Only God
Chapter 242 - 207 Solitary Island Hermit

Chapter 242: Chapter 207 Solitary Island Hermit

"What do you intend to do?"

Ora could no longer contain his anger as he questioned,

"Have we not sworn an oath to the Prophet? Do you wish to forget it now?

I must tell you, betraying an oath carries retribution, the Gods will not permit such despicable acts!"

The usually amiable High Priest suddenly displayed his anger, which immediately intimidated everyone present.

They dared not utter a word, suddenly falling into silence.

After a long while, a Priest mustered his courage and spoke,

"High Priest, if we let them continue like this... I fear that in a few hundred years, the Temples of Prophecy across the lands will crumble and be abandoned.

High Priest,

This is no unfounded fear!"

The Priest’s voice resonated in Ora’s ears, and the once furiously blazing High Priest suddenly lost his fire.

He faced a dilemma before him:

Either break the oath or watch the Church grow stronger.

High Priest Ora slightly lifted his head, looking at the Divine Statue of Kagawus for a long time.

After a long moment, he began,

"I’ve heard... in the distant sea, there is a place called Solitary Island."

The Priests looked up at Ora with confusion, having never heard of Solitary Island.

An elderly Priest stood up and asked with a trembling voice,

"High Priest, are you speaking of the Hermit of Solitary Island?"

This tri-eyed ape-like Priest was blind in two eyes and seemed to know some inside information.

High Priest Ora gravely nodded.

It was an old legend, one amongst the previous generation of Priests.

The legend spoke of an isolated isle amidst the ocean, desolate and uninhabited, where nothing but shallow shores and coral reefs could be seen.

Wrapped in denser fogs, the small island allegedly claimed most ships that tried to find it, sinking them mysteriously and leaving no trace.

Yet, on this island lived a Hermit.

He resided in a cabin deep within the fog, on the barren island where he was self-sufficient.

The Hermit was ancient, his face wrinkled, his beard and hair white, his eyes as keen as a vulture’s, filled with wisdom yet profoundly sinister.

Donning a tattered grey linen, leaning on a simple wooden staff, he frequently walked slowly along the shoals as if waiting for something.

"People say that this Hermit received a personal revelation from Kagawus, thus going to the middle of the ocean, waiting for the prophecy to be fulfilled," High Priest Ora stated, kneeling before Kagawus’s Divine Statue,

"We all know that prophecy holds a meaning transcending the mundane. For the sake of prophecy, the Hermit decidedly abandoned a life of wealth and honor, to reside on that solitary isle alone."

The blind Priest also knelt down, adding,

"In our generation, some said that the Hermit was sent to Solitary Island by Kagawus because he had already perceived the secrets of the Divine."

Ora glanced at the blind Priest and gently said,

"That Church, they revere Noen as the Prophet.

But in the previous generation, that isolated Hermit... was Kagawus’s Prophet."

"Perhaps only by relying on that legendary Hermit can we halt the expansion of that Church and guard our faith,"

Ora declared in a calm voice.

The blind Priest suddenly became agitated, as though triggered by some unpleasant memory.

"What are you thinking, Ora!

Do you not know that in the past, how many people ventured out to sea in search of that Hermit, only to without exception, perish in the ocean?"

Ora didn’t turn around, still facing the Divine Statue.

After a long while, the High Priest slowly said,

"There was one man who survived. He saw the Hermit’s face and ultimately floated back clinging to a plank of wood."

The blind Priest was suddenly choked up.

Immediately, the only eye left on his forehead involuntarily shed fearful tears.

"Yes, only I survived and returned, I saw his face...

Of the thirty, only I am still alive.

Simply because he needed someone to send a message, telling outsiders not to disturb him anymore, as he waits for the verification of the Prophecy."

The blind Priest trembled, as terrible memories resurfaced before him.

Decades earlier, when he was still young and vigorous, he, along with the Priests of the Great Temple, embarked on the journey to find the Hermit.

After enduring storms, tsunamis, and fogs, and various hardships, the entire ship could no longer withstand the torture and was torn apart by the sea, with the other twenty-nine men swallowed by the ocean.

Only the blind Priest, clinging to a plank, struggled to survive, prayed, and, after experiencing self-doubt and firm hope, he endured the ordeal and saw with his own eyes the legendary Solitary Island.

He originally thought that he was finally fortunate enough to meet the Hermit, that this was the protection and guidance from Kagawus, he believed that he was the one to verify the Prophecy.

But, the Hermit stood on the beach, looking at him coldly.

"I spare your life, leave this place, and let no one disturb me further."

Then, the Hermit withdrew a sharp Stone Knife and blinded both his eyes, leaving only the Eye of Prophecy on his forehead.

Afterward, the blind Priest was abandoned into the sea, accompanied only by a broken plank.

More than the physical pain, the Hermit’s gaze pushed him to despair.

It was the moment his ideals were shattered.

After enduring so much, he only harvested greater pain.

As the terrible memories came flooding back, the blind Priest questioned,

"What do you want to do? Ora, do you still wish to kill thirty Priests?!

No one can survive seeing him, and I only live not because of his mercy, but because he doesn’t want to be disturbed!"

Ora sighed deeply and slowly said,

"But we have no other choice."

These words made the blind Priest stunned.

The growth of the Church had shaken people’s faith in Kagawus.

If they wanted to maintain it, they could only hope that the legendary Hermit of Solitary Island, who possessed wisdom comparable to the Divine, could refute and even shatter the Church that worships God both spiritually and belief-wise.

Ora turned his head, looking at the blind Priest,

"Perhaps... perhaps it’s time for that Hermit’s Prophecy to be verified?"

The blind Priest was silent for a long time and then slowly said,

"Then let us make a Prophecy, to see if we can succeed in reaching Solitary Island."

Ora nodded heavily.

The next day early in the morning, after bathing early, Ora sat in a room filled with petals and clear water, a place specially prepared for the High Priest to pray.

Ora closed his physical eyes, this was the third time in his life he was making a prophecy, and also the last.

He first cleared his mind and body, then started to move his lips, chanting,

"Namausuya thought."

It was the Ancient Language that Prophet Noen had once taught in the New Rule Garden.

It is astonishing that,

despite the Great Temple’s Priests now being openly hostile toward the Church, they still had to use the Ancient Language taught by the Prophet because it enhanced the power of Prophecy.

The pale yellow power of Prophecy gathered, swirling around Ora, and the Eye of Prophecy on his forehead overlapped with reality.

"Divine Prophecy, great Kagawus, please appear for your servant, please unravel mysteries for your servant, and permit me, humble as I am, to make a prophecy regarding the Hermit of Solitary Island."