Chapter 145: I Am the Center, and I Am the Pantheon!
Noah arrived at the Pantheon with Lucius in the evening.
Although Noah felt a bit uneasy about Lucius saying she would keep watch for him, he nodded anyway. However, before entering the Pantheon, he had already asked Mary to keep an eye on things for him.
The Pantheon was a rather special place for Noah.
Although he had no memories or emotions tied to Rome, as he approached the Pantheon, an inexplicable sense of familiarity, as if returning home, washed over him.
The moment he stepped into the Pantheon, he felt a warm aura envelop him.
Then, as he fully entered the main hall, he saw that the divine statues placed within the Pantheon were all emanating their own power and Divine Might.
Both this power and Divine Might—were entirely devoid of will.
The consciousness that should have resided within these statues had long since vanished.
What remained should have been something utterly impartial to all, yet even such power and Divine Might expressed something different when facing him.
"It is said that every emperor who comes to the Pantheon receives the Blessing of the gods... Although I have not witnessed this firsthand, according to rumors—or at least according to that monkey outside—normally, only one god's Blessing would descend upon a person."
"She herself was like that, but in your case, it seems all these statues are responding to you, with no intention of making you choose one. You might become the first emperor to be blessed by all the gods."
Mary explained this to Noah in her mind, and Noah nodded.
His attention was now focused on the power emanating from these statues.
He himself possessed the Authority known as the Blessing of the End, but he had never been very adept at using it.
This Authority was not something where you could grant any Blessing you wished; the types of Blessings you could bestow required you to have them in your "inventory."
In other words, these Blessings had to be studied and accumulated bit by bit.
In the Singularity of FGO Chapter 6, who knows how long that Rhongomyniad had lived and how much time she had spent researching.
Or perhaps, if you became Rhongomyniad, you would inherently possess Blessings.
But Noah was different.
He had no understanding of this aspect, so he had never been able to make much use of the Authority of the Blessing of the End.
It was like being locked in a treasury filled with gold coins, yet unable to spend a single coin because there was no way out—a person so poor they had nothing but money.
But now, Noah had found a way out.
Or rather...
—Finally, someone had opened the door to the treasury!
The Blessings before him now dazzled his eyes, with all kinds of varieties.
He quickly activated the Authority of the Blessing of the End, continuously recording the contents of these Blessings.
As for whether all these Blessings were meant for him, Noah didn't care in the slightest.
Once he had recorded them all, if he wanted them, he could simply bestow them upon himself.
There was no need to trouble others!
Moreover, after acquiring these Blessings, he could return and bestow them upon others.
That was the most efficient way to utilize them.
However, as Noah grew more deeply acquainted with these Blessings, he gradually realized that Mary might have guessed wrong.
These divine statues were all channeling their power, seemingly not intending to bestow upon him all the Blessings within the Pantheon at once. Instead, these forces were converging toward the front of the statue of the Divine Ancestor, Romulus, within the Pantheon!
After the power from these statues gathered together, the energy emanating from the Divine Ancestor's statue surged dramatically!
Once this power was amplified, it propelled all the other forces, driving them directly into Noah's body!
Noah could sense that within this power, there was not only the Blessing—in fact, the Pantheon granted him only one Blessing—but also something else, something even more significant than the Blessing itself!
The true Blessing was solely that of the Divine Ancestor, Romulus—the Blessing of the Spear!
This Blessing directly settled upon his arms!
Just as Romulus's own hands were his founding spear!
At that moment, the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad appeared before Noah. Under the influence of this Blessing, the Holy Lance, which had previously been merely a weapon to him, now fully merged with him.
Feeling the Holy Lance fuse with him, Noah spread his hands and grasped at the empty air on either side. Two identical Holy Lances materialized in his hands.
And each one was indistinguishable from the original Holy Lance Rhongomyniad.
Sensing this, Noah first dispersed the two Holy Lances in his hands and continued to channel the power.
Behind him, thirteen Holy Lances spread out like a peacock's tail. Noah could clearly feel that, with just a thought, these thirteen Holy Spears of the End could be projected directly, unleashing Divine Punishment upon a region!
"If I had possessed such power back when I fought Vortigern, then with thirteen Holy Lances descending together, even that super-dragon form of Vortigern could likely have been pinned down before it self-destructed."
Even...
"Thirteen wouldn't even be necessary, nor would merging them into one. Perhaps just one of these thirteen would suffice!"
This Blessing brought Noah an immense boost.
However, a significant portion of this enhancement came from the Holy Lance Rhongomyniad. Among the three things the Pantheon granted him this time, this Blessing was the first and most fundamental.
The second was—a Crown.
Not a physical crown, but rather something akin to the "Grand" status of a Grand Servant!
...
Unlike the complex nature of the Grand status, this Crown's function was extremely simple and could only be used once.
Similar to the explosive power unleashed when a Grand Servant relinquishes their Grand status, by using this Crown, Noah could also obtain a one-time surge of power comparable to that released when abandoning the Grand status!
How great the amplification of this power would be in that instant, Noah did not know, but it was the only thing he could sense.
If he were to discard this crown, then only ten times out of ten would he be able to aim the fully unleashed Excalibur at any enemy he desired!
The Blessing and the crown had already given Noah quite a few surprises, and Noah had even used the Authority of the Blessing of the End to record the Blessings of the Pantheon.
Even if his gains ended here, Noah would have been more than satisfied.
But in reality, there was a third.
That was the divine statues within the Pantheon, bestowing upon Noah all of their remaining Divinity!
It was as if the Pantheon had once granted Noah—the name Romulus.
It seemed as though they were molding Noah into a new divine ancestor!
The diverse Divinities belonging to the gods of the Roman Pantheon were all bestowed upon Noah, making his already immense Divinity grow even more terrifying at this moment!
Previously, Mary had said that the world's expectation for Noah was—to make him the center of the Pantheon.
But at this moment, Noah felt he could already declare:
I am the center, and I am the Pantheon!
Before arriving at the Pantheon, Noah had wondered whether the gods here would communicate with him or entrust him with something.
But now, it seemed he was completely mistaken.
The divine statues in the Pantheon had long since lost their will; they would not communicate with him.
Yet even if these statues still retained their will, they likely would not speak to him or entrust him with anything.
Because what they had given him already conveyed everything they wished to express, quite clearly.
Become a new beginning—the Blessing of the Founding Spear.
Become a new king—the Crown of the Gods.
Become a new divine ancestor—the gathering of the Pantheon.
No one spoke a single word to Noah, yet he understood these things perfectly.
So...
"Rest assured, I will carry this power forward, carry my nation forward, carry my people forward—I will start anew from this new beginning, and with this
Spear of the Nation, I will personally build a vast kingdom worthy of the crown you have forged for me.
"...Leave it to me."
"Whether it be the White Titan or the Umbral Star, whether it be the fate of inevitable demise or the crimson in the sky... all of it, leave it to me. I swear here and now that in the darkest of times, I will carve a path to the future and open up a brand new future!"