Chapter 90: The Celestial Tower
To me, the Celestial Tower is a name deeply etched in my memory, as well as one that should have long faded in the past.
Currently, they are a famous evil organisation in the world. In the eyes of the world, they are equal to the famous Druid Kindness Movement Association (Animal Kindness Druid Association), a bunch of mad dogs who bite anyone they manage to lay their hands on.
Just like how bad-reputed organisation often have a noble goal initially, the Celestial Tower was also initially built on ideals.
Regardless of whether it is the Celestial Mages who are skilled in astrology, the Witches who can divine fate or the Mages who are adept in the art of prophecy, on a certain level, they are all able to peer into the future. Thus, under the leadership of a highly-respected Mage, the Celestial Tower was built on the ideal of ‘using prophecies to make life for the better and to avoid calamities’.
Then, how did an organisation with such lofty ideals turn into the ill-reputed mad dogs of today?
Initially, the Celestial Tower’s warnings towards natural disasters worked extremely well. At that era, the prophecy skills were very different from the current weak ones. Back then, the prophecy magic system was quite advanced and effective. Connected to the God of Fate and the Strings of Fate, they really managed to avoid calamities and disasters.
After a golden era, roughly around AD200, the Celestial Tower met with trouble. No matter how heavy the price they paid, they are unable to peer into affairs beyond a certain time period.
In the end, they came up with a conclusion. From a certain year onward, the Eich Continent would be a blank slate.
If it was only one seer, they would think that it was due to their lacking abilities. However, if all of the seers reached the same conclusion, then there can only be one answer — The world has been destroyed, there is no future beyond that.
Alright, prophesying the end of the world isn’t a good thing but at the very least, knowing that it would happen, they could think of ideas to overcome it.
But, their efforts were in vain. No matter how they prophesied and divined, they only received a single answer — This world doesn’t have a future, they were unable to even confirm where the destruction originated from.
Of course, I can understand the reason why they are unable to divine it. All of the lifeforms in the world originate from the Order and the Chaos. Naturally, you would be unable to prophesy that the destruction which originated from the Mother of all beings, even less so, prophesy the timing of the occurrence.
Alright, this is feels like the turmoil of someone on the death row awaiting his sentence. Unable to obtain any answers, they waited despairingly day after day as doomsday approaches. Then, a coincidence happened, one that would relight their flames of hope.
Due to an intervention by the Celestial Tower, a certain young man who was prophesied to become a hero in the future met with an accident, causing the future surrounding him to be unable to be seen.
The actions of a seer would cause changes in the future? The untimely deaths of historical figures and heroes will affect the entire history? If the fate of the entire world is rattled past a certain extent, will the world which is fated to be destroyed be preserved?
Alright, since there is no clear solution to this malady, they decided to try all the possible remedies. Through such a logic, the Celestial Tower found the most direct way to changing fate — Causing the untimely deaths of historical figures and heroes.
Normally, a seer will try his best to prevent their prophecy from affecting the target of their prophecy. On the contrary, the Celestial Tower began on their rampage — Hunting down historical figure and shaking the future back into an unknown state.
This isn’t an easy task. After all, it is hard to divine accurately a specific prophecy and on many occasions, it all comes down to luck. Not to mention, the seer getting involved in the situation will just make it even more chaotic. Under such circumstances, if an unlucky fellow were to cross the path of the Celestial Tower… Hehe, do you think that a future legendary hero would have the ability to resist them as an infant?
The dragon-slaying hero who would save the masses became slandered as an evil incarnation of demons, the great engineer who pioneered the development of technology became an unpardonable villain and the Sacred Priestess who saved a country from a calamity got burnt on a stake as a witch. Lies were spewing out from the previously respected seers. Due to their meddling, the path of fate became muddled.
Indubitably, this is an act of flipping the table during a poker game where one is fated to lose. Since it will just end in a loss, something good might come out from messing around with it. This is the desperation of the seers who were driven up the wall.
Due to them overdoing it, the Strings of Fate of the God of Fate became messed up, alarming the Order Gods who rarely interfere in the mortal world. They sent retribution down upon them, destroying their main headquarters. Only then, did they halt their actions for a moment.
After the retribution, the God of Fate took back a large portion of the divination abilities and techniques that he left in the mortal world and cut the connection between his Palace of Fate in the Heavenly Realm and the seers in the mortal world, causing the standards for divination in the entire world to fall steeply. This was an event that occurred over a thousand years ago.
Today, the prophesied doomsday has still yet to come but their sins of killing the future heroes floated to the surface. Eventually, the Celestial Tower became a huge joke. But, I know that their prophecies weren’t wrong. The calamity is just right ahead.
To this date, a prophecy directed towards one’s future is the greatest taboo a seer could commit. The seers of recent times only divine events and not humans. However, it seems that the Celestial Tower has yet to be completely destroyed. They are still hiding in a corner, continuing their unfinished job.
However, it is hard to say whether they have gone mad from trying to save the world or whether they just want to seek vengeance against the Order Gods and the entire world.
The prophecy regarding me and Karwenz from 300 years ago came from them. They also had a hand to play in forcing us up the corner.
During my adventuring afterwards, I found their trails in the shadows. Thus, after turning into Emperor Yongye, I dug then up one by one from the corners and slaughtered them one after another.
However, looking at the charred corpse before me in this instant, the insignia of constellations and an eye on the ring on its finger clearly shows that I wasn’t thorough enough back then.
“The darned remains of the Celestial Tower. To think you all still have the guts to appear before me!”
————-
In a pitch black room, the seats lit up one by one. All of the participants in this meeting were silent for a long period of time. Eventually, the person on the chairman’s seat spoke.
“Darsos is already getting impatient. Are there still no reports from our scouts?”
“Hmph, the King of Winter Wolves? Lord Lamos’s Eye, I say that we should kill him, not cooperate with him.”
“Calm down, our current goal is to wipe away the Mist Bloodline. We can talk about other things later. It has already been a week, is there still no news? Darsos is starting to express his dissatisfaction against us.”
There is really no mistake in calling them mad dogs. When the divination techniques regressed, their targets expanded from ‘future historical figures and future heroes’ to ‘historical figures and heroes’. Anyone of high standing working with them had to be wary of them. It is hard to tell when the knife would be directed towards them.
“You know that the presence of a Church of true God means that the land is a territory of the God, and this will result in the divination techniques of humans to be discounted. At the same time, our scouts also met with some troubles.”
“Un?”
“We sent a few Druids who can transmogrify into crows…”
In the Church, Casio is napping under a tree. But, whenever a bird appears in the airspace of the Church, a golden line will cut through the skyline and following a caw, it would fall to the ground. A few knights would then rush to pick it up. This wildlife would serve well as an additional dish for their dinner.
“Although I don’t understand why Rolande wanted me to shoot down all flying creatures, this is still a good opportunity for me to train my archery.”
“… All crows were shot down by an archer. If it weren’t for the great agility they displayed while fleeing, they might have ended up as dinner.”
“Looks like they are guarded. What about our reconnaissance team? Our master Thieves.”
“They were all blasted to the skies. The entire backyard is filled with Gnome landmines as well as all kinds of chain explosives and robot alarms. The security is even tighter than a Gnome bank. We suspect that there are at least 4 to 5 master engineers who live in the Church.”
By the corner of the wall of the backyard, Clint is in the middle of doing something when his ears suddenly twitch. Then, carrying a basket, he immediately escapes. As expected, someone comes chasing him right after.
“Damn it, Clint. You are burying landmines all around again. How many times have we said, products of engineering are dangerous and can’t be left about casually. What if it explodes on some passer-by? Even if it doesn’t explodes on others, destroying plants and flowers aren’t good as well! Look at how many times have we fixed this wall of the backyard. Yesterday, when I met with the bricklayer, he asked me if I wanted to buy a monthly maintenance pass. Tell me, if the Church of the God of Law turns into the Church of the God of Explosions, will old man Wumianzhe send a strike of lightning down in rage? Hey, listen to me! Stop running!”
Diyer (finally he gets a name!), the Law Incantationer who had travelled with Krose, his traits are… Un, everyone has witnessed that for themselves, extremely naggy. However, he seems to be the nemesis of the silent Clint, which is also why I immediately chose to task him with the job of keeping watch on the explosion maniac.
“What about our Chief Spy, Feng Die? He can easily impersonate a worshiper to sneak in right? Given his experience, he should be able to easily get past that Holy Knight who is pretending to be strolling about at the entrance but is actually keeping watch.”
TL: Feng Die literally means Phoenix Butterfly. Pronunciation for die (di-ye)
“He…”
Feng Die is known as the Thousand Faces and specialises in impersonating all kinds of women. This time, he was quite successfully in impersonating a rich lady and managed to get close with his primary target, Princess Reyne, just that…
“Sin-Splitting Strike!” After a feminine roar, the silver-colored sacred sword, which was radiating silver light, flew out of her hands.
“Tee hee, my grip accidentally loosened.” Even though Reyne tries her best to act cute, it is unable to cover the fact that she actually managed to turn a swing into a throw.
Kelly shakes her head helplessly. Even though Reyne was making good progress under Roland’s skillful tutelage after switching to become a Justice Knight, her swordsmanship talent that is way past the golden growing primetime is just too horrible. At least, within a period of time, her swordsmanship will remain as one others will find it hard to look at straight.
Then, following the trajectory of the sword with her eyes, she saw the Roland Sacred Sword stabbing in between the thighs of a rich lady. She immediately panics.
“Priest! There is a wounded here… Un? A male? Spy? Knights, gather. I think we better call an undertaker first.”
After hearing that their most capable spy was exposed in such a ridiculous manner, the Auland branch head of the Celestial Tower, Lamos’s Eye, is in a state of disbelief.
“It feels like ridiculous things will happen the moment we try to get close with that Church. Is that a Church of the God of Law or a Church of the God of Misfortune!”
“该死！对了，我们的潜行大师了？无影行者狄克亚了？从来没有他不能进入的地方，他怎么了，他可不是会被厄运打败的对手，难道连他也失败了？”
“Darn it! Right, what about our master of concealment? Shadowless Treader Decka? There has never been a place where he can’t enter. What about him? He isn’t someone who would be defeated by bad luck. It can’t be that he failed as well?”
“He…”
Shadowless Treader Decka. He is famous in certain regions. It is said there isn’t a single treasure vault that he is unable to enter and that he had once successfully robbed a Blue Dragon. Lamos’s Eye spent much effort to get him into the organisation.
He is only a Silver-rank Thief but he possesses a legendary artifact that allowed him to move as he please
【Sewage Cloak, Legendary Artifact: The wearer will be turned into a mouse and be receive 95% reduction from physical damage】
Using this artifact, he is able to sneak into the treasure vault of any kingdom as he please. Even if he were to meet with a powerful enemy who was able to see through his disguise, he had always managed to sneak away with that near immunity to physical damage.
“The final transmission from that lord was ‘why is there a magic cat here!!’.”
It is about dinner time for the Church of Law and when a certain cat jumped onto the table, I scooped it up and threw it one side.
“Go, play by one side. Who knows whether you have eaten some dead rats and cockroaches.”
“Bastard, I am not a real cat. Besides, even if I am a real cat, I will be enjoying piles of fish and meat everyday. If I were to go hunting for rats, it would be only to play with my prey, there is no reason for me to eat it. Hmph, to think that I had a treasure that I wanted to show you. Such a heartless person, forget it then.”
“What treasure?” Hearing the word treasure, my heart immediately moves.
“Hehe, a transmogrification cloak. It is very suited for you. Do you want to try putting it on?”
“Hehe, you think that I’m a fool? Seeing how you are taking the initiative to pass such stuff to me, it is definitely a cursed item to turn me into a rat or a squirrel. It can’t be that I will turn into a slime… Looks like my guess is spot-on, you darned cat. No more dinner for you, go eat your rats!”
At the same time, a short wounded figure is struggling in the backyard.
“Darn it, what a fearsome Meow Alien. To think that it would be skilled in the art of brawling and capable of both magic and physical attacks. I almost died from it. Cough, it is fortunate that it left after taking the cloak. Cough, yet another mouthful of blood. Looks like I am quite severely wounded . I probably won’t be able to escape from the main entrance or by flipping over the wall. The sewage it is then.”
After struggling to open the sewage cover and forcefully squeeze himself in it, he realised that someone has beat him to it and is currently waiting for him there.
“How could there be someone here. If you’re the same as me, a peer, then please give… Wait, it’s not a real person. Gnome Exploding Dummy!! To think it would be in the sewage! Who would be that bored!”
“Boom!!” “Boom!”
There seems to be a significant amount of gunpowder in it. The entire mansion trembled under the explosion. When I shot my gaze towards the dinner table, Clint immediately gets up and reports.
“Report! Following your orders, I have settled all of the unstable explosives by throwing them into the sewage.”
“The sewage? Hehe, whose thief is it, to be so unlucky? It’s okay, you did well. Work harder next time.”
【Ding! Congratulations, your Aura of Plague has brought misfortune to its 100th target and has evolved into the Star of Misfortune Aura. The effect of the aura will be boosted by 50% and its effects will prioritise your enemies first. Now that you have reached the 100 mark, you aren’t that far from 1000. Work harder. — That lad is really unlucky. Anyway, it would be best for you to take a look. Your old friend is there. 】 At this time, the System couldn’t resist popping out.
When I got to the scene of the explosion, I found the familiar insignia of the Celestial Tower and immediately knew that I met with an old friend. In that instant, I flew into a rage.
“For a being like mad dogs, the appearance of one means that there would be a den of them around. Kelly, I will be going out for awhile. I will leave matters here to you. Diana and Krose, follow me. We will be hunting mad dogs.”