215 Empty Throne (Part 2)

If the other party only wanted to eliminate the Holy Spirits Church, William would have simply raised his hands in agreement. He might have even helped fill the pits for the rotten organization and placed some flowers after the burial.

However, it was clear that the other party was considering tearing everything down.

This could be seen in their desire to resist the so-called tyranny of Currere. What they wanted to destroy wasn’t the faith of the Holy Spirits, but the concepts they represented.

Perhaps what the other party wanted to do was even crazier than the Void Sovereigns.

Uh… At the very least, crazier than most Void Sovereigns.

“I’ve never seen a Holy Spirit personally impose tyranny on the mortal world, but I know a lot about tyrants who commit unforgivable crimes in Their name – be it those who choose to believe in Them or those who raise banners against Them. In fact, other than this difference in standpoint, they’re essentially the same kind of people,” William said after some thought.

Compared to the Void Sovereigns who had a strong presence and personality, the presence of the Holy Spirits in the game was surprisingly low. If William excluded the Seven Calamities who had been given personalities forcibly, he had never heard any Holy Spirits make a sound throughout the game.

It was more accurate to say that They were a systemic structure in Currere rather than gods.

William’s words made the old man being held up by a Death Spirit give a pitiful look.

He stared into William’s eyes and said slowly, “Mr. William, there are two types of tyranny. The first is having a king order the execution of all babies born on the same day as his son in the country. The second is the rules that allow this king to do such ridiculous things. I regret that you can only see the first type of tyranny and turn a blind eye to the even more terrifying second type.”

Without waiting for William’s reply, he continued, “Of course, I understand. You’ll be that kind of person—you’ll encourage the people to protest against the king with you. You’ll storm your way into his dazzling and heavily guarded palace, pull him off his high throne, and finally hold a public trial to hang him in the Central Square. In fact, you did this more than a thousand years ago. I sincerely admire your career.

“However, I believe you’ve already seen the final outcome in history books. After killing a king, the people will choose a new king. Sometimes, he might be a good person who can bring temporary peace to this world and give the people who grew up in this era the illusion that this world ought to be like this. However, most of the time, another tyrant only waiting to be overthrown is chosen…”

“So, you want to flip the entire table just because you ate a dish that doesn’t suit your taste?”

William interrupted him.

These guys seemed to think they were some kind of shounen manga boss, despairing at the supposed “human nature” and believing that the only way to save anything was to destroy everything and start anew. But William knew better.

William glared at the other party.

“How arrogant do you have to be to think that the world has been stuck in some kind of stagnant cycle?” he spat out. “Humans have struggled and progressed all the way from the Black Iron Era to the current Platinum Era. Sure, we’ve had our setbacks and regressions over the past thousand years, but we’ve always improved overall.”

And that blasted Terra Empire was more than 50% responsible for those regressions, he added silently.

“Mr. William, do you still believe that power and human nature are the root of the tyranny you described?” the other party asked, a look of pity on his face.

William responded by punching the elder.

William’s patience was wearing thin as he demanded, “Then what do you think the root cause is?”

“Power and human nature are just expressions of tyranny, not the cause. All the suffering in Currere comes from Currere itself,” the other party replied with a calm expression.

“… Huh?”

Ignoring William’s indescribable expression, the elder from the Tacma Church spoke as if he were preaching.

“Father created laws and power, making some people superior to others and positioning himself at the top of the power structure. Mother represents life and cycles, causing all beautiful things to eventually age and wither. Elder blinds true wisdom, making us perceive the world through unreliable senses and use incomplete methods like language to describe the soul. Lady disrupts the scale of emotions, causing us to love one person more than another and preventing us from fully understanding each other. Youth establishes the law of the jungle, making the weak weaker and the strong stronger, causing the world to become unbalanced. Child brings endless regret, showing us numerous possibilities but only allowing us to choose one. And finally, there is the Dead, who judges all living beings and takes everything away from us when we return to eternal requiem.

“Do you understand? We should have been able to gain more. We were originally stars, but the seven jailers who crowned themselves kings have trapped us in this world. Only by breaking free from this cage called Currere and destroying everything inherent can we achieve true freedom!”

This is all about the Instrumentality of Mankind, Frenzied Flame era…

William inwardly groaned.

Another lunatic claiming to be humanity’s savior.If the Tacma Church was full of people like this, William felt that they should prioritize encircling and suppressing the organization before dealing with the Void Sovereign’s invasion.

At least the Void Sovereigns were openly trying to destroy the world, while lunatics like this might silently cause chaos out of nowhere.

After hearing the elder’s sermon-like speech, William no longer had the energy to argue with him and instead tried to gather more information.

“You only mentioned seven Holy Spirits. Then, what about the Eighth Holy Spirit, Hermit? Is He also a Currere jailer like His other seven colleagues?” William asked.

“He was deceived into participating in Creation, but in the process, He discovered that Creation was a complete disaster. Therefore, He hid His whereabouts, leaving only an empty throne. This empty throne is our only way to resist this crazy world,” the old man replied.

“Then, what does He have to do with me?” William continued asking.

Instead of answering, the old man stared intently at William. After a long time, he said, “We’ll stop you.”

“Stop me from what?”

“Stop you from ascending to the empty throne of the Eighth Holy Spirit and becoming the Eighth Holy Spirit.”

“I never thought of such a thing from the beginning,” William replied in confusion.

“Yes, you may not want it, but as long as you’re alive, the throne will find you. Whether you’re willing or not, you’re the throne’s favorite candidate. Unless you’re willing to give this empty throne to someone else before this, it will definitely be yours. And you and I both know that you won’t be willing to let Terra Riel take it.”

“So?”

“So, you can only die, even if you didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Yes, that’s a much more reasonable logic, but the question is how do you plan on doing it?” William asked, looking at the old man in front of him who would be sentenced to death at his slightest thought.

“Indeed, you’re very strong. If it were when you just returned, we could still try to exhaust you to death with absolute numbers, but you’ve already begun to organize your forces.”

“You can say ‘but’ now.”

“Weren’t you curious about the difference between the spell foundation I used and yours? There’s no need to hide it. I could tell from your surprised gaze. Do you know why I said that modern magic or logical magic was a wrong path from the beginning?” the other party looked up and asked.

William remained silent.

William had to admit that without communicating with the Astral World, he was indeed very curious about where the other party’s magic power came from. Magic chanters could use the ether domain to temporarily store a small amount of magic power, but it was only a small amount.

However, all the magic power the other party had used previously surged from his ether domain, which was much stronger than his own. This was basically impossible, as the strength of William’s ether domain, which could chant and release three Divine Realm spells at the same time, was definitely the limit of a mortal.

If that was the case, William would have been the one being suppressed.

There was only one possibility—the other party could use his ether domain to produce magic.

However, this shouldn’t be possible because all the magic power in Currere should come from…

“All the magic power in Curre should come from the Astral World, right?”

As if he had guessed what William was thinking, the other party said, “Do you still remember what I said earlier? We should all be stars? Do you think this is just a metaphor?”

William’s expression turned serious as he realized the truth.

“Now… can you understand how deeply Currere has imprisoned us?”

“According to our will, casually molding reality should have been our innate authority. However, under the imprisonment of the Currere cage, it became an endless logic game.”

Just as he finished speaking, an earth-shattering explosion suddenly sounded from the Moonlaw City palace floating over the sea in the distance.

William turned his head and saw that about a quarter of the palace had collapsed. Countless ravens surged out of the palace and gathered into dark clouds in the storm.

The Tacma Church elder turned his head with difficulty and said softly, “Then, let’s enter Act II, Mr. William.”