Myth: The Ruler of Spirituality

“Air, this substance can be transmitted through the air,”

“Not only that, but it can also cling to food and water sources.”

After visiting three places in succession, Ande gradually discovered the commonality of this special existence. They seemed to exist in different varieties, but no matter which type, they were invisible to the naked eye; even his spirit could only ‘see’ their presence, without being able to understand their characteristics more deeply.

Ande didn’t know if this was because his spiritual level was not high enough, having not reached the ‘transcendent’ realm described in the information of the wood carvings, or if these things were simply beyond understanding, but now, he couldn’t eradicate them from the root.

“All I can say is that it seems to be afraid of fire, perhaps because of the power of the Sacred Fire. If you cook food and water with fire, these things will be destroyed. But beyond that, I have no way to deal with them,”

Shaking his head slightly, Ande finally suggested:

“Try to keep those infected with the disease separate from others, if the distance is far enough, the spread should no longer be effective.”

“What about us who are already infected?”

His expression changed again, but the middle-aged man who had followed Ande for half a day still tried to maintain composure.

“You priests claim to be entrusted by the creator to guard and control the power of the Sacred Fire, don’t you?”

“Since this unknown substance fears flames, perhaps the Sacred Fire can solve this problem.”

After some thought, Ande finally gave a somewhat viable answer.

However, upon hearing this, the middle-aged man’s face didn’t look good at all. Others might not know, but he was well aware that any human could invoke the Sacred Fire, but nobody could truly control its power.

The so-called ‘guarding and using’ by the priests was just another form of deceit.

“…Thank you for your advice, Lord Ande, but I would ask that you keep today’s events to yourself,”

After a brief silence, the middle-aged man thanked him in the end. He had invited Ande without much hope, and the result was already satisfying to him.

Only why Ande could see this substance did pique his interest. Before, he hadn’t taken Ande’s unique abilities seriously, but now, he realized he might have underestimated them.

“No matter, I just hope the trouble can be resolved quickly,”

He sighed. Since no one had died from it so far, Ande, who had never seen a plague before, didn’t think it was such a big disaster. After greeting everyone, he turned and left.

After all, he was not knowledgeable in herbs; they had invited him to try their luck, and his shallow transcendent power was not enough to make a difference.

As a child, Ande had learned much of mortal knowledge, learned a lot of old history, but had only learned ‘meditation’ from Laine, the only thing related to transcendence. Although it was the foundation of everything, there clearly wasn’t enough time now for him to develop it.

Clutching the puppet left by Laine, an intuition suddenly surged in Ande’s heart.

“Maybe, I should learn something else.”

Ever since the creator left, the world had become increasingly unstable. In the short term, he wouldn’t be able to reach the ‘transcendent,’ ‘legendary’ realm mentioned in the wood carving, so perhaps he should also learn some swordsmanship as a protective skill.

Disaster spread in the Mortal Realm, and as it interwove with the integration into human society, strands of the Power of Faith were born, ultimately falling upon their source.

Compared to the offerings of true believers or the Civilization Slate as the source of human knowledge and civilization, the Faith arising from disaster was undoubtedly insignificant. Its only advantage was that as long as there were more intelligent beings on earth, it would steadily increase without the volatility of mortal devotion.

However, the disasters in the Mortal Realm actually had two sources—one was the gods of the Underworld, symbolizing the objectively existing calamities, as they had always existed, just taking this opportunity to come to the Mortal Realm.

The other was the initiator of everything, the woman who had personally opened the Magic Jar. She represented the man-made calamities, the disasters triggered by Humans themselves.

At this moment, Pandora, who was walking with Epimetheus on the lands of the west, noticed this strange force that disregarded distance and traveled across half the continent to her surroundings.

“What is this?”

It was as if she heard the whisper of creatures, the pain in illness, the Fear faced in adversity. Surrounded by these false illusions, Pandora unconsciously shrank, hugging the Magic Jar tightly in her arms.

Alongside her, The God of Hindsight glanced at her, revealing an expression of understanding.

He knew this scene would inevitably happen, but he didn’t expect it so soon.

“That is Faith, deities can become stronger because of it, but I advise you not to touch it casually, or I cannot assure you of the consequences.”

“Why?”

Looking around at the encircling influences, Pandora wondered, was it through these terrible things that gods grew stronger?

Recalling the grand hall where she was born and the majestic Divine King, she couldn’t help feeling a strong sense of contrast, just like the different senses she had received from her husband one after another.

“Because your essence ultimately is not that of a deity, and that is unchangeable,”

“Pandora, as the first woman in the world, your body before birth was just an ordinary stone, made exceptional only because it carried the divine objects brought by my Father God. While this endowed you with a faint divine nature from birth, it does not enable you to absorb Faith.”