Fool's Library

"After all, the power of Princess Hiltina von Fresberg, the Holy Sword Wielder of Granville, is too great, and she may very well be promoted to angel in a short time."

"Even before she has been promoted to angel, she has already put immense pressure on the members of the Holy Church, nearly wiping out our strongholds throughout the empire."

"If we wait until that princess officially completes her promotion, everything will be beyond repair."

As he said this, a hint of gnashing hatred flashed in the Iron Cross Patriarch's eyes.

If it weren't for the Empire's relentless pressure, he might still be living a life of luxury in his stronghold in the capital... instead of wandering the desolate border like a rat that can't be seen in the light.

"This child must not be allowed to live. We must kill him at all costs before this princess truly grows up."

"Moreover—the first princess of the Granville Empire, the next empress Hiltina, also publicly announced to the entire continent that the empire would protect that shorekeeper named Rust."

The Iron Cross Patriarch suppressed his restless thoughts and began to analyze the situation rationally.

With the upheaval that occurred in the capital two years ago, and the tomb keepers beginning to walk the world again and actively contacting cultists... the grudges and information about the "shore keepers" and "tomb keepers" are no longer big secrets to the leaders of these cults.

Therefore, as Hiltina's fiancé, the last guardian of the shore, Rust, has also begun to come into the view of the higher-ups of these secretive forces.

His limited combat records and growth history in the Western Continent were unearthed by the intelligence organizations of various forces and repeatedly examined under the spotlight.

In addition, the Iron Cross Order also had some personal grudges with Rast—after all, back in the Sixth Age, the Dark Blue Harbor God had suffered greatly at Rast's hands more than once.

"Although according to intelligence, Rust should now be a bedridden, half-crippled, and non-threatening vegetable."

"But he was, after all, the last shore guard."

"If possible, it would be best to kill and silence that Rast at the same time as dealing with the First Princess Hiltina, and completely eliminate the potential threat by turning him to dust."

As he spoke these words, the Patriarch of the Iron Cross twisted his neck somewhat uncomfortably.

He found himself facing the leader of the Mechanicus, who was staring at him with a strange look in his eyes, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong.

And that's not all.

The Iron Cross Patriarch even vaguely sensed a strange chill emanating from the evil god sculpture he carried with him—a holy relic bestowed by the Lord.

For some reason, he felt a chill on his neck.

This inexplicable sense of foreboding was fleeting and was quickly suppressed by the Patriarch of the Iron Cross.

That is a token of the supreme Lord; how could I have such a disrespectful thought?

He suddenly stood up and walked towards the door.

“I will go and contact the messenger of the tomb guardians to invite us to participate in the action meeting against the Holy Sword Wielder Hiltina.”

……

"That's interesting."

"As expected of a tomb keeper..."

"Even after repeatedly stumbling in the gutter, the two most important legacies passed down from the Age of Gods—the Library of Fools and the Stone Tablet of Eternal Night—have been lost to us."

"However, this organization still retains a considerable amount of its original foundation."

At the very bottom of the night world, the town of Canaan is reborn.

Through his astral perception and the faint connection between the divine nature of the Deep Blue Harbor Evil God and the present world, Rast received information from the western continent of the present world.

It seems that three years ago, he was tricked by Rast in the echoes of history, resulting in the loss of his entire divine demise.

Having capsized in a ditch and suffered heavy losses, the Evil God of Deep Blue Harbor... perhaps out of a fear of being bitten by a snake once and being afraid of a rope for ten years, simply chose to completely shut himself off at the Threshold of Blazing Heaven.

He relinquished his connection with the world and with the cultists He left behind in the Western Continent.

Therefore, the prayers and calls of those cultists to the evil god of Deep Blue Harbor were intercepted by Rast, who had devoured half of the god's body and also possessed a wisp of divinity, and he himself sat in the position that originally belonged to the evil god of Deep Blue Harbor.

As for the leader of the so-called "Mechanical Flesh Cult" opposite the Patriarch of the Iron Cross, Rust felt a strange sense of familiarity as soon as he saw him.

After careful consideration, he confirmed the other party's identity.

This must be the trick Ophelia came up with.

Unlike her sister, Hiltina, who always advocated solving problems through fair and square means and cutting down all obstacles with her holy sword, she was different.

Ophelia, who possesses traits such as a sister complex and a seemingly innocent but actually cunning nature, has always been very opinionated and has her own ideas... There are some things she never discusses with others, but does on her own.

"It seems that even without my accidental intervention... Ophelia would have discovered the plot to harm her elder sister anyway."

“I didn’t realize it before I had any contact with her or was even unsure of her stance… but now it seems that Ophelia is quite reliable as a teammate.”

Thinking this way.

In the present world of the Western Continent, the Iron Cross Patriarch has also made contact with the messengers of the Tomb Keepers.

Having re-established a connection with the deity of their faith, they gained the status of a favored one of the gods... and thus qualified to participate in the meeting.

This gathering appears to have been hosted by the tomb keeper, using some ancient relic as a medium.

It allows participants located across the Western Continent, thousands or tens of thousands of miles apart, to directly participate in the event through their spiritual bodies.

Last's assessment of this method was—"It's like taking off your pants to fart."

Given the current technological level of the Western Continent, this kind of thing could be easily handled online through an encrypted chat group.

Clean, efficient, and simple... After an online meeting, you can simply delete the record and leave no trace.

However, the gravekeepers went so far as to use a relic to achieve the same effect as a chat group.

All we can say is that this is an old custom passed down from a corrupt organization.

As the relic of "Chat Group (Pseudo)" was activated, Rust sensed that the patriarch of the Iron Cross, along with the Deep Blue Harbor evil god sculpture that contained a wisp of Rust's will... were all instantly sublimated from the material plane of the real world and arrived at a dimension that transcended the material plane.

At the center of the secondary latitude is an ancient bronze long table.

On either side of the bronze table shrouded in black mist, there were blurry human figures sitting on bronze chairs.

Each of them was shrouded in black mist, making it impossible to discern their specific appearances and forms; only the color of their spiritual bodies could be vaguely seen.

"So, these are the leaders of all the remaining cults on the Western Continent?"

"It seems that under Hiltina's suppression, the remaining cultists on the Western Continent are not having a good time... to the point that they have been forced to unite and try to make a big splash."

Last secretly observed the figures on the bronze tables.

Although it seems that because of this relic from the tomb keeper, the identities of each participant were concealed, Rast was unable to directly observe their appearances.

However, by observing the spiritual strength of the other person's spirit, he could roughly determine their status.

It can be confirmed that most cult leaders are not very strong. Like the patriarch of the Iron Cross, most of them are at the fifth or sixth rank below the legendary level. Only a few have reached the threshold of near-legendary, but they have not yet taken the final step to become legends.

This is a self-evident fact.

The so-called "path to legend" does not rely on external factors.

The birth of every legendary powerhouse is a unique and unrepeatable miracle in this world... Even if you copy all the talents, resources, conditions, and experiences of your predecessors, you will never be able to walk the same legendary path again.

Otherwise, legends wouldn't be so rare, considered the greatest barrier among the extraordinary, with the difficulty of breaking through to legend even exceeding that of ascending from legend to angel.

Even Rust himself, in order to rapidly advance to Legendary status by bridging that long period of time... had to pay a huge price: destroying his Nightblade and Sequence Rank, turning himself into a half-dead, vegetative state.

As for ordinary people like Amys who had never come into contact with the extraordinary, in order to contain the Star Grail called Judgment, she endured an entire era of pain and self-sealing, and was almost taken away by the will of the Star Grail of Judgment... Only then did she slowly absorb it and transform it into power that truly belonged to her.

The leaders of those cults may be able to quickly skip the early accumulation and reach the peak of the sixth rank by relying on the power of faith and the blessings and favor of their own evil gods... but the final step to becoming a legend is by no means something that can be achieved by such external forces that do not belong to them.

Of course, besides these cultists with weak spiritual fire, Rust also discovered several beings with considerable spiritual power within the bronze table, who could be vaguely compared to the "Angel of Judgment" that he had just torn apart not long ago.

He knew that these must be the high-ranking members of the tomb keepers, the true angels.

These figures from the Age of Gods have finally awakened from their slumber in the long river of history and stepped into the limelight once more.

Chapter 262 Hiltina's Coronation Ceremony

"No wonder they're all old Dengs who have lived for countless millennia; even the color of their souls reeks of decay."

Last deposited his will into the sculpture of the evil god of Deep Blue Harbor, and then released his spiritual power to sense the spiritual bodies of the participants.

If nothing unexpected happens, these members of the Tomb Keepers, who have awakened from their slumber in the long river of history and are beginning to truly step into the limelight, will likely participate in the conspiracy against the Granville Empire and Hiltina in the near future.

At that time, these legends and angels will all become enemies of Rast and Amys.

Now that he has the opportunity to gather intelligence in advance, he naturally won't miss it.

"This level is not bad... The strength of the spiritual body should be about three-quarters of that of the Judgment Star Cup."

"This won't do; it looks like there's only a small portion of the Judgment Star Cup."

"Wow, this spiritual entity is quite strong. It should be similar to the gravedigger angel who spoke with Grey during the apocalypse at the end of the Sixth Epoch. Could it be the unlucky guy who was tricked by Grey?"

"Hmm, this one's spiritual form is not completely transparent. It should be the strongest of these... Is it the leader of the Tomb Keepers? Even if it's not the leader, it should be one of the core decision-making members."

Last carefully concealed his presence and then began to comment on the attendees.

Every extraordinary person who achieves legendary status and ascends to the angelic realm undergoes a spiritual transformation and metamorphosis.

What was originally a vague and hazy mental landscape has materialized into a spiritual ocean, a world of the mind, that is no different from a real plane.

The crimson wilderness in Raste's heart, where the "Library of Fools" was rebuilt, and the Canaanite town in Amys's heart, where the flames and smoke had faded and the town had been reborn, are reflections of their respective souls, unique mental worlds.

Although the strength of the spiritual body, or in occult terms, the so-called "weight of the soul," cannot fully represent the combat power of a superhuman, there are also undead creatures with strong spiritual power but dilapidated physical bodies, or the complete opposite.

However, in most cases, the mental strength of a superhuman is positively correlated with their rank... This is a fairly important reference indicator for measuring the strength of an enemy.

From Last's current perspective, the will of the Judgment Star Cup, the embodiment of the principles of heaven, which he had recently erased from Xiao Ai's mental world, should be considered to be the ultimate in spiritual power.

It was only one step away from becoming the true Angel of Judgment, but because the Judgment Star Cup had never been able to find the last remaining flame of Amys's soul and become the sole master of that spiritual world, it could never truly take that final step.

This is also known as the "Legendary Limit Nine Revolutions Peak Perfection Realm".

Using the embodiment of the Judgment Star Cup as a unit of measurement for combat power is perfectly appropriate.

Those with stronger spiritual power than Him are the real, genuine angels.

Those weaker than Him in spiritual power are probably seasoned legends.

After reviewing all the participants, Rust turned his gaze to another spiritual entity that had entered the subspace with him.

This is Ophelia's mechanical doll disguised as the "leader of the Mechanicus". Since the mechanical doll itself cannot have any spiritual power, what entered with it was a wisp of Ophelia's own spirit.

"A near-legend?"

He was slightly surprised.

After all, Ophelia is a few years younger than Hiltina, and is only fifteen or sixteen years old.

Although Ophelia is different from Hiltina, having enjoyed the support of the entire imperial family's resources since childhood... it is still astonishing that her mental strength has reached the level of a near-legendary at such a young age.

It can only be said that this second princess truly deserves to be called a genius in the field of mechanics.

Although she may not be as skilled in real hand-to-hand combat as those Night Travelers who have actually experienced life-or-death battles, as a mechanic and a princess, she has honed her mental strength to a high level by studying mechanical blueprints and handling military and political affairs of a nation day after day.

And so Rust leisurely continued to spy.

Immediately afterwards, he heard the figure at the head of the bronze table, whose spiritual strength was the highest and who was difficult for him to see through, slowly speak.

"Let me introduce you all. The newest member is the Patriarch of the Iron Cross Order, whom I'm sure you're all familiar with... The other is the leader of the newly formed cult of the Western Continent, the 'Mechanical Flesh Order,' who is attending as an affiliate of the Iron Cross Order."

"Not long ago, the deity they worshipped answered their prayers."

"Therefore, we will also need to rely on the Iron Cross in this operation."

He gave a brief introduction, and then changed the subject.

"Then let's continue with the previous topic."

"The plan to assassinate Hiltina von Fresberg, the first princess of the Granville Empire."

The phantom spirit that seemed to be the leader of the tomb guardians slowly spoke.

"The Granville Empire is the most powerful human nation in the entire Western Continent to date."

"And based on the latest information we have gathered from our previous use of divination artifacts."

"Although there is no outward indication, in fact, the current king of the Granville Empire, Aaron, intends to hold a coronation ceremony in the near future."

“He will truly pass his throne to his daughter, Hiltina.”

The leader of the tomb guardians paused slightly.

"Of course, the rise and fall of dynasties and the change of imperial power in the mortal world are not of any concern to us tomb keepers."

"However, behind the empire's coronation ceremony lies a deeper meaning."

"The sacred relic passed down through generations of the Empire, that star-forged holy sword—within it lies a separate sequence of ranks, a sequence known as 'Royal Authority.'"