Chapter 491: Chapter 490: The History Hidden Within the Scriptures Chapter 491: Chapter 490: The History Hidden Within the Scriptures “To be frank, regarding this Demon Beast disturbance, we, too, have no clear clues.”
Back in the command room, Knight Commander Wells began to detail the peculiarities of this Demon Beast tide to Fang Zheng.
Common sense dictates that Demon Beasts generally start to stir in the winter, but once spring arrives and thaws the earth, they retreat. After all, these Demon Beasts don't inherently have any connection to each other and some are even food for others. They may unite to assault the fortress out of “survival needs,” but when winter passes the harsh conditions driving the Demon Beasts fade, so they return to Chaos Land to continue their lives.
Then, when the next winter comes, they “migrate” again.
But this year was different.
“We originally thought that with the Demon Beasts stirring in the winter, they would behave a bit more come spring, especially after suffering heavy losses in last winter's battles. Logically, they should have been calmer in spring, but…”
At this point, Knight Commander Wells also showed an incredulous expression.
“These Demon Creatures seemed to have gone mad, showing not the slightest intention to leave, acting as if they won't rest until they've broken through this place.”
The actions of these Demon Creatures certainly shocked the garrison of the Northern Fortress, but they had no way of figuring out what was really happening. At first, they simply thought that the Demon Creatures were just lingering temporarily, given these Chaos Monsters had no sense of time, so being early or late was quite common.
But as spring turned to summer, even the most optimistic Paladins realized something was amiss–Chaos Monsters had never besieged the Northern Fortress for so long!
And right now, the Kingdom of the Holy Church also had no spare troops for reinforcements, and the Northern Fortress itself was struggling to stand on its own. If it wasn't for Fang Zheng's timely arrival to reinforce with troops from the Heavenly Dao Palace, the situation could have been much worse.
Repelling the Demon Creatures' attack on the Northern Fortress was only the first step. Bishop Carl hoped that Fang Zheng could join forces with the garrison of the Northern Fortress to deeply investigate the cause of the northern Demon Creatures' riots and, if possible, to completely eradicate them. It was for this reason that he had requested Fang Zheng to come with his fleet for support.
“Regarding the Demon Beasts' riot… Knight Commander Wells, do you have any leads?”
“To say we have no leads at all wouldn't be true.”
Facing Fang Zheng's inquiry, Knight Commander Wells pondered for a moment before flipping out a document from the side.
“Every spring, we send out several scout teams deep into Chaos Land to check on the Demon Beasts. This year was no exception, except most of them failed to return. However, one scouting team did bring back some intriguing news…”
As he spoke, Knight Commander Wells handed the document over. Fang Zheng received the document, opened it, and looked at the information inside.
“… light underground… the ground shaking? Divine wrath about to descend? What are these things?”
But no matter how Fang Zheng looked at it, it all seemed like the ramblings of madmen; he couldn't discern any clues from the words.
“It comes from the scriptures within the Sanctuary.”
Knight Commander Wells reached out, taking out a thick tome of scriptures from the side.
“All Holy Knights recite this scripture, and concerning the message they conveyed, I think it might be because at that time, they were already corrupted by Chaos, unable to maintain their sense of self… After all, you must know, Your Excellency Fang Zheng, the deeper we followers of order venture into Chaos Land, the more likely we are to be corrupted by Chaos, gradually becoming unable to control ourselves… Maybe, at that time, other than this method, they had no other way to convey information.”
Looking at the thick tome of scriptures before him, Fang Zheng was silent for a while.
It was really fortunate that he had not revealed his identity as a Holy Spirit Knight.
“Then, these contents are…”
“It's the 'Rebirth' section from the scripture…”
At this point, Knight Commander Wells turned the pages of the scripture, and then pointed to a paragraph marked with a horizontal line, while Fang Zheng reached out his hand to take the scripture from him.
“…Once again, the shadow of Chaos descended, the will of the Goddess echoed across the land, and in the places enveloped by sunlight, all evils could not hide. 'This is not our final battle,' the voice of the Goddess resonated in everyone's heart, gentle yet filled with strength. 'The war between Order and Chaos persists, but now, we shall finally triumph.'”
The earth began to crack, the sky started to roar, and along with the words of the Goddess, holy beams of light fell from the sky, sweeping away everything with the divine wrath… Eh?”
Upon reading this, Fang Zheng suddenly paused, then lifted his head to look at Knight Commander Wells.
“Lord Wells, this record in the scripture…”
“This is what our ancestors recorded, the appearance of the Goddess extinguishing Chaos and bestowing rebirth on this land.”
Hearing the response of Knight Commander Wells, Fang Zheng took up the scripture.
“Sorry, Lord Wells, do you mind if I take a look at this scripture?”
“Of course not.”
After Fang Zheng left the command post, he found a place to sit down at random, then quickly opened the scripture in his hands to start reading the content word by word again.
Fang Zheng had technically seen this scripture before, back when he had first time-traveled to this world, in order to have a “clean” identity, he joined the Sanctuary and became a Knight. At that time, he had come across this scripture, but he had simply skimmed through it without detailed reading. He felt that religious texts from any world were quite similar, but now, as Fang Zheng was reading this scripture carefully, he found that its content seemed, perhaps, quite profound.
Unlike many religions that depict their deity as the creator of the universe, from Fang Zheng's perspective, the Goddess depicted in the Sanctuary's scripture was indisputably an outsider.
The scripture was divided into three parts, the first being a record of the initial state of the continent. According to the scripture, the land was once filled with danger, a world of Chaos where humanity could only hide in corners and caves, trembling like mice, living a day-to-day existence.
Although the description of this period in the scripture was filled with artistic embellishments, Fang Zheng was still able to find some clues. If everything said in the scripture was true, then this world was very dangerous and chaotic in the beginning. There were no four seasons, and temperatures fluctuated wildly. Perhaps yesterday was “warm and comfortable,” but today turned “bone-chilling cold.” Such temperature swings brought about various diseases. Those who were infected became Creatures or died from the illness.
Back then, humankind had no future, seemingly waiting to die in despair.
But one day, “the Goddess arrived on a golden Ark from beyond the horizon, her warm Radiance tearing apart the darkness and scattering the fog, bringing us shelter like a mother protecting her children.” And after that, the Goddess “created the four seasons, distinguished night and day, and brought the Fire Seed of knowledge and civilization.”
Guided by the Goddess, “the people took up arms, using the knowledge and strength they gained from the Mother of Order to courageously stand against the evil enemies of Chaos, and ultimately, with the Goddess's intervention, the very Origin of evil was completely eradicated. Since then, the land welcomed peace.”
This was also the second part recorded in the scripture. As for the remaining third part, it spoke of the Goddess returning to the heavens to watch over her children and that all the people must always remember that the good and happy life they lived was a gift from the Goddess and so on… This part was not too different from the religious texts Fang Zheng recalled.
However…
“This content is really interesting…”
While reading the section about the “Goddess descending on her golden steed from the sky,” Fang Zheng also lifted his gaze toward the Hell Angel-class Battleship not far above his head…
Well… If we strip away the artistic descriptions…
Could I perhaps entertain a bold speculation?
Chapter end
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