Chapter 568: The True Form of the Goddess

Chapter 568: The True Form of the Goddess

"I think the first priority now is to stabilize the empire's situation", Rayne said, glancing around at the gathered empire's powerful figures, his gaze sweeping over Elder Ivan, Reginald, Lambert, and others.

"I suggest that the imperial guardians quickly form small teams of varying sizes to head to the major provinces. The goal is simple: swiftly crush the cult activities."

Rayne's words earned nods from many of the imperial guardians present.

"Lord Iron Throne, forming teams, we are confident we can handle most issues. But if a divine incarnation appears, apart from someone like High Lord Valkmar, we fear..."

At this, one of the imperial guardians furrowed his brow.

"Don't worry. Most of the eldritch deities have already lost an incarnation in Sky City. Unless they want to delay their recovery, they won't easily send down an incarnation in the short term", Rayne waved his hand and said.

"Whoa~" Hearing this news, the imperial guardians' eyes widened in surprise as they looked at Rayne.

They hadn't expected to hear such news.

No one doubted the authenticity of the news, after all, it came from the mouth of the first full-moon wizard in a thousand years.

Moreover, everyone knew that the person responsible for causing the deities' incarnations to fall again was likely the Lord Iron Throne before them.

The tense atmosphere in the meeting room instantly relaxed!

"That's great! If that's the case, I think we can quickly stabilize the empire's situation", Valkmar laughed heartily.

"Right, what about the Imperial Capital?" Elder Ivan suddenly thought.

Rayne's eyes grew deep, and he looked at Cologne Cathedral, saying, "I will remain in the Imperial Capital."

"Additionally, if you encounter a divine incarnation, you can send a message immediately. As long as the province isn't too far from the Imperial Capital, I will arrive quickly."

While his last attack had intimidated the Vile Demonavatar, preventing it from expanding recklessly, once it digested and absorbed this blow, it would inevitably seek to corrupt more beings.

For now, he could do two things: one, continually harass the Vile Demon to slow its recovery, and two, search through the records to find the second Time Key Fragment.

"Great! Lord Iron Throne, Princess Menya, what are we waiting for? Let's get moving", Sword Saint Lambert said with a smile.

"Indeed!"

"It's time to act."

The imperial guardians all agreed.

The battle against the Vile Demon had been frustrating for most of them!

Facing the Vile Demon, even a slight difference in strength meant the risk of being infected after an injury, leading to hesitation and caution. The numerical advantage of the imperial guardians couldn't translate into a favorable situation, but against the cult, it was a different story.

For three consecutive days, 'Red Queen' Menya had barely had a moment to rest, continuously arranging a series of major empire affairs.

Since the Malevolent Qi had retreated, the area controlled by the Vile Demon was roughly a semicircle with a radius of a few miles, centered around Cologne Cathedral.

This area, relative to the entirety of the Imperial Capital Temeril, wasn't particularly large or small, but it did cover most of the inner ring and the palace, touching part of the second ring.

The noble and wealthy districts beyond the third ring were less damaged, and the trade zones and the residential areas of the fourth and fifth rings were almost untouched.

However, even so, the panicked citizens of the Imperial Capital dared not stay in their homes. Many left for other provinces, but most of the commoners stayed behind.

The citizens saw that the 'Red Queen' and other high-ranking empire officials had not evacuated the Imperial Capital. More importantly, they had heard that the empire had produced a demigod!

This greatly boosted the people's confidence.

Fortunately, the outskirts of the Imperial Capital had large estates and farmlands that originally supplied the city, providing food and shelter for most of the citizens.

Meanwhile, the imperial guardians, following the meeting's arrangements, had formed teams three days ago and headed to the major provinces to support and eliminate the cult, restoring order. The progress was smooth, and the empire's situation was gradually stabilizing.

In the Rose Manor on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.

The Rose Manor, originally belonging to the Dragun royal family, was now Rayne's and his family's temporary residence.

For Rayne, who possessed the 'Shadow Traverse' ability, as long as the distance wasn't too great, it wasn't a problem to instantly reach the camp or suppress the Vile Demon at Cologne Cathedral.

In the second-floor study of the manor, Rayne was quickly flipping through the box of documents he had obtained from Cologne Cathedral.

After several days of intermittent reading, Rayne had almost finished going through them.

Many of the records were not intentionally vague but were simply unclear about the location of the artifact, often filled with various speculations and investigations.

In other words, Rayne needed to find the clues he needed among a large amount of unrelated information.

"The goddess, after defeating the Vile Demon and the eldritch deities, began to seal powerful behemoths in various places."

"Since then, no one has seen the goddess wield the artifact in battle."

Rayne closed a brown leather-bound diary, deep in thought.

"Unlike the goblin princess Amora, who used the secondary key to bind the Vile Demonavatar, the goddess did not use the secondary key to imprison it. So where did she place it?"

After piecing together the scattered records, Rayne felt he was onto something.

"Wait, why seal them instead of kill them?"

"Logically, these behemoths' power is far below that of the goddess Matilda. She could defeat the Vile Demon and the eldritch deities, so why seal them?"

Suddenly, a flash of insight struck Rayne, dispelling the fog.

"If I were in her shoes, unless my strength was insufficient to kill these behemoths, there would be no need to seal them, even with the help of powerful followers."

"Strength insufficient?"

"That likely means she was injured?"

"Yes, that must be it! Although it's not necessarily an injury, it must mean she couldn't use her full strength."

"So, the Time Key Fragment was used to suppress her injuries?"

Rayne's eyes grew brighter.

In other words, the second secondary key was likely with the slumbering goddess.

"Or perhaps, the one sealing the behemoths in various places wasn't the goddess herself, but an incarnation. This would perfectly explain all the inconsistencies."

"At the very least, it's a possibility."

Rayne stood up abruptly, a brow raised in excitement.

"So, the key time period is after the goddess defeated the Vile Demon and the eldritch deities and before she embarked on her sealing journey. Where did Goddess Matilda go?"

Rayne quickly walked to the silver box, pulling out several ancient books, old diaries, and ancient parchments, all of which recorded relevant time periods.

"After the divine war, the goddess, out of pity for the world, first went to Mayest County's coast... the three-headed sea dragon", Rayne read softly from an old parchment.

In no time, Rayne's figure vanished from the study.

When he reappeared, he was already high in the sky, far from the Imperial Capital. After confirming his direction again, Rayne's figure flickered a second time, and he arrived at the coast of Mayest County.

Since absorbing the fifth divine fragment, Rayne's psi energy had grown even stronger, and his maximum teleportation distance had increased significantly.

A journey that would have taken at least half a day by high-speed dirigible was now completed with just two swift movements.

Looking at the familiar coastline, Rayne couldn't help but feel a sense of nostalgia.

The two entrances to the underground passages, which were once heavily guarded, now had only a few imperial soldiers keeping watch. Clearly, the importance of this place had diminished significantly after the last battle with the three-headed dragon and Menya.

In the next instant, Rayne appeared in the familiar underground hall.

The massive bronze sealed door stood open, and the hall was empty. However, the lingering aura of the three-headed dragon had not yet dissipated.

After scanning the area, Rayne turned his gaze to the floor of the underground hall, which was paved with light blue stone slabs.

A surge of powerful psi energy, centered on him, began probing downward.

"If my guess is correct, it should be nearby, perhaps even—"

"Right below us!"

The psi energy, as potent as a full moon wizard's, pierced through the earth like a drilling probe.

Fifty meters down.

One hundred meters.

Two hundred meters.

"Hmm? Nothing... Could I be wrong?" Rayne furrowed his brow, wondering.

Three hundred meters.

"Found it!" Rayne's face lit up with joy.

In the next second, his figure vanished again, reappearing in a deeper underground chamber.

This chamber, which may not have been visited for thousands of years, now held a tall, slender figure.

The first thing Rayne saw was a rectangular stone platform in the center of the chamber, four large night pearls, and a striking female figure lying on the platform.

Although her face was hidden behind a helmet with a rooster comb and a veil, and she wore an ancient, light blue battle armor, the high chest plate and the distinctive skirt-like hem at the bottom of the armor clearly indicated that she was a woman.

However, what caught Rayne's attention even more were the hands holding the Time Key Fragment.

The fragment had a hollow ring at the top and a vertical blade at the bottom, identical to the secondary key he had obtained from the goblin princess, Amora.

Additionally, Rayne noticed that the fine, glittering sand at the bottom of the secondary key's ring was nearly depleted, with only about one-tenth remaining.

"Hmm? This is—"

As Rayne approached, the scene before him was shocking.

Under the protection of a faint, colorful aura, he could see through the gaps in the goddess's battle armor, revealing strands of Malevolent Qi.

"This is... She has been tainted by Malevolent Qi?"

Rayne's expression was one of shock. After careful examination, he was certain that if this was indeed the true form of the Goddess of Monsoon and Sea, Matilda, she must have been tainted by a Vile Demon before she fell into slumber.

"Even with the power of a True God, she couldn't purge the Vile Demon's taint?"

Rayne's brows furrowed, and his respect for the Vile Demon grew.

Matilda was a True God from ten thousand years ago, logically a being far more powerful than his current full moon wizard level.

"Fortunately, the Vile Demon's corruption hasn't been fully completed, thanks to the Time Key Fragment."

Rayne could see that the skin on Matilda's neck, visible at the seam of her ancient battle armor, was white and radiant, showing no signs of being tainted by Malevolent Qi.

This meant that she had only been partially tainted by the Vile Demon.

"So, it's not that she didn't want to, but that she couldn't."

"This is why the goddess later chose to use a gentler method, such as sealing, to deal with the giants."

"At the time, her divine body and the Time Key were being used to resist the Malevolent Qi, so she could only respond to her followers' prayers through projections or, at most, incarnations."

Rayne pondered for a moment, piecing together the general sequence of events.

This aligned with his earlier speculations.

Of course, many significant events had occurred over the ten thousand years, such as the kingdom wars and the establishment of the Dragon Empire, but these were not the main threads of the story. At least, they had little to do with the Time Key Fragment.

"According to the goblin princess Amora, two secondary keys can reveal the location of the true Time Key."

"However, the secondary key in the goddess's possession is crucial for suppressing the Vile Demon, so it cannot be taken." Rayne's gaze was fixed on the secondary key in Matilda's hand as he thought.

He was not the type to resort to any means to achieve his goals.

"What if I place my secondary key on hers? Would that have the same effect?" Rayne suddenly had an idea.

Meanwhile, at Rose Manor on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital.

"Look up there, Lagrelle, over there!" Mint pointed to the sky, calling out to Lagrelle.

Lagrelle, who was chatting with Rayne's mother, Emma, looked up at Mint's exclamation.

"Is that... a Sky City?" Lagrelle's eyes widened in surprise.

The others in the manor also looked up, gazing at the incredible sight in the distance.

A massive, hemispherical structure, its flat side facing up, was being towed by dozens of large dirigibles toward the Imperial Capital of Temeril.

A black dragon, as large as a dirigible, seemed to be guarding it.

This impressive sight naturally caused a stir among the citizens and nobles of the Imperial Capital.

At the temporary camp of the Red Queen Menya, imperial guardians led two teams of griffin riders to intercept the massive dirigible fleet in the sky.

Inside the Sky City.

In the main power area of Level B4.

A group of metal wizards, under Helm's command, were busy working, moving in and out like diligent worker bees.

"Highness Helm, are you sure the Steel Throne, Lord Rayne, can solve the power issues of the Sky City?" Trina, a voluptuous and beautiful councilor, asked Helm, who was directing the repair work.

She was the head of the federation delegation on this mission.

Originally, she would not have embarked on this journey.

The federation's initial plan was to send dirigibles to deliver food and supplies, with no intention of bringing the Sky City to the empire.

This was because Helm, the head of the Federation Mechanical Institute, insisted that the repair work could only be completed with the help of the Steel Throne, and that the Sky City needed to be operational as soon as possible.

Additionally, the federation council learned that the sealed Vile Demon could break free at any moment, and only the Steel Throne, Lord Rayne, could suppress it.

After much discussion, the federation agreed to Helm's suggestion.

"Of course, Councilor Trina. Lord Rayne mentioned this to me before", Helm nodded confidently.

"Additionally, the Sky City requires a large amount of rare metals, which we lack in the federation. However, the Cyrodiil Highlands in the empire have rich mineral reserves."

"The current situation requires the cooperation of both nations to bring the Sky City to full combat readiness as quickly as possible."

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end