"'The smooth path you've walked all this way was a gift from fate. Now, it is time for it to collect its price.'"
He Ao stared at the radiant figure, at the enormous, colossal phantom outlined behind it.
Merely looking at that phantom, he could hear countless overlapping hymns ringing in his ears.
The phantom was not facing him. It stood directly opposite the huge gray-white eye in the sky.
"Ah..."
He Ao watched the figure floating in the air, as well as the enormous phantom.
His throat tore as he let out a hoarse sigh.
"You... right... now, are you still..."
He tore at his throat and continued in a low voice.
"You may still regard me as your teacher. I possess nearly all of his memories, of course," the radiant figure raised its head and looked calmly at He Ao, "you may also regard me as Order itself."
Hearing those words, He Ao said nothing more.
A trace of sorrow rose within him, settling between his brows and beneath his eyes.
"Heh—"
He pulled at the corner of his mouth and gave a bitter smile.
If a god did not seek the sacrifices of believers, did not covet their strength, and gave without asking for anything in return, then what it wanted was probably the believers themselves.
Now, there was no longer an Old Detective, nor was there an ambitious "next patriarch" of the Order Church. There was only the angelic incarnation of the God of Order.
The stairway to heaven did not necessarily lead to paradise. It could also lead to hell.
Sizzle—
Intense sizzling, like flesh being seared by flames, echoed between heaven and earth.
At this moment, high in the firmament, even though the gray-white eye had been completely sealed within "crystal" formed from lines