TALES OF A WITCHER - Season 5 Episode 83

Isabella stared at the map in silence for a while. “But the crazed soldiers aren’t God’s Punishment Warriors. Although the pills can affect their resolve, it won’t give them unbreakable resolve. In front of truly terrifying enemies, they’ll still be afraid and may even run away—millions of defecting soldiers are enough to run us all over into dust.”

“Obviously it won’t be that simple. It would be best if the crazed army mostly consists of the church’s lower level believers, and if the Judgment Army was the core.” Zero returned to the window. “And if we want these many believers, we must unite the Four Kingdoms.”

“What are our chances of winning?”

“30%? 50%?” she replied nonchalantly. “How can I know what our chances of winning are? After all, we’ve never fought against them and can only get the information through ancient books from 400 years ago. Don’t forget what I said before… if we’re lucky enough.”

This was exactly why it was so exciting—she was putting the fate of all mankind at stake and placing the few bargaining chips she had all in one basket by fighting the strong with the weak… in a battle where the odds were against them, an unexpected triumph would be all the more sweeter.

“The continuation of mankind will depend on their courage, wisdom, faith, and sacrifice in this battle,” she thought. “This is probably what God hopes to see… cowards can’t earn his smile.”

“I hope you’re right.” Isabella frowned. “I’m feeling more curious now.”

“Curious about what?”

“If Prince Roland of the Kingdom of Graycastle was standing here, what would he do?”

Zero furrowed her brows. “Why? Do you think he can beat me?”

“Bishop Tayfun said that he hasn’t heard from the Pure Witch he sent to the Kingdom of Graycastle yet, as if she simply disappeared. She was the one you assigned on the mission to check out the Western Region. Besides her, we also lost Aphra from King’s City, the Bishop candidate Mira, and the church in Longsong Stronghold…” Isabella paused for a bit. “Don’t you think since the church began targeting the Four Kingdoms, we’ve never suffered so many losses before? It’s as if after we got involved with the Western Region, we have been losing. It’s like… God is protecting him.”

“Enough!” Zero slammed her fist on the table. “You know nothing about God!”

Isabella was slightly shocked. “I was only kidding… since when did you care so much about God?”

Zero tried to repress her anger. “He’s merely a mortal! Mortals can only rely on calculations and knowledge, and this will all become part of me. Even though he has ways to fight the demons, the Union will definitely do better!” Zero turned around and stared at Isabella. “When the church’s troops march into the Kingdom of Graycastle, you’ll know who really has God’s blessing.”

As Isabella left the library, she sighed and said, “You’re becoming more and more like a… Pope.”

Zero sat silently next to the table, her emotions in tumult for a long time, which was uncommon throughout her 200 years of life.

She knew what Isabella meant, but she could not explain herself to her… no matter who was Pope, no matter what ideas they had before, as soon as they stepped into the Prayer Room, they would all undergo unpredictable changes.

God… really exists.

Zero realized that her thoughts had been completely disturbed, so she closed her book and walked to the top floor of the library.

It was the highest point of the Pivotal Secret Temple where the Prayer Room was.

Zero pushed open a secret door made out of bookshelves, walked up a narrow stone staircase, and entered a windowless room. The room was only a few square feet, not even enough for someone to lie down in. The roof was cone-shaped and encrusted with Magic Stones that gave off a faint blue light. Under the dim lighting, Zero could vaguely see the four walls and hard ground. Besides these, there was nothing in the room, and it was hard to believe that this stuffy and cramped place was the closest location to God.

Zero closed her eyes to feel his summoning.

Her dark world slowly began to change, as if something entered her mind and displayed a scene in her consciousness—she knew that this wasn’t a figment of her imagination. Even her soul, which had absorbed hundreds of people, could not see or even imagine such a sight.

When the twisting lines slowed down, five large paintings appeared in the expansive world… one floated above her head in a giant ring, and the other four lined of symmetrically in a cross next to her.

This was a sign from God.

Watching something in her mind was an incredible feeling. Zero knew that this entire scene would disappear as soon as she opened her eyes, so she could only use her consciousness to view every painting—when she was focused on the paintings, she felt being brought into them.

The large ring-shaped painting on top of her was undoubtedly God himself.

It was a dark world with no visible boundaries, and a giant red sphere was suspended in the middle. The sphere was made of magic power, and she could feel its infinite power from simply looking at it. Half of it seemed to be cut off by a knife or hidden in darkness, so only half could be seen.

The more closely Zero looked at it, the surer she was of her judgment.

It was just too majestic.

She was nothing compared to this ball of magic power. She could not even find the words to describe how giant it was, only that even the world under her was dwarfed by this red sphere. The swirls of magic power on its surface were even wider than the ocean, and the light of the shining magic power was even brighter than the sun—besides God, who else could have such vast powers?

This was probably the Bloody Moon recorded in the Holy Book—from the side, the half-sphere truly did not look like a full moon.

Zero once tried to pray to it, but it did not respond and only floated calmly in the darkness as if it was waiting for the results of the Battle of Divine Will.

This was why she was extremely enraged by Isabella’s words. This thing did not give anyone its blessing… she realized after witnessing it in person that humans were insignificant in God’s eyes.

After she separated from her thoughts, Zero looked towards the four paintings at the bottom.

She believed that the reason the battles that occurred every 400 years were called Battle of Divine Will had something to do with the content of these paintings.

The church’s secret history recorded past Union leaders’ and popes’ interpretations of the paintings, and most of them came to the same conclusion—the location of the ending of the war was in these four paintings.