Becoming a God Starts with Acting-Chapter 460: Cries Beneath the Earth

The two sides had never truly been all that peaceful or friendly toward each other to begin with. Nobility stood at the very pinnacle of the world's resources and privileges, while the Church was built upon the faith of nearly all common folk across the Land of Light, like a form of salvation—the only way out for the wretched.

Still, the two sides maintained a temporary peace for the sake of their own interests.

Everything only truly began a year ago, when Matthew was forced into a corner by Nana, crushed until there was nowhere left for him to go. Don't misunderstand—what Nana truly wanted was his life.

But Matthew seemed to possess some kind of protection. Every time they clashed, he was always able to survive and retreat, his face never showing the slightest trace of fear or panic.

In the end, he fled—but not entirely. Their most recent encounter took place at Luminous's high-level conference, where Matthew had already become a Priest, serving at the Pope's side. From that moment on, the Church began issuing decisions for large-scale purification across the Land of Light, claiming that doing so would bring peace to the world and stop shadow creatures from targeting ordinary humans.

Many people believed this. Nana, however, caught the scent of something ominous—especially when the one leading it all was Matthew.

Yet the results were undeniable. The shadow creatures truly no longer attacked those who had been purified.

Ordinary people nearly went mad with devotion to the Church, displaying absolute loyalty—so much so that even if the Church told them to go die, they would not refuse.

And everything began to grow tense toward the end of the year, when the Church expressed dissatisfaction with the near-total dominance of the Nobility. This immediately stirred up the long-simmering anger among the common people. Almost at once, protests erupted without pause, all of them ending in bloodshed—impossible to stop, no matter how one tried.

Public discourse even began to transform into a desire for the Church to reestablish order in the Land of Light as a society with the Church as the supreme existence.

How could those who had long enjoyed the benefits brought by class disparity possibly accept this?

And Nana?

From childhood to adulthood, she had been educated to take pride in the existence of Nobility and the Aurellan family. Yet certain events made her realize that being an ordinary person or a Noble did not actually carry such a vast difference. What she truly pursued was nothing more than power—power capable of protecting what she wanted to protect. Just like how Nicole had spared nothing to protect her in Aqualon, or the way Silvanus made the people of the sea cheer as the surging waves buried the Aetherium Tower.

Nana had once said this to Nicole. Nicole only laughed and gently ruffled her hair.

She wanted this world to change and wanted everything to be rebuilt—but she had never wanted the one pushing it all forward to be Matthew. Whenever she faced Matthew, Nana always felt an unmistakable sense of danger. She did not believe that Vermillion, the headmaster of Lumina, failed to notice it.

Yet when she asked he about it, Vermillion only said that she would find her answer on the southern plains of Aqualon.

This place bore its name because legends claimed that many Merfolk had appeared here in the past, leading people to believe that this land lay very close to Aqualon's borders.

Nana searched everywhere. The only hope she had left likely lay with that mysterious force that had emerged a few years prior.

"The auction has begun." At that moment, the voice of a subordinate beside her suddenly rang out.

At the same time, the entirety of Utafea trembled slightly, as if countless enormous gears had begun turning. Immediately after, the lowest part of the stage abruptly split apart, and something slowly rose upward, appearing before everyone's eyes.

A strange sound suddenly spread through the air. Nana could not help but frown, one hand instinctively lifting to cover her ear.

She glanced back, only to see her subordinates wearing perfectly normal expressions.

By then, the sharp pain inside her ear had already vanished. Could it have been an illusion? Even so, Nana's expression did not relax in the slightest.

At the same moment, in Private Room No. 1, Silvanus—whose eyes had remained tightly closed all this time—suddenly opened them wide. He stood up at once and walked over to the window, looking down below.

The glass was made from a special material. Those inside the room could clearly see everything beneath them, while those outside could not glimpse even the slightest hint of what was happening within.

Silvanus's gaze was fixed straight on the floor that had split apart below—that sound…

It was like crying. And that crying was calling his name.

At that moment, Leon beside him spoke up as well. "That is the method used to transport the items upward, sir."

Silvanus could not help but recall the list of items he had reviewed. Their own item was not among the very last, even though in previous auctions the weapons Leon brought were almost always placed at the end. There was something even more precious—something Utafea was still keeping secret and had yet to reveal.

"How do we get down there?" Silvanus asked directly.

"There is a secret passage. However, whenever Utafea holds an auction, the security is extremely tight."

"Let's go." Silvanus did not hesitate in the slightest.

Leon immediately nodded in response, without asking a single unnecessary question. Nick, standing to the side, could not help but feel alarmed.

Wait—what the hell was going on? Was Silvanus planning to plunge straight into danger? But from the very beginning, Silvanus hadn't seemed like he came here to cause trouble at all.

"What is actually going on?" he could not help but ask.

Silvanus looked at them calmly. "Leon, lead the way for me. Marax, you'll temporarily take his place. Nick, if anything happens, report to me immediately. Understood?"

Nick fell silent for a moment, then nodded forcefully.

Silvanus and Leon draped themselves in black cloaks. Inside the room, Cain gave a shake and transformed into Leon—only the roguish smile at the corner of his lips remained unchanged. Combined with Leon's normally indifferent expression, it looked truly strange and oddly amusing.

Asta clearly hadn't expected things to move so quickly. He stared blankly at Marax, at a loss for words.

Who would have thought that at this moment, Marax would actually speak up and ask him, "What's wrong? Don't I look good like this?"

Asta: "..."

How was he supposed to know what counted as good-looking for a man?

But then again, this was Marax. Thinking that, Asta finally clenched his teeth and nodded hard. "Good-looking."

Nick: "..."

On the other side, when Silvanus and Leon emerged from the restroom, they had already changed into a new set of clothes—precisely the standard attire of the mages guarding Utafea. A long black cloak with sleeves draped past the ankles, a belt stamped with Utafea's emblem—a pair of bird wings—and atop their heads, jet-black masks and tightly drawn hoods that concealed them completely, revealing only faint, pale-purple patterns above.

The path leading underground was no secret, as it was where the auction items were transported. Leon had delivered items to the entrance of this underground passage countless times before, so his guidance was flawless.

At this moment, guard mages were moving about everywhere, so the appearance of the two of them did not attract much attention.

Silvanus also roughly gauged the strength of the mages stationed here.

When they finally left Utafea and approached the entrance leading underground, he suddenly raised his hand. His index finger and thumb rubbed together, as if crushing a layer of dark powder. It swiftly dispersed throughout the area, and by the time Silvanus and Leon arrived, the substance had already taken effect.

Silvanus looked at the massive gate before them, then turned his gaze toward Leon.

Leon, in truth, had no idea how this gate was opened, but he still quickly stepped forward to inspect it.

The two guard mages standing on either side seemed as though they did not exist at all, remaining rigid and motionless like statues.

"It's a formation, sir…" Leon said.

Unable to use magic, Leon instinctively looked toward Silvanus.

By now, Silvanus had already observed enough.

He raised his hand. A dazzling light flared at his index finger, and as he moved, lines of light rapidly took shape, forming a floating magic array above the gate.