Narrowing his eyes, the Monitor pried the High Priest's fingers away one by one and stood straight.
"You are but an ignorant native confined to a corner of the underground. You have likely never traveled even a few hundred kilometers from your settlement, yet you dare speak of the world being tampered with," he said contemptuously. "Have you ever truly seen how vast this world is, Priest?"
The High Priest lowered his head, a rattling sound emerging from his throat. His armchair rocked incessantly, and it took a long moment before Raven realized the man was laughing.
"I have seen sights beyond your imagining. I witnessed the golden meteor fall from the heavens; I watched the primordial Erdtree grow upon the ruins of the Crucible, while the dew of grace dripped from its branches. I saw the founding and the fall of the Eternal Cities; I watched the stars plummet and the earth turn over, as the fragments of Farum Azula scattered across the four winds... Boy, I know who you are, too. Your past lies laid bare before my eyes."
"Who exactly are you?" The muscles in the Monitor's cheek twitched slightly.
"I am the first of the human progenitors to walk out of the Crucible, the High Sovereign of the Uhl Dynasty, and the most ancient king of mankind—save your hypocritical gestures of respect, boy! I only wish to tell you this: you have taken your morality, your conscience, your sense of honor, the people who love you, and everything you possess to the flea market of fate, selling them all just to obtain something that is, in truth, utterly worthless.
"I spent the first fifth of my life exhausting every scheme to forge a crown. Yet, once I donned it, I spent the rest of my years trying to cast it away, cursing it, using the Scarlet Rot to tear the very dynasty I built to shreds. I intended it as a rebellion against God, a proof that I was not a puppet to be molded and crushed at His whim—to ensure He gained nothing from me. In the end, I discovered that God does not care. He simply does not care! Do you intend to walk my old path? Hahaha!"
"What do you know! What I want is—" the Monitor snarled, but he found the High Priest merely laughing without end, seemingly lost to madness.
"You realized you had been replaced, didn't you?" Raven stepped forward and asked in a low voice.
The High Priest continued to laugh, but he turned his face toward him.
Raven opened his hand before the High Priest, the faint trace of the Yellow Sign manifesting in his palm. "Have you seen this mark?"
The High Priest's laughter stopped abruptly. His entire body began to tremble. "Take it away! Take it away!"
"What happened back then? Was it overnight? Did you discover that all your statues and portraits had been replaced by a stranger's image?"
"It wasn't overnight... it was replaced long ago. For years, I was accustomed to it. Then, one day, I saw my own face in a mirror and realized that the millions of the dynasty were not kneeling to me." The High Priest scratched at his face neurotically, causing the clay shell to flake off in showers of dust.
Raven wanted to ask more, but when he saw the true face revealed beneath the crumbling clay, he froze.
"The image on the statues... it's exactly like you are now," Raven said, confused.
"Exactly?"
"See for yourself." Raven cast a glintstone spell, condensing a smooth, crystalline mirror.
Though the face in the mirror was heavily stained by the marks of rot, it was undeniably identical to the image of the elderly statues.
"No... this is not me!" The High Priest's hand jerked, shattering the crystal mirror on the ground. "This is not my face! It is His! His face!"
"Who is He? Do you know His name?" Raven pressed urgently.
The High Priest curled into his chair. "I don't know."
"You do know! Tell me!"
"The King in Yellow! The Lord of the Stars and the Deep Sky!" the High Priest shrieked, clutching his head and shivering violently. "He has no name, yet He has countless names! Just as the wind has a thousand titles and death has a thousand ways to claim a soul. Ask no more! Ask no more!"
Raven pursed his lips. He had many more questions, but he didn't want to further provoke this wretched old man.
"Stop playing the fool. Today, you will give me a prophecy!" The Monitor stepped forward with a grim face, pushing Raven aside and leaning down to whisper into the old man's ear. "Give me my prophecy. Otherwise, I promise you that the Clayman race will be enslaved for generations, suffering for all eternity without reprieve."
"A prophecy? Oh, you pathetic creature," the old man said, slowly lifting his head. His gaze drifted back and forth between the Monitor and Raven. "You want a prophecy? Then I shall give you a prophecy!"
He stood up abruptly, his arms folded. Blue-white light converged at his chest into a sphere, within which countless fragments of light and shadow flickered. Soon, however, it began to fluctuate unstably, as if it might burst at any second.
"You lot, get over there and help," the Monitor ordered, pointing at the surviving priests.
"A prophecy of this scale consumes life..."
"Now! Or you die right here!"
The twenty or so priests dragged their feet over, surrounding the old man. They reached out their hands, pouring their mana into the Oracular Bubble.
The bubble gradually stabilized. The Monitor stared at it intently, desperate to see something within, but he found that it was swelling larger and larger. The mana reaction within was so violent it even made him feel a trace of alarm.
"It's out of control!" a priest screamed, struggling to flee. However, his hands were drawn to the bubble like magnets; he couldn't move a single step. "High Priest, you've gone mad! Stop it!"
"Don't you dare stop!" the Monitor roared, taking a few steps back.
One by one, the priests collapsed. Their clay shells cracked, and the human bodies within evaporated into a faint reddish gas. They shriveled rapidly as if dehydrated, eventually turning into curled, gaunt mummies.
Steam also rose from the High Priest's body. He held the sphere of light aloft and laughed loudly, his voice turning hoarse halfway through. By now, the orb had expanded to a third the size of the platform. He turned with great effort, carrying the light and walking toward the Monitor step by step, like an ant carrying a hazelnut a hundred times its own size.
"Block it!" Selenzo shouted to the Black Blade Kindred hovering at the side of the tower.
The Black Blade Kindred extended a wing, placing it between the Monitor and the sphere of light. This was the hardest part of a gargoyle's body; as a Black Blade Kindred, the pinnacle of its kind, its corpse-wax-infused wing was harder than a city wall.
"Don't block my sight!" the Monitor snarled.
Before Selenzo could reply, he watched in horror as the edge of the wing began to twist and deform. The corpse wax evaporated into black mist, and then the entire wing shattered into pieces, crumbling into a pile of powder. The Black Blade Kindred lost its balance; its claws tried to dig into the tower, but it only succeeded in tearing away a rain of bricks as it tumbled screaming from the heights.
Tossing his cleaver off the tower, Selenzo said nothing more. He threw himself over the edge, his claws digging into the outer wall as he scrambled down the tower. The other beastman warriors and priests finally snapped out of their stupor, fleeing for their lives in a panicked swarm.
Only the Monitor and Raven did not run. They retreated to the edge of the platform, staring up at the Oracular Bubble. Their faces were blanched pale by the light, their eyes shimmering with its reflection.
The High Priest took a few more steps before his knees buckled and he collapsed. He lifted his head, glaring at the Monitor with pure hatred, attempting to use the last of his strength to push the bubble toward him. But his entire body was shriveling at a rapid pace, eventually becoming a small, withered heap. He moved no more.
The utterly out-of-control Oracular Bubble rose slowly, its surface reflecting countless fragments of the future.
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Elden Ring: The Unborn One's Journey Through Elden Ring(258 Chapter - Ongoing)
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