Chapter 14: Chapter 13 – The King’s Mark

Following Cardinal Jord through the temple corridors and down a corridor, the three noticed several different things.

The first, Noella, despite having been in that temple before, didn't know that there was this type of corridor in the place, or rather the Temple had four floors being one of the largest structures in the city but inside it didn't seem to be that big. They arrived in this corridor after taking several aimless turns around the corridors that surrounded the Cardinal's office, suddenly having appeared out of nowhere there was one more corridor they could go through and Jord without naming anything followed it.

The point was that as soon as they entered the corridor, the way they came was closed in a wall, something very peculiar and not normal.

— You're finding it strange, aren't you? — The front commented on the Cardinal as he carried a torch.

— Is this... an illusion? How can this be done? — Illye asked bewilderedly. — I've been to that temple three times and never noticed it.

— Don't worry about the details, they're also security issues… Even ours aren't trusted to get in here, most of the time just me in. — replied the Cardinal.

The further they walked, the more it seemed that the hallway ahead, which was sloping downhill, would lead nowhere. The way ahead was totally without visibility.

— Stop. — He ordered us to stop in front.

When they stopped behind him, soon the old man extended his hand and turned something imperceptible on the wall beside the corridor a brown door a little big appeared and opened.

— A matrix…Interesting. — Kamaell commented when he saw the door open.

— One question, what would happen if we kept walking blindly? — Noella asked with doubts about where the path would lead.

A matrix, a location altered by a lord or one of his followers borrowing mana from the surroundings to cause various effects, used to not be an easy thing to do even for Lords Stage 5 and used to take time to create. However, some Lords had a certain facility in performing such things, it was an obvious point as each Authority had different abilities from one another.

— They would end up in an underground Malzer cemetery where certain criminals were thrown. A place full of undead being many humans, animals and some real monsters that are below the city. In addition to not having any light, I also don't recommend even Lords to enter there. — Replied Jord seriously as he walked through the door.

There was also no light beyond the door he'd opened, but unlike the hallway they went through after the door, the walls were all made of rock. A cave was the first answer each of them came to, but the place was beyond their imaginations.

— Let's go inside, you have to get back to the capital tomorrow if possible. I have to show you this before then. — Said Jord.

He entered as he spoke, Illye and Noella who was supported by her also continued. Outside, Kamaell just stood with his arms crossed, sighing for a moment and entering seconds later.

— This... A Temple? — Not knowing what to say, Illye caught her voice as she saw what was in the cave.

A huge underground construction was a hundred meters in front of the cave entrance, precisely there was something similar to a Temple in ruins with the roof all blown apart. The marble stones that made up the walls of the temple were gray and weathered as if they had lost all the beautiful color they had, and in the dark this was even clearer.

Interestingly, such walls emit a faint light making the appearance of the Temple discernible in the dark even from a distance.

— What temple is this? It resembles the Blue Temple, but it's different… — Noella asked.

Not answering his question the old Jord simply proceeded towards the unknown Temple expecting the three to follow him.

The second person with doubts since a while ago was Kamaell, and that became more and more clear in his thoughts with each strange action by Jord. Who was this man who became more and more mysterious by the minute? First, Kamaell believed that this place was something to be kept secret, so it shouldn't be shown to people. So why would Jord bring them here?

Being a Blue Temple Cardinal wasn't reason enough, being a Phase 5 and the River Lord wasn't either. In the end who he really was was becoming more and more difficult to understand, as was which side the man was on.

In front of the Temple there was a lake that took up most of the cave, it was so dark that the lake was only noticed after approaching. The waters of the lake were totally black, not even the rocks that made up the cave had such a dark color.

Connecting the Temple with the entrance to the cave was a narrow suspension bridge across the lake made of the same discolored marble as the temple walls. The Temple in front of the lake had no doors or gates, there was a huge stone closing the entrance to the temple where the gates were supposed to be.

The light from Jord's torch was the best thing that showed any hint of what was in the way, the light emitted by the temple and the bridge was just enough for someone to be able to see the structures and it didn't illuminate anything close by properly.

Jord continued across the bridge without a second thought as he led them towards the Temple.

— How are we going to get through this? — Illye asked, looking at the stone covering the entrance to the Temple and hoping that Jord had a good plan.

— Do you know the history of the Seven Gods? — Jord asked as he stopped halfway across the bridge and began to look out over the dark waters.

— Obvious! It's hard to find anyone who doesn't know about it. — Illye replied as if it were obvious.

It was obvious really, as someone who believed in the Blue Goddess the story of the Seven Gods was something that was simply part of the story of the creation of the world.

— In the beginning there were two beings, they were brothers because they came together, they existed from the moment after the greater world began to exist. One was made of Gold and the other was made of Silver. — Replied Kamaell.

— That. Keep going… You'll understand where I'm going. — Jord said with a smile looking at Kamaell's right arm, where those marks were hidden.

Kamaell noticed that look and ignored it. Talking about it would do him no good and for a while he had suspected that Jord knew who he was, but the less he said, the less he would be exposed to others.

Jord seeing that he wasn't going to continue, moved to Noella gesturing for her to stay in place.

— The Greater World was a dark and empty place, the two of them just existed without thinking or doing anything, just as part of the Greater World. This went on for so long until at one point the Silver got tired and started to imagine what it would be like if the Greater World weren't dark and empty, he imagined the stars, the planets, he imagined whole Worlds. — Noella continued, pausing to look at the water's Jord was looking at.

She believed that nothing Jord was doing was in vain, there had to be some explanation even if he didn't say so.

— So Gold created everything Silver imagined, out of this came our world, out of that came Az. From this also emerged the five other gods who gave Colors to the worlds, brought to the worlds life as we know it and all of these were then known as the Seven Gods of Light. — Finally, Illye finished, tired of this and summing up the story quickly.

— And what happened to Gold and Silver? — Jord finally asked.

— They came to become part of the Greater World, their physical shells also became two gods. Until at some point the Silver God revolted and was sealed by the Golden God Himself having its power divided. — Illye replied.

— Exactly, there is currently no worship of Gold and Silver even though they exist. The two are simply treated as part of the Greater World and only the gods that were created after that are normally worshiped. Even though there is a Golden Throne and a Silver Throne, this also implies that there was at least one Golden Temple and one Silver Temple on the continent. — Jord explained.

— I understand. So this Temple is one of those two? — Noella asked, turning back to the Temple.

There was nothing golden about it so she was guessing it must be the ruins of the Silver Temple, Illye had also come to the same conclusion. As for Kamaell…

— The Golden Temple belongs to the vampires, it is isolated in the Land of Blood on another continent. They are the only people who worship the Golden God blindly, just like the witches who worship the Silver God blindly. Except for these races, they are treated as simply part of the world. — Kamaell explained that when wanting to advance what Jord had to do, he didn't want them to waste too much time standing here on this bridge.

— Something a vampire would know. — Noella said, remembering certain things.

His identity as a vampire explained why he was unknown and didn't care about his surroundings more than anything else. Rather, it would be easily explained by this conclusion.

— Half-breed, dear Noella. — Jord intervened, imposing a definition on him that Noella herself didn't know because she hadn't thought of it. — He's a half-breed, vampires have no interest in humanity or human things, they're isolated people. But that changes when one of them becomes a Lord or when we see rare cases like his.

Half-bloods were rare mainly because vampires weren't usually interested in humans and witches also because they didn't care about humanity as a whole, they were two eccentric races with their own worldviews.

In isolation they also possessed the physical and magical characteristics of these races. Vampires and their half-breeds possessed their manipulation of blood and witches possessed their even stranger manipulation of chaos.

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Despite this, it was possible to count the number of known people of these two races spread across the continent, imagine finding mestizos like these, it would be even more difficult to discern these. Perhaps counting on Kamaell an estimate of five would be a lot.

— So this is the Silver Temple? Ended up like this, it looks like there was a war here. But you can't go in like that unless someone pulls that rock out… — Illye said, not too enthusiastic about the idea.

— There's nothing in that Temple. We're going to enter through the water. — Explained Jord, throwing the torch.

The torch sank into the water, but it didn't go out and even then it disappeared into the water.

— This isn't just water. What is it? — Asked Kamaell, now even more than before he was on alert.

Illye was scared of the water and Noella who was held by her was practically trapped by her arms.

— Since the Battleground those who live in Az haven't been able to dream, but that doesn't mean dreams don't exist. — Mused Jord as he stuck his foot out into the water and prepared to sink behind the torch. — You three came back from the dead, whoever falls into that place is no longer treated as a living person by the world and that place is not good for people. I am bringing you here because you three are contaminated with the aura of the abyss. If you continue to use mana or Authorities could end up turning into monsters, I intend to avoid that. Come!

Jord threw himself and sank into the water quickly, no one could see him after doing so. Suddenly everything was silent and the three were also without any light.

— What do you think? — Noella asked the two of them.

— I don't know. Can you go back? — Illye asked, even though she knew she probably wouldn't.

— Nothing guarantees that the way back is the opposite of the way we came… — Noella pointed out wearily.

None of the three were seeing each other, only their voices could make out their positions.

— If you go, then I'm going too. — Kamaell said, not least because there was nothing else he could do.

— It's not like we could do anything else. Old bastard… — Illye muttered, jumping into the water as she closed her eyes.

Noella followed without a second thought, and eventually Kamaell jumped in too.

The water touching their bodies wasn't wetting their clothes, the three of them slowly sank and didn't even feel short of breath either. After half a minute of sinking on their own without moving, the water below began to glow and when they noticed moments later they were each standing on the same bridge they had jumped over. 

However, the cave was no longer the same.

The lake was glowing indigo and the Temple looked new with its walls gleaming with a silvery glow. The huge stone that closed off the entrance was no longer there and two open silver gates were in place.

In front of the open gates was Jord smiling and waiting for them. His dark blue robe from the Blue Temple had become an almost identical indigo robe and he eagerly awaited them.

— Welcome to the Silver Temple, the only Cardinal greets you. Silver Princess, her Kingsguard and finally the Golden King. — Jord declared as he looked at each of them.

Hearing this, Noella and Illye stopped and looked at the man beside them who was staring at his own right arm. Through his overcoat a golden mark on his arm was glistening.

— So you are… the Blood Lord? Wait, the Blood Lord wasn't just a King… He was the Gold Emperor. Noell, this doesn't make sense, who is this guy? — Illye asked, lost in conversation.

Noella was even more lost, not expecting something like that. In fact, she was afraid he was something worse. A criminal vampire hunted a few hundred years ago? A homeless half-blood caught in the midst of the Empire's fall? A follower of the Blood Lord who had lost people on a quest?

The bitter, aloof and resentful way he portrayed things around him befits things like this. She imagined many things, but never that he was a king before.

— The son of the Golden Emperor and the last to sit on the Golden Throne after him. The stories tell about him, dear Illye, they tell about the fall of the Golden Empire. — Jord explained to Illye without a second thought.

— Don't call me Gold King. I own that mark, but I've never ruled anything. I lost everything, just that and nothing more. — He portrayed him coldly to Jord.

Jord didn't care, he was delighted that Kamaell tried to hide things. Sometimes knowing by itself was already quite interesting and susceptible to doing fun things.

— That's a…big secret. — Noella stressed, lost in thought.

Kamaell signed upon receiving that reply with a lost expression coming from Noella and then covered his arm with his hands, he was afraid Jord would keep saying more things. At the moment only the Golden was glowing and that was trouble enough, it also said that there was no one using the Golden Throne.

— Noella, don't treat me like a King or something different, I was just an heir who in the end only managed to make things worse before I was hunted down and killed. Draw your own conclusions, but none of this is relevant to me anymore. — He explained without much enthusiasm.

— I don't mean to say that you should tell us about your whole life because for me we met yesterday, but also avoid hiding everything like that. You can't be lost all the time in information that comes out of nowhere if you intend to come with us... — Noella emphasized after thinking about the matter for a while.

— I think this is already too big a secret… — Illye pointed out, wanting to hit him.

It reminded her of the near-argument that had formed over secrets she and Illye had held earlier. Apparently that comment of his actually spoke more about him than it did about them.

Kamaell stopped to think about what she said and realized it was quite plausible. Although the feelings between them were shared with each other, words and thoughts were not, there were things that needed to be said and secrets that could end poorly formed relationships.

— I only ask that you give me a few days. All this life right now is new for me… I have a lot to talk about, but even for you it must be hard to trust what I can say because we really only met a few days ago. — He replied when thinking about what she said.

— If something is needed at the moment, then say it without thinking twice, the rest can be seen as the days and months go by. Someone's life story doesn't just last a few hours, you have a lot to understand. — Jord pointed out, drawing their attention.

— Have they ended the couple's argument now? Because that's what it looks like to me... — Frustrated Illye commented, heading towards the Silver Temple and ignoring them.

— The Dellairs will love this… —  Jord commented, speaking quietly just so Illye could hear.

Recalling the Dellair family, Illye was alarmed and glanced at the two coming across the bridge.

She was comparing the half-lost half who walked following Noella close to her with another person who usually walked ahead of Noella as if leading the way.

— I don't like any of them. — Replied Illye when making such a comparison.

She then looked into Noella's face, noticed her lost and not knowing what to say, something unusual on her part.

— She's in lo… — Having a faint impression of what was happening, Illye tried to say something.

— Let the thing happen. Maybe it's even better for you. — Interjected Jord watching the two come.

Noella and Kamaell arrived in front of the Silver Temple without paying attention to the princess and cardinal's conversation, lost in thought about each other they started to stare at the temple as a way to have a change of mind.

— Now that you're done discussing the terms of your relationship, we have a temple to enter… — Jord explained, still smiling at them. — Please come in, we still have a lot to do.

Jord then entered those silver metallic gates being followed by the three shortly after, his smile gone and he continued up some stairs. He had no doubt what he was going to do.

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