Silent Crown

“…is this guy crazy?” Even Ye Qingxuan had not expected things to develop so suddenly.

Hendel ignored the wounds he had just received and the cracks in his Scepter that had not yet been repaired. He gave up on trying to sort out the chaotic music theory, and instead, he went all in. He had nothing left to lose, and so he gambled with his life.

Would he really be so ridiculous?

As he stared at the huge beam of light above the sea fortress, Ye Qingxuan suddenly felt his teeth hurt.

Of course, he knew what it was. In fact, just about everyone in the world knew what it was.

This was the heir of the Holy Name’s core power, the “inhuman strength” that every saint possessed. It came from the essence of the Holy Cauldron and conformed to the call of the Holy Bible, giving humanity the power of God.

Breaking all barriers, surpassing all norms, without the least bit of reason or logic. Just like Schubert’s all-redeeming Prometheus, Haydn could open up faults of matter in the realm of aether. It was like the world-creating Genesis…

This was Hendel’s full plan, to force the Staff of Messiah and his own Scepter together to overcome the limitations of the flesh, to force his own aether to transform, that is, to catalyze the Holy Spirit into the Savior. This would eliminate all the suffering of humanity, and eliminate every kind of demon.

In the end, everything would stray from the path of orthodoxy, because the age of humanity was coming.

Like the refiner’s fire, like the launderer’s soap…

If this power was implemented in the Physical World, it would be the death of all non-humans, whether they were catastrophes, demons, oddities, artifacts, music spirits…

He had only this one chance, but it would be enough to repel any catastrophes and open up a pure land for humans to live in.

It was just that Ye Qingxuan had never thought that each Hendel only had one chance in their life, and he had used it on him. How much did this guy hate him?

How bitter he must be!

He had not treated his severe wounds and was willing to be in a wheelchair and breathe through a breathing tube his entire life in order to enter the state of Savior. For the moment it did not matter whether or not this unstable Savior state had any hidden dangers. But what was this guy planning?

Did he think that the power to fight against catastrophes would have any effect on him?

Wait…

Ye Qingxuan was stunned. He looked up at the crown of light on his head, and he looked down at the Heaven Ladder on his chest that connected him to the Net of Aether in Avalon.

It seemed like, right now, he was indeed a catastrophe.

In fact, since he was blessed by both the golden dragon and the Net of Aether, he was a freaking double catastrophe! And at this critical juncture, under pressure from Gungnir, the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth and the Net of Aether were both protecting Avalon and could not help him anymore.

In other words, although he was supported by two powerful entities that sounded very powerful, in reality, they were of no use!

He had double the power of a catastrophe in vain, for the black box’s aether reserves were already stretched to their limit.

Holding onto double the power of a catastrophe meant that Ye Qingxuan had to use twice as much restraint to control twice as much desire to kill, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up instantly. Without even pausing for a breath, he leaped out of his chair.

“Retreat! Retreat! The Asgardians are going to risk it all!” Before he had finished speaking, the sea that had been frozen by the light suddenly burst into a roar as loud as an earthquake. The solidified sea shook as a majestic power spread through it.

It was the roar of countless aether cannons firing at the same time.

Under the full power of the saint, hundreds of large scale aether cannons and small scale alchemy weapons were set off at the same time on the sea fortress. It was like myriad stars had risen from the sea fortress, shaking the whole sky. They drew a sharp arc and then fell towards the Royal Navy.

In a flash, the Firebird armor became like thin paper in a rainstorm. Amid the roar, it became riddled with holes. The warships whined as could not avoid their armor being destroyed.

As the master, Ye Qingxuan, who had turned into the entire fleet, felt the pain of this tearing. He nearly shortsightedly used the Heaven Ladder to draw power from the black box in order to quickly repair the fleet, but it would be difficult to keep up with the speed of the destruction.

Even the projection of the golden dragon was like a candle in the wind. It flickered rapidly as the music theory of the Chapter of the Golden Victory crumbled under the assault of the power of the Messiah.

If it wasn’t for the nearly unlimited ability of the Staff of Fate to take damage, the Royal Navy would have been destroyed by the first round of shelling.

Ye Qingxuan wasn’t the only one who stunned at that moment. Aboard the sea fortress, the commander was completely dazed.

“Your excellency Rommel, what on earth are you doing?” He burst into the control room and looked at the Savior who was immersed in a blazing divine light. “Why did you suddenly mobilize all the aether reserves in the sea fortress? If we squander it all now, how will we attack Avalon?”

“Avalon? Do you still not understand?” Rommel looked at him coldly. “He is far more of a threat to this world than the Anglos. He’s even more of a threat than Gaius, the so-called Son of God! As long as we destroy Ye Qingxuan here, neither Avalon nor the Anglos will be able to withstand us! I’ve waited for this moment since the beginning of the war. If we want to completely destroy him, this is the only chance!”

The commander stood there in shock. In a flash he understood, and he flew into a rage. “You madmen of the Sacred City! What do you take Asgard for? Tools? Or cannon fodder? You are wasting the deep trust His Highness has placed in you! Make him stop immediately. Immediately!” He gave this last order to the Scepter beside him, but the Scepter had fallen into a deep silence. After a while, he sighed.

“I’m sorry…”

He reached out and pointed. Without a sound, the commander became a pile of ash.

All of his power came from the elements of the Holy Bible. If the Church abandoned him, he would have nothing.

Klein, who had witnessed all of this, felt only sorrow. He looked at Rommel coldly. “Will it be my turn next?”

“Mr. Klein, please don’t make things difficult for me.” Rommel looked at him. “You are a precious Scepter. Your life has so much value, why make an unnecessary sacrifice here?”

Klein said nothing. He just gave a sad smile, walked to the corner of the control room where he sat down and closed his eyes, where he continued to say nothing.

He gave up.

“So, next time let’s please coordinate.” Rommel looked at the other silent Scepter.

The musician sighed helplessly, opened up his own Scepter and let Rommel take control.

Then, the four-bladed flame sword that was immersed in holy light rose up from the sea fortress. With the Staff of Messiah as its core, the flame sword that represented both destruction and protection started revolving, setting off a tornado that came out of the heavens. Numerous rays of light converged on the holy sword until, finally, it struck downwards.

The blazing light whipped towards the Physical World, tearing through the sea and sky. Everywhere the sword passed the boundary between the Physical World and the realm of aether was cut, leaving a long, dark gash.

Ye Qingxuan’s face fell. He clenched his Scepter.

He had to fight with all he had.

A mighty, holy voice sounded out of the void, and a solemn melody rang out between heaven and earth. In a flash, the black box’s aether reserves were completely exhausted, countless beams of light burst out of the air. Harsh sounds that split through the air were gathered together into the harsh melody of Dies Irae.

Countless flashes of lightning gathered together forming the shape of a human. It raised the Sickle of God’s Wrath and thrust it towards the sky!

In a flash, the solidified sea completely disintegrated. A vast amount of seawater fell like a hail of stones with a roar and smashed to pieces. Steam rose up in all directions like dust. The terrible collision had produced a nearly unlimited amount of light and heat.

And in that collision that shook the heavens and the earth, no one noticed that a speck of dust fell onto the side of the Mountain of Nomadism.

The knight, who was covered from head to toe in grey power armor, took a deep breath and twisted open his empty scabbard.

Vibrating aether gushed forth from the scabbard. It was bound in an invisible field, and it traveled back and forth thousands of times, forming an invisible blade.

“Assassinate the Grand Inquisitor, Rommel. What a thought!” the knight whispered. He recalled the way Rommel was before the war.

“Schwartz, I was wrong.” The former saint looked at him. “My arrogance has lead us here. I overlooked the difference between Ye Qingxuan and others in the past. Thinking too much made me fall into the cage of his consciousness. I’m always one step behind him, and I can never surpass him…but you are different, so I am giving you this one chance. Soon I will be like him: I will use myself as a bargaining chip, I will gamble to bring him into the game. But the key to victory will not lie in the game, it will lie in your hands. When he is using his full power to face me, do what you are best at. Kill him, at any cost!”

“So you want me to ignore your intention to betray Asgard, abandon my duties, and go to the Mountain of Nomadism to die?”

“Are you refusing to do so?” Rommel opened his hands and looked at him. “Don’t worry, I won’t kill you, so please choose: you can go back to being a palace guard at the Golden Palace in Asgard, never seeing the light, and die a humiliating death in the darkness that no one will care about. Or, you can give up your life, kill Ye Qingxuan, and be remembered in the history books.”

Rommel looked at him, and it was like he was looking through him to the dissatisfaction that he had long held in his heart, to the anger that was concealed by his lofty words. He could see them as clearly as a blazing fire.

“You really are a demon, Rommel.” Schwartz returned from his revery, and whispered, “But may God redeem my soul from hell.” He closed his eyes and pressed his hand to his chest as if to touch the holy emblem beneath his armor.

In a flash, the sacred creation that had been kept in the holy display room for hundreds of years was awakened. It turned into a stream of light that engulfed him.

He disappeared in a flash.

In the next instant, without any sign of his coming, he appeared suddenly on the bridge, facing the body that was separated from its consciousness. He stabbed his aether sword at the utterly defenseless Ye Qingxuan.

As if it had been entrusted with life, the sword the thick iron chair just as the alarms sounded, tearing through Ye Qingxuan’s back. A huge hole opened up in his chest and the blazing blade sprang out of it.

His blood evaporated and dried up.

The sword disappeared.

“Your Highness, you…”

Beside Ye Qingxuan, the Knight of the Round Table who was guarding him fell into a rage as he was driven to madness by what had happened right in front of him. He dashed forward without heed for his own safety, not even taking the time to pull out his swords. Without worrying about anything else he set his power armor to the highest level, not even caring if it tore his muscles apart as he rushed at Schwartz.

But it did not feel like he ran into anything, just a large pile of dust.

Schwartz’s steel armor was turned into iron sand which fell in disarray. The body under the armor was turned to dust like it had been thrown into a cremation furnace.

Only a dark holy emblem fell to the ground, devoid of light.

He was dead.

He had died the moment he appeared.

Completely going against reality, the holy emblem that had sent him to the bridge was the product of wind tunnel tests hundreds of years ago and had failed at close-range biological transmission.

Breaking a human body down into millions of particles and reassembling it at the other end… Such a beautiful idea had never been realized. It could only turn human bodies into corpses. At that moment, Schwartz was already dead. All that was left was the pain that he had hidden in the darkness, the sorrow that no one had known, and his unwillingness to be shackled.

His obsession seemed to have power, and contrary to reason it had propelled the wreckage of his body at the moment of reassembly and death to thrust forward with his miraculous sword.

The situation deteriorated immediately.

The crown of light shattered.

Ye Qingxuan opened his eyes and vomited blood. Then the Mountain of Nomadism shrieked as the sound of twisting steel rang forth and blood dripped out of the broken armor into the sea.

Alarms rang out one after another, and a countless amount of equipment was destroyed in an instant. Only the weak fluctuations of the heart in the core pool of aether maintained the integrity of the Mountain of Nomadism.

In the aftermath of the flame sword’s attack, nearly half the Royal Navy was lost.

In severe pain, Ye Qingxuan grabbed the medicine from his pocket and injected it into his neck. It quickly came into effect, clearing his troubled consciousness.

The pain also became clearer, and more maddening.

“Is it my heart again?” He looked down at the large hole in his chest and saw pieces of his heart. But he felt no fear, just a sort of numbness and helplessness.

“You really are nothing but trouble.” He shook his head bitterly, pulled the broken heart out of the wound and sighed.

It wasn’t just his heart. He felt the music theory in his body going wild, so much so that his once clear and powerful Scepter was difficult to sense, as if it was lost in the fog of the future.

This was the fatal blow of the attack!

This dead-end that had been made just for him must have been prepared for a long time.

If it were not for his double catastrophe blessings, and his having sacrificed the crown of the Chapter of the Golden Victory, forcing it to protect both him and the fleet’s integrity, both he and the Royal Navy would have already been destroyed.

“Your Highness, I… 10,000 deaths could not relieve my shame!” The guard stared at his wound in shock. Humiliation showed on his faces. He knelt down and apologized to Ye Qingxuan. He pulled out their swords and prepared to kill himself.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m not so easy to kill.” Gripping his shoulder and the faint Staff of Fate, Ye Qingxuan stood up. He coughed violently and said, “At best this can be considered a serious injury. At most, I’ve been beaten up, nothing more. Look at me, this isn’t your fault.”

The knight looked up blankly and saw him waving at him.

“Let’s go.” Ye Qingxuan pushed open the broken hatch and stepped onto the ladder leading to the deck. “Come with me and see the ‘friend’ who will stop at nothing, who will pay any cost to take my life.”

It was as if he had guessed all of Ye Qingxuan’s reactions and arrangements. That guy had guessed right at the most critical juncture and had arranged for that warrior to stab right as he made his decision.

He was so used to great storms, but finally, he had been embarrassed by someone who he had never even heard of.

Ye Qingxuan smiled bitterly.

This was truly embarrassing.

…

On the burning, broken deck, Ye Qingxuan stood beside the broken ship. He stared up at the brilliant light coming from the sea fortress and looked both confused and helpless.

“What on earth are you planning?” he whispered.

As if he had heard his question, the Savior’s shadow appeared above the sea fortress.

In the flames, Rommel looked coldly at the hole in Ye Qingxuan’s chest, and his miserable expression. There was no mercy in his eyes. “By order of the Sancta Sedes, those who stray from the proper path will receive the wrath of God. This is the only justice and righteousness in this world!”

Ye Qingxuan was amused. “This is the first time I’ve heard someone speak to me of justice and righteousness.”

“Do you still think you are the Hand of God?” Rommel sneered indifferently. “Both you and the Inquisition have been abandoned by God. You can’t see your own destiny. You did not follow God’s plan and presumed to use God’s bounty for your own ends. This was the path to your doom! Do you have any more tricks to try and fight your fate? Will you use your non-existent Scepter? Or will you use the power of those heretical catastrophes?”

Ye Qingxuan listened quietly to the Silence Governance’s verdict. As he watched, Rommel’s expression grew strange. After a while, he could not help but sigh.

It seemed that recognizing your fate was just like having compassion for your enemy.

“You know what?” he said casually. He pointed to his head. “Even though I have been called the most gifted musician in centuries, and the reviver of the Inquisition, I’m not even an official musician. I never graduated from the Royal Academy of Music. I never entered the Church, was never baptized, and never became a believer. Therefore, my strength has never come from music theory, nor from God’s blessing. I’ve never created a movement and never wanted to rely on a so-called Scepter. Because that was never what I wanted.”

He looked at Rommel, and said earnestly, “My friend, you made a mistake from the very beginning. My strength comes from my will, my determination, and from the future that I want to create. I know that I am strong, but this is not because of the power that I got from the Net of Aether. It’s because…” He pointed to the hole in his chest and at the slowly rotating crystal cube that had appeared where his heart should be.

“I am the Net of Aether.”