13 Mink Street

Chapter 75: Tiz’s True Strength

Outside of the church, Simon pulled off his black hood and dropped to one knee, pressing his palm flat against the ground. “In the name of the god I revere, I ask that you grant the shackles that carry out your will to bind all that lies beyond Order.”

The black-clad clergy who surrounded the church in two concentric rings, or more precisely, the members of the Whip of Order, all dropped to one knee in unison, mirroring Simon’s posture as they spoke together, “In the name of the god I revere, I ask that you grant the shackles that carry out your will to bind all that lies beyond Order.”

Beneath each member of the Whip of Order, a shadow in the shape of a black chain appeared, and they all stretched towards the church. From afar, it looked as though countless black chains had locked the church together with the Throne of Order that stood above it.

***

Rasma stood up and bit down hard, his voice carrying a note of weary frustration, “Tiz, you’ve gone mad! Do you know who you look like to me right now? You look like the last mad pope before the collapse of the Church of Light!”

“You all believe that he was mad, but what if he was the one who was truly awake? He once stood at the top of a tower and shouted that he did not believe the God of Light ever existed. I find that I now understand his feelings. No matter how accurate your thinking may be, once you stop aligning with the crowd, the crowd gains the right to define you as insane.

“Rasma, you have not yet experienced that feeling, but you should still be able to imagine it. The last pope of the Church of Light did not believe in the God of Light from the depths of his heart, and yet he still managed to climb, step by step, up to the papal throne. You, on the other hand, have always firmly believed in the God of Order, and yet I stand before you now, constantly blaspheming that god, and I have already condensed a godhead fragment.

“That year, after my son and daughter-in-law knelt before me, begging me again and again, I ultimately chose to help them end their lives. From that moment on, I chose to sink into decline. In my heart, the God of Order no longer existed, and I no longer believed in him. And yet, it was precisely when I chose, from the depths of my heart, to despise the God of Order that the power of Order’s faith began to accumulate rapidly and that the branches of the Order faith system within me began to grow and mature without restraint.

“Rasma, do you not find that absurd?”

“Tiz, it is the God of Order who is forgiving you! He hopes to use his mercy to call you back from your misguided path.”

“No, this has nothing to do with him. I despise the God of Order, but have always believed in Order itself. He fabricated a false Light of Order. He forged a line of Order that never existed, yet because generation after generation of us have believed in it with utter sincerity, that false Light of Order has become a real Light of Order, and those nonexistent rules of Order have become genuine rules.

“He deceived us, yet through our genuine faith, we transformed the false into the real. Within the rules of Order, there is no god. You, me, and the three of you, all of us, and the God of Order himself, are merely people standing along this path, walking along it.

“He may have walked faster than us, he may be ahead of us. Perhaps we can choose to look at his back, but there is no need to kneel and worship, because when you kneel before him, he will smile, and then he will eat you.”

Rasma waved his hand, and the Light of Order fell to the ground. “That is enough, Tiz. At this moment, I am no longer the High Priest of the Church of Order, and we are no longer companions who share the same faith.”

Rasma glanced back at the three Temple elders behind him. From beginning to end, aside from the one comment from Elder Sithe, they had remained unnervingly silent.

Rasma turned back to Tiz. “Think of me as a robber. You hold a jewel that we need, and now you must hand that jewel over to us, because we are determined to take it. Now, you may state your conditions, and we can talk.”

“I have three conditions,” Tiz stated.

At that moment, Rasma let out a long breath. He knew that the three Temple elders behind him felt the same. Conditions meant that there was room to negotiate. What Rasma had feared the most was that after a string of doctrine-shattering words reminiscent of the ravings of the last pope of the Church of Light, Tiz would choose to do something extreme.

“The first condition is that I will not enter the Temple of Order. I will not allow myself to serve a fraud who is not a god, nor will I allow myself to walk up to him and offer myself as fodder.”

“Then there is nothing to discuss!” Sithe’s voice was frigid. “Your entry into the Temple is our bottom line. The Church of Order cannot allow you to remain outside of the Temple. We will instead choose to suppress you. If fortune favors us, then after suppressing you we may still extract some shattered godhead fragment. If not, the Temple of Order will lose a newly risen elder. We can accept that outcome and are willing to bear the cost.”

“Sithe, wait,” Gale said.

“I am sick of this, Gale! Truly sick of it. He has no intention of negotiating at all.”

“Wait,” Gale insisted. “Let him finish.”

He looked at Tiz. “To this day, I still believe that when you spoke those words before me back then, my choice to not punish you is something I can take pride in.”

Tiz placed his hands over his chest and bowed. Gale returned the gesture in kind. Of the five people present, the three Temple elders were far older than their appearances suggested. While both Tiz and Rasma were elderly men, before the elders, they could still be considered young.

“Please continue,” Gale said.

“I can give you a godhead fragment. But I will not enter the Temple of Order.”

Sithe laughed out loud. “Gale, act now to suppress him. Can you not see it? He is mocking us for his own amusement. If he hands over a godhead fragment, do you think he will still be allowed to live?”

Tiz calmly looked over at Sithe. “I have more than one godhead fragment.”

Silence fell.

Gale and Niven’s expressions changed drastically. Rasma, who stood closest to Tiz, felt the corner of his mouth begin to twitch. As rivals in our youth, I struggled upward while you declined. I thought the greatest blow was that I struggled to climb up and seize the position of High Priest while you secretly became a fallen genius. What truly breaks me is learning that you became a god more than once.

Gale spoke, “Though this is shocking to me, I do not believe you are deceiving us. Once conditions are agreed upon, you will prove this.”

“I will,” Tiz said.

“Very well. If you hand over a godhead fragment, you may remain outside the Temple,” Gale replied. “State your second condition.”

“My second condition is that from my generation onward, the Immers family will no longer have members enter the Church. The Immers family will completely sever itself from the Church and will become an ordinary family.”

Niven frowned. “Very few people would reject the blessings of a god. Tiz, if you enter the Temple of Order, your descendants will become the God of Order’s favored children. Are you certain you wish to abandon that?”

“I have already made myself clear. Not only do we abandon those blessings, we will sever ourselves entirely from the Church.”

“I agree,” Gale said. “You may state your third condition.”

“The third condition is that the three of you will swear upon your divinity that you will not erase from memory what I have said about the God of Order. Rasma, you as well, will swear upon your faith.”

“You seek to corrupt us?” Niven said. “You underestimate our faith! Our loyalty to the God of Order is not something that can be shaken by a few mere words.”

Gale sighed. “Tiz, in my eyes you are still a misguided man. I hope you will be able to awaken and return to the embrace of Order.”

“Our faith has long been unshakable,” Sithe said coldly.

Rasma waited until the three Temple Elders finished speaking before opening his mouth. “I will swear as well.”

Tiz looked at them. “The third condition can be fulfilled now.”

Gale opened his hand, showing his palm. A black, glowing crystal appeared above it. Niven did the same. Sithe’s crystal emerged from her brow to hover before her.

“I swear upon my divinity that what I have seen and heard today will not be erased.”

“I swear upon my divinity that what I have seen and heard today will not be erased.”

“I swear upon my divinity that what I have seen and heard today will not be erased.”

After the three Temple elders completed their oaths, Rasma closed his eyes. A black flower appeared before him, its veins strikingly clear. “I swear upon my faith that what I have seen and heard today will not be erased.”

Oaths, in truth, are not always powerful. Even after swearing, there are ways to circumvent them or escape through narrow gaps at minimal cost. Yet divinity and faith remember. Even if the memories were eventually erased, this oath would resurface again and again, and with that, the erased memories will return.

“We have agreed and have sworn,” Gale stated gravely. “Tiz, it is now your turn to uphold your promise.”

Tiz shook his head. “I do not trust your promises.”

“What do you mean!” Sithe shouted.

Tiz’s eyes filled with gold, and his presence surged. The scene from Oak Cemetery started replaying. “Promises are unreliable. I require assurances.”

“Assurances?” Gale frowned. “What else do you require?”

“This is not a condition; I will provide the assurances myself.”

The golden light spread through Tiz’s eyes until they were completely filled. At his chest, a black crystal shimmered. It was the godhead fragment that he had condensed.

Then, something happened that shocked everyone present. To Tiz’s left, a younger version of himself appeared. His gaze was sharp, his aura powerful, and at his chest was a black crystal shaped like a spike.

Pu’er had once said that when young, Tiz had been the greatest genius she had ever seen. At that time, Tiz’s loyalty to the Church of Order, the God of Order, and his family’s legacy had been absolute. Mr. Hoffen had mentioned that Tiz had struggled greatly to suppress his realm, as he had been unwilling to take that next step. What even Mr. Hoffen had not understood was that Tiz had divided himself into past and present in order to distribute that burden. When sharing was no longer possible, both his past self and his present self reached the same realm.

Tiz turned to look at the younger version of himself. “Go.”

The young Tiz stepped forward, and his black crystal began to glow. A vortex appeared before him, and within it was a massive black stone gate.

“That is the gate of the Temple of Order,” Niven said.

Anyone who condensed a godhead fragment also gained the qualifications to resonate with the Temple of Order. The Temple would open its gate, forming a medium similar to a teleportation array to guide that person inside.

The black crystal within the young Tiz ignited. In an instant, the flames spread across his entire body.

“He is burning his godhead fragment!” Sithe cried out.

The young Tiz suddenly walked directly through the black stone gate. It took just a heartbeat for him to appear above a sea of mist. Beneath his feet stood a towering temple.

There were already figures present in the Temple plaza, and they looked upward.

“Have Gale and the others completed the summoning?”

“Most likely. That aura must belong to the one who finally awakened.”

“He awakened because he had no other choice.”

“Enough. As long as he enters, things will ease for us.”

“Do you not find this newcomer’s aura excessively strong, and also extremely unstable?”

The young Tiz began to fall. The black crystal within him completely disintegrated, and his body transformed into a massive fireball.

“He’s detonating his divinity!”

“Activate defensive arrays!”

“He’s insane! Completely insane!”

The black fireball slammed into the Temple. The barrier surrounding the Temple of Order shook violently and cracks spread throughout it.

***

“What did you just do?” Sithe stared at Tiz in disbelief.

“He burned a godhead fragment and chose to self-detonate above the Temple of Order,” Gale said in a heavy voice.

“You are insane!” Sithe’s aura surged, and a crushing pressure surged outward, only for Gale to step in front of her.

“Calm yourself.”

Her voice caught before she could answer. That was because another figure had just appeared beside Tiz. This one was a middle-aged Tiz. His eyes were cold and indifferent.

Niven’s voice trembled, “He doesn’t have two fragments! He... has three!”

Gale’s mouth fell open. “Three.”

Even Sithe managed to regain her composure. At Oak Cemetery, Tiz had already revealed that he had stepped halfway into that realm, yet even after losing one fragment, he still had two. If he wished, he could repeat that action twice more.

“Remove the Throne of Order. Remove the chains,” Tiz calmly demanded. “Otherwise...”

Before the middle-aged Tiz, another vortex began to form.

“Lift the seal!” Gale roared.

Rasma immediately issued the command. “By the authority of the High Priest, I order all seals removed!”

The Throne shattered. The chains collapsed. Many members of the gathered clergy spat blood as they withdrew the bindings too quickly.

Inside the church, the floor beneath the middle-aged Tiz cracked to reveal a teleportation array. This was Hoffen’s handiwork. Its destination was close, as it connected to the Swillen’s regional array.

Light flashed, and the middle-aged Tiz vanished. The next moment, he appeared at the array in the Swillen Regional Administrative Office. Several clergy members who were responsible for maintaining the array saw him and were stunned. Tiz’s gaze swept over them, and a wave of force rolled out, flipping them all over. He then reached out, adjusting the array and restarting it. Using an array twice in such a short span placed an enormous burden on it, but that was clearly not something Tiz cared about. With another flicker of light, he vanished once more.

***

“Who are you?”

“Who are you!”

The middle-aged Tiz glanced around and stepped out of the ritual array, only to then vanished from where he had stood. He had already arrived in Veyn. If the Allen family’s teleportation array had not been damaged beyond use long ago, he would not have needed to borrow the Church of Order’s regional arrays to move about.

“Take a good look. This is the most precious treasure of our Raphael family. Once in the distant past, it belonged to the Allen family, but now it stands as the symbol of our family’s rise.”

Inside a study in a manor, the Raphael family’s patriarch was showing off to the head of another family. “The Allen family is finished. That group of fools never knew how to properly run a family. Now is the time to drive them completely out of York City.”

“I think I still need to consider this.”

“What is there left to consider? There is nothing to consider.”

“Yes.”

“Who are you!”

The middle-aged Tiz had appeared inside that study. The manor was guarded by an elite security force, and inside were auras that belonged to both clergy and demonkin. The defenses were extremely tight, but unfortunately for them, they were facing a Temple elder.

“Goddess of Nature—Incineration.” Tiz used the Arts of the Berai Church. This was only one of that church’s most basic Arts, but it still proved to be extremely effective, especially since Tiz had already immobilized the two men. They could only remain where they were, frozen in place as they were burned alive. Since he did not know which was the Raphael family’s patriarch and which was not, Tiz burned them both. Only two piles of ash remained in the study.

A moment later, Tiz vanished yet again. He returned to the teleportation array at the Veyn Regional Administrative Office of the Church of Order. Several clergy had only just arrived to investigate the intrusion, but before they could react, he swept them all away. The array activated once more, and the middle-aged Tiz departed for his next destination, then another, and yet another.

Reality proved that when a Temple elder went mad and decided to abuse the teleportation arrays, the regional districts were, for a time, completely powerless to stop them. They could only let Tiz do as he pleased.

Back where everything had started, inside the church on Mink Street, the true Tiz opened his left hand while his right hand held a sword hilt. Black smoke flowed from the hilt, slicing a massive wound across his other palm. Blood freely poured from it.

“By blood sacrifice, in the name of the head of the Immers family, from this day forth, I sever the spirituality of all members of the Immers and their descendants.”

In this case, spirituality referred to the talent needed to enter the church, not anything else. The reason the Immers family had been able to pass down a legacy within the Church of Order for centuries was largely due to the fact that their bloodline frequently produced descendants with impressive spiritual aptitude. Other families’ ancestors prayed for blessings upon their descendants, even going to the point of becoming entities that could be summoned. On the other hand, Tiz placed a curse upon the Immers family.

From this day forward, he cut off, at the root, any possibility of a member of the Immers family entering the church again. Blood began to flow beneath Tiz’s feet, forming a blood sacrifice ritual array. In the name of the family patriarch, he delivered a curse.

***

“Karon, when you see this, open the drawer to your left, put it on, and wait for me to come back.”

Karon opened the drawer. All that was in it was a silver-white mask. Just looking at it made his heart clench. Its icy touch was deeply unpleasant, almost instantly inducing a surge of dizziness and nausea. Even so, Karon endured the discomfort, picked up the mask, and put it on.

This was because, ever since he had been young, his response to Tiz’s orders had always been the same. “Okay, Grandpa.”

The mask remained on for a long time, nearly an hour. Since Tiz had ordered him to wear it and wait for his return, Karon refused to remove it before that. After putting it on, he leaned back in the chair and did not move, not even to turn his head.

At that moment, elsewhere in the house, thin, invisible threads of blood appeared beneath Mason’s feet, beneath Aunt Winnie’s feet, and beneath Mina’s, Lent’s, and Clarice’s as well. They attached themselves to their bodies, and then withdrew. The people involved showed no reaction at all and felt no discomfort.

At the same time, in the study on the third floor, Pu’er suddenly lifted her head. She saw a blood thread appear and reach for Karon, but when it touched him, the silver-white mask on Karon’s face emitted an ashen glow, and the blood thread simply shattered.

Karon felt a sensation like his body being scorched by fire, but very quickly, a coolness spread down from the mask, seeping into his entire body. At that moment, a sentence he had once said while sitting in the hearse while Tiz suddenly surfaced in his mind, “Order is, in fact, a mask.”