The moment Nolan showed even the slightest intention of meeting the Mother of Fingers, Ymir beamed with delight and offered to take him to her.
That mad mother was beneath the Cathedral of Manus Metyr.
Ymir said it was dangerous to let that mother wander freely outside. After all, chaos was order's greatest enemy.
So long ago, Ymir had found the daughter of the gods whom Marika had abandoned in this land, and built a magnificent church here.
Under the guise of peaceful detachment, Ymir had searched day and night for a powerful hero.
He had even observed Messmer's performance on the battlefield, but in the end, he had not chosen that Demigod. The power of the Serpent Demigod was still not enough.
The people of Nox had no idea that all these years, while Ymir preached in this isolated place, the High Priest had actually been plotting against a giant palm-shaped monster.
In truth, the High Priest wanted to become the mother of them, and of everyone else.
"You haven't shown me that 'mother,' Ymir. Is this deception, or an accident?"
Standing beneath the church, where no one else was present save the Lord and the High Priest, surrounded on all sides by finger-like standing stones, Nolan asked calmly.
"Impossible! It has always been here. The daughter of the Supreme Deity should be right here!" Ymir said from the ground, after searching back and forth several times.
His elegant, gentle bearing had vanished entirely, replaced by hysterical madness. This was a loss of composure the High Priest had never shown before.
"But it isn't here. I haven't seen it. There is no trace of its presence here. That is the truth."
Nolan spoke softly as he slowly rose into the air and looked down over the entire underground space. He showed no mercy as he tore through Ymir's self-deception.
If it was not there, then it was not there. He sensed no hostility, no threat, and no great life hidden in this underground world.
"How is that possible?" Ymir braced both hands against the ground and looked up in disbelief, his expression no different from a madman's. "I come to see it every day. It was still here yesterday!"
"Did that giant thing really leave?" Nolan swept one last glance over the empty underground world, then at the figure kneeling on the ground with hollow eyes. "It ran quickly enough."
A moment ago, Ranni had been the one left dazed by Ymir's blow. Now it was the High Priest himself. The world truly was fickle.
He reached a hand toward Ymir, and purple light wrapped around the High Priest. Only then did Ymir realize that this Lord possessed power similar to the visitor from the stars.
Such an ability would be enough to drive countless Glintstone Sorcerers mad. After all, a Glintstone Sorcerer who did not wish to explore the mysteries of the starry sky was no true Stargazer.
Nolan took Ymir and prepared to leave, though not particularly quickly. It was not because the power he had newly mastered was weak. He simply wanted to see whether anything unexpected would happen on the way out.
The facts proved that Nolan had overthought it. By the time the two returned to the surface, that giant hand still had not appeared out of thin air with a sudden bang.
"Could it be that Metyr doesn't want to see me?" Nolan could not help thinking. After all, the Tarnished in the game could meet the Mother of Fingers, yet he alone could not.
The thought had only just surfaced when the light before them brightened, and they returned to the surface.
Vanishing from everyone's sight for so long was enough to make people anxious, but compared with sharing a room with a Demigod, the two who had gone underground were the ones who truly caused concern.
After all, if a fight broke out below, it would involve a Lord and the beloved daughter of a god.
The doors opened. The scene before the Lord was calm. The Nox people were leading the Impaler's Army delegation through the ancient, richly cultured architecture.
Then Ymir appeared before everyone like a man who had lost his mind, and two swordswomen in black armor charged straight toward him.
They were fast, and their killing intent was fierce, a naked sharpness they made no attempt to hide. But it was obvious that their attention was focused mainly on Ymir.
From that extreme concern, it was clear the black-armored swordswomen were not cold, emotionless assassins or dead soldiers.
Neither the Nox people nor the knights of the Impaler's Army spoke. None of them seemed to have expected the situation to turn out this way, so they were left somewhat stunned.
The host had paid dearly to invite guests here, only for the guests to imprison the host and drag him out in front of everyone to flaunt their power?
Was this a normal development?
Rellana raised a hand to stop several knights who had reacted and also wanted to charge, probably unwilling to let them ruin her lord's chance to show himself.
Someone was faster than the knights, and faster than the Swordhands of Night. Messmer actually moved after them and arrived first.
In the blink of an eye, he crossed dozens of meters and reached Nolan first, raising his war spear with his back to him.
The two Swordhands of Night raised their Hookclaws and Black Knives. Even facing a Demigod, they showed not the slightest fear as they clashed with his war spear. The sound of metal rang lightly through the air.
But courage did not bring strength. Messmer merely swept his war spear.
The Swordhands of Night were sent flying, skidding more than ten meters across the ground without stopping, their iron boots grinding bright sparks from the floor.
Messmer bent his knee, ready to spring forward in the next instant and pierce the two sinners who had offended his father, but a hand pressed down on his shoulder even faster.
"Enough. Honestly, young people are just too impulsive," Nolan said.
The moment those words left his mouth, the two Night Knights who had landed in the distance vanished.
Dark figures drew the gazes of the Nox people and the knights of the Impaler's Army. The slender heroes broke into a run, charging toward the towering Lord and the Demigod.
Messmer realized he had acted a little on his own. Just as he was thinking about how to apologize to His Majesty the King behind him, the Swordhands of Night had already reached them.
He could only lower his head and say, "Father is right."
The Swordhands of Night raised their Hookclaws and longswords. Messmer's war spear shifted slightly, ready to move, but Nolan merely lifted a finger toward the two swordswomen and tapped lightly.
In the next instant, an invisible force seemed to press down on the two swordswomen, forcing them to their knees like subjects burdened with guilt and begging for absolution.
With another wave of Nolan's hand, Ymir fell directly to the ground, and the two swordswomen looked toward him at the same time.
They were surprised to find that Ymir did not have a single wound on him. His expression merely looked dull and vacant, as if he had suffered some unknown shock.
"Out of consideration for your eagerness to protect your mother, I can pardon your offense."
A faint smile suddenly appeared on Nolan's face as he pointed at Ymir on the ground.
"If he wakes up, tell him my promise still stands, but only for one month."
One month was the time Nolan had seen in the war reports, the time Moonrithyll was expected to need to eliminate the remaining Hornsent forces. It was also the time he had chosen for his departure.
His path had not yet reached its end. He had no intention of staying here forever, nor did he have time to wait slowly for Ymir to wake up.
What if the shock had been too much for the High Priest, and he never woke up for the rest of his life?
The longsword warrior Jolán and the hookclaw warrior Anna exchanged a glance. They were sisters connected by blood, raised by Ymir since childhood.
As sword warriors who guarded the High Priest, they clearly had no authority to make decisions in Ymir's place. In truth, however, they did not need to decide anything.
Because that Lord gave them no chance to answer. Followed by the Demigod and the knights, he left them only the sight of his departing back.