Book 7: Prologue: Insanity
An enormous amount of holy light engulfed the entire conference room. Although the rays of light were piercing, none of the people present closed their eyes. Instead, they did their utmost to widen their eyes, afraid to even blink.
All of them stared in concentration at Grisia Sun.
He lay on top of the conference table, his white hair splayed across the surface. His clothes were completely stained with blood. It contrasted against his white hair and clothes, the blood being a red deep enough to shock any who laid eyes on him. However, what was even more frightening were those blue eyes of his. They were open but lacking in luster.
The Twelve Holy Knights… now only ten… were all fixated on those blue eyes.
Enveloped by holy light, the blue eyes slowly closed. Upon seeing this, everyone became elated but then became even more nervous. The eyes hadn’t opened back up.
They started to panic.
Elmairy was the first to yell anxiously, “What’s going on? Did Resurrection f-fa…” Fail? He could not even complete his sentence. He was afraid that if he uttered it aloud, it would become true!
The Pope did not answer. He only focused on continuously releasing holy light. When they saw this, no-one dared to disturb him and could only stare uneasily at Grisia’s face, praying with all their might to the God of Light for his eyes to quickly open.
With each second that passed by, everyone became more and more nervous. There was still no indication that those closed eyes would open again.
The amount of holy light gradually dropped and the Pope’s face turned ashen. Even though he continued to pour out holy light, his expression and his complexion indicated he was pushing his limits.
Suddenly Lesus bellowed, “Grisia Sun! You’re not allowed to sleep anymore. Wake up!”
At first, they were surprised by his shout, but then they immediately followed him and started yelling too.
“Sun, you can’t die!”
“Sun, you must not abandon us! You said that the Twelve Holy Knights would never abandon the Twelve Holy Knights!”
“Without the Sun Knight, we will no longer have a path to follow!”
“Sun, the blueberry pie is done!”
“…”
Everyone turned in unison to look at Ecilan.
When he saw everyone stare at him, Ecilan was a little at a loss, but he hesitantly explained, “I, I just thought this would be the most effective.”
“Right!” Realization suddenly dawned upon everyone.
Ceo immediately turned and shouted by Grisia’s ear, “Sun! Judgment is angry! He says that if you don’t wake up, he’s going to confine you for ten years!”
Georgo also shouted, “Sun, there’s a super hot babe who’s not wearing anything!”
Finally, even the Pope joined in. “Sun, if you don’t wake up right now, I’m going to deduct sixteen years worth of your salary!”
Whether the Pope had stumbled upon the right method to wake him or whether it was a coincidence, Grisia actually moved. Even though only his eyelashes fluttered, a movement so slight that they probably wouldn’t have noticed if they hadn’t all been focused on his eyes, at this moment, such a small movement was enough to quiet everyone down in an instant.
All of them waited, their eyes wide…
Suddenly, Grisia sucked in a large breath, then bent over and continuously coughed in pain.
“Sun woke up!”
It was unknown who shouted it first. Everyone else followed him and started celebrating, jumping around and yelling like a bunch of crazy people having a party. They displayed not an ounce of dignity normally associated with the appearances of the Twelve Holy Knights. The only person whose expression had not changed for the better was Lesus. He carefully examined Grisia’s body.
From his outer appearance, it didn’t look like he had lost anything, but that was not enough assurance. Some things, even if they were lost, could not be detected from the outside, similar to the previous time when Grisia lost his sight.
He opened his mouth and asked, “Sun? Can you hear me?”
Although it was still unknown whether or not Grisia had heard, everyone else had. They all stopped. In a moment, the happiness on their faces vanished without a trace. Their focus returned to Grisia. They only saw that he had already stopped coughing, yet his breathing was still heavy and quick. As he was lying on his side and his white hair was all over the place, they could not see his face.
“Grisia?” Lesus asked quietly.
Grisia turned his head slightly toward Lesus. His expression was still clouded.
So he can hear? Lesus’s worries lessened by one. He even began to hope maybe the God of Light really did favor Grisia that much and did not exact any price. This is a big possibility; otherwise Grisia’s holy magic wouldn’t have been that strong, right?
“Sun, open your mouth and say something,” Lesus called out over and over again.
Everyone began to feel nervous, worrying about whether or not Grisia had become mute. However, he suddenly moaned in pain, “Uhh…”
He hasn’t lost his voice either!
Everyone was almost completely relieved. His outer appearance looked fine, he hadn’t lost his hearing or his voice, and it looked like there was nothing wrong. They even started to hope that maybe Grisia hadn’t lost anything.
“No…” Grisia suddenly grabbed his head with both hands, his expression pained.
Everyone was shocked. They asked one after another, “Sun, what’s wrong?”
“No!” Sun gasped and then began screaming, “No, no, no. It wasn’t me! It wasn’t!”
“…Sun?”
When Grisia held his head and screamed, numerous magic spells burst out around him. Though these spells weren’t harmful in the least, everyone was caught off guard by Grisia’s sudden attack and the people closest to him were lightly injured. However, they weren’t at all concerned about their injuries, only surprised at Grisia’s unexpected scream and attack.
Though they were all blocked by the Shield of Earth, the magic spells came at them nonstop. Lesus grabbed Grisia by his shoulders and yelled, “Sun! Stop this!”
Grisia stiffened and raised his head. There were rips and bloodstains all over his clothes, his white hair was a mess, and on top of that, his expression was frantic; he could not look any worse than he currently did.
“Sun, what’s going on?” Elmairy was so worried that he was nearly crying. He had never seen Grisia look this panicked before.
Though no one else asked, their expressions said that they also wanted to ask this question.
“It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me, it wasn’t…” Grisia merely repeated that line over and over again. He became more and more frantic.
Lesus calmly asked, “What didn’t you do?”
Grisia remained beside himself in panic, as if he had not heard Lesus’s words at all; like he was completely submerged in his own world.
Lesus carefully observed Grisia, but he could not deduce any clues from Grisia’s eyes because Grisia was basically blind… He hadn’t felt the impact of that as deeply as he did currently.
Everyone yelled in worry. “Knight-Captain Judgment, what’s going on with Sun?”
There was no way Lesus could know either, but he did know everyone was currently confused and needed someone to calmly tell them that everything would be all right. Even better, they needed someone to give them orders, to tell them what they should do now, to make them so busy that they wouldn’t have time to panic… that person had always been Grisia.
Currently, Lesus had no choice but to play that role. He bellowed, “Don’t panic! Grisia has only just been revived, so his mind is not very clear yet.”
“It was me,” Grisia said abruptly.
Stunned, they all turned to look at Grisia. Even though he’d suddenly switched from denial to acknowledgment, they were not at all happy. Grisia’s complexion looked even worse than before. If Grisia’s state were previously described as extraordinarily panicked, then his current condition was practically deathly despair.
Dejected, he mumbled, “So it really was me…”
Lesus roared, “Sun, wake up! Only the Twelve Holy Knights are present. There is no one else!”
Grisia seemed to have finally heard Lesus’s words. He stilled, and then he struggled to get off the table, nearly falling. Lesus, who was nearest to him, quickly helped him up.
He never would have thought that Grisia would pull out the Divine Judgment Sword.
Grisia’s action stunned Lesus, who immediately took two steps back. He was not afraid that Grisia would harm him. However, since Grisia was not currently in a good state, if he were to swing the sword and hurt Lesus, Grisia would definitely feel very remorseful in the future.
He didn’t expect that Grisia would flip the sword around and plunge it towards his own heart…
“No-” Lesus quickly stepped forward, but Grisia’s action was so resolute that he couldn’t make it in time.
Clang.
The Divine Judgment Sword was sent flying by a knife. The two weapons both pierced the wall, and everyone saw that the knife was Metal’s. Because everything had happened so quickly, there was no reaction until a few seconds after everyone saw the two blades quivering in the wall. Then, they realized that Grisia had nearly killed himself with a sword, and became so scared that they broke out into cold sweat.
Lesus rushed forward and grabbed Grisia by his shoulders. He yelled furiously, “What are you doing? Do you know what you just did?”
“I did it. It was me… So it was me. Everything was me!”
Grisia began to laugh loudly. He laughed so much that when he raised his head, there were tears leaking out of the corners of his eyes. His laughter ended in dry coughs, which became sobs, before he finally fell to the floor and started weeping in agony.
At that moment, don’t mention the others being scared witless, even Lesus was no longer able to keep his composure. He forced Grisia up from the floor and shook him violently back and forth. At the same time, he yelled, “Sun, Sun, you have to wake up! You haven’t done anything. You have just been revived. Do you remember? You were…” Betrayed by Roland.
He stopped abruptly because this was really not a good time to discuss something like betrayal. Grisia was already so agitated that he could barely recognize the people around him. There was no need to upset him even more.
However, there was not even the slightest reaction from Grisia. He stilled for a moment and then looked like he had seen something. He suddenly got up and dashed toward some direction… It wasn’t until Lesus flattened Grisia against the floor that the others realized Grisia’s target was actually the sword and the dagger in the wall.
Grisia struggled with all his might, but Lesus’s strength was much greater. Slowly, he stopped struggling, but instead dark element started gathering all around him until countless blades brimming with dark element formed and hung in the air above the room. All of the blades were pointed in the same direction – at Grisia himself.
Lesus did not pay any attention to the Dark Blades. Only anger existed on his face. He could not help but yell at the person below him, “Sun, stop this! It was very difficult to save you, yet you want to die?”
Grisia tilted his head and wasn’t even looking at Lesus. Multitudes of Dark Blades dropped upon them all at once, but none of them hurt the two of them as the Shield of Earth had long since been cast to protect them.
Lesus pushed Grisia’s face to the floor forcefully, but Grisia’s eyes didn’t focus. Even if Lesus stared at his face, he could not determine where Grisia was putting his attention.
Though Grisia had been blind for some time, he had always “looked” at things, such as the person he was speaking to. So even though they knew he was blind, they hadn’t really understood what that meant because he was truly too good at pretending.
Seeing this, Lesus felt uneasy. Every time Grisia dropped all pretenses, nothing good happened. He could not help but yell, “Sun, what has gotten into you? Can’t you see that we’re in front of you?”
“A side effect…”
Everyone turned to look toward the Pope, who seemed to have thought of something. Their expressions were all frightening, each worse than the other’s. The Pope pushed on and said, “No matter how I look at him, Sun doesn’t seem like he has any other side effects, but my success rate of a perfect resurrection is only 10%. The chance of gambling and winning is not very high. What if going crazy was the…”
“Don’t speak nonsense!” Ceo cut the Pope off and yelled, “Sun has only just woken up. It’s just that his mind isn’t clear yet!”
Seeing everyone else nodding hurriedly, the Pope closed his mouth and didn’t press the matter further, but he knew very clearly… that inside everyone’s hearts, they knew that those words were actually nonsense. Two other people present had previously been resurrected as well, and neither of them had displayed Grisia’s current condition.
Elmairy suddenly yelled in alarm, “Knight-Captain Judgment, Sun is absorbing dark element!”
On hearing this, everyone became stunned. Lesus immediately bellowed, “Bring the Divine Sun Sword over!”
Once the two of them finished speaking, everyone realized what was happening. Because the rate at which Grisia was absorbing the dark element had rapidly exploded, even someone who didn’t have an inclination for sensing could discover the abnormal gathering of dark element. They were all holy knights of the holy element, so naturally they were more sensitive toward the dark element.
Grisia even cast Bone Prison, and those who were caught unprepared were knocked away.
Lesus was the first to crawl back up. He rushed toward the Resurrection Circle and drew out the Divine Sun Sword. Then, he brought it with him as he ran in Grisia’s direction. Grisia looked very despondent, as if he had a natural loathing of the light. He sat on the floor and raised a hand. Numerous bones sprung up from the floor by his side, the Bone Prison layering upon itself like a gigantic, white cocoon of thistles and thorns.
Lesus would never give up advancing just because of that. He used the Divine Sun Sword to slash at the Bone Prison. It was as easy as using a heated knife to cut butter. He slashed and slashed, and in a matter of seconds, reached Grisia.
Grisia did not wait for him. He reached a hand out to his Bone Prison. Immediately, his hand was riddled with cuts by the sharp bones, but he was not bothered. He grabbed one of the bones and pierced it towards his heart.
Luckily, when the tip had barely touched his chest, an arrow shattered the bone.
Grisia stilled. Right after, he reached out for another bone and stabbed it toward his chest without the slightest hesitation. Elmairy’s arrow stopped him again in time. When Grisia finally realized that he would not be able to use the bones, he switched to using dark element to attack himself…
“Stop it!” Everyone started destroying the Bone Prison.
As he cast the Shield of Earth to protect Grisia, Georgo yelled, “Sun, can you hear us or not?”
Grisia merely continued to attack himself with all his might. Simultaneously, he repeatedly cast Bone Prison, not letting anyone near him.
“Grisia Sun!”
Lesus yelled angrily. He brought the Divine Sun Sword down behind his waist, immediately following that up with the starting position for swinging his sword. He paused for around three seconds, and then he swung. His battle aura flared following his swing, destroying all of the Bone Prisons before him. It knocked into Grisia, but was stopped by the Shield of Earth.
Following that, Lesus threw aside the Divine Sun Sword, rushed to Grisia’s side, and performed a hand chop to Grisia’s neck, rendering him unconscious before he could make a sound.
When Grisia fell, the dark element he had gathered immediately dispersed. After all, this was the Church of the God of Light, and even the Divine Sun Sword was present, so it was truly not a good place for gathering dark element. It could even be said that a normal mage would not have been able to gather any dark element in here.
“Captain Judgment, Sun is…” Ceo started to raise a question but stopped halfway. He really didn’t know if he wanted to receive an answer.
Lesus was also somewhat at a loss. Yet as per normal, he retained the composure that the Judgment Knight should have, and said calmly, “Maybe Resurrection has muddled his mind a little. Maybe some sleep will help. No need to worry too much.”
“Is that so?” Elmairy quickly asked, “But he didn’t even notice that we were by his side. That’s, that’s…”
But after saying that much, he copied Ceo and closed his mouth. That was because he saw the panicked expressions on everyone’s faces; even the one who was usually the calmest out of them all was no exception… They needed to calm down and to wait for a change. Maybe it really was like what Knight-Captain Judgment had said, that Sun only needed to sleep and he would recover.
Right! Nothing would happen to Sun. He only needs to sleep a little, and when he wakes up, he will be back to normal…