Site Four Hundred Seventy-Two
The lit candelabra, the hanging portraits, the brightly laid carpet, and scattered religious decorations create a spacious office, where Amanda, the Woman in Red, sits behind a desk piled high with documents. She leans back in her chair, her brow furrowed, facing the ghostly figure of the Nun standing across from her.
“Your Excellency, things seem to be off. News has begun circulating both inside and outside the church that Sister Vania will be sent as an envoy to Adus to resolve the heresy issue there. Not only the ordinary newspapers outside the church but even publications like the Gospel and Salvation News have printed this news. The message about Sister Vania going to Adus has spread rapidly overnight; it seems there are plans being made behind the scenes.”
With a tone that carries a slight heaviness, the ghostly nun speaks to Amanda. Hearing this, Amanda lets out a subtle sigh of relief and continues to speak.
“Of course, someone is planning this behind the scenes, Hilbert. I didn’t expect he would create such momentum to pressure me; I’ve let my guard down this time.”
Amanda slowly replies, clearly caught off guard by the current situation.
“I didn’t foresee that a request for aid from the nobles of Adus would arrive now, of all times. In the last cardinal meeting, I was caught off-guard by Hilbert. The situation has become quite troublesome…”
Rubbing her temples, Amanda mutters heavily. Just then, the ghostly nun speaks again.
“So what should we do now, Your Excellency? Are we really sending Sister Vania to Adus? The situation there is not something she can handle.”
“We have no choice but to send her. Hilbert has timed this perfectly, aligning his momentum with our publicity and pushing that little nun into the eye of the storm. In this case, she must make a trip there,” Amanda reflects grimly, considering that given the pros and cons, that little nun must go to Adus regardless of the outcome. It’s better than preventing her from going altogether.
“From now on, let’s assemble an envoy group to Adus. We should arrange for enhanced security as much as possible. Although we can’t expect that little nun to accomplish much, at least we want to ensure her safe return.”
Amanda continues, aware that the current situation in Adus is chaotic and dangerous; a journey there without strong protective forces could be fraught with peril.
As the envoy’s nun, even if she returns empty-handed, it could damage the influence they have been building. If something were to happen to her there…
“Yes… I’ll arrange for that. However, it seems that the involvement of His Excellency Hilbert in security matters is quite extensive. Do you have any other plans regarding this aspect?”
With a serious demeanor, the ghostly nun addresses Amanda. Upon hearing her words, Amanda squints slightly, a glimmer of contemplation in her eyes.
…
North Shore of the Conquer Sea, Iwig.
At night, the coastal city of Adria is illuminated with various lights as darkness descends, reflecting on the river to create a beautiful night scene that is rarely seen in this tourism-focused city.
In a high-end restaurant’s private room in Adria, Doro sits in a small evening dress, enjoying the beautiful night view outside the window. On the table in front of her lies the thick book, “Navigation of the Literary Sea,” opened to the text containing her previous discussions with Vania. Doro admires the night view while pondering the content of her exchange with Vania.
‘Rachel Valley, the holy place where the Holy Mother first descended into the world, has giant trees similar to those found on Summer Tree Island… and a church built beneath one of these giant trees? This bears an astonishing resemblance to the ritual site found beneath the sacred tree of Summer Tree Island… Furthermore, considering that Adele’s teacher’s former home, which worshipped abundance, has also been transformed into a Holy Mother Church, it seems there is a very close connection between the faith of the Holy Mother and abundance… The Holy Mother site in Rachel Valley may have once served as the temple of the Goddess of Abundance, and it could be much larger and more significant than Summer Tree’s. It might even have been the main temple.
‘According to the Glorious Holy Scripture, Rachel Valley is the place where the Holy Mother descended. When the Savior of Radiance divided into the Three Saints, it was here that the Holy Mother first appeared and defeated the Beast of the South that came from the sea…
‘This Beast of the South is quite intriguing as well—pregnancy, water, disease, devouring, temptation, bl**d and flesh… In the scripture’s description, the South Beast possesses almost all the powers of the ‘Cup,’ overlapping significantly with the image of the Cup Mother. If the South Beast indeed represents the Cup Mother, how could the Holy Mother of the Mixed Color Deity have defeated it?
‘The Goddess of Abundance, the Cup Mother, the Holy Mother… these three goddesses related to the ‘Cup’ seem to have an inexplicable relationship with each other… What exactly connects them? It’s truly perplexing…’
Rubbing her chin, Doro contemplates these thoughts, aware that among those three goddesses, two are related to the former and current pure color deities of the ‘Cup,’ while one is the Mixed Color deity associated with the ‘Lamp.’ It seems reasonable for the Goddess of Abundance and the Cup Mother to have a close connection due to their direct inheritance, yet the involvement of the Holy Mother, a Mixed Color deity, raises questions as to what she is doing here. Essentially, she should belong to the ‘Lamp’ system; the ties between her and those two pure color ‘Cups’ shouldn’t be this close…
Gazing out the window, Doro reflects on the complex relationships between the deities. After pondering for a while without drawing any clear conclusions, she turns her attention back to the “Navigation of the Literary Sea,” focusing on other matters that Vania had mentioned, the most crucial being Vania’s successful advancement.
Under the church’s management, Vania has successfully ascended to the status of an Extraordinary Being of the Holy Mother’s Path, the White Chalk Tier, becoming a Grace Priest from a Healing Priest.
A Grace Priest, the title for an Extraordinary Being of the Holy Mother’s Path at the White Chalk Tier, not only enhances the basic capabilities related to the ‘Lamp’ and ‘Cup’ compared to a Healing Priest, but also bolsters the original healing abilities while adding several new ones.
Compared to a Healing Priest, the Grace Priest’s efficiency in healing wounds has increased, and they can implement a simplified “Grant” ceremony to contact non-resistant recipients and mark them. The Grace Priest can sense the recipient’s physical condition from a long distance through the mark, determining whether they are injured or dead. This mark also functions as a landmark, allowing the Grace Priest to perceive the recipient’s location in real-time.
When the recipient is within a kilometer radius of the Grace Priest, the latter can heal their wounds remotely; if the Grace Priest can see the recipient, and the recipient is within the Grace Priest’s line of sight, the healing effect is amplified.
In addition to healing, the Grace Priest can enhance the recipient by adding passive buffs equivalent to a first-tier ‘Lamp’ and a first-tier ‘Cup,’ allowing those without passive abilities related to the ‘Cup’ or ‘Lamp,’ whether they be Extraordinary beings or mortals, to experience such power. This blessing can also somewhat suppress diseases and toxins targeting the body; lighter ailments and poisons can be dispelled entirely.
One particularly interesting aspect is that the Grace Priest can bestow blessings upon intangible entities like ghosts, materializing them to a certain degree, making them vulnerable to physical harm. Typically, intangible beings would resist such painful transformations and flee quickly, making this a method of exorcism.
It is important to note that this transformation does not allow a ghost to regain a fully fleshy body and come back to life; it merely creates a mass of rotten flesh tightly linked to the ghost’s essence, trapping it. The ghost cannot even control this prison of flesh, and harming this prison also damages the ghost itself, thus all intangible entities would resist such so-called “blessings.” This “blessing” is also a powerful tool the church uses against intangible beings.
‘A Grace Priest… seems to be a solid Extraordinary position. It doesn’t just add the ability to track and check life signs remotely but even allows for remote healing.
‘Tracking and physical examination can span hundreds of kilometers, while healing can cover a radius of a kilometer… The range for this ability is quite good, but the downside is that one must hold a Grant ceremony in advance to mark non-resistant recipients. You can’t just heal anyone from a distance whenever you want.
‘This Grant mark is somewhat similar to my Puppet Mark, generally only applicable to teammates. The drawback is that it’s challenging to apply marks on enemies, making it less effective in confrontations.
‘This flaw may not be a problem for ordinary Grace Priests, as their role in the church is primarily supportive, and as long as they can heal teammates, that suffices. However, for Vania, who can inflict damage through malicious healing, this is undoubtedly a limitation, meaning she cannot heal enemies from a distance and must rely on close combat to worsen their wounds.
‘Moreover, one of the more intriguing abilities of the Grace Priest is that it can pull intangible beings towards physical flesh. This significantly enhances the ability to deal with entities like spirits that are immune to physical attacks; by ‘blessing’ a vengeful spirit, one could k*ll it instantly. This ability can turn a ghostly horror movie into a bl**d-soaked horror piece.’
Looking at Vania’s handwriting on the “Navigation of the Literary Sea,” Doro analyzes her thoughts. Among the new abilities Vania has gained, the one that piques her curiosity the most seems more like a curse on intangible entities than an actual blessing.
Thus far, the various conventional firearms and explosives remain key components of her combat strength, and such weapons have no effect on ghosts. However, with this ability, she could potentially fire to exorcise them.
“Vania’s abilities after her advancement are still acceptable… All the preparations made previously have paid off; the advancement ceremony didn’t have any glitches…”
Doro whispers softly, recalling how, to prevent any mishaps, she and Vania had conducted many preparations before the advancement procedure. For instance, in order to cope with the spiritual examinations of personnel within the holy site, Vania secretly eliminated all her spiritual qualities, except for those related to the ‘Cup’ and ‘Lamp,’ to avoid raising suspicion from those detecting the mixed spiritual qualities accumulated through her reading techniques.
The specific method to eliminate spiritual qualities involved conducting various meaningless rituals to drain spirituality. For example, a divination ritual could consume the ‘Lamp’ and ‘Enlightenment’; even a divination ritual that resulted in failure could still expend spirituality. Doro had Vania continuously perform such failed divinations to completely exhaust the ‘Enlightenment’ poetry accumulated through her reading practices.
Of course, not every divination Vania performed ended in failure. While expending spirituality, many divinations did employ both ‘Lamp’ and ‘Enlightenment’ effectively. These divinations not only uncovered matters Doro wished to know but also sought information about organizations like the Eight Pinnacle Nest, Wolf bl**d Association, Abyss Cult, Dark Gold Society, Underworld Coffin Cult, and others. Unsurprisingly, all this was blocked. However, it did somewhat stimulate the nerves of these cult organizations, causing them to become more vigilant and coincidentally bump up the overall ‘Enlightenment’ market. It is said that after a brief period of stabilization, the prices for ‘Enlightenment’ have begun to rise again.
Had it not been necessary to ensure Vania was in a full ‘Lamp’ state during her advancement, Doro would have used all of Vania’s ‘Enlightenment’ directly for divination, without any deliberate waste. Vania had accumulated over twenty points of ‘Enlightenment’ over a long time, enough for these organizations to fill a cauldron.
Although Vania is now free of other spiritual qualities beyond those of the ‘Lamp’ and ‘Cup,’ as long as she resumes her reading practices, it will be easy for her to rebuild her spirituality. Therefore, Doro does not worry about Vania encountering special circumstances requiring other spiritual qualities that she would be unable to face.
Seated at the restaurant, Doro takes a sip of coffee and, having finished reading Vania’s contact page, flips to another page adorned with the handwriting belonging to Nephnis. It appears that not only Vania has made advances recently.
Nephnis’s progress is also easily predictable: after more than a week of expedited delivery, Davis’s follow-up notes have finally arrived in Adria from Tivyán. From her grandfather’s subsequent notes, Nephnis has finally found the advancement ceremony for the Path of Body Reliance at the White Chalk Tier.
According to Davis’s notes, the advancement for the Path of Body Reliance at the White Chalk Tier requires a specific venue, necessitating the ceremony to take place deep within a cemetery teeming with ghosts and abundant ‘Silence’ spirituality. The ceremony demands the collection of three bone shards sealed with the essence of black earth, and the individual must suppress a white-chalk-tier spirit within themselves to successfully carry out the ceremony.
In Davis’s notes, he clearly stated that for an Extraordinary Being of ‘Silence’ at the White Chalk level, many advancements require finding spiritual realms with a sufficient gathering of undead. Such realms often include sites of massacres, ancient battlefields, and large disaster sites. However, these locations are often controlled by official extraordinary organizations and the Underworld Coffin Cult. Locations that fall outside the control of these two organizations exist only in two fringe areas.
The first is the New World Wild Forest, where Wilderness Spirits gather; the second is the Northern Ufeiga, which contains numerous buried human souls.
