From Blood Mage to Styx Ancestor

Chapter 384 The End of Light

On the cult's observation interface, only a simple white color remained. Even the sensors that were spread across all dimensions of the mother world had long lost the ability to track the warring parties.

The only thing the bishops could do was use their remaining authority to prevent Douglas from drawing upon the power of the mother world itself.

However, due to the fierce battle between the two sides, even the high-ranking members of the cult, who were hiding behind the curtain, couldn't help but show signs of confusion about the timeline.

Their perception of time has become increasingly blurred; even a fleeting moment can feel like thousands of years have passed.

"Your Majesty," Valentine said wearily, "how long have we been behind the curtain? It feels like so much time has passed..."

"Valentine, I know you're anxious, but the power to decide the final outcome is not in our hands."

Titus, on the other hand, remained calm and composed, seemingly unconcerned about the outcome of the battle.

"We have us holding things back from the sidelines, and there are four immortals inside the arena. No matter what, the advantage is in my hands."

That's true on the surface, but his purplish complexion ultimately betrayed him.

He looked at the screen, which remained completely white, revealing no trace of the battle taking place within the dimensional rift.

Only those strings of still-fluctuating data indicate that the fighting is still ongoing.

"What's going on now?" One of the technicians finally couldn't take it anymore, foaming at the mouth and collapsing onto the control panel.

The continuous surveillance, coupled with the distortion of his sense of time, had already caused him, like many others, to collapse at his post from exhaustion.

Valentine immediately stepped forward, pulled him off his seat, and placed him aside so that the medical staff could take good care of him.

Next to him lay several people with the same symptoms.

"How many is this?" Titus asked in a deep voice.

"The...fifty-third," Valentine replied, his gloomy expression lingering.

"The battle between those individuals has thrown the entire mother world's timeline into chaos."

The Pope sighed, his gaze lingering for a moment on the data on the screen.

"That Styx, the Lord of the Blood Sea, his weapon seems to have the power to melt timelines, and he has launched a cross-time pursuit of Douglas. And his henchmen are no better..."

Titus could almost imagine the horrific state the Mother World would be in once the war ended.

Besides the promised commission to the Lord of the Blood Sea, post-disaster reconstruction will also cost a fortune, not to mention the additional money they may have to pay to the other three immortals...

Even if this wasn't part of their agreement with the Lord of the Blood Sea.

"Your Holiness, you don't seem worried about any accidents?" Valentine said.

"Children, you are too afraid of Him. Douglas is not as strong as you think."

Titus forced a smile onto his aged face and shared his wisdom as an elder with his chosen successor.

"If Douglas were really that strong, we wouldn't have been able to seize the opportunity to contain him."

"Moreover, even if Douglas were not contained, he would find it difficult to withstand the power of four high-ranking immortals."

""

"Valentine," he paused, his gaze falling on his successor, his face kind, "you are different from us. You are the closest the Order has come to our founder in all these years."

"You are destined to succeed me and become the next pope of the Order. Anyone can have awe for our enemies, but you cannot."

Valentine remained silent for a long time, his awe replaced by determination.

"I understand, but why me?" After a moment's hesitation, he asked, "Bishop Kirk and Bishop Rhea are both more senior and experienced than me, so why did you choose me as the First Bishop?"

He could no longer suppress his confusion and asked the Pope a question.

Seeing his serious expression, Titus pondered for a moment and said, "Since you want to know, I won't hide it from you. After all... you'll find out eventually. Come with me."

He gestured for Valentine to follow him, and the two moved to a secret room.

Upon entering the secret room, Valentine suddenly realized that this was a pocket dimension, and a nested dimension within a pocket dimension.

It would be quite difficult to create such a nested doll, so why would the Pope go to such lengths to do this?

He opened his mouth, wanting to ask the question, but Titus walked forward without turning his head, so he had no choice but to suppress his confusion and follow him forward.

They hadn't gone far when a patch of green appeared ahead. Valentine squinted and walked closer to examine the green patch.

"That's... a cloning pod?"

Indeed, what appeared before the two of them were rows of cloning pods.

Through the transparent cloning chamber door, one can see the green nutrient solution inside, and the figures floating in the solution.

"I know you have a lot of questions, but keep moving forward, and you'll find all the answers ahead."

Titus's voice came from ahead. He came to his senses and realized that he had fallen behind. While observing the cloning pods around him, he quickly caught up with the Pope.

At the same time, he noticed a certain pattern among the figures in the surrounding cloning chambers.

The closer you get to the interior, the more human-like the figures become in size and appearance, almost reflecting their evolutionary process.

"You should have noticed by now," Titus said as they walked. "These samples actually represent the progress the Order has made in genetics over the years."

"From its inception, successive popes have vigorously promoted the development of genetics, hoping to use our wisdom to break the shackles and curses that have been imposed upon us."

"We have achieved a lot, in fact, we are quite close to success."

He stopped at the end of the road, standing in front of a cloning pod and peering into the pod's walls to observe the figures inside.

Like him, this figure had gray skin and sparse body hair. Although its face was indistinct, its overall outline was similar to that of a human.

Compared to some of the demi-humans mentioned earlier, this one is already quite human-like.

"This is... your clone?" Valentine asked incredulously.

“Actually,” Titus shook his head, “this should be considered a derivative of my genetic seed.”

He raised his hand, spread his five fingers, and pressed them against the cold bulkhead, as if to caress the face of the figure inside.

"Since the founding of the Order, there has been an unwritten rule known only to the Pope," he said calmly, looking at Valentine, "that the Pope, as a spiritual totem, must be the person with the purest genes."

Do you know why?

Valentine shook his head. "If you hadn't told me, I wouldn't even have known about this rule."

"Hehe, it was my oversight."

Titus smiled and shook his head. "The Pope has a huge influence on the Order, and this influence is reflected in every aspect of life, and can even affect the genes of our people."

"As you know, He not only genetically modified our ancestors, but also cursed them. Even though our genetic technology is quite advanced, we cannot reverse the genes of our people and turn them back into humans."

"We improve the people's genes step by step, generation after generation, while also exploring other avenues and influencing them through other means... The position of Pope is one of them."

After the old pope's explanation, the next pope finally understood the profound meaning of that unwritten rule.

Each pope is deeply intertwined with the Church, and their words, actions, thoughts, and even appearance and genes profoundly influence every member of the Church.

The people's thoughts will tend to align with theirs, the people's actions will uphold their authority, and the people's appearance and genes will gradually resemble theirs.

"This is why the proportion of demi-humans who are close to humans among believers is constantly rising, and even individuals like you who are almost indistinguishable from our ancestors have emerged."

Looking at Valentine's face, the Pope smiled with satisfaction.

To put it bluntly, Valentine is the culmination of the efforts of successive popes and countless believers.

Titus had no doubt that Valentine could take their unfinished work a step further.

"When you rise to power in the future, you must also leave a genetic seed here, in case anything happens to the cult."

""

He didn't continue, but his successors understood what he meant.

"So that's how it is." Valentine felt a sense of being appointed, but he wasn't particularly averse to it. It was a responsibility that came with power, something he was obligated to do.

He looked around and noticed an empty cloning pod standing next to Titus's cloning pod.

"This is for you," Titus said. "You don't need it for now. Now that you've shown me around, you can go back."

The two left this pocket dimension and went to the original pocket dimension in the outside world.

As soon as they returned, they noticed that the images on the surrounding screens had changed; they were no longer a pure white screen but were constantly switching between different views.

The screen jumps around continuously, with large patches of noise and various colors flashing across it from time to time.

"Your Holiness the Pope, Your Excellency the Bishop, the signal has been restored!"

"I see it," Titus said, his eyes fixed on the screen. "How's the battle going on in the Mother World?"

As they were speaking, a crimson light flashed across the screen again, and the red spiral beam of light almost broke through the screen, looking as if it was about to burst out of the screen, which frightened the monitoring personnel.

"It's terrifying even through a screen."

The person being questioned murmured, then, urged by Valentine, suddenly snapped back to reality, cleared his throat, and said, "As you can see, Your Holiness, it is now Lord Styx's side that has the upper hand."

He glanced at the red spiral flashing on the screen, a hint of fear crossing his eyes, and then said, "That despicable usurper is already a candle in the wind; he will surely pay the price he deserves."

"The one who steals the honorifics" is a derogatory term used by the Pope and the College of Episcopal Churches to refer to Douglas.

Its purpose, of course, was to distinguish Douglas from their beliefs.

In order to prevent believers from doubting their faith and thus disrupting the stability of the religious order, they had no choice but to smear Douglas as a usurper.

Otherwise, if the public were to learn that Douglas was the Holy Light, not only would the people be dissatisfied, but the fleet would also rebel.

"Your Majesty, we have successfully reclaimed ninety percent of the authority over the mother world. The usurper has nowhere to retreat."

"Well done," Titus praised, his eyes fixed on the screen.

He saw four ancient and immortal figures, occupying four different positions, like cages, trapping the beam of light in the center.

"This is the last one." The red figure stood on piles of corpses, his voice like the clash of swords.

To his left, a sinister laugh emanated from a cloud of blue, electrified mist, mixed with the cooing of birds.

"Even now, you still won't give up? Gugu, then don't blame us for being ruthless."

"Surrender, and you may survive." A bloated figure appeared and disappeared in the green miasma.

Behind the pink veil, a slender figure struck a seductive pose, her voice alluring: "Given time, I may well be able to reclaim my position."

The four gods, one after another, intimidated Douglas with their sheer presence.

Xiu's life was like a candle flickering in the wind, ready to be extinguished at any moment.

However, the power of the four enemy gods seemed inexhaustible, their intertwined energy creating a tight giant net that would trap those trapped in its center.

He had nowhere to retreat; almost all of him had been wiped out by the enemy, leaving only this last glimmer of light about to fade away.

"Let me go, and I'll give you the essence of a demon god." Douglas flashed at an extremely high frequency, trying to negotiate with the four gods.

"You're really surrendering?"

The heavens seemed to blink, and the clouds enveloping the robes were tinged with brilliant colors.

Neither the stagnant Heaven nor the blissful Heaven spoke; they simply gazed at the figure shrouded in blood mist.

They hadn't expected this guy to actually intend to surrender; what they had said earlier was just empty talk.

It's just a joke. Whether or not to accept the surrender depends on the leader of this trip.

"Surrender?" Mordy's lips curled into a cold smile. "Isn't it a bit too late to say that now?"

"I advised you from the beginning and gave you a chance, but you didn't accept my good intentions. Now you're only thinking about it, but it's too late."

Before the thought could be conveyed, the spiral beam of light arrived first, completely engulfing the remaining ray of light.

In the face of death, Douglas abandoned his cowardly demeanor and roared, "Since that's the case, you can forget about that demonic essence!"

As the last rays of light collapsed, the demonic essence within him was suddenly unleashed.

"You'll never get it."

As the final, venomous curse was uttered, the last remnant of the light of revelation vanished.

The original authority was scattered in various places, and the three gods rushed forward to divide it up.

He looked exactly like a ghoul.

"Stop fighting over the food," Modi frowned. "Quickly find the whereabouts of the demon god's true nature."

"The entire mother world is sealed off; it's impossible for Him to throw out the essence."

Upon hearing this, the three gods' expressions turned solemn, prioritizing the essentials above all else.

"So, did you find it?"

Modi patted the eccentric heavens and asked.

The latter tilted his head. "I might have some bad news. Would you like to hear it?"

Seeing Modi nod, he chuckled and said, "That guy may have integrated his essence into this civilization. If we want to extract it, we might have to use some extreme methods..."

""

His smile grew increasingly benevolent, but hidden within it lay a deep-seated malice.

Very well, now we finally have a legitimate reason to take action against them.

Modi narrowed his eyes, just about to say something, when he received a message from the Pope.

"Want to tell me something? Sure, I hope your reply will satisfy me."

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