Chapter 286: Chapter 138: This Too Is Authority
"You... you want to be resurrected? No, to live forever?!"
Ales stared at Andrews, his black eyes unblinking. A slow smile spread across his aged face. "The Resurrection Coffin doesn’t grant eternal life."
"Then resurrection..." Andrews asked, his voice raspy. "Since when did you have such an idea?"
"Probably after I found out about the Glory Society. You know, I was severely injured that time. My very essence was badly damaged..."
"So, you’ve been planning all this since then?"
"That’s right," Ales nodded crisply. "I knew very well that the Secret Investigation Department’s power wasn’t enough to fight the Dawn Church and the Glory Society. I needed more allies."
"The Abyssal Sect?"
"They’re just one of them."
"’Just one of them...’" Andrews took a deep breath, suppressing his inner shock. "The Eternal Life Association, the Despair Sect, the Red Moon Church?"
"Them? They’re strong enough, but their stance against you of the Dawn Church isn’t clear enough."
"The Storm Church?!"
Compared to factions like the Red Moon Church and the Eternal Life Association, which weren’t very active on the Eastern Continent, the Storm Church had long coveted Caster.
In fact, back in some unknown era, the Storm Church controlled all the coastlines, and the city-states by the sea had the largest populations of Storm believers.
If Ales was collaborating with the Storm Church, then the moment something happened to Krimms Cathedral, all of Caster would return to the embrace of Lady Storm...
This was perhaps the last answer Andrews wanted to consider.
"Heh, and why not?"
Ales’s smile widened. He gently lifted his empty left sleeve, and a force of ultimate darkness gathered at his severed arm, slowly forming a new one: an arm of pure black, with five fingers whose tips were blood-red.
He clenched his new fist and threw a punch.
The seemingly ordinary straight punch actually generated a crackle of black lightning, pulling at everything around it. All the candles went out, plunging the entire chapel into darkness.
Andrews sighed, his expression gradually returning to calm. He had the answer he was looking for...
"Dawn."
A divine radiance rose from his body, once again illuminating the chapel.
Influenced by his Power of Faith, the statue of the Lord of Dawn behind him also began to glow brilliantly. Its stone-carved eyes shimmered, seeming to gain a spark of life.
"I believe the last time we fought was twenty years ago," Ales chuckled. "I wonder if you’ve improved at all!"
"I will stop you, Ales—"
Andrews’s gaze was resolute. "Sanctify!"
An immense and mighty Power of Dawn Faith surged from him and the statue of Dawn behind him, forming a colossal pillar of light that shot out of the Cathedral, pierced the dark clouds, and reached for the heavens.
"Andrews, you..."
’Does he want to awaken the Lord of Dawn and borrow His power?’
Ales glanced at the statue of Dawn, then at the eye he held in his hand, and his smile faded slightly.
In an instant, black lightning reappeared, scoring dozens, even hundreds, of dark cracks across the pure white, holy pillar of light.
Then, he opened his good right hand and pointed vaguely toward the white-haired girl outside the window—or more precisely, toward the enormous phantom that had appeared behind her—and slowly chanted a phrase in the Gonzalez language.
"Tina..."
"Oh? A true name summoning?"
The phantom, a mature woman with white hair and black eyes, shifted her gaze from the Dawn Saint in front of her toward Krimms Cathedral, an enigmatic smile on her face.
"Then, as you wish!"
The phantom woman slowly brought her hands together, her expression growing solemn and grave. Her purple lips parted slightly as she recited several words in the Gonzalez language, their meanings unknown: "Lilith, Rexi, Aus, Sijunen, Luno, Tecsi..."
(Calamity, Death, Darkness, Destruction, Despair, Abyss...)
Gradually, the sound of murmuring echoed through the city-state’s central district, tightly encircling Krimms Cathedral. A power filled with ultimate malice emerged from the void.
At that moment, the ground beneath Tina’s feet began to shake even more violently. Fissures that seemed to connect to the abyss rumbled open, stretching toward the Cathedral as magma erupted fiercely.
Countless bolts of lightning descended from the dark clouds above, but their original silvery-white brilliance had turned into a blackness filled with chilling malice.
For a moment, the sky above Krimms Cathedral was a scene of a heaven-piercing pillar of light encircled by innumerable black lightning bolts. It was like a divine punishment rained down from the gods, and fear enveloped all who witnessed the sight.
Amidst an unending roar, black and white clashed in a frenzied, violent struggle, stirring up tyrannical gales that blew out in all directions.
Opposite Tina, tens of thousands of Dawn Church Holy Professionals stood with solemn expressions. Guardian Knights in white-gold armor held shields at the front of the formation. In the middle were Ascetics in simple tunics, holding the Dawn Covenant. At the very back were the Supporter Holy Order, clad in white-gold robes and waving short staves.
"The night will pass, and the Dawn will last forever."
"May the radiance of the Lord of Dawn forever shine upon the world. May all that is good in the world..."
Facing the terrifying malice and calamity around them, these Holy Professionals solemnly chanted the hymn of Dawn. The Power of Faith emerged from their bodies, like countless points of light connecting to form a layer of divine radiance that resisted the black lightning and roaring gales.
Meanwhile, inside the chapel within Krimms Cathedral, Ales had drawn upon that endless malice to step, alone, into the holy pillar of light, coming to a stop beside Andrews.
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