"Leviathan, trash! The biggest piece of trash among trash!"
The distant miserable screams of the Threnodian could even be heard all the way up on the rooftop of the Cathedral of Mercury. Cristoforo gnashed his teeth in fury, his fingernails digging deeply into his palms.
"I remember you praised It as the Lord of Tides and Riddles, an invincible existence, back in the last script."
Phrolova gave a sideways glance at the impotently raging Cristoforo beside her. She was just about to continue speaking when her expression suddenly changed. Her body swiftly dissolved into scattering flower petals:
"Run! He's coming this way!"
"What—he's coming here all of a sudden?!"
Seeing that winged figure soaring straight toward them, Cristoforo's face twisted wildly.
A blood-red script rapidly coalesced in his hand. Pages flipped. His figure vanished instantly.
Not long after he disappeared, Noah folded his soaring wings and plummeted straight down, landing right in front of the doors of the Cathedral of Mercury.
He pushed open the doors and stepped into the pitch-black church, which, without any lights, appeared dim and profoundly deep in the night.
An exquisite red carpet embroidered with golden patterns stretched from the entrance, passing through rows of solemn horn sculptures, all the way to the statue of a horse-bodied, fish-tailed creature at the far end of the spacious nave.
Beneath the sacred statue of the Sentinel sat the throne representing the highest authority of the Order of the Deep. There, a man dressed in the pure white robes of the Order's head was sitting with one hand supporting his forehead.
In the darkness, his expression could not be clearly seen—only a deep, heavy silence emanating from within. Half of a golden mask lay quietly at his feet.
The proxy of the Threnodian—Fenrico.
If not for Leviathan's earlier threat, Noah didn't know how many times he would have had to repeat this script before he could locate the source of the black tide.
"Fenrico."
Noah softly called the name of the man on the throne.
"I once guessed that you might be the source of this tragedy, but honestly speaking, I truly did not want to suspect you."
He shook his head slightly. A slender, ornate red sword materialized in his palm, its cold blade dragging along the ground.
The exquisite red carpet was slowly sliced apart, revealing the pure white floor beneath, stained with dense layers of dust.
"As the head of the Order of the Deep, corrupted by a Threnodian, you took office just as the black tide erupted, the Saintess vanished, Imperator lost contact, and Rinascita fell into panic and chaos."
"You worked hard to maintain control over the situation. Though your methods were controversial and drew both praise and criticism, overall, you succeeded in preserving Ragunna's stability."
Without Fenrico's strict and tireless management, in the original plot, when Rover arrived in Rinascita, he would never have seen a prosperous city of Echoes floating on water.
Even though Fenrico imposed harsh doctrines, sending countless people who knew the truth onto pilgrim ships and completely sealing Ragunna off from the outside world—
His dedication was beyond doubt.
"Judging you simply as good or evil is far too superficial. After all, your original intention was to protect Ragunna's stability. I respect the years of pressure you endured, which is why, at first, I truly did not want to suspect you."
Even the longest red carpet eventually reaches its end. Noah raised his sword, pointing it straight at the living corpse whose heart had already died on the throne:
"Now that I think about it, I was still too naive. No matter how hard you tried, how could you possibly resist the whispers of a Threnodian? In the end… you were only an ordinary person…"
At this point, his words suddenly stopped.
The atmosphere froze for a moment. Then Noah spoke again:
"The entire population of Ragunna has been imprisoned because of you… Please tell me—how exactly did the Threnodian bring the black tide to every corner of Ragunna? In exchange, I will grant you a dignified death."
"…"
The Tide Cathedral fell silent once more for a long moment. Finally, an extremely heavy voice emerged from beneath the hand covering his forehead:
"…A sinner who destroyed Ragunna like me… can still be granted a dignified death…"
"Traveler of righteousness who came from afar, please allow me one final confession of my sins."
Ignoring the blade pointed at him, Fenrico lowered his head, rose from the throne, turned around, and knelt facing the statue of the Sentinel.
"O great Sentinel… your foolish believer has strayed onto the wrong path. In the end… what have I done…"
Fenrico covered his face with both hands. His body trembled uncontrollably. His shoulders shook as incomplete sobs escaped him:
"Our Order… heard some very sharp voices… We should have calmed our minds, distinguished which were from Imperator… and which were from Leviathan…"
"But we failed to do so!"
"The Threnodian used murmurs to bewilder and alter our faith, causing us to repeatedly organize rituals to invoke the divine, deepening the resonance between the people and It."
"When the time was ripe, through that resonance, It descended Its evil power. With the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare as the core, and using the public terminals provided by the Order to the people of Ragunna as mediums, It completely polluted every citizen of Ragunna."
"…"
As Fenrico slowly confessed, Noah finally understood how Leviathan had reconstructed Its body.
So the masses of Ragunna had been polluted and controlled by the Threnodian because the terminals served as mediums for transmitting wide-area pollution.
That was also why both he and the eldest son of the Motley family had escaped the pollution.
A Threnodian creation—the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare!
Another Threnodian creation!
Back in Jinzhou, it was also a Threnodian creation—the Whisperin Erosion—that caused the fall of Jinzhou. Now, once again, a Threnodian creation had caused the fall of Ragunna.
Unlike Jinzhou, Ragunna had not received the protection of a Sentinel Resonator. Even Imperator was more or less equivalent to dead.
If he hadn't crossed over to Jinzhou back then, Jinzhou's fate would have been the awakening of Ovathrax and destruction at the hands of the Threnodian.
In the dim, profoundly deep cathedral, Fenrico, having finished his confession, stood up and extended a mirror ringed with golden edges.
Noah silently accepted it. The blade of Crimson Blossom lifted, reflecting a sharp, cold gleam.
This was a script—so what? Even characters within a script who commit wrongs should receive the judgment they deserve within that script. Just as he had previously taken the initiative to seek out Phoebe.
Fenrico did not dodge or evade. His ashen eyes looked straight into Noah's:
"…Righteous one, you seem to know many things. May this fool Fenrico ask you one last question…"
"Ask freely."
"…Has Imperator already perished?"
Noah was silent for a moment before he lied:
"It is still alive."
"…Thank you." Fenrico closed his eyes. The answer brought no ripple to his emotions whatsoever:
"Please send me to meet It."
Noah turned his head away, refusing to watch as the blade of Crimson Blossom swung down and fresh crimson flowed.
He picked up the half-mask from the ground and carefully placed it back onto Fenrico, who now lay collapsed in a pool of blood.
"Henceforth, a crown of justice shall be reserved for you."
Noah sighed softly. Deep in his heart, however, there was a trace of relief—
Fortunately, this was only a script. Once he returned to reality, everything could still be changed!
He glanced at the mirror in his hand, extended his perception, and sure enough sensed the utterly polluted, malevolent frequency emanating from it.
This kind of eerie, chilling energy—he had only ever encountered it in Threnodians themselves and in Whisperin Erosion.
"Ovathrax's Threnodian creation can pollute human consciousness directly, while Leviathan's…"
He frowned, organizing his thoughts:
"Leviathan's creation is more troublesome. It requires the prerequisite of widespread collective faith and needs terminals as mediums… but once activated, it can directly control believers—and even innocent people."
"Are Threnodian creations truly manufactured by each Threnodian itself? It always feels like every Threnodian creation is a patch designed specifically to cover each one's respective weaknesses."
"There aren't enough samples. I don't know what changes future Threnodians we encounter will bring… Forget it. No need to think about such distant matters for now."
Noah cast aside stray thoughts and casually tossed the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare away as though discarding an unimportant piece of trash.
Threnodian Leviathan had already reconstructed Its body (mini version). This Threnodian creation was useless in this script.
There was nothing else to do next anyway. Might as well head back and continue beating Leviathan senseless. There were still plenty of Echoes on the square that hadn't been absorbed yet.
Suddenly he clutched his head. His body swayed slightly. The pain from Overclocking was starting to take effect.
Camellya's Resonance really overclocked too easily. It was quite uncomfortable. He wondered if pulling for Calcharo could neutralize it a bit.
Noah muttered to himself for a couple of seconds, then unfolded his soaring wings, leaped high into the air, and rode the wind back toward Freedom Square.
The long night deepened. Dark clouds gathered. A torrential downpour began to fall over this waterborne city, as though it intended to wash away every last stain of the black tide.
[Main Quest: "The Sacred Breeze So Often Breathes" — Completed.]
[Current rewards: Radiant Tide ×60, Lustrous Tide ×30, Astrite ×7240, Shell Credit ×6.69 million.]