Tears of Dawn (Part One)

As the scholars in the lands of the duchies grew stronger, even the clerics of the Holy See in the distant Central Orora Empire began to take notice of the "mages" emerging from these remote, barren lands.

They had appeared only recently.

At least, compared to the thousands of years of conflict between the Dark World and the Holy See of Light, the scholars had been around for only a short time. They had first officially entered the Holy See's field of vision just eight hundred years ago, during the White Niven incident.

As for the X Mask hunting organization that came before them, the Holy See had regarded it as little more than a small, civilian group—no different from gladiator arenas or mercenary guilds.

But the mages who had emerged from these remote, barren lands had grown at a truly astonishing rate!

In just a few hundred years, these forces, which the Holy See had once considered no more than civilian organizations, had grown into a vast power that nearly encompassed all the lands of the duchies. As a result, secret meetings within the Holy See had increasingly focused on policies and strategies targeting these mages.

Thus, book-burning incidents across the duchies had become increasingly common.

As attention to the scholars grew, information about the most powerful among them naturally began to appear in the depths of the Holy See's intelligence archives. The four Sacred Demon Artifacts that scholars studying the esoteric arts of forging Magic Props regarded as the pinnacle of their pursuit were no exception!

In its burning sacrifice state, the Golden Arbiter stood amid the torrential Evil Torrent pouring down from the sky like a colossal golden giant, ceaselessly releasing surging energy in every direction.

Facing the attack of the Tears of Dawn, the giant unleashed