Mystery: Good Witch

Chapter 1039: School of Truth
"The School of Truth..."

There was a flash in Alysia Tamara's gray eyes, as if the word brought back some memories.

After a moment, she nodded and said in her usual old-fashioned tone:

"Of course I understand."

Angel leaned back in his chair, assuming a listening posture, waiting for the other party to continue.

The young Tamara didn't keep the secret. She subconsciously glanced at the closed door and lowered her voice slightly:

"What do you think is the underlying color of this world? White or black?"

Her actions were like she was secretly preaching. Would she say that she was a believer of the "School of Truth"? Angel laughed secretly and replied:
"You didn't mean gray?"

She came here from the Internet age and did not hesitate to expose the trap in Yalishia's question. This successfully made the answer that was about to be blurted out stuck in her throat. The serious and old-fashioned expression like a sculpture also changed slightly. After a moment, she continued:

"…It is indeed gray. This is the philosophy of the 'School of Truth'. They believe that the essence of the world is the gray between black and white, the fog and shadow between light and darkness. It is constantly changing and extremely chaotic. They are happy to find loopholes in order and use means on the edge of the law to achieve their own goals… This is the same as the essence of the pale white, unstable fog they believe in."

Pale white, unstable mist... Isn't this the mist that appeared when Bernadette and I destroyed the altar of the "Great Mother" in Belon Village...

Angel immediately thought of this and confirmed that the "School of Truth" that Alissa mentioned was the one that acted with the "Great Mother" believers and Nast Solomon in Intis.

The belief and respect for "chaos" but not following existing laws is somewhat similar to the adjacent path of the arbitrator, the "lawyer", that is, the various abilities of the Beyonders of the "Black Emperor" path, such as distortion, amplification, confusion, and misleading.

If the tomb of the previous Black Emperor had not been hidden in a corner and the new Black Emperor had not died tragically at the promotion ceremony, I would have thought that they believed in the true God of this path... But the white mist did not seem to belong to the nine "Old Ones" whose names I knew. Um, Chaos... Sons of Chaos?
The name of this Outer God suddenly popped up in Angel's mind.

Like the "Fallen Mother Goddess" and the "Mother Tree of Desire", he had his source essence torn apart by the aggregation of the original creator, so that part of his power remained within the barrier.

Because of this, compared to the other six Outer Gods, it is easier for them to extend their tentacles into the barrier, exert influence on the pathways to which these three sources belong, and achieve certain goals.

The "Son of Chaos" possesses the pinnacle of power from both the "Judge" and the "Black Emperor", the source of the "Kingdom of Disorder".

From this perspective, the unstable mist believed by the "School of Truth" is most likely another identity of the old one outside the barrier. It is understandable that they joined forces with the believers of the "Fallen Mother Goddess" who incarnated as the "Great Mother" and used cheap believers to launch sacrifices in various places in Intis... Because the two "gods" have the same stance and both want to take back their own source essence and extraordinary characteristics as soon as the barrier is broken...

Thinking of this, Angel refocused his attention on Yalishia and continued to ask:
"When was the 'School of Truth' established? Did it do anything...big before?"

She wanted to say "bad things", but then she felt that what she thought was bad might not be bad in the eyes of Tamara, so she changed her way of saying it.

"Just recently, no more than ten years ago."

Alysia blinked her signature dark grey eyes and gave an answer that surprised Angel.

"what?"

The latter did not hide his emotions at all and uttered a single sound that expressed doubt.

She originally thought that the truth school that believed in the "Sons of Chaos" on the same level as the "Fallen Mother Goddess" and the "Mother Tree of Desire" should have a similar origin to the "Original Moon" believers who had developed in the southern continent for nearly a thousand years, or at least a few hundred years. However, she did not expect that it was much shorter than the Aurora Society and the Psychological Alchemy Society, which were new organizations that believed in local evil gods or were protected by a certain angel king.

No wonder I have never heard of this school before. There is no record of it in the internal documents of the Nighthawks... She muttered and was about to continue asking, but Yalishia continued:
"But looking back in time, the earliest evidence of belief in that unstable fog can be found in the data from the late Quaternary period, but the name 'School of Truth' appeared much later."

That's more reasonable, otherwise it would be a disgrace to the name "Old Days"... Angel almost blurted it out, but immediately suppressed the thought and asked curiously:
"Is it related to your family's history?"

"Yes," Yalishia nodded seriously, "I think you should have heard about a huge change and two internal splits in our family in the past."

No, I haven't heard of it. Last time I said that wild Beyonders also have profound knowledge, I was actually bragging... Angel nodded without changing his expression and said tentatively:

"You mean the change in the heraldry?"

This was the gossip she heard from Dorian Abraham. Otherwise, her knowledge of the Tamara family would probably only be limited to a few pieces of information in the Nighthawks' internal information, such as "great nobles of the Tudor Empire in the Fourth Epoch", "mastering some of the 'Arbitrator' path potions", etc. Compared to those veteran angels, Angel became an angel too quickly. This is an advantage, allowing her to have the strongest power in the shortest time, but it is also a disadvantage, making her lack money, connections, or accumulation of secret knowledge, far inferior to those extraordinary families who step by step and accumulate resources to advance.

Yalishia nodded again, stretched out her hands, and a hint of dark golden light appeared at the tips of her two slender index fingers. She was distracted and moved her fingers to draw two emblems that Angel had seen from Dorian.

They were glowing in the air. One of them was a symmetrical shape formed by a long sword vertically separating the shield and thorns, while the other replaced the shield and thorns with a double-opening door, with the same long sword serving as the gap in the door.

"Initially, the Tamara family was a prominent family in the Solomon Empire, possessing a trait of the 'Hand of Order' of the 'Judge' path. Therefore, our family's inheritance is mainly based on this path, and the family emblem is full of the characteristics of this path..."

Tamara stared at the emblem of thorns formed by the sword and shield in the air and spoke softly.

"Wait..." Angel interrupted Alysia's recollection and said, "I thought the three 'Hands of Order' during the Solomon Empire belonged to the Augustus, Castilla and Trunsoest families respectively."

She thought so naturally because the first two were the royal families of the current Kingdom of Loen and the Kingdom of Feynaport, and both held a copy of the "Hand of Order", while Trunsoest was the "Night Emperor" who was promoted to a true god in the Fourth Epoch and fell in the War of the Four Emperors, and the Sequence 0 of the "Judge".

At this moment, a flash of lightning suddenly flashed through Angel's mind, and he remembered the contents of a part of Roselle's diary that he borrowed from Klein and Mr. Fool when he was learning Chinese.

That was a conversation between Roselle and the exiled Mr. "Gate", Bethel Abraham. It mentioned that after the death of the "Black Emperor" Solomon in the Fourth Epoch, the "Night Emperor" of the Trunsost family divided up the characteristics left by Solomon and was promoted to the "Prince of Sequence Killing" of Sequence 1. He became one of the two rulers of the United Empire, on par with the "Blood Emperor" Tudor.

This means that whether he jumped from the "Judge" to the "Black Emperor" or was originally the "Duke of Entropy" of Sequence 2, it is unlikely that he would possess the characteristics of the "Hand of Order".

Therefore, during the period of Solomon's First Empire, three copies of the Sequence 1 Beyonder characteristics of "The Judge" were in the hands of the Castilla, Augustus, and Tamara families respectively!
According to the history of the Quaternary Epoch compiled by Klein, after Solomon lost his status and died due to opposition from the six true gods (not including Steam at the time), Trunsoest and Tudor each obtained a Sequence 1 "Prince of Order Killing" characteristic, and were promoted to Sequence 1 of the Black Emperor Path, and established the United Empire. Then, before Solomon returned due to the special nature of the "Black Emperor", they chose the "Judge" and "Red Priest" paths to become gods respectively, and expelled the excess "Prince of Order Killing" in their bodies to avoid a sudden drop in sequence.

During this period, Trunsoest and the Tamara family probably had a very unhappy quarrel, which led to this angel family not following the "Emperor of Night" like Augustus and Castilla. Instead, they assisted the "Blood Emperor" in establishing the Tudor Empire together with the Abraham family and became one of the great nobles under His command... Angel imagined a drama of love and hatred in his mind and asked:

"So, at this stage, your family crest changed?"

"Yes. Most of the new generations in the family turned to the 'apprentice' path after a certain incident. Due to the marriage with the Abraham family, this was not difficult... But there are still a few Tamaras who have become high-sequence 'Judges' who insist on the original path and have passed it down to this day."

As she spoke, Yalishia extinguished the straight sword gate emblem in the air that represented the fusion of "Apprentice" and "Judge", leaving only the one with the sword, shield and thorn combination.

"This is the first split." Angel nodded, thinking, but the next second Yalishia continued:
"No, this is just a change in the coat of arms. It is a long process that lasted for a hundred years and spanned the two stages of the United Empire and the Tudor Empire... The first split was when the Tamaras on the apprentice path split into branches within the Abraham family and the branch that was closely connected to the 'Witch Family' after marrying into them."

The Gnosis Society... Angel immediately thought of this secret organization under the Witch Cult, which included both low-sequence Beyonders who were "Assassins" and some "Apprentices" who had mastered the potion formulas.

In addition, according to Angel's guess, the black-haired and gray-eyed "Black Witch" Clarisse is also likely to have Tamara's blood.

"What about the second split?"

After organizing his thoughts, Angel continued to ask.

She had a hunch that this split was actually related to the "School of Truth".

As expected, after Alissa dispersed the emblem of the Judge path, she resumed her solemn and serious posture with her hands on her knees and replied:

"This split originated from within us, the branch that adheres to the 'Inquisitor' path.

"Some of the Tamaras were bewitched by the so-called 'truth' and believed in the gray between white and black, the chaos of light and darkness. They tried to build a bridge of communication between following order and spreading shadows, and believed that such behavior was a ritual to approach and please the truth... With the support of this concept, they mainly operated in Intis, where the royal family was overthrown and a republic was established. They used secret missionary work, transactions, and cooperation to try to control the top leaders of the Intis government and achieve their ultimate goal."

"The ultimate goal?" Angel felt that they had finally reached the point and asked eagerly.

"Because they tried to cooperate with the 'Man in the Mirror', and we also had similar help, so we got some vague news..." Yalishia Tamara said calmly, "First, with the help of the Intis government, or even the governments of other countries, we can find the hidden mausoleum of Emperor Roselle; second, we can look for clues about the 'Fallen Heaven' deep underground in Trier; finally..."

At this point, she paused.

"…Searching for a lamp, a 'wishing lamp' that can grant all the wishes of the holder."

(End of this chapter)