a very fine line between mercy or destruction for the planet. The Pope’s sacrifice pushed the giant away from the brink, and allowed him to let go of the futile need for vengeance as well as retribution. The mention of such a great elder only evoked respect from Hao Ren.
The simple room was not decorated. There were only a few religious iconography and relics as well as some simple furniture. A simple table stacked with draft papers stood at the side of the room, while the unique, black and red sacred portrait was hung in the middle of the room. Aside from that there was nothing else. Cardinal Orben was the last person to visit the room before the Pope’s martyrdom, and based on the church’s doctrine, he was the person to take control of the papacy in the event of the Pope’s demise. He immediately went to gather up the Pope’s belongings after the latter was martyred.
“The Pope seems to have realised the Goddess’ will from the sacred portrait.” Cardinal Orben pointed to the oil painting in the middle of the room. “She warned us that no matter what happen, we must take stock ofd things as everything happens for a reason.”
He then took a piece of goatskin parchment on the table and handed it to Hao Ren. “This was the note that His Holiness left behind. No one have seen it yet, it’s meant for you.”
Hao Ren took the parchment almost reactively, and realised that the writing was still new and the smell of the ink of was still present. He asked out of curiousity. “You’re letting us see it before the other cardinals?”
“His Holiness had specifically instructed me on this.” Cardinal Orben spread his hand open, gesturing towards the note that he found when he came to sort out the late Pope’s belongings. “Under the Goddess’ grace, he had seen everything and he mentioned if the outlanders were to talk about an unholy plot of deicide, I am to pass this note to you. Iti s because the Her grace had already appeared upon you. Have a look, it is meant for all of you.”
Hao Ren was just about to read the note as he heard what Cardinal Orben had no say. He never thought that the Pope had left this behind before his martyrdom! Perhaps the old man had forsaw in the last moments of his life that the outlanders will find out the truth ten thousand years ago from the guardians? Or… there is a real goddess telling him that, and guided him to leave these behind?”
Regardless of what it is, Hao Ren now knew that this note was something special and an unknown sense of urgency was compelling him to read it post haste:
“Outlanders, by the time you read this letter, I have already answered Her call. It is regretful that I have to use such a way to tell you a few things. But time is not on my side, and pardon my methods.
Under the vision the Goddess have gave me, I saw your coming. The leader of the outlanders, Hao Ren. I could not describe what I saw then, as it was beyond the comprehension of mortals. I saw light, fire, stars and you in the middle and her blessing was coursing around you. This is a sign, her way to transmit her will. You are a chosen one, and you and your friends are closely intertwinned with Her. Even if time does not allow my the luxury to divulge everything, but I’m confident of my judgement, and if I am right, you will be finding out a truth.
The horrible truth, the inexcusable sin that our ancestors had committed ten thousand years ago. A sin so heinous its beyond description…”
The latter part of the note was about the deicide ten thousand years ago. No one know how the Pope had ‘learned’ the truth, and even that his description was vague and full of contradictions, but yet Hao Ren could see that what the Pope was trying to tell was the same story as what the giant had told him.
He had already knew this part of the story and after that he skimmed through the rest of the note before coming to the end of the note. The last few lines had him in a deep frown.
“The sins of the pass cannot be simply forgiven, like dawn always follows the darkest of nights, in disaster hope is born. In my lucid dreams I saw when her powers was separated during the heinous betrayal in the skies, she had turned into a form beyond mortal comprehension and is deep asleep somewhere in the universe. She had shown her guiding hands to let me understand the undying nature of Gods, and the betrayal of the Treacherous Children had only put her in deep slumber, true deicide was beyond them.
In all this time, the prayers of the Disciples of Glory had never fallen on deaf ears, we always fell that there was a great will that was protecting all life. This is her power, and thus we must believe, that she is not lost to us. Part of her is still hidden away somewhere.
If her miracles still dances across the land, her glory too will once again, return to this world.
Outlanders, I was inspired by her omen, and yet I know very clearly, that our world, our civilisation could scarely meet her expectations, but I saw in all of you, a path to realising this. Perhaps, in the sea of stars lies the answer to all. In her vision, you stood in the halo of stars, so I beg you, please listen to my final plea: Look for her, wake our Mother.
If this letter could reach you. Then it is indeed divine providence.”
Hao Ren’s expression was serious as he read the last of the note before Lily snatched it away. “Let me see! Let me see!”
Lily and Nangong Wuyue, alongside ‘the purely just to make up the numbers’ Rollie huddled on the table to read the note. From Hao Ren’s vision, only three different tails were tagging about Vivian looked on by the side for a while before poking Lily’s back with her nails. “So what’s in it?”
“Nothing really…” Lily wagged her tail. “What the Pope said was pretty much the same to what we guessed. It’s about the Goddess’s echo.”
“No, if it was just an echo he would not had taken such a trouble to write this.” Y’zaks said, his voice deep as he crossed his arms. Using his height, he peeked over the three lass and had finished reading the note without as much as turning his head. “Based on what’s on the note, the Pope had managed to connect with the Goddess with clarity during his meditation. He probably had managed to get in touch with the real thing… the slumbering Goddess herself.”
“You mean the Goddess is alive?” Lily’s eyes widen. “Not an echo, but really really… alive?!”
Vivian glanced at the husky as she pointed to the lines of the parchment. “Read properly, Doggie. Even the Pope had said it himself. ‘She had turned into a form beyond mortal comprehension and is deep asleep somewhere in the universe’ . If he could use the word ‘slumber’, means he had really seen the Goddess himself. Remember, nothing in the canon of the Disciples of Glory mention anything about the Goddess’s predicament.”
Lily did not even listened to what Vivian had to say. She was staring back fiercely. “I’m still reading!”
“….”
“Why does this husky does not think like how normal people do…” Hao Ren sighed as he facepalmed before he kept the parchment. “All in all, this needs to be taken seriously. No matter the Pope means the way Y’zaks think he means. We should look into where her whereabouts is.”
Hao Ren’s goal from the start was to look for the fallen Goddess’ whereabout and when he found out that the Goddess had fell ten thousand years ago he was actually considering to abandon the search. Yet when he saw the Pope’s writings, hope lit again with him. Real Gods are eternal!
He was rattled by the brutality of the Treacherous Children and had thought that the Goddess was so thoroughly destroyed that only a shred of her spirit was left. Now when he had the time to think things through, many question marks started popping up. Based on the giant’s story there was no ‘witness’ when she was ‘killed’, because the Goddess and the Star of Origin was sent into the ‘Dark Zone’ in the ensuing explosion. If the guardians that were caught in the explosion could not have survive that, those afar could technically only looked on, so no one had actually witness her death.
This meant that she could still be alive!
“A shame that his Holiness is dead.” Nangong Wudi sighed. “If not we could ask him what he saw in his meditation. I’m sure that what he saw was not that simple, but there’s plenty of things that cannot be described with just words alone.”
“I now do hope that all of the creed the Disciples of Glory follows are real.” Y’zaks sighed. “If that’s the case, the Pope’s spirit will return to the Goddess. To him, this is probably the biggest consolation. Such an admirable human, giving his life for his beliefs, that reminds me of an old friend..”
Cardinal Orben’s was expressionless as he made a religious gesture. “His Holiness’s spirit will definitely return to Her. Please do not doubt this.”
“Doubt or not,” Hao Ren nodded at the cardinal with a smile. “I have promised to look into this and we will continue investigating, until we find your Goddess and rouse her from her slumber – If she is just asleep that is.”
Lily blinked as she turned towards Hao Ren. “Is it because of a divine guidance?”
Hao Ren pursed his lips. “It’s the job manual’s guidance…”