Chapter 1262: The Secret Cult

White City, Palace of the Golden Roses.

Rudolph III’s secret chamber was a bit crowded that day. This special room, which had never received more than three visitors at a time, entertained many people on that day. The king’s three children sat beside him, and his two important officials, Grand Duke Loen as well as General Gloen, sat on the other side while the ancient guardian sat opposite him.

Another two people were in the room too.

One was Alfred, a famous scholar of the kingdom. He was also the prince and princesses’ History and Natural History tutor. He was a slightly bald, fat, old gentleman. His white beard drooped over his simple black robe, and he looked very kind. The man sat beside Hao Ren, smiling and gazing curiously at the famous “ancient guardian”.

Another person standing behind the king was a mysterious woman covered in a black robe. She was tall and thin, silently standing there like a statue. Even her face was hidden in the shadow of some magical effect so that no one could not see her face from any angle. Her ability to hide her breath was amazing. It was easy to ignore her presence even if you looked in her direction. And even if you noticed her, you would quickly forget her as soon as you turned your face. It was not a magical effect because Hao Ren’s magic immunity did not work this time.

Hao Ren guessed the identity of the mysterious woman: she could be a secret agent of the kingdom, or a secret knight, or something like that. In short, she was not a simple character.

“First, I would like to speak.” Princess Veronica was a little angry. “I know that all of your are wary of the cults. But I cannot bear you suspecting the ancient guardian who saved my life and protected the fortress on the western side. Taros founded his country with justice and reason. When did we turn into cowards who keep suspecting others because of a group of cultists?”

“I am the only one who is suspicious of the ancient guardian, and it has nothing to do with His Majesty or General Gloen. Your Highness, if you have any complaints, you can vent your frustrations on me,” Grand Duke Loen replied dryly.

Veronica stared at him and said, “I’m not venting, I’m just questioning.”

Hao Ren never thought that the princess would care about him. He was touched but he was unconcerned about the misunderstanding. As an inspector wandering between mortals and gods, the influence of a single Taros Kingdom on him was about nil. He was looking at Collow as a whole, not at any nation or individual in Collow. Therefore he did not mind as long as it did not interfere with what he was doing.

“Veronica, it’s okay. I don’t mind. I can see that you are all in trouble. It’s a big problem, so I can understand it.”

Rudolph III looked at Hao Ren silently with a trace of appreciation and gratitude in his eyes. “Thank you for understanding. We have indeed gotten into trouble. Well, let’s make it short. I wonder how much do you know about the Cult of Armageddon?”

“You mean the believers of the Cult of Armageddon?” Hao Ren shook his head. He could not find any excuses for this, so he just admitted, “No, I have never heard of them.”

Veronica was surprised. “But this cult has been around since the ancient times, and they were quite famous a thousand years ago.”

Hao Ren blinked, feeling embarrassed…

Fortunately, everyone knew that this ancient guardian often had “memory loss” and “confused common sense”, so they did not delve into the matter. Alfred then explained, “The Cult of Armageddon is the oldest cult in the world. Even the scholars of the holy land have studied it, and they think that it’s as old as the Chaos of the world. They are mortals who have been tempted to fall and have been lured into Chaos. The last breath of the evil giant, Lockmarton had polluted the ancient mortals, creating the earliest believers of the Cult of Armageddon.

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Princess Ania went on to explain, “The Cult of Armageddon believers worship Chaos. They are the fanatics who see the evil giant, Lockmarton as the ‘truth of the world’. They believe that the fate of the world is to walk step by step into Chaos and darkness, that being the fundamental reason why the goddess of creation built Collow. Meanwhile, Order and light are just occasional ripples in the course of the world’s development. The mortals born in these ripples and their civilization take this brief order as the truth, which is stupid. They believe that the continuation of Order and the fight against Chaos by mortals are preventing the world from developing along the right path, therefore they are the source of Collow’s pain. They believe that it was the endless War against Chaos that made Collow fall apart, causing great pain to the land. And they have their own set of lofty ‘ideals’ to correct these ‘mistakes’, that is, to put an end to the resistance of mortals and let the whole world fall into its proper orbit.”

Veronica then rolled her eyes and said, “To put it bluntly, it means causing destruction everywhere and trying to get humans to lose in the War against Chaos.”

Hao Ren listened carefully to them. He was no stranger to cults and was not too surprised to hear about the Cult of Armageddon. All cults were almost the same. He was just a little curious. “Their ideas are quite fresh, but aren’t they mortals themselves?”

“Yeah, so they see themselves as targets that need to be ‘purified’,” Veronica explained. “This is the most insane part about them. They don’t mind hurting themselves. I’ve heard that the cult’s ‘Code of Armageddon’ also clearly states that when the end of the world comes, all the believers of the Cult of Armageddon should immediately destroy themselves to please Lockmarton. Do you think there’s the use of logic in people who are crazy to such an extent?”

Hao Ren nodded repeatedly. “Yeah, yeah, I got it.”

Ordinary cults had always used the doomsday redemption opportunity as a bargaining chip to convince believers that their madness could save them from some kind of disaster or reward them beyond measure. However, the teachings of the Cult of Armageddon were directed towards extinction. Far from being saved from the end of the world, believers had to be destroyed. They saw themselves as something that needed to be purified. The believers gained nothing from this faith but were doomed to lose their lives.

Nevertheless, Hao Ren was not too surprised by their deranged teachings because he knew that there were many indescribable powers in the Plane of Dreams. These powers were spiritual poison to mere mortals, and just listening to them was enough to make a man go mad.

If Lockmarton, the evil giant, was the representative of this power, it was not surprising that his followers were crazy.

“I think you already know what happened to Ania and Andrew,” said Rudolph III in a low voice. “Although we did not find any clear evidence in the end, all the clues showed signs of the believers of Armageddon being the ones behind the incident. What happened today confirms this even more.”

Hao Ren got it at once. “Veronica…”

“Yes, Veronica’s distress in the West was not accidental.” Rudolph III’s face was gloomy. “In the White City, Loen found the alchemist to cure Ania and Andrew’s illness, while in the West, you protected Veronica. The consequences would be unthinkable if they were harmed.”

“The loss of the western border was caused by the Tides of Chaos and the withdrawal of the Theocracy. Could those believers of Chaos have so much power to control these factors?”

Grand Duke Loen shook his head. “The cultists themselves are inextricably linked to the forces of Chaos. Even if they can’t control the Tides of Chaos, they can make their own plans with the help of the tides. As for the early withdrawal of the Theocracy…” said the grand duke, looking at Rudolph III expectantly.

The king nodded. He sighed and said, “You can tell them. It will soon be revealed anyway.”

“The Royal Wizard observed the Sanctum from the Arcane Tower and found that the Light of Asurmen at the top of the Sanctum had already been extinguished.”

Ania and Veronica gasped.

Obviously, like Hao Ren, the two princesses were not aware of the news until now.