Chapter 438: Resurrected Ankara!

Chapter 438: Ankara Resurrected!

Ankara—the daughter of the God of Order.

Many tales were told of her, but two stood as the most famous.

The first: when the daughter of the God of Order was a mere child, she fell into a fit of pique. The God of Order handed her a bookmark, bidding her write upon it the name of the deity she most despised.

Before long, that deity perished, falling from grace;

And then, Ankara smiled.

The second: the God of Order established the laws of order, and the very first to transgress against them was his own daughter, Ankara. In the end, the God of Order chose to cast his flesh and blood into the maw of savage beasts, all to uphold the sacred dignity of his laws.

Such was,

The Light of Order.

Though the protagonist of both legends remained unchanged, they wove a narrative stretching from inception to finality, from nothingness into absolute existence.

Ankara held an exalted place within the mythological lore of the Church of Order. This was not merely by virtue of her lineage as the deity’s daughter, but because the path of her life served as a flawless exposition of the God of Order’s divine image.

Thus, even though Ankara had ultimately suffered the supreme punishment for defying those laws, she endured as a paragon of virtue within the inner circles of the Church.

The topmost floor of the Ankara Hotel served as her memorial hall.

Every year, various departments would organize "team-building" retreats here. Ascending to the summit, they would first contemplate the tapestry of Ankara’s life and her relationship with the God of Order, before bears witness to her ultimate demise.

It was considered a quintessential program for legal and moral education within the York City region.

Most of the time, however, the place lay vacant. Especially when the hotel was tasked with hosting official receptions, it naturally ceased to accommodate the retreats of local departments.

So it was that when the lift reached the apex and its doors glided open, it revealed nothing but a vast, echoing vacuum.

"Out!"

Karen barked the order, his form already lunging forward.

The others followed in immediate succession; none dared tarry within the car. The moment the last of them cleared the threshold, the lift began to melt and contract, solidifying into a thick, specialized slab of metal that sealed the shaft entirely.

*Hum!*

The surrounding illumination flared to life all at once. The memorial hall, spanning the entirety of the floor, was immensely broad. Projections began to ripple from the portraits lining the walls, re-enacting the chronicle of Ankara’s life from infancy to maturity.

"What is the meaning of this?" Science demanded. "Is this some trick of your Church of Order?"

Before Karen could offer a reply, Saraina cast a sharp glare at Science, rebuking him coldly: "If you kept your mouth shut, no one would take you for a fool."

For whether it was a machination of the Church of Order or not, posing such a question was utterly devoid of purpose.

Karen replied, "I can only say that within the itinerary provided to me, no such itinerary item exists."

At this hour, he ought to have been escorting Saraina to the third-floor banquet hall, after which he could have slipped away to indulge in some fine delicacies. Banquets of that caliber invariably featured rare and precious ingredients purchasable only with specialized vouchers.

*Creak...*

A harsh friction sounded ahead. A nearly transparent membrane was violently torn away, and from the rent emerged a figure clad in grey armor. The breastplate bore the faint, marred outline of an insignia that had been deliberately ground down to nothing.

Behind this armored entity stood a woman. Her countenance was utterly unremarkable, her stature brief; yet when she spoke, the voice belonged unmistakably to a man:

"Captain Karen, I command you to withdraw with your subordinates. This is an order."

Karen spoke evenly, "I should like to know who precisely is issuing orders to me at this moment."

"Lilith."

"A most unfamiliar name."

"My apologies, I coined it but a moment ago. Since I am capable of appearing here, and since I possessed the means to direct your ascent, I should think my identity and that which I represent require no further elucidation. Withdraw your men. Tonight, this place shall serve as the execution ground where Order judges the Moon God."

Karen shook his head and said, "Regrettably, my itinerary bears no mention of such an event."

"Naturally, it could never be written down."

"Nor have you presented me with any official reassignment order."

"Naturally, that too could never be written down."

"Therefore, I must continue to discharge my duties, fulfill my mission, and safeguard Her Eminence, the Divine Child of the Lunar Church."

"Alas, why must you persist?"

Lilith sighed.

In truth, Karen harbored no deep-seated yearning to protect this divine child. Her true target might well be himself, though she remained ignorant of it.

Thus, Saraina posed a distinct threat to him, to say nothing of the crude and transparent manner in which she had tested him earlier in the carriage. Had she met with some unfortunate demise after his security detail concluded;

Karen imagined he would have had Alfred take some vouchers to purchase a quantity of dragon-lizard meat to wrap into wontons. His household was large, and such an occasion would allow everyone a taste.

Yet now, with one party grinding away the crest upon his armor, and another disguised in the garments of a woman—what did this portend?

Was he to stand idly by like an idiot with his men, waiting for them to dispose of Saraina before they turned their hands to silence him as well?

As for the justifications offered by the stranger, Karen refused to entertain them. His very existence within the Church of Order was already a thing of grand fantasy; he found nothing incomprehensible about strange occurrences transpiring here.

Lilith waved a hand forward, and the armored figure surged into motion. Its footsteps were heavy and dull, each stride falling with an absolute, unyielding solidity. When it raised its great axe, the very air before it seemed to congeal into stagnation.

Science stepped into the vanguard, his left eye burning with a jaundiced radiance that coalesced into a barrier before them. When the axe came crashing down, the shield buckled under the weight but refused to shatter.

Moreover, the barrier seemed to "flow" along the floor, instantly snaring the armored entity by its lower limbs.

Saraina, meanwhile, vanished entirely from her position, rematerializing directly behind the armored colossus. Her hand descended with a gentle, almost tender tap upon the crown of its helm, leaving a single crimson petal in her wake.

By the time her feet touched the ground once more, the red flower erupted in full bloom. A thick, crimson beam of light lanced through the air, piercing diagonally through the armored figure's skull.

Its head transfixed, the armored form froze instantly in place. The axe slipped from its grasp, clattering loudly against the floor.

The massive frame followed, collapsing with a dull thud.

Lilith stood frozen, seemingly blindsided by this turn of events.

Karen glanced at the fallen automaton upon the floor, a tremor of astonishment rippling through his own heart. He knew well that as a legitimate Divine Child and a future candidate for the papacy of the Lunar Church, her strength must be formidable, yet he had scarce expected it to reach such devastating proportions.

The pressure exerted by that armored entity moments ago had carried the distinct flavor of Kulisha, the great mantis he had encountered before Congestis’s tomb; the oppressive weight of its formidable defense had been palpable.

Yet even so, it had been pierced through by a casual, weightless stroke from Saraina, signifying that the absolute power wielded by this Divine Child had already transcended a certain threshold.

Presently, Saraina turned her gaze toward Lilith, who stood in the distance, and glided directly toward him. Indeed, she glided; her bare feet did not graze the floor in the slightest, lending her an ethereal, otherworldly air.

Karen suddenly realized what her demeanor recalled. She possessed an air of eastern aesthetic refinement deeply rooted in his memories—a species of beauty he had rarely encountered in this world.

"Order—The Purgatory of Atonement!"

Lilith flung his arms wide, and a colossal ring of light materialized before him. Immediately following, the phantom silhouettes of savage beasts crawled out from the aperture with ferocious roars, straining to claw at the living flesh before them and drag them down into the abyss.

The Purgatory of Atonement...

Karen recalled this as a highly obscure spell of Order. It was notoriously difficult to master, and its efficacy demanded an extraordinary expenditure of personal refinement. Its utility was exceedingly low, which meant the ordinary clerics of Order seldom bothered to cultivate it.

Yet as Lilith unleashed it now, the sheer grandiosity of the display was staggering. Karen could not help but wonder from what dark corners of the world the man had managed to harvest so many fragments of savage souls.

One had to understand that for someone like himself, who enjoyed perusing spellbooks during meals, the sole reason he had eschewed this particular magic was that he lacked the leisure to forage for such materials, and purchasing them on the black market was prohibitively expensive.

Nevertheless, in the face of those thick, grasping limbs reaching out for her person, Saraina merely closed her eyes. A crescent moon of pale gold manifested upon her brow. Then, with a sharp flick, her nail pierced her own fingertip, and a single drop of fresh blood flew forth, condensing into a solitary crimson speck.

Lilith, while weaving her magic, felt a sudden tightening in her chest, as if gripped by an invisible hand. Yet at this precise moment, there was no other choice but to expend every ounce of strength to urge the ferocious beasts forward, sending them hurtling toward Salaina.

The flecks of blood before Salaina dispersed, carrying the distinct effect of ink bleeding into water. Simultaneously, a horrific bloom erupted upon Lilith’s chest, and the entire figure began to twist in agony.

"You are not... the Child of God..."

"Smack!"

With a dismissive swat of her hand, Salaina dispersed the mist of blood before her. Lilith’s physical form disintegrated instantly, and the monstrous fiends, poised to seize Salaina only a second later, vanished into nothingness.

"I am, it is only that I am different from what you imagined."

Salaina turned her gaze back to Karen and his companions.

Fortunately, Karen had always harbored the view that his role as a security bodyguard was, more often than not, merely that of a ceremonial honor guard. Consequently, he was quite philosophical about the fact that the person he was protecting happened to be stronger than himself.

In truth, during both of his previous security details, the targets under his protection had been more powerful than he was at the time, including that assignment with Ophelia.

Nevertheless, looking at the outcome of this particular assassination attempt, it truly bordered on the ridiculous.

These were Priests of Order,

acting inside the heavily fortified Ankara Hotel,

having even successfully infiltrated the arrays of the innermost elevator.

One could say the faction organizing this attempt had executed the preparatory work flawlessly.

Yet their fatal flaw lay in this: they had successfully created a condition where the target was isolated, but they simply could not win the duel.

Thus, when the target of an assassination possesses an unfathomable and overwhelming strength, no matter how brilliantly the preliminary phase of the plot is realized, it ceases to have any meaning.

Sains glared at Karen and demanded, "I require a rational explanation from Order."

"Sains, you may remain silent."

"Yes, my Lady."

Salaina looked at Karen once more and asked, "Can you keep your subordinates under control?"

"Without a doubt," Karen replied.

"And her?" Salaina gestured toward Ophelia.

"The same."

"Very well. With an incident like this, your liability will certainly not be small, correct?"

"It is so."

"I can help you transform this failure into a meritorious deed. Would you care for that?"

Karen inquired, "Do you wish to appear as though you have been wounded?"

"Indeed. I need to make it look as though I was ambushed inside the Ankara Hotel, thereby forcing your Church of Order to offer some compensation during the negotiations. As for you, you can convert your negligence into the distinguished merit of having fought desperately to protect the target and ensure a successful escape.

Do we have a deal?"

"We have a deal."

"Excellent."

Salaina swept her long hair back, and a trickle of fresh blood seeped from the corner of her lips, her complexion instantly turning exceedingly pale.

It bore the hallmarks of a masterclass in acting, yet within his heart, Karen harbored a distinct feeling that she was not entirely faking it; the deployment of certain powers naturally carried their own side effects.

Karen then addressed everyone behind him, "Dishevel yourselves. Make it look as though you have just emerged from a bitter struggle."

"Understood, Captain."

The elevator had suffered an accident, and while the Ankara Hotel’s response was not entirely sluggish, the fact that the truly intense assassination had never materialized—and that Salaina had dispatched the assassin with such terrifying speed—meant Karen and the others were fated to wait here for a considerable while longer.

His head bloodied and bruised, Sains could not help but grumble to Karen, "Your Church of Order is painfully slow."

"Every floor is equipped with an independent array. Therefore, even if they know full well that the elevator has malfunctioned and that we have encountered danger, it remains incredibly difficult for those below to ascend and offer aid.

Have you not noticed that this floor is entirely devoid of windows? Furthermore, you cannot fly at such a height; you would be automatically targeted and attacked by the hotel’s overarching defense array.

It is precisely because the defenses here are so impregnable that the rescue party requires time."

"Defenses so impregnable, yet an assassin still managed to slip inside? If not for the strength of our Child of God, our fate would not be so fortunate now—and that includes yours, of course."

"Mr. Sains, perhaps what you should be focusing on right now is this: if this is a deliberate persecution directed specifically at your Lunar Religion, how can you be certain that the rescue team arriving here is not coming to finish you off?"

"You..."

Her hair in disarray, Salaina parted the long strands obscuring her vision while watching the dynamic projection ahead, which depicted Ankara receiving a bookmark from his father.

She asked:

"Captain Karen, do you not suspect that this assassin was arranged by our Lunar Religion?"

Karen shook his head and said, "I do not."

"And why is that?"

"Because the cost-benefit ratio is far too low."

Merely to gain a few compensatory concessions at the negotiating table, it would make little sense to expose a mole embedded deep within another powerful, orthodox church. One could not call it a total loss, but it certainly could not be deemed a great profit... thus, such an elaborate scheme loses all meaning.

Salaina nodded with a smile and pointed to the dynamic scene before them, asking, "I have heard that among the Bishops and higher existences of your Church of Order, there is also a popular custom of gifting bookmarks?"

"Yes."

"Have you ever received one, Captain Karen?"

"Never."

His grandfather had given him two bookmarks. One had been given to the Allen Manor as a betrothal gift; Count Recar had been utterly delighted upon learning of it back then, but when he later discovered that his descendant had inscribed the grand surname of "Raphael" upon that very bookmark, he had nearly bitten the table in half out of sheer rage.

"In truth, I greatly admire the God of Order. I find Him to be exceedingly charismatic, which leads me to believe that there must have been a similar sort of sentiment between the Goddess of the Moon and the God of Order in the past."

Hearing these words, an image involuntarily surfaced in Karen’s mind of his own dog shredding a cushion with its paws.

"I suppose that must be true. As the most exceptional deities of the same era, it is only natural that they would mutually appreciate one another."

In any case, following this conference, it was highly probable that within the mythological narrative system, the God of Order would begin to share an ambiguous, romantic history with Artemis, the Goddess of the Moon.

Thus, whether the descendants of a faith were capable or not mattered greatly; they could not only recruit underlings for their god, but they could also provide their god with a lover.

This brought to mind a prevailing theory that the gods were merely isolated somewhere, residing within another dimension.

This feeling was remarkably akin to the living burning paper offerings for their ancestors, hoping that the departed might enjoy them in the next world.

"I truly hope that one day, Dark Moon Island might be united with us." Salaina looked toward Ophelia, a faint smile gracing the corners of her lips, before she disclosed a secret, "It is highly probable that Dark Moon Island will be used as a bargaining chip by the Church of Order and handed over to our Lunar Religion."

"How could that be possible!" Ophelia looked on, her face filled with utter disbelief.

"There is nothing impossible about it. Dark Moon Island is far too small—so small that in the eyes of an orthodox church, it is merely an interesting little trinket. So long as our Lunar Religion can afford the price, why would the Church of Order not let it go?"

Karen spoke up then, "My Lady, please do not frighten her."

Salaina turned her gaze to Karen, "Oh? You believe it to be impossible?"

"Yes, I believe it is impossible. Just as you said, Dark Moon Island is indeed vastly inferior to an orthodox church. However, the subsequent repercussions and losses brought about by losing or reselling Dark Moon Island would far exceed any value it could ever provide.

If we were to resell Dark Moon Island, how would the Pamires Church view us? How would the Church of the Samsara God view us? And what would those churches and factions who have already entered into cooperative alliances with my Church of Order think of us?

This is a price the Lunar Religion cannot afford to pay. Therefore, please do not frighten her any longer."

"Hehehe."

Salaina burst into laughter.

Karen smiled along with her.

Salaina continued to laugh.

Karen could only accompany her, keeping up the smile.

Salaina kept laughing until the corners of Karen's mouth grew sore, forcing him to stop.

Yet Salaina's laughter did not cease, and suddenly, the expressions of everyone present shifted, realizing something had gone amiss; the previously magnificent and powerful Son of the Moon God now seemed utterly possessed.

Her laughter grew piercing and clear, echoing ceaselessly through the surroundings, and then it drew forth Ankara from every single portrait upon the walls, who all began to laugh in unison.

Portraits of Ankara from various eras, portraits of Ankara in diverse styles of dress—they all broke free from their previous loops of self-narrated tales, laughing together.

The scene was so bizarre it made one's scalp tingle with numbness.

What struck the deepest terror into their hearts was the final, monumental portrait, celebrated as the "Light of Order"; within it, the already torn and shattered Ankara laughed with an even more sinister and ghastly horror.

Suddenly, the laughter stopped dead.

Salaina snapped her head up, fixing her gaze upon Karen, and then she spoke; the moment her mouth opened, every projection of Ankara all around spoke concurrently:

"Well said, truly worthy of being a believer of that wrench Artemis; you really are just like that wrench, both so fond of indulging in such beautiful dreams, hehehe."

———

Asking for monthly tickets, another chapter will be out tomorrow morning.