BXBX NOVEL Chapter 144: The Things James Had Forgotten
James shook his head and said, "The Empire already has an Emperor, but the Church of Night does not. The throne has been mine for a long time, I just haven\'t sat on it, but it\'s time to show everyone the might of the Church."
At these words some of the priests and priestesses seemed to be unable to hold back their tears, neither James nor Ariel could understand the effect James\' words had on them.
For too long they had been under two popes who could not even hear the voice of their goddess. Of course, each of them loved and respected the two, but they needed a true leader.
Even if no one remembered, they had a strange feeling that their true leader had returned.
In the large glass behind the throne was a drawing of Nyx, like those made for all Chaos-Born, but huge. The light coming in through the glass took on an almost black colour, the colour reflecting off the throne James was sitting on, and the perfect image became apparent to everyone.
James looked like Nyx.
All the priests and priestesses began to worship again and James, as if he was tired of it, said, "Lift your heads, I am still not a god or goddess."
After these words, each worshipper stood up again and seeing this, James said, "I have a job for you, listen carefully."
Everyone, including Ariel, began to listen to James.
"I want you to find any poison you can find on the 20th floor in the city or wherever we are," James suddenly said, and with that, he pulled a cheque out of his inventory and wrote 25,000,000 gold coins on it.
"What are you planning to do with all this poison? Are you crazy?" asked Ariel with a puzzled expression after handing the cheque to Ariel, it was not difficult to see that everyone had the same question.
"I thought Moros would have told you, I\'m a Poison Master now, I need to improve," James said, and with those words, everyone\'s eyes widened. Ariel opened her mouth but didn\'t seem to know what to say.
A poison master was seen as a superior personality on his name and rank. James had first chosen Nyx, then he had managed to save the fifth floor and kill a Fallen God, and now he had the rank and title of a poison master. There was no way anyone could believe that.
[He\'s telling the truth, Ariel, I didn\'t say that just to see your surprised expression.]
Ariel suddenly saw the message from Moros and then said with an angry expression, "If you keep hiding such things from me, I will give you a good slap in the face when I pass the 75th floor and you come to meet me, Master Moros."
It was obvious that all the onlookers were surprised, Moros didn\'t know what to say, and it was clear that Ariel wasn\'t just angry that something was being kept from him.
Being a poison master was a lot of work, Ariel could only try to imagine how much pain was involved, but even that seemed to be failing.
Ariel\'s expression was filled with sadness as she looked at James\' face. Even though James was looking at Ariel with a smile, there was only so much he could say.
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"Never mind Ariel, it was painful but the reward was good, now I need all the poison we can find, we need to do it before we start climbing."
Ariel nodded with a sad expression as James said this and handed the cheque to Abbot Leon to cash it.
"The lord\'s will is clear, it must be done quickly, Leon," Ariel said, and with that, he bowed to each of the priests and monks and shouted, "Your wish is our command, commander, lord!"
Suddenly the huge hall emptied and it was just Ariel and James.
"That was stupid, didn\'t you know you could die?" Ariel asked.
"I mean I knew, or rather I didn\'t know until the end, Noah told me that he would only give me the poisons that he said would paralyse me, but I accepted the last poison. After I accepted it, even Nyx couldn\'t do anything, it was my choice to die if I did die." James said and Ariel, who heard this, could no longer hold her nerves and hit James hard on the head.
"OUCH! What was that for!" James muttered and when he looked at Ariel he felt like all time had stopped.
Ariel\'s tears were streaming down her tired face.
"I care! Are you stupid? If I didn\'t care about you as my son, would I tell you my life story?! Are you stupid enough to try to die?! After so long I wanted to trust someone and he\'s stupid enough to go and use a deadly poison?!" Ariel suddenly shouted, James didn\'t know what to say.
In just a few moments, Ariel\'s smiling and happy face was replaced by a sad expression of devastation.
James seemed to have forgotten. He may have learnt who he was, he may have realised what fate awaited him, or he may have known that he had taken a huge step forward in his adventure of meeting Chaos, but he had forgotten the one thing he shouldn\'t have forgotten.
James had a big family, a family he couldn\'t explain or even remember everyone. Ariel was one of the main members of that family, one of the reasons James had to live.
James had witnessed and admired Ariel\'s fighting style and composure, but that wasn\'t the only reason he invited him. Ariel was like James himself, alone, abandoned.
Ariel saw James as his son, and James saw Ariel as a mother figure, just as he saw Nyx, after all, Ariel was the one who took care of everything under the 75th floor and inside the Church of Night, which the gods could not touch, instead of his \'son\'.
Like a mother protecting her son.
These were the true feelings of Ariel, who was an excellent warrior and frightened almost everyone below the 25th floor.
James had every reason to try not to die, and even he seemed to have forgotten that.
He may have been a Black descendant, but he wasn\'t Desmond.
He was James Arthur Black, he was the Umbra of Chaos, he was the Shadow of the Goddess, he was the leader of the Church of Night....he was the head of this huge family.
"I\'m sorry...Ariel."