378: Chapter 366 Ancient Chaos, Faith Artifacts

Naqi Kingdom.

Royal Capital.

Novak sat on a wooden chair beside the empty throne.

At this moment, he had lost the high spirits he possessed when serving as the Commander of the Allied Forces; his previously spirited eyes were now empty, and his square face was devoid of color.

Seeing this, the adjutant who hurried into the main hall truly worried that Novak's chest would stop heaving the next second.

The sound of footsteps woke Novak. He raised his head, his scattered focus slowly converging as the three adjutants in his vision gradually merged into one.

"It's you. You came to find me for... Oh, is the altar finished?"

"It's in the final stages, Lord Marshal."

Novak laughed suddenly, his smile inevitably a bit dismal. "I am no longer a marshal."

"You are the marshal of our Naqi Kingdom."

Novak paused for a moment, then shook his head. "Soon I won't be. Once everything is over, His Majesty the King will surely..."

"His Majesty will understand your difficulties, Lord Marshal. Besides, you weren't seeking personal gain; everything you did was for the Naqi Kingdom!" The adjutant was somewhat anxious, even interrupting him regardless of status.

"Foolish fellow." Novak seemed to feel a bit better at his subordinate's affection, cursing him with a smile before his tone turned dejected again. "Regardless of who I did it for, imprisoning the King is an unforgivable capital offense."

"Even if I successfully defend against Lake's offensive, His Majesty will still sentence me to hanging."

The adjutant didn't know how to respond. After a moment of silence, a fierce expression suddenly crossed his face. "Lord Marshal, since you've already placed all members of the royal family under house arrest, why not..."

"Shut up." Novak stopped the second half of his sentence with a firm but not harsh tone.

The adjutant was stunned, and his violent aura dissipated. "Then... why didn't you discuss it with the King? Perhaps he would have agreed."

"It's because the King rejected it after we discussed it that I had no choice but to move the troops."

Novak frowned. "He said something about the gods forbidding its use, that the will of the gods must not be violated, and that any violation would surely bring disaster..."

"Lake holds high the banner of rebellion against the gods, and Zhang Mu even openly opposes them, yet I haven't seen the gods do anything to them?"

"What exactly is His Majesty worried about?"

"The kingdom is on the verge of destruction; is there still a need to care about the gods?"

Seeing his marshal sighing, the adjutant wanted to comfort him but didn't know where to start, so he changed the subject. "Lord Marshal, will that... uh, faith artifact really work?"

"Who knows? It's a dead end anyway, so we might as well take a gamble."

"If it truly brings down divine punishment, we should..."

"Worrying about that is purely redundant." Novak rested his chin on his hand. "The Church said the gods strictly forbade the creatures of the Saul Continent from using faith artifacts again."

"If we use it, even if the gods don't send punishment, the Church will send troops to crusade against Naqi."

The adjutant lowered his head in thought for a few seconds, his face changing drastically. "So that's why you..."

"Yes."

"If I successfully activate the faith artifact, I will use it to annihilate Lake, then bind my own hands and walk onto the Church's cross to face the burning flames."

The adjutant felt the King of Naqi wasn't worth the marshal's sacrifice, but things had already reached this point; no amount of words could turn back time.

"Lord Marshal, what if the activation fails?"

"Then we will secretly send the King and the royal family members out of Naqi." Novak sat up straight. "The precious treasures from the kingdom's treasury have been packed into Storage Pouchs. With these, perhaps Naqi can be reborn one day."

"Mm... just like the Ice and Snow Empire."

The adjutant held a pessimistic view on this.

For the Ice and Snow Empire to stand again on the Saul Continent, besides its deep foundation, it was due to the persistence, determination, and madness of the successive Kings of Lake who had changed their names.

Did the King of Naqi have these qualities?

Or would he rely on those royal family members who were just waiting to die?

Although he felt despair in his heart, looking at the marshal whose face had aged significantly, the adjutant didn't say it and instead brought up a topic to ease the atmosphere. "Lord Marshal, why were faith artifacts banned?"

Novak recalled the books he had read and slowly recounted that period of history.

A long time ago, humans were not the overlords of the Saul Continent, nor did they know magic.

At that time, humans lived precariously under the might of elves and magical beasts.

The gods took pity on humans and bestowed upon them faith artifacts. As long as humans poured their faith into the artifacts, they could explode with unparalleled power.

Humans used the artifacts to clear the rampaging magical beasts around their settlements, repel the elves who used humans for archery practice, and defeat the dwarves who snatched human resources.

Having mastered power, humans, whose desires expanded rapidly, did not stop there and immediately launched a counterattack.

With the help of faith artifacts, humans were unstoppable all the way.

Powerful magical beasts were killed one after another. Their hard scales and hides were made into armor, their bones into weapons, and their flesh filled the bellies of human children.

The surviving magical beasts fled in panic, all hiding in the dense primeval forests.

The fate of foreign races like dwarves and demi-humans was the total fall of their territories. With nowhere to run, they submitted to humans and became slaves.

The elves did not yield to the humans' terrifying strength and mobilized their entire race to engage in a world-shaking war with humanity.

As the overlords of the Saul Continent at the time, the elves possessed the continent's most complete and powerful magic books, as well as substantial military supplies accumulated over many years. In the early stages of the war, they indeed caused no small amount of trouble for humans.

But that was all.

Humans relied on faith artifacts to withstand the elves' initial rapid offensive while looting libraries where the elves kept their magic books to strengthen themselves.

Initially, the strength of human mages and knights was very weak. Before the elves, who had studied magic for ten thousand years and had profound achievements, they were like children who had just learned to walk—utterly fragile.

The elves laughed smugly, thinking mere humans also dared to dream of touching magic.

But gradually, the elves discovered with horror that not only was the number of human mages and knights growing rapidly, but their power limit was also increasing at an astonishing speed.

A hundred years later, human Professionals could even confront elven Professionals head-on.

Coupled with the consumption of supplies over years of war, the elves' logistics gradually became strained. As one side waxed and the other waned, the elves were ultimately defeated, with less than one-tenth of their population remaining. The surviving elves retreated to their ancestral home, the "Forest of Spirits," and sat around the Mother Tree of Life, waiting in despair for the arrival of their extinction.

Humans, of course, would not leave any hidden threats. The entire army set out for the outskirts of the Forest of Spirits, prepared to trample this elven homeland.

Then, the God came.

Novak suddenly stopped speaking at this point. The adjutant, who was listening intently, couldn't help but ask anxiously, "And then?"

Novak said, "Regarding the Ancient Melee, the history books only record up to this point."

What happened specifically after that is unknown; the hundred-year period following that is a blank space in history.

Humans only knew that from that day on, all faith artifacts became ineffective, appearing to be mere decorations that wouldn't respond no matter how they were called upon.

Humans made many attempts, all of which ended in failure.

Later, the Church was established. They listened to the divine oracle and announced to humanity that the gods had withdrawn the bestowed faith artifacts.

The adjutant was thoughtful. "And then humans just gave up?"

"Heh." Novak sneered. "As a human yourself, do you think humans would willingly give up such a useful thing?"

"Probably, maybe... uh, impossible."

Novak shrugged. "You know the rest."

"Humans at that time had become so arrogant that they looked down on the gods, thinking the so-called gods were nothing special. So they gathered their strength in an attempt to slay the gods and reclaim the right to use the faith artifacts."

"Reclaim?" The adjutant keenly caught this word, and his expression became very strange.

"The announcement at that time was indeed written that way."

The adjutant understood and scratched his head. "As you know, Lord Marshal, I don't really like reading books, especially boring history books."

"However, based on the current situation of the continent, humans surely suffered a crushing defeat."

"Afterward, the God took back magic but ultimately left a glimmer of hope for humanity out of pity; that's how the Labyrinths came to be."

"That's more or less it."

"Eh—" The adjutant suddenly thought of something and asked in confusion, "Since the gods were dissatisfied with how humans treated the elves, they should have helped the elves restore their nation afterward, right?"

"Why do the elves today still have such a small population and stay huddled in the Forest of Spirits, rarely coming out?"

"Look, the dwarves and demi-humans have all begun to propagate again."

"No one knows the reason."

The adjutant remained silent, seemingly chewing over this history in his mind. After a long while, he sighed, "Human greed is simply deeper than the deepest seabed."

Just as he finished speaking, a Soldier stepped quickly into the hall. "Lord Marshal, the altar is completed."

"Mm, I'll be there right away."

The Soldier saluted and turned to leave the hall.

Novak stood up and led the adjutant out of the hall, out of the palace, and along the sparsely populated straight street toward the outskirts of the city.

As he walked, he said, "Don't be prejudiced against greed; it is the greatest driving force for humans to occupy the top of the Saul Continent."

The adjutant seemed to half-understand, following closely behind Novak.

The Church's ban had long been lifted, but Novak did not use flight. He just walked slowly, occasionally looking at the shops on both sides.

No matter how slow the pace, as long as one doesn't stop, they will eventually reach the destination.

The two walked for several hours and finally arrived at the altar outside the city.

Novak took a few steps back, his expanded field of vision taking in the entire altar.

The altar wasn't very large, probably smaller than a small town's church, but that didn't affect its solemnity in the slightest.

A circular platform built of stone blocks, with nine pillars scattered around the edge, and strange, complex lines and patterns carved into the ground.

In the center stood a square stone pillar, about half the height of a person.

Novak waved his hand to signal the adjutant to stand by, then climbed the stone stairs himself and reached the square pillar.

He reached his right hand into the wide sleeve of his mage robe and pulled out a miniature humanoid stone carving. Gazing at the carving for a moment, he slowly placed it on top of the square pillar.

He loudly ordered the Soldiers below the platform, "Activate the Magic Array!"

The Soldiers worked in pairs, lifting wooden boxes beside them and crawling under the platform through the arched doorways, repeating the process until the boxes were empty.

The patterns on the ground emitted a glow.

Novak recalled the method to activate the Magic Array in his mind while mobilizing his magic power to connect to the Magic Array's Core.

The light from the patterns converged in the air and then flowed toward the brow of the humanoid stone carving.

More and more magic power was injected. After reaching a certain point, the tightly closed eyes of the stone carving actually began to open gradually.

Seeing this, Novak's face was filled with excitement as he urged the Magic Array to operate at full capacity.

But just as the stone carving's eyes were about to open completely, the sky was suddenly covered with dark clouds, and the world fell into darkness.

"What's going on?!" The adjutant looked up in panic, and the Soldiers did the same.

Lightning streaked across the dark clouds, its brief light illuminating Novak's distorted face.

"Almost there—just, just a little more..."

"Boom—"

The roar of thunder seemed to signal the gods' fury. Lightning transformed into the gods' spear to punish the defiant, piercing straight toward the platform.

At the moment of the blast, the earth shook, and the sky seemed to crack, as if the end of the world had arrived.

The vision of the adjutant and the Soldiers was filled with white light. Rubble whistled past their ears as they stumbled, looking for something to hold onto to stay upright.

This was clearly in vain.

One after another, everyone fell. Unlucky Soldiers had their bodies pierced or their heads blown apart by rubble. Blood mixed with mushy brain tissue splattered everywhere, hitting the hands and faces of the surviving Soldiers.

The catastrophe lasted for an unknown amount of time.

The adjutant felt the ground gradually steady, and the white light penetrating his eyelids dimmed.

He panted heavily and tentatively opened his eyes.

The altar had turned into ruins, with shattered stones covering the ground.

He rushed forward in a panic to dig through the rubble. "Lord Marshal! Lord Marshal! Where are you?"

"This..." Not far ahead, a charred hand emerged from the stones.

The adjutant almost crawled over and dug Novak out from under the ruins.

Novak lay in his arms, breathing heavily. Unconcerned about his injuries, he muttered to himself, "So that's how it is... so that's how it is..."

"Humans... Gods... Hahaha..."

The shrill laughter was as mournful as if it came from the abyss, making the adjutant, who was right next to him, feel his skin crawl.

After a while, Novak finally stopped laughing and urged the adjutant, "Go, bring the faith artifact."

The adjutant laid Novak down and led the Soldiers who had come over to search everywhere. However, after digging three feet into the ground, they were shocked to find the artifact nowhere to be seen.

"Lord Marshal, we can't find it. Could it have been shattered by the lightning?"

Novak, who was lying flat, suddenly sat up, his eyes bulging. "How is that possible!"

"Keep looking!"

...

Zhang Mu stood not far away, glancing at the Soldiers who were digging around the rubble like ants, then looking at the humanoid stone carving in his hand.

"faith artifact?"

Looking closely at the open eyes of the stone carving, it felt as if someone was watching him from behind the pupils.

"Interesting." Zhang Mu smiled. "Hey, can you see me?"

The stone carving showed no reaction.

"Boring." He curled his lip and walked to a stone on the right to sit down.

It sounded quite impressive from what he said, but how do you use this thing?

Can it still be used if taken back to Blue Star?

I'll know if I try.

No sooner said than done, Zhang Mu summoned a Portal and stepped inside.

Stepping out of the gate, he held up the stone carving to examine it.

The eyes that had been spirited before had now returned to a stone-like state.

"This god isn't all that." Zhang Mu understood. He turned and walked into the Portal that hadn't closed yet, returning to the side of the altar.

Novak surely knew the method to activate the faith artifact. He planned to lurk around him for a few days; perhaps there would be an unexpected harvest.

While walking toward Novak, Zhang Mu thought about contacting his senior sister later.

As the former Saul First Empire, the Ice and Snow Empire couldn't possibly not have faith artifacts in its treasury, and they likely knew how to use them.

But Zhang Mu wasn't sure if the switches for all faith artifacts were universal. To be safe, it was better to monitor Novak for a while.