The Lost 'Final Chapter'

At the news of the priest's disappearance, Stan Tito sprang to his feet and stared wide-eyed at the attendant.

Only after questioning the attendant again and again did he lower his head with a sigh. Bracing one hand on the table, he slowly sank back into his seat.

The news shook him, but did not surprise him.

He grieved for a dear friend, though he had long foreseen the priest's death.

Taking up the bone ocarina from the stone table, he raised it to his lips.

A long, desolate note rose from the bone ocarina. It was the tune trilobite men played when their thoughts turned to departed friends and family.

Now only he knew Henir's secret.

Stan Tito had never cared to stand out. Adventure held no appeal for him, nor did anything that carried risk. He was happiest sitting in his workshop, carving epic chapters, myths, and legends.

Yet now, all at once, he felt there was no turning back and nowhere left to run.

At the very least, he ought to reveal everything he knew.

He played the bone ocarina's tune to the end, then lowered his hand.

"Are you nothing but a puppet on strings, Stan?"

Stan put the question to himself.

The Queen's voice came echoing back to him from the day she had conferred his title.

Echoes had rung through the empty hall. Countless eyes had watched him, and the grandeur and solemnity of the scene had surpassed anything he had ever known.

Nerves had stiffened his legs and sent his head spinning.

"Descendant of Saint Tito."

"From this day forward, you are Stan Tito."

"Heir to the will of the great poet Tito."

A smile touched Stan Tito's eyes. When it faded, only resolve remained.

"Maybe it's time I returned to Her Majesty what she gave me."

Once Henir had gathered the forces of God-Servant City and secured his hold on power, he finally made his choice. He would ascend the throne.

The Xilong family, former rulers of the Star Luo Kingdom, surrendered their crown. Every last one trembled before Henir's power and commanding presence. Not one dared resist.

The coronation would begin at the royal palace of God-Servant City and end at the Sky Temple. Henir would become the new king before the palace, witnessed by all the people, then ascend to the Sky Temple for his final crowning before the divine.

When it was done, he would become king of three realms, the Star Luo Kingdom, the Volcano Kingdom and the Sele Kingdom.

A clear sky stretched for a thousand miles that morning. Soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder at every street corner.

Tens of thousands of commoners flooded the streets, streaming toward the royal palace.

"Henir!"

"Henir!"

"..."

The tightly packed crowd surged through the streets, crying Henir's name.

To the common people, Henir was a hero. He had saved God-Servant City and driven away the Samo Kingdom, earning the goodwill of the city's commoners.

At least when measured against the nobles and priests who had abandoned God-Servant City and fled in panic, there was no comparison.

Yinsai Scepter in hand, Henir stood before the royal palace and received their cheers.

"The King!"

"King Henir!"

Suddenly, a man thrust one arm into the air and shouted.

That first cry swept across the square and into every street beyond, until voices everywhere were calling for the King.

Only when Henir raised the scepter did the clamor subside.

"I know that many here doubt me, scorn me, even hate me."

"They do so because I am no king of the light, because I was not born to some illustrious house. In their eyes, a man such as I has no right to be king."

"But what great deed was ever done by those self-proclaimed kings of the light, those rulers of exalted birth? What change did they ever bring to the world of Yinsai?"

"Did they truly rule any better than I shall?"

Henir neither raised nor lowered his voice. His tone was almost flat.

Yet everyone who heard him felt the power in it.

"Among you are royalty and nobles, commoners and slaves as well. You are soldiers, merchants, craftsmen, fishermen, and people of every other trade."

"Yet every person's station was decided at birth."

"Under the kings of old, none of you had any chance to change your lot. Now, everything is different."

Without warning, that flat voice became a howling storm.

Henir's eyes transformed, blazing with immeasurable fervor. He flung out a hand and roared.

"Here, before you all, I give you my word. I make this pledge to every one of my people."

"I, Henir, shall grant every person a fair chance. Noble or commoner. Heir to a great house or bastard child."

"Through your own effort, you may rise to become an officer or a general of the kingdom."

"You may even win nobility and a title of your own."

"Whoever you are, whatever your station, we shall change this world together."

From the beginning, Henir's birth had made the old nobility's support difficult to win.

Even now, nearly every old power present was thinking about how to defeat and kill him.

He had always intended to raise new nobles and new powers. To do so, he would suppress the old houses, especially those passed down from the age of Yesael or even the age of Redlichia.

Only then could he build a stable new empire.

In an instant, the speech plunged the entire place into deathly silence.

The old nobles recoiled from him one after another in fear.

Then the square erupted with the roar of mountains and the surge of the sea.

"King Henir!"

Ringed by his guards, Henir made his way to the Sky Temple. His soldiers stopped at the foot of the stairs, leaving him to climb alone.

Stan Tito waited in silence at the doorway of the Sky Temple.

In his hands rested the Saint's relic, the key to the gates of the Kingdom of God.

Henir's gaze burned. He would receive the complete Final Chapter from Stan Tito's hands and prove his sanctity to all.

Everything was utterly perfect.

Yet not everything unfolded exactly as he had foreseen. Above him, Stan Tito watched in silence as Henir climbed step by step. Then he suddenly spoke.

"Not long ago, a friend of mine, a priest of the Sky Temple, suddenly vanished."

"Henir, do you know what became of him?"

Henir sensed danger at once. "Child of Fortune, what is the meaning of this?"

Stan Tito continued, "Before he vanished, he had been investigating Her Majesty's death."

"The moment he uncovered a vital clue, he disappeared."

"He told me that you were involved in Her Majesty's death. Henir, can you explain yourself?"

Henir's eyes changed in an instant. His voice rose in a furious roar.

"Silence!"

"Shut your mouth!"

But Stan Tito seemed not to hear him. With a sweep of his hand, an illusory projection appeared in the sky.

The illusion technique replayed the words Henir had spoken to his subordinate that day, words brimming with ambition and visions.

The projection stretched across the sky, vast enough for everyone in God-Servant City to see with perfect clarity.

Every eye turned upward toward Stan Tito and Henir.

Below him, Stan Tito watched disorder erupt across God-Servant City. Clamor, uproar, and shocked cries crashed together until he could not distinguish a single shouted word.

He had no wish to hear any more.

Turning from the gates of the Sky Temple, he walked outward along the side gallery.

"Henir, you are the black mire that will swallow the kingdom of Yinsai!"

"I shall not crown you."

With that, Stan Tito strode to the end of the long gallery and hurled himself from the side of the Sky Temple.

Henir's expression changed at once, and he raced up after him.

Stan Tito was this generation's inheritor of the Saint's will, the Child of Fortune renowned throughout the kingdom of Yinsai. Even if he had to die, he could not be allowed to die like this.

Woo!

The Burrowing Demon Worm appeared along the Sacred Mountain's flank.

Tentacle after tentacle reached skyward and caught Stan Tito as he plunged from the temple and through the clouds.

Then came the unexpected. The tentacles passed straight through Stan Tito's form.

It was an illusion.

The illusion scattered instantly. Only a small Sun Cup fell from the sky.

Stan Tito was nowhere to be found. He had escaped with the Final Chapter and the key to the gates of the Kingdom of God.

No one could have imagined that Stan Tito, who possessed no wisdom ability, could wield a high-level illusion technique beyond any ordinary senior priest. The quiet, unremarkable Child of Fortune had struck back with startling force.

The Burrowing Demon Worm rose beneath the Sky Temple and placed the Sun Cup in Henir's hand.

Henir gazed at the golden flower in his hand as his eyes suddenly began to steady.

Faced with this turn of events, faced with every sound rising beneath his feet, he suddenly gave a short, contemptuous laugh.

"Child of Fortune, did you imagine this would keep me from the throne?"

"I told you once before."

At this, he spoke one word at a time.

"I am the one who swims against the current."

He climbed the stairs one slow step at a time and stopped before the gates of the Sky Temple.

He looked down at the disorderly crowd beneath his feet. He looked at all the doubting eyes raised toward him.

Before them all, without the slightest hesitation, he placed the crown upon his own head.

"Though the whole world oppose me, still I shall forge onward against the flood."

"This is Henir. This is my will."