Elden: Ring of Calamity

Chapter 537 Betrayal
"What?!" Olivia abruptly turned her gaze to Hiren, only to see that the former Second Archbishop did not deny it. Instead, he focused his chaotic eyes, stared deeply at Lucia, and let out a painful and long sigh.

At this moment, some conjectures that had briefly lingered in Olivia's mind but were quickly dismissed because they were too unrealistic were suddenly confirmed. But these truths were far more terrifying than the "truths" they had covered up, and even made her shudder.

"I have heard that Your Majesty led eight thousand exhausted troops across the icy plains, treating the royal court's three hundred thousand troops as nothing. At the time, I thought that the children of the Holy Temple had suffered from the status quo for too long, so they had too many unrealistic hopes for the reinforcements led by you. Now it seems that I, this old cripple, was arrogant."

He struggled to support himself on the couch, and with the help of the two people beside him, he managed to sit a little higher so that he could look at Lucia from a closer distance.

After a brief silence, he sighed and said, "Indeed, that notebook is a forgery, but I really can't figure out how His Majesty knew about this matter that I couldn't find out despite trying my best."

“It’s very simple,” Lucia replied. “I know the nature of the ‘fire’ better than you do.”

"Rather than saying it's a virus that rewrites the mind and soul of a target, making it ignore the transformation of races into fire giants, it's more like a beacon, a lighthouse, allowing those surrounded by the power of evil flames and about to be devoured to find a path to digest this power."

"The fire itself cannot change a person's mind. The reason why hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in the North were transformed into giants is because the remnants of the royal court used the runes of the earth's veins to extract the so-called power of the fire source, and then forcibly injected this power, which mortals could not withstand, into their bodies. Under the sudden and terrifying power, their souls and minds were suppressed to the point of collapse. At this time, a 'path of liberation' that directly appeared in the depths of their souls naturally became the subconscious choice of everyone."

"Thus, with a source of fire driving from behind and a spark guiding from the front, nearly a million humans, as well as trolls, hybrids, demi-humans, and Samirs, were transformed into giants. But such a transformation process might work for ordinary people who have no power to resist, but it was completely ineffective against a high-ranking hero like Bishop Pirac, who possessed profound divine power and an iron will."

"If he only comprehended the power of the fire source in that forbidden prayer book, then without the guidance of the fire seed, he would end up blowing himself to pieces like Aganti, the leader of the Watchers who fell not long ago. But if he truly obtained both the fire seed and the fire source as recorded in the notes, the most likely outcome would be that he would become an 'evolver' like Adam, the only surviving Watcher, possessing the power of a Titan but independent of the Titan system."

“But…” Olivia glanced at Hiren, then at Lucia, and said, puzzled, “I always thought the reason Adam could transform uncontrollably was because we implanted a Black Flame Seed into him that could suppress the Evil Flame Seed.”

"Then what about Yuno, Gran Celia, and those third-generation Titans transformed from Wolf Hunters?" Lucia smiled faintly. "They don't have the Black Flame Seed to help them suppress the Evil Flame Seed's 'mind control,' do they?"

Olivia was stunned. During the days she had been chasing Yuno and hiding from him, she had been thinking about how to kill this traitor and complete the mission entrusted to her by His Majesty Katopella, but she had overlooked such a simple question.

Perhaps it is precisely because it is too simple that it seems so unbelievable—the simple fire source is just a rich and pure runic power, which will only catalyze people into hybrid monsters and lumps of flesh. The simple fire seed is just a beacon guiding those who receive the fire source to transform into giants, providing a way to digest the power.

Neither of these two practices involved any backdoors or schemes such as mind control or soul erosion; they were simply pure paths of evolution? After a long period of stunned silence, Olivia suddenly realized something.

Whether it's a spark or a source of fire, this was originally designed by the last Giant King's Court in its time of crisis, to provide the giants with their own method of evolution and godhood. Why would they need to leave any backdoors to control people's hearts?

If the "spark" mentioned in Pilate's notes exists, what exactly is it?
"So, Your Majesty has already met Yuno?" Hiren said softly.

Lucia nodded and said, "Yes, I tricked him once, and he did confess to his crime of assassinating Pirac."

What he didn't tell them was that in the time-space simulation constructed by his parents in his "past life," he saw much more, and in the present life, after gaining deeper contact with the people and events of this world through intelligence networks, he also thought about much more.

Born into poverty but achieving early success, before the age of forty, he was appointed by the Eternal Queen to lead the Holy Temple and guard the northern frontier. His power and strength can be said to have reached the pinnacle of mortals. However, what did Pirac do in the latter thirty years of his life?
Kaven Duoris spent three years painstakingly building an impregnable defensive system that covered most of the North, while Pirac built the Temple of Fire from scratch, brick by brick, taking a full twenty years.

For this, he gave up the power, fame, and wealth that were within his grasp, and abandoned the golden faith that had once brought him unparalleled glory. He watched as his valiant and robust body grew bloated and deformed year by year under the corrosive influence of the evil flames, until he had to wear that heavy, shackle-like black iron armor. For twenty years, he was like the shadow cast by that giant golden tree, wandering endlessly in this desolate and cold land, monitoring every possible growth and expansion of the extinguishing fire.

He could immerse himself among the common people, interacting intimately with them without any burdens, and he could also intervene in court affairs, willingly cooperating with Duoris for the sake of the North's stability. For him, faith was no longer a source of divine power, but a truly heartfelt and indestructible force. Therefore, even though he chose to embrace the flames and was rejected by the gold, he remained the most devout and purest ascetic of the Golden Dynasty.

If someone as resilient as black steel and as stubborn as a rock were to commit suicide to warn future generations, Lucia wouldn't be surprised. He could say that Lucia was bewitched by power and lost on the path of pursuing the power of giants. He just felt that the person who orchestrated all of this was too despicable and laughable.

Just like an ant that doesn't know the vastness of the world and thinks that everyone in the world is as greedy and short-sighted as itself, it has created such a disgusting farce by judging others by its own standards.

“He was the most outstanding among us,” Hillen murmured. “Pirac has told me countless times that his body is gradually becoming unable to support this responsibility. After him, only Yuno can take over this burden and continue to take care of this 30,000-mile ice plain.”

"But what did he do?"

(End of this chapter)