Chapter 179 – Revival (Part 2)
Seilan Kingdom was in a state of ma.s.sacre.
This case of slaughtering a country"s soldiers and people as they come across them put the whole continent in a state of fear.
The cruelty Sultan Saloc used in this ma.s.sacre made people from all nations nervous.
But unlike the Aman Kingdoms army"s morale that seemed to be piercing through the roof, the result of this was couldn"t really be said a victory for the Aman Kingdom.
First of all, the Seilan Kingdom, cornered into inhumane slaughter, realized there was nowhere to run so in turn they fought back to the bitter end. This caused a rather significant loss of soldiers and materials to the Aman Kingdom.
On top of that, all of the other countries realized Sultan Saloc"s ambition and were now vigilant and wary against the Aman Kingdom.
Especially the Arend Kingdom which was determined and poured out raw criticism about Sultan Saloc, practically leading the influence about the Aman Kingdom.
If this continued and all the other countries joined in an alliance to resist the Aman Kingdom, despite how strong a militaristic nation the Aman Kingdom was, if it was isolated from an international community they would lose power and left alone they wouldn"t be able to conquer the continent.
Because of that even, from within the Aman Kingdom, eminent persons that knew what was going on weren"t intoxicated with victory but expressed concern.
"But it cannot be helped. We do not have time on our side."
Sultan Saloc, who now held the worst reputation ever, was probably expecting this eventuality too.
But even if it was just to redeem that fact, they had to gather the most soul fragments possible as quickly as they could.
Examinees with their angel-given fortunes, minute by minute, were closing in.
Especially the shrine that had never been attacked by an enemy before and then in the palace bas.e.m.e.nt a high priest was murdered and the ceremony disrupted, Sultan Saloc saw this all happen before his eyes.
Nervousness threatened Sultan Saloc more than ever before, and he eventually felt the impending need to revive ancestor Kajad Pun Aman sooner rather than later.
Even if the whole world became the enemy, he was thinking if he could just revive the great Kajad Pun Aman then there wouldn"t be a problem.
"If he could just return, all my troubles would be solved and the whole world will become one."
This too could be seen as a defect of the religious Second Advent Life and Death a.s.sociation.
Even if it took a long time, to not go sour and to fulfill the goal, Sultan Kajad"s religious (-like) measures had made them make a leap of faith judgement like that.
Even if it"s not exactly that kind of arrangement, after conquering the whole continent he, Sultan Kajad, has surpa.s.sed that of legend and was being remembered as a G.o.d.
Considering the point that the peoples" faith in Sultan Kajad was extreme within the Aman Kingdom, Sultan Saloc putting such blind faith as he had seemed reasonable.
Anyway, according to Sultan Saloc"s plans, the revival ceremony preparations were advancing rapidly.
Due to the brutal ma.s.sacre that happened in the Seilan Kingdom, countless people were killed, the overflowing death left a large amount of soul fragments.
The Second Advent"s dark magicians went busily around the ma.s.sacre sites gathering soul fragments.
The soul fragments gathered that way were clumped together into a fake soul and stacked in the palace bas.e.m.e.nt"s magic square.
As the soul quant.i.ty began to exceed the minimum amount, the Sultan and highest of the priests, Saloc, immediately began the ceremony.
Inside the hexagon room with the stone coffin and magic square.
200 meters above this, Sultan Saloc sat in a throne, looking down.
Five high priests were gathered.
Originally, due to the brutality of the traitor, there were only three left, but two dark magicians were newly promoted to the positions of high priests and completed the seats.
The reason for bothering to have five people is because the minimum people needed for the revival ceremony was five.
"High priest Ibral, high priest Jenki."
"Yes, your highness."
"Yes, ultimate priest."
Replied the two people Ibral and Jenki.
These two were the two newly appointed high priests. They weren"t as good as the preexisting high priests but they were still considerably high level dark magicians.
"Have you memorized and understood the techniques for the spells to be used in the ceremony?"
"Yes, your highness!"
"We are ready to do the ceremony at any time sir ultimate priest."
"Good. Then we will begin the ceremony right now. This time we will not be deterred!"
"Yes!"
Then the ceremony started.
Ohn-
Ohn-
Ohn-
The high priests starting chanting in unison and made a strange reverberation and it filled the hexagon room.
And from the 5 high priests came out a black dark magic string, tangling with each other, knotting like a rope.
The knotted dark magic rope headed towards the blood-lit magic square.
Paat!
A red sparkle shot out from the magic square.
"Finally……!"
Sultan Saloc couldn"t control his fluttering heart.
Overcome with excitement.
This mission that hung for so long over his genealogy was now finally being fulfilled at his hand.
The greatest ruler of mankind was about to come back.
Kajad Pun Aman.
He would revive and once again return glory to the Aman Kingdom.
May he be revived forever.
All creation in this world would serve at his feet, may he reign eternal!
Finally, the people would become united and would never again scatter to fight each other.
Paaaaat-!
The red sparkle from the magic square kept getting darker and stronger.
As the ceremony neared its end, a geometric pattern appeared in a gold light on the stone coffin.
In that pattern was full of tons of high level runes. Probably any magician that saw it would have fainted from fright.
The ceremony was over.
The high priests, having done their work, continued to look at the magic square spilling out the red light with anxious gazes.
This time they had to succeed.
The great work ranging over hundreds of years. It absolutely could not go wrong.
Any mistake in the technique would result in the fail of the ceremony. That worst case scenario absolutely could not happen.
If somehow there was an error in the spell that Sultan Kajad left, all their work so far would have gone to waste.
And then.
Dul kung!
The lid on the stone coffin split in half.
"Ohhh!"
"Fi-finally!"
Excited, the high priests shouted. Sultan Saloc too, his whole body shook.
Du lu lu luk.
Eventually the stone coffin split in half and opened to either side.
Sultan Saloc jumped out of his throne from 200 meters up. With flight magic he slowly descended and landed on the ground.
This was the moment the great conqueror returns, he dare not sit on a high throne and greet him by looking down at him.
Everyone was focused on the inside of the opened stone coffin, their senses on alert.
Success?
Failure?
They could not tell.
It was because the main culprit, asleep within the coffin for a long time, had yet to rise.
The red light from the magic square stopped.
The gold-light pattern on the stone coffin disappeared too.
From within the heavy silence, Sultan Saloc and the high priests gulped air and waited.
And finally……
"321 years have pa.s.sed."
A voice ringing out from the stone coffin!
A low baritone, deep, burly voice came out digging into everyone"s heads, a voice full of charisma.
"Yes, yes! Sir ancestor. As you said, exactly 321 years have pa.s.sed."
Sultan Saloc tried all his might to calm his excited heart as he replied.
"You are Sultan Pun Aman?"
"Yes, sir ancestor."
Surprisingly, despite having awoken from a long sleep, Kajad recognized him.
Not only that, he also knew exactly how much time had pa.s.sed since he died.
"There are too many records saved in the sovereign system. Until I have looked over all of them, no one say anything, wait."
Everyone was surprised.
Sovereign system!
Kajad Pun Aman, who had conquered the continent, in order to rule over the vast territory, created this refined magical social system.
The royal family and n.o.ble family, the ID cards that verify them, the verification magic on that was connected to this sovereign system.
Surprisingly, Kajad Pun Aman, read all these past records in this sovereign system.
Simply put, what happened after his own death, the past hundreds of years" history, he could read it.
That such a tremendous magical tool was hidden, those that have learned dark magic could only be astonished. The man before them really did appear to them as if a G.o.d.
"I knew this would happen. Not 15 years after my death, the usage of my sovereign system was greatly reduced."
"I apologize, your highness. After you fell asleep, rebels from various places rebelled and caused chaos.
"I said don"t speak and to wait."
"Huk, yes!"
Sultan apologetically bowed his head.
Kajad kept looking over the sovereign system records.
As the Aman Kingdom territory shrunk, the information recorded in the sovereign system records also became greatly reduced.
Who was given land and a t.i.tle when and other detailed information were spa.r.s.e.
From within that overflow of records, Kajad only scanned through the main points and understood the overall flow.
Only after that long task, Kajad looked at Sultan Saloc.
"Saloc Pun Aman."
"Yes, ancestor!"
"You went through a lot of trouble to wake me."
"Kuhuk, yes!"
At the deeply moved overcoming him, Sultan Saloc held in his tears.
But without time to feel the how moved he was, Kajad"s words continued.
"But something is odd."
"Yes……?"
"Have you really performed the revival ceremony in the manner I described?
"Um, yes of course."
"But it is strange. I feel something has gone wrong."
Kajad moved his revived body here and there and touched it.
"No way?"
Sultan Saloc felt the anxiety creeping in.
Because there was something he had done wrong.
"Actually, ancestor……"
"Speak."
"Actually, we didn"t carry it out exactly as you said in your will."
"What do you mean?"
"The stone coffin and magic square you left, we researched their spells and discovered the minimum soul power we needed for the revival ceremony……"
"You don"t mean to say, that you only filled the minimum for the revival?"
Asked Kajad with a frozen expression.
Sultan Saloc bowed his head.
"Yes, ancestor."
"You stupid-!!"
His shout rang out piercingly.
Sultan Saloc and the high priests were struck with terror and fell to the floor.
With a face reddened with rage, Kajad screamed.
"Do you think I didn"t tell you because I didn"t know the minimum souls needed to the revival!?"
"ancestor?!"
"The reason I needed many souls was because I was going to revive in complete form!"
"What, what you mean by that, we don"t under……!"
"How many spells do you think are in this body? Revival, eternal youth, immortality, no desires, strength! To completely exist in a transformed body with all those spells, I needed to fill this vessel entirely and that was the amount of souls needed for it. But you didn"t fulfill that quant.i.ty and woke me anyway!"
"If, uh, it isn"t filled all the way, what happens?"
"One who is famished longs for necessary sustenance. As long as I am deficient in souls and I can never fill it, what do you think will happen?"
"That, would be……"
"I will become a monster that will forever thirst for others" souls! You absolute imbecile!"
Sultan Saloc"s face was struck pale.
A soul eating monster!
Only now did he realize what a grave mistake he had made.
"Haha, they say everything eventually dies, this too is fate."
Kajad mumbled to himself forlornly and was silent for a while with his eyes closed.
Kajad wailed.
"Hurry and kill me. Before it cannot be undone."