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“King of Withering’s… flame.”
Mu’en instinctively looked at his wrist.
Although it was normally unnoticeable, when wisps of firelight flickered in his pupils, he could clearly see the fingerprint-like marks extending from his cuffs.
That was the mark left by the King of Withering on him.
Although that power was no longer merely given, but rather the “Divine Chosen” acquired through important information exchanged with the Black Book, Mu’en still held lingering doubts about it.
After all, it was an Evil God.
Yet, he had to admit that the power of the Divine Chosen was very strong.
He could see that strength from An and Celicia; if he wanted to obtain power as quickly as possible, this was undoubtedly the shortest shortcut.
“Actually, the reason I started studying magic was to separate from this power.”
Mu’en said with a bitter smile:
“But who would have thought that I would still end up accepting it?”
“I already told you, power itself is neither good nor evil. What matters is the person using the power; even the power of an Evil God is like that.”
Meila said, lightly curling her finger, and a delicate flower floated up into her hand.
She gently caressed the flower, making it bloom more beautifully, then crushed it in her grasp.
“So, if one day you are not satisfied with this power and turn to the King of Withering for more…”
At that moment, a chill surged.
Mu’en’s vision suddenly turned red with blood, and countless flowers blooming appeared to transform into blades flowing with blood.
Teacher Meila stared at him calmly, but Mu’en felt a frantic buzzing of premonition of death.
“I will personally kill you.”
The blood-red vision disappeared, and the sea of flowers swayed beautifully.
As if everything was an illusion.
But only the sweat-drenched back made Mu’en understand that once he truly threw himself into the arms of the King of Withering, Teacher Meila would surely kill her newly acquired disciple without hesitation.
“That won’t happen.”
Mu’en wiped away the cold sweat and said seriously:
“Don’t I already have Teacher Meila now?”
“……”
Meila was slightly taken aback, then laughed softly, “It seems the rumors were not false after all?”
“Um?”
“Never mind, do you have any questions about the weapons? Time is tight, ask quickly.”
“Questions?”
Mu’en waved the short knives, feeling that with the reinforcement of these two short blades, his long-neglected dagger combat skills showed signs of advancing to a higher level.
“There aren’t many questions, but are there any points I should pay attention to regarding your usage, Teacher Meila? Like how often should I maintain them or something?”
“Generally, living weapons have self-repair and cleaning abilities, so you don’t have to worry. As for points to note…”
Meila thought casually and said:
“As long as you don’t wave them around in front of people from the Church of Life, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“Oh, is that so? Then I definitely won’t… Hey? Wait a minute.”
Mu’en reacted, widening his eyes to ask:
“What do you mean by not waving them around in front of the Church of Life? Is there something about these two weapons that they can’t see?”
Mu’en felt a bit flustered; after all, that was the Church, and if he got into trouble with them, it would be a big mess.
“Not really.”
Meila shrugged nonchalantly:
“It’s just that the materials for these two knives were the Holy Swords of the Church of Life. It wouldn’t be good for those petty believers to see them.”
“Oh, I see, so you just reforged the Holy Sword into short knives. That doesn’t sound like a big deal… Wait, that’s not right!”
Mu’en shouted in panic:
“Which Holy Sword? Teacher Meila, you wouldn’t be saying it’s one of the five Holy Swords of the Church of Life, would you?”
“Five? Aren’t there seven?”
Meila looked puzzled:
“Did they lose two more while I was sleeping? Well, that doesn’t matter; there are only four left, right?”
“Is it really that Holy Sword?”
Mu’en’s hand gripping the knife trembled. “W-why do that? Isn’t it better to just use it directly?”
Every man has a dream of wielding a Holy Sword to slay evil; Mu’en thought that if he could use a Holy Sword, he might even re-train in swordsmanship.
But he didn’t expect Teacher Meila to go this far and directly refine the Holy Sword?
If the Church of Life finds out, Teacher Meila, as a top expert, might be fine, but he, Mu’en, would definitely be burned at the stake!
“I had no choice; the Holy Sword has the Church’s mark on it. It’s too troublesome to decipher, so I just melted it all together.”
Meila looked at it as if she was smashing a safe that was too hard to crack.
“……”
“Don’t worry, it’s not as scary as you think.”
Seeing Mu’en still in a daze, Meila continued to reassure him:
“After all, it’s already been melted like this. Unless you’re unfortunate enough to run into a high-ranking bishop, it shouldn’t be easy to detect.”
“……What if I really am that unlucky?”
He could pass on other things, but he had never been afraid of bad luck.
It might just happen that he wanted to go out to show off with the two knives and ran into a group of bishops from the Church of Life having a team-building event.
“In that case…”
Meila thought for a moment:
“You could try to fight desperately.”
“Oh? Does that mean Teacher Meila has a backup plan?” Mu’en’s eyes brightened.
“No.”
Meila said seriously:
“It would just be a more dignified way to die.”
“……”
…………
“Alright, the pleasant chitchat time is over. Shall we get to the main topic?”
Meila stretched lazily, her small face looking much more serious. She looked at Mu’en and asked:
“Do you know the essence of divinity?”
“The essence of divinity?”
Mu’en was taken aback, not expecting Teacher Meila to start with such profound content.
But…
“Divinity… isn’t it just divinity?”
Mu’en recalled the original text and found the descriptions of divinity to be quite vague.
This made Mu’en somewhat annoyed.
Indeed, one should never read half a novel; at the very least, one should finish it. Otherwise, if one really travels into the world of the book one day, they wouldn’t even know such an important concept.
“What so-called divinity is…”
Meila was about to explain when she suddenly froze, knocked her head, and stuck out her tongue:
“Ah, I almost forgot. I am one of the seven who signed the original silence treaty, so I can’t say such things.”
“Eh?”
Mu’en was taken aback, then looked angrily at the white-haired loli who was maliciously acting cute:
“Teacher Meila! Do you know which two types of people I hate the most?”
“Um?”
“One type is people who leave things half-said, and the other type…”
“The other type?” Meila tilted her head, waiting for the continuation.
“……”
………
“Alright, back to the subject.”
With an expressionless face, Meila retracted her tiny fist and looked at Mu’en, who was writhing on the ground like a grub holding his abdomen, and asked:
“You’ve been here for a while; have you noticed any differences between this place and before?”
“Differences?”
Because of Meila’s loli punch causing him to arch like a grub, Mu’en struggled to lift his head and look around.
The seemingly endless blue sky remained, and the gentle breeze from afar was still refreshing. If there was something different…
“Flowers.”
Mu’en said:
“They’re flowers. The flowers now are different colors from those when I first entered.”
When Mu’en first entered, the flowers in the sea were colorful, but now, all the flowers in sight were pure white.
“That’s right, the flowers are different.”
Meila nodded in appreciation of Mu’en’s sharp observation, then asked:
“Do you know why they are different?”
“Because…”
Mu’en thought for a moment: “These flowers change colors?”
“Nice thought, but that’s not the reason. The flowers are different because they have truly changed.”
“What do you mean?” Mu’en was a bit dazed by Meila’s statement.
Meila did not answer but, amidst Mu’en’s puzzled gaze, picked up her watering can again and began to water.
The flowers, being nourished by the water, became even more vibrant, and even the branches seemed to stand taller.
No, it wasn’t just seeming.
In Mu’en’s astonished view, all the flowers around Teacher Meila rapidly bloomed and stretched at a visibly fast pace, and then, after a moment of splendor, quickly withered.
The sea of flowers disappeared, turning into desolate land.
Then, from the bare black soil, new sprouts rapidly emerged.
Sprouting, branch splitting, leaves dividing; flowers bloomed.
Intensely red, filling Mu’en’s entire vision.
Then, once again, they withered.
“What a pity; I still can’t grow the pink ones I wanted.”
Meila sighed softly and then looked at Mu’en:
“Have you discovered something?”
“This is…”
Mu’en was still in a daze, but after all, he had faced Evil Gods before, so he quickly regained his senses:
“Time?”
“Good enlightenment; this is the power of time.”
Meila said:
“Although I can’t tell you what exactly divinity is, one thing you can know is that among the many powers held by the gods, time and space do not exist.
In other words, the laws of time and space, in a certain sense, are leaderless.”
“Leaderless?”
Mu’en couldn’t help but widen his eyes.
Because from Teacher Meila’s tone, it seemed that these two laws, which even gods cannot control, were under control.
“So—
Now, keep your eyes wide open, my lovely disciple.
Watch the fruits of your teacher’s lifelong efforts!”
Meila spread her arms as if to embrace something, her head of white hair billowing without wind.
The ground suddenly trembled, as if it were experiencing the transformation of time and space, the black earth beneath his feet rapidly disappearing, revealing a vast and menacing mechanical structure hidden beneath.
Thousands of massive gears interlocked and collided, sparking brilliant lights.
Millions of mechanical components operated meticulously under immense magical power.
It was as if a planet purely composed of machines and gears appeared beneath his feet, making Mu’en tremble at his insignificance, even forgetting to breathe.
It seemed that before this menacing yet beautiful ultimate creation, everything in the world, even rules… could be rewritten!
“Look!”
Standing at the very center of everything, the white-haired loli girl shouted fervently.
Behind her, the outline of a gigantic clock faintly emerged, its hands moving, counting the passage of long time.
“This is the pinnacle of alchemy and magic.
The union of idealism and materialism.
A masterpiece painstakingly crafted over a millennium.
The true core of the Grand Secret Instrument.
An ultimate creation that even gods shall tremble before.
A fabricated authority.
— The Eternal Clock.”
