Deep in Grim Forest, in the center of the forbidden area of the Grace Castle ruins, the core members of the Darkness Church were dealing with the scene. Relying on the proof of identity given by Liz, one of the Dark Holy Maidens, Bella easily gained the initial trust of these Darkness Church leaders.
Just like the hierarchy of the Radiant Church, the Darkness Church was only missing one Holy Maiden. At the top level of the Darkness Church were the three Holy Maiden and the sole successor to the Dark Pope. They also had a Demonic Swordsman similar to the Holy Swordsman of the Radiant Church who assisted the Dark Pope.
Liz’s title in the Darkness church was Dark Holy Maiden. The other two were the Abyss Holy Maiden and the Fallen Holy Maiden. They and the successor of the Dark Pope were here. In order not to reveal the truth, Bella couldn’t find out the names of the other two Dark Holy Maidens and could only pretend to be silent.
Bella also wanted to take special action against the two Holy Maidens of the Dark Church and the pope’s successor and take them all in one fell swoop, just like the surprise attack on the four Holy Maidens of the Radiant Church and the pope’s successor, President Maria.
However, Bella had to give up this dangerous idea after looking at the Darkness Church’s Swordsman who was nearby examining the bodies of their followers. The Demonic Swordsman was also wearing the same mask and carried four weirdly shaped magic swords behind her.
The Demonic Swordsman should be at the same level as Holy Swordsman Cynthia of the Radiant Church. Bella would have some difficulty in subduing the Demonic Swordsman within a short time. If Holy Swordsman Cynthia had been in the same room as Maria, Bella’s attack would have fallen through.
“What’s going on? How did these followers die? “
“They were all killed with magic, and their means were very cruel. We have a Magic Forbidding Barrier here and the other party still managed to launch magic attacks.”
Knowing that these followers were killed with magic, their suspicion of Bella was ruled out. Bella was a military type professional. Although the other Dark Holy Maidens didn’t know if Bella was a knight or a warrior, they were certain she didn’t know magic.
After Bella’s identity was reconfirmed, the Dark Holy Maidens relaxed their vigilance. Bella was glad that she had been slow earlier. Most of these Dark Disciples were killed by Ariel’s quick magic attack, so she didn’t have time to attack them. Unexpectedly, this had proven her innocence.
The ones that Bella had hacked to death herself, as well as the bodies of the Dark Disciples on the second floor of Grace Castle, had all been quickly destroyed by her. The rest of the bodies were all killed with magic by Ariel. Without the bodies as evidence, the Darkness Church’s top leaders wouldn’t be able to connect her to the culprit behind the scenes.
Bella had a better reason for being here. She said that Liz had arranged for her to perform a secret mission. Darkness Holy Maiden Liz wasn’t here right now, so they couldn’t verify that in person.
Although she couldn’t find out the identities of the other two Dark Holy Maidens, she could ask about other topics. The Dark Holy Maidens were much more open compared to the Four Holy Maidens of the Radiant Church. After knowing that she was one of their own, they didn’t mind Bella asking many topics which were originally sensitive.
They easily revealed their body measurements. Not only these two Dark Holy Maidens, Bella even got the measurements of the Dark Pope’s successor and the Demonic Swordsman.
Information that the Radiant Church had been searching for decades was obtained by Bella in one day, which was rather ironic. Bella recorded this precious information in her mind, just in case she could use it someday!
According to the senior officials of the Darkness Church, Ancient Grace City in the central area of Grim Forest was indeed the place where the Goddess of Life was ten thousand years ago. But this version was far from the other versions circulating outside and even a little scary.
Back then, when the Goddess of Life arrived here, she was already dead. The elves who believed in the Goddess of Life kept her body in the underground pilgrimage room of Grace Castle.
Unexpectedly, something changed that night. The Goddess of Life was already dead but her body was polluted by evil and turned into a Corpse Demon. All the elves in Grace Castle died tragically in the castle.
At this time of the crisis, one of the legendary heroes, the first generation nameless Knight King and the strongest light priest of the Human Race at the time, the first generation Light Pope Goldsmith, came here to suppress the Goddess of Life’s corpse.
Goldsmith had consumed a lot of power in the war and disappeared mysteriously shortly after going into seclusion. Bella recalled her conversation with the soul of the third generation Light Pope McPherson. Now, she was confident that Goldsmith had been ambushed by the second generation Light Pope during her period of seclusion. Bella wasn’t sure if she was dead or alive.
The Knight King was undoubtedly Liath. After she and Goldsmith jointly suppressed Grace Castle, she disappeared mysteriously and must have suffered heavy damage. After being suppressed, the remains of the Goddess of Life were sealed in the underground floor of Ancient Grace City.
Most of the fleeing elves were killed in the war. The Radiant Church had misled people about what happened in this castle. These horrible details had all been erased by the Radiant Church, and there wasn’t such a horrible scene as the transformation of the Goddess of Life’s corpse in the current version.
With the Darkness Church leaders leading the way, Bella came to the underground seal of Ancient Grace CIty. There was a huge Magic Forbidding Seal on the floor. Several Holy Weapons that had mysteriously disappeared from the Radiant Church were placed in the key positions of the magic array.
At the center of the magic array, Bella saw a black coffin. The coffin was tied with more than a dozen gold chains with incantations written on them, and the four corners of the coffin were fixed in place by stone.
She didn’t have to guess to know that one lying in this coffin was the Goddess of Life, formerly one of the Twelve Gods of the God World. The legendary Goddess of Life was also one of the rare beauties among the God Race. Who could’ve thought she would’ve fallen to this state?
According to the Dark Pope’s successor, the coffin was originally made of precious white jade that could subdue evil forces. Now, it had completely turned black by evil energy. Many of the golden chains with divine power had also been dyed black.
After the Darkness Church and the Light Church parted ways, the management of this area was secretly entrusted to the Dark Pope of that generation by the Light Pope of that generation. This became one of the unspoken secret agreements between the Radiant Church and the Darkness Church for thousands of years. In exchange, the Radiant Church acquiesced to the existence of the Darkness Church, not openly launching a war against the Darkness Church.
There was more than one tacit agreement between the Radiant Church and the Darkness Church in private. However, the Darkness Church also had a hard time after taking charge. The transformed body of the Goddess of Life was simply difficult to handle.
It was very difficult to destroy. This mission was almost impossible. They didn’t dare to even try what the first generation Light Pope Goldsmith had failed in doing back then. After being sealed for such a long time, the seal gradually started to fail with the passage of time.
Behind this coffin, Bella saw a deformed, strange tree–the original form of the Goddess of Life, the ancient tree of life. After the body of the Goddess of Life had transformed, it too became a demonic object. The strange tree had no life at all, not even a leaf on its branches.
What was more frightening was the fact that there were many face-like bulging lumps on the barks on the tree. They were like the female ghost from “The Grudge.” Bella was horrified by the ferocious faces. She didn’t know if it was her illusion, but Bella constantly felt as if there were eyes in those faces that were staring at them.
“Wait, don’t go over there. The tree is dangerous… Last time, someone was careless and went too close and became a face on the tree.”
Bella was about to approach and investigate when the Demonic Swordsman,, who had been on guard duty beside them, stretched out her hand and pulled Bella. Although this Demonic Swordsman sounded cold and ruthless, it seemed that she was still a good person who knew how to protect the safety of her companions.
The successor of the Darkness Church and the other two Dark Holy Maidens began their daily work. They took out several holy golden chains of the Radiant Church and carefully walked to the coffin to replace the golden chains on the coffin.
The golden chains in the hands of the senior members of the Darkness Church were the real thing, which proved that there was indeed a secret between them. This sort of precious golden seal chains couldn’t be obtained from the Radiant Church by people of ordinary status.
Although the golden chains had been replaced, Bella figured that it was of little use. The white jade coffin had been turned black by evil energy. The originally shiny golden luster of these newly replaced golden chains dimmed a lot in an instant.
“Thank you. It’s fine. I’m a tough person. Let me have a look.”
“Let me follow you then. I can give you a hand in case of any accidents.”
“Your excellencies, something has happened! Two boys in Angus City who were previously in Grace Castle have been found to behave abnormally. Now, they have been handed over to the top management of Listable Academy and Dimiost Academy.”
“One more thing, we have just discovered that the brothers stationed on the second floor of the castle have also been killed. Please check, your excellencies.”
As soon as the Dark Holy Maidens had replaced the golden chains on the coffins, people from the Darkness Church came in to report the unusual situation. The two who had been reported were probably Adelaide and Glaston who had already run away.
“Are they really okay? Disciple… you’d better come with us than stay here alone!”
“I’ll be fine, honorable Demonic Swordsman. I have a treasure to ward off evil. I’m not afraid of this strange tree.”
Bella was waiting for a chance to explore alone, although the zeal of the Demonic Swordsman did surprise her. If she wasn’t in the rush to find the Seed of Life, Bella might’ve offered to meet the Demonic Swordsman at the Rose Restaurant in Angus City for a date.
“Alright then. Be careful. If you need help later, you can come to the academy to look for me. We are all members of the church. Helping each other is a small matter.”
The Demonic Swordsman slipped Bella a small note while the other Darkness Church leaders weren’t paying attention. Bella glanced at it. It was the name of a famous Swordsman Academy among the Twelve Ivies of the Human Race. The school was located in Gabriel Empire.
After chatting for such a long time, it turns out that the Darkness Church’s Demonic Swordsman was from the same empire as her. Bella secretly put away the little note. When she had time, she would look for this interesting Demonic Swordsman and have a nice chat with her.
After the Demonic Swordsman had left, Bella was all alone in this underground sealed place. Ariel had wanted to help transfer the girls, so she hadn’t followed along. Other members of the Darkness Church were very vigilant towards this underground seal and wouldn’t enter.
Bella carefully walked to the tree. Creator of Light Vianne’s Tears of the Goddess was already hanging on her chest. On the ground under the tree, Bella saw a half-buried golden box.
There were obvious traces of excavation beside the golden box. It was buried underground before and had been dug out. The brave person who had dug it up was probably caught by mysterious forces halfway and turned into a face on the tree. On the trunk directly opposite the box was a face that didn’t look like a woman, more like a man.
The golden box was locked with a special lock. Bella heard from her roommate, Assassin Noreya, that this special lock could only be opened by an exclusive key. If one insisted on picking the lock by force, the special magic array in the box will get to work and the treasures in the box will be completely destroyed.
“The seed of the tree of life… It must have been sealed by Goldsmith…”
Bella pulled the box straight out of the ground. After reading the inscription carefully, Bella’s stiff face finally showed a relaxed smile.
According to the inscription, this box contained the last Seed of Life that the Goddess of Life had. When the first generation Light Pope Goldsmith defeated the corpse of the Goddess of Life, the Goddess of Life’s consciousness was briefly awake.
At the time, the Goddess of Life gave this last Seed of Life to Goldsmith as the last treasure to seal herself. If the seed of the tree of life hadn’t been buried, the Corpse Demon of the Goddess of Life would have broken the seal three thousand years ago.
In the end, Bella chose to take away the Seed of Life. In exchange, she buried a small vial filled with the tears of the Creator of Light Vianne in the place where the box had been buried before.
This vial contained the real “Tears of the Goddess”, to be exact, the tears of a Creator. The tears had been obtained when Creator of Light Vianne wiped her eyes because sand had gotten into them.
Different from those processed “Tears of the Goddess” before, this vial had the tears left by Creator of Light Vianne when she was crying. Its power was several times stronger than the tears from her laughter.
Bella only had one vial. It was almost impossible to make the Creator of Light Vianne cry. This bottle of tears was far more precious than the Seed of Life.
Bella left immediately after burying it. She was too lazy to watch what happened. Originally, Bella had buried it because she planned to continue suppressing the Goddess of Life’s transformed Corpse Demon. She didn’t care about any other changes.
Bella’s feet had just left the gates of the sealed area when the dark church members waiting outside the gate quickly locked the gate. They were unwilling to come to the sealed area either. Every three months they would come to open the sealed area, but usually no one would be here.
After the real “Tears of the Goddess” had been buried, the air of death that was entrenched in this sealed place began to fade. The weird tree, which was originally terrifying, began to change. The ferocious faces on the tree had greatly relaxed their expressions of horror.
The white jade coffin, which had turned black because of evil energy, showed a trace of white in the center of the coffin. The white marks were gradually spreading. That was the original color of the white jade coffin. The evil energy was gradually fading away.
Two bright dots of emerald green were faintly discernible on the coffin lid. It seemed that the eyes of the Goddess of Life had opened. On the faded parts of the white jade coffin, there was a delicate hand gently pressing on the coffin lid from the inside.
The Goddess of Life trapped in the huge white jade coffin seemed to want to push the lid away. The problem was that she was now gradually turning back to her normal state, no longer a Corpse Demon. Without evil powers, she couldn’t immediately destroy the golden chain fastened around the white jade coffin.
“Meanie! That evil mistress… How could she wake me up and leave the chains fastened? When I get out, I will… “
The first thing the revived Goddess of Life remembered was Bella. When Bella dug up the Seed of Life, the sleeping Goddess of Life in the coffin had seen Bella clearly through the countless faces on the bark of that strange tree.
The energy of the Creator contained the powers of recovery and resurrection. Bella hadn’t deliberately asked about this, so she didn’t remember it having this attribute.
The tears of the Creator of Light Vainne had no problem reviving a God. Bella had unknowingly saved the Goddess of Life. If Bella had the patience to wait a little longer, she would’ve gotten a personal maid with the status of God.
Gaining a new life came at a price. After the Goddess of Life was reborn, she must recognize Bella as her master. This was the only price. Although the Goddess of Life didn’t want to recognize a master, Bella didn’t only have the strength of a Demon King; she was also a Demon God. She couldn’t resist the power of Creator of Light Vianne either, so she was forcefully resurrected.
“Hey, honorable Demonic Swordsman, you’re still here. Were you waiting for me…”
Outside the door of the sealed area, Bella met the Darkness Church’s Swordsman who stood there waiting. It seemed that she had been waiting here for a long time.
“Let’s go. I stayed because I happened to have something to deal with. They have enough manpower, so they don’t need my help right now. By the way, what’s the box you’re holding?
“This is… the mission that Holy Maiden Liz gave me. She asked me to keep this box.”
“I see. Then let’s go now. The atmosphere of the seal is too depressing. I don’t like it very much.”
The Darkness Church’s Demonic Swordsman felt even more innocent than the Radiant Church’s Holy Swordsman. Bella followed her and left the sealed grounds. The search for the Seed of Life was half complete.
