Chapter 1245 — The Door Opens Ajar

Kamael floated to the side of the immense portal device and raised his head to gaze at the alloy "arms" and metal ring in their charging state. The two arcane sparks set into his face shone with brilliant light, and only those most familiar with him could read in those two gleams the surging tide in the heart of this ancient master of the arcane.

"I never imagined... this thing would actually work so smoothly..." he could not help murmuring softly to himself.

"That is because we have spent many years preparing for this day," came a woman's voice from beside him, one that had only recently begun to grow familiar. Kamael turned his head and saw Lady Windsor Maple of the Typhon Empire, that legendary mage, standing beside him. "The technology the portal requires comes from the ancient age. In that stretch of history already erased by the years, a group of people once used this technology to open a gate to the divine realm, and worshiped the power—or certain 'entities'—leaking from that gate as miracles... So advanced, and yet so benighted. And the contradictory product it brought forth inflicted two full centuries of suffering upon Typhon's Augustan family."

"I know of this matter—the Eye of God... Even from the perspective of a Gondorian magister and an ancient Defiant, the efforts of your emperor and his family can only be called great," Kamael said with utter sincerity, his gaze returning to the portal. "And it is thanks to that Eye of God that we can now build such a 'door,' is it not?"

"Yes, thanks to the Eye of God... We have recreated here the technological miracle of the ancients, and with our own wisdom," Lady Windsor Maple said with a trace of emotion in her voice, then added with a touch of curiosity and anticipation, "Master Kamael, what do you think lies behind that door?"

"...I do not know," Kamael said after a moment's silence, shaking his head frankly. "No one has seen with their own eyes what the God of War's divine realm looks like. As a former Defiant, I have never harbored any romantic imaginings or expectations about 'divine realms.' But one thing I can be certain of... it must conform to the image imagined in common by millions upon millions of the War God's faithful over the past hundreds and thousands of years."

"Then it surely has a wall built of swords and shields, palaces and plazas for warriors to rest and feast, and an 'Eternal Arena' beneath the gaze of the god—so the War God's scriptures describe it," Lady Windsor Maple said with a faint smile. "I only wonder whether, after the God of War fell, His divine realm collapsed along with Him... When we cross that door, all we shall likely see are the remnants and fragments."

Kamael turned his head and looked at this lady from Typhon, possibly one of the most outstanding mages of the present age. In that face, which could hardly be called beautiful, he saw a certain familiar radiance.

It was the radiance that belonged to researchers, to explorers, to pioneers—charged with fierce curiosity, a thirst for knowledge, and just a little of that fearless ignorance.

He was truly familiar with that expression. A thousand years ago, in an age when mortals still knew almost nothing of the gods and could only explore with limited knowledge and protective techniques of uncertain use, countless such researchers had thrown themselves onto that front line against gods and fate. They were the cleverest, the most creative, the most capable of creating value—and yet the closest to danger. Nearly every day such people fell, and those who survived... would gradually become something even they themselves found unfamiliar.

But that age had passed—Kamael could not help thinking—the arduous accumulation of predecessors had finally formed a rich legacy, and so a new generation of "Defiants" (now to be called scholars of the Theocratic Council) could carry out research and exploration under comparatively safe conditions. They could be a little bolder than their forebears, without having to grind themselves, bit by bit, into something no longer human amid extreme vigilance and caution... This truly was a good age.

Yet even so, Kamael still felt it necessary to offer a word of caution to this "junior" before him.

"Do not approach knowledge concerning the gods with excessive expectation and curiosity. Even though we have now confirmed that those gods are benevolent in essence, their power remains far too dangerous for us," he could not help warning. Although the other was a Typhonite, ever since the founding of the Alliance and the gradual establishment of the new order built by His Majesty, the old estrangement between the two nations had been slowly dissolving—at least within this facility, he would regard her as a "comrade-in-arms" in the common struggle against fate. "Caution and vigilance are the proper attitude—and they must remain so forever."

Perhaps she was already outstanding enough in her own field, but in Kamael's eyes, this master of magic from Typhon was clearly not cautious enough when it came to the domain of the gods.

Lady Windsor Maple could not help looking at this "ancient scholar" who had stepped out of the distant past, at those "eyes" of his that shimmered with arcane light. In that face, which could no longer truly be called human, she could not make out the arcanist's expression, but from his tone she could hear the sincerity of the advice—and behind that sincerity, a weight that could only be called heavy.

How many pioneers' lives had that weight been purchased with?

Living as she did in this present age, Windsor could not imagine it. All she could do was lower her head and humbly accept the ancient scholar's advice. "I will keep it in mind at all times, Master Kamael."

"You are a master as well, and you hold knowledge that even I find astonishing," Kamael laughed—though his smile was hard for others to discern. "I hope we continue to work pleasantly together in the project ahead."

Windsor revealed a faint smile and extended her hand to Kamael. "I look forward to it as well."

Behind them, pure and formidable arcane energy surged within the vast portal device, that primal and unsullied power gradually weaving a doorway into the divine realm. A limpid radiance spilled outward from that half-formed haze of light and shadow; an unknown domain had opened a crack to mortals, and the glory of the divine realm poured down into the hall.

Once upon a time, this radiance had stood for the supreme will, for the shared reverence of countless worshippers, for the "grace" that numberless priests had bartered their very selves to obtain.

Yet now no one in this hall prostrated themselves before that radiance as a miracle—to those gathered here, it was nothing more than one necessary step in how mortals came to understand the world.