Cthulhu Gonfalon

Chapter 983: Tenacity (Part 1)

Sui Xiong made himself invisible and turned his body into an intangible object, floating along the streets of where Void Mask City used to be.

This city was similar to the other big cities that followed the style of lawful evil. On the surface, the city seemed fresh, but it was actually filled with several types of evil and filth. Even while the sun was shining bright, acts of evil could be happening in broad daylight.

While walking along the streets, Sui Xiong killed more than 20 people who reeked of fresh blood. They were all assassins, robbers and traffickers. As long as one reached the smaller alleys and streets, the hustle and bustle of the big city would disappear, and unimaginable evil would surface.

“This city requires a good clean-up!” Sui Xiong shook his head and muttered to himself in disapproval. “Not just that, this entire world needs a good clean-up! After I defeat that bastard, I am going to clean things up properly. I don’t care how much time I need, I have to change this world so that people can enjoy life and live in peace. The people should be able to use good, honest work to make this world a better place!”

Just as he spoke, Sui Xiong realized that in the northern part of the city, near where there had previously been a playground, many people were gathered together. Could it be that, although the city had changed, the playground was still intact?

Sui Xiong was rather curious, and with a flash of his body, he appeared where the group of people was. What he saw was not a playground but rather an extremely huge yet simple temple. It was built using stone, and it looked like a giant pillar from afar. One could tell that it was already extremely ancient. Although the building was mostly constructed out of big stones, it had already been weathered and worn down to the point where several sections were on the verge of collapsing and cracks lined the walls.

There was a unique boundary that was trapped within this boundary cage, and Sui Xiong only noticed it after careful observation. When he got a closer look, he immediately recognized that the structure of this boundary was the “rules” of the Master of Order. From the boundary, it could be inferred that the Master of Order had also crossed to a new world. However, it had not been completed, and thus, he could only defend himself against the true great Divine Power, the God of Light, instead of attacking.

In reality, as long as the God of Light was able to convert himself into an orderly, good god, he would be able to cross over the boundary. Of course, the God of Light was not willing to do so, and so the Master of Order’s boundary was able to shut him out effectively. Within the boundary, there was a wave of force that was holding it up. Although this force was weakened to the point where it was almost negligible, it was full of indescribable tenacity, just like scales protecting an animal that was about to die.

A middle-aged lady wearing ceremonial robes was explaining to several young people, “This was the final front of the old order. In the past...”

After hearing that one sentence, Sui Xiong exploded violently. He did not have the patience to continue hearing the lady’s explanation and directly entered her brain to read her memories. Sui Xiong realized that this lady was a pontifex from the current Church of the Supreme Lord. Today, she was acting as a tour guide for faithful who had come from afar and was bringing them to visit the battleground where the old order had been destroyed and the new order had been created. This very battleground was in the shabby temple right before their very eyes.

Many, many years ago, where the concrete time was unable to be identified by historians or scholars, the Supreme Lord, the God of Light’s name now, had defeated the olden gods and had wanted to create a brand new order and structure for the world. However, the olden gods had not wanted to admit defeat. They had brought a few stubborn seniors with them and had escaped to this place. Here, they built up a temple where the pseudo-god’s God Kingdoms had been and used the terrifying weapons left behind by the pseudo-gods to build up their defenses. All this was all to go against the Supreme Lord.

Of course, the Supreme Lord could easily crush these people. However, he was a kind person by nature and decided to give these naive beings one last chance. He thus left behind some power, locked up the entire place and began to build his new order. No matter how stubborn the olden fellows were, once the new order was established, the new strength accorded to the entire world continually suppress and invade their piece of land, easily dissolving their laughable defenses.

Very soon, the new order was established. Just as the great Supreme Lord had predicted, the olden, stubborn fools were easily defeated by the rush of the new order, and their defenses were useless. This city, which used to be their headquarters, was slowly taken over by the new order’s rule. The followers of the Supreme Lord eventually built up the city after the last of the olden fellows had perished, and they had renamed the place as Victory City.

As time passed, Victory City became a world-famous, bustling city. The olden fellows’ defenses also weakened to the point where they were no longer able to continue with their efforts. Although they attempted a rebellion once, under the leadership of the great Supreme Lord, the gods managed to successfully defeat them. After the failed rebellion, the olden fellows could only reside within the broken-down temple and live out the rest of their days. Although one was unsure as to how long more they could sustain their resistance, it was clear that the lot would eventually be wiped out and would disappear without a trace. This final temple of the old order would then become a historical relic that was preserved for people to visit and mock.

Although this narrative seemed long, since Sui Xiong was merely reading from the lady’s memories, it only took him a short while to complete the story. Afterwards, he frowned, unsettled, and decided to take action instead of wasting time. Sui Xiong converted himself into a lawful good god, crossed over the boundary that seemed weak but was impenetrable and entered the temple. Once he had done so, Sui Xiong felt an extremely overwhelming sense of belonging. He immediately understood that the material used to build this temple was similar to that of the sanctuary in his own God Kingdom.

A big God Kingdom of course required more than one temple. Previously, the entire Void Mask City was surrounded by God Kingdoms as a defensive front against the new order. However, as the new order gradually crept it, the lines of defense were gradually broken, and the areas that had been destroyed became war souvenirs that the God of Light and the gods under him kept for themselves. The only line of defense left was this one temple. It had long been abandoned and it was empty inside. there was only a staircase that spiraled downwards. This staircase was extremely long and seemed endless.

Sui Xiong directly accessed the base of the staircase and witnessed a giant, vast hall. This hall was pitch black and had a moody, lulling atmosphere. In the center of it, there were countless numbers of light balls. These light balls were all tiny worlds that had been sealed, and each light ball contained several people who were hibernating. Amongst them, Sui Xiong identified many familiar faces. They were all residents of Void Mask City and the Republic of Northwest of the past.

Most of these residents had grown old, and they had weary expressions on their faces. Of course, there were also several younger people amongst them. For example, there was Kalisa Riley, who would never look old. A little girl was in deep sleep beside Kalisa, and she looked similar to Kalisa. However, her personality could be seen through the strong frown of her eyebrows and the lack of Kalisa’s gentleness. Instead, her personality was similar to that of Leon Igor. It was clear that she was their child, Elizabeth Igor.

In the light balls, there were many other familiar faces. For example, there was his previous underling, a pioneer scientist, Palin. there was the Republic of Northwest’s Mage Corps’ instructor, Nice, who was already more than 200 years and yet still hadn’t experienced a first love. There was the School of Magic’s principal, Felix, who had spent his teaching years researching magic in great detail. There was Jose, who had announced his retirement after the great battle on the Main Plane and had retreated away to train himself in hopes of eventually challenging the God of Storms. There was Leon’s underling’s daughter, Yue, who practiced magic since her youth and became a priest once she reached middle-age... Of course, there were so many others that were missing that Sui Xiong could not possibly list them all out.

Be it young or old, they all had on anxious and troubled expressions. Although they were sealed and were in deep slumbers, their expressions were as if they were constantly being tortured by nightmares, and it was uncertain what pains they were going through.

In the center of the hall, there was a wide sword stuck into the ground. This sword was a sight for sore eyes for Sui Xiong as it was the weapon that he had personally made for Lion, the “Holy Avenger.”

Near where the sword lay, a ball of deep red fire was slowly burning. It looked to be extremely weak, as if it could be fully extinguished by a slight gust of wind that would not even cause a shirt to rustle.