Chapter 630
Inside of a white hall, with enough room for around fifty to sixty people. Five rows of seats were placed in front of an aged-looking wooden podium. And behind the podium, there were two exquisite metal bars with gems embedded in its surface, one holding a long, thin sword with symbols engraved on the blade, and the other holding a metal staff.
Jason, Laura, Caroline were among those who were in these seats. At the back rows, there also sat Paulo Chang, Dave, and some others who represented the elemental realms and other realms that were related to the original void.
“... Nameless, as you could already tell by now, is not his real name.” Josephine Wong said with a smile behind the podium: “Just like many of those who have the strongest faith in their tenets and devotion to said faith, he offered his name as a gesture of devotion. This means, I am sure all of you here would know, that their path will stop at a certain stage - the stage of the one who holds your name allows you to. And throughout the years, his faith did not seem to betray him at all. He was stronger every time we saw him reveal his power, and yet he remained the same humble soul we knew from the start.
“Pei, on the other hand, still had her real name with her, for she is not that much of a believer. She’s, when it comes down to it, a kind grandma who loved the younglings, her dog and her three cats. She renounced her family name a long time ago due to a disagreement with her family, her guild. And years later, it turned out she was right all along, and she was kind and humble enough to forgive those who excommunicated her from the guild, and be an actual leader, not just a ruler.
“Through all those years working with them, I have learned a lot from these two wonderful souls. Nameless, for one, was a wonderful master of teaching staff battle techniques, and Pei was an incomparable mentor on all things having to do with the paranormal, dismantling curses and lifting the grudge and hate that haunts places. And being these incredibly knowledgeable people, Pei and Nameless had quite a few differences. As you know, Nameless was a believer, Pei was not, and one frequent topic of their disagreement was whether faith frees or prisons the mind. And as we got to know more and more about the dark side of the world, as we got chance after chance to take closer looks at the world, their debate had become more and more fierce. They both had very convincing arguments, believe me, I used to be swayed three or four times a day listening to their debate, until I learned to block them out.”
Many in the audience showed smiles on their faces, while others were still wiping tears off their faces.
“But eventually they had an agreement - that is, when you bet your name, your path in this world and your very existence on something, you’d better be right. And on that day, on that battlefield, they both came, to fight a battle where, if you did not make it out alive, all of those things would get trapped and would possibly never make it back into the world.
“They say, that in one’s lifetime, a person dies twice. The first is when the body dies, and the second is when their name is forgotten. And I would just like to say, Master Nameless, Pei, you live, as long as I do.”
The two racks were replaced with one, which was holding a long sword - it was the weapon used by Bruj, and Lady Ryleen would be the next one to go up there and say a few words.
Just when Josephine Wong found a seat near Aimee and sat down, she sensed a strange but somehow familiar sense of “existence” beside her, which caused her to instantly reach out to her left trying to grab something.
Her fingers touched something, but it was like a puff of dense air, which provided her fingers with some resistance, but there was still nothing but air.
“What happened? Did you feel something?” Aimee noticed Josephine Wong’s sudden move, so she decided to ask.
“No - I just sensed something.” Josephine Wong looked to her left with her eyes glowing in purple - there were signs of energy disturbance there, but she could not tell what those were. What was more puzzling was that this place was heavily guarded, and any external attempts at casting spells in this place would definitely trigger alarms.
The memorial service for those who have fallen in the battle went on without any issues. And when Josephine Wong led the students out of the heavily guarded Division building, Jason posed a question to Josephine Wong: “If the battle took place in a place where if you die you cannot carry out your name and your path - how is it that we can still remember these people?”
“I think that would be your master.” Josephine Wong sighed: “He mentioned to me that there might be a chance that if the order in that realm is fixed, and the wound in the fabric of reality is healed in a certain way, the names and paths of all those who sacrificed their could still persevere and they would just - just be ‘flushed out’ by the outpour of order.”
“Ms. Wong, you said he won.” Caroline sighed: “I was thinking - if he’s still ‘there’ in that space, could we reach out to him and pull him back to us?”
“I’ve tried. But that place he created, it was designed specifically to block off all means of communication. He feared that any kind of contact would just be a potential breach the Grand Defiler could take advantage of.”
“So, all we can do is wait?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“Hey, it’s only been five days.” Thomas said, in an attempt to lighten everyone’s mood: “I’m sure he will be back soon.”
Sorry for the wait! Had to deal with some personal health issue. - Egao Chan