Read Novel Full Chapter 440: The Contract of the Gods
Chapter 440: The Contract of the Gods
Strange sights had been appearing in the City of Fire Protection of late.
Every day, the city's residents watched enormous winged lizards sweep across the sky and surge up into the sea of clouds, patrolling and drilling above the city.
The cries of those magical beasts, the ones called "Wind Lizard Dragons," were especially unsettling. The moment one opened its mouth, a vortex formed around its jaws.
Their razor-sharp hind claws hung down in easy repose, claw tips glinting in the sun. One look was enough to know they could tear through iron and stone with ease, and hook up a grown man, or even a carriage.
In the beginning, these monsters had sent the people of the City of Fire Protection fleeing in every direction. All they could do was hide in corners and stare up at the sky in terror.
But after enough flights had passed overhead, everyone came to understand that these were soldiers of the Palace Guard Corps and their mounts. Little by little the city grew used to them, until people were even pointing at the sky and passing judgment like connoisseurs.
"That one there doesn't look as tough as the other," one of them observed.
"Wind Lizard Dragons, aren't they? How do you reckon one would hold up against a Wing Demon?" another wondered.
"No chance. You've seen the size of a Wing Demon's head, haven't you? Dwarfs these things."
"The one you're thinking of is the palace's. That old Wing Demon's a good few centuries old, and the sixth-generation King caught it with his own two hands, you know."Beneath the sea of clouds, Anu rode his Wind Lizard Dragon at the very front, while behind him several Lizard People Beast Knights followed close upon their own Wind Lizard Dragon companions.
They held the same spacing, the same speed, even the same movements.
Upon reaching a spot not far beyond the city, they suddenly dove downward in perfect unison, and every Wind Lizard Dragon opened its mouth as one.
Inhale.
Exhale.
Air cannon after air cannon slammed into the ground, booming one after another, blasting a small grove into a haze of smoke and dust.
Atop the walls of the City of Fire Protection, a crowd was watching the scene as well, gasping in wonder and murmuring among themselves.
"Look at that speed! Every bit as fast as a Wing Demon!" the Snake People cried out.
"Their strength is no less fearsome," another reasoned. "Reach Third-Rank, or field a few dozen Wind Lizard Dragon Beast Knights, and they could raze a city with ease, or wipe out an enemy's reinforcements before they ever arrived."
"These Beast Knights and their magical beasts, or whatever they're called, are mighty impressive, Your Majesty!" Some of the generals were beside themselves with excitement. If a few such Beast Knights appeared in their own legions, then whether for scouting, for lightning strikes, or as a mobile force, they would be a tremendous boon.
Watching from the wall, King Morabi was greatly heartened as well. Suinhor's mightiest legion was the one formed of Stone Demons, and the power it lacked most sorely was power in the sky.
And now the appearance of the Lizard People Beast Knights filled that gap exactly.
In truth, most disputes between nations were settled by forces such as these. As for the powers above them, the apostles and even the gods, they almost never intervened.
Even when they did act, it was rarely over any nation's quarrels of profit and loss. Such moves nearly always belonged to contests played out at the level of the Divine Beings.
Matters of that kind were beyond a king's reach, and if anything went wrong, it was not a king's burden to carry. If the sky came falling down, there would naturally be a Divine Being to hold it up.
After all, in this day and age, who did not have a god standing behind them?
Elsewhere, before the Temple of Fire Protection, Pontiff Menro stood in a resplendent crown with a golden scepter clutched in his hand, a crowd of followers behind him, watching the distant Lizard People Beast Knights just the same.
But the look on Pontiff Menro's face was far from pleased. Suddenly he thrust a furious finger toward the distance and turned his head to the Divine Servants behind him.
"He hands a legion to a pack of Lizard People. He lets the believers of foreign gods raise an Alchemy Tower in the royal city itself. He lets those Witch Spirits out of the wasteland hold our laws and our legal code in their hands."
"This is our King. This is Morabi."
Pontiff Menro could not be bothered to watch any longer. He turned and strode back into the temple.
"Just wait and see!"
"One day he will reap exactly what he has sown."
King Morabi had endured blow after blow from Menro and held firm. Gradually he had taken command of the situation, and he pressed on stubbornly with policies that, in Pontiff Menro's eyes, were nothing short of heresy.
Yet Menro had not come away empty-handed either. In this same stretch of time he had thoroughly purged the disorder within Suinhor's temple system, steadily consolidating his own power, and his standing as the Divine Being's Chief Shepherd in the mortal world.
The royal power and the nation that had once been in chaos, and the divine authority and faith that had been no less chaotic, were at last passing through their transition and transformation in the hands of these two men.
But as the old conflicts were resolved, new ones sprang up in their place.
Strife, it seemed, was a chapter of history that repeated without end, carved into the stone tablets of civilization, carved into the bloodline of every Wisdom Seed.
A Divine Servant suddenly approached and presented two letters.
"From whom?" Menro asked.
The Divine Servant bent low. "They come from the master of the newly built Silk-Weaving Alchemy Tower here in the city, and from the newly appointed Chief Justice."
Pontiff Menro let out an ugly laugh. "A Contract Lawyer and a Tower Keeper?"
"What could two lackeys of foreign gods want with me?"
"Perhaps," the Divine Servant ventured, "it is because many of the Scarlet Goddess's believers in the city have lately been trying to drive them out of the City of Fire Protection. They may hope you can smooth things over?"
Pontiff Menro sneered at once. "Different faiths. What is there to meet about?"
"If the people of Suinhor have no welcome for them, then the sooner they leave, the better."
Pontiff Menro flung the letters straight to the ground without so much as a glance.
Menro was a deeply conservative and deeply stubborn believer, and that was one of the defining marks of the old age.
Men like him were unbending in their faith and devout to the marrow. They regarded everything in all of Suinhor as the Scarlet Goddess's possession, and would not suffer anyone else to lay a finger upon it.
Of course, behind that self-professed devotion, desire and interest did their quiet work as well. The human heart was forever swayed by many forces at once, tangled and hard to fathom.
But Menro never saw the two signatures set at the very end of the letters lying on the ground.
Apostle Sukob.
Apostle Oran.
Though even if he had seen them, he would likely only have flown into a greater rage, convinced that these believers of foreign gods were using apostles to threaten him.
Anu completed the day's training before the King, proving the strength of the Beast Knights and winning his approval.
At last, he led all the Beast Knights back to the training grounds of the Palace Guard Corps.
Anu and the other Lizard People at once released the link with their magical beast mounts. The Wind Lizard Dragon scales sheathing their bodies receded little by little, revealing the riders wrapped within.
As Anu swung himself down, the others crowded in around him at once.
"Captain Anu!"
"Captain Anu!"
"Chief!"
Several more Lizard People pressed in close. "Word is the King's decided to back your experiments with the new potion recipes?"
The purpose of this drill had been not only to show the King the power of the Beast Knights, but more importantly, to win more resources and support from him.
"The Wind Lizard Dragon's already strong enough. Just take that one. What do we need the others for?" To some, the Wind Lizard Dragon was already power enough. Whether other potion recipes could produce new magical beasts hardly mattered anymore.
"The Wind Lizard Dragon's good, sure, but a few other magical beasts wouldn't hurt." Others felt they needed beasts of every kind, and that exploring and perfecting the whole profession of the Beast Knight was a necessity in itself.
"The Wind Lizard Dragon's built for the air, but on the ground it's a little lacking, so we'll want something to cover the ground. And if we had a beast of our own for the water, wouldn't we be able to breathe underwater while we rode it? Now that would be a mighty power too, wouldn't it?" Some of the Lizard People were already dreaming of the future.
Nearly every Lizard Person had resolved to walk the path of the Beast Knight. It was only that some had already made the change, while others had not.
This path was plainly far mightier than that of an ordinary Ability User. A magical beast bound to one through life and death brought an enormous boost in fighting strength, and the abilities it granted were wonderfully varied.
The road ahead was still uncharted, but it had already been proven that one could cultivate at least to late-stage Second-Rank.
And for most ordinary Lizard People, late-stage Second-Rank power was already the end of the road, an end most of them could never even hope to reach.
So this was hardly a difficult choice. One could pick it with both eyes closed.
Anu walked into the building, sat down to rest a moment, and took a drink of water before he finally spoke. "The King has agreed!"
Every Lizard Person burst into cheers, even those who had thought one Wind Lizard Dragon was plenty.
To have the King's support, and more resources with it, was a boon no one could refuse.
Anu raised a hand, and the crowd fell silent at once.
He had brought back the Miracle Tool, the Pouch of Woven Hope. He had fought in the war to wipe out the ghouls. He had created the new profession of the Beast Knight. Deed by deed, Anu's prestige had climbed, and the eyes turned toward him had grown ever more reverent.
"The King has decreed that Limestone Town is to be raised into Limestone City, and that entering the Volcano Forest without leave is strictly forbidden. Any who defy the order will be punished without mercy."
"And any who steal potions or magical beasts will face nothing less than death."
"This law will be written into the brand-new legal code."
This meant that from now on the Volcano Forest would stand as a vital land of resources, and not ordinary mineral resources, but extraordinary ones, prized by all of Suinhor.
The Lizard People nodded along. This had solved a great problem for Anu and his people.
They had long feared that these matters would ignite terrible clashes and feuds beyond mending. The lure of potions and magical beasts was simply too great.
"From here on, our ties with the Volcano Forest have to grow closer still. We need to send our experiments and our findings back home, and we need them to keep us supplied with Potion Seeds and to capture magical beasts for us."
"Step by step, things will get better there. And step by step, they will get better here."
"My friends, this step of ours looks to have been the right one."
Anu paused for breath, then went on. "But His Majesty has set one condition. From here on, we must reforge the Palace Guard Corps into a corps of Beast Knights through and through."
"The Palace Guard Corps will send us a company of Ability Users, and we are to help them become Beast Knights too."
The Lizard People voiced their objections at once, and the room soon broke into open argument.
"Teach outsiders how to advance into a Beast Knight? How can we possibly do that?"
"This belongs to us. We can't just hand it over to others."
"And if we don't hand it over, we're through with King Morabi for good."
"But if we do hand it over, what's to stop them turning on us later?"
"I have already thought it through," Anu said. "We will help the newly arrived Ability Users become Beast Knights."
"The Potion Seeds are Lord Kurmis's own making. Without his power, without the Potion Seeds, not one of them can become a Beast Knight."
"So long as they want to be Beast Knights, they cannot do without us."
"But we will not hand them everything either. The potion recipe for the Wind Lizard Dragon will never leave our hands."
"Hold on to those two things, and we will always have ground to stand on."
Anu's prestige carried its weight. His words settled the matter then and there.
In truth, there was one more reason Anu had left unspoken.
The power of the potions carried Kurmis's traits within it. Every being who became a Beast Knight was bound to be influenced by it in some measure, whether knowingly or not.
And for the Feathered Serpent Kurmis, that was a good thing.
The Training Grounds of the Palace Guard Corps
Morning had scarcely broken, and every soldier of the Palace Guard Corps was buzzing with excitement.
Their captain, Anu, had decided to pass on to them the method of advancing into a Beast Knight. Most of these soldiers lacked the qualifications to become Beast Knights themselves, but seeing that Snake People could become Beast Knights made it easy to imagine that they could too.
With King Morabi's full support, and after trial upon trial, a second controllable magical beast, along with its combined potion recipe, had come into being.
"Pin it down!" Across the wide training grounds, everyone was chasing a beast just released from its cage.
Squeak squeak! The beast was seized in moments, shrilling in protest.
"Don't let it thrash!" It was a scaly beast, a shifty-eyed little thing with two jutting teeth, for all the world like an oversized rat wrapped in a hard hide.
"Careful! Don't let it burrow into the ground and get away!" a Lizard Person squad leader bellowed, clearly remembering past trouble. This little thing had caused them no end of grief, and once it got loose it was the very devil to catch.
"Burrow into what ground? It hasn't even become a magical beast yet!" another Lizard Person shot back.
A Snake Person walked at Anu's side as the two of them made their way slowly to the open center of the training grounds.
Every eye followed Anu, and the Snake Person soldier behind him most of all, shining with envy.
Anu began the ritual and brought the scaly beast fully under control. Then he knelt upon the ground to pray.
Today happened to be the first day of the month. Over at the pyramid, the Harvest Sacrifice would be underway as well.
"Great Feathered Serpent God Kurmis."
"On the first day of the month, in the hour of the rising sun."
"Your will shall descend with the first ray of the sun's light."
"Please accept our offerings, and may You return to us soon."
When the prayer was done, Anu brought out a Potion Plant he had cultivated with painstaking care.
The Potion Crystal Fern.
They had promised to help the Snake People become Beast Knights, but the Potion Seeds, and the art of cultivating the potions, those details the Lizard People kept to themselves.
Anu cradled the Potion Crystal Fern in both hands and held it out before the Snake Person at his side. "Feed it to your future companion," he instructed, "and feel out its heart with all the care you have."
"From this day on, you and it will share a single Wisdom, and the two of you will be made one."
The Snake Person received it with the utmost gravity. The prayer and ritual just now had left his face solemn in spite of himself.
The scaly beast caught the fragrance of the potion, and the scent of the Divine Blood of Wisdom within it.
Every witless beast hungered for the power of Wisdom. It was the final end their evolution strained toward.
The moment it devoured the Potion Crystal Fern, the scaly beast's expression went blank.
Before long it was rolling on the ground, wave after wave of extraordinary fluctuations pouring from its body.
The scaly beast's frame swelled larger and larger, its teeth grew keener, and its armor-hard hide turned the color of earth and stone.
And at the same time, it began slipping into madness.
"Get up there!" Anu bellowed.
"Brand your spirit onto its magic crystal! Let its bloodline resonate with your own!"
The Snake Person plunged into the ritual array at once, following every motion and every step exactly as Anu had taught.
At last, the magical beast was born. The Earth-Piercing Beast.
Trembling with excitement, the Snake Person took control of the Earth-Piercing Beast, riding his magical beast companion at a run across the training grounds and whooping with joy.
The new magical beast was not especially fast, but every line of it radiated power.
It charged to the edge of the training grounds, and there the Earth-Piercing Beast leapt high and slammed down into the ground.
It punched straight through the earth and drilled downward, and moments later burst up again from more than a hundred meters away.
"Whoa!"
The soldiers were beside themselves. This thing was incredible.
When the Earth-Piercing Beast surfaced again, it suddenly loosed a piercing shriek it could not hold back. Every ordinary soldier present felt his mind go blank, and it was a long while before their senses returned.
The new magical beast could burrow through the earth, and it wielded the power to stun the mind as well.
Both powers were eminently useful, practical abilities through and through.
"Incredible!"
"Truly incredible!"
"Captain Anu, your magical beasts, and the might of these Beast Knights of yours, it's all simply extraordinary!"
The Snake Person guided the Earth-Piercing Beast back before Anu and offered him his thanks.
Anu clapped him on the shoulder. "Treasure your companion."
Just then one of the King's attendants stepped up beside Anu. "Captain Anu. The King wishes to see you."
Anu turned at once and gave the order. "Everyone, take some rest. Wait here until I return."
Then he followed the attendant off to see the King.
Only moments earlier, two singular figures had arrived in the City of Fire Protection.
Two beings who possessed God's Form.
One had come from the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents, the other from the Land of Sunrise, yet they met at the very same moment outside the gates of the City of Fire Protection.
Neither showed the least surprise at the meeting. They simply fell in side by side and walked straight into the city.
Sukob was the first to speak. "And the God of Demon Spirits? Have you told that Divine Being already?"
"I sent a letter," Oran said. "The God of Demon Spirits says He knows of it."
Sukob hesitated. "Knows, meaning..."
Sukob wanted to say that this was far too vague an answer. But when the one who had given it was a true Divine Being, he did not quite dare to say anything more.
"The God of Demon Spirits should consent," Oran added. "The Contract of the Gods stands to benefit Him too."
"The only real difficulty is the Scarlet Goddess."
"Suinhor is vast, and its people are the most numerous of all."
"The Scarlet Goddess was the first Divine Being to awaken in this era, and Her faith reaches the widest of any."
"And so, for Her, this may not be a matter of any necessity at all."
"So?" Sukob asked.
Oran shook his head. "So I have no confidence that I can persuade the Scarlet Goddess. She is a Divine Being in Her own right."
"A few days ago, God Iva sent me a divine oracle. He had felt the tremors of an ascension to Mythical status in the south, rising out of the Blood Kingdom. The God of Desire suspects it may be the Scarlet Goddess's younger sister."
This was the first Sukob had heard of it. "The Scarlet Goddess has a younger sister?"
"Another Divine Being?"
Oran did not know either. All he could say was, "That is what the oracle told me."
Sukob drew to a halt, plainly shaken. "By that reckoning, then, Suinhor has two Divine Beings?"
Oran could only offer a kindly smile.
Both men fell silent. This complicated everything. The other side's advantage was too great, and their own odds of success had just fallen further.
But they had come all this way. They had to try.
The two made their way to the royal palace, where the court seemed to have long known of their coming, and had been waiting for them well in advance.
In the splendid, spacious hall, King Morabi regarded his two visitors.
"I am Morabi, King of Suinhor. What brings two apostles to the City of Fire Protection?"
These were no ordinary figures, and no ordinary apostles.
Their every move carried the will of the Divine Beings, and it was impossible not to wonder what had brought them here.
Sukob offered the King the courtesy of a mortal. "King Morabi, I have come to thank you for opening this nation to the Contract Lawyers."
Oran inclined his head in turn. "The Tower Keepers are my followers. It has long been my hope to carry their strength into every corner of this world. You have my thanks, King of Suinhor."
King Morabi rose from his seat. Even he dared not simply accept the courtesies of two such apostles.
"You are both far too kind."
"It is I who have need of the Tower Keepers and the Contract Lawyers. It is I who should be thanking the two of you, for sending your followers to my door."
Once the purpose of their visit had become a little clearer, King Morabi quietly breathed easier.
At the very least, they had not come bearing trouble.
He ordered a banquet laid out at once. Morabi had wanted to summon the nobles for a grand ball as well, to welcome the two in the most ceremonious fashion, but they declined.
They said they did not care for anything too boisterous. They had come only to thank him.
After Apostle Sukob and Apostle Oran had chatted with King Morabi a while about the Tower Keepers and the Contract Lawyers, Sukob suddenly glanced around and asked a question.
"I am told that an heir of Kurmis, one who goes by the name Anu, serves under you, King Morabi. Might I trouble you to send for him?"
King Morabi blinked. "You are acquainted with him as well?"
"Kurmis is a dear friend of mine," Sukob said.
The King sent for Anu at once. The moment the Lizard Person stepped inside, he saw two beings in God's Form seated in the hall, and his eyes went straight to them and stayed there, unable to pull away for the longest time.
A god? An apostle? An Abyss King?
A string of names surged up in his mind, and he set about matching the two before him against the beings of myth, one by one.
Sukob rose to his feet then, showing no scorn at Anu's strange appearance.
"Anu?"
Anu lifted his head to look at him. "And you would be...?"
"I am Sukob," the apostle told him.
From the crowd of faces spinning through his head, Anu finally fixed on the one that matched. "Apostle Sukob? My teacher has spoken of you."
Anu's gaze shifted to the other visitor. "I am Oran," the second apostle said with a smile.
Anu went stiff from head to toe. He had never imagined he would stand face to face with these two apostles.
Sukob saw his nerves and simply had him join the banquet. The conversation that followed belonged to the two apostles and His Majesty the King, and Anu faded into the background entirely.
So Anu sat at the lower end of the table and ate, and kept eating, until he was stuffed nearly to hiccupping.
At last, the apostles' talk with the King drew to a close.
Sukob and Oran rose to take their leave. The King pressed them to stay, but the two said they had a matter of the utmost importance still before them.
There was nothing the King could do but see them to the doors.
Yet just as the two were about to cross the threshold, they turned as one and looked at Anu.
Sukob smiled. "We are off to see to something."
Oran pointed at Anu. "You should come along too."
Anu, seated at the foot of the long table, pointed blankly at himself. "Me?"
Both apostles nodded together.
At an utter loss, Anu followed the two apostles out, with no idea what he was being brought along to do.
It was King Morabi who, after they had gone, finally understood something.
"They did not come for me, then?"
Sukob and Oran had plainly come for Anu. Meeting King Morabi and thanking him for all he had done had been the errand along the way.
Oran raised a hand, and a flying magic carpet came drifting down from the sky.
Sukob, Anu, and Oran seated themselves upon it together, and the magic carpet sailed off into the distance.
All the way, Anu sat rigid and proper, stiff as a block of wood.
He had a bellyful of questions he longed to ask, and no idea how to ask a single one.
Several times Anu opened his mouth, and each time he closed it again.
Sukob saw it and let out a laugh. "Do not fret. It is nothing bad."
Sukob's gentle voice, together with his friendship with Kurmis, eased some of the tension knotted in Anu's chest.
"We came here meaning to seek out Kurmis over a certain matter," Sukob went on.
"But Kurmis has fallen into slumber and cannot answer us. He did give us his word once before."
"And you, Anu, are Kurmis's heir and his voice now. So the task can fall to no one but you."
"And what is it we are going to do?" Anu asked.
"To see the Scarlet Goddess," Sukob said.
For a long moment Anu could not get a word out. The man had said it far too casually.
Only these two apostles could speak of seeking an audience with a Divine Being as though it were nothing at all.
Anu wrestled his scattered thoughts into some kind of order and at last managed a question that sounded halfway sensible. "So... are we bound for the Blood Kingdom?"
There was tension in his voice, and expectation too. He had never once set foot in the true kingdom of a god.
Oran, who had guided the carpet from the front all this while, turned his head back. "The Scarlet Goddess is not within Her kingdom. She walks the mortal world even now."
"Sukob speaks for the God of Knowledge and Truth, and for the God of Contracts yet to come. I speak for God Iva, and for the God of Happiness yet to come. And you speak for the Feathered Serpent Kurmis."
"Each of us speaks for the gods and for the Divine Chosen, and together we go to seek audience with that ancient and mighty Divine Being."
The string of divine names left Anu's head spinning.
"You... Honored apostles, what in the world is it the two of you mean to do?"
Sukob and Oran exchanged a glance, then laughed.
"We mean to have the gods themselves sign a contract, one god with another."
"What sort of contract?" Anu pressed.
"A contract," Sukob said, "under which faith no longer carves the world into domains, so that every god may spread their faith freely across every nation."
"Suinhor, the White Tower Alchemy Alliance, the Royal Court of Ten Thousand Serpents, the Wasteland Witch Kingdom, the Thunder Kingdom, and even the nations of a distant other world. This contract will strike the shackles from every one of them, and every soul alive will be free to find the faith that truly fits."
"Witch Spirits, Contract Lawyers, Alchemists, Tower Keepers, Demon Spirits, and even your Beast Knights. Every last profession and faith will find its place, its home, in every corner of the world."
"The Feathered Serpent Kurmis," he told Anu in earnest at the last, "stands among the aspiring divine beings. He too belongs in this contract."
Oran spoke up as well. "Imagine it. A single nation that holds the power and the faithful of every Divine Being."
"Witch Spirits weaving their scrolls, Alchemists forging their tools, Contract Lawyers keeping the legal code, Tower Keepers widening the workshops."
"What kind of world would that be?"
Anu's mouth fell open. Shock and nerves had robbed him of speech entirely.
This had sailed so far beyond anything he could imagine that his mind simply stopped working altogether.
His head was filled with nothing but howls like these.
"Huh?"
"Hm?"
"What?"
"Where am I?"
"What am I supposed to be doing?"
"All I did was answer the King's summons and eat a meal."
"And then two Divine Chosen of towering renown, two apostles of unimaginable power, hauled me up into the sky."
"And now they are telling me I am to speak for a whole host of Divine Beings, and beings on the verge of becoming Divine Beings, to seal a Contract of the Gods that will touch all of Ruhe Beast Island, and the lands beyond it besides."