Chapter 83 - His majesty the pope who spreads the holy light (epilogue)
Please don’t post this translation anywhere, even if it's in Wattpad. It’s no problem if it's only redirect to this site, but no reposting.
Translated by: Niladri
self-edited
The next day, Lu Heng and Ionas went to visit Cecilia again. Cecilia confessed that half of her godhead had already collapsed, and the power of the God of death was gradually recovering, so recently she had been frequently calling the white elves.
"New night elves have not been born for many years due to the power of death’s influence. I... " Cecilia was silent for a while.
Lu Heng knew that the elves were the children of the goddess of life. She was filled with guilt for the price the night elves were paying to keep the God of death sealed.
"When the power of death began to leak out, I had informed all the elves about it, so they couldn’t be blamed for leaving. But now things have changed. If the seal could only be maintained for a while, the elves, along with the entire continent, can escape from the threat of the undead army. " Cecilia said.
It's just that the power of life had slowly fallen a bit behind during the contention with the power of death. The half godhead of Cecilia and these few night elves may not be able to support that moment. So, in desperation, Cecilia chose to ask for help from her children that abandoned her, the white elves.
"It's said that the white elves established Moonlight City at the other end of the Cote mountains. Their numbers were higher than that of night elves. As long as some of the white elves were willing to come back, the power of death that was borne by each of them will become much weaker. The seal would be maintained, and will not cause too much damage to the elves. " Cecilia said that as the mother tree of elves, she didn't want to hurt her children.
However, in response to Cecilia's call, the only white elf that had returned to the Elven forest was Campbell.
"Why don't you reveal the truth to the white elves? The white elves that had left in those days have already died. What the white elves know now are distorted facts." Lu Heng asked.
Cecilia sighed softly: "the connection between the white elves and the ancient tree of life has been broken. All I can do is to let them feel the call of the mother tree when they are asleep and relaxed at night."
"If I can pour some magic power into you, can you descend in Moonlight City? As far as I know, there are many white elves who believe in the goddess of life." Lu Heng had an idea in mind.
"Yes, it's just that my godhead is not complete now, and I'm trying my best to suppress the power of death. If I want to perform divine descension, I need a lot of power. You're just a new God. You can't provide such a huge power yet. However... " Cecilia's voice trailed off but seemed to contain some unspoken words.
"I can help you mature quickly." Ionas suddenly spoke up, but his tone was tinged with anticipation and excitement.
Lu Heng didn't think too much at that time, so he agreed: "let's start as soon as possible."
"..." Cecilia was silent for a moment. "Regarding the matter of the divine body, Ionas can help you. The development of godhead requires the power of faith. It's not difficult either. The believers of the Pope of light are all over the mainland. You just need to complete the alternation of deities and inherit the position of Esmond. "
After leaving Cecilia, Lu Heng paid for his carelessness. Ionas brought Lu Heng back to the Dragon Island in the name of helping him mature quickly. Then in a few months, Lu Heng thoroughly understood Cecilia's silence and unspoken words. The Dragon race’s method to improve their partner's physique was maintaining in-depth communication.[1]
1. we know what that means
The Vatican. The annual light festival was tomorrow. This is the most important day in the Papacy of light. Countless devout believers comes to the Vatican from all over the world. The ceremony begins when the sky is white like the fish’s belly. In the center of the circular square stands the largest God of light on the mainland. His eyes are half closed, and he looks at the pilgrims coming from below with compassion.
Princess Windsor, who was pretending to be the Pope, wore a long and gorgeous Pope's robe, a pope's hat with a white background and gold pattern, and held a gold hollow scepter. Along the road in the center of the square, under the archway of the seven cardinals, she walked all the way to the statue. Princess Windsor led the cardinal in front of the statue and began to chant tens of thousands of syllables.
Suddenly, a warm golden light broke through the clouds, enveloped the idol, and quickly spread throughout the entire ring-like town square. Every believer felt endless warmth and peace of mind.
Divine descension.
The spread of the golden light slowly gathered, and finally congregated in front of the statue into a golden figure of the same height as the statue. But the man was very different from the statue. He was dressed in a white robe without any decoration, and his long light golden hair was simply tied behind him. Compared to the noble and awe inspiring temperament of the God of light, this figure seemed more heartwarming. His green eyes were full of soothing gentleness, as if bathed in such eyes, any amount of suffering would instantly be alleviated.
"Esmond, the God of light, has returned to light. I am the successor, Joseph. " The gentle voice rang in everyone's heart.
The stupefied believers finally realized that the God in front of them was Joseph Belgolio VI, the Pope of the Vatican of light. Who was the pope in front of the statue then? Soon the new God of light answered their questions.
The Pope, who was standing in front of the statue, reverted to her original appearance.
"Windsor is the successor I had decided when I was becoming a God. Now that I have formed my godhead, from this day on Windsor is the new Pope of light.
Although the alternation of deities was rare, it wasn’t unprecedented. After all, light was eternal, but Gods may fall. No one would object to the Pope's successor appointed by the God of light. The position of Pope Windsor was more stable than that of any Pope.
At the same time, all the statues in the temple of light changed and bore the appearance of the new God of light. All the priests who stayed in the local temple also received the oracle of the alternation of the throne of light.
After the departure of the new God of light, the annual light festival, which would undoubtedly be recorded in history, continued under the auspices of the new pope. Devout believers were more enthusiastic and all prostrated to thank the Lord for his grace.
The final ray of light in the sky was hidden by the dark night. The new Pope Windsor was still kneeling in the Vatican and praying. She was waiting for the God she believed in to arrive.
"Windsor." Lu Heng called the girl in front of the statue.
"Holy father, no, my Lord." Windsor, kneeling in front of the statue and praying, then stood up after being signaled by Lu Heng. "Have you departed to the divine realm?"
"No. I chose to succeed to the throne because there are some things that can only be achieved through this position." Lu Heng said.
Windsor didn't understand.
"Windsor, regarding that question, what is the meaning of light?"
Seeing Windsor's slightly confused eyes, Lu Heng continued: "I wanted to guide you to find out slowly, but now it's too late. Leading all living beings and embarking on the road of freedom is the true meaning of light. "
"Freedom?"
"Yes, not only freedom of the body, but also freedom of the heart. Windsor, the world no longer needs a God. "
After that, Lu Heng gently touched Windsor's forehead, and all the prophecies of Gods, the gate of death, and the collapse of the divine world poured into Windsor's mind.
"You, are you leaving?" Windsor, who knew everything, felt a huge wave in her heart, and could not calm down.
Lu Heng saw that she was a little panicked, smiled softly and comforted: "I really intend to leave one day, but not right away. Before you can stand on your own, I will accompany you in your growth. "
Recent days in the mainland were filled with turmoil. Starting from the return of goblin clan to the ground, momentous events happened one after another. The alternation of the throne of light took place and the new God appeared under the light of the sun. The long-standing goddess of life also descended on Moonlight city. The rest of the continent did not know what happened that day only that moonlight city had become an empty city, and almost all the white elves had returned to the Elven forest.
The next twenty years passed by in a flash. This time, Lu Heng was actually very comfortable. He and Ionas lived in seclusion on Dragon Island. Apart from instructing Windsor to grow up from time to time and caring about the progress of the goblins in Maple Leaf College, they had nothing else to do.
On this day, Lu Heng was basking in the sun by lying on Ionas’ thigh, and felt the power of faith converging from the ground into his godhead. His power was reaching the limit that this continent could bear. But Lu Heng was not in a hurry, because he knew that (his) time was coming. In the outside world, there has been the news that the balance between the powers of life and death will be broken.[2]
2. for some reason “生命女生那边” has been used, which I hope is a mistake or a joke. So I took liberty with this sentence. It was probably something like- “Moving away from the fantasy of fujoshis, there has been news…”. Please don’t hit me.
{666 here. I don't want to interrupt you spreading dog food, but the time of Pope Joseph's death is close. } Little assistant had learnt a lot of fashionable expressions since he started to wander in the forum.[3]
3. dog food= food for single dogs= displaying romance and affection
{Everything is fine.} Lu Heng replied spiritedly. The progress of this timeline was completely under his control.
Lu Heng stood up and held out his hand to Ionas: "Io, our agreed time of departure has come. Let's go."
Yes, long ago, when their minds were connected, Lu Heng and Ionas had discussed about leaving. At that time, the Golden Dragon just held Lu Heng tightly and said, "I’ll follow you wherever you go."
Ionas took Lu Heng's hand and stood up.
In fact, from the bottom of his heart, Lu Heng was faintly looking forward to his departure. Because of the vigor and physique of the dragon race, he really couldn’t bear it anymore.
Years passed. Lu Heng once again arrived at the Elven's forest, which didn’t seem desolate as before. Following the return of the white elves, the native land of the elves expanded several times. Perhaps because the number of elves sharing the power of death had increased, Lu Heng even saw new elves among the night elves.[4]
4. Author may have tried to convey that new elves have been “born” since the tree of life has been considerably unburdened- in case it wasn’t clear
Lu Heng also saw several old friends- Edie in his wizard's robe and the elf mage Clarice. Clarice, who had returned to the mother tree, also became a night elf with a dark skin. However, his calm and gentle expression was more dazzling than that of the erstwhile haughty white elf.
Lu Heng and Ionas did not meet them, but went directly into the center of the ancient tree of life and saw Cecilia.
"Here you are." Cecilia's voice was still tender, but now it had a little bit of joy.
"Well, as we discussed before, let's start."
The goddess of life reappeared in front of the elves, her expression was tranquil and graceful: "children, I am returning to nature. The scythe of the God of death will no longer hang over your heads. "
"Mother tree." The voices of every elf were choked (with tears). Although they had known this for a long time, when the goddess of life was actually about to leave, the hearts of all the Elves were still full of sadness and reluctance.
The same thing happened in the human territory of the mainland. Twenty years ago, the new God of light came down on the mainland and handed down the oracle.
"The God of death has awakened. The opening of the portal of death cannot be stopped. The army of the dead is about to return. As long as there is the God of death, the power of the dead will be continuously supplemented. The God of light, the goddess of life and the dragon demigod will enter the realm of the dead and kill the God of death completely. From then on, the world will no longer have any gods. However, even if the God of death falls, the opening of the portal of death will only slow down. The power of light and the power of nature will protect the mainland for a period of time until the undead army invades again. "
The Pope Windsor, who could now handle all affairs independently, did not falter even when she learnt that Lu Heng was going to leave. Windsor looked determined, for she had understood the true meaning of light. The next road, even if she had to tread alone, she was not afraid.
In the familiar little space. Without Lu Heng's command, the assistant directly opened the scene of the great army of the dead invading the mainland.
As Lu Heng expected, there were elves who used the power of nature and priests who used the power of light. In the early stage of the attack, the undead army was suppressed outside the Cote mountains. And when the force of life was gradually starting to be suppressed by the force of death, the goblin race appeared with their mechanical puppet army.
The participation of the mechanical puppet army reversed the situation in an instant, because the undead army could not get the supplement of the power of death from these soulless puppets.
Victory was cinched.
After the undead army was expelled, the powers of light, nature and arcane art on the mainland slowly started to disappear. Pope Windsor of the Papacy of light brought forth a new era. Her brother, Emperor Surrey, still unified the mainland, but under the influence of Windsor, he did not establish an autocratic Empire, but integrated the mainland into a federal parliamentary democratic republic. Pope Windsor became the spiritual leader, who led all life on the continent out of the tumultuous period of losing the gods.
In the end, the history books gave her the title “Reformer” Windsor.
NILADRI: Thanks for your kind wishes everyone on previous chapter. Also, thank you mazeoflife28 and saikick for your reviews on novelupdates.
So how was this arc? I know the ending might be a bit rushed, still, I value your opinions. Also, I'll try to transfer Celes's edited arc 2 during this weekend, so enjoy re-reading the corrected translation after that. Oh and Happy New Year everyone.