Ⅰ
Beneath the night sky, in the moonlight.
The great serpent Nidhogg stretched its forty-meter-long body.
Toran, Mr. Gwen, and Mrs. Gwen immediately fell to their knees, their faces filled with devotion and boundless fervor.
Yet their fervor was not the same.
After suffering the betrayal of the former High Priest Achisto, Toran had already fallen into utter despair. If not for Grindelwald's words about "seeking the true god," the young priest would have long since sought death.
Thus, the River God had already become this young priest's last lifeline.
Only in the name of "faith" could he find the hope to go on living.
And so, as he gazed at the great serpent Nidhogg, the young priest's fervor was the purest of all.
So pure that it shone as brilliantly as life itself.
Mr. Gwen's fervor, on the other hand, was more akin to a scholar seeing his theories put into practice.
It was the ecstasy of witnessing in reality what he had sought in books.
Such joy, too, was fervent.
For it brought Mr. Gwen a sense of fulfillment unlike anything he had ever experienced.
And that fulfillment was still spreading-
"It's real! It's all real!
My conjecture was right after all!"
Mr. Gwen murmured to himself.
The fervor in his eyes deepened with every whispered word.
He seemed to have found the meaning of his life.
Mrs. Gwen's reasons were much simpler.
She loved Mr. Gwen.
She supported his research.
And there was also...
A child!
All along, the greatest regret she and her husband shared was that they had no children.
She had sought out doctors, but none of them could help.
Just as she was about to give up, someone told her that a deity could help her.
That was why she had joined the