I am God LSLCCF

The Temple of Truth

A "statue" floated in midair. It was Anli's petrified remains.

Around the neck of Anli's petrified remains hung a necklace, and the eye-shaped gem set within it radiated a silver light.

Below, the Scarlet Goddess Vivien controlled it all.

Following the Four-Part Secret Technique of Divine Grace, Vivien untangled the divine blood and all the mingled powers within it.

Radiant light poured out without end, flowing and converging in the air like veins of light.

Spirituality Origin became the roots, Wisdom Consciousness became the trunk, Desire Personality became the branches, and Knowledge Memory became the leaves.

In an instant, it became a colossal Tree of Mythology, or perhaps a road leading toward divinity.

This crude artifact, once nothing more than power and Seal Imprints piled together, instantly came to master the most precious mystery in the world, and gained the wellspring of wisdom itself.

At the same time, one Ghost Race spirit after another emerged from within, voices rising in a chorus of sound, swirling around the silhouette of the great tree.

"True knowledge..."

"A mythology is about to be born."

"The Divine Technique Kingdom."

"The legacy of Suinhor."

"The divine promise, the divine prophecy... will at last be fulfilled."

Their excitement was palpable, a chorus of cheers for the change soon to arrive.

They bowed in worship before the mythology about to be born.

The Scarlet Goddess had once promised them that one day the Eye of True Knowledge would become a mythology, and that all of them would enter the Kingdom of God. The ancient apostle of the Creator would awaken once more and lead them into the future.

And now, the promise had been kept.

They began to feel the influence of the Mythical Artifact, transformed by its Mythical Authority.

The Mythical Artifact began to nourish the parts of them that were missing, and the mythical kingdom began to shape brand-new laws just for them.

Little by little, they became servants of this mythological realm, or perhaps of the Kingdom of God.

From ordinary members of the Ghost Race, they transformed into beings called Divine Technique Spirits, a kind of spirit bound to the mythological kingdom of the Eye of True Knowledge, one whose very core was formed of Divine Technique memory and power.

Beings born for the sake of inheritance, of faith, of Divine Technique itself.

The shadow and silhouette of the great mythological tree grew ever more complete, and more and more spirits poured forth.

Finally, the tree and the spirits collapsed inward together, becoming a swirling vortex that returned once more into the Eye of True Knowledge.

Whoosh!

An unseen force seemed to whip up a violent storm, sweeping through the Temple of Truth and surging across the Blood Kingdom.

A pillar of light pierced through the Blood Kingdom, surging onward toward the Dream Realm, the kingdom of all the gods.

The Scarlet Goddess Vivien at last stayed her hand, and looked up toward the top of the pillar of light.

A mythology was born.

【Divine Artifact: Eye of True Knowledge】

【Sequence Number 12】

【Ability 1 Divine Technique Blessing: The Eye of True Knowledge holds within it a great many seeds of Divine Technique, preserving the ancient legacy passed down from the First Era to the Second Era. It can pass this inheritance on to another, granting them instant mastery of one or more Divine Techniques, along with every skill related to them. The Divine Technique Kingdom, however, will then lose that inheritance, until the one who inherited it becomes a Divine Technique Spirit and returns the inheritance to the Divine Technique Kingdom.】

【Ability 2 Divine Technique Spirit: Whoever inherits the legacy of the Eye of True Knowledge will be branded by it, and may in the end choose to return to the Divine Technique Kingdom, becoming part of that kingdom in the form of a Divine Technique Spirit. Every spirit that returns to the Divine Technique Kingdom retains all the Divine Techniques it once possessed, and each of those techniques becomes a seed of inheritance left within the kingdom, waiting for someone able to inherit that technique.】

【Ability 3 Magic-Forbidding Domain: The Eye of True Knowledge can unfurl a vast domain, within which every Divine Technique cast through mental power is forbidden, save for Divine Technique Spirits.】

【Ability 4 Divine Technique Kingdom: The Divine Technique Kingdom is a mythological kingdom, situated within the Dream Realm. It can open the gate between the mortal world and the Dream Realm. Through its Mythical Authority, the Divine Technique Kingdom answers all who pray to it, welcomes home every Divine Technique Spirit, and can channel power into the mortal world through ritual.】

At last, the Scarlet Goddess Vivien stepped upon the light and walked forward, rising bit by bit toward the heights.

Following the pillar of light, she gradually broke free from reality and arrived within the Dream Realm.

Within this realm could be seen the rough shape of a kingdom formed from Mythical Authority: the Divine Technique Kingdom of the Mythical Artifact, the Eye of True Knowledge.

The whole kingdom looked like a mirror made up of countless rhombus facets.

Inside, it was empty and desolate, with nothing arranged yet at all.

With Vivien's arrival, countless Divine Technique Spirits emerged from the diamond-faceted mirror.

The spirits paid her their respects, praising her with every manner of title.

"Great Scarlet Goddess."

"Ruler of the Blood Kingdom."

"God of Blood and Fire."

"Patron of Suinhor."

The Divine Technique Spirits prostrated themselves upon the ground, like cornerstones lining either side of a road, forming a path that led to the far end of the divine kingdom.

Gradually, Vivien came to the end of that road.

There, before the diamond-shaped mirror at the very center, she saw Anli's remains floating, still wearing that same necklace.

But with Vivien's arrival, the shadow of an ancient Trilobite Man broke free from within the necklace, hovering between the Most Ancient Race and God's Form, until at last it settled into God's Form, taking shape as a girl with blue hair.

That was Anli's Ghost Race spirit, and now the Mythology Spirit of the Eye of True Knowledge as well.

Within the Divine Technique Kingdom, Vivien and the Mythology Spirit looked upon each other.

Ripple after ripple rose across her form, shimmering like rippling water, and her blue hair made her seem like a spirit of the sea.

The three-element Seal Imprints of water, ice, and vapor spun and circled around her, and countless seeds of Divine Technique surfaced behind her. The Divine Techniques she commanded far exceeded anything an ordinary person could imagine.

Behind Vivien, a curtain of blood-red stretched toward the sky, and her vivid red hair looked like flames in full blaze.

Water and fire.

Red and blue.

The two of them were the twin figures of the Temple of Truth's third generation, the last of its iconic figures still remaining. The other two, Xiao and Anhofus, had long since broken away from the Temple of Truth.

A tremor crossed her eyes, and the faintest shiver ran across Vivien's cheeks.

It had been so long, so terribly long since she had last seen this face, that she had very nearly forgotten it completely.

"Anli."

She remembered, from long, long ago, their final farewell.

She and Anli had come together to the Island of Mist, wrapping the whole island in the power of Life Ability, and sinking together into the Abyss Trench.

At the time, Anli had said to her, "Goodbye, sister!"

She remembered that she seemed to have said something back then, seemed to have made some kind of promise.

She thought on it for a long while, until at last it came back to her.

Back then, as she entered the cycle of reincarnation, her consciousness blurred and fading, she had told Anli, "There is no need to say goodbye. Have we not always been together?"

"We always have been, and we always will be."

And Anli, smiling, had split away a portion of her own power, becoming a wisp of a Ghost Race spirit that entered the Eye of True Knowledge, so that she might remain forever at her side.

Tears suddenly spilled from Vivien's eyes. Perhaps it was that very sentence that had carried her all the way to this era, that had kept her from losing herself across a hundred million years of time.

Because she had known that someone was still waiting for her, someone who would be with her forever.

"That is right."

Across the ages, that long-ago voice seemed to overlap now with the one speaking in the present.

The Scarlet Goddess looked at her and said, "As it was before, so shall it be after."

"We have truly always been together."

"Even across the long river of years, even through the passing of an entire era, nothing could ever have parted us."

But sadly, the shadow before her, the Mythology Spirit, gave no response at all.

The Scarlet Goddess reached out a hand, as though she wished to touch her.

But in the end her hand passed straight through the transparent shadow, and hung suspended in the air for a long, long while.

She seemed to have no consciousness of her own, no feeling at all.

She only stared blankly at Vivien like this.

But Vivien had long foreseen this. In truth, she had known all along it would be this way.

The Ghost Race spirit was missing a crucial part of herself.

Her desire, her consciousness, her spirituality.

That was why she looked so vacant, so dull.

That missing part was in Vivien's hands now, but Vivien had no intention of folding it back into the artifact.

Back in the last era, the apostle Anli had already shattered her own God's Grace Stone.

The part of it holding her knowledge and memory, she had long since stripped away herself and folded into the Eye of True Knowledge, so that it became fully part of the artifact, and she herself became the artifact's primary guiding spirit.

After all, the Anli of that time could never have imagined that one day Vivien would become a god.

She had known only that everything was coming to an end, and so, in that final hour, she had said goodbye to Vivien.

Later, when the Eye of True Knowledge shattered, Vivien had mended and restored it once more, and now she had raised the artifact all the way to the rank of mythology.

Vivien brushed her hand just short of the other's cheek, as if she meant to tuck back that blue hair.

She said, with a smile, "Do not be anxious."

"Soon, we shall truly meet again, and you too shall truly awaken."

These words were less something said to Anli than something she said to herself.

The one who had truly been anxious, who had waited long enough for hope to turn to despair, was Vivien herself.

The Scarlet Goddess stepped past the Mythology Spirit and came to stand before the remains that spirit had kept watch over.

Her hand turned into a shadow of blood and reached into the remains, and when it withdrew, it drew out a stone of silver.

That was Anli's God's Grace Stone.

Sadly, this stone that symbolized an apostle was covered all over in cracks, and even had a corner missing.

It was all but shattered, no longer whole.

Yet fortunately, the parts holding her spirituality, her wisdom, and her desire remained intact within it, and that gave Vivien her chance.

Having taken hold of the God's Grace Stone, Vivien spoke earnestly to the Mythology Spirit, telling her of the plan she had made.

"You are Anli's memory, her very soul."

"The moment the Eye of True Knowledge became a Mythical Artifact was the very moment Anli began her reincarnation."

"The Reincarnator is missing the part of herself that holds memory, and so she can no longer remember the past."

"But you shall be reincarnated alongside the Reincarnator, remaining always at her side, to tell her of the memories that once were, and let her know everything that came before."

"In the end, Anli's reincarnated body shall, through your power, come to hold Mythical Authority, and so seek out the path that belongs to her, the path leading to the Source of Wisdom."

The Mythology Spirit turned her body slightly and looked at Vivien, as though she were giving her answer.

---

Having left the Divine Technique Kingdom, Vivien appeared once more within the hall, and opened her eyes.

Everything within the hall had vanished. All of it had returned to the kingdom of the gods, transformed into a mythological domain.

But this was only the beginning, not the end.

Vivien had laid out a vast plan, one concerning Anli's revival, concerning the future of Suinhor, concerning the Wisdom Fruits, and even concerning ages far more distant still.

And the beginning of this entire chain of plans was the appearance of the Mythical Artifact, the Eye of True Knowledge.

Hummmm~

The great doors swung open with a tremendous noise, both heavy and piercing.

Vivien walked out from the Temple of Truth, and outside a crowd already thronged, packed head to head.

Every Trilobite Symbiote had come, waiting anxiously outside the Temple of Truth.

A group of them stepped forward, greeting her with concern.

"Lady Vivien!"

"Lady Vivien!"

"..."

Vivien's gaze swept across them, coming at last to rest on Osis. She asked, with concern, "Osis, you have returned."

Osis bowed with the utmost respect. "Lady Vivien, I have returned."

Raising his head, he hesitated a moment.

Then he could not help but ask the very question everyone wanted to ask, yet none had dared voice outright.

"Did You... succeed?"

Vivien, cradling Anli's God's Grace Stone in her hands, nodded.

She said nothing further. Yet that single nod was enough to loosen the breath every one of them had been holding, and cheers rose up at once.

Everyone knew how important this was. They knew, even more, that this was not simply a matter of Anli's return. The Eye of True Knowledge becoming a mythology had broken open the stagnant waters of their present circumstances, and let everyone glimpse hope once more.

Vivien told them, "I must go away for a time now, to arrange everything that comes next."

Alpens and Smerkel exchanged a glance, then suddenly brought up a matter with Vivien.

"The age of the Divine Blessed King has ended, a mortal king has now been born, and divine authority and royal power are parting ways."

"And yet Suinhor today, and the temples' faith today, still belong entirely to You."

"What will it look like, from here on?"

Alpens knew Vivien's plan. She meant to raise Anli up to the rank of a demigod, not leave her as a mere Mythical Artifact.

That was why she had forged the Mythical Artifact, the Eye of True Knowledge, in the first place, so that Anli might use the authority of this artifact to make up for two hundred fifty million years lost.

It was a method much like how Sukob had become a god by means of the Door of Truth, or how Oran had become a god through the Gate of Desire.

Vivien herself was no Wisdom Demigod, and yet she had achieved this very purpose by means of a Mythical Artifact.

Vivien wanted Anli, in the rank of a demigod, to contend for one of the four Wisdom Fruits, to contend for the throne of the true god who commanded the highest authority.

In this way, a new demigod would be born in time to come.

And for a new god to be born, there would naturally need to be a new faith as well, accompanied by changes altogether new.

Vivien had already made up her mind. She looked at Alpens and said, "All faith shall belong to the new god."

"The mythology of blood and fire has ended. What remains now is the age of water and blue."

Suinhor itself means blood and fire.

But the last generation's Divine Blessed King had already returned, and with it the age of blood and fire had ended. A new chapter belonging to Suinhor had begun to unfold.

According to Vivien's wishes, she meant to use this transformation to let Anli smoothly inherit all that she had once laid out, to inherit every last bit of faith she had left behind.

The Scarlet Goddess was a demigod of Life Ability. If a Wisdom Demigod still needed to choose servants from among mortals, then Suinhor's faith, in truth, held no real use for Vivien at all.

Vivien looked down at the God's Grace Stone in her hand and said quietly, "The old story has already become the past."

"The new chapter is hers now, to write for herself."

With a single step forward, a Miracle Tool brimming with fairy-tale, dreamlike color suddenly burst from the sea of red flowers.

The Magic Wheel House.

Vivien climbed aboard the Magic Wheel House, and rode it onward through the sea of flowers, toward the mortal world.

This time, Alpens and Smerkel did not follow along. This hour belonged to the Red Goddess and to her who, in their eyes, would one day become the Blue Goddess. It was a private hour between the twin goddesses of red and blue, one that would only fully come to pass a hundred million years from now.

All the Trilobite Men watched Vivien go.

And Vivien, seated within the Magic Wheel House, sat quietly, cradling the God's Grace Stone in her hands.

The Magic Wheel House had begun as a three-wheeled cart Vivien had once built with her own hands, one that carried within it countless memories shared between her and Anli.

---

Suinhor, City of Fire Protection

Suinhor as a whole had lately undergone changes turning the world upside down. King Osis, bearing a great victory home with him, had returned to the Kingdom of God, and the new king, Morabi, had ascended the throne.

But the new king was no longer a Divine Blessed King. He was only an ordinary mortal.

He held none of the sanctity that the Divine Blessed Kings of old had once possessed.

Many people of Suinhor simply could not accept a being who was not of the divine race sitting upon the throne, and openly questioned Morabi's ascension.

Even though Morabi's throne had been declared, in front of everyone, an inheritance passed down by King Osis himself.

At this very moment, no small number of people in the city knelt prostrate before the Temple of Fire Protection, praying to their God to send one of the divine race down into the world, to inherit the place of the Divine Blessed King.

"Only one of the divine race can become king!" someone shouted, striking their head against the ground until blood ran freely.

"Great God, please do not abandon us!" someone wept bitterly, as though this were a sign that God had already forsaken them.

"How can a mere mortal become King of Suinhor?" The people believed that Suinhor's king must carry the bloodline of the divine race in his veins.

"Please, let a Divine Blessed One descend into this world!"

Some of them truly believed this. Others, however, harbored other motives entirely.

If Morabi could sit upon the throne as a mere mortal, then naturally so could others. And they believed themselves capable of doing far better than Morabi, certain that their own birth was the far more glorious one.

Deep within the Temple of Fire Protection, a group of divine servants surrounded their chief, telling him of the situation outside.

"More and more people keep coming. What should we do?"

The Chief Divine Servant of Fire Protection remained unmoved. Instead, he said to them, "The faithful are showing their devotion to God, speaking to God of their prayers and their innermost hearts."

"We are servants of God. How could we possibly stand in their way?"

Far from merely standing by and looking on, the Temple of Fire Protection was, if anything, quietly fanning the flames.

This approach could strike a powerful blow against King Morabi's royal authority, while at the same time growing the Temple of Fire Protection's own influence.

By now, through his past cooperation with King Osis, and through that earlier war, the Chief of the Temple of Fire Protection had reclaimed the power to appoint and dismiss the chief divine servants of most of the city's temples, becoming the true master of faith across this land of worship.

The temples scattered across the land, once as loose as scattered sand, were gradually being drawn together into one.

So long as the hidden ones of the divine race did not appear, the Chief of the Temple of Fire Protection would become God's spokesman upon the earth.

And the end of the age of the Divine Blessed King meant that kingship itself no longer carried its old sanctity, which meant that here on the soil of Suinhor, in the mortal world, there was no longer anyone left standing above him.

The Chief of the Temple of Fire Protection gave the order, "No one is to drive them away. We must protect them well, protect God's devoted followers here on earth."

He turned, and several attendants immediately fell in step behind him.

The Chief Divine Servant went on, "Is everything ready?"

The attendants nodded. "The letters have already been sent. Next month, every temple's chief divine servant will arrive in the City of Fire Protection, to pay you an audience."

"To pay audience to God's spokesman on earth, to pay audience to the Chief Shepherd of God on earth."

Hearing those last few words, the Chief Divine Servant's eyes rippled with feeling.

"'Chief Shepherd.' That is a fine turn of phrase. Was it your own idea?"

The attendant said obsequiously, "My lord, I did not think of it myself. The words simply appeared in my mind, all at once."

"It is only that I feel the title 'Chief Divine Servant' can no longer capture your standing here on earth, nor properly express the reverence you deserve."

"You are not merely the Chief Divine Servant of the Temple of Fire Protection, but the very symbol of every temple, of all faith upon this earth."

A fierce longing and excitement rose in the eyes of the Chief Divine Servant of the Temple of Fire Protection, and silently, he murmured the word to himself. "Pontiff..."

The more he turned the word over in his mind, the more some nameless feeling, some unspeakable urge, welled up within his heart.

"Perhaps there ought to be a title even greater than 'Chief Divine Servant,' one that speaks for God's most devoted followers and servants."

"Wouldn't you all agree?" the Chief Divine Servant asked, stopping and turning to look at everyone gathered around him.

Everyone at once prostrated themselves before the Chief Divine Servant.

No, they bowed before the Pontiff of Suinhor.

"Yes, Lord Pontiff."

The Chief Divine Servant let out a sudden laugh, but what he said aloud was, "In the end, it must still pass through God's approval. All things must submit to God's will."

"God's will stands above all things. We are merely Her shepherds here on earth."

Yet even as he said this, he had already made up his mind: at the coming council of temple chiefs, he would settle his new position once and for all.

At that time, he would no longer be merely the Chief of the Temple of Fire Protection. He would be the Pontiff of Suinhor, the Pontiff of the Scarlet Goddess.

God was great, without question, but such a god had never been one to meddle overmuch in the affairs of the mortal world.

Most prayers, in truth, God never answered at all. The succession of each temple's chief, for instance, was a matter God had never once responded to.

And besides, he considered himself devout, willing to offer up everything to God, and told himself that all he did was simply so that he might enjoy the glory of the Pontiff's title.

A struggle for the crown. A revolution of faith.

Everything was unfolding rapidly across Suinhor, and its tensions were deepening by the day.

An invisible storm was gathering over this ancient city of Fire Protection, though most people had not yet fully sensed it.

Meanwhile, within a castle of some years' age inside the City of Fire Protection stood a building that was not especially tall or grand. Most of it was built not of stone but of packed earth, unremarkable and far from lavish to look at, though it covered no small amount of ground.

Within it were a mill house, animal pens, a pool, and three iron gates in succession, so that it looked rather like a fortress in miniature.

This castle had lately welcomed a new master.

The Lord of the Volcano, Anu, a Lizard Person.

Anu had settled here together with his kin, with no plans to leave for the time being. He had some new ideas in mind.

He had gathered the other Lizard People in the great hall to discuss their future, whether to stay or go.

"King Morabi hopes we will stay. He has even promised that the Lizard People may form a personal guard corps of our own, one passed down through the generations."

"We, and our children after us, would remain in this city."

"Within a few generations, we would become fully part of this nation, until everyone here accepted us as their own."

King Morabi had only just ascended the throne, and he was in urgent need of powerful strength to support him.

Even as he worked to secure the legacy King Osis had left behind, he was courting every faction he could reach.

And the Lizard People, who possessed both strength and standing, who were entangled with no other faction at all, who were in fact avoided and isolated by every other power, naturally became his most fitting partners.

Inside the hall, every Lizard Person spoke at once, and no small number of them sounded tempted.

"King Osis was a fine king. King Morabi was his Prime Minister before, and a capable one at that. I think we can trust him."

"Hiding forever in the Volcano Forest is no way to live either. Sooner or later we'll have to come out, won't we."

"Perhaps it is time we took that first step."

But at this, someone else spoke up. "Still, the Chief of the Temple of Fire Protection has grown far too powerful of late. He has openly declared his hatred of us, and means to drive us out of Suinhor."

This hatred was not only because Anu and his kin were Lizard People. It was also because they worshipped the Feathered Serpent, Kurmis.

As Chief of the Temple of Fire Protection, he could never tolerate such a thing.

Anu frowned as well. "That is indeed a problem."

Just as everyone hesitated over whether to accept King Morabi's invitation, two more Lizard People came rushing in from the Volcano Forest.

After hearing what they had to say, Anu spoke, stunned. "What?"

"Lord Kurmis has suffered grievous wounds. He has fallen into a deep, unending sleep."

Anu had not returned to the Volcano Forest in quite some time, and ever since he had severed contact with Kurmis, Kurmis had not reached out to him again either.

And so he had no idea that after slaying Akmanmon the Second, Kurmis himself had suffered grievous wounds and fallen into that same deep sleep.

The Lizard People told Anu, "Before he fell asleep, Lord Kurmis said to bring you back. We need you now."

Anu rose to his feet, and said, somewhat hesitant, "But when Lord Kurmis sent me out, his order was for me to find a way to bring the Lizard People into Suinhor."

"And now is the very best chance we will have."

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