Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 715 - 714: Beltira’s Intelligence

Long silence lingered between Beltira and Gawain.

It was Gawain who broke the silence first.

He was uncertain if the woman before him, who had turned into a half-plant, would possess the patience of a plant—if she didn’t speak for an entire day, he certainly couldn’t stay the whole day to accompany her.

"Now that I’ve finished talking about my matters, it’s time to discuss about you." He said in a deep voice.

"Us? As you can see, we are now merely a group of pathetic losers," the roots behind Beltira rustled, and her voice seemed mixed with the friction of sand, "but I see you have set up camps around Sorinburg and are gradually reclaiming land... it seems the final victor of this war has been decided."

"You can ’see’ what’s happening outside?" Gawain raised an eyebrow, growing more curious about Beltira’s current state, "This is... quite interesting."

"I can see, very broadly, with an unprecedentedly open view, but I’m unable to move, nor can I see what I look like right now," Beltira said slowly, "What do I look like now?"

"...A tree, a massive plant covering nearly half of the Sorin Region, and it is still growing slowly," Gawain said frankly, "If you’re really curious, I could send someone to capture a photograph of your full appearance from a distance and bring it to you."

"...Thank you in advance," Beltira suddenly stirred some roots coiled nearby, as if making a decision or suddenly understanding something, "Wanderer from Outer Realm, I still do not grasp your essence, but having transformed into this, it doesn’t matter whether to choose or not. Our path has been proven wrong; if our failure can leave you with any experience, feel free to ask."

Gawain gave her a somewhat surprised look, then pondered briefly: "You should be aware of the ’Defiance Plan,’ right?"

Beltira’s expression changed immediately: "How do you know?!"

But she quickly appeared to understand: "Ah, of course, Wanderers from Outer Realm... you’ve been observing this world constantly, so naturally, you would know, as you’ve indicated earlier..."

"Don’t get it wrong; this isn’t related to whether I’m a Wanderer from Outer Realm," Gawain frowned, interrupting her sternly, "Don’t indulge in the fantasy of some solitary mission or world-saving. You’ve become in this manner; at the very least, you should wake up—to pursue overtly unseeable extreme plans in obsession, while there are indeed people openly driving the world forward."

Beltira’s brow furrowed, and after a brief pause, the movement of vines and roots behind her gradually calmed down: "Arrogance, it must have been our first mistake."

"Indeed, there were plenty of mistakes, but now I’m not discussing this with you," Gawain said, "Regarding the ’Defiance Plan’ that you were executing, who communicated it to you? How much have you mastered? Is the inheritor still alive now? How long did you execute it?"

Facing this barrage of questions, Beltira lightly closed her eyes and whispered: "How long... shortly after the Oblivion Association was born, we had already begun executing this plan, continuing it for nearly seven hundred years!"

Seeing Gawain’s slightly surprised expression, she quietly continued: "You are aware of that ceremony atop the Ancestral Peak back in those times, correct?"

"I know," Gawain nodded, "You once wrote a letter to me, mentioning your intention to participate in a ceremony communicating with deities atop the Ancestral Peak."

Beltira promptly stared at him: "That letter was written to Gawain Cecil."

Gawain smiled, gesturing to his head: "I know, but that memory is here—Beltira, regardless of whether you acknowledge it, I’ve inherited the memories of Gawain Cecil. I know most events he experienced, know the parts concerning you, and perhaps you still view me as a body-stealing Wanderer from Outer Realm, but in a sense, I am Gawain Cecil now, and I will live this life as that identity."

Beltira steadily gazed at Gawain, masses of vines and roots behind her trembled or twisted unconsciously, no one knowing what thoughts occupied her mind at this moment, yet Gawain seemed to see a flicker of light across her dulled eyes. She then continued the conversation: "...Atop the Ancestral Peak, the Holy Spirit Druid Pontiff, the Pope of the Church of Dreams, and the Storm Church Pope held a joint ceremony, successfully teleporting the Dreaming Pope Megal III to the kingdom of gods..."

This portion Gawain was aware of, so he nodded: "After that, all members of the Three Great Dark Sects went insane... what transpired exactly then?"

Beltira closed her eyes, her body trembling slightly, suggesting even seven hundred years later, recalling the events still inflicted her with a torment of fear, Gawain heard her murmur in a near-dreamlike voice: "Megal III entered the realm of gods, where his soul was almost utterly torn apart, yet compared to the truth he witnessed, soul-tearing was nothing: He saw the kingdom of gods and the palaces of the god, and surrounding those illusionary, magnificent halls was an exceptionally vast and chaotic void, countless shattered ruins and the corpses of gods floating around the kingdom, orbiting in dead silence.

"Those shattered ruins and godly corpses seemingly have floated for a long time, displaying clear distinctions among them, indicating they didn’t perish simultaneously, but underwent cycles of rebirth and dying. Megal III already neared insanity upon staring at those ruins and corpses, but even more terrifying was the sight he witnessed subsequently:

"He witnessed the grand gate of the divine kingdom open, a deity’s figure briefly flashed inside... during that extremely brief glimpse, immense knowledge and truth shattered all of Megal III’s mental defenses, plunging him into madness almost instantly—

"The Druid Archbishop and the Storm Pope who jointly performed the ceremony quickly noticed the anomaly, attempting to pull Megal III back to the reality world, but this action linked them mentally together... they shared the perception."

Listening to Beltira’s account, Gawain maintained a calm exterior while inside, a tremendous wave surged—

The ritual atop the Ancestral Peak seven hundred years ago, the three church leaders indeed witnessed the remnants and ruins after the fall of the gods, but the detailed scenario was even more bizarrely mad than he imagined!

Countless ruins and corpses encircled the kingdom of gods, numbers uncountable, and it wasn’t a scene that just one cycle of destruction could create—Gawain recalls the Ancient Era’s Deicide Fleet’s war perishing gods, but if Beltira’s information is accurate, then the battle report Gawain heard in the Eternal Stone Slate might just be a part of the endless cycles of godly destruction.

If the ancient Deicide Fleet destroyed the gods once, then what caused the countless other destructions?

Is the repeated destruction and Samsara of the gods and their kingdoms related to the chaotic wave of the real world? Is it related to the repeated downfall of human civilization?

The surviving gods and their kingdoms are located in the center of the ruins, surrounded by countless remnants. Could each new god be born from the "Graveyard of the Gods"? Or... does the scene of ruins correspond to the chaotic wave and civilization Samsara of the mortal world, with a deeper symbolic meaning?

Countless speculations and associations surged in Gawain’s mind like tides, but it was clear that these questions could not be answered by Beltira. He could only temporarily archive these questions in his memory and start focusing on another matter:

The three original church leaders were distorted after sharing senses and thus were exposed to the knowledge of the gods. So why did the other ordinary believers all go mad as well?

He posed his question, and Beltira sighed softly, "Faith, it connects all of us together."

Gawain’s expression suddenly turned solemn.

"Faith in the gods is a chain. It took us many years to realize this—praying to the same object of worship, following the same rules of discipline, building the body and mind according to the doctrines, seeking the alignment and unification of personal ’spiritual gifts’ with the gods’ ’divine’, is the foundation of all beliefs and Divine Arts. Mortals perform these actions to receive the blessings of the Divine Arts, but at the same time, they are locking their own minds onto the same chain, a chain that is the ’bridge between gods and men’. And the stronger the faith, the stronger this chain becomes, capable of transmitting a more powerful... force."

Beltira spoke slowly, her tone unprecedentedly heavy and solemn.

"Because of this, when the enormous knowledge regarding the gods surged into the minds of the three church leaders, they, as the initial link of this chain, instantly spread this knowledge downstream...

"The most peripheral shallow believers might not have been affected because their faith was not strong enough, and their minds were still at a distance from the gods, but all priests capable of using Divine Arts were undoubtedly a link in this chain. Regardless of whether they were at the Ancestral Peak or not at that time, they could not escape the impact of this terrifying knowledge.

"The final result is that everyone on the chain was affected."

Gawain gasped sharply.

Faith can lead mortals holding the same belief to establish an invisible connection, a piece of intelligence previously unknown!

Could this connection be related to the mental Steel Stamp?

Beltira’s description was filled with metaphors and esoteric terminology, dictated by her personal knowledge and worldview, but to Gawain, all of this could be summarized in two sentences:

The leaders of the Three Great Dark Sects gazed upon the secrets of the gods seven hundred years ago.

All devout members of the three sects conducted a collective sanity check at that instant.

The result of this horrifying collective sanity check was obvious: they all failed.

But perhaps because a large number of lower-ranking clergy shared the pressure of that mental impact, or maybe because the three church leaders at the time disconnected from the kingdom in time, the massive failure of this collective sanity check did not lead to the most terrifying consequence—although the three dark sects instantly blackened, there wasn’t a horrific event where a large number of members were directly twisted into monsters. After a brief bout of frenzy, they even "woke up" from their madness, reformed themselves into the Oblivion Association, the Eternal Sleepers, and the Sons of the Storm, and conducted substantial research, attempting to carry out the defied Plan...

But looking back, after experiencing that impact, did they really "wake up"?

Gawain quietly watched Beltira in front of him.

She stood quietly amidst the roots and vines, her eyes free of any trace of madness, appearing rational—however, looking at the surrounding vines, at the slowly writhing roots, thinking about how these roots penetrated the layers of palaces and catacombs, thinking about that unimaginably gigantic tree... nothing seemed normal.

Perhaps this symbolizes the essence of the three dark sects: informed beings returning from madness, a heart that thinks it has awakened, imprisoned within a shell of frenzy.

After it manifests, they become dangerous lunatics.

"After the Ancestral Peak conference, we went through tremendous chaos and losses. Many members rushed into the Gondor wasteland; the remaining members either self-harmed, committed suicide, or fell into permanent madness unable to awaken, those barely maintaining sanity hid themselves—in that chaotic situation where everything was in dire straits, hiding was easy—years later, as the frenzy caused by the mental impact gradually diminished, we regrouped in the shadows...

"We knew the truth we held was too shocking, even uttering half a word could invite attacks from almost every orthodox religion, and might even attract the attention of the gods behind them. So we chose to sink into darkness, seeking ways to break the situation..."

At this point, Beltira shook her head, showing a trace of self-deprecation: "Looking back calmly now, our original goal wasn’t so complicated. It was the passage of time and continued obsession that caused everything to deviate from its course, and more importantly, that defied Plan...

"The defied Plan was brought by two elf druids, they were sisters, named Fyrna Whiteshade and Reyna Whiteshade."