Chapter 327: Afterimage

When both wings spread open above the vault of heaven, the entire world sank into silence. The wings of shadow extended themselves without a sound and swept across the void. There was no sound of wind or even the slightest trace of the presence of aether waves.

In comparison, the pair of wings of light was the complete opposite. Other than naked eyes, there were no other ways of detecting its presence. It did not exist. This was Cereus.

Just as everyone was still in a state of shock, Charles waved his hands and the wings of light spread open with force. The illusion of Eden appeared behind him. As he clenched his fists tightly, the illusion of Eden let out a huge roar and light poured out continuously from heaven.

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 in F minor!

The roar of thunder combined with the melody in such a way that not only did it not appear out of place, but the former brought out the power and grandeur of the latter. The legacy of saints! This tit-for-tat left the saints looking very upset.

No one knew how the Sacred City was able to get around the fact that Charles had already inherited a holy name and created the legacy of saints, but at this very moment, Charles was merely unleashing his movement. By doing so, the new saint that had inherited the holy name of Tchaikovsky could already sense the trembling of music theory within his body. This was all Charles’ doing. It was as if the music theory was trying to get out of his body in order to go to heaven. As the majestic melody roared, streaks of lightning struck from the sky like chains. They branched out in the direction of the saints, which left them all scrambling in retreat.

The core of Symphony No. 4 was the respect and fear of musicians towards “doom.” At this moment, with doom as the main theme, what it elucidated was the existence of fate. In the legacy of saints, it was the core within a core. The moment it was limited by fate, it would be completely trapped in a cage. Even a giant dragon would become a mere rabid dog if it was chained up.

But shortly after, Charles did not seem to care about the incredible pressure of Symphony No. 4 and opened his other palm gradually. Symphony No. 5 roared! It was simply insane.

The biggest reason why the gist power of the legacy of saints could only be unleashed by saints was that any movement would have been too great and overwhelming for ordinary musicians. If it was not done the right way and the symphony was played forcefully, the resultant pressure of the music theory could easily crush one’s consciousness.

Even a saint would be very cautious when controlling such an oversized movement to avoid any counter-reactions. Besides, the holy name of Tchaikovsky was on the same level as Haydn. Even the saints knew it to be a music theory disruption that was massive and complicated and possessed a very wide range! It was also a path of destruction that contained the most intense transformations. This was definitely not as simple as one plus one equals two. The effect would definitely exceed the increments in difficulty. Any mistake and the first person to be burnt would be yourself!

But at this moment, as Charles was doing two things at the same time, he did not seem to be in any difficulty. Instead, he was able to combine Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 5 into one.

Both music theories used doom as the main theme and elucidated the path of fate but even as they clashed with each other, unlike what everyone else expected, they did not destroy each other as a result. Instead, they mixed together like fire and wind, and unleashed a destructive power that left even the saints trembling with fear. What was even more terrifying was that when Charles remained motionless, the saint that had inherited Tchaikovsky’s holy name began to scream in pain and despair.

In an instant, it was as if all his blood was in turmoil as countless violent music theory spiritualities crushed his consciousness. As Charles continued to summon, he was no longer able to control his own power. He began to burn from inside and in a split second, burnt into a pile of ashes.

Countless music theories escaped from his body and gathered in the hands of Charles. They infused into the legacy of saints in his body and immediately melted into the glorious light of heaven.

Amidst the projection in heaven, an elderly illusion appeared. Double legacies of saints had never ever taken place before. They were the same legacies of saints gathered in one location and under Charles’ elucidation, the spiritualities of music theory extended naturally and eventually created the silhouette of a long-forgotten person.

The old man opened his eyes gradually as if he had just woken up from a long dream. He looked at Charles before looking at the saints standing opposite of him. He seemed to be laughing bitterly. “My apologies, I couldn’t help myself.”

In an instant, everyone felt numb in amazement. The dead had been revived! Impossible! The dead were actually being revived! Tchaikovsky of the first generation had died centuries ago yet he had just been revived!

It was just like when the King of Red was revived. When something as miraculous as this appeared before everyone’s eyes, all logic and rationale went out the window. To think that the saints of the first generation could be revived when the spiritualities of music theory were gathered together! It was as if these saints had been sent down to the human world once again by the will of God.

“Impossible… impossible…” When the saints realized the significance of this miracle, some of them began to break down. “From the beginning of time, all things would die except for the Originator that would always be eternal… The Originator is eternal… From life to death…”

This was one of the iron laws of the musicians’ three oaths! Only God could be revived from death. But what was happening right before their eyes now…

“Don’t be fooled by him!” Liszt’s face turned green. “That’s just a fuzzy consciousness formed by the spiritualities of music theory! Don’t forget, the death of Hyakume is still in his grasp!”

The music theory consciousness formed by double legacies of saints combined with the memories created from death that had been infused with Eden. Therefore, rebirth only meant the creation of a projection that possessed music theory, memory, and consciousness at the same time. A puppet!

The will to continue the war seemed to have recovered at last, but everyone’s hearts were heavy and Liszt looked extremely upset. Indeed, the opponent was just a puppet that greatly resembled the real person. But… how is this different from a true revival? Besides, this is definitely not all…

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He had already received the alarm from “lighthouse.” Other than fuzzy consciousness and memory, there was something different about the projection of saint created by Charles… There was some sort of music theory with the same source as the Cereus!

Perhaps this was the biggest reason for the revival of the saint… the true power of Cereus!

…

For a long time, countless people tried to study the sunflower of illusion that bloomed in various concentrated zones of aether. But at the end of the day, they still found it impossible to reach its spirit and marrow. In fact, they could not even figure out the reason and pattern for the appearance of these sunflowers of illusion. Eventually, they had no choice but to give up. It was only after Charles had merged the Cereus that he managed to find out the reason why the musicians had been studying the wrong thing all this while.

Those sunflowers that bloomed amongst the shadows were just reflections in the water. It was useless putting in so much effort on the reflection of the moon on the surface of the sea. It was simply meaningless. Their studies were never on the right path in the first place…

From the very beginning, the Cereus was only a single flower. Centuries ago, it had already bloomed and once it had done so, it was destined to wilt. Since then, it was sealed in amber as a specimen and had been traveling across various countries as a piece of art.

For centuries, it had been passed around tens of families and had been owned by more than a hundred people. But none of them could have imagined that this specimen sealed in amber, treated as a plaything in their study rooms, was the Originator of one of the four living creatures. In the end, the sixth Caucasian king grew tired of it and discarded it in the treasury. Since then, it was left to be covered in dust and no one seemed to care about it anymore.

To the Cereus, its life and its bloom had probably ended very soon after that day. What men were observing were just signs of its nature interference through the Originator. It had died long ago, most likely even before men had observed it. But its death was also a confirmation that it had once lived.

It was an afterimage anchored in the past, long sealed within the grains of time. All it represented was a sunflower that bloomed for a day. Its birth and destruction had been buried in the past, and men, who would always be rooted in the present, would never be able to come into contact with its existence nor understand its nature.

Men observed its posture by looking into the past through the Originator but they would always be blocked off by time. It always seemed so near yet so far. The traces of the presence of life was the nature of the Cereus. This was the reason why it was labeled as one of the four living creatures, along with the other catastrophes, by the three sages.

Dark Gaia represented “the maternal body that birthed life,” Hecatoncheir represented “the limit of growth of life,” Leviathan represented “the foundation of evolution of life,” and the Cereus was proof of the existence of life and traces of the past and the limited amount of time that life occupied.

Right now, what had been settling at the depth of the Originator but had now reappeared in the world, due to the summoning of Charles, was not life but the residues of the past. It was a reflection that had been produced by the gathering together of records of the past, and a miracle that had been molded after the traces of history. As a result, the dead had been reborn, like ashes being reignited once more.

Before too long, Paganini understood the nature of this miracle. When he looked at Charles, there was a complicated look in his eyes. What price have you paid for this miracle this time around?

At this moment, other than Charles and Paganini, the projection of the saint Tchaikovsky had also joined in the battle. “Looks like it’s three against four now.” Charles smiled as he looked at his enemies. “Victory no longer seems so certain, doesn’t it?”

Liszt remained indifferent and unshaken. “Your authority and power were obtained through stealing, you have usurped the truth and you falsely declare yourselves as God… You are demons disguising yourselves in robes of the Church. What right do you have to claim victory?”

With that, holy light, hundreds of times hotter than before, burst out of his body as countless streaks of lightning and flame surrounded him. Under the castigation of music theory, reality was being distorted…

That was the purest form of a destructive element. A power, that was known amongst the saints as the number one destruction, had appeared. It would burn one’s consciousness, light up one’s body, without any care or concern for one’s life or future.

Liszt was ready to go all out.

After he had taken the lead, all the saints began to light up their own music theories as if they were martyrs. The power, that had already exceeded the standard, rose once more. Under the resonance of each other, the projection of the Holy Caldron descended once again!

As he stared at the Holy Caldron, which seemed to be filled with fresh blood, a hint of cruelty flashed across Paganini’s eyes. Just as he had predicted, the Church had been keeping a low profile all this while not because they were content to sit aside and watch, but because they had been making their final preparations for battle. All this while, the Church had probably gathered the reserves of the past few centuries and the most precious fortunes of the Sacred City and thrown them all into the Holy Caldron.

At this moment, the fresh blood represented power that originated from catastrophe! For centuries, all the actual bodies of catastrophes, that had been gathered by the Sacred City through the Religious Court of Inquiry and the Silence Governance, had probably been thrown into the Holy Caldron to be used as its food!

This was a top secret that probably even the saints had no idea of. It was just as he had guessed many years ago that saints were merely the products of the Holy Caldron, even if they seemed very precious and important. As long as the actual bodies of catastrophes continued to be thrown into the Holy Caldron, the number of saints that could be produced might even exceed the original number.

This power that could convert catastrophe… must come from the same source as Charles’ abilities!

They might be in the thick of battle but an even stranger thought appeared in Paganini’s mind. But very quickly, that thought was buried in the depth of his heart and was sealed forever. It would even be erased from his memories without leaving behind any traces. Its existence could only be proven by that moment of shiver.

“Oh God…”