Silent Crown

 There was complete silence. The stone knife sliced across the throat of the swollen woman, cutting off the blood vessel on her throat. In that instant, the woman was completely stunned. Her swollen body began to tremble violently. She raised her head suddenly and let out a piercing cry of despair.

It was a horrible cry. It was sharp and insane, as if millions of fetus were dying in her womb, or millions of children were being born. It was a mixture of pain, insanity and also happiness.

She was screaming, shrieking and also singing. Her sharp voice pierced through every parts of the land and reverberated in everyone’s ears. Everyone could only see darkness as they were all almost scared out of their wits by the terrifying cry.

Soon after, blood gushed out from her wound. It was hard to fathom that so much blood could be stored in that swollen body. Blood gushed out so rapidly from the gigantic wound that it was like a waterfall of blood.

There seemed to be no end to the blood flow and a sea of blood was gradually being formed. It represented the red elemental quality of the Dark Gaia pouring into the deepest part of the Ultimate, adding a layer of red to the countless shimmer of silver.

In the end, not even the body remained. Only Paganini, who was still holding onto the knife, stood alone on the platform and was looking down on the sea of blood that was gradually mixing with silver light.

Since then, the world no longer existed within the Dark Gaia… Paganini threw the Dark Gaia into the depths of the Ultimate. As one of the Four Living Creatures, it was able to provide water for this baby, that was about to be born. It was also able to more than make up for all the deficiencies with hundreds of times of power.

This was the pure power of life!

There was a roar from the whirlpool. Beneath the blood-red whirlpool, there seemed to be a gigantic uterus and within it was the movements of a catastrophe. The elements that the Sacred City had spent so much effort to infuse into it were broken all of a sudden. Instead, the elements of the Changing Music Theory and the Dark Gaia have already been tightly fused with the core of the Ultimate and could no longer be separated.

The entire Ultimate was trembling violently. The ancient building has already collapsed completely and the waves crashed relentlessly. Countless spots of mud fell from the sky and landed onto the ground to form a small man that was the size of a thumb. It ran around killing before dying again very quickly to return back to the dust.

Catastrophe was about to be born!

—

At the same time, a crow landed on the shoulder of a knight just outside of the Sacred City. The flaming-red horse hooves were buried within the mud. Water evaporated and released a foul odor. The blood-red war horse advanced slowly, one step at a time, all the while stomping on the corpses that have been littered everywhere. Far away, in the Iron City, the sound of the bell could be heard booming throughout as figures rose up to the sky, one after another, to be on guard to face a great enemy. In contrast, the expression of the knight on the war horse remained dull. His body was stiff and his eyes showed no spirit, as if there was no soul in him whatsoever.

That was because it was just a puppet. Its body was made from willow twigs; its face was made from the core of the tree; it was made to look more majestic by decorating it with gemstones and its 10 fingers were made from skillful carvings.

But none of these could change its true nature, for it was put in place by something that was of a much deeper level. As a result, it would be pure and would not harbor any intentions to kill. It was not human, yet it was better than humans. It did not have a soul, and neither would it need one. It was created to be a weapon. When Hyakume shredded the abyss, it gave this puppet the true nature of the abyss, as well as the sense of duty towards Hyakume.

“Destroyer is here! Destroyer is here! Destroyer is here!” On the shoulder of the willow twig knight, the crow’s eyes were bloodshot as it crowed, “All beings with blood are like grass, yet all grass must dry and all flowers must wilt one day. Between blood and death, destruction is coming!”

The blood-red war horse stepped forward. The sparks of molten rocks beneath its hooves rose into the sky, turning the sky into a burning-hot iron curtain. Beneath the iron curtain, stars rose from the Sacred City.

The majestic bell rang once again. For five times.

The Holy Spirits awoke in the coffin. Under the will of Nibelungenlied, the black metal door of the hall of heroic souls opened gradually. Countless beams of light rose from the ground and floating in the sky as they shone like stars. Agni turned into a gigantic flaming-red star. The wind and lightning of the Holy Spirit would forever be entangled, as they brought about hurricanes and thunder to form a binary star…

The bell never stopped ringing and every time it rang, a crack that led to the realm of aether would open. Endless aether would gush out and irrigate the stars so that the latter would continue to shimmer, until thousands of them shone on the land.

The Holy Spirits were finally waking up after such a long time. Hundreds of hymn groups were all busy try to sing the songs and praises of the Holy Spirits. Amidst their voices, light turned into armors and long swords so that the Holy Spirits were fully armed. But it was those that were alive that reacted much quicker than the Holy Spirits.

The scepter musicians that have been practicing in the monastery were the first to turn into blistering light. The first to bear the brunt was the elderly Orlando. Orlando already knew when he would die and had even prepared the process of turning into a Holy Spirit. At this moment, he no longer looked old and frail, and looked full of youth instead. His hair was shimmering with gold and his body was well-built like a demi god. The metallic alchemy formation has already been mounted on his body and the power of scepter coursed through it.

The majestic howl reverberated between the sky and the ground, as if countless whales were singing together at the same time. Wherever the blistering light went, gullies would crack open and extend outwards from the Sacred City. In the blink of an eye, across many kilometers, the song of Orlando set the elements in motion and trigger an incredible power from the realm of aether to crash towards the physical world.

With a single hit, the entire sea of aether trembled, as if a terrible blow has been produced from the realm of aether that would extend downwards and pierce through nine layers of sea of aether. But in the next instant, before the terrible blow could surface, it has already completely dissipated.

The willow twig knight raised its head and the two red rubies on its face showed the reflection of Orlando’s image. He raised his fingers and struck. No one could see what happened, but in the next instant, he was already gripping Orlando’s throat. Within the grasp of his fingers, the scepter broke apart.

Shortly after that, the right arm was raised before it sent the knife crashing down. There was a clear and crisp sound as fresh blood spurted out. Orlando’s head fell cleanly from the well-built body, as if a ripe melon had fallen from a tree. Soon after, a second one followed.

The sound of knife cutting through bone was clear and crisp as heads rolled onto the ground one by one, only to be trampled by the war horse’s hooves. Regardless of Master or scepter, they all suffered the same fate.

Very soon, all the musicians have increased the distance between themselves and the knight. In order to avoid any more casualties from the knife that could not be seen, the Cardinal Bishop has ordered that only the musicians that specialized in long-distance music theory structures would step onto the battlefield, under the heavy protection of the Knights Templar.

Soon after, the scream of the war horse tore through the entire path as a red beam of light suddenly shot out and across a distance of thousands of meters. But in the very next instant, the red light has already returned to its original spot.

The willow twig knight was completely charred black and its body was blazing with flames like a meteor. Soon after, the terrifying gullies appeared on the battlefield and wherever the red light swept across, everything in its path would be completely broken down.

It did not matter if it was a knight or musician, and whether he was wearing an armor or holding a shield, everything was no longer what they seemed. The terrifying shriek finally came. Even if there were thousands of soldiers and horses against a single red war horse carrying a dull-looking puppet, all of the former were completely scared out of their wits.

“All the musicians that are not of the upper-tier caliber, please step back.”

The Holy Spirit that had woken up was staring at the war horse that was slowly approaching them. It sighed, “This is one of the Four Living Creatures that Hyakume created before his death. They are the clones of his hatred against the world. To humans, this is the incarnation of ‘war’. Only war can destroy war. Other than that, anyone else would only be sacrificing themselves for nothing.”

Everyone looked terrible. 10 minutes ago, this has already shaken the entire Sancta Sedes. If they were forced to interfere again, the Sacred City would lose its authority and presence.

“Don’t worry. Let me do it.”

The anonymous Holy Spirit stretched out his hand and the priest of the showroom of holy weapons stepped forward to present him with a heavy bronze horn. Patches of dried blood could still be seen on the horn, along with some spots of rust.

‘Horn of Disaster’!

Even as everyone heaved a sigh of relief in their hearts, they still took a step back unknowingly. There was respect and fear in their eyes.

A hundred years ago, when the lighthouse of the Sacred City was first built, a few scepters of the School of Revelation had borrowed the lighthouse and the power of Nibelungenlied to create this artifact. Unfortunately, it went against The Way of Prophecy that the School of Revelation pursued. Therefore, after exhausting all ways and means, they finally combined it with the power of the Holy Bible in order to focus on guiding the fates of every phenomenon towards the same destination. It could be said that its mere presence was an act of blasphemy against the School of Revelation.

All these alone would not have incited such fear in everyone. However, according to historical records, every single person that has wielded this weapon has had their fates deserted. Nothing good awaited any of them and even their future generations were not spared. The Indian prophets and curse musicians named this power as ‘karma’, and karma would always achieve an equilibrium at the end of the day. In order to leverage karma, one would have to use his own fate in exchange.

This was a lose-lose situation.

To a Holy Spirit, the price of using this weapon was the complete destruction of his presence. The moment the horn was blown, he would be crushed into nothingness by the incredible pressure of the realm of aether and the rebounding of the Originator, and his consciousness would be lost. Of course, the enemy would not end up well either.

In that instant, the horn was blown loud and clear.