Masked Knight

Chapter 332: The Forbidden Door

Translator: GamingLife Editor: Frappe

At the highest peak of the Roland temple, the great hall was somber as always and a huge fire flickered. The shadows of the fire swayed on the walls, causing the entire hall to be filled with a mysterious atmosphere.

Prometheus, the Roland temple’s Pontiff. He was still wearing his silver mask, and currently, he was alone in the great hall.

Prometheus slowly climbed up the stairs of the spiral staircase. There was an open platform above it, where one could fully feel the cold wind from the summit.

Looking down, below the steps of the temple’s main building, there were several ascetics praying at the main hall of the temple on all fours.

He gazed at them for a moment, and his lips curled into a smile.

Absurd fellows.

The war had started for quite a few days. The Holy Knight Regiment was fighting a bloody battle. Although they had lost their paladins, the Holy Knight Regiment was still much more powerful than the armies of the Roland Continent’s kingdoms. However, the commander of the Roland Kingdom was not a fool. He led his massive army to fight a long war of attrition against the temple.

This was a smart strategy, but the result was still foolish!

Prometheus sneered.

Nobody knew that he, the pontiff of the temple, never wanted to win this battle——How ridiculous! Why would Kara the great devil care about the mere position of the humans’ Pontiff?

The sole purpose of starting this war was to destroy the temple! To destroy that person in heaven’s agent in the human world!

No matter who won or lost this battle, there was no difference at all for Kara.

If the Roland Kingdom won, the temple would be destroyed as a result. This would undoubtedly be the best result.

If the temple won, then the Roland Kingdom would be united into a massive empire of the temple—and its leader would still be him!

Hahahahaha... What a wonderful situation!

"Your Majesty, what are you smiling at?" a cold voice rang from behind.

Prometheus turned around and looked calmly at the person behind him. He sighed gently, "Fielding, you’ve gotten out?"

Fielding was wearing a badly torn armor. His gaze was terrifyingly calm, as though it was not life flowing in it, but ice!

He slightly bowed and said in a low voice, "Yes, Your Majesty. My training has ended. The person you sent over just now told me that you wanted to see me."

Even though he was bowing, there was not a single trace of respectfulness in his voice.

Prometheus squinted his eyes at Fielding. His eyes scanned from Fielding’s face to his hands. His right hand was pressed on the handle of his sword all the time, and the coarse knuckles seemed to be full of power.

"Hmm. Very good. I can see that you have achieved some great improvements after your training this time!" Prometheus nodded, "Now that the Holy Knight Regiment is fighting a bloody battle, as the only paladin of the temple, I wish that you could go to the front line! Are you willing to do so?"

Fielding was silent for a moment before he raised his head, and a mocking smile appeared on his face. The paladin then spoke, not too loudly but his voice was firm, "I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I refuse to do so!"

"Oh?" Prometheus did not show any discontent or anger. His lips were still curled in a smile, "Why?"

The smile on Fielding’s face disappeared. His expression became solemn, "Prometheus, there is no one else here, so let’s just be frank and open. Since the first day I returned to the temple, you already knew my intentions! You should have understood that the main reason I came back to the temple was to kill you! You already knew this long ago, and I also knew that you have seen through my mind! But what surprised me was that you possessed a strength that was unpredictable to me!"

Prometheus remained smiling, "Paladin Fielding, you are a brave man."

Fielding lowered his head and said in a low voice, "I understand that although I’m a paladin, my strength as one does not pose a threat to you. Hence, you did not harm me! As for me, I knew that I won’t be able to kill you, so I chose to continue training. I’ve once sworn that before I have the certainty to be able to kill you, I would not end my training!"

Prometheus laughed, "So now that you’re out, you must be confident that you can kill me?"

"A little, but not much," Fielding confessed straightforwardly. He then shook his head and said, "Too bad I can’t wait anymore! I’m afraid that if I wait any longer, there will not be enough time anymore."

He suddenly looked up straight into Prometheus’ eyes and asked slowly, "Tell me, what is your true purpose?"

Fielding grasped the handle of his sword and moved forward slowly, "The temple cannot win this battle. You and I know this very well. Even if you release all the forces of the temple available now, it will only bring havoc to the Roland Continent. The final outcome will be the temple being destroyed while the Roland Kingdom only suffers severe damage! As the supreme leader of the temple, what is your objective?"

"Do you really want to know?" Prometheus’ voice was malicious and evil. He smiled, and then slowly said in a low deep voice, "My purpose, is to destroy the religion of God, or... to destroy humans, the humans of your god’s tribe!"

"Almighty God!" Fielding exclaimed. Swoosh! He already drew out half of his sword.

Prometheus looked at Fielding with pity in his eyes. He sighed and said, "Fielding, it seems you have indeed achieved some breakthrough. I can see that your strength has improved quite a lot."

He then shook his head and said slowly, "But have you ever wondered why I didn’t kill you and instead let you continue to stay in the temple, keeping an enemy who had intentions of killing me?"

Fielding showed no emotions.

Prometheus sneeringly asked, "Since you can’t get it, why not try piercing me with your sword?"

Fielding did not hesitate at all and drew his sword! Golden fighting energy enveloped the sword and pierced into Prometheus’ chest like a fire dragon!

A tearing sound was heard, and the golden fighting energy shattered Prometheus’ entire body...

"Illusion!" Fielding’s expression suddenly changed.

"It is indeed an illusion." Prometheus’ voice came from afar and struck the bottom of Fielding’s heart, "Fielding, come in. Come to the temple’s highest level, in front of the ’Forbidden Door’. I’m waiting for you there!"

...

At the foot of the mountain, Nedis breathed out slowly as she looked at the towering peak. The air was very cold, and she could not help but shudder.

"Stench... the stench of gods!" There was an uneasy look on the Mystic Dragon’s face, and his eyes were filled with hatred and rage.

"The temple is at the peak. This is the heart where the servants of the gods control the entire continent." Nedis sighed and pointed at the peak above. It had never occurred to her that she, an insignificant vampire of the vampire tribe, would one day bring someone to attack the temple!

...

After passing through a long corridor, it was the forbidden area of the temple.

Strange words and pictures were carved on the stone walls on both sides. As Fielding walked further inside, the uneasiness in his heart became stronger and stronger.

He pushed open a five-meter-tall door in front of him and inside was a room the size of a mini piazza.

In the middle of the room, Prometheus sat cross-legged on the floor. A smooth stone slab as thick as a book was in front of him.

"You’re here, Paladin Fielding." Prometheus looked up and said smilingly, "Don’t worry, I’m not an illusion anymore."

Fielding was silent as he walked closer slowly.

"This is the temple’s highly forbidden area." Prometheus’ gaze swept across the room, "Only the chief elder can enter this place. And you, you’re the second person entering this place for the past ten years."

He then pointed at the door beside him and smiled, "That’s the temple’s ’Forbidden Door’. Unfortunately, I can’t tell you what’s behind the door, because I too have never been inside."

Fielding stood in front of Prometheus and asked coldly, "Why did you lead me here?"

Prometheus’ fingers gently stroked the stone slab in front of him. His fingers glowed with a magical radiance, and lines of texts immediately appeared on the stone slab. But in just the blink of an eye, the magical radiance vanished as his fingertips swept past, and the texts too disappeared.

"Fielding, have you heard of a story called the Tower of Babel?"

Prometheus smiled gently and said, "A long, long time ago, humans had once doubted the existence of God. Hence, all the humans came together and built a very tall tower. They wanted to reach the heavens through the tower to see if God really exists."

His gentle voice seemed to carry with it some magic and echoed in the entire room.

"However, how could the lowly humans offend God? So when the humans have built the tower halfway, God got angry and destroyed the Tower of Babel, forbidding the humans from seeking the existence of God since then...

"But humans are lowly and ignorant. To make sure that humans do not do anything blasphemous to God anymore, God decided to send someone to discipline these ignorant humans." Prometheus smiled and then sighed, "So, God sent his messengers to the human world and created a religion which believed in God to achieve the purpose of controlling the humans. They taught the humans to respect God and believe in him. Hence, there is the religion of God in this world!

"But during that time, not everyone in this world believed in God. Some of them did not believe that God exists. So, war erupted among the humans. The kingdoms which believed in God united to destroy the kingdoms which did not believe in God... To make it simple, it was war! How ridiculous... The allegedly noble religion of God, was just an organization which utilized the power of religion to eradicate dissidents!"

Fielding subconsciously loosened his grip on his sword and looked at Prometheus in shock.

"The matter is not over yet. In this world, human beings are the hardest creature to control. They are smart but greedy. They have wild ambitions and imaginations. When the religion of God finally let the entire human world believe in God, wars still continued to erupt among the humans. The human kingdoms fought against each other to jostle for their own interests. Even the religion of God could not stop this. Seeing that His agent in the human world had encountered trouble, God came up with a good idea..." Hatred appeared in in Prometheus’ eyes as he was saying this, "Divert the conflict!

"God created the messenger Moses and gave him the Staff of Moses to split the Thunder Straits. As such, the human’s attention was no longer focused on the battle in the Roland Continent. Their gaze had turned to the south, where there are vast lands, rich resources, and boundless territories... Hence, what followed next was again war! But this time, the humans united, and their common enemy was the Kara Tribe which originally inhabited the Radiant Continent!

"After that, it was still war. The Kara Tribe had their own god too, but their god was already defeated by the human beings’ God in the heavens. Hence, without any more help from their god, the Kara Tribe was rapidly wiped out by the humans, and the humans took hold of the Radiant Continent. Later on, the religion of God of both continents split! Absurd humans, absurd God, and absurd religion of God! As the agent of God in the human world, they possessed powers that were the envy of others. And man’s greed eventually grew in the face of power. The church then became the aggregation point of charlatans. Their focus was not on serving God anymore, but on seizing power. In the end, the religion of God of both continents broke off. They hated each other and became enemies."

Fielding finally opened his mouth and asked loudly, "What about God? Since the church had broken up, why didn’t God interfere?"

"Because God was smart! Because God had supreme wisdom!" Prometheus smiled and continued, "The religion of God was established to control the human world so that the humans believed in God. However, if humans became united, what happened thousands of years ago would repeat itself again. The human would boldly build another Tower of Babel to pry into the heavens, to pry into God’s territory. So, to ensure that humans remain obedient, God decided to let them fight. It was better to let them fight non-stop so that they could never unite. As long as the religion of God still exists, who cares if the religion of God of both continents were split? Moreover, in the human world, even if the religion of God of both continents hated each other, they still believed in God."

Fielding gasped and stared at Prometheus. It had never occurred to him that the Pontiff of the temple would say something so treacherous!

"Don’t look so shocked." Prometheus smiled, "If you do not believe me, you can have a look at this." He pointed to the stone slab in front of him. There was a creepy smile on his face, and he said in a slow, strange tone, "This is the legendary God’s Record! You must have heard of this before..."