Chapter 374: The Truth of the Apocalypse
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The ancient parchments, which were specially treated, stayed soft yet tough even after 3,000 years had past. Though faded, it suffered no damage. The handwriting was blurry, but it was legible under careful eye.
The ancient written language of three thousand years old was different from the language of present-day’s Plane of Dreams. The ascetics, who were studying the ancient religious texts in the ancient language, had no problem understand them—so long as the handwriting was still recognisable.
The manuscript in the sacred cavern wasn’t a fetish or Goddess’ patrimony but the last word of the first pope intended for his successor.
Big Beardy read it out slowly. "...we came from the stars... all of the life in this world originated from the stars... the Goddess created all of the life, but in the beginning, She had created just the seeds..."
"What does that mean?" The young nun asked, getting confused.
Being an interstellar traveller, Hao Ren understood the meaning of it better than the four ascetics. "It basically says all of the life on this planet came the space, brought by the meteoroid and things like that. You know?" he explained.
"The Goddess created the seeds." Big Beardy pointed at the text with his index finger. "She sowed the seeds on the various planets, the seeds grew on planets which were hospitable to life. We are sons derived from the seeds, the creation of the Goddess, but also just dregs of the system."
So far, the only difference between this writings and the texts of Disciples of Glory was in terms of wording. But everyone’s face turned serious when Big Beardy continued with the subsequent paragraphs. "...I am leaving this message in the hope that when the cavern is opened for the second time, all races in this world would have risen up, not that to surpass the ancient civilisation but to be strong enough to delay the powerful ancient creatures, our furious ‘brothers’..."
"Before time began, the world was just a barren place where planets were desolute, dead, and lifeless. Then the Goddess was conceived out of the darkness. She is the first life of spirit and knowledge, king of kings, blood of bloods, soul of souls. But the Goddess was not happy that the stars were lifeless. So She created the seeds and sowed them on the planets. When the seeds fell on the earth, they began to evolve into blood tide from which the most primitive life forms evolved and subsequently ruled the earth. I called that earliest seed ‘The Original Seed’. It is the origin of all life on this tiny rock in space. From great men to servants, from demi-gods to no-bodies, you and me, and all plants originated from this seed.
"The felony of the ancient Magic Empire wasn’t the creation of perfect life form nor their encourchment into the realm of the divine; what they had done was far more serious than that—they found the remnant of The Original Seed, drew power from the fresh and blood of the remnant, then attempted to play God!
"The Original Seed is the blood of the Goddess, an extension of Her body which contained the most primitive, direct divine power, and even be regarded as the Goddess Herself. The Magic Emperors were mesmerised and arrogant. They attempted to use the fresh and blood to regenerate their own bodies, and even tried to erode and control the sacred remains with their mortal will so that they could become god. Their blesphemy against The Original Seed was the root cause of the destruction.
"What I am going to reveal, no matter how unacceptable or unbelieveable is to you, is the truth; the truth of the evolution of all life on this planet...
"We are not the first born—after The Original Seed landed on earth, it not just gave birth to a single sowing. During the height of Blood Tide, the oldest and strongest guardians were born. The First Sowing thrived in the early days and took on a more primodial strength, and had the most steadfast loyalty and conviction to the mother—the Goddess. I call these oldest beings ‘The First Born’. The First Born ruled the earth for millions of years until they got tired of it and went into collective slumber. Subsequently other smaller beings—including us, were born from the already thinned out Blood Tide. We the little mortals were just the second born.
"The arrogance of the ancient Magic Emperors had infuriated The First Born who were asleep in the depths of the earth. They sensed that people had spoilt the structure of The Original Seed, so they rose from their sleep and launched a bloody massacre.
"The dysfunction of The Original Seed had caused Blood Tide to go haywire. The remaining life force of Blood Tide evolved into another apocalytical disaster during which an extremely corrosive, hateful but short-lived monster, whose sole purpose was to destroy the rebellious son, emerged. So according to evolution calender, this would be the Third Born.
"This is the truth of the apocalyse: the world wasn’t thrown into a sea of fire but an ecological extinction.
"The extinction event had almost destroyed all of The Second Sowing. The furious First Born and Third Born had vowed to rebuild the planet’s ecosystem. We were supposed to be totally exterminated in the apocalypse but the merciful Goddess saved us: she had built a safety switch in The Original Seed which was triggered when she sensed an apocalyse was imminent and forcibly halted the action of the First Born. The Third Born ran out of their short lifespan and died quickly shortly after that. That’s how our world was spared.
"It was fortunate that the foolish Magic Emperors didn’t spoil the safety switch of The Original Seed. This was the only good thing they had done. I found the safety switch, which was still running, from the cavern and took it out from here to prevent the First Born from damaging it while they sleepwalking. But the safety switch mustn’t be too far away from the seal, so I’ve placed it somewhere within 100 cassavas (an ancient distance measurement) of this cavern. If thing goes as planned, the safety switch should be known as the life progenitor and work well during your era."
There was a shivering in Big Beardy’s breathing, so did everyone else. It wasn’t just because of the explosive truth, but also because they was having a bad feeling about it. The young nun held up the final piece of the parchments, her suspicion was confirmed:
"The safety switch is just an organ of The Original Seed. As The Original Seed was seriously damaged, the organ could no longer function perpetually as was designed. According to my estimate, it has only 3,000 years of life left."
"Glug—" Becky was swallowing her saliva.
"The First Born is about to wake up. When the safety switch—the restraining signal of the life progenitor stopped, The First Born will resume their action and reset the ecosystem. After the apocalypse, there were three surviving First Borns which are being restained by three corresponding life progenitors. The restaining signal will stop in sequence. According to my understanding, the first one to stop is the one here. The other two will follow suit in one and three years respectively. But one First Born would be suffice to cause a total apocalypse."
"But don’t lose hope. We still have allies. According to some ancient records, some higher civilisaitons from other galaxies had made a covenant with our world; they are The Second Borns from other planets who know the secret of Goddess and the First Born better than we do. When the restraining signal goes out, their armies and spacechips will come to our rescue, and help us destroy the First Born. But the First Born could only be killed during their awakening stage. Not prior. Not after.
"I compiled this intel from various ancient records. Thouh not very comprehensive, the key messge is pretty accurate. Due to the explosive nature of the intel which might bring despair to human, I have discussed with my old friends; we all agreed to not reveal all the truth to the world at one go. If things go as planned, I will build churches, set up a will for each generation and tell the truth bit by bit over a span of hundreds of years. So I’m hoping that the mortal races would rise, and be strong enough to defend themselves against The First Born 3,000 years from now. But in the event that my plan fails, there might be people who would find the various inductions and arrangements which I have left behind in this cavern. With my last words, you would be able to know the fate of this world.
"And lastly, if someone had indeed read this, please send my regard to the brethren from other planets and thank them for sticking to the covenant—though the sinful Magic Emperors were the one who made the covenant, at least our world might be saved.
"If anyone could survive the event, I hope they would remember this: the fall of the First Born doesn’t mean we mortals could become arrogant again; we should instead hold a fearful heart lest we repeat the mistake of the ancient civilisation, the wrath of the Goddess would sooner or later consume the world."
The parchment slipped from the hand of the nun and dropped on the altar. The young nun mumbled to herself, her voice coarse. "...the inheritance of the outside world... had already broken long time ago...: