The witch thought I am a Demon God
Chapter 367 - 227: The Biggest Secret! Thousand-Year Fire!_1

Chapter 367: Chapter 227: The Biggest Secret! Thousand-Year Fire!_1

The Bronze Masked Man, sitting on the stone chair, said, "I know that in your eyes, using corpses as firewood for the Thousand-Year Fire is very sinful. For the people of your era, it’s as if you’re living in a different world from the barbarians."

"But remember, that was the primitive Thousand-Year Fire from nearly three thousand years ago."

He held out his palm to Ivita, and a primitive Thousand-Year Fire appeared in his hand. It was the most primitive and the most evil Thousand-Year Fire.

When Ivita saw this primitive Thousand-Year Fire, he immediately felt a chilling, ancient, and evil sensation.

The Bronze Masked Man said, "The Thousand-Year Fire, as the most powerful regional independent law, runs the risk of extinction periodically. That’s because the greatest secret of the Thousand-Year Fire lies here."

"In my hand is the earliest Thousand-Year Fire, from when humanity was closest to being wild beasts, from the period of tribal monarchs depicted in wall paintings."

Ivita seemed to understand somewhat, while the Hearthstone Witch beside him looked completely confused.

The Bronze Masked Man said, "During the tribal monarch period of Ambros, it was essentially a large primitive tribal nation composed of five tribes. At that time, the fuel used to maintain the Thousand-Year Fire was... human beings themselves, namely the captives and slaves in the tribe."

"But at that time, many nobles of the five major tribes would actively throw themselves into the flames, leading to the custom of using the Thousand-Year Fire for funerals."

"Back then, lives didn’t hold the same value as they do now. The main concern of mankind was how to survive under the threat of the Sons of the Forest and natural disasters. Sacrificing oneself for the tribe was considered an honor."

The Bronze Masked Man continued, "Things changed later. The wealth inequality quickly made the people of the five tribes dissatisfied with the military democratic system of the tribal nation. They wanted to employ a hierarchical order to permanently possess wealth and personal power over others. Therefore, the city-state slave system replaced the original tribe system of the Ambros people."

"The people of Ambros at that time began to formulate laws, defining what is a nation, who are slave owners, and who are slaves."

"Therefore, the people kindling the Thousand-Year Fire changed from captives and few nobles to slaves. Slave owners began to view throwing oneself into the Thousand-Year Fire as pure suicide, and they refused to fulfill their obligations. Their responsibilities were then transferred to the slaves."

The Thousand-Year Fire in the palm of the Bronze Masked Man changed again, transforming into the light red Thousand-Year Fire that Ivita had seen before. The evil aura had weakened significantly.

As Ivita and the Hearthstone Witch listened attentively, the Bronze Masked Man continued, "Then came that unprecedented powerful civilization. The Ancient Civilization had established republics and empires on this land. To them, Ambros was merely an insignificant corner."

"But with the arrival of the Ancient Civilization, the system of democratic slavery was established, replacing the autocratic system of collective slavery. Later, the Ancient Civilization began implementing a debt slavery system, gradually increasing the personal freedom of slaves, granting them the most important right to purchase their freedom with money. During this process, the blood of gladiators was used to kindle the Thousand-Year Fire. That’s why the Ancient Civilization was so determined to build those grand arenas."

The Bronze Masked Man said, "But unlike all the previous native regimes of Ambros, the Thousand-Year Fire was too weak for the Ancient Civilization. Therefore, the Ancient Civilization treated matters related to the Thousand-Year Fire more like playthings, a part of their cultural customs."

The color of the Thousand-Year Fire in the Bronze Masked Man’s hand became lighter, and the evil aura almost disappeared, transforming into a feeling of savagery but power.

The Bronze Masked Man continued, "Next is the most important part. The last time the Thousand-Year Fire was about to extinguish was a thousand years ago. The human civilization of Ambros underwent another transformation. Feudal serfdom replaced the remnants of slave democracy left by the Ancient Civilization in Ambros. The feudal system replaced the central and provincial systems."

"Rural areas and manors replaced the cities and ports of the Ancient Civilization era."

"But because of the decline of the Ancient Civilization, a severe regression occurred in the entire human world. Most regions entered a state of anarchy, or the survival of some institutions of the Ancient Civilization. Therefore, the transition to the establishment of feudal serfdom in Ambros took three hundred years."

"After that, the Thousand-Year Fire fell into a continuous decline for three hundred years and almost extinguished. It wasn’t until four hundred years ago that a man named Arcuxi, an Igniter, came here with his wife Anna. They faced countless difficulties, fulfilled the conditions to open the bronze door, obtained the secret of the Thousand-Year Fire, and finally discovered the method to reignite the Thousand-Year Fire."

The flame in the palm of the Bronze Masked Man had changed to a color nearly identical to that of an ordinary fire.

Ivita immediately found the fire familiar.

Yes, this was the Thousand-Year Fire he was familiar with, the Fire of Law which represented the nobility of human civilization.

The Bronze Masked Man said, "This should be the Thousand-Year Fire that you are familiar with."

"The Thousand-Year Fire is the fire of human civilization. So every time there is a major change in human civilization, the characteristic of the Thousand-Year Fire will also change."

"The firewood that the Thousand-Year Fire needs is different."

"Arcuxi and Anna discovered that the living people are no longer needed to kindle the Thousand-Year Fire. It’s not slaves, captives, or gladiators anymore. Instead, people need to bury the serfs in intact tombs, let their souls return home, and thus, the Thousand-Year Fire can burn eternally. Arcuxi and Anna believed that the Thousand-Year Fire had evolved to its peak, that feudal serfdom was the truth of the universe, the ultimate change in society, and the final point of the system."

"But the result was, less than two hundred years after their death, the social system of Ambros surprisingly changed again. The ghost of the Ancient Civilization that remained, along with the repeated resurgence and spread of the Papal Country and the Three Republics on the Peninsula, surprisingly took root again in Ambros."

"Cities and towns have sprung up in Ambros."

"The emergence of commercial cities and towns, and even two major peasant revolts occurred."

"As a result, the changes in the human civilization within Ambros led to the Thousand-Year Fire changing once again."

"The kindling required by the Thousand-Year Fire has changed, but the people of Ambros outside are unaware of this, consequently, the Thousand-Year Fire is about to expire."

Ivita and Hearthstone Witch marveled.

They did not expect that the greatest secret behind the Thousand-Year Fire was this.

The reason for the Thousand-year Fire is about to extinguish is due to the warfare between the City Faction and the Noble Faction of Ambros, a severe shift once again in the civilization of Ambros.

Ivita started to feel puzzled. "But if it’s like this then why did the last major societal transformation, where feudal slavery replaced slave democracy in unified large states, with the Thousand-Year Fire declining for three hundred years before there was a risk of extinction. Why this time with only less than a hundred year span, is there a risk of it going extinct?"

The Bronze Mask replied, "Mainly, there are two reasons. And you have encountered both of them; you have met the protagonists of both these reasons."

"First, the wife of the last igniter seems to have devised a technique that can counter the improved Redwood sea law of the Thousand-Year Fire. This expedited the decline of the Thousand-Year fire."

"Second, two hundred years ago, a demon claiming to be ’us’ descended upon Ambros. The Thousand-Year fire did suppress that demon but consumed nearly all of its reserved flame."

"The incident left a very clear consequence, the Landless Elan, the mortal king of Ambros at that time, surprisingly died during the war against the remnants of the Son of Forest, even losing the Broken Steel Sword, hence the sword falling into your hands."

Ivita nodded, everything checked out.

So, the Thousand-Year fire isn’t inherently evil, as every epoch’s Thousand-Year fire represents a miniature of human civilization of that epoch.

The problem was never the Thousand-Year fire, but rather expecting people from the civilization epochs past to conform to the current era’s perspectives.

So, the Thousand-Year Fire requires new firewood now.

But the question is, what is it?

When Ivita thought about the demon who claimed to be "us", he found it somewhat familiar. "The demon who claimed us, could it be the Omega Demon. You said I met it before, I have only encountered two demons -- it and the Demon Hugo."

The man behind the bronze mask replied, "Impossible."

"There’s no such thing as an Omega Demon."

"If that’s how it introduced itself, it must have been deceiving you. However, that being said, hasn’t it always been following you? You can just ask it yourself."

Ivita and the Hearthstone Witch were stunned, and they weren’t able to find a fourth person present here after looking around.

What’s going on?

Seeing the Bronze Mask didn’t answer and Hearthstone Witch looked surprised, Ivita suddenly remembered something Milani and Francesca once discussed in their conversation.

After the fall of Hugo, his demon-possessed mother suddenly disappeared from the ancestral graveyard, as if she had never been there.

If that woman who once smiled at him, who asked him to go to a location, has disappeared from the cemetery, where would she go?

With a frown, Ivita asked Hearthstone Witch, "Has your demon-expelling power improved recently?"

The Hearthstone Witch was obviously taken aback. She said to Ivita, "Your Highness, maybe we should go to a proper church?!"

The Bronze Mask-man began to speak. "It turns out you didn’t know it has been following you all along, Ivita."

"I thought you knew because it was fearful of you, always following you but not daring to get too close."

"Two hundred years ago, a demon suddenly descended on Ambros. It was fleeing from a force known as the Black Mouse Plague. The cemetery leader of Ambros at that time sealed away the plague at the cost of his own life, putting the plague in a family who volunteered to be sacrificed. That was when the cemetery began to decline."

"And that plague would be sealed by the bloodline and descending nobility of that family."

"Unless, someone cowardly came from that family and broke the seal."

Ivita had a strange look on his face.

He thought of the sick child that Knight Gastrot always had by his side.

So, Knight Gastrot never told him the truth. His friend who joined the Holy Church Army might have turned deserter on the battlefield, causing their family’s bloodline seal to lose its effect.