In the beginning, there existed only radiant light.
Transcendent beings, who had transcended even death, spent their days in peace within the world of light.
However, cracks began to form in what seemed like perfect days. Boredom began to spread among the transcendent beings.
“The world is too dull. Why were we born in the first place?”
What started as a mere speck of dust soon began to take shape. Eventually, it grew to a size that even the law of causality, which governed the world’s rules, could not ignore.
“A new existence is needed to resolve the boredom of the transcendent beings.”
A tilted scale will eventually topple. A new life was needed to solve the boredom. That was humanity. Destined to die someday, always fragile, forced to engage in fierce survival struggles. The transcendent beings, who had been bored with everything, quickly escaped their boredom.
“Humans are fascinating the more you watch them.”
To the transcendent beings, humans were very attractive pets. However, over time, problems arose with these pets. Human selfishness and malice began to disturb the order of the world. Eventually, the law of causality, which governed the world’s rules, came to a conclusion.
“We need to eliminate all humans and create a new existence. One that is far superior to flawed humans and can eliminate boredom.”
As causality reached this conclusion, a few transcendent beings, upon hearing the news, hurriedly came. One of them was the goddess Dinute.
“Humans are not parts that can be created when needed and discarded when not. We can’t trample on what they have achieved so easily!”
Among the many transcendent beings, Dinute especially cherished humans. She loved their passion and came to respect their lives.
“I will teach humans wisdom. They will protect the order of the world.”
Causality did not like Dinute’s stubbornness but decided to give her a chance. As it happened, other transcendent beings who loved humans joined in. Sigmund was one of them. Dinute spoke in front of the transcendent beings who shared her will.
“I will build a nation in the desert. My people will learn humility in the face of scarcity. To do this, I will share my power with nine high priests.”
At first, it seemed like Dinute’s plan was successful. The Holy Empire prospered, and the humans of the empire enjoyed an unprecedented period of stability.
But satisfaction was short-lived. Humans were much more weak and selfish than Dinute had anticipated. No matter how much they were given, they quickly adapted to abundance and craved greater stimulation. Despite having enough, they harmed each other for more.
Dinute despaired but did not give up. Whenever humans ruined the order of the world with their selfishness, she continually sacrificed herself to give them opportunities. She sacrificed, sacrificed, and sacrificed again. Sometimes, she even offered her power to causality to restore the disrupted order.
“Dinute, stop being foolish and give up on humans. You will end up disappearing. You’re giving too much attention to mere pets.”
“Humans are not pets. They are my children, my extensions. I will not give up.”
One day, while struggling, Dinute faced a despair incomparable to anything before.
“What is that?”
Monsters began to spread across the continent.
“Did they come into being because of humans?”
More precisely, it was due to the intervention of transcendent beings in the human world.
Just as a bent metal can never be perfectly straightened, whenever the order disrupted by humans was restored, traces remained all over the world. The particularly chaotic traces gathered to create darkness, and from that darkness, monsters emerged.
Fortunately, the initial outbreak of monsters was handled by the intervention of transcendent beings, but the darkness still gaped at the world. No, rather, due to the intervention of transcendent beings, the darkness grew larger than before. Watching this situation, Sigmund finally made a decision.
“We can no longer intervene in the human world. The chaos will only grow. It’s better to leave. Dinute.”
The only way to restore order was to immediately leave the human world, Sigmund believed.
“They will struggle at first, but in the long run, we must leave. Leaving humans to their own lives is the best path for them.”
Dinute disagreed with Sigmund.
“I can’t leave. If I suddenly depart, humans will be deeply shocked. I can’t abandon them in such a chaotic world.”
“Dinute.”
“Over time, they will develop self-regulation. When that happens, the darkness will completely lose its power. All problems will naturally resolve.”
“I respect your choice. But you’ll eventually face limits. The darkness will only grow larger.”
Thus, the paths of the two transcendent beings diverged. Sigmund left the human world, while Dinute remained. The biggest problem for Dinute, left alone, was dealing with the monsters that would appear in the future.
“I must give new power to the Wings.”
Dinute sacrificed her power to bestow new strength upon the souls of the two High Priests who would be born as the next Wings. This power included the power of darkness to control the monsters and the purifying flames to deal with those that went out of control.
* * *
The Wing of Darkness was the first power that Rehir coveted. It could control the monsters. The purifying flames were more destructive, but that power had long since vanished. Rehir, born in darkness, dared not covet it. However, the power of darkness was taken by the princess.
“This can’t be! My power can’t disappear so easily!”
Rehir, in denial, hastily looked back at Kun’s position, hoping he was okay and that the disappearance of the monsters guarding him was due to Kun’s loss of focus. But no.
Rumble. One side of the palace, its roof gone, was slowly collapsing. Time felt twice as slow. Just as Kun raised his head, a massive boulder fell on him. Kun’s eyes widened. Before he could summon the monsters, it was all over in an instant.
Boom! Bang! Moments later, the spot where Kun had been was now filled with rubble. Rehir, watching the rising dust, swallowed hard. His fingertips trembled. The thread connecting him to Kun snapped. Kun was dead!
“He died too easily for all the sins he committed.”
Behind him, the princess’s tongue clicked. Rehir, frozen like ice, creaked as he turned. The princess smirked on one side of her mouth.
“Are you upset that the Wing is dead? Don’t worry. You’ll soon join him. The power you created for me as a Wing will consume you.”
With her arrogant declaration, a chilling screech filled the air. Thousands of bats that had covered the spirit of the earth swarmed at once. Rehir, his eyes bloodshot, glared at the sight. He fought off the monsters several times but to no avail. The princess wielded the monsters with far more skill than Kun. Rehir’s face twisted in despair.
“Damn it…!”
The situation was dire. His power was melting away like a sandcastle. Though he still had the power of the two Wings left, he couldn’t use it.
“I must save it for later.”
How long had he waited to obtain the power of the two Wings? He had committed all sorts of atrocities to make that power his own. He couldn’t waste it so futilely.
“Rehi…r…”
As Rehir gritted his teeth, trying to figure out how to escape from the monsters, a faint groan caught his ear.
“Rehir, where am I? Why am I here?”
Seeing Josephina struggling to get up, Rehir’s expression shifted dramatically.
“Yes, that’s the way.”
A method to escape without losing the power of the Wings surfaced in his mind. The decision was swift. His hand moved like lightning. Josephina flinched at the sudden pain and instinctively looked down.
“Rehi… ah?”
The white garment of the saint slowly turned red. Shock spread across Josephina’s eyes as Rehir smiled wickedly at the frozen woman.
“May causality value your suffering dearly.”
With that, Rehir placed his hand on Josephina’s forehead. The events experienced by the real ‘Rehir,’ her own son, instantly flooded into her. As Rehir disappeared into the dark abyss, monsters swarmed over the paralyzed Josephina.
* * *
At the very moment when the once peaceful palace was turned upside down by the prince and princess, the citizens trembled in fear as they saw the sky above the palace lit up as brightly as midday by the rising flames.
“What in the world is happening? The palace is collapsing, and monsters are rampaging!”
“Is the empire doomed?”
The thought that it was the prince and princess who had destroyed the palace and summoned the monsters never crossed their minds.
“Why do such horrific events keep happening?”
“The goddess has cast her wrath upon us! She is furious!”
“Yes, this all happened because we did not recognize the true saint!”
Rumors spread among the terrified citizens, suggesting that the day’s events occurred because the people of the empire mistreated Leticia.
“We must confess our sins to the new saint. We must kneel and beg for forgiveness!”
“Where is the queen consort, the saint? Where is she?”
“Let’s go to the temple and kill all the priests who followed Josephina! Perhaps then the new saint will forgive us!”
The people flocked to the temple, shaking the firmly locked front doors and shouting furiously.
“Priests! Come out immediately! Sacrifice your lives to end this disaster! Now!”
Among the agitated crowd, no one sided with the priests. Since Josephina had become the saint, the priests had continually oppressed the powerless citizens.
Using the excuse of being chosen by the goddess, they had exploited innocent people to satisfy their own greed. The day’s events finally ignited the people’s long-held anger against the priests.
“Come out now! Come out, I say!”
“Beg for forgiveness from Saint Leticia!”
As the priests of Josephina were attacked, a pair of eyes watched from not far away. It was Dietrian, the husband of Saint Leticia, who had won the admiration of all the citizens within just a few hours.
“Saint! Please forgive us. We are truly sorry. Forgive us just this once!”
Dietrian, watching the people pleading for forgiveness from Leticia, turned and walked away. It was just the beginning of reclaiming everything his wife had lost.
