Future
As the ceremony was coming to an end, the three pale spots of light entered Kars, Marvin and Richard. Kars and Marvin had assisted with the ceremony, contributing their own divine power to allow for the communication with the Eternal Dragon. They received a small amount of grace in return, allowing them to grow by one level to get to level 9.
However, a mere bystander like Richard receiving a little of the grace left Flowsand unable to help but feel indignant. He even received a time-related blessing, even though it was to a lesser degree.
Divine blessing— Dewdrop of Life. His body would not age for an extra six months.
‘Six months! You can do a lot with just six months. If there were thirty dews…’ Flowsand thought angrily, converting things to divine grace once more. Of course, her expression was still tranquil, even solemn.
When Kellac left the room, he looked like a middle-aged man once more. His skin even shone with a pale gold lustre. The enormous divine grace had not been fully absorbed yet, so he would need a few more days to look like an ordinary person once more. He wrapped himself completely with a hooded robe, leaving just as quietly as he came.
Back at level 13, Kellac now qualified to be called a priest even in Norland. There were many mass buffs amongst grade 6 divine spells, so his presence greatly boosted the strength of Richard’s army. Of course, Richard had also accepted an enemy of a high priest of the Highland Wargod, perhaps even the whole church. Of course, as an invader was the natural enemy of all the gods of Faelor; there was no difference whether he offended them greatly or just a little.
He left that very night, going to the Demon Hunting Spears to bring over all the troops directly under him, also looking to see if he could hire the rest as well. He had seventy elites and fifteen unbelievers under him, the latter of which would soon become followers of the Eternal Dragon. They did not have the problem of changing their faith, so unlike a fallen priest like Kellac they would become proper clerics.
Richard didn’t care about the Dewdrop of Life at all. However, the knowledge that it was worth a thirtieth of a greater devil told him that this drop was not so easy to obtain. With his current power, any greater devil could defeat him with ease. Besides, he’d just stood by the side watching the ceremony and still obtained some grace; that fact just made Flowsand angrier.
Although this beautiful cleric was a titled member of the Church, this was still her first time taking charge of such an important ritual by herself. That meant it was also the first time she had seen so many options for divine gifts. The sheer number of treasures blinded her for a moment, turning her into a kind of shopaholic. Her list of wants was so long the end could not be seen, so every drop of divine grace was extremely important.
However, that small gift showed how much value the Eternal Dragon attached to Richard.
The process of absorbing the grace this time was much shorter, and Richard was also used to the surging power of time. However, numerous colourful ribbons of light flashed past him during the process.
Previously, he would have thought this was just a normal phenomenon when one was absorbing divine grace. However, now that he had read the Book of Time once he felt like it was familiar. Something seemed to be hidden in those rays of light, so he used all his energy and called upon both his blessings to maximise the speed of his thought. He was trying to find a way to catch what was hidden behind that glow.
With the upgraded blessings of wisdom and truth, Richard’s perception was already equal to that of a saint. He finally managed to see the scenes behind that veil of light, just that there were far too many flashing by at a time. Almost a thousand different images crossed his sight per second, not something ordinary men could catch. Richard’s heart beat wildly as he tried his best, but still he only managed to catch a few scenes with difficulty. Even then it was all blurred out, so much so that he could barely distinguish silhouettes.
But when he organised the afterimages in his memory and saw these scenes clearly, Richard suddenly felt his entire body freeze!
……
Flowsand still had a lot of work to wrap up the ceremony. By the time she was done with everything, it was already night. The exhausted cleric headed to Richard’s room, only to see him stood still before the large map while deep in thought. His face was as dark as murky water.
She sat behind him without a word. The two had their own worries, each immersed in their own world. The room was quiet one could hear the beating of hearts, and time quietly slipped by in the stillness. By the time they somewhat broke out of their reveries, two hours had passed.
Richard seemed to have set his mind on something, pounding his fist heavily on the map.
Flowsand got up and stood behind him, looking at the map to see that the fist had crushed the marker of a slave camp. This camp belonged to Red Cossack and wasn’t far from Bluewater, an important interchange point in the Cossack slave trade.
Flowsand frowned. The raid on Red Cossack’s caravan could still be passed off as revenge for their attempt on his life, but an ambush against their slave camp would strike them at their weakness. They would be forced to confront him head-on, leading to an inevitable all-out battle between the two parties.
A plane was developed atop blood and bodies. Flowsand was not a naive girl; she had a mind to completely eliminate Red Cossack as well, but the chief issue was time.
“Aren’t you being a little impatient?” she asked. It was not wise to make too many enemies at the same time.
Richard did not answer, clearly still conflicted. The surprise attack could buy them some time, but the benefits were not worth the risk. They were both blessed by the Eternal Dragon, time was forever on their side.
“Flowsand. I saw some blurry scenes when absorbing the divine grace. What do they mean?” Richard asked.
Flowsand was startled, growing serious as she asked, “Were they clear?”
Richard hesitated for a moment, “No, it was incredibly blurred. I could only see that something was happening, but couldn’t tell who was involved at all.”
“Oh,” Flowsand didn’t continue to press for details, instead explaining, “The divine grace of the Eternal Dragon is a condensation of the power of time. Thus, your mind and soul could enter the river of time when absorbing it, getting a premonition of possible events in the future…”
“A premonition of the future?!” Richard’s expression changed greatly.
Still looking down at the map, Flowsand did not notice his unusual expression. She just nodded, saying, “What you absorbed was the power of time, so there’s a chance to see the future. However, you need to be a saint at minimum to actually distinguish what you see. You don’t have that ability right now.”
The room was very dimly lit. Flowsand herself had not broken through her own worry, so she was too absent-minded to notice how unusually pale Richard’s face was.
She did not think he already had the ability to get a rudimentary glimpse of these scenes. Most of what he saw was blood-soaked campaigns through foreign planes. Even in the most desperate of situations, his will was indomitable. However, two specific ones left him feeling like he had fallen into the abyss.
One was of a pitch-black void. Sharon was floating in the empty space, devoid of all signs of life.
The other was five years later, where Mountainsea waved goodbye to him and walked forward without looking back. In front of her was a sea of enemies, like a sea of oppressive black.
Looking at the map once more, Richard’s gaze grew so cold it could burn.
If… If this was an inevitability, that only meant he needed to take a more active role!