Osis sent several envoy teams to the Red Earth Territory, Char Territory, and Delanvos Territory. Their mission was to track down any signs of ghouls and gather intelligence about them.

Their primary objective was to confirm the ghouls’ resurgence and uncover anyone who had collaborated with them.

At the same time, their presence was intended to stir the grass and startle the snakes, forcing any hidden threats into the open.

Osis was not afraid of these people making a move. What he feared was that they would not move at all. If they stayed still, the envoy teams could trace the ghouls through normal investigation. If they did move, it would only prove they had ties to the ghouls.

For each envoy team, this was not a straightforward task. It was a mission fraught with danger.

Upon entering each territory, the teams first paid their respects to the local lord, then reached out to the temples in the region.

The teams that entered the Char Territory and the Delanvos Territory made some progress, though their findings were minimal. Pushing further did not uncover anything significant.

The ghouls’ main stronghold was clearly not in those regions.

Red Earth Territory, however, was a different story. On the surface, it seemed more peaceful than the other two, but the moment the envoy team arrived, an unsettling sense of wrongness hung in the air.

The Red Earth Temple

The Chief Divine Servant of the temple received Osis’s envoys and accepted their token of authority.

The old divine servant accepted the token, studied it closely, and then handed it to the second-seat divine servant standing nearby.

He brought his hands together in a solemn gesture of prayer.

“We will fully comply with King Osis’s orders,” he said, “and honor the will of the great divine being.”

“How may we assist you?”

He appeared perfectly deferential, though what lay beneath that surface was another question entirely.

The temple was under the authority of the divine being, not the King of Suinhor.

Without a divine oracle from the god, or the Divine Blessed King presenting the Proof of Blood Kinship as a symbol of divine authority, the king’s commands lacked the endorsement of the god himself.

Since the Divine Blessed King’s Proof of Blood Kinship had been taken from him, the strength of his decrees had become uncertain.

The envoy maintained the posture of one acting under the Divine Blessed King’s full authority. “We require the cooperation of all temples and shrines throughout Red Earth Territory to assist us in our investigation into the ghouls.”

The old divine servant replied, “I will see to it that all cooperate with the envoy’s mission.”

The Chief Divine Servant of the Red Earth Temple agreed, but as he lowered his head, a fleeting look of disdain flickered in his eyes.

As soon as Osis’s envoys left, the Chief Divine Servant of the Red Earth Temple spoke.

“Does King Osis have a divine oracle? How dare he transmit commands to us in such a manner.”

“Does he think he is the master of the temple?”

“He has lost even the Divine Blessed’s favor. What right does he have to order the temple about?”

“The Proof of Blood Kinship was reclaimed by the divine being. When this king who defies tradition returns to the Kingdom of God, let us see how he faces his divine being.”

This was the sentiment shared by many, a quiet and expectant desire to see Osis humiliated.

When this immortal scion of the divine being concluded his cycle of reincarnation and returned to the Kingdom of God, what would he bring with him?

Glory or disgrace?

What mattered more, in truth, was that their interests had long since been carved up and settled.

The temples and their divine servants were all beneficiaries of the old order. Osis’s desire to establish a provincial governance system was no secret, and the great and small temples of Suinhor had no appetite for a system rooted in foreign customs.

They opposed the king’s provincial scheme, arguing that it disrupted ancient traditions and destabilized the established order.

This was the reality of Suinhor.

Royal authority was structured like a City-State Alliance, with countless territories of varying size ruling independently. Their roots had been intertwined for a thousand years.

Sacred authority was just as fragmented. The Temple of Fire Protection held only nominal leadership over the others. Each temple below it maintained its own lineage and hierarchy, with many families tracing their origins back to the era of King Alpens.

Whether royal or divine, power in Suinhor was nothing more than a collection of scattered sand.

If not for the genuine presence of a divine being above them all holding everything in balance, this nation would have collapsed into war long ago.

The second-seat divine servant nearby was far younger. Unlike the others, his concern was not with political rivalries but with something else entirely.

“They mentioned ghouls. Does that mean ghouls are truly appearing in Red Earth Territory?”

“The former King of Ghouls, Suero, triggered a divine war. If someone of that caliber truly left something behind, the danger would be beyond imagining.”

“Chief Divine Servant, this is no longer a matter for mortals. It may directly involve the divine being.”

Only then did the old divine servant grow serious. The name Suero carried a weight too vast to dismiss.

A mere mortal had sacrificed half of Mooneclipse City, stood against the summoned Apostle Sukob who had opened the Door of Truth, consumed all of Purgatory, and provoked the intervention of multiple divine beings.

It was hard to imagine such deeds being the work of just one member of the Snake People.

He shook his head slowly. “The Ruhe Great God expelled the Gods of Truth and Original Sin from Ruhe Beast Island. The Scarlet Goddess of the Earth Temple personally intervened and thoroughly erased every remaining ghoul and every trace of their existence. What could possibly remain?”

The second-seat replied, “If they had prepared a contingency from the very beginning, it is not entirely impossible.”

The old divine servant nodded. “Then let those below investigate. Focus only on the matter of the ghouls.”

“Be careful. Do not give those people any cause to use against us.”

“King Osis has reportedly been coordinating with the Temple of Fire Protection of late. He is waiting for us to slip up so he can reclaim the right to appoint the Red Earth Temple’s divine servants.”

After the envoy team departed the Red Earth Temple, they turned their eyes to the grand sprawl of Red Earth City before them.

The city appeared lively and busy. Though beggars lined the streets and the occasional robbery or skirmish erupted, it still seemed, at least on the surface, to be a city held together by some semblance of order.

“Are there really ghouls here?” one of them asked.

“Everything looks perfectly normal, doesn’t it?”

The envoy captain replied, “Before the disaster broke out in Mooneclipse City, everything there looked perfectly normal too.”

The envoy team’s first priority was to investigate the nobility across Red Earth Territory, including the divine servants and Ability User families associated with the various temples.

During the ghoul catastrophe in Mooneclipse City, the King of Ghouls Suero had managed to draw nearly half the city’s nobility into his fold. From the lowest ranks to the highest, countless nobles had succumbed to darkness and wickedness.

The vile Cannibal Cult rituals and the sinister arts that granted ordinary people power far beyond their station were more than enough to pull anyone into shadow with ease.

After spending a significant amount of time investigating nobles who seemed potentially compromised, the team discovered that every single one of them was clean.

This left the envoy team confused and uncertain.

They had received reports of ghoul sightings in the south and a few ghoul-related incidents in various locations.

Under these circumstances, if the enemy was operating on such a large scale, it seemed impossible that they had not drawn in the local nobility.

Yet the nobility of Red Earth City appeared entirely unremarkable, and their earlier visit to the old lord of Red Earth Territory had likewise revealed nothing amiss.

The entire city seemed impossibly and unnervingly clean.

Inside their temporary base in Red Earth City, the envoy team members laid one name list after another on the table, exchanging baffled looks.

“Strange.”

“All of them, nothing?”

At that moment, one of the team members raised his head.

“Could it be that we’ve been looking in the wrong direction?”

The captain looked at him. “You think our approach is wrong?”

The member nodded. “According to previous intelligence, the ghoul disaster in Mooneclipse City not only involved a large number of nobles but also caused immense suffering among the slum-dwellers, leading to the birth of many ghouls within those very slums.”

The member had a point. Their purpose was not just to find the ghouls but also to uncover evidence of noble collusion, which had misdirected their investigative focus from the start.

With the investigation at a standstill, the captain reluctantly agreed to the suggestion. “If we cannot find leads from the upper strata, then we will search from below.”

They shifted their approach entirely and began pushing deep into the impoverished districts that no one had ever cared to look at.

When they shifted their focus to the overlooked and downtrodden, the truth they uncovered was chilling.

Although they found no trace of the Cannibal Cult itself, a completely unfamiliar name surfaced in their investigation.

“The Church of the God of Silver and White?” None of them had encountered it before.

“What kind of divine being is the God of Silver and White?” The name was unfamiliar to them.

“Has anyone heard of this?” They exchanged glances, hoping someone might have an answer.

“No one has ever heard of a divine being like this?” In the end, they could only shake their heads.

The captain studied the words “Church of the God of Silver and White” and the cryptic message beneath them.

“Death is not an end, but a new beginning?”

“What does that mean?”

As they delved deeper into their investigation, the true nature of the Church of the God of Silver and White began to emerge.

The doctrines it preached and the ideas it spread were eerily similar to those of the old Cannibal Cult.

It was clear that this was the Cannibal Cult, merely disguised under a new name.

With that confirmed, the captain immediately went to the Red Earth Temple and mobilized its forces to arrest the members of the Church of the God of Silver and White, launching raids on several slum districts within Red Earth City.

That same day, open warfare broke out among Ability Users throughout Red Earth City.

Ghouls emerged from the shadows, engaging in fierce battles with the temple’s Ability User squads and revealing their grotesque forms and terrifying power for all to witness.

“Ghouls?”

“Are these really ghouls?”

“How can there be so many of them?”

One after another, they surged forward until the temple’s Ability Users finally cut them down.

The sweeping operation that followed revealed an even greater horror.

In those quarters, they uncovered a large number of false shrines dedicated to a false god.

Within those shrines, they found an idol wrapped tightly in burial cloth, its features completely concealed beneath layers of white fabric.

The God of Silver and White.

Scores of church members were dragged before them. The fanatical believers screamed and cursed, hurling obscenities at their captors even as death loomed. They denounced the Scarlet Goddess with desperate and spitting fury.

“Death is not an end, but a new beginning!”

“I will enter the Kingdom of God! I will be reborn once more!”

“God of Silver and White!”

“God of Silver and White!”

The cultists howled like madmen, their cries sending a chill crawling across every chest.

The envoy team’s captain stood before the detained believers, slack-jawed, and turned to the second-seat divine servant of the Red Earth Temple beside him.

“An organization this vast has been spreading openly under the watch of a divine being, and you, the servants of that divine being, received no warning at all?”

After interrogating several of them and searching their minds for information, the team uncovered something far worse than they had imagined.

The corruption was not limited to Red Earth City. In other cities across Red Earth Territory, especially in the villages and scattered settlements, the faith in the God of Silver and White had spread with even more terrifying intensity.

The divine servants of the Red Earth Temple were shaken. Not one of them had imagined that something like this could have taken root right under their noses.

The temple’s divine servants had always held themselves above others, their status exceeding even that of the nobility. They lived within the temple, surrounded by luxuries that ordinary people could scarcely imagine.

Many of them were so detached from the outside world that they rarely stepped beyond the temple gates.

What reason would they have to descend into the squalor of the poor and the destitute to witness their struggles firsthand?

How could they have known that a cult was spreading rapidly right under their noses, reaching beyond Red Earth Territory and into the wider world in just a few months?

Some of the bureaucrats and nobility in Red Earth Territory had been aware of the situation, but each had their own reasons for keeping that knowledge hidden.

For now, the envoy team’s captain had not yet uncovered that layer of the truth. He only knew one thing for certain: the problem was immense.

After piecing together everything he had learned, he quickly wrote a letter and entrusted it to his deputy.

“Go to the nearest Rainbow Spirit Realm and deliver this to His Majesty personally.”

Although they had barely begun to uncover the secrets of the Church of Silver and White, he could already feel that the situation might be far more dire than he had imagined.

With this heavy realization, he proceeded to the lord’s manor to meet with the head of the Hunter Family, the lord of Red Earth Territory.

In a reception hall adorned with grandeur befitting a palace, he found the old lord seated at the far end of the room, waiting for him.

“My Lord, you are surely aware of what has happened in Red Earth City.”

“I request that the Hunter Family promptly issue warrants and work with the temple to track down and eradicate every member of the Church of Silver and White.”

The envoy captain barely crossed the threshold before the urgent and unrestrained words spilled out of him.

His voice carried an unmistakable tension.

The old man seated in the chair, the lord of Red Earth Territory, remained silent. He sat motionless, as if lifeless, with no sign of breath.

The envoy captain hesitated, his brow furrowing in confusion, and leaned in to study the figure more closely.

“My Lord, the situation is already gravely serious. I ask that the Hunter Family act at once and fulfill its duty as a lord and as a subject of His Majesty.”

At that moment, the old lord, resembling a piece of ancient, rotted wood stirring to life, leaned on his wooden staff and rose slowly to face him.

His face appeared to have grown younger in some way, though it was drained of all color and was disturbingly pale.

“Duty?”

“I have no duty.”

“For I recognize only one ruler, His Majesty Akmanmon, the King of Ghouls.”

Before the envoy captain could even begin to grasp the meaning behind the words “King of Ghouls, His Majesty Akmanmon,” he noticed the red light blazing in the old lord’s eyes and felt the surge of supernatural power radiating from the man’s body.

The two Third-Rank Ability User guards flanking the old lord rested their hands on the hilts of their swords.

Three figures cast their shadows over the sunlit window, and a crushing, oppressive force weighed down on the envoy captain from all sides.

Only then did the truth strike him.

“You are also a… ghoul.”

“When did this happen?”

“You were not like this the last time we met.”

He was stunned, completely caught off guard.

The last time he had visited the old lord, he had even used a Divine Artifact to scan the area. At that time, everything had seemed perfectly normal.

Yet now, the three figures standing before him were undeniably ghouls.

And they were powerful ones at that.

The envoy captain turned his gaze to the guards standing beside the old lord. The last time he had seen them, they had been ordinary living men, but now they too had been turned.

“Third-Rank Ghouls.”

To manufacture ghouls of this caliber in such quantity would almost certainly require a Fourth-Rank Ghoul.

It was then that he remembered the old lord’s earlier words.

“A King of Ghouls… a new King of Ghouls has been born?”

“Akmanmon, that name…”

“How can this be?”

The envoy captain seemed to have grasped something tremendous, but there was nothing he could do now to carry that knowledge beyond these walls.

The old lord, now a true ghoul, appeared to have become an entirely different person. He was swift and ruthless as he spoke.

“Kill him.”

One of the guards beside the old lord moved, his shadow cutting through the air with the speed of lightning.

In a flash of white, the long blade left its sheath and severed one of the envoy captain’s arms in a single, precise stroke.

The envoy captain barely had time to react before the pain overwhelmed him.

Ahh!

He howled in pain, clutching the wound with his remaining hand.

Blood dripped down the guard’s figure, soaking into the creature’s body with a slow, deliberate absorption.

The guard licked the blood from his face, savoring the taste in silence, completely unmoved by the captain’s screams.

“Damn you!”

“Hunter Family, you have betrayed His Majesty and the divine being!”

He activated his Divine Technique and launched an attack on the enemy.

The Third-Rank Ghoul moved with such incredible speed that he could not even touch the edge of its clothing.

“You monsters! The moment you are exposed to the light of day will be the moment of your annihilation!”

“You will not escape your fate, you…”

The Third-Rank Ghoul only stopped once every last trace of blood had disappeared into its skin. It appeared content with its grim play.

The guard raised the long blade again, and a second flash of white cut through the air in swift, overlapping arcs.

The envoy captain was struck down, his body falling apart in pieces as silence finally claimed him.

Facing a Third-Rank Ghoul, he had no chance to resist.

The Plague Blood Curse spread like writhing, spirit-like insects, devouring the captain’s flesh and blood completely and leaving no trace behind.

At that moment, the old lord gave the order without hesitation.

“Begin the plan.”

Inside Red Earth City, the deputy of the envoy team was making his way out with the captain’s letter in hand. However, he had not yet reached the gates when he found them completely sealed.

Figures began to appear in the distance. They were Ability Users, but their presence was strange and unsettling.

The deputy noticed them, but there was something undeniably wrong with their aura. It was deeply and unmistakably off.

Realizing the danger, he turned back and abandoned any thought of leaving the city.

“Something is not right.”

“We need to get to the Red Earth Temple!”

But before they could reach the Red Earth Temple, a pack of ghouls found them in a narrow alley and surrounded them from every direction.

The church members and ghouls they had arrested and uncovered earlier were only the visible tip of something far larger. Beneath that surface, an uncountable number of new ghouls had already been created.

These newly born ghouls were unlike any seen before. They had greater strength, more endurance, and an almost unyielding vitality.

It seemed there was no clear weakness to exploit, making them nearly impossible to kill.

Akmanmon, who had ascended to become a Fourth-Rank King of Ghouls, now commanded forces that the envoys could scarcely comprehend.

The gap between Third-Rank and Fourth-Rank was not just a matter of raw strength but also the sheer variety of abilities and strategies at his disposal.

The envoy team stood frozen as the creatures surged toward them, their eyes glowing with an ominous red light. They cried out in terror.

“They are all… ghouls!”

“The Hunter Family has been compromised. The Cannibal Cult has been in control of them from the beginning!”

After witnessing this, and knowing the captain had gone to meet the Hunter Family’s lord just moments before, there was no longer any doubt about where the corruption had taken root.

The envoy team regrouped and fought against the ghouls, hoping to attract the attention of the distant temple while attempting to break through the encirclement.

One by one, the team members fell, dragged into the shadowy alleys and torn apart.

“Eat them.”

“The flesh and blood of Ability Users is the sweetest of all.”

“Do not let them escape.”

In the grip of despair, the surviving envoy members cried out with fury.

“What is happening?”

“Where are the temple’s people?”

“Why haven’t they come?”

“With a commotion this great, can they not hear us?”

“They refuse to obey King Osis, but would they truly dare to betray the divine being too?”

What they did not know was that the temple itself had already been surrounded on all sides.

A barrier sealed the temple shut, crafted to ensure that no message could escape its walls.

Across Red Earth City, from the highest places to the lowest corners, every ghoul had begun to move, each one acting as part of a larger plan.

All of them were working to buy time, using any means necessary to delay the moment when word of this could reach the outside world.

Meanwhile, the pyramid, constructed by laborers who toiled tirelessly through the harshness of winter and the renewal of spring, had finally reached its initial completion.

Batch after batch of workers had lost their lives during its construction. The corpses of countless Ability Users had risen as ghouls from their graves and gathered here to ensure its completion.

The grand mausoleum now stood complete.

When several Church of Silver and White shrines within Red Earth City were destroyed, Akmanmon received word. He realized then that he could no longer remain hidden.

At the core chamber of the pyramid lay a coffin and sarcophagus crafted entirely from white silver.

The coffin, the chamber, and the entire pyramid were part of a vast, interlocking ritual formation.

Akmanmon sat atop the white silver coffin and slowly opened his eyes.

“They have found us.”

He knew it, just as the envoy captain had declared. The moment they were exposed to the light of day would mark the beginning of their extinction.

Their enemies were not mortal humans. They were the divine beings who governed this land of faith.

No matter how powerful they became, they could never stand against true divine beings. Even if the divine beings chose not to act directly, it would make no difference.

It had been the same with Suero.

Suero had never even laid eyes upon the God of Original Sin before his destruction was already inevitable.

But Akmanmon had been preparing for a very long time. He had always known this moment would arrive.

He had never once considered direct confrontation.

What he intended was to complete everything before anyone could react.

Akmanmon rose to his feet and slowly draped himself in a long, white robe with silver hems, treating the act as if it were a sacred ritual of the highest importance.

On the back of the robe was the sigil of the God of Silver and White. Over the chest rested the emblem of the Silver Insect.

As he dressed, he spoke softly to himself.

“The timing could not be better.”

“The pyramid ritual has been completed successfully, and the second plan involving the race is also in place.”

“Now, we move on to the third plan.”

Akmanmon stepped out of the pyramid, moving steadily through its corridor toward the outside.

The darkness ahead of him gave way as light broke through, illuminating the figure emerging from within.

“By the Race Covenant, let us forge an eternal pact.”

“Overcome death. Overcome restraint.”

“Release the final shackle.”

Akmanmon had never been fond of elaborate scheming. He believed that the more intricate a conspiracy, the more likely it was to fall apart. He always preferred a direct and swift approach above all else.

Either remain idle or take action, and when you act, make sure success is achieved in the shortest time possible.

This was because he had always borne an unimaginable weight of pressure, leaving him with no room to maneuver or delay.

All he could do was break free from the cage and the fate that bound him before the final moment arrived.

As the sun set, its light fell directly upon the apex of the pyramid.

Akmanmon stood at the top of the pyramid. Below him, countless ghouls gathered and converged, forming a massive army of monsters.

The craftsmen, the Ability Users, and the laborers forced into bondage were no longer people.

They had all perished, and from their lifeless bodies, a new will had emerged.

They dropped to their knees, bowing low before the pyramid, their master, and their king.

“King!”

“Our King!”

“King of Ghouls!”

The ghouls’ voices were not entirely synchronized. Their consciousness had only recently emerged within these bodies and had not yet fully absorbed the remnants of their former selves.

Akmanmon’s voice carried from the top of the pyramid, reaching not only the ears of the ghouls gathered below but also resonating within the minds of every ghoul within the pyramid’s radiant domain.

“I am Akmanmon, King of Ghouls.”

“I am your master.”

Akmanmon raised both hands, and the pyramid began to glow with a pale, ethereal light. The radiance spread outward, flowing like liquid silver across the surface of the earth and illuminating the intricate lines of the vast ritual formation.

Every symbol and sigil carved into the ground came alive, pulsating with energy. The air grew heavy, charged with an otherworldly power that seemed to hum in resonance with the pyramid itself.

All the preparation and sacrifices had culminated in this one pivotal moment.

“O race born of death, O race that seeks undying life, heed my command and rise from your slumber.”

The most terrifying event imaginable in the mortal world unfolded before their eyes.

Countless dead emerged from beneath the earth. Born from death, they returned to the world of the living.

As dusk fell, one ghoul after another broke free from their tombs and clawed their way out, their gaze fixed on the realm of the living.

In cities and family burial grounds alike, a wave of horrifying unrest spread outward.

“What is this?” The keepers of the graves stepped back in horror, their eyes fixed on the decayed arms pushing open the coffin lids.

“It’s alive!” cried those who had come to pay their respects, turning and fleeing in a frenzy of fear.

“The corpse is alive!” they shouted as they scattered in panic.

Some had not escaped the burial ground before the ravenous ghouls caught them and tore them apart. Those ghouls then began to move in groups, hunting for any other living beings they could find.

Among them, a rare few emerged from their graves already wielding supernatural power, as the Cannibal Worms within them had consumed vast reserves of Divine Blood from the corpses they inhabited.

In towns and villages of all sizes, even the most ordinary ghouls began to rise.

When they first appeared, they were gaunt and feeble. They came in swarms, erupting from the earth in great numbers all at once.

Many people in these villages had taken up faith in the God of Silver and White. When they saw the dead return to life, they felt no fear. Instead, they were seized with wild, exultant joy, crying out as though in celebration.

It was as if they had been waiting for this moment all along.

“Father, you really are alive,” someone rushed forward, their eyes wide and disbelieving, blazing with incredulous delight.

“They’re alive, all of them are alive,” a devout believer exclaimed, falling to their knees on the ground.

“Great God of Silver and White, Your divine power truly defies all imagination,” they cried out to others in the village, urging them to come and witness this “miracle.”

However, their joy was short-lived as those very “revived dead” let out bestial howls and lunged at them.

Ahh!

“No!”

“What is this? What kind of monster is this?”

“What are you doing? Don’t you recognize me?”

The ghouls began devouring those around them the moment they were born. They attacked any living thing within reach, tearing into animals, driven purely by feral hunger and instinct. In that instant, they were nothing more than beasts without reason or thought.

As they consumed flesh and blood, they grew stronger and their bodies became more resilient. Over time, something resembling genuine consciousness began to awaken within them.

Despite the overwhelming numbers of ghouls, some individuals quickly recovered from the initial shock. They organized resistance, rallying to hunt and destroy the creatures.

Freshly born ghouls were manageable and could be slain without much difficulty.

However, once a ghoul fed on flesh and blood, it became stronger and more resilient. Unlike an ordinary human, it had no obvious vital weakness.

The creature would not truly die unless the Cannibal Worm nestled within its skull was completely destroyed.

In a matter of moments, all of Red Earth Territory was thrown into chaos.

Ghouls devoured people. People fought back, slaughtering ghouls.

From the moment the pyramid was completed, countless corpses had already fallen under the influence of the Divine Artifact called the Silver Insect.

Among all those who had perished, how many had done so willingly?

Each of those corpses had given rise to a Cannibal Worm, inhabiting the lifeless shell and lying in wait for this very moment. They had been waiting for the call of Akmanmon, the King of Ghouls.

In an instant, an uncountable horde of ghouls was born across that land, so many it seemed as though every inch of ground was crawling with them.

As the light of dusk faded, the vast red earth stretched out before them, carrying the weight of an impending apocalypse.

Akmanmon, clad in his self-fashioned robe of silver and white, stood at the pinnacle, overlooking all of creation.

“I am the King of Ghouls.”

“I, Akmanmon of the Wisdom Race, speak as sovereign of my race.”

“Before the supreme wisdom-will, before the Crown that governs all of the Wisdom Race, I make this vow.”

“O boundless will that shelters and guides all of the Wisdom Race!”

“The ghouls too are a part of the Wisdom Race’s lineage, existences born beneath the reach of Your power.”

“I beseech You to answer us, to answer the prayer of Your Wisdom Race’s descendants.”

The Crown of Wisdom Covenant needed no ritual formation because it was inherently tied to the root of every member of the Wisdom Race.

It was the source from which the Wisdom Race had emerged.

Tens of thousands of ghouls lifted their voices to the heavens in a howling chorus, becoming a single thread in this ancient and monumental rite, affirming their existence and their origin.

Akmanmon, King of Ghouls, raised both arms to the sky, embracing the arrival of that vast and infinite will.

“O boundless will that shelters and guides all of the Wisdom Race!”

“I beseech You to answer my prayer.”

The sky trembled as if in anticipation.

The clouds dissolved into nothingness.

The light that had stretched across the world dimmed and gave way to the vast embrace of night, where countless stars began to shine.

A luminous divine moon ascended into the heavens, casting its silver glow over the land below.

Akmanmon witnessed the same vision that Suero, the first King of Ghouls, had once seen. By invoking the authority of a race’s sovereign, he summoned the descent of the Source of Wisdom.

Although he had prepared for this moment, the instant his gaze met the moon, its light completely consumed his eyes.

His consciousness was drawn as though pulled by an unseen force into another world entirely, and the words escaped his lips without his will.

“Crown of Wisdom.”

“This is… the Root Divine Artifact of the highest order.”