Chapter 599 - Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint

A fanatical cult leader and monster who deceives others to gouge out their own eyes as offerings—Beel, the Radiant Lord, who harms humans with the forbidden practices of heresy. To find him, the warriors ascended the Mountain of Yulim with their elder sister, but the isolated Yulim Mountain lived up to its solitary name. A scout returned from the search sooner than expected. "Reporting. Nothing is in sight." There was nothing. No shaded areas to conceal oneself from the light or foliage to break the wind, making it even clearer that there was no one present. Until now, the information relayed by the Transmission Keeper had never deviated a hair’s breadth. What was happening? Confused, the warriors glanced at the Transmission Keeper. She replied calmly. "The main base of the Radiance Cult is hidden within Yulim Mountain. It’s concealed, which is why you can't see it." "Wise Transmission Keeper. But there seems no place to hide on this barren mountain. Unless our vision fails us, this mountain appears desolate." "They've shrouded themselves with sinister magic, sealing their base from sight. You'll need to use a revealing method to find it." "What is this method?" "A barrier lies within one of those valleys. So send a group to each, and shine a mirror on the ground to reveal it." How could something invisible be found this way? Though skeptical, the words came from none other than the Transmission Keeper. She had led humanity through Autumn and discovered the three calamities. The wise Transmission Keeper is never wrong. Rather than argue, the warriors chose to act. “Come on now. Surely, the Transmission Keeper hasn’t spoken amiss? If they hide in barriers, they’re cowards. They don't seem too threatening, so let's spread out and find them." "Great Druid, please weave a network from the grasses to keep us connected." "Dear, we’ll be back swiftly.” The king's warriors dispersed with mirrors in hand. They were synchronized, needing no further command. Once scattered, the elder sister naturally remained with the Transmission Keeper. The Keeper was accompanied by five devoted warriors who had protected her since the snowy mountains. They were renowned for their unmatched skills but were rumored to pledge allegiance to the Transmission Keeper over the King of Humans. Whether due to rumors or a reflection of reality, a heavy atmosphere lingered. Tension simmered between the King’s warriors and the Transmission Keeper’s five warriors. Yet, the Transmission Keeper and the elder sister shared amicable conversation. "This mountain is forever swept by dry winds with never a cloud, nor grass to grow. A lone mountain, it earns its nickname as the isolated one." "Isolated? Feels open and refreshing." "That is its pride. However, my dear, signals from mid-mountain are hard to notice. Let's wait where the view is clearest." To the Transmission Keeper's suggestion, the elder sister agreed. "Let’s do that." YW9peUx5cktZYXhyU2hzY1VsMkQ0WDREODc3Y0luL0MvRWUvalFsamFUOGhWUUxZTTJVa0VCYUdQdWhQYVYxRw The Mountain of Yulim had but a single peak. It was bleak, with neither trees, grass, nor even perennial snow to soften its appearance. The Transmission Keeper, El, accompanied the elder sister to console the loneliness of Yulim. The skies were endlessly clear. The frost-bitten northern light was pure white yet not dazzling. If the forest's sunlight were heavy rain, Yulim's sunlight would be dwindling drizzle. Even sunlight that burns the skin elsewhere would softly disperse here. Though merely an expedition, the tranquility made it resemble a leisure trip. No dramatic tales of snowy peaks, jungles, or deserts here. But perhaps one could fill this emptiness with contemplation. Amidst deep introspection, the Transmission Keeper and the elder sister arrived at the peak. At that moment, the elder sister quietly called to the Transmission Keeper. "El." “Yes, my dear." "This is it, isn’t it? The place you wished to bring me." El halted her steps. Beneath the blue expanse, a lone peak stood. While nothing below seemed apparent, naturally one would assume nothing could be above either. Yet if not on this solitary peak, where else could such secrets lie? “Yes, that's right. This place, the sacred mountain of the Radiance Cult, Yulim, is where it all began.” El retrieved a bronze mirror from her sleeve, carefully angling it towards the sun. A gentle wind enveloped them. A myriad of lights cascaded like a shimmering curtain. Countless beams of light danced freely across the world. Sparkling, scattering, disintegrating, and merging again. Absorbing, producing, and dividing. Swirling. Colors defining every word humanity has conceived. The mirror was the key, the sky the lock. As the mirror rotated upwards, the veil of the world retracted, revealing hidden wonders. An altar emerged, stones, sands, and bricks haphazardly mingled, its style indiscernible. Perhaps someone simply heaped things to elevate it, losing even the chance to correct amidst the chaos. But singularly clear was the yearning to touch the high heavens, a longing one could keenly feel. Was it a tower or a stairway they had sought to make? Or was there no room for such thought at all? Regardless of its form, simply striving to rise a little higher, just a bit closer to touch the sky. Upon that altar, reaching futilely towards the heavens, lay a desiccated form, withered and lifelessly poised. “Ugh…” A stifled groan escaped someone. The body was not alone. Encircling the altar at the peak lay hundreds, dried like mummies, all extending their hands toward the altar, aligning perfectly like compass points—or petals radiating from a stamen. "There were those who wished to touch the sky. They called themselves the Radiance Cult. More fascinated with the light descending from above than their own bodies." El, as though well-acquainted, treaded the path amidst the lifeless, and the elder sister followed her lead. Round objects rolled around as if to greet its long-overdue visitors. White and spherical, imbued with a range of hues, they looked like toy marbles. However, upon closer inspection, grotesque blood vessels appeared beneath the surface. Red veins clung to optic nerves, and the tissue, cracked and dry, twisted in a disturbing manner. "They longed for the unreachable sky and the light that shines down from it. The reason behind their desire? I have no clue. Was it curiosity? A fascination? Or was there a deeper issue?" The identity of these objects was that of someone's eyes, carefully extracted to minimize damage. Human eyes rolled about like refuse. Realizing this, the King's warriors gaped in horror at the surrounding corpses. What they had assumed to be ordinary corpses had orbs of crafted glass, substituting intact eyes. “And so they delved into the light. Exploring this world perceived through their eyes. What does it mean to see? Who defines color? Is this scene the same for everyone? And if it is, how can one discern it?” El stepped through the corpses with their glassy eyes, ascending to the altar and making her way to a woman's figure sprawled at the top. On garments white as snow was inscribed a tetrahedron, containing an eye inside. "There exists an unseen entity, guiding us toward knowledge and wisdom. Some believed that the purpose of life was to uncover it, even at the cost of life itself." The corpse’s hand extended to the heavens. From it, El lifted something—a transparent prism, so clear one might question its existence. “She bore the name El, who would later earn the title of Radiant Lord.” Yet as El held it aloft, Let there be light in this world. "Sorceress." ‘Elder Sister’s’ memories flooded with light. The world transformed. Countless letters formed from light, scattered, reassembled. This was the realm of knowledge, where neither body nor strength or anything else mattered. Luminescent waves surrounded them, and half-digested knowledge drifted, aimless in the air. In this space, where only knowledge and truth existed, El faced ‘me’. “I am a child born of their arrangement. Carrying their longings and desires, I sought without a shadow of doubt. Dug, gathered people, amassed knowledge, betrayed, deceived, and manipulated. I drove others to their demise. Even gouging out my own eyes. Pursuing light only to be blinded, touching upon the light of truth as the sorceress.” El touched her eyes. In the seemingly transparent gaze that did not reflect the present, an arrivant future was visible. She was truly a prophetess—the first saintess. The origin of all saintesses, for if light existed from the beginning, it was only after her birth that she truly beheld it. “Yet, at the end of truth, I realized. No matter how magnificent the great framework etched upon the starry night sky. No matter how delicate the structure within a grain of sand. Unless someone beholds it... it means nothing.” What had she seen at the end of the future? I can never know. Yet it was clear that a monumental change had come over her. “With the throne of the sorceress beneath me, I pierced through the light and bestowed enlightenment upon the young me, still gazing skyward. The Radiance Cult amassed followers, seeking truth through light rituals. They chiseled glass, trapping people within blinding halos of light.” Glass eyes, transparent prisms, and pristine bubbles of glass hung from the altar’s branches. A bizarre but purposeful placing of lenses and prisms upon the altar for illumination. The altar was a place for trapping light to unravel its secrets. “In the searing blaze, bearing the pain, I received a truth from my future self—that if I did nothing, a doomsday awaited.” The first saintess, who encountered forbidden knowledge within light, turned her transparent gaze my way. Oh, me? Not my elder sister? “Yes. You, from a distant place, my future’s successful sovereign." The first saintess gazed upon me with absolute clarity and prophesied.