"That one’s ability mainly involves transforming different corpses into various transcendent materials,"
Joseph Backer slowly said, "For example, the paint used by Amos needs to be ground from the skin of ’loved ones’; his cursed object ’Heart-Piercing Line’ requires the fresh blood from the heart of ’enemies’; the ’Bone Blood Trigger’ must use the bone and blood from the ’same person’; and the ’Dirty Blood Bullet’ is a consumable made from the liver of a Transcendent..."
...It doesn’t sound particularly impressive.
It feels like a large-scale transmutation wizard...
Annan silently mumbled to himself.
But he didn’t voice this thought out loud.
It’s not that he was concerned about Joseph Backer’s opinion...
He cared more about what the Skeleton Lord would think.
Although not saying the three words "Skeleton Lord" directly wouldn’t drag one into a nightmare,
who knows if it’s because the Skeleton Lord has set up some sort of automatic response barrier here, or if he could really hear...
If he could truly hear, then it might be best for Annan not to express any overly strong opinions for the time being.
However, Annan did have some doubts.
"But I heard that he has been around since the third epoch..."
Annan asked with some confusion, "And to my knowledge, several hundred years ago, the present countries were all under the rule of a single empire..."
The former piece of information, he acquired from the books written by a person suspected to be Annan’s ancestor, "Grianznuha Rinfrost".
The latter he saw in the educational books brought by Salvatore... According to the books he saw, the current five countries split apart following a savage civil war after the imperial capital of a great empire sank.
—That civil war is known as the "Blood Taxation".
Upon hearing this, Joseph Backer slightly frowned.
"...My lord, have you read the books in Amos’s study?"
Annan was somewhat startled.
He suddenly remembered.
The books in Amos’s study seemed to have been left behind by Joseph Backer...
With a resigned sigh, Joseph said, "I didn’t take those books away because they are useless...
"Because Grianznuha Rinfrost, he is a follower of that one. Many of the books he wrote contain that one’s rites and even encourage people to use them."
Annan raised his voice subconsciously.
This is someone from the Rinfrost family—
"He’s not really from the Rinfrost family,"
As if knowing what Annan was thinking.
The tall wizard chuckled lightly: "Or rather, he once was. But he was exiled and stripped of the Rinfrost surname. Still, he shamelessly continues to use that name... The books he wrote, you may as well consider them fiction. At least they are well-written and quite interesting to read.
"As for that empire you just mentioned..."
His expression became slightly more serious: "I believe you’re referring to the Aesirland Empire.
"The Aesirland Empire is indeed very ancient. But it was not the only ruler in this world... It was once called the Auster Empire, coming from the deserts of the east, ruled jointly by horsemen and elves. Until two epochs ago, it was always situated in the deserts of the east.
"Afterward, the Cataclysm of Eras occurred. A group of Austers fled westward, initiating an invasion war... and they easily seized the entire territory of Aesirland, founding the Aesirland Empire. At that time, we weren’t called ’humans’ but ’Aesirlanders’."
"The Cataclysm of Eras?"
Annan tilted his head slightly and asked softly.
"Yes, it’s the way we Transcendents distinguish between eras."
Recognizing that Annan was a neophyte Transcendent, Joseph decided to start from the very beginning, "Even the True Gods couldn’t always handle the backlog of curses. The accumulating curses would give birth to some ’accidents,’ some... disasters capable of altering all civilization.
"For example, the desert became alive, transforming into a vast and intelligent creature; or when one third of the Aesirland Empire’s territory suddenly sank, creating what is now known as the Aesirland Sea.
"But actually, mortals are somewhat unclear on certain things. The start of the Fifth Era is not marked by ’the sinking of the Aesirland Empire’... while the old empire was great, it was not great enough to change the entire course of civilization.
"The real marker was the collapse of the great barrier."
"...Didn’t the great barrier collapse because of the sinking of the Aesirland Empire?"
Joseph chuckled, "The Fire of Order has always been controlled by the Orthodox Church, what does that have to do with the Aesirland Empire? Other than causing the extinction of all elves and most centaurs living in the capital overnight, and altering the image of the True Gods to resemble Aesirlanders... what else did it affect the Church?
"They remain the twelve unique True Gods of this world, whether in the west or east of the desert. The Mist can’t isolate the power of the divine..."
Annan began to recall.
According to the history books he had seen, the great barrier shattered "due to the disintegration of the Church of the Twelve."
But now that he thought about it...
Why would the Church just fall apart like that?
"Because the real marker of the end of the Fourth Epoch,"
Joseph explained, "is that the barrier was no longer everlasting.
"The barriers of the past could perpetually sustain themselves by harnessing the power of Mist from the True Gods; but now it requires the burning of Divine Power to maintain. The Silver Baron and Grandmother, for example, are powerful enough to sustain a barrier on their own... while the likes of the Red Knight and the Mysterious Lady must combine their powers to do so.
"This isn’t made public, merely out of concern for the impact, to avoid causing panic. And the history books don’t mention other eras because our current five nations are actually built on the foundation of the Fourth Era’s Aesirland Empire.
"Knowledge of the Third Era and before is completely unnecessary and unneeded for the average person. Elves and centaurs have low populations and can only occupy a very small territory; the rest needs to be parceled out again... for instance, the once-dirge duchy has been under their rule since the Third Era, although back then they were a kingdom...
"In other words— or at least according to our research, the collapse of the great barrier might have been a deliberate decision by the True Gods. Since the Aesirland Empire had already sunk, it was too wasteful to keep maintaining a barrier that covered all of Aesirland... including the Aesirland Sea. It was better to split the barrier, with each True God protecting a section of land, prolonging the time it could last."
At this point, Annan understood completely.
That’s why the book written by Gerenz Nuha said that the Skeletal Lord got along well with the Bone Mother in the previous era but was demoted to an Evil God in the current era...
He had been an Evil God from the very beginning.
Because in the previous era, he was a follower of the Bone Mother— of course he got along well with her.
And indeed, it could be traced back to the Third Era... that was indeed the case. Because the Skeletal Lord was built on the history and remains of the entire dirge duchy, which had already originated in the Third Era.
What Gerenz Nuha said was indeed true. Even if one were to test the truthfulness with lie detection, the result would still be "it is true."
But the content within was complete nonsense.
He was simply intentionally whitewashing the Skeletal Lord...
However, this barrier maintained by burning Divine Power... did give Annan an unpleasant sense of déjà vu.
Why did it feel so similar to a certain suffering game?