"This is surely the place, the Lord's City of Silence" the Grand Priest waved his hand to summon a light blue flickering flame, which then lit up a flash of light underground.
During the last two days, he had led the cult through a secret path to finally reach the hallway of the ruin, as he watched their surroundings, everyone was full of excitement.
After all, the Soundless Cult originally developed from one of the three Lord Gods of the elves, the God of Silence that they worshiped was none other than the Dim Silence Envoy, one of the three prominent elven Gods.
The Divine Script that they used in their cult writing was also an imitation from the original elven script, and considering how many elven traces there were within this hallway, the Soundless cultists couldn't feel anything except hysteric joy.
"But, why does it seem like someone has already been here?"
Observing the marks of battle in their surroundings, the Grand Priest frowned. The Soundless Cult had already exerted all of their power during this occasion, akin to a last-ditch resort, so he didn't want anyone to even have the chance to ruin their awakening ritual.
"A crucial fruit must go through some hardship to become truly delectable, does it not?" Noah lightly told him: "Our operation wasn't exposed, merely two individuals who happened to make it inside before we did. One of them is Chromie of the Saint Hunters, while the other is Darr from the Hermit Order"
"Just a couple of small-fries'' the Grand Priest briefly recalled the information they had on these two, then quickly disregarded them. Although the Soundless Cult had grown to be much weaker than before, they weren't to the point of being afraid of a couple of small-fries, especially since they mobilized everyone in the cult together with the entirety of the cult's accumulated strength over all these years.
If they still couldn't handle a couple of small-fries in this situation, they would be better off retiring to the countryside, not developing a cult.
Without much worries, the Grand Priest quickly led his people into the elven ruin and began their exploration.
Under the organized and systematic sweep, the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts didn't prove to even be a nuisance.
If said nicely, the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts were remnant elves, but if said frankly, they were essentially ash and soot that couldn't even bear the slightest bit of ember to prolong their last flame.
Unable to utilize mana, no intelligence to speak of, helpless to even band together and cooperate, other than their slightly superhuman constitutions, these Gluttonous Demon Ghosts were even less trouble than some mutated blood of evil monsters.
Some experiments confirmed that not even their blood carried any values, the end of the world came for the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts.
Large numbers of Soundless Cultists wielded machetes and entered another aspect of reality, attacking the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts from within.
The Gluttonous Demon Ghosts were highly sensitive to mana, and the power that the Soundless cultists used within the aspect of silence was highly similar to mana; yet they were still helplessly slaughtered by the Soundless cultists.
After all, recognition was still just recognition in the end. These creatures who craved nothing but mana had already lost their ability to actually use that mana during their long years of existence. They could recognize being approached by the Soundless cultists, but were unable to retaliate and simply lost their lives screeching, howling like beasts. In summary, the Gluttonous Demon Ghosts had become a race that wasn't worthy of receiving salvation.
Perhaps after a few thousand more years, life might find a way, but not right now. Right now, they were merely animals, and in fact, if Chromie had been in a better state at the time, he wouldn't have been afraid of these things at all.
…
"More outsiders?" Pernod was carrying a grass lantern in his hand. The dim emerald light combined with Pernod's eerie appearance caused him to appear gloomily terrifying.
"But that's none of my business" standing on top of the Mother Tree's withered branch, Pernod observed the entire ruin below with nothing but deep sorrow on his face.
He wasn't a decent person in the first place. After all, he was the one who suggested using criminals as energy sources for the experiments, even after some of his researchers started consuming those criminals, he didn't stand out to stop them. He stood by the seemingly grand excuse of doing it for the sake of the elven race as a whole, but in reality, he was merely a selfish person.
The sprout was originally conceived a lot sooner than he had expected, and even back then, the sprout could have formed a miniature mana network, which was more than enough for the remaining elves to live on. Once it stabilized and the mana circulation cycle was established, the total amount of mana would have grown more and more; in other words, he actually had the chance to put a stop to the disaster and rebuild the elven race.
However, partly due to his own greed, and partly due to the will of the Moon Tree's secret manipulations, Pernod hesitated, lured by the dream of becoming the new Lord God to conquer and lead his own compatriots, his malice manifested itself.
The long years of loneliness that followed was his punishment, which allowed Pernod to come to his senses. Due to the mana he used originating from the sprout, from a certain point of view, he managed to escape from the Moon Tree's control, which slowly allowed him to understand everything that had happened, but it was already too late.
All of his kind had already become monsters, while he became dependent on the sprout. Once his mana supply was cut off, he would rapidly age and expose his true self as a withered Gluttonous Demon Ghost.
However, to his current self, even survival itself was a kind of torture, torture that would come to an end today.
Pulling his cloak up, he exposed his ashen grey body that was already full of protrusions, Pernod took a knife and chopped off a piece of his own flesh without hesitation, adding it into a pot with various herbs and continuously stirred, incorporating it into the medicinal water.
Without a mana circulation cycle, the sprout also required mana replenishment, and it had always been Pernod who periodically hunted Gluttonous Demon Ghosts and brewed this 'fertilizer' for the sprout; but right now, this medicinal water was being brewed for Chromie.
He is a mere half-elf who had just turned a few days ago, how would he possibly generate enough mana by himself to cultivate enough mana to manifest the Mana Eye?
Even if he is the puppet chosen by that entity, it is impossible.
Pernod then smirked self-deprecatingly.
What right do I have to mock someone else as a puppet?
I myself am a puppet as well, and one that is about to be broken to boot.
"However, a puppet with its own will isn't a good puppet"
Pernod peered downward once again before carrying the medicinal water down the tree. Perhaps even his current actions were under the other party's control, perhaps his own dying struggles seemed like nothing but a joke in the other party's eyes, but as a living being, he had his own persistence.
…
"Attack, the key to awakening God lies within that tree" the Grand Priest's gaze became boiling hot as he watched the source of mana from far, confirming that the crucial item they needed was inside.
The Soundless Cult had studied a lot of elven knowledge, despite making many wrong assumptions due to their own biased views, they had still managed a certain level of understanding towards much of the elven heritage.
"The Court of Gods, the World Tree, the Tree of Life; all of these titles refer to the authority of God" the Grand Priest's hand clutched his scepter so tightly that it was pale white, they had managed to use the blood of evil to obtain warped mana through the God of Silence within the other aspect of reality.
However, doing this meant that their strength was forever limited to a certain level. The blood of evil was the key to mana without a doubt, but despite their long years of research, the curse upon the blood of evil had consistently remained an issue. Even if they suppressed it, once the blood of evil reached a certain limit, they would also mutate without fail.
And thus, the descent of God can not be prolonged any further!!
The Grand Priest's expression was full of hysterical joy. As long as God returned to his seat, all of their plights so far would be resolved, and they would receive glory granted by God.
