The First Pope - Chapter 156
Chapter 156
The temple of the God of the Ocean was submerged in the deepest part of the sea. When Cynthia first transmigrated here, the temple had only recently been destroyed by the Vampires. The resulting tsunami had flooded many cities. While fleeing aimlessly with the humans, she had encountered the witches, and then she had met Olivia… Cynthia gazed at the dark, churning sea below, recalling her first meeting with Olivia, and a faint smile graced her lips.
The sky was thick with dark clouds. Aside from the occasional flash of lightning, it seemed as if all light had been devoured by the downpour. A faint golden glow enveloped Cynthia and Olivia, repelling the raindrops that struck them.
The once-calm sea was now a tempest of raging waves. Influenced by the divine power of the God of the Ocean, the water level had risen and showed no signs of stopping. Olivia took out her staff, about to chant a spell, but noticed that the God Race member beside her had been silent for some time. She paused and glanced at Cynthia, who seemed lost in thought. "What are you thinking about?" she asked.
Olivia's voice pulled Cynthia's wandering thoughts back. She raised a hand to tuck a strand of long hair, tousled by the wind, behind her ear. A soft smile touched her lips as she spoke to Olivia in a gentle voice, "When the temple of the God of the Ocean was destroyed, I was just an inconspicuous little God Race member, fleeing in a crowd of humans."
To be more precise, at the time, she didn't even know she was of the God Race; she thought she was human, too.
"That tsunami destroyed many cities, but by a twist of fate, the humans who had been imprisoned by the Vampires were lucky enough to gain their freedom." Cynthia bent down, her fair fingers lightly touching the cold seawater. Her golden eyes, usually filled with mirth, now held a hint of depth. "Though it might have been a freedom that led to death."
The numbness on those humans' faces, their indifference upon seeing the corpses of their companions—those were the things that had helped her quickly adapt to this world.
"Compared to them, I was lucky. I met you," Cynthia said, turning to look at Olivia, who stood behind her. Her eyes were once again brimming with a smile.
In such a strange and broken world, the appearance of the elves was the first time Cynthia discovered that something one could call "beautiful" still existed on this continent.
Cynthia's words also made Olivia recall their first encounter. It was in a small, dilapidated town. At the time, Cynthia was with the witches. Although the aura she exuded wasn't strong, she wasn't exactly inconspicuous either.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have noticed Cynthia at a glance.
The corners of Olivia's lips curved slightly. Her pleasant voice, now tinged with a smile, sounded unexpectedly gentle in the cold, rainy night. "You've done very well."
Back then, she had sought out Cynthia merely to get some information about the Sacred River from the God Race, but what Cynthia had given her was far more than she had ever wanted.
Cynthia didn't miss the fleeting smile on Olivia's face. She straightened up, shaking the water from her hand, and leaned toward Olivia until their shoulders touched. Her warm breath brushed against Olivia's ear as she said with a grin, "Her Majesty the Queen is praising me again."
Outside the barrier, the wind howled furiously. Even as they spoke, the seawater beneath them rose a little higher. It was hardly a suitable environment for idle chatter. Olivia turned her head slightly, placing a hand on Cynthia's shoulder. "Are we still going to the temple?" she asked in a low voice.
Cynthia's lips curved into a light smile. She reached out to tidy Olivia's hair before taking a few steps back, giving Olivia space to cast her spell.
Elves could control all the natural elements. To an elf, the storm before them, caused by the influence of the God of the Ocean's divine power, was merely a collection of unruly elements.
Olivia raised her staff. She stared at the boundless, dark sea for a moment before beginning her incantation. A pale green nature power gathered around her, faintly illuminating the darkness. The violently churning sea suddenly fell still, but the stillness lasted only for a few short seconds. The sea directly in front of Olivia abruptly parted, the rising water held in place in the air by nature power. As the water receded, the temple hidden at the bottom of the sea slowly came into view.
Nature power carried Olivia down from the sky. Cynthia went to meet her, praising her with a serious expression, "Her Majesty the Queen's control over the elements is becoming more and more exquisite."
Olivia glanced at her and said softly, "I've heard you say that countless times."
Cynthia blinked. "That just means Her Majesty the Queen's strength is growing every day."
Olivia gave a soft humph. With a slight raise of her hand, two whirlwinds enveloped them and carried them down into the temple on the seabed.
The temple of the God of the Ocean had been damaged once before. The originally exquisite and magnificent palace was now a scene of ruins and rubble. Only the statue of the God of the Ocean in the center of the plaza remained intact, still as lifelike as ever. A verdant green willow branch lay across the statue's palm, looking strikingly out of place.
While Cynthia was observing the temple, Olivia flew forward and took the willow branch from the statue's hand. She looked down at it, a trace of doubt in her pale green eyes.
She had been to this temple before, but this was the first time she had seen this statue and willow branch.
Cynthia walked over and glanced at the willow branch, raising an eyebrow. "The nature power in this willow branch is so rich," she said thoughtfully.
A thousand years had passed since the God of the Ocean left the Sitatul Continent, yet the willow branch was still as green as new. It hadn't even been affected when the Vampires destroyed the temple.
"This must belong to the Goddess of the Forest." Olivia examined the branch once more before being certain. Anything connected to a god was extraordinary, but surprisingly, after confirming its origin, Olivia chanted a spell and returned the willow branch to the statue's hand.
As the branch settled into the statue's palm, the divine power that had been emanating from every corner of the temple slowly calmed down.
Cynthia looked up at the statue and said with a smile, "It seems the master of this temple doesn't want anyone to take it."
The willow branch was placed in plain sight, yet neither the Vampires nor the Sethite wizards had touched it. There was a reason for that, after all.
If Olivia had studied it for a moment longer, they might have had to face the wrath of the God of the Ocean.
Olivia had no desire for the willow branch. After returning the object to its rightful owner, she turned her attention back to the temple. She looked around, her brow furrowing slightly. "This temple is already in such a state of ruin. Why is there still divine power leaking out?"
As she saw it, the only divine power left in this temple should have been the power that had just protected the willow branch.
Cynthia raised her staff and softly chanted a spell. Golden Power of Light floated in the air. She closed her eyes for a moment to sense it, then pointed her staff in a certain direction. "There's a dark aura in the temple. It must have been left by the Sethite wizards."
A long time had passed since the Vampires destroyed the temple of the God of the Ocean. Any dark aura left from that time would have long since dissipated. The dark aura she sensed could only have been left by someone who had recently set foot in the temple.
Each god had their own preferences, and the internal structures of the temples they left behind were all different. Cynthia and Olivia had seen many temples, and the temple of the God of the Ocean was definitely the most complex in its construction.
Fortunately, Olivia had been here once before. With her excellent memory, she skillfully navigated through many of the temple's traps and illusionary arrays. Seeing how familiar she was with the temple, Cynthia was a little surprised. "You've been here before?"
While waving her staff to disperse the overly dense water elements around them, Olivia said flatly, "I brought people here to investigate right after the Vampires destroyed this temple."
"Oh?" Cynthia said with a smile. "Was that around the time we first met?"
Olivia nodded slightly. "At that time, the array that caused the temple to collapse hadn't completely failed, so I only entered the main hall and didn't investigate further."
When she had come to investigate the temple before, the aura here was chaotic, and the slightest misstep could lead to danger. Although the temple's divine power had been stirred up again now, it was, for the most part, calm.
Cynthia looked around and asked casually, "Did you find anything then?"
A temple they had destroyed with their own hands—what could possibly be here to make the Sethite wizards return? She was a little curious about that.
Olivia's pale green eyes scanned the temple, which was still beautiful despite its destruction. She said in a deep voice, "At that time, the temple was filled with the residual divine power of the God of the Ocean and the Power of Darkness from the dark arrays that had exploded. There was nothing else."
She paused for a moment, then added as if remembering something, "But it wasn't a complete waste of a trip."
Cynthia looked up at Olivia, waiting for her to continue, when a blue light suddenly flashed before her eyes. An icy chill washed over her, and a very familiar ice coffin appeared between her and Olivia.
Cynthia stared at the ice coffin for a moment, her expression becoming complicated.
Olivia reached out and touched the ice coffin, watching the frost form on the back of her hand. "I found this in a cave near the temple," she said in a low voice.
When Cynthia didn't react, she looked up and saw her strange expression. She frowned and asked, "What's wrong?"
Seeing Cynthia staring intently at the ice coffin, Olivia raised an eyebrow. "You recognize this ice coffin?"
She recognized it all too well. Cynthia bent down slightly and carefully examined the ice coffin, confirming that it was indeed the one she had been lying in when she awoke. "When I first woke up, I was lying in this very ice coffin," she said, amused.
"But it later drifted away with the current. I thought it had sunk somewhere."
When Cynthia had just transmigrated, she was completely unfamiliar with this continent. There was no way she could have taken such a large ice coffin with her.
She had even searched for it later, but found no clues and eventually had to let it go.
To think it had been in Olivia's possession all this time.
Olivia was taken aback. "This ice coffin is yours?" she asked, surprised.
She caressed the smooth, cold surface of the coffin, her eyes lowered in thought. "This ice coffin was made by the God of the Ocean, and its purpose is to seal."
She had always wondered who had been sealed inside the ice coffin. She never expected it to be Cynthia.
As a God's Descendant created by the Goddess of Light to deal with demonic beasts, why would Cynthia have been sealed in an ice coffin?
"Seal?" The smile on Cynthia's face faded as well, and her brow furrowed. "It was a seal?"
She had always thought the ice coffin was merely a container for her body. She never imagined it was a seal.
But why would the Goddess of Light and the other gods all unanimously decide to seal away the new races they had created to deal with demonic beasts?
The Sitatul Continent was vast, perfectly capable of accommodating a few more races. And the gods had always done as they pleased. Even if they had suddenly changed their minds, to go to such great lengths to seal away the races they had just created was truly incomprehensible.
The scattered puzzle pieces concerning what had happened before the gods left the Sitatul Continent did not answer the questions in Olivia and Cynthia's hearts. Instead, they made the truth even more confusing and shrouded in mystery.
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