"Fenrico… my proxy… offer your faith… I shall stir the black tide to descend…"
Inside the Tide Cathedral, the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare reflected Fenrico's turbid eyes. The struggle on his face grew weaker and weaker.
Under wave after wave of murmurs, his final resistance faded away.
"Yes… I am willing to bow my head, yet become the servant of all living beings—"
Fenrico lifted the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare and was about to begin chanting when the great doors of the Tide Cathedral were blasted open with a violent crash.
The huge noise snapped him out of his dazed, controlled state. He seemed to hear the mirror let out a piercing roar of rage before falling silent again.
Outside the door was already chaos.
"How dare you! Disregarding the Order's prohibition!"
"To blaspheme the Order's dignity and destroy the church doors!"
"Add another count to his crimes!"
Alessio was furious. Leading a group of Laureate Envoys, he strode to the shattered entrance of the Cathedral of Mercury. What met his eyes was a young man dressed in casual white clothes.
"Seize this fool and put him on a pilgrim ship!"
His words—and the surrounding Laureate Envoys—were frozen in time-stop. The young man merely let out a light scoff:
"Naughty."
An emperor needs schemes, but a Dou Emperor does not.
Power needs attitude, but strength does not.
With absolute power and being inside a script, he naturally had zero scruples.
He raised his head and met Fenrico's gaze. Fenrico was slowly descending from the throne, expression calm and composed. From a distance he spoke clearly:
"Traveler from afar, I wonder what brings you here today."
"Allow me to introduce myself. Head Fenrico, my name is Noah."
Noah stepped toward Fenrico while pointing at the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare in the other man's hand.
He could have just snatched it outright, but if it was Fenrico, he could afford to be a little more patient.
"Sorry for barging into the Order so rudely, but I have a story I think you'll be very interested in."
Fenrico glanced at the time-stopped Cathedral of Mercury and gave a faint, bitter smile inside.
When had the Order offended such a terrifyingly powerful Resonator? If this person decided to act against the Order, the Order would have no way to resist.
He cupped his hands, face returning to calm:
"I am all ears."
A few minutes later, after Noah's straightforward spoilers, Fenrico "readily" accepted the reality.
"Head Fenrico, take my advice—you cannot control this Threnodian creation."
"But… this is a wondrous artifact that allows communication with the Sentinel."
Clearly, Fenrico—who had not yet experienced Leviathan's body reconstruction—still held a sliver of hope in the mirror.
Noah mercilessly shattered his illusion:
"The Sentinel is dead. What you're communicating with is a Threnodian."
"How dare you! Such blasphemous words!" Fenrico flew into a rage.
"I can try my best to see if I can revive It."
"Righteous one, from now on the Order of the Deep shall be your shield." Fenrico respectfully offered the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare.
As expected of a politician. The reluctance he had deliberately shown earlier was probably all an act.
Noah took the mirror and suddenly squeezed with force.
Hm? It didn't break?
Surprised, he tossed the mirror to the ground, formed a hand seal, and unleashed a mini version of Celestial Court Radiance without holding back.
A huge crater appeared in the floor. The mirror remained intact.
"What kind of material is this? So tough?"
"It's not just tough," Fenrico shook his head. "Even if you throw it away, it will return automatically after some time."
"That bizarre?"
Noah muttered a couple of times and tapped the mirror surface:
"Hey, jail-fish, stop playing dead. I know you can hear me."
No reaction from the mirror.
Noah simply lifted it up. The surface reflected both his and Fenrico's faces:
"Jail-fish, quick—look who's next to me? Your proxy has already been turned by me. Happy?"
The next moment, a suppressed roar of fury rang in both their minds simultaneously:
"…Damned insect! I will kill you!"
"You? With what strength?"
Noah sneered disdainfully:
"Come on, don't end up getting hung up and whipped with a hundred vines again."
"Oh right, you screamed really loudly last night."
"Do you know Ovathrax? Later I'll tell It all about your deeds. I can't even imagine how It'll laugh at you."
Crack—
Under Fenrico's shocked gaze, the supposedly indestructible mirror shattered into countless pieces from sheer humiliation.
All the fragments scattered like snow, turning into black tide that was instantly collected into a pure white scroll, never to escape again.
"I hadn't even gotten serious and it already broke. What a fragile glass-heart."
But this time, Leviathan should no longer be able to control all of Ragunna and summon the black tide to reconstruct Its body.
Shaking his head, Noah placed the rolled-up scroll into his inventory.
There was no safer place in the world than his inventory for something like this.
Threnodian creations were far too sinister—exceeding even the capabilities a Threnodian should possess. No matter who he gave it to, Noah wouldn't feel at ease.
Turning around, he looked at Fenrico with a trace of concern in his eyes.
He had originally wanted to try putting Phoebe in charge as head, but her seniority was too low; she might not command respect. And Phoebe was too kind—she might not be suited for the role.
Though Fenrico's past was hard to judge, in the entire Order of the Deep, no one was more suitable to remain on the throne than Fenrico.
"Head Fenrico, um… I'll be direct. Do you think you can still resist the erosion of the black tide?"
"Righteous one, to be honest, I have already been severely eroded by the black tide. The Threnodian's whispers affect me almost every moment."
Fenrico sighed and turned to look up at the statue of the Sentinel on the throne:
"My periods of clarity are growing shorter. In the coming time, I will evaluate and select the next candidate for head."
"I see…"
Noah fell silent for a moment.
If everything went smoothly, once he obtained Imperator's separation authority, he could help Fenrico separate the black tide's influence.
Indeed, Fenrico had sent countless innocent people onto pilgrim ships—his crimes were numerous. But no matter what, the black tide of a Threnodian was not the appropriate punishment for him.
As for how to deal with Fenrico afterward… Noah decided not to think about it for now, nor did he feel he had more right than the locals of Ragunna to judge.
What he could do was help Rinascita eliminate the Threnodian's whispers and then reveal the truth to the public.
"By the way."
Pushing aside stray thoughts, Noah spoke again:
"Let's change contact methods. If anyone from the Fractsidus comes to the Order in the future, secretly send me a message and stall them as long as possible."
…
"Phrolova!"
Cristoforo, disguised, walked the streets of Ragunna. He communicated through a Red Spider Lily, his suppressed voice unable to hide his anger:
"The script's anchor point—the Decree-defiling Mirror of Nightmare—has suddenly been destroyed. I can no longer use it as a blueprint to start another script."
That Threnodian creation was supposed to be nearly indestructible. Cristoforo couldn't fathom how Noah had done it.
"Oh? Finally no more continuing the failed script? Then haven't we returned to reality?"
Phrolova's surprised voice came from the flower:
"Wait, doesn't that mean the high-grade recovery potion I gave you earlier won't come back?"
"Forget that damn potion! Do you know what this means?"
Cristoforo angrily lowered his voice:
"It means without the Threnodian creation as a channel, the black tide cannot descend! Even if you give Noah a terminal, he won't get polluted anymore!"
"You owe me one high-grade recovery potion. I'm noting it down. I'm trying to enter that inverted tower now. Hanging up."
Hearing Phrolova's nonchalant tone, blue veins bulged on Cristoforo's forehead. He hurled the Red Spider Lily to the ground and stomped it to pieces.
After doing so, he panted heavily, anger still burning.
Why! Why hadn't Noah followed his script and gotten polluted from the start, fusing into Leviathan's body?
He had laid an airtight plan across all of Ragunna long ago:
Sharing cheap mass-produced public terminal technology, ensuring the divine invocation rituals went smoothly, distributing terminals to everyone through every possible channel.
Every step of his script was the result of years of painstaking effort—flawless and impeccable.
So why didn't Noah have a public terminal?
Could that person really be so freakishly intelligent that he saw the problem with the terminals from the very beginning?
Cristoforo racked his brain but found no answer. His chest ached from pent-up frustration, almost unable to breathe. Then suddenly, two faint voices reached his ears.
Following the sound, he saw two priests casually chatting at Ragunna's city entrance:
"Public terminals are just cheap mass-produced junk anyway. Why not follow protocol and give one to that guy just now?"
"Give it to him for what? Some stinking outsider taking advantage of the festival to lift the sea ban and come beg in Ragunna."