<<Previous Chapter Index Next Chapter>>
Translator: adomman
Editor: Snorri
Gabriel replied: “If you have news of Amon, immediately notify the city of Salem in the Plains of Duc. I know you are very resourceful, it is not difficult to send someone to blend into the caravan to deliver the letter. People are looking for him, and I am looking too. …Supreme General Amon should have arrived in Ejypt, has he not come to you?”
Rod Drick shook his head. “No, the Supreme General didn’t come to me. …No, wait, what I experienced a few days ago was not a dream!” Here he suddenly looked up with a shocked look and recalled: “A few days ago I had a dream where Supreme General Amon was standing at the foot of my bed looking at me, and I woke up in shock, but there was no one in the house.”
Gabriel was also stunned: “It seems that Supreme General Amon has come because it was you who sent Lord Maria to Duc back then, and she became the Adoratrice. I was worried that what happened to the Adoratrice would make him lose his mind, but it’s really fortunate that you are still alive.”
Gabriel said these words and left, while Rod Drick did not dare to sleep again. He got dressed, took down the longsword hanging on the wall, and sat in the house until dawn. When dawn arrived, he called the chief priest of the An-Ra legion and the priests in the shrine, telling them that war had broken out in the Plains of Duc, so the city of Cape should be on alert as well, and that the security should be strengthened in the governor’s residence. Then he ordered the mages and the craftsmen in the city to construct a magic formation in his residence.
Rod Drick was now also the Head of the An-Ra Legion, and he also requested the Pharaoh to send another supreme mage to Cape, since Idu had left for good. As a result, another honorary high priest, Ibene, was transferred from the Shrine of Isis to serve as the chief priest of both Cape and the An-Ra Legion.
Ibene did not understand why the nomarch suddenly wanted to strengthen the security of his residence but did so anyway. Rod Drick was not worried that Gabriel or Amon would assassinate him, but last night’s experience really scared him. If there were really assassins as powerful as Amon or Gabriel, then he would truly be in great danger, so it was better to take precautions.
……
After leaving Cape, Gabriel traveled day and night to Memphis, where the main shrine of Isis, which she had known so well, had been reduced to scorched earth. Half of the shrine square had been destroyed, and there were guards on duty at the edge of the square to keep the common people away, and it was said that the shrine of Seth would be built here, and there was a special place for Maria in the side hall.
Amon must have come here or had already been here. Gabriel wandered around the square for days, but she never saw Amon at all.
After the destruction of the main shrine of Isis, Ankh, the chief supreme warrior of the shrine and the Head of the Isis Legion, was now the most nervous and busy person in the city of Memphis. He had to answer inquiries from all sides and wrote a detailed report specifically for submission to the Pharaoh. The atmosphere in Memphis was also tense and he had to step up patrols to prevent any further chaos at this time.
It was not until more than a month later that the official announcement of the Ejyptian Empire came out and the incident was considered to have a clear official statement that Ankh was slightly relieved. On this day, he was still personally leading the guards to patrol the city, and when he passed by the remains of the shrine square, he sighed and stopped his horse for a moment of silence before continuing on and returning to his own residence.
He had just dismounted when someone walked up to the door of the house and said in a low, clear voice: “Lord Ankh, do you have time to talk?”
Hearing this voice, Ankh was taken aback. The surrounding guards were about to go up to stop him, but he hurriedly waved his hand and said: “This is my friend, quickly invite him into the house and close the gate.”
This person, whose face was covered by a cloak, followed Ankh into the residence and came to a small meeting room, where Ankh sent the servants away before asking: “Gabriel, how do you still dare to return to Memphis?”
Gabriel took off her cloak and said: “I was ordered to go after Amon, and requested a duel as a warrior. I was defeated in the duel and became a prisoner. The Ejyptian Empire refused the Supreme General’s request for ransom, and he could decide what to do with the captive, so he released me. I did not violate any imperial decree, so why can’t I come back? Ankh, you are in charge of the law and order of Memphis, on what grounds are you going to arrest me?”
Ankh’s face looked a little embarrassed and he whispered: “What you said is true. Of course, I won’t arrest you and have no reason to do so, didn’t I already invite you in? I could expect that the Supreme General would come to me, but I didn’t expect you to come as well.”
Gabriel leaned forward with her hand on the table and said: “The general has already been here?”
Amon had indeed come to Ankh, just three days ago, and it was a similar scene to what happened today. At that time, Ankh had just returned from a patrol. After he dismounted and was about to enter the residence, a beggar in ragged clothes suddenly approached. The guards were about to go forward to drive him away, but Ankh suddenly heard a voice in his ears: “Ankh, I have something to ask you!”
This sound was like thunder on dry land, Ankh was startled and hurriedly said to the guards: “This is an elder from my distant hometown, please invite him to the backyard.”
The visitor was Amon, and he had disheveled hair and a filthy face, looking like a beggar in rags. He walked into Ankh’s mansion without saying a word, and Ankh followed behind and respectfully welcomed him into the backyard. According to Ankh’s recollection, Amon was still sober, but his eyes were red, and when he spoke, he always looked fixedly at an unknown place, making it hard to tell what he was thinking.
Ankh, of course, was clear why Amon sought him out, and he described all that had happened at the Shrine of Isis in detail. Then Amon took the object that Maria left behind and departed.
Gabriel asked: “What is the object that could remain from the destructive power of Tiamat’s Wrath?”
Ankh replied: “I saw with my own eyes a figure rushing up into the sky with a painful hiss, no matter what kind of supreme mage one is, it is impossible to fly straight to infinite heights until one disappears. Who exactly was that person, I can not say for sure, but you can take a guess. Tiamat’s Wrath is also not capable of destroying everything, although the Adoratrice is no longer there, and her scepter is also destroyed, there was a God’s Tear that remained in the center of that scorched earth.”
After the storm of destruction disappeared, people did not dare to approach the old site of the Shrine of Isis for a long time, and it was Ankh who led the soldiers of the Isis Legion inside to clean up the remnants. The supreme warrior was alone and walked in first, and he found the only object left in the scorched earth, the God’s Tear, lying quietly in the dust glistening with tears.
Gabriel asked again: “Why did you keep the God’s Tear instead of handing it over?”
Ankh bowed his head and replied: “I don’t know why, the luster of that Tear of the Gods really looked like the shimmer of a tear, and I quietly put it away. I also know that this parangon was mined by the Supreme General Amon himself back then, so maybe one day he would return to this place, and I think the relic of the Adoratrice should be given to him instead of the Ejyptian Empire.”
……
Gabriel once again did not find Amon but learned the latest news of Amon. He came to Memphis and took the God’s Tear from Ankh. Amon had experienced many hardships but had never been demoralized, his life was very simple and he did not pursue luxury, but he also had never been one to disregard his appearance. Now, he has become unkempt and ragged, it seems that he no longer cares about anything else, not even the clothes he wears and the dust that stains his face.
What kind of state of mind was this that could make a ninth-level great achiever fall like this! According to Ankh, Amon’s sanity was still intact, but he was in some kind of disoriented state all the time. Fortunately, now that he looked like a despondent beggar, it would not be easy for him to attract attention in the crowd.
Gabriel searched for Amon in the various cities of Ejypt, this was a mission given to her by Maria which she had to fulfill, and the search for Amon had even become her faith. The young man who came out of the town of Duc has now become the god Amon on the altar, but he gave up everything he had and disappeared in rags into the mortal world. Six months passed, but Gabriel never found him.
With the passage of time, the pain engraved in the bones seemed to become less intense but became lasting and constant instead. Gabriel could not go back before she found Amon, and whenever she turned around on the road, it was as if she could see the eyes of Maria, like the shining of the God’s Tear.
Gabriel finally stopped at the eastern bank of the Nile River, surrounded by a wilderness. The far bank of the river was inhabited by a group of crocodiles, while a little further away from the river bank was a group of hills, and within the hills, there was a flat valley.
Gabriel remembered this place vividly. When Amon first came to Ejypt, High Priest Urhiya had sent people to hunt down Amon, and it was in this valley that there was a fierce fight. Amon eliminated all the pursuers, exhausted his strength, and was seriously injured. As he came out of the valley and arrived at the riverbank, he fainted and fell unconscious.
Maria and Gabriel happened to pass by in a boat from the Nile River and were startled by Schrodinger’s cries, and they came ashore to rescue Amon. If Amon could not get rid of his heartache, he would come to this place sooner or later in remembrance of Maria, and so Gabriel waited in this valley.
After living in seclusion in the valley, Gabriel did not give up training the power of the origin. In order to find Amon and protect him, she needed great power. Amon was now up against the king of the Ennead, and since Seth was definitely seriously wounded, he would not show up in the short term, so there was no way Amon could find him. But Seth could command the many divine emissaries in the Ennead, no matter how powerful Amon was, it would be difficult to deal with them all by himself.
Perhaps conflict has already erupted, but after wandering in Ejypt for so long, Gabriel had not heard any news of intense fighting anywhere. The training was not just about power, Gabriel must put her soul at peace and find the clear and firm conviction that guided her, and she kept thinking about what Maria’s letter said.
Knowing the impact this would have on Gabriel’s soul, Maria asked in her letter: “How would your faith have been guided at that time?” And also reminded “I am well aware of your faith in the divine, that is the light within your heart. I hope you seek the true source of divinity and accept the guidance of that light.”
Maria did not want Gabriel to be confused because of this and even told Gabriel in a roundabout way to accept Amon’s guidance, the Adoratrice knew very well what kind of a path Amon was walking. But now it was Amon himself who was in a state of confusion, and perhaps he is getting further and further away from the path to divinity.
The people of Salem had lost God Amon, and Amon had lost Maria, and he must get her back. And for Gabriel, to retrieve Amon was the same as retrieving the divine source that guided her in faith. As the sun rose that day, Gabriel sat in the valley in silent prayer, listening to the voice from the soul that was becoming clearer and clearer –
“Whose voice resounds in the soul like the light that falls from the sky, the call of the eternal stream of origin. Whose eyes do I see full of compassion, with divine sorrow? Who and where are you, O God, whom I call upon? I wish to find you, find my desire, my path, and my glory!
Open your eyes and see, the sinful people of the world have made everything that makes them feel sinful, and he who has put on the white robes promises blessings to the world, while underneath the white robes the tail of sin is revealed. To whom, O people of the shrine, are you offering? The statue with bloodstained hands receives the praise of the people.
The true gods will come and will make a great and omnipresent judgment, and the golden grains will be left behind, while the chaff of the sinners will be burned, I will not spare them! Shrouded in a great shadow, I saw the light of angels flying, saw the mission I struggled for, saw the source of divinity, saw the round light above my head……”
Gabriel, who was in the midst of praying, suddenly raised her head, as there were several powerful auras rapidly approaching from the direction of the Nile River, accompanied by the violent impact and hum of energy bursts, the sign of fierce fighting between great achievers. Gabriel held the Edge of Order and flew into the air, she had been an eighth-level supreme warrior since a long time ago, and now she had also achieved the eighth level of the power of the origin.
As soon as Gabriel flew out of the valley, she saw a figure like a meteor falling from the sky, barely landing on the riverbank instead of falling into the river. This person was cloaked in dust, and a large pit was created in the soft and wet soil on the riverbank as a result of the crash, the person seemingly unconscious. Although she could not see his face, that familiar figure was indeed Amon.
In the distant sky, two figures were flying and approaching, one in front and one behind. The one in front was the Frog Goddess Heqet of the Ennead, who had brown-green stripes on her cheeks and forehead that reflected an eerie luster. The Frog Goddess waved her sleeves in the air, creating waves on the Nile River. A torrent of transparent water arrows shot out from the waves, drawing a curved arc as they flew towards Amon.
Huge waves also surged up to the shore, the wall of waves resembling the hand of a huge monster stretching out from the river, and approached the fallen Amon on the river bank with muddy soil and water.
At this time Gabriel arrived, slashing her axe into the air. It was as if space was cut, and the wall of waves was separated from the river. The huge force caused the water to splash everywhere, and several large crocodiles flew back into the river along with the collapsed waves with their teeth and claws bared. This was Spatial Cutting, magic produced by the Edge of Order.
Although Gabriel had mastered the eighth level of the power of origin and could instantly cast supreme magic arts like a supreme mage, she had always been a warrior at heart and attacked in the way she was used to. The overhead slash produced the power to cut space, but after the wall of waves was destroyed, Gabriel’s figure did not stop. Instead, she charged towards Heqet in the air like lightning.
The battle axe erupted into a silver arc of light, which covered Gabriel’s figure, scattering the water arrows conjured by Heqet, emitting a crisp shattering sound. Gabriel appeared too suddenly, Heqet was nearly defenseless, and she hastily turned around, clasping her hands together. The scattered water arrows and the rising waves in the river quickly condensed into a thick layer of ice wall in the air.
A cracking sound could be heard, and the ice wall that just appeared was cut by the silver light. In the silver light, a powerful blonde woman wielding a half-moon battle axe slashed forward. As a divine emissary, Heqet rarely encountered this kind of battle. Gabriel seemed to be one with her axe as she rapidly approached Heqet, not even bothering with a stance or using any techniques, but simply fought as though in a battlefield, not even saying as much as a single word.
Heqet opened her mouth in panic and bellowed, creating a sonic wave that propagated forward with a powerful impact. The wall of ice was instantly scattered and exploded, and the silver light that enveloped Gabriel was also scattered, but Gabriel still attacked with her axe.
The frog’s roar could even shatter boulders, and even if strong warriors could withstand it, the impact on their souls would make them confused and delirious. This was her best life-saving technique which also had offensive power. Although the silver light was shattered, the slash of the axe seemed to cut an opening in the sonic wave.
A green mist erupted, together with scattered brown streaks, and it was as if oil was splashed into the air. With a cry of misery, Heqet tumbled down to the opposite bank of the Nile River, the green robe she wore in tatters. She was surprisingly cut down by Gabriel’s axe, suffering injuries as a result. If not for the arrival of Crocodile God Sobek, Gabriel would have rushed over and killed her.
Sobek’s position was a bit behind, and he had just crossed the riverbank when Heqet flew to the middle of the Nile River. Amon was apparently powerless to fight back after crashing onto the ground and was about to be captured, and Sobek was overjoyed with relief. He then slowed down a little, but Gabriel unexpectedly appeared at this moment.
A silver light flew up from the other side of the river, and from his perspective, Gabriel was able to send Heqet flying within moments of fighting, and even Heqet’s sonic wave was unable to stop her. When Heqet crashed onto the riverbank, Sobek was finally able to see Gabriel clearly. By then, the blonde warrior was already swinging her axe, and an arc of light flew towards Sobek with a thunderous sound.
Sobek roared, and the crocodiles on both sides of the Nile River followed with a muffled roar. He waved the bony whip in his hand, and a shadowy light appeared in the air like a chain of bones, locking the arc of light from the axe. Gabriel struggled to stir the Edge of Order in her hand, and silver light flipped and shot out in all directions, cutting the illusionary chain to pieces.
