Chapter 1046 - Passing the Flame, and Extinguishing the Flame (1/2)

”…Whatever. Your Honor, why are you telling me so many things?”

Alpha had been silent for a moment after High Judge Grong's rather goading words, before eventually sneering and shaking his head at the old man from the Order of the Ashes. ”The reality of it is that I am such a foolish person that I could not even see through your trap, and I am still within your clutches. You could tell me anything you want, but I would never be able to say no… isn't that so?”

Alpha sighed inwardly after his own words—the Order of the Ashes did not try to capture him previously as they needed him to come here so they could locate the crystal obelisk. And now, after their objective had been achieved, did he even need to be kept alive? Did his family's safety still matter? To tell the truth, there was no assurances to be had. While the Order of Ashes was an organization of orthodox religion, they were certainly not on the side of the angels.

”Do you believe that you serve so little?”

Still, Grong studied him with an expression that was not quite a smile. ”Scholar Alpha, do not underestimate your own value. What kind of a person could have so easily crossed the entire vastness of the Nightfall Zone to come here to the Lightless zone as if guided by fate, arriving at a destination without coming across any aberrations of Chaos? And finally, bypassing every safety measure inside the crystal obelisk without being threatened at all, and arrive in the depths of this prehistoric ruin?”

”Do you believe that mortals could give birth to such prodigious talents such as your own daughter and son?”

Alpha promptly looked up at those words, his terrifying glare tunneling straight into the old man's own. However, Grong appeared unconcerned, and instead turned to shake his head at the escort around them, gesturing that they did not have to be on standby and allowed them to explore every corner of the hall. Then, as they all left, the white-haired Judge gestured for Alpha to follow him, striding towards the center of the hall.

Even if he could not wait to cut Grong and all his cronies into pieces, Alpha really wanted to know about his family, and as such could only keep up with the High Judge—Grong seemingly knew that very well too, and as such, he continued without turning back to glance at Alpha, ”Relax, Scholar Alpha. Your daughter, your son and your wife are well. As a matter of fact, the Order of the Ashes are providing them much better living conditions than what they get in Academy City. After all, we do need your daughter's power to move the stars.”

”Move…the stars!”

All kinds of thoughts flashed through Alpha's mind upon hearing that, such as the phenomenon where many stars were disappearing from the Nightfall Zone, the ever-expanding Lightless zone, the objective of the Order of the Ashes, along with the objective of his own mentor and the others on her side.

However, all of those things ended up being summed into a single question, ”What have you done to my daughter?! And what is with moving stars? Simboa is…

”Simboa Falster is just an ordinary young girl—is that what you mean to say? But you would be gravely mistaken on that notion.

While Grong appeared to be advanced in adage, it remained that he was a Supreme-tier champion. Alpha would never be able to defeat him even if he should go into a fit of violent rage. Still, the High Judge did not continue to provoke Alpha either, and instead said forthrightly, ”Relax. Simboa has been bestowed with a position akin to a Sacred Child, so no one would dare lay a finger on her. On the other hand, while your sun is less of a prodigy, he is still a divine providence. There is certainly no need to speak for your wife either—she only knows that you may have journeyed afar, but does not know where you had gone either. In fact, she is happily caring for the children and reveling in the delight of their talent.”

”But, that hand…”

”We had already come to possess perfect cloning technology forty thousand years ago…but you did not even attempt to check if the hand was your child's. To be honest, for you to so easily buy into it has really been a waste of our technician's effort.”

Even if he could not tell if Grong was lying, it was the truth that the High Judge has not caused any harm upon Alpha himself. Coupled with the exceeding nonchalance in his tone which did not at all resemble a lie, the surging hatred within Alpha cracked…he was certainly aware that the High Judge could have been using words to incite, then diminish his wrath and hatred and wire down his intent to resist so he would loosen up if they wanted him to talk later, but in comparison, he wanted to know more about his family's situation.

But regrettably, Grong said nothing more about that subject, and instead continued to stride towards he centers of the hall while switching to another subject.

”Did you know, Scholar Alpha, that there were once gods existing in this world?”

”…It is a fact that everyone knows. The Age of the Gods has stood for a long fifty thousand years—from a hundred thousand years ago to fifty thousand years ago.”

Nonetheless, Grong ignored Alpha's tone of 'what nonsense are you on about', and simply continued, ”But fifty thousand years ago, the Age of the Gods suddenly ended: every god had lost their divine power, and naturally, all them died out.”

”The first was the God of War, and then the God of Duels and the God of Assassinations—every divine being whose title had to do with killing had lost their divine power, before it was the turn of various regional deities and creator deities…but in the end, every single god would lose their divine power. The Order of the Ashes was still a religious organization of different gods and the Father himself, which was why we recorded in detail the time and chronological order in which each deity had lost their divine power. It was also in that period when the many floating cities had crashed down from the skies and been reduced to ruins.

”Do you understand? In a brief time of less than five years, ever single divine being had lost their divine power one after another, while our own gods was not afforded the time to prepare themselves—the shrines atop the Godly Summit were all left to waste, just as the teleportation network which was built at its center all disappeared. Our nation was hence divided by elongated distances, our cities also falling one after another, as the era of brightness that we once controlled ended completely because of the passing of the gods and their divine might.

At those words, Grong's tone seemed to thicken with regret, but it appeared that he was not feeling such emotions over the passing of the gods.

Instead, he was feeling sorry about the frailty of the Lightchasers' civilization.

”Our civilization had hence completely withdrawn from vast and borderless Nightfall Zone to return to the Radiant Domain…but could you guess what he had discovered?”

”The Radiant Domain is shrinking too.”

In that very moment, the pair had arrived at the center of the hall, with the crystal pillar holding the slumbering blonde youth hanging right over their heads—Grong then turned to look into Alpha's own eyes, hardly concealing the dismay in his expression while Alpha himself appeared to have suddenly understood something.

”Yes,” the High Judge said flatly, ”In just two hundred years, the surface of the Radiant Domain has shrunken an entire five percent, and the rate of shrinking is ever increasing. If this continues, it would merely be less than ten thousand years before every Lightchaser would have to live in eternal Nightfall, or even perpetual darkness.”

And yet, the Radiant Domain was still existing even after fifty thousand years had passed.

Once he thought about that reality along with the 'star moving' which Grong himself had mentioned, a horrifying possibility welled into his head. Leveling his eyes at Grong, he slowly said, ”And that is why all of you have been moving the stars…into the Radiant Domain? So it is to keep the fire going within…”

”To be precise, it won't be us—but the many Sacred Children of the Stars.”

The white-haired High Judge appeared calm, quietly murmuring a praise to the Father before continuing, ”In that moment of despair, the various founders of the Order of the Ashes had eventually discovered a type of children possessing remarkable attributes within this world that would soon fall.”

”They…all of those children are all essentially girls, although that does not matter with a race such as the Lightchasers, since some of us can reproduce as.e.x.u.a.lly or even change between the s.e.xes. But whatever the case may be, all these children would have the power to produce progeny…and along with their power to control the orbits of stars, they also have the power to control the ground of Steel to a certain extent, or accelerate the rate at which the stars form!”

”Unusual, isn't it? Don't make that face of disbelief because it is reality. We are not sure how the founders had discovered that back then…anyway, we were calling those children Starherders at first, or the reincarnation of every powerful divine being, because the world changes under their command and drives those stars in motion. Still, it was only later when we had realized that rather than driving, those children were actually 'guiding', or 'hoping' that the stars would move in the directions they wanted instead of command and control. That is why we now call them the Sacred Children of the Stars.”

Although Grong appeared to be downplaying the situation, Alpha could still understand the sheer despair of the time: the Lightchasers had lost the gods, then the Chaos invaded, just as they would discover that the Radiant Domain was rapidly shrinking. On the other hand, they would naturally be so delighted upon discovering the Children of the Stars—it was the thrill of encountering hope in the face of despair, something which successors such as them could never experience.

And that was also when Grong's voice also apparently became sincere.

”That is why the Order of Ashes is doing everything possible to find and groom more Children of the Stars…that is why our civilization is still continuing after fifty thousand years have passed. We had not fall to the age of darkness where the fire dies, still burning strongly as the last embers.”

”So, do you understand now, Scholar Alpha?”

”We are the Order of the Ashes, a group of people who have been trying the save the whole world all along! Both your mentor nor your superior were Children of the Stars whom were not discovered until recently. They possess the ability to control the stars as well, and yet they were unwilling to contribute with their power to keep our entire civilization going, even scheming to sabotage our operations in finding new children! It is an act of hostility against all Lightchasers, a path that is almost on the brink of Chaos!”

”Join us. Your mentor had been reluctant to contribute her strength to civilization, and though we could understand such selfish desire, it is still our hope that you can abandon your prejudices and become a part of us.”

***

Aside from being utterly stunned, Alpha also managed to connect every clue…such as why Professor Karlis had been especially doting over his own daughter, and why something so important as vanishing stars did not stir ripples over the Alliance? It truly had not been simple—and with them being residents of the Radiant Domain, every leader would definitely not hesitate to plunder the stars from the Nightfall Zone!

With that, everyone else's actions now basically made sense. The reason the Order of the Ashes had threatened him so viciously previously and were treating him with such kindness now was entirely because they knew that Alpha would not be so easily turned against his own mentor. As such, they had stayed on the lookout for an opportunity to reach out to him in a place not known to anyone else, where they would then try to convince him to become a double-agent, or track him until he eventually arrived at his mentor's hiding place, and in turn rein in more Children of the Stars and away from their grasp.

Everything was indeed explainable…except for one thing.

”All that you have said is right, Your Honor, and I can't think of any retort—to maintain the Radiant Domain where the true core of our civilization exists, it doesn't actually matter if the stars of the Nightfall Zone are taken away or if countless colonies would be in ruins. After all, the people I know and are close to are all living in the Radiant Domain. Everything would be beneficial to me.”

”Even so…what is this crystal obelisk actually for? Why would all of you follow me here as if you have been looking for it all along, not to mention the being slumbering here…”

As he spoke, Alpha looked up at the dense engravings and runes over the crystal pillar, along with the glinting and converging radiance, his tone deepening to a growl. ”Moreover, how do the Children of the Stars actually control so many stellar bodies? And you haven't told me anything about Simboa, but simply that she is a Child and is valued…is she living well? Is she happy? Why won't you tell me any of that? I just want to know those things, as a father!”

”…You are asking too many questions.”

Grong breathed a sigh. ”About this crystal obelisk…I can only tell you that it is a tower that strengthen signals, and there is another one in the Godly Summit. As for the being that sleeps here…didn't the mural you see along the way made it clear? He is a clergy serving the Seven Gods in the age of Creation, a great hero who had fought the Chaos alongside the father.”

”…and you want to awaken him?” Alpha asked rather drily. ”To have this slumbering hero serve you?”

”Of course not—or as I should say, he isn't the one we want to awaken. Still, we need his power now, otherwise how would the Children of the Stars who were mortals, even little girls just a while ago, control the flow of the millions of stars?

Then, Grong saw Alpha's impassive expression and hence could not help but sigh. ”It appears that you still would not help us, am I right? And to think that I have been so patient and gentle…why can't any of you just understand? Every measure that could be taken must be taken in this dark age when the Flame is about to die. The fire which we have kept alive over dozens of thousands of years by putting everything on the line had been thanks the sacrifices of generation after generation of brothers and sisters serving the Order…we have assuredly committed much vileness in the name of civilizations, but we don't regret that.

”Of course, I really wish that I could have been in their place instead.”

With those words, Grong waved his right palm which ignited with sparks before a blazing longsword materialized instantly over his hand. As he slowly approached Alpha, the High Judge affirmed for the last time, ”Scholar Alpha, I will not kill you because you are a Lightchaser, but we will brainwash you—all your knowledge and your identity would serve our purpose. Do your best not to resist, and I will be gentle.

”Well, I do believe that your Order had certainly sacrificed everything to save the Lightchasers, but as compared to you lot, I am more willing to trust my mentor and my own instincts! Thank you for your explanation—I now understand a great many things.”