Persuading the Holy Church was not difficult.
The Church was much more cooperative than Lee Sungmin had worried about. If the Holy Church was a selfish and politically driven group that only focused on image, they could have taken the credit for everything that happened in Germane 10 years ago.
But they didn’t do that. And the reason was simple : they weren’t a group driven by profits and losses.
Just like Theos had some wrinkles develop in the decade he had not seen Lee Sungmin for, the same was true of Teresa.
Ten years ago she was a teenage girl, but now she was in her mid-20s.
Teresa had a holistic beauty to her, but her eyes were as just as pure as they were ten years ago. She put her hands together and bowed her head toward Lee Sungmin.
“I am deeply grateful for what happened 10 years ago, Lee Sungmin-ssi. Without your help, we wouldn’t have survived in that terrible place 10 years ago.”
Teresa opened her closed eyes.
“You and Abel sacrificed your lives to take down the King of the Death Knights and the Devil, Kim Jonghyun. And… …when the devil’s deadly curse drove you crazy, we weren’t able to help you and had to retreat.”
“I know you couldn’t help it.”
“However, I feel guilty about not doing anything. Lee Sungmin, you said that your friend, the Silent Flare, Baek Sogo, did something we couldn’t do to stop you. And now she’s dying of a deadly poison.”
“Yes… so please…….”
“Of course I’ll help you.”
Teresa spoke up without hesitation.
“I have a conscience and I know well about what kind of person the Silent Flare is, let’s go.”
Contrary to his expectations, Teresa was very active. She immediately rose her body up and put her hands on her waist as she looked at Lee Sungmin.
“Mr. Theos, please contact the Pope.”
“I see.”
“Okay, let’s go.”
Teresa spoke with her eyes sparkling. Lee Sungmin was caught off guard by her enthusiastic attitude. Can he really just take the Saint of the Holy Church like this? It was the only Saint that the Holy Church had, and they were helping an outsider for a personal favor.
“But you’re a lot different than you were 10 years ago, and your hair definitely grew out too.”Teresa smiled and said to Lee Sungmin, who summoned the fairy horse.
At that, Lee Sungmin paused and touched his hair that was roughly tied back into a ponytail. As soon as he woke up from the seal, he was constantly busy and had things to do, so he hadn’t even had a chance to cut his hair yet.
“It looks good on you. And… …the imbalance in your body that was killing you 10 years ago…..”
“What about it?”
“……Well, now I might have called it an imbalance back then, but you’ve settled it on your own. Your body is in harmony surprisingly.”
Because his body had completely transformed into a monster’s, his body had finally harmonized the imbalanced energies within his dantian and spirit. Lee Sungmin smiled and climbed onto the Pegasus.(T/N : Basically the heart/mind/body trio combination you’ll see in cultivation novels or the three different areas the chest, the lower abdomen and the brain are the three different places and they’re finally in harmony after 340 ish long ass chapters lmao)
Before Lee Sungmin gave her a helping hand, Teresa hopped on her own and got on the back of the Pegasus comfortably without needing assistance.
“By the way, what happens if sit on it like this?”
Teresa had just hopped on the back of the Pegasus following her instincts. She didn’t even know what the powers of the Pegasus were or how they worked. Nevertheless, there was no reason to explain and Lee Sungmin just let the Pegasus do its thing.
The space started to distort as the Pegasus flapped its wings.
“You seem to be used to this.”
Behind the flashing light, the Pegasus jumped out of the warp in space. Oslo looked at Lee Sungmin coming down from the fairy horse’s stomach and pouted, sticking her tongue out.
“What would you have done without this Queen?””
“I would have been running like crazy just trying to get things done. Thank you.”
Lee Sungmin replied with a bitter smile. She was in good spirits when she got on and when they were starting to warp, but Teresa looked like she was on the verge of death when she got off the Pegasus.
Staggering down, she sat on the floor and touched her face with both hands.
“I feel really weird….”
“Some people are born out of sync. It’s like a form of motion sickness.”
Oslo said while giggling at seeing Teresa’s sick face. Teresa lifted her head weakly and looked at Oslo. Soon, Teresa’s eyes widened in shock.
“You…… Fairies……?!”
“People who see us for the first time always react like that.”
Oslo laughed as the fairies around her danced and giggled. Teresa opened her mouth blankly and saw the fairies giggling with Oslo. Soon, she realized she couldn’t delay the reason for her visit.
“Where’s the Silent Flare-ssi?”
Lee Sungmin headed towards Baek Sogo with Teresa. On the way to her resting place, Lee Sungmin made eye contact with Yana, who was resting with her back against a tree.
Yana greeted Lee Sungmin and Teresa with a slight nod, and Teresa whispered closely behind Lee Sungmin’s back.
“Well, I know we are in a hurry, but I saw it… I really did. Nine tails…… That was a nine-tailed demon fox, right?”
“Yes.”
“You have a wide network.”
Teresa muttered in admiration. Lee Sungmin smirked and laughed at the words.
“You came earlier than expected.”
Scarlett was beside Baek Sogo who was lying down.“Thank God.”Scarlett added, touching Baek Sogo’s forehead, feeling her temperature.
“She said that she would eventually lose consciousness, before she really fainted. She told me not to be surprised if she just dropped to the ground tired, but how am I not supposed to be surprised when it happens?”
If he was even a little bit later than the estimated time it would take to get to Prabach and back, Scarlett would have called Lee Sungmin back with the bracelet. It was getting that serious. Teresa, who understood the situation, came out from behind Lee Sungmin’s back.
She settled down beside Baek Sogo and closed her eyes. Pure white light began to spread around Teresa’s body like a thin cocoon.
Scarlett flinched and stepped back, and Lee Sungmin also made sure to take a moderate distance between him and Teresa. Although his imbalances were fixed finally, Teresa’s divine power was still fatal to him as he was a pure-blooded monster now with his body.
Teresa held Baek Sogo’s wrist and started to channel the divine power from her body into her. Lee Sungmin and Scarlett stood beside Teresa and looked at Baek Sogo with worried eyes.
“You don’t have to worry too much.”
Oslo came to Lee Sungmin’s side.
“The poison accumulated in Baek Sogo’s body is being purified in real time. It will take just a little longer, but the poison itself will definitely be purified from that person’s power.”
Oslo smiled as she was able to see what was going on within Baek Sogo’s body.
“It was poison that even I, the Queen of Fairies, couldn’t purify. The poison in her body was a poison that was etched into her very existence and would not stop weakening her until death. To purify it with Divine Power alone…… You said she was the only person to be called the Saint of the Holy Church, and I can say now that she is definitely deserving of that title.”
After some more time eventually passed by in silence, Teresa slowly opened her eyes.
“Phew.”
She took a short breath and wiped the sweat off her forehead.
“It’s okay.”
Teresa said with a big smile.
“It’s over.”
By Teresa’s side, Baek Sogo was still lying there asleep, but with a much healthier complexion as the color had returned to her face.
* * *
She was watching the entire time.
She was looking at the whole series of events that had unfolded. Long years of sleep due to breaking her promise with the creators restrained her body, but not her mind.
In the first place, she was a True Transcendent, a being unconstrained by the body and spirit, and her spirit could leave her sleeping body at any time if she wanted to.
So, she watched her beloved lover while her body was restrained.Even if he broke an Oath under his mana and lost his magical powers….
Even if he was in a wheelchair because his legs could barely move after the repercussions of breaking the Oath….Even if he became a wrinkled old man because he couldn’t completely suppress his inevitable aging with any magic.
The Queen of Spirits loved the man known as Cain. It was like an imprint on her heart. The Queen of Spirits’ affection for Cain was an indelible imprint.
Summoning and establishing a contract.
Many magicians dreamed of creating a contract with the ruler of the Spirit Realm, but Cain was the only one who managed to ever pull it off.
Cain was the first human magician in all of Eria to summon the Spirit Queen to sign a contract. The Queen contracted her powers to him and eventually became his lover over time.
But the Spirit Queen should have never been summoned to the world of Eria.
Instead, many of the spirits she had under her directly, came whenever Cain used his spirit magic. It was good that way, too.
The Queen of Spirits had developed a deep affection for Cain, the first to summon her.
Cain was her only source of outside interference from her Spirit Realm. As her only contractor capable enough to appear, she fell in love quickly.
Or was it obsession rather than affection at first? The Queen didn’t know since it had been so long.
The trigger was not important to her. But one thing remained constant. She was the one she loved, and the one she wanted to protect.
So she saved Cain even by breaking her promise with the creators of the world. She wanted to save him from his horrible fate. The end of the world? It was none of her business. Everything was good as long as Cain was okay.
But that very person, Cain, was dead.
It was a miserable and horrific death. She had put him in a dimensional space for safety. Even a mansion was built for him.
She hoped that one day, when she was free of the restriction in place on her body, she would be able to live with Cain in that mansion.
But there was a devil who came knocking on the door of death for Cain and choked him brutally. A Brother? The Spirit Queen thought she heard the man say that as he killed him, but that didn’t mean much to the Queen.
What mattered to her, was that Cain was now…. dead. The only thing was that the man who killed Cain was also dead.
What was she supposed to do?
The Spirit Queen’s mind circled in rage inside of her sleeping body. Hate and revenge ravaged her thoughts.
Why did Cain have to die? She had saved him! She even broke her promise with the world’s creators and saved him from his terrible fate… so why did Cain die?!
Because the person who killed him wanted to ‘save the world’.
Yeah, that was why. To prevent the end of the world, Cain died as a sacrifice.
Only for that single and pitiful reason. For the Queen, the world of Eria held no special place in her heart. It wasn’t even that important.
What did it matter if the rest of Eria died or not? Cain would have been able to continue to live happily with the Queen in the mansion in the dimension she created.
But, Cain was dead. Cain died, for the pitiful excuse that it was needed to save the world.
“You can’t.”
The Queen who had finally woken up from her forced slumber, spoke with malice as the first thing she did. Unbearable hatred and anger peeled her eyes.
Originally, she had to sleep longer than this. But that restriction didn’t matter now. That was because she was done. Nothing mattered if her only lover was dead.
A promise only held value to protect that world from outside interference so that the end of it would progress smoothly. A world that would reset itself no matter how many times it rinsed and purged the population. But why should she even care about protecting a world that forsake her lover?
Cain had died in order to ‘save the world from its fate’ but the Queen could see it. The world of Eria still had not had its fate changed. Cain had died for nothing.
It made the Spirit Queen absolutely enraged beyond belief. As she woke up from her slumber, she had already decided in her mind what to do. She was going to become one of the Final Catastrophes since that world was already doomed.
That long awaited promise that she made with the creators to just patiently wait and observe Eria while it had its fate rewound, was useless to her. To spite the world that was ruined for ruining her love, she would do anything.
In the first place, if she became a Catastrophe, the creators of the world would not be opposed to it since she was only helping the fate progress smoother.
The waking Queen left her room. All the spirits gathered under her Palace as the Queen opened her eyes in the Spirit Realm.
All of the spirits within the Spirit Realm were connected to their Queen. They could feel just how much anger and frustration their monarch was feeling.
Rubia, an artificial spirit, trembled with fear at the Queen’s feet. The Queen didn’t even give Rubia a look.
Vengeance, hatred and anger narrowed her vision completely.
The Queen was going to declare war. She would accept the destruction of Eria and become an Apostle of the End. She would order all of the spirits with her, to descend to the world of Eria with one mission : destroy everything in sight.
The Spirits of the Water element would make the sea run wild and swallow the land with tsunamis waves from the coastal cities, and the Spirits of the Earth element would cause tremors and crack the very earth apart.
The Spirits of Fire would let lava out from the cracks created by the Spirit of the Earth.
The Spirits of the Wind would cause tornadoes and ravage every building in existence. The Queen of Spirits felt her anger relieve itself a very small amount, knowing she would do this.
The Queen of Spirits raised her hand. The time was now. She was going to declare war at this very moment.
Or at least she would have…
There was something that was behind all of the Spirits gathered at the Palace. None of the spirits, even the queen, who was the ruler of the Spirit Realm, did not notice its existence.
It was between a gap in the dimensions that nobody should have been able to detect.
It was in a place that transcended all laws by its existence alone.
When the black cloth fluttered as the person walked out between the dimensional portal, All the spirits between it and the Spirit Queen were extinguished. Only then did the Spirit Queennotice its existence.
“Spirit Queen.”
The individual murmured as if she were bored with being there already
“Sarahenne.”
It was the name of the Spirit Queen. Her true name, which shouldn’t have been known to any being except Cain, came out of the person’s mouth.
Before she knew it, even coming to the Spirit Realm seemed like a tedious task as she had been doing this for the past decade without rest.
Wandering around dungeons, destroying their cores, absorbing the dimensional energy from them, it had all been a way for her to gain power at first, but she had already transcended the realm where gaining power felt necessary. She didn’t want to even do this when she heard that her only and first friend had died, but she found out he was alive. Because of that, she could embark on this mission.
“I had a hard time getting here.”
Wijihoyeon looked at the Spirit Queen and spoke.“I forgot the number of dungeons I hit a long time ago, and I gave up counting.”
The sheer number had been so many, but there were none left as she had finally cleared all the dungeons left that could be broken by the time of the Apocalypse.
Now, the gate break of the Apocalypse wouldn’t ever arrive. But that didn’t mean the Apocalypse was over yet. There were still the Final Catastrophes to prevent.
“How many times have you done this?”
Wijihoyeon asked, tilting her head.
How many timelines had this happened already where the Spirit Queen became a Catastrophe? Wijihoyeon didn’t know, nor did she care.