Chapter 247 (1): Phoenix

Council hall, Church of Nature’s headquarters.

The Pope controlled the crystal ball to monitor Wayne. When Wayne stepped onto the surface of the moon first, he shook his head and said, “He’s too reckless. This makes it hard to believe that he has the right spirit to become the chosen knight.”

The moon dungeon was known as Sky City. It was one of the great altars of the Life Alliance, originally a sacred site of the Church of Moonlight. They shared it with their two allies, the Church of Nature and the Church of Sun, in accordance with the covenant of the alliance.

Unlike Misty Forest, Sky City held extraordinary significance, so while the Church of Nature could use it, it had no authority over it. Only a handful of higher-ups could access it freely: the Pope, the Holy Maiden, and the High Prophet, the three most exalted roles in the Church of Nature.

The High Prophet prophesied the importance of this Holy Maiden selection, spouting lofty nonsense that could either be true or false; it wouldn’t be his first time lying about his visions.

It would be one thing if he had said nothing, but since he had made his prophecy, the Pope had no choice but to take it seriously. He cordoned off an area on the outskirts of Sky City to use it as a dungeon to evaluate the candidates. That was why the High Prophet was the one to hold the crystal ball during the test of the Corridor of Nightmares, and now it was the Pope.

Seeing Wayne show his true nature, using threats and intimidation without pulling back, the Pope immediately gave a negative review, stating that Wayne lacked chivalrous spirit.

Nonsense!

Senna scoffed. How did Wayne lack chivalrous spirit? What had he done to the three Holy Maiden candidates? Had he kissed them or groped them? No. He was merely intimidating them verbally. It was psychological warfare.

Tubert agreed with the Pope’s assessment. Indeed, Wayne was unfit to be a knight; he was morally bankrupt, with not a single quality befitting a knight. He wouldn’t and couldn’t become the chosen knight. So he should become the High Prophet instead!

The three’s squabble delighted the other higher-ups. Compared to the performances of the candidates, the power struggles among the three leaders were far more entertaining.

Vice Captain Garvin was an odd one out. A few days ago, Senna had met with him privately and asked him to contact Moula, the Nature Knight. Wayne possessed the talent to become the chosen knight. He was the church’s future and hope. To prevent the High Prophet from sabotaging him behind the scenes, they had to meet Sir Moula.

It didn’t matter if Wayne passed the test. What mattered was to seize the chance. The church was corrupt and desperately needed fresh blood. Garvin was the only one in the entire Church of Nature who could contact Moula, and Senna hoped that he would arrange a meeting quickly, before the High Prophet could pull the strings.

Garvin knew what Senna was plotting. The woman only cared about power. When she talked about working for the church’s good, she was only looking out for her own interests. That said, Garvin did contact Moula for the simple reason that he appreciated Wayne.

When he first met Wayne, he already firmly believed that the young man was the real deal. He would achieve great things in the future with proper training.

It turned out that Moula was currently playing cards with his card buddies, the Sun Knight and the Moonlight Knight, in the Frozen Land, too busy to leave the table.

Of course, ‘playing cards’ was only a euphemism. There was no reason for the three chosen knights to get so bored that they would play cards in the Frozen Land.

Their real mission involved divine oracles from the goddesses, so the specifics couldn’t be disclosed. The official story was that Moula was playing cards, and he kept losing, nearly gambling away Elemental Mantra.

Learning that Garvin had found an outstanding young man who could be led astray by the High Prophet, Moula said that he would return to the headquarters as soon as possible and told Garvin to stay alert, not letting certain people pull any tricks.

‘Certain people’ could refer to the High Prophet, but also the Pope, Senna, and the other Oracle High Reverends. Aside from Garvin, there were no good people in the church, it seemed.

After the Pope finished his commentary, he waved his hand to switch the crystal orb’s view, shifting the focus to the other candidates. Nothing interesting was happening on Wayne’s end. If nothing went wrong, he would break records again. Their time would be better used on checking how the other candidates performed.

Several Oracle High Reverends expressed their agreement. A certain someone was so outstanding that he raised expectations, making the candidates they supported seem unremarkable in comparison.

Watching him was disheartening. It was better not to watch him at all.

***

Moon

.

Veronica gazed at the blue planet, instinctively reaching toward the distant cosmos. She turned to Wayne in excitement, only to find him showing little interest in Earth.

“What are you looking at, Wayne?”

“There.”

Wayne raised his hand and pointed at the sky. A red gem brimmed with intense fire elements as if fire elements had gathered and compressed until they transformed, gaining mass and becoming a physical object.

No, it wasn’t just a physical object, but a living existence.

Due to his extraordinary affinity with fire elements, Wayne could sense a slumbering lifeform. He attempted to contact it with his thoughts, but a barrier blocked him from glimpsing its true form.

Wayne felt an itch. He wanted nothing more than to smash the barrier with a punch, but on second thought, it would be a bad idea. The barrier stabilized the pressure on the moon, bringing air and moisture, as well as gravity that was nearly identical to that of the Chosen Land. If he smashed it...

Well, it wouldn’t be viable anyway. If it could be broken, it would’ve been broken long ago. He wouldn’t be the first to do it.

“Speaking of which, this dungeon is called Sky City. I see the sky—it’s quite high. But where’s the city?” Wayne talked to Veronica mentally. He had looked around without finding a city.

Veronica responded with her thoughts, too, telling Wayne not to let his imagination run too wild. She had read about the legend of Sky City in textbooks. Supposedly, it was the Goddess of Moonlight’s palace on earth, with incredible significance. And due to its significance, it had to house great treasures, making it worth exploring.

Wayne suspected that Music Teacher Moonlight had hidden something he had lost, and Sky City was the music room.

After searching for half an hour, he failed to find the entrance to Sky City and had to give up. Meanwhile, Veronica had been working hard to complete their test, filling out the answer sheet according to the cheat sheet. She collected all ten teleportation stones and put them away. Finders, keepers. Ottilia would get nothing.

Ten minutes passed.

Then an hour...

Ottilia still didn’t show up. Wayne said with a sigh, “Let’s stop waiting, Veronica. We should eat first!”

“No thanks, I’m on a diet.”

Don’t joke around. Dieting will burn the fat in your breasts first. I’ve put in so much hard work to make them grow. If they shrink back down, won’t my efforts be wasted?

Wayne dragged Veronica toward the mansion, leaving two ditches on the pale ground.

Boom!

The teleportation circle glowed at activation, and Mansion Number Three appeared before them.

Ottilia had finally arrived!

“Number three. So she is supposed to be our neighbor.”

Wayne was speechless. If the higher-ups hadn’t interfered—if Planck hadn’t been unhelpfully helpful and had the High Prophet arrange number eight to be next to their mansion instead of number four—he could’ve opened his window every day and seen Ottilia.

A month would be enough for not only Ottilia to get pregnant, but also her roommate. Wayne would’ve completed his master’s mission easily rather than dragging things on until now.

Veronica’s eyes lit up. She raised her fist to demolish the mansion, but Wayne stopped her with a raised hand. “No rush. We have the advantage. Let’s play a game with her first.”

Veronica huffed. “I’ll take care of her. You’re not allowed to interfere.”

Ever since those photos were exposed, Veronica had regarded Ottilia as her lifelong enemy. The grudges of the previous generation weren’t nearly as important as the grudges of the current generation.

Even though the crystal ball had proven Wayne’s purity, Veronica was still bothered. She vowed to shatter Ottilia’s glasses today.

Wayne shrugged, showing no objection. It would be quite entertaining for his first loves to fight each other.

He let his imagination run wild. Being stronger than Ottilia, Veronica defeated Ottilia with overwhelming advantage. Unable to stand Veronica’s haughty attitude, Ottilia became competitive and bed her fiancé in a fit of anger...

That would be wonderful!

The door opened. Two slender figures emerged. The bookish girl was as elegant as ever. The girl beside her was also a ten out of ten in grace and appearance. Her light purple eyes were lively and profound like two clear gems. Even when standing beside Ottilia, she didn’t become the green leaf that accompanied the flower.

Wayne took a good look. He had seen too many beauties recently, so he found nothing special about her. She was just average.

“It’s them...”

Ottilia looked at Wayne and Veronica in surprise, masking her panic with a frown.

The girl with light purple eyes said slowly, “Ottilia, do you know them?”

“Yes, they are the two candidates from the Windsor District. It was because I failed to take their spots that your older sister couldn’t participate in this selection.”

Ottilia was troubled. She had come today with a mission. Flora had said that she and Regina would encounter two formidable opponents in the Sky City dungeon, and they had to defeat them no matter what. To that end, Flora had even prepared items.

The items came from an unclear origin. Flora said nothing about them, but Ottilia could sense the conspiracy involved, and the pressure weighed on her so much that she could barely breathe.

Ottilia knew that Master Flora’s backer was the Pope. She guessed that the two candidates had to have performed so exceptionally that they threatened the Pope. That was why...

She never imagined that they would be such familiar faces.