Chapter 732: Secrets of Antiquity

Henwell and the others had been wrong from the beginning. Neither the Church nor the Empire built Fendicasa.

The statue knight's account reveals a startling truth.

Even Henwell is shaken, despite all his investigations and the vast trove of information at his disposal.

At least three thousand years ago, and perhaps even earlier, a protracted war broke out among the gods.

The statue knight does not know what caused it.

The war had already raged for centuries by the time it was born, and it fought in that war for several centuries more.

It witnessed the final years of the Millennium Divine War. By the time it was more than six hundred years old, the Lord of the Holy Spirit's faction had gained the upper hand.

They drove the opposing gods' influence on the main plane into what is now the Abandoned Continent.

Some of the gods here had remained neutral in the divine war and were originally supposed to mediate. According to the statue knight, however, several of those neutral gods changed sides.

A brutal war followed, spreading from the gods themselves to their mortal followers.

Fendicasa was a war fortress built by the surviving mortal cult of one of the enemy gods.

Several divine factions, including that of the Lord of the Holy Spirit, formed an alliance and attacked Fendicasa.

The statue knight never says it outright, but Henwell suspects the enemy faction followed the Lord of Calamity.

Even with professionals as powerful as the statue knight among the allied forces, the siege of Fendicasa lasted for years.

The fortress held out for so long because the city itself was extraordinary.

Contrary to what Henwell and the others had thought, natural defenses were far from its only advantage.

Fendicasa was no ordinary fortress. It was a mighty floating city!

This ancient magical marvel was an aerial fortress, capable of crossing the sky under its own power.

Without the aid of many extraordinary intelligent races, the war would have dragged on even longer.

Yet unless they eliminated this aerial fortress, the allied forces could not advance eastward past it.

In the end, divine avatars intervened. They besieged the fortress and knocked it from the sky.

Despite suffering devastating losses, the defenders still held off the allied forces for another three years.

When they finally ran out of options, the defenders refused to surrender and opened a dimensional passage.

It connected to the Abyss plane. They hoped an army of Abyssal demons would halt the allied advance.

The tactic worked all too well. The flood of demons inflicted grievous losses on the allied forces.

After a desperate struggle, they managed to force the demons back into the open Well of Destruction, but only briefly.

The statue knight even charged into the Abyss itself and led an army that scattered the demons there.

Two years after the city's capture, just as the allies finished converting it into a forward logistics fortress, agents of the old gods reopened the Well of Destruction.

The Lord of Calamity and the other old gods had already struck a bargain with an Abyssal Lord, and a demon army had assembled in advance.

The moment the Well of Destruction opened, countless demons poured through, and the entire fortress was engulfed in a bitter battle.

The allied forces fought desperately but still failed to stop the demons.

The demon army was on the verge of breaking free. If it succeeded, the entire Fendicasa front would collapse.

To preserve the allied battle line, twelve Domain Masters, the statue knight among them, sacrificed themselves and channeled the gods' power to seal the Well of Destruction.

With their remaining strength, they also sealed the entire city.

Some unknown event afterward caused the whole city to be buried.

After recounting this ancient history, the statue knight continues, "The creatures outside have all been corrupted by the Abyss."

"I will now use the energy I have accumulated to seal this place once more."

"You must notify the Church and have them send people to reinforce the seal as soon as possible."

"The measures in place now are only temporary. The seal will fail within a century at most."

"When that happens, Abyssal demons will descend into this plane through the Well of Destruction once again."

Henwell points toward the five swords in the inner ring and the staff resting on the mound of corpses at its center.

"Your Excellency, what are those? Are they also part of the seal?"

The statue knight answers, "That is the sealing core, created through the blood sacrifice of the old gods' followers. Open it, and the Well of Destruction will activate at once."

"But you need not worry. We sword spirits in the outer ring exist to prevent anyone from opening the inner seal."

"If anyone pulls one of the seals free, the entire area will enter an anti-magic state, and the power of law placed here by the gods will activate."

"It will strip this section of space of its extraordinary properties, reducing our enemies to ordinary mortals."

Understanding dawns on Henwell. "So that is how it works! What an ingenious design!"

"Anyone who removes the inner seal will have to face Your Excellencies' punishment while trapped in an anti-magic state."

"Without extraordinary properties strengthening them, human flesh and blood could never defeat Your Excellencies after your temporary revival."

The statue knight nods. "Exactly. You must warn those who come from the Church after you so they do not make a mistake."

"Otherwise, they will face our bodies driven only by preprogrammed commands. We will be incapable of holding back!"

Henwell says nothing more. The statue knight removes a jade-like badge from its body and hands it to Miller.

After charging Miller with carrying on its legacy, the statue knight returns to the place where its sword once stood.

It slowly begins turning to stone and channels its power into the sealing formation.

Everyone is still marveling at the powerful professional's devotion to humanity when the statue knight, already petrified up to its neck, suddenly barks a furious question.

"What are you doing?"

Henwell is already standing beside the inner sword formation.

He looks down at the sword before him. "How do we open this inner seal? Do I simply pull the sword out?"

"Or is there some other method? A spell, perhaps? Or some sort of ritual?"

The statue knight roars, "You intend to open the seal? Who are you really?"

Henwell ignores it and turns to the Lady of Calamity. "Say something. Are you really going to keep holding out on me now?"

The Lady of Calamity replies, "Do what your heart tells you."

The statue knight stares fixedly at them. "Who are you? Are you remnants of the old gods?"

The Lady of Calamity turns and performs an elaborate salute toward the statue knight. "May calamity share your slumber and dreams."

The statue knight begins, "You are..."

Before it can finish, it turns completely to stone and becomes a lifeless statue once more.

Abbas swallows hard. "Adolf, calm down! You will release the demons. That would be a disaster for the entire continent!"

Henwell reaches out, pulls the sword free, and turns toward the terrified group. "Get ready to fight. The statues will not distinguish the instigators from the innocent!"