"On behalf of the Elven Kingdom, as well as the Great Races, we declare our unwavering faith to Heaven," the Elven King stood up and said. His hands formed a prayer gesture. "May Heaven reigns eternally."

Consimia, who sat behind the Elven King, furrowed her brows before she concealed her expression by pretending to adjust her hair. The surrounding royalty rose after the Elven King and revealed their zeal, not caring about her. The prayers and praises and chants echoed throughout the crystal dome, strangely suffocating the air.

"May Heaven reigns eternally." She stood up and soundlessly moved her mouth. Her hands clenched her chest, feinting her prayer gesture. Her breathing slowly stabilized as she resisted the urge to escape from the environment.

"Your highness, your face looks pale. Is there anything wrong?" A shadow towered over Consimia. She raised her head to Ocupas, who gawked at her lacklustre eyes.

"Sir Ocupas, I got too excited and couldn't properly sleep last night. All will be fine in a moment."

"If something is wrong, please inform me. We'll kindly bring you out immediately." Ocupas knocked his spear against the ground and stared into her eyes. Though his expression revealed nothing, Consimia could sense his hostility.

Despite her weak physique, her eyes remained firm. She gazed at Ocupas and locked her posture. Her determination overflowed inside her heart. Her panic melted into an ironclad aura, transforming her useless attitude into the resolute one.

As Consimia and Ocupas fought their mental battle, a muffled clap resounded throughout the dome. Despite its faint tone, the timing was perfect, echoing at the softest point of the chant. Everyone turned their attention towards the guest seats, where Akulas sat. He smiled and repeated his claps a few times before standing up.

"Gods and Goddesses, as the representative of the Human Empire, please grant me an audience," he said as he stared at the Gods and the Goddesses standing above the altars of the Seven Saintesses.

His imperial mantle fluttered with the winds and moved within the moment of stillness. His humble, smiling face separated himself from the solemn crowds, unflustered by the surrounding contemptuous gazes.

"Human, what is it that wantons a delay of the Root Ceremony?" the God of Light said. His eyes narrowed.

Aside from the blinding light he exuded, the depressing darkness erupted from a figure behind him. The maiden dressed in cold black stepped forwards and reached her right hand into the air.

"Mortal, the crime of interrupting the Root Ceremony is punishable by death," the Goddess of Death said.

She gripped the space, which slowly consolidated into a scythe. A sinister aura emerged under her midnight cloak, filling the surrounding with a terrible chill. Her solemn smile extended beyond the human limit and stretched across her face, reaching her ears.

Before she could move, a firm hand blocked her path. The God of Light turned to her and lightly shook his head. She looked into his eyes and retreated, withdrawing her aggression and collecting her creepy black aura.

"Death, we can't afford any mistake," the God of Light whispered before turning to Akulas. "Human, state your reason."

Akulas gestured for the officers to step in. "Before that, please accept my apology."

They presented a decorated chest to the God of Light. As its lid opened, a soft, golden radiance seeped out and permeated the atmosphere. A transparent orb rested on a cushion, decorated in the colourful jewellery which formed a pathway for Fons to traverse.

"God of Light, please inspect our present," Akulas said. His smiling expression gradually shifted into a sombre one.

The officer lightly brushed against the chest and let it go. An invisible force propelled it upwards and hung it above the crowd, ascending towards the God of Light. As it approached him, the formation inside the orb gradually brightened.

The surrounding Fons twirled around the orb, forming a whirlpool of energy. Light emerged from the jewellery and spread into strange, ancient symbols. They generated a worn fragrance which reminded ones of the ancient past, evoking the unreal nostalgia.

A muffled hymn echoed forth. Despite the lack of holiness, it contained a mysterious charm which attracted the mind of the listeners. Its mystical quality resonated with the Fons, messing with the Arbiters whose control over Fons was weak. Their bodies shivered as they struggled to maintain their calm.

"The Ancient Vocal . . . the Dragon Clan has given you a valuable treasure," the God of Light said. "What is your intention, Mortal?"

"God of Light, the Human Empire only has one question which needs answering. Please take a look."

Under the pressure of concentrated Fons, the chest disintegrated, revealing the floating orb. It radiated countless multi-coloured rays and formed a vivid recreation of a past event.

At City B-34, countless Arachna swamped the automaton fortress, filling the sky with black clouds of insects. In the moment of desperation, The City overloaded its engine and threatened to set Sector D on fire. As the last moment approached, a dragon descended from the sky and prevented the explosion from happening.

In front of the Protector of Northern Mistwood, the Arachna tide crumbled into ashes. Nevertheless, the dragon didn't stop at City D-34 and headed towards the wilderness. In the next moment, the sun revealed its brilliance, and an avatar of the God of Light descended from the sky.

After a swarm of shooting stars and blinding glares, a burst of laughter echoed as a strong blast flattened the wilderness and razed it into a sea of flame.

The powerful recreation of the event shook the orb. It cracked and dimmed before losing its power. It fell onto the ground and shattered into countless fragments. The Ancient Vocal stopped, as well as the chanting of praises and reverence.

Akulas and the world stared at the God of Light, eagerly waiting for the answer to the question which no one had asked yet.

"God of Light, we come here for an answer. Why did you break the Northern Treaty?" Akulas raised his voice, his hand gripping a pendant which contained protective spells from the Arbiters he commanded.

With the world attentively listening, Heaven couldn't silence him. Akulas knew the importance of Faith, so he stood firm in front of the God of Light with no fear. Though countless eyes were gawking at him, there were a few gazes with interest.

"Mortal, how dare you slander me? The lack of Divinity in the avatar means that the recording could have been faked easily," the God of Light said. "Without any witnesses, your defamation is blasphemy."

He stomped the ground in a fit of anger, creating a dome of blinding light, which exploded outwards and prevented all detection spells and perceptions. In an instant, the world became blind.

"Blasphemy is punishable by death," the Goddess of Death said as she held her scythe skywards and swung it down.

Without any usage of Fons, the space between them shrunk, pulling Akulas closer to the scythe. It created a rifted in reality, from where countless skeleton hands emerged. They crept towards him, seeking to consume his body and soul.

At that instant, a mysterious ray of energy broke through reality and intercepted the strike. Its power, undetectable and unmovable, created a chain-reaction unbound by time and Fate.

In the moment of impact, Akulas saw two splitting images of the Goddess of Death, one where she retracted her scythe and another where she swung it. The sequences of the two actions overlapped and transposed into a different scenario. The world flipped its timeline and reverted the outcome.

The Goddess of Death narrowed her eyes as she witnessed her strike vanished from the world. The gateway to Hell had never opened in the first place. She stared at her scythe before surveying the surrounding with her Divinity. The search produced no result, which deepened her confusion.

As the light died down, everything returned to normal. Akulas stood motionless, his hand turning cold as his grip on the pendant blocked the flow of blood.

"Do you have any more thing to say, Mortal?" the God of Light said, his eyes narrowed.

"God of Light, please wait for the main witness to arrive," Akulas said after a moment of silence. Though the strangeness lingered in his mind, he shook it out of his head and focused on the plan.

The God of Light gazed into the horizon. A shadowy fleet of dragons approached from the distance. Their gigantic bodies and mighty wings generated a strong gale which blew the gentle flow of Fons into a chaotic whirlpool.

The Spirits and the Elven vessels sounded the alarm and intercepted the Dragon Clan, but a sudden change of commands forced them to retreat and allow the Dragon Clan to pass through. The dragons glanced at the Spirits in disdain before landing on the Holyground of the Origin.

As they descended, they retracted their gigantic wings which spanned wider than their body length. A soft glow manifested around them and enveloped their bodies, shrinking their silhouettes to humanoid shapes. Their dragon scales morphed into various types of clothes, from imperial cloaks to ballet dresses.

They transformed into their humanoid appearances and walked past rows of guards. As they passed the humans, they would receive the gaze of admiration and wonder, but the Elves would give them contempt, the Spirits animosity.

"Gods and Goddesses, I present to you, the sole witness of your descension," Akulas said as he saw the humanoid dragons stopped in front of the altars. "Pallear, the Protector of Northern Mistwood."

From the group, a man walked towards the God of Light and went passed the Seven Saintesses. His neat grey suit followed his strict movement, revealing his air of solemnness as the enforcer of the Northern Treaty. He glanced at the Eyeless Saintess before turning to the God of Light.

"God of Light, you broke the Northern Treaty and injured my left wing," he said.

The God of Light closed his eyes for a moment before opening them. His gaze shifted from Pallear to Akulas, exerting an invisible pressure onto him.

"Mortal, you dare to bring the beasts into the Holyground?"

"Please calm your anger. I only invite them to verify the legitimacy of my claim."

"God of Light, answer my question: why did you break the Northern Treaty?" Pallear said.

"Do you have any proof? The lack of Divinity inside the avatar is illogical. Why should I send an avatar into that wasteland?"

"It isn't a coincidence that the battle occurred within the vicinity of the Fallen Princess's broadcast. God of Light, how did you know about the existence of the Fallen Princess? Why did you conceal this information?" Akulas said.

The God of Light smiled. "The existence of the Fallen Princess is known to me because of a faithful believer who prayed for my help. I merely descended to save her."

"God of Light, your claim is questionable. When I arrived at the scene, I saw no believer aside from you and the Fallen Princess," Pallear said. "Why must you personally descend to save a random believer, and how could you, when there existed no such person?"

The Goddess of Death slightly tilted her scythe, but the God of Light placed his hand onto hers and shook his head. She stared at him for a moment before relaxing her body.

"Pallear, how did you find the Fallen Princess, if I broke the Northern Treaty? If there exists no prayer, how can I descend?" The God of Light gazed at the sky, looking into a drone, which broadcast his speech across the world. "Why must you distort the truth? You colluded with the Fallen Princess and let the Arachna ran among."

Pallear took a deep breath. The pressure from the Gods and the Goddesses weighed upon his body, grinding him towards submission. Despite knowing the truth, he couldn't let the world know his cooperation with Princess or the fact that she stole a strand of Divinity from the God of Light.

They built their battle on lies, but once they repeated the lies too many times, the truth would gradually disappear. At the moment, the lie became the truth, and the truth became a lie.

"I didn't conspire with the Arachna. I was the one who put an end to the Arachna tide," Pallear said.

"A C-graded tide is but a small price to pay for Venetus's death. Is it possible that an assassin-type Arachna would be able to slip through your watchful eyes and kill him?"

"Your strike injured me. You delayed me."

"Pallear, you sided with the Fallen Princess and helped her. If not for your intervention, I would have already killed her."

Pallear shuddered as sweats began to fill his face. Though his expression revealed nothing, his mind was racing as if he was challenging Princess in another round of mind game.

"I—" A series of footsteps interrupted the tense conversation. Everyone turned their gaze to a feeble figure who slowly made his way out of the group.

Though concealed under his plain cloak, his half-human-half-machine body exuded a sense of weariness. His dull eyes stared at the God of Light and shifted to all other God and Goddesses. As he walked past Pallear, he patted his shoulder and whispered something to him.

"It's enough," he said. "Let me handle the rest."

Standing in front of the God of Light, Venetus took off his cloak.