Silent Crown

“What mischief are you plotting this time around?” asked Mephistopheles.

Hearing his words, Shi Dong couldn’t help but laugh heartily and gave a wave of his hand. “No, no, don’t overthink.”

But Mephistopheles still remained vigilant and stared straight at him. “Mr. Shi Dong, Anglo is miserable enough, don’t torture it further by causing more trouble.”

“Now you aren’t even bothering to address me as ‘sir’.” Shi Dong sighed. “Do I look like a cruel man to you?”

Mephistopheles snorted coldly. “Isn’t the Religious Court of Inquiry such a cruel place?”

“Mephistopheles, you know us very well, but not well enough. After all, you have never been one of us,” said Shi Dong.

“Yeah, because my conscience is in the way,” Mephistopheles replied.

“No, because of cowardice.” Shi Dong looked at him. “You witnessed the lives of monsters with your own eyes, so you are afraid to be regarded as a monster by others, And so, you have never understood the real Religious Court of Inquiry.”

“Since the world is the land God has promised to mankind, what we possess is a madness allowed by God.”

Shi Dong said calmly, “Mephistopheles, we are madmen, yes. We get our job done, by hook or by crook, and we stop at nothing. If a person is involved in collusion with demons, even if he’s a child, we can burn him without any hesitation.

“Humans fear us because we are evil.

“But at the same time, humans need us, because such evil is necessary and meaningful. Someone must act on behalf of the evil of humanity. Such is the purpose of the Religous Court of Inquiry. If we are to do something, it must be something humans need us to do, even if we will be spat upon for doing so.

“We are the monsters created by mankind, the evil of humanity contrary to benevolence. We are driven by justice, as mankind knows it. With the morality that has been trampled under foot by human beings, we judge demons and measure the starry sky.

“Such is how we live as monsters. Otherwise, what difference is there between us and demons?”

Mephistopheles was silent for a good while, then shook his head. “In the end, it’s nothing more than highfalutin words. I don’t think Ye Qingxuan can accept such means and ideas.”

“Don’t underestimate him, Mephistopheles,” Shi Dong disagreed. He said in a disapproving tone, “You specialize in guarding over the believers, so you can perceive their spiritual weaknesses, but Ye Qingxuan is different the rest; if we are monsters, then he is the king of the monsters that I picked.

“He has his weaknesses, and many human frailties, but he has witnessed the evil of humanity in himself. He faces his own desires and the ugliness in his nature better than anyone else, and he is stronger than anyone else.” He continued, “Just wait and see. He will save the country and take back everything he deserves.”

He added, “At all costs.”

…

It was four in the afternoon, and the sky was still dark. A carriage stopped at the end of Queen’s Road, the entrance to the uptown. The silver-haired young man got out of the carriage, raised his head and looked up at the pitch black sky, and the huge seal that glimmered with a faint, flowing glint. Then, he stepped forward and entered the forbidden area.

A whizz sounded in the sky. Burning wings of light descended and made a rough landing on the ground, resulting in a loud bang and stirring up a hurricane-like wind.

The grand knight in the archangel armor raised his head, and the eyes that were not covered by the helmet reflected cold red light. “Who are you?”

Ye Qingxuan snapped his fingers. A bronze badge flew up and shot across the air in an arc. It was caught by the knight. He looked at the coat of arms on it, which comprised of the sacred emblem in fire.

“Religious Court of Inquiry, Grand Inquisitor, Ye Qingxuan.” Ye Qingxuan looked at him, “Kindly inform Mr. Haydn of my arrival. Tell him that I come to him to seek advice as a junior.”

The grand knight looked at him for a while, put away the badge, and flew away without saying anything. Soon, the sealed door was opened.

“Please follow me.” A Knight of the Round Table walked out and led the way for him.

A terrifyingly hot wind blew in their direction. The streets along the way were dead silent, and only the sonorous clanking of metal could be heard as the patrolling Knights of the Round Table walked. Nothing was burning, nor was there a fire, but one still felt hot and sweaty in the streets.

The high temperature was the product of massive amounts of aether flowing.

After entering the door, in Ye Qingxuan’s sense of aether as a musician, it was as if the entire uptown was shrouded in glaring sunlight. The sea of aether here was like a leaking hole, with flood-like waves of aether being drawn from it all the time. The aether waves advanced along the huge array and became part of a huge movement.

Genesis!

With the Avalon enchantment as the base, a massive amount of aether was extracted, and the vast domain created by Genesis engulfed the entire uptown. Just by sensing it from afar, one would experience the frightening illusion of falling into the corona of the sun.

After walking around the entire uptown for quite a bit, Ye Qingxuan finally saw the old man who was directing the royal musicians to reinforce the seal.

The contemporary saint, Haydn.

“Is that Ye Qingxuan?” From a distance, Haydn saw the visitor. He wiped his sweat and waved to Ye Qingxuan. “Just come over, there’s nothing secretive here.”

Most musicians generally disliked being watched by others when they were playing a musical instrument to avoid exposing their core music theory and secret tricks, let alone saints who had directly inherited their holy names. They themselves were the embodiment of music theory, and what they had mastered was the essence of mankind’s music theory, hence others were not allowed to snoop around. But since Haydn had said so, Ye Qingxuan did not refuse and went straight in.

He had come into contact with Ye Qingxuan in the incident regarding the shadow of Avalon last time, and he regarded the young musician talented in the path of abstinence quite highly. But he hadn’t expected that the young man, whom he believed would lead the school of abstinence after 30 years, would have achieved the level of Master when they met for the second time. Furthermore, the young man had been granted the title of archbishop by the Sacred City, an honor no less than his own, and was even mandated to re-establish the Religious Court of Inquiry to begin the crusade against demons and catastrophes.

In the short span of a few months. It was beyond everyone’s imagination…

“Master Haydn.” Ye Qingxuan nodded but did not bow, as his status made it inappropriate for him to do so.

Haydn smiled and just praised, “Good job last night. The first battle of the re-established Religious Court of Inquiry was a good start.”

“We still have a long way to go.” Ye Qingxuan shook his head. “Killing one or two of its descendants won’t hurt Leviathan at all.”

Haydn didn’t reply, but reached out and pointed to the vast enchantment beside him—Genesis. “You are here for this, right?”

“Yes.” Ye Qingxuan nodded. “How much has the situation uptown deteriorated?”

Haydn shook his head. “You can see it for yourself.” He waved. The ancient scrolls suspended in the sky slowly closed, removing the disguise produced by Genesis, and revealed the actual view of the forbidden area.

The first thing Ye Qingxuan saw was the black mist. Like ashes that remained after everything had been burnt away by fire, the particles were flying and floating about in the uptown, covering the entire area. Everything within it became vague and difficult to see. However, from his location outside the uptown, Ye Qingxuan could see the whole picture clearly.

The streets were still deserted, but vast spreads of buildings had collapsed. Vine-like blood vessels grew within, spreading from the palace in the depths to the surrounding area in all directions. They even rooted themselves in the rocks, pulsing slowly.

In the pulsing of the blood vessels, a dark red glow rose upwards, forming countless strands that fluttered in the sky. They extended beyond Avalon, into the endless ghastly white mist.

They were one.

The fog and the sea were parts of a monster, and the earth and rocks of Avalon had mutated, becoming its flesh and body, whereas the strands formed by the pulsating, blood-like glow was its red-colored veins…

The entire Shangcheng District had become a living thing.

“Leviathan is inside,” Haydn said in a low tone. “It has broken through the second seal and is resurrecting. Even rock and steel have been eroded by its breath and are coming alive.”

Ye Qingxuan was silent for a long time, and finally looked up, asking, “Is there no way to destroy it?”

“My specialization is not destruction.” Haydn shook his head. “Genesis can only create a fake world that could contain it, forcefully creating a chasm in the realm of aether.

“I can turn it into an extremely harsh environment. In fact, I have done so. You could probably sense the nature interference within.

“The Cup of Hope here with me. The air inside uptown has been replaced with lethal poison. The temperature settings alternate every morning and every evening, and the difference in temperature is up to thousands of degrees. And other harsh conditions. I have turned it into hell.

“But the activeness of the catastrophe’s body is too terrifying. It has even evolved in favor of resistance genes specific to my settings. The only things that can cause damage to it, the stone sword and the meteorite metal, have been lost inside.”

Ye Qingxuan nodded.

Ultimately, Genesis is not a movement used to bring destruction, he thought. Saint Haydn specializes in constructing music theory domains covering vast regions. Originally, the intention of Genesis is to open up safe zones in the black zones of the World of Dark and adjust them, not to destroy them.

“It would be great if Wagner or Tchaikovsky is here.” Haydn couldn’t help but sigh, “Unfortunately…”

Unfortunately, neither of them can come to Anglo, Ye Qingxuan completed the sentence mentally.

What each generation of Saint Wagner passes down is the movement titled Valkyries, also known as the embodiment of war. Its divinity overpowers all forms of bestiality in the School of Summoning. The movement can summon the mythical Army of the Valkyries. Hence, Saint Wagner alone can defeat hundreds of armies.

But tens of days ago, he has set off to the World of Dark to assist the King of Blue in conducting a border patrol, to warn the other catastrophes and defend the borders of the human world.

Among the saints, Tchaikovsky has a similar specialization as Haydn—interference over a vast region, from the school of abstinence. However, as opposed to Haydn, he specializes in the opposite of creation—destruction.

Let’s not talk about secret symphony movements like Sorrow and so on. Despite only being an overture, the 1812 Overture can create a hellish vacuum with a radius of ten thousand miles once played. In the violent nature interference, nothing can survive or even remain. But the Tchaikovsky of the previous generation has already passed away…

He had no descendants nor students, and there is no one suitable to inherit his legacy. The Tchaikovsky of the new generation has not even been elected. Otherwise, he would be responsible for guarding the Caucasus region, and most likely won’t suffer multiple defeats at the hands of the Eagle Wing Mother…

The situation really is terrible.

Ye Qingxuan rubbed his temples. “How much longer do we have?”

Haydn gave a smile full of resignation and self-mockery. “Who knows?”