Tiny stars hung motionless deep within the Cathedral, like a magnificent universe holding its eternal colors.
But the starry sky lasted only a moment before it vanished. Ahead lay the splintered remains of tables and chairs that had just been blasted away, with stone dust scattered everywhere.
It looked as though a cosmic explosion had just taken place, its violent shockwave pushing everything outward. Yet the birth and destruction of a universe were both fleeting things.
Ymir stood in the center of the hall. He straightened, raised his head, and looked ahead.
The tiny universe had already vanished like a dream, but he could not forget that beautiful sight.
A pitch-black space, hidden and deep, yet unable to conceal the flickering light of the stars and moon. Endless darkness and faint glimmers of light existed together just like that.
It was the world he imagined each time he looked up at the night sky.
The microcosm was no more than ten meters across, yet it gave the impression of something boundless.
It was the Sorcery he knew best, yet it had shown a form he had almost never seen before. The one who cast it clearly possessed an exceptionally deep understanding of the truths of the world.
"Fleeting Microcosm. Is this one of the Nox people's greatest masterpieces?" Nolan asked. "A fine gift, though using it for a single meeting seems rather extravagant."
Ymir bowed and said, "This is a Sorcery created in imitation of a divine being, though in truth, it only imitates a single moment of that deity."
"The true masterpiece the Nox people take pride in is the work that brought ruin upon us, the Sorcery that taught everyone what a god's wrath truly means."
"Compared to that, this is only a fleeting shooting star. It can hardly be called extravagant. Still, I am glad you were willing to come here. It is my honor to meet Your Majesty."
"And yet, to reach such a level after seeing it only once is truly astonishing. If Your Majesty pursued the mysteries of Sorceries, I am sure you would become a master as well."
Nolan waved a hand, ignoring the flattery. The lower Ymir placed himself, the more it proved that he truly had something to ask.
"Why are you so determined to see me? Is it because you saw something?"
"You noticed? Yes, I saw it. In Bonny Village. How dazzling Your Majesty's bearing was!"
Ymir praised him, "Just as the sun is always the brightest star in the sky."
The Cathedral of Manus Metyr stood on the mountain northwest of Bonny Village, even closer than Castle Ensis.
As long as one was not blind, anyone in the Cathedral could have seen a bright sun suddenly appear over the ruins of Bonny Village, then vanish just as suddenly.
Nolan said nothing. Not because he was enjoying the praise, but because he knew Ymir still had more to say, matters involving the secrets of the world, the origin of all things, and the root of everything.
Seeing Nolan look at him in silence, Ymir also understood there was no point in drawing it out any longer, so he cleared his throat.
He said softly, "Does Your Majesty know what the masterpiece I mentioned earlier is?"
"Eternal Darkness?" Nolan said after a moment of thought. It was said to be the despair that brought ruin to the Eternal City.
"Precisely. Eternal Darkness. It was a work created by countless Stargazers gazing upon the starry sky and looking up to our great deity."
Ymir spread his hands, his face filled with a contagious fervor utterly unlike Nolan's calm.
"I wonder whether you know this. Long ago, in a distant place, there was an explosion, and that explosion created stardust. In other words, us."
"Every star, every god, every human... Misbegotten, dragons, Beastmen, beasts, even the tiniest specks of dust. We are all children of the Greater Will."
"The ancient stargazers looked up at the starry sky. The sacred body of the Supreme God has continued down to us, and the god-given Glintstone allowed us to glimpse a corner of the infinite mysteries."
"How poetic, how beautiful! It is only that so few people know of this. What a shame..."
"You're lying!"
Ymir's speech was interrupted. That cold voice carried unprecedented fury, and the enraged Lunar Princess raised her head, her gaze sharp enough to kill.
Nolan lowered his head and looked at the tiny doll on his shoulder. He had never seen Ranni so angry before. Her face held pure rage, completely different from shame.
Ymir fell silent. He had not expected anyone to interrupt him.
He had been preparing to use the eloquence he had cultivated over many years as High Priest, guiding believers, to have a proper conversation with the Lord before him.
But just as the mood had settled into place, that sudden anger left him momentarily speechless.
Still, a High Priest was a High Priest, and he was someone used to great occasions. It took him less than a second to adjust his expression, and he put on a kindly look.
"This must be Princess Ranni. I wonder what Your Highness means by deception?"
Ymir looked at the small doll on Nolan's shoulder, his face as gentle as a mother watching a beloved daughter throw a little tantrum.
Ranni said coldly, "The Greater Will. This continuation of the sacred body you speak of..."
"The Greater Will created everything, including us, my child!" Ymir gave the answer Ranni could not accept.
"How do you prove that?"
"This world is the proof. Your Highness has always been witnessing His great power, even now, because we all come from Him."
"If that is true, then what is the meaning of Marika, the Fingers, and the Mother of Fingers?"
Ranni gritted her teeth like a cornered beast making a final stand, though no one could see her enemy.
"I see no great power worthy of a Creator!"
"Your Highness, what is this?"
Ymir did not answer directly. Ranni looked at him, and at the hand he had extended.
"A hand."
"Creation and destruction have never been simple processes. The birth of the universe came from a single brilliant instant, but that brilliant instant was preceded by an unimaginably long wait."
Ymir removed his glove and clenched his right hand tightly until his nails dug into his flesh.
"And if I want to hurt myself, I cannot do it by will alone, even though this body grew from small and fragile to tall and strong because of my existence."
"Or to put it another way, does a mother who gives birth to a child get to decide everything about that child?"
"How do you think a mother kills her own child? With a thought that suddenly appears in her mind? No. With a stronger body!"
"Of course, a mother always hopes her child will grow well, but that mother is far too distant from us. The Fingers, the beasts? They are merely the means by which she teaches us."
Ranni could not say a word. Judging by Ymir's explanation, that Creator was not omnipotent. At the very least, she could not reshape heaven and earth with a single thought.
The Greater Will and the Lands Between were like mother and child. The Fingers and beasts were the mother's words and the ruler she used to teach that child.
Yet Ranni still found it hard to accept. She had thought she had escaped the Fingers and fate, but now it seemed she might not have escaped anything at all.
Because she was His child, a rebellious child longing for freedom, yet unable to escape her "original family."
"It seems Her Highness does not quite believe me. But that is all right. You may go back and ask your mother and your aunt," Ymir said softly.
"The Caria family. How nostalgic. Your mother and your aunt were both lovely children. They were also my students, and very outstanding ones at that."
"Come to think of it, when that child Rennala established the Carian Royal Family, I even served as a Sorcery Preceptor. It seems they forgot to teach you the truth of the world."