Chapter 64
The Road to the Holy City
The royal carriage moved steadily along the wide imperial road, its wooden wheels turning with a gentle rhythm against the smooth stone path. Golden sunlight filtered through the tall trees that lined the road, casting dancing patterns of light and shadow across the carriage windows.
Inside sat Alex, Max, and Leon.
The air carried the fresh scent of pine needles and blooming wildflowers, while a soft breeze slipped through the open window like an old friend whispering quiet secrets of the road ahead.
Luna had remained behind in the capital.
There was no need for her gentle spirit magic on this journey. The young girl was safe within the tall white towers of the Mage Corps Academy, happily training with her new friends and studying the glowing manual Alex had given her.
Alex leaned back against the soft cushions of the carriage seat, his golden eyes quietly watching the scenery roll past.
Max sat across from him, polishing his sword with slow and steady movements. The steel blade reflected flashes of sunlight each time the carriage passed through a patch of bright forest light.
Beside him, Leon stared out the window with bright curiosity. The young boy's small fingers traced invisible patterns across the glass, as if imagining the adventures waiting beyond the distant horizon.
For a while, the carriage rolled forward in peaceful silence.
Then Alex finally spoke.
"We are heading to the Holy City."
Leon turned toward him immediately, his eyes wide with excitement and wonder.
"The Holy City? The heart of the Church of Light and healing?"
Alex nodded calmly.
"Yes. That is where the future Saintess and her brother live."
Max paused his polishing for a moment, raising one eyebrow thoughtfully.
"Saintess?" he said slowly. "I thought the Goddess had not chosen one in over a hundred years."
"She hasn't," Alex replied calmly. "Not officially. But the girl I am looking for carries the potential. The Church simply doesn't know it yet."
He leaned forward slightly, his voice becoming softer, warmer—like someone about to share an ancient legend whispered across generations.
"Let me tell you the true story of the gods and goddesses who created our world."
---
Long ago, before kingdoms rose and empires were born, there existed seven divine beings.
Four sisters.
And three brothers.
Together, they shaped the world.
Their powers poured into the land like rivers of divine energy, forming the mountains, seas, skies, and forests. Under their watchful eyes, life flourished. Rivers flowed with crystal water, ancient forests grew tall and proud, and the first races walked the earth beneath peaceful stars.
For a long time, the world knew only balance.
But slowly…
Greed crept into the hearts of two of the brothers.
They began to desire more power than their siblings. The harmony of the world was not enough for them. They wished to rule everything alone—to reshape the world according to their selfish ambitions.
Their names were eventually erased from sacred records.
Now they are remembered only as the Fallen Brothers.
A terrible war erupted among the gods.
The heavens shook.
Mountains cracked.
Oceans roared as divine power clashed against divine power.
The two corrupted brothers turned their strength against their own family, unleashing catastrophic forces that scarred the world forever.
In the end, four gods fell.
The two greedy brothers were destroyed in the final battle.
But the war claimed two other noble gods as well—brave brother and sister who had fought to protect the world they loved.
Only three goddesses survived.
The youngest sister was Nyxara, the Veil of Shadows — Goddess of Darkness.
She had fought desperately to stop the madness.
During the war, she used her shadows not to harm the world, but to shield the innocent and hide the weak from the raging divine storms that tore across the sky.
When the war finally ended…
Only three sisters remained standing.
---
The eldest sister was Lumaria, the Eternal Radiance.
The Goddess of Light and Judgment.
Her divine power blazed like the sun itself. With her golden light, she could expose every hidden lie, burn away corruption, deliver divine judgment upon heretics, and eradicate the servants of true darkness wherever they hid.
Her justice was absolute.
---
The second sister was Seraphira, the Gentle Dawn.
The Goddess of Healing and Mercy.
Unlike Lumaria's stern judgment, Seraphira carried warmth and compassion in her heart. Her soft divine light could heal wounds no medicine could cure, cleanse deadly diseases, mend broken spirits, and restore hope to those who had lost everything.
Even her enemies sometimes received her mercy.
Because Seraphira believed that every soul deserved a second chance.
---
The youngest sister was Nyxara, the Veil of Shadows.
The Goddess of Darkness, Secrets, and Silent Protection.
She ruled over the night, the shadows, and everything hidden from the brightness of day.
But Nyxara was not evil.
She represented the balance the world required.
The quiet rest after the blazing day.
The hidden strength that protects what the light cannot see.
The secrets that keep fragile truths safe from destruction.
Many demons and night-born creatures followed her—not out of fear, but out of loyalty.
When the other gods rejected them…
Nyxara gave them a place in the world.
---
After the war ended, the three surviving sisters worked together to heal the shattered world.
Lumaria restored the order of light.
Seraphira healed the wounds left behind by divine battles.
Nyxara gathered the broken fragments of magic that had scattered across the world and sealed them away in the deepest shadows.
Slowly, the world began to recover.
But the scars of the divine war ran deep.
Even now, thousands of years later, echoes of that ancient conflict still remain hidden beneath the surface of the world.
Ancient ruins.
Forgotten curses.
And strange gates that sometimes tear open the sky itself…
---
Inside the carriage, silence filled the air.
Leon's eyes sparkled with amazement.
"…I never heard that version of the story before," he said quietly.
Max crossed his arms thoughtfully.
"The Church teaches that the Goddesess of Light and healing created the world together."
Alex gave a small knowing smile.
"History often becomes simpler when people rewrite it."
The Holy Church, which had once worshipped all seven gods, chose to erase Nyxara from their sacred records. In ancient times, her name had been spoken with reverence beside the other divine siblings, her temples standing proudly beneath moonlit skies. But fear and ambition slowly twisted the truth. The Church elders began to claim that Nyxara had been an ally of the two fallen brothers, even though she had fought harder than anyone to stop them.
Over time, politics and fear grew stronger than honesty. Darkness itself was declared evil, and Nyxara's legacy was buried beneath centuries of rewritten scriptures. Her statues were removed, her symbols destroyed, and every mention of her name vanished from official records. The Church declared her name forbidden, something dangerous that should never be spoken aloud.
Because the three surviving sisters had stopped sending a Saintess to the mortal world for the past hundred years, the Church slowly began to lose much of its divine power. The holy blessings that once flowed through the temples like bright rivers of light began to weaken. Healing magic that had once cured deadly wounds in moments now worked slowly, like fragile streams struggling through dry land.
True miracles became rare.
This loss frightened the Church leaders. Fear soon turned into desperation, and desperation slowly transformed into greed.
Today, the Holy City was ruled by three Archbishops who shared authority over the Church.
Two of them were still decent men who tried to serve with honest hearts. They prayed sincerely, helped the poor when they could, and struggled quietly to keep the Church's traditions alive.
But the third Archbishop was very different.
Archbishop Valthor.
A man whose heart had long ago turned cold with ambition.
Greedy for wealth and hungry for power, Valthor dreamed of rising higher than the others. His true goal was to become the next Pope and take complete control of the entire Church. Under his influence, the once-holy institution slowly rotted from within.
Bribes passed through hidden hands.
Political deals were whispered behind closed doors.
Sacred offices were sold like goods in a market.
The Holy City still looked beautiful from the outside — tall white towers, shining cathedrals, and golden bells ringing through the air. But beneath that shining surface, corruption had begun to spread like quiet poison.
Because of this growing corruption, the people of the empire had slowly started to lose faith in the Church.
In public, they still smiled, bowed their heads, and prayed during ceremonies. The old traditions were respected. The temples remained full.
But deep inside their hearts, something had begun to change.
Doubt had quietly taken root.
And in the middle of all this stood two children who had grown up in a small, forgotten orphanage run by the Church itself.
The girl's name was Elyndra Voss.
She was a quiet and kind twelve-year-old with silver-white hair that shimmered softly under sunlight, like threads of moonlight woven into silk. Her gentle blue eyes always carried a peaceful glow, as if a hidden light lived quietly within her soul. Even when she smiled shyly, people felt calm around her, as though her presence alone carried warmth and comfort.
She was the one destined to become the next Saintess of Healing, chosen by Seraphira's blessing.
Her older brother was Kael Voss.
A strong and protective thirteen-year-old boy with the same silver hair and sharp, determined eyes. Unlike his sister's gentle nature, Kael carried the quiet strength of someone who had learned early how cruel the world could be. His body was lean but powerful, and he had a natural instinct for combat that surprised even the older knights of the city.
At night, when the orphanage slept, he secretly practiced fighting alone in the courtyard shadows.
Without realizing it, the darkness around him sometimes moved strangely — like silent wings watching over him.
Far above, in places beyond mortal sight, Nyxara herself had begun to notice him.
The brother and sister had grown up together inside the modest orphanage walls, sharing a small room and a simple life. They spent their days helping the younger children, cleaning the halls, carrying water buckets, and assisting the kind old nuns who ran the orphanage.
They had no parents.
No noble family.
No wealth or powerful name.
But they had something far more precious.
They had each other.
And the bond between them was strong and unbreakable.
Because of the Church's corruption, however, Elyndra and Kael had suffered quietly for many years.
Archbishop Valthor had already noticed Elyndra's unusual gift. The faint divine light inside her had begun to awaken slowly, like the first rays of dawn appearing over the horizon. Valthor understood exactly what that meant.
A future Saintess.
And to him, that meant power.
He planned to use Elyndra as a tool to increase his own influence once her abilities fully awakened.
Because of this, he kept the siblings under constant watch. They were forced to work longer hours than the other children, cleaning temple halls, preparing supplies, and running errands for the clergy. The Archbishop treated them harshly, always reminding them that their lives belonged to the Church.
Alex had learned all of this from his knowledge of the original game story.
In that timeline, Elyndra eventually awakened as the Saintess. But the corrupt Church immediately tried to control her completely, turning her into nothing more than a sacred puppet.
Kael fought desperately to protect his sister from that fate.
And in the end…
His struggle pushed him into darkness.
Alex refused to let that tragedy repeat itself.
He would reach them first.
He would protect them.
And he would help restore the natural balance between the three remaining sisters — Lumaria, Seraphira, and Nyxara — so that light, healing, and protective shadows could shine together once more.
---
The carriage continued its steady journey toward the Holy City.
Golden fields stretched across the countryside like oceans of waving wheat. Peaceful villages appeared now and then along the road, their stone chimneys releasing thin trails of smoke into the blue sky. Farmers worked quietly in their fields while children waved happily at the passing royal carriage.
Inside, Leon listened with wide, shining eyes, absorbing every word of Alex's story like a young hero hearing a legend for the first time.
Across from him, Max sat silently with one hand resting firmly on the hilt of his sword. His calm gaze occasionally swept the road ahead through the carriage window, always alert and ready to protect his prince if danger appeared.
Alex looked out toward the distant horizon.
Far ahead, faint shapes had begun to appear against the sky — the tall white spires of the Holy City rising proudly above the land like shining spears of marble reaching toward heaven.
A soft but determined light glowed in his golden eyes.
The three Goddesses had been silent for far too long.
The world had waited a century without their chosen voices.
But that silence was about to end.
It was time for their light, their healing, and their protective shadows to return to the world once more.
And Alex would be the one to bring them back.
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