Mystery: The Undead Don't Die from Linking the Fire

Chapter 312 The Church of Knowledge

With Emlyn's presence, the atmosphere at the table was noticeably less "cheerful" than before.

After all, vampires have always prided themselves on elegance and nobility, and have taken pride in this for thousands of years. Even if they consider Emlyn a disgrace to the vampire race, they wouldn't go so far as to mock him to his face.

There was no party planned for tonight, so shortly after dinner...

Led by Kasimi, they skillfully ascended the stairs to the underground region, passing through a series of secret doors until they arrived at a hall that was both iron-gray and refreshingly vibrant. In the center of the hall stood a lively tomb, surrounded by twelve beds woven from grass, each corresponding to one of the twelve vampires.

"Your Majesty the Duke."

The young vampires, including Emlyn, bowed respectfully.

Emlyn stood there, and heard the deep voice from within the tomb ask:

"Since you're here, let's begin."

"Yes."

The vampires offered no complaints, bowing their heads as they walked to their designated beds and lay down. Emlyn also slowly approached his own bed, but a storm raged within him!

Because he was absolutely certain that the embers were right beside him!

The reason I can't see him is because I'm not strong enough.

But Duke Olmer is an angel!

He didn't react at all. Did he not even notice Ember? Doesn't that mean Ember's strength is above Duke Olmer's? Above Sequence 2? Could it be an Angel of Sequence 1? That's the closest being to a true god!

Emlyn swallowed hard. He knew Ember was strong, but he hadn't expected him to be this strong. There was only one Sequence 1 angel, even within the vampire clan: the goddess of beauty, Olnia, second only to the vampire progenitor!

As for the possibility that Ember might be a true god, Emlyn wouldn't even dare to think about it!

How could that possibly be possible?

It is said that the gods of the Fifth Age could not walk among humans, and this is indeed true.

Although the deities of the True God Church occasionally issue divine pronouncements, they have never truly appeared in person; their will has always been conveyed by the Triple Crowned Ones of the various churches. If Ember were truly a deity, then he, like other deities, should be unable to walk among mortals due to some kind of limitation.

Emlyn was in a state of utter confusion, but her body betrayed her by lying down on the bed—

He didn't want others to see his inner turmoil and unease, especially the Duke of Olmer.

As all the vampires lay down on their beds, a peculiar fragrance began to fill the hall. Emlyn knew it was incense made by Duke Olmer to help them fall asleep quickly—after all, vampires, being extraordinary beings and nocturnal creatures, didn't need much sleep and were quite unaccustomed to sleeping at night.

While most of them can adjust this, the help of incense is naturally the best.

Just like now.

Unbeknownst to them, all the vampires had already fallen asleep, entering that mysterious and unpredictable dream world.

One second Emlyn was wondering when the Embers would appear.

The next second, when he came to his senses, he found himself sitting by a campfire.

The campfire is located at the end of a dilapidated bridge. On the other side of the bridge is an open iron gate leading to a sewer filled with rats.

Not far in front of the campfire, there were patrolling monsters.

"Forget it, that's not something I should be thinking about."

Emlyn shook his head. He had no right to interfere with whatever happened between Ember and Duke Olmer. What he needed to do now was to quickly unlock the map and head to the Farron Fortress that the 'World' had mentioned!

-

As all the vampires entered the dream, the iron-gray hall fell into complete silence.

The once vibrant tomb was silent, just like any other ordinary tomb.

The silence was broken by footsteps, and a figure emerged from hiding and walked to the grave.

A deep, ageless voice echoed once more from the grave:

"You've finally arrived."

Olmer's tone was full of emotion:

"Thousands of years have passed, and I thought I would never see you again in this lifetime."

Ember was slightly surprised:

"Thousands of years have passed, and you still remember?"

The tombstone in front of the grave moved to the right, revealing a passageway large enough for one person to pass through.

A handsome young man with dazzling blond hair stepped out, his expression complex, and he said with a wry smile:

"How could I forget? Even if tens of thousands of years passed, I still wouldn't forget."

Although it happened thousands of years ago, the events of that day are still vivid in my mind even now!

On that day, in Landenheim, the most glorious city of the vampires, his father, the god of the vampires, the god of life, fell in his own castle, along with another god—the crimson moon.

With their demise, Lilith truly stepped onto the stage of history. She became a true Ancient God, a genuine progenitor of the vampires.

And the person who caused all of this is Ember!

He killed the God of Life, ending that "Crimson Moon," and he also helped Lilith ascend to godhood!

Even Olmer's current success is thanks to the embers.

Although Ember killed his father, he also gave him the opportunity to become a demigod. To be honest, Olmer was even once grateful to Ember.

After all, if Ember hadn't killed the God of Life and his father, he probably would never have had the chance to become a demigod, let alone one of the three dukes of the vampire clan.

Yet this very person who caused the upheaval in the vampire clan and helped them give birth to the ancient gods vanished without a trace afterward.

The entire vampire race, including the progenitor and the goddess of beauty, has tried to find traces of his existence. But over the past thousands of years, the vampires have found nothing, as if this person never existed in the world, and what happened in Langdenheim was just a legend, a dream.

But Olmer, who had personally experienced all of this and had come into contact with Lilith and Ember, did not think so.

Although he never found any trace of the Ember, he always held it in awe, even though it had been missing for thousands of years.

After all, this person was capable of killing gods thousands of years ago!

In the Second Age, everyone believed that the progenitor of the vampires, the Destroyer Wolf, and the Alien King, who perished in the Age of the First Flame, were the first gods to fall. But only the vampires knew that long before the birth of the eight ancient gods, a god had already completely perished!

In the vampire's historical records, it was the fall of that "Moon" god that truly ushered in the era of the eight ancient gods—

Because of the fall of the 'moon', the first ancient god of the Second Era was born, who was also the progenitor of the vampires.

Before Lilith ascended to godhood, the vampires were the weakest of all the extraordinary races because they had neither a true god nor enough angels. Compared to other extraordinary races that had at least a plurality of angels, the vampires only had one God of Life.

When the God of Life fell and Lilith became the first to ascend to godhood, the vampires instantly became the most powerful transcendent race, without exception! Whether giants or dragons, they could only bow down in submission before the vampires!

Even though subsequent beings like the Imaginary Dragon and the Giant King Ormir ascended to godhood, their strength was still far inferior to that of the Vampire Progenitor. Among the eight ancient gods of the Second Era, the Vampire Progenitor was the strongest god, without exception!

Even when betrayed or framed, the fact that the progenitor of the vampires could take the Destruction Wolf and the Alien King down with him is the best proof of that.

But all of that is now in the past.

The glory of the vampires vanished with the fall of their progenitor, and afterwards, the vampires became like stray dogs.

Having lost the protection of the gods, the vampires can only hide among humans and eke out a living.

Even though some vampires, led by his sister, the Goddess of Life, sought refuge with the elves, their lives as dependents were far from secure.

Olmer was extremely puzzled. He didn't understand why Ember had helped the progenitor of the vampires ascend to godhood, and why he would stand by and watch the progenitor perish in betrayal, while he himself never showed up.

Now, when Ember appeared before him, he desperately wanted to know why all of this had happened.

But after a complex internal struggle, Olmer ultimately wisely chose to remain silent.

He shouldn't be asking this question, nor does he have the right to.

Olmer cleared his mind and asked proactively:

"What do you need me to do?"

Ember asked:

"Where is Olnia now?"

"I have no idea,"

Olmer shook his head and said:

"I know the positions of the three vampire dukes. I'm in Backlund, one is in Trier, the capital of the Republic of Intis, and the other is in the Kingdom of Feneport, the capital of the Kingdom of Feneport. You should be very familiar with these two. The one in Trier is my sister, Alyssa, who was also the vampire's former goddess of life. And the other one..."

Olmer hesitated, his emotions somewhat complicated, before saying:

"And there's also Alina, whom you've met before; she was Alyssa's servant back then."

Olmer's senses are quite complex; among the four vampire angels, he is the only male.

The other three had all crossed paths with Yu Jin before.

Olnia is Lilith's sister, and also Ember's sister.

Both Elisa and Alina met Ember that night.

It's hard not to suspect that the three of them became angels thanks to Ember, just like the progenitor of the vampires. The most typical example is Alina, who was once just an ordinary human, not even a vampire.

However, she received the first embrace of the progenitor of the vampires, and instantly became a true demigod, standing on equal footing with Olmer.

But Olmer couldn't really say anything about it, since, in truth, he was actually thanks to Ember.

If he hadn't been relatively friendly when he first met Yu Jin and the others, he probably would have ended up like his brother, whose name he had forgotten, unable to even piece together a complete corpse.

Of course, it wouldn't matter what Olmer wanted to say now.

After all, only four of the vampires who experienced all of this were left. The other vampires, even if they did not die in the war with other extraordinary races, had already died of old age.

After all, while vampires have long lifespans, there are still limits if they cannot become angels. Ordinary vampires only live for two or three hundred years, while Sequence 4 demigods can only live for a little over a thousand years.

What happened thousands of years ago is just a distant legend, even for vampires.

Even if Olmer is a duke, if he were to declare to the entire vampire clan that "the rise of the vampire clan was due to a human, and the reason why the four angels of the vampire clan were able to become angels was also due to that human," very few vampires would believe him.

Even if the other vampires dared not say much out of respect, they would definitely think in their hearts that Olmer must have lost his mind.

As his thoughts wandered, Olmer continued:

"There are almost no vampires in the Fursac Empire. Firstly, because of their size, vampires find it difficult to hide themselves. Moreover, the relationship between giants and vampires has never been harmonious, and giants are not very friendly towards vampires. Once discovered, they are treated as heretics."

"Of the remaining three kingdoms, I and the other two dukes are each responsible for one kingdom and handle the vampire affairs of that kingdom."

"Lady Olnia basically doesn't get involved in anything and rarely shows herself, only occasionally sending out divine pronouncements. So, including us three dukes, none of us know where Lady Olnia is."

"However, I suspect Lady Olnia should be in Lenburg right now."

Ember pondered for a moment and asked:

"What's the reason?"

Olmer stated quite frankly:

"There is some deep cooperation between the vampires and the Church of Knowledge. This cooperation is handled by the vampires of Lenburg, and even the three dukes have no say in it. However, the few demigods in the area are clearly not qualified to be in charge of the cooperation with the Church of Knowledge. Only Lady Olnia can make the decision on this matter directly."

After a pause, Olmer pointed to the vampires outside the tomb and continued:

"Take that dream world for example. It's a collaboration with the Church of Knowledge, and it was a divine decree personally issued by Lady Olya."

"The Church of Knowledge?"

Ember was slightly surprised, because the dream world was created by Karula, and the vampires were the explorers and participants in the dream world.

He originally thought this was a collaboration between the vampires and Karula, but he didn't expect that there was also the Church of Knowledge involved.

The question is, why involve the Church of Knowledge?

Karula creates dreams, and the vampires are responsible for exploring them.

And what about the Church of Knowledge? What role do they play in it?

If the task is simply exploration, then there's no need to specifically seek out a knowledge church.

After all, anyone who is extraordinary can enter the dream world.

The first batch of vampires entered the game as a closed beta test, to see if the dream world could run stably.

However, the entry of members of the Tarot Club, and the subsequent entry of extraordinary individuals from the Hall family into the Dream World, signifies that the Dream World is now ready for a certain degree of "public testing." Furthermore, given the Dream World's inherent ability to aid in the digestion of potions, once it spreads, it will undoubtedly attract a large number of extraordinary individuals.

In that case, there is absolutely no need to specifically seek cooperation with a true church, let alone the weakest of the true churches, the Knowledge Church, unless the Knowledge Church plays some important role in it!

Ember thought for a moment, then spoke again:

"Do the vampires have any clues about the diviner, the thief, and the apprentice-to-demigod?"

Olmer thought for a moment and then said:

"I'll have the vampires of Backlund keep an eye out for me."

After a pause, Olmer asked again:

How can I contact you?

Olmer's eyes flickered; he hoped to use this opportunity to learn the name of the Ember.

That's something he's wanted to know thousands of years ago.

Embers saw through Olmer's thoughts, but his answer was simple:

"You can pray to the fool."

(End of this chapter)