Chapter 650 — The Continuation of the Treasonous Plan

Only once they were outside the cathedral, in a place the holy light did not reach, did Bai Yu finally turn and look back, saying to Victoria, "Do you not find this whole business very strange? Saint Ivan III was indeed aged, but not so aged he could not sustain a rite of divine descent... and the entire college of bishops martyred? I believe well enough that their faith was devout enough to embrace martyrdom at any moment, but that a single rite of divine descent should leave not one survivor... it is too much of a coincidence."

"Strange indeed," Victoria said. "But there are no leads."

"Princess Virodai surely knows more..." Bai Yu left the thought unfinished. "But she seems disinclined to say it—at least not in front of us."

Victoria was silent for a moment, then turned and looked toward the great cathedral.

Fine motes of snow drifted from among her strands of hair, and her voice came on the breeze: "But taken all in all, this is a good thing."

Bai Yu started, his expression turning subtle. After a few seconds of silence he wore a look that was neither quite a smile nor quite a sob: "Yes, a good thing... only so many things have happened all at once that one cannot truly breathe easy."

"The turning point of an age... this is likely what it looks like."

Inside the great cathedral, Gao Yang and Virodai stood in the Hall of Great Light. The former glanced about with some slight unease. "Are we to talk here?"

"Rest assured, there are no superfluous eyes here," Virodai said gently, "including the eyes of the God of Holy Light."

Gao Yang gave Victoria a long, searching look. "That sentence... doesn't sound especially devout."

Victoria only offered the faintest smile and lifted the platinum scepter in her hand. "The platinum scepter, the bridge of the Holy Light God's will, has already submitted to my control. No one of faith would question my devotion."

"But I have no faith," Gao Yang said. "Did Saint Ivan III truly die of a divine descent? Did the College of Bishops truly die as martyrs?"

"They gave their lives for their faith; by definition, they are martyrs," Victoria said calmly. "Would you truly grieve their deaths? As a ruler about to reshape the order of this nation, the sudden decline of the Church should be a good thing for you."

By every normal expectation, words like these could never have come from Victoria, from the lips of this devout "Saintly Princess"!

Gao Yang stared into the eyes of the Saintly Princess. Now at last he could be certain: the incongruity he had sensed in Victoria was no illusion, and yet it had not arisen today. It was an incongruity that had always dwelt in the Saintly Princess, always hidden by her.

Only, for some reason, this peculiar aura about Victoria seemed especially pronounced today, and Gao Yang happened to be rather sensitive to certain "inhuman" things, which was why he had noticed it.

Looking into Victoria's eyes, he felt as though he were gazing at a doll. That alien quality, so very close to human yet subtly different upon close perception, was now so obvious, and this doll-like nature... he seemed to have sensed it faintly in her before.

"I'm done playing riddles. What exactly are you? You know what I mean, and what is it you actually want to do?"

"Have you ever heard this saying..." Victoria smiled faintly and spoke, one word at a time, "Humanity shall endure forever, even in defiance of the gods."

"The Defiant Project!" Gao Yang blurted out. At last he felt astonishment, an astonishment that somewhat broke the composure he had maintained until now. "You... how do you know that phrase?!"

The devout Saintly Princess was actually someone who knew of the Defiant Project? How could she know? Had she obtained ancient knowledge? Did the Moen royal house carry the Defiant Project in its inheritance? Or was it... that survivors of the ancient age like Kamael still existed?

Question after question burst through Gao Yang's mind, and what astonished and confused him most was that a Defiant—if Victoria was indeed a Defiant—should have become a "devout" believer of the Holy Light God and risen to the upper ranks of the Church. Yet on closer thought, he suddenly felt that such a development was in fact quite in keeping with the meaning of "Defiant."

An organization that could slice a god open for study, extending its power into the most devout of churches—the defiant element in that was indeed considerable...

"The Defiant Project never ended. So long as humanity endures, we will not stop," Victoria said under Gao Yang's gaze. "You need not be so astonished. Isn't there already a living, breathing Defiant at your side?"

"Kamael..." Gao Yang furrowed his brow. "Then who are you?"

"That question isn't really important, but if you're curious, I can tell you a name," Victoria said softly. "'We' were once called Ophelia Norton. You may not know the name, but you surely know the surname."

"Norton? The surname of the Gondor imperial house?!" Gao Yang's eyes went wide, and he suddenly felt that he had taken in far too much information today. "Ophelia... I truly don't know much... but what do you mean by 'we'?!"

"That involves the division and recombination of souls, and certain secrets. I'm not yet sure whether I should let you know now. As for the name Ophelia Norton... when you return, you may ask Kamael. He should give you a satisfactory answer."

Gao Yang could see that this Defiant wearing the identity of "Victoria Moen" did not yet fully trust him and was not ready to reveal all her secrets, but he did not press her. Instead he asked, "Why are you telling me all this? What do you want to do?"

"To do something in defiance of the gods," Victoria said with a smile, gently raising the platinum scepter in her hand. "For instance... to return the Holy Light to mortal hands."