Chapter 1052: Reluctantly Showing Off |
Late at night.
Neither Anthony's intelligence channels, nor Franca's gang informants, nor Jenna's neighborhood contacts were able to provide any information related to the Sick Church.
Franca sat down at the mechanical typewriter, turned on the wireless telegraph transceiver, preparing to ask 007 if the Eternal Blazing Sun Church had gathered any valuable intelligence.
'Ding, group message notification: Hidden Blade, who did another good deed today, has joined the chat!' Franca announced her arrival in the telegraph group.
Before she could send a second message, she saw a telegram come in with 007 as the header: 'Hidden Blade, you didn't actually advance to Sequence 4, but to Sequence 3, right?'
The other telegrams that should have responded to Franca suddenly came to a halt.
Franca was stunned at first, then understood.
Wow, I originally didn't want to show off about this, but you helped me do it anyway?
She felt she should display three parts helplessness, three parts pain, three parts confusion, plus one part inevitable secret joy, so she carefully replied: 'Ah… yes.'
The mechanical typewriter seemed overwhelmed, working so hard it might start smoking.
'Are you serious?'
'Hidden Blade, that kind of joke isn't funny, it's too cruel!'
'Hidden Blade, I remember you mentioning just a month ago that you were a Sequence 5 Demoness of Affliction, and now you're Sequence 3 in just a month? Even a rocket isn't that fast!'
'Have you been blessed by the God of Fortune lately?'
'A Sequence 3 Demoness, I can't imagine how beautiful and charming…'
'Really, are there any secrets to advancing? Name your price, we brothers might be able to scrape together a down payment.'
'Hidden Blade, did something happen to you? Do you need any help? At my sequence, I might not be able to participate in combat, but I can help curse those people!'
'…'
'007, how did you know?'
After the expression of various emotions and feelings, someone finally brought the topic back on track.
007 replied: 'Hidden Blade is now a patron saint of a cathedral, with her own honorific name.'
Sure enough, the changes at Saint Franca Cathedral had been noticed by the Eternal Blazing Sun Church, and 007 had known before that I was 'Red Boots' Franca Roland… Franca's speculation was confirmed.
'Patron saint… honorific name… I really can't connect these two terms with the 'life is short, why not give it a shot' Hidden Blade.' Moon King was the first to marvel.
'Indeed.' Wind Sound sent a telegram in response. 'It's too surreal, too surreal, more surreal than any fantasy novel!'
'Please show some respect to the great Hidden Blade!'
'Lord Hidden Blade, is there any chance you could take me as your apprentice?'
'You want to become a Demoness too? If I remember correctly, you can switch.'
'I can't accept that the strongest in the research society is now the silly Hidden Blade…'
'Hey, if you put it that way, wouldn't that make us even more silly and stupid?'
'…'
Looking at these telegrams, Franca couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile.
I have to say, showing off like this feels pretty good!
Moreover, those joking remarks gave her a sense of still being grounded, still connected to the masses.
'Hey hey hey,' she quickly typed out the words, 'You don't really think I'm brainless, do you? I was just being approachable before, trying to get along with you all.'
Then, she humbly added: 'Madame Hela should also be Sequence 3 now, either a bit earlier or later than me.
'As for the President, I'm not quite sure.'
'So you really are Sequence 3… Is there anything you can tell us about it?' Wind Sound and others asked in succession.
Franca elaborated a bit more than before: 'In advancing to Sequence 4, digesting the Sequence 4 potion, and advancing to Sequence 3, I met some special conditions as a transmigrator that allowed me to take shortcuts, so I became a Saint with an honorific name within a month.'
She didn't mention that she had completely digested the Sequence 3 potion, after all, the telegraph group had quite a few members, and most of which she hadn't met in the real world. Although she was willing to trust their character, she couldn't gamble on their circumstances—critical information about her Sequence abilities still needed to be kept secret.
Besides, if someone asked what a Sequence 3 Demoness was called, Franca didn't want to hide it, because after 007 pointed out that she was already a patron saint of a cathedral, her honorific name couldn't be hidden from those who paid attention. This way, some telegraph group members might make certain connections between the instant digestion of a Sequence potion and the name Demoness of Unaging.
'One month…'
'Really only took one month…'
'…'
At this point, Moon King, Wind Sound, and others seemed to have lost even the mood to joke.
'So what kind of Demoness are you now?' After a while, group member Little Peppa asked.
I knew it! Franca immediately replied: 'Demoness of Unaging.'
'Unaging… eternal youth?' Little Peppa seemed somewhat envious.
Moon King then asked: 'Can you also extend lifespan?'
'Theoretically speaking, living another two thousand years wouldn't be a problem.' Franca tried to control her pride.
'So envious…' Group members responded with similar words.
One after another, all expressing genuine feelings.
Who wouldn't want to be immortal and ageless?
As for the negative effects of the potion, there were no ordinary people in this group!
Franca thought for a moment, then typed out more words: 'For those in the Trier region, if you have difficulties and need help, you can recite my honorific name.
'For those not in the Trier region, I can't help—I won't hear it and can't respond.
'My honorific name is:
'The One Who Never Ages, Keeper of Diseases and Plagues, the Demoness Accompanied by Strife and Catastrophe, the Cup Bearing Joy and Pain, the Great Franca Roland.'
Seeing this honorific name, seeing the prefix 'Great,' the telegraph group members truly realized that Hidden Blade had obtained godhood, was half-god half-human, and possessed an honorific name, was a patron saint of a cathedral, could respond to prayers, and bestow power.
After a while, Little Peppa sighed.
'I feel like there's now a sad, thick barrier between us…'
'Want to call me lord and let me hear it?' Franca very skillfully responded to these words.
After discussing her own matters and explaining that Cup took its concept from the Tarot Cup cards's corresponding symbolism and the sacred object that bore joy and pain, she finally asked 007:
'007, do you have more intelligence about the Sick Church?'
Based on their team's collection and analysis of information, they believed that the Order of All Extinction and the Sick Church probably worshiped the same evil god, but the former mainly corrupted the upper and middle classes, while the latter targeted the lower classes, preaching about the authority of the Malady God and the terror of illness, developing followers through intimidation.
007 typed neither fast nor slow, with telegrams coming in line by line: 'The several Sick Church-related cases discovered earlier have been handled, and the corresponding Blessed have been eliminated, but we still haven't found their upper ranks.
'Those followers who only know the name Malady God, we now have sufficient manpower, with Mid-Sequence Beyonders watching them, to see if anyone will contact them or if any unusual events occur.
'Besides these, there's no other intelligence. The cultists in Trier have been very quiet for the past month or two, hiding very deep.'
Very well-behaved? This is very similar to the state before the Hostel incident… Is something big really going to happen within a year or two? Other great existences might not know what the Great Mother wants to do and how She would do it, but They should have foreseen that something would happen, after all, we've all made some guesses, so They've restricted the Blessed in Trier, letting them either transfer elsewhere or wait patiently to fish in troubled waters when the time comes? Franca made her own speculation based on 007's words.
At the same time, she also caught another hint from 007.
Followers who only knew the name Malady God could be saved.
Indeed, those great existences all preach using aliases, not letting followers truly understand Them. This isn't because They're merciful, but because truly understanding Them inevitably leads to corruption. Some might be fine, only experiencing personality alteration and extreme mentality, but most would have their bodies collapse, becoming monsters that constantly spread corruption, making it impossible to preach in secret, as it would be easily discovered by official forces… Franca muttered silently.
One reason why seeking boons required performing rituals was to protect the corresponding humans through the ritual, and after establishing a stable but temporary channel, the corresponding being could consciously contain the mental and will corruption in the boon, preventing the bestowed from collapsing on the spot.
Even Saints like Franca and Lumian's understanding of those great existences was limited to aliases, but compared to other Sequence 4 and Sequence 3 demigods, they also know that these existences stand at the top of multiple paths.
In reality, among the great existences, the only one who didn't preach using an alias was the Mother Tree of Desire.
Madam Magician mentioned that Mother Tree of Desire was a small segment of the corresponding existence's long string of honorific names. There were two reasons why understanding and reciting it didn't directly bring corruption: First, it was only a small segment, incomplete; second, the Mother Tree of Desire indirectly controlled the one worshiped by the Rose School of Thought in the real world and the Devil Monarch in the Abyss, so when this honorific name was mentioned, under conditions of limited understanding and while the barrier still existed, the proximity-based mystical phenomenon occurred, making it not so dangerous.
'What can we do…' Franca didn't hide the troubles of a Saint with an honorific name.
007 quickly replied: 'Trier has gathered a large amount of official force, those cultists won't surface for now. Later, we'll have enough manpower to investigate everyone in key positions.
'That's how it is in Trier, but in the marginal towns of the Trier region, in places where the Church and government forces are weak, there might still be active cultists. You can go look in those places.'
Right, with Trier's current situation, we definitely won't find anyone, but we can search in the suburbs and villages… Indeed, only official Beyonders have this kind of vision and experience, we would have wasted some time before possibly thinking of this… Franca immediately replied to 007: 'Genius!'
***
Thanks to the users "Максим Довбняк", "TempestUknow", "Nightblade" for the chapters provided!
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