Chapter 55: I Command You to Step Into the Light! |
"Darling, get up and get to work. What is going on today? It is so late and you still haven''t left..." One of the villagers returned indoors and shook her sleeping husband awake.
"Is it not because of that Whale Transformation Sickness today? There is no need to..." The bleary-eyed man woke up, mumbling slowly while rubbing his eyes, only to see his wife''s body completely covered in writhing black lines.
"Ah!" he cried out in instinctive shock, which was immediately followed by a sharp, piercing pain.
"What is wrong, darling?" At his wife''s worried inquiry, the man opened his eyes once more. The supposed black lines had completely vanished.
"It must have been a nightmare," the man muttered. He took a breath to compose himself as the dizziness in his head faded. Although he felt a lingering sensation that he had forgotten something, it did not matter.
What mattered was that it was already so late and he had not yet gone out to work. This was highly unusual.
The man hurriedly grabbed his tools and rushed out the door, only to find that surprisingly, everyone else had also woken up late today.
The once tranquil village instantly returned to its usual bustling state.
Everything seemed exactly the same as any other ordinary day.
Every single one of these villagers was wrapped in a massive tangle of squirming black lines, making each of them look like a dark, humanoid silhouette.
(Image from the Rusty Lake game series)
Yet, in their own eyes, these black lines simply did not exist. They believed they were still normal human beings going about their daily lives and work.
The Old Priest, followed closely by a colossal entity made of black lines, advanced toward the Cathedral.
Inside the Cathedral, Isabella opened her eyes.
Divine Art: Divine Slumber.
It was a Divine Art that utilized the Power of Faith to assist the caster in entering a deep sleep. This allowed the believer''s soul to draw closer to the deity''s presence through the Grid, enabling rapid mental recovery while possessing a certain degree of healing efficacy for spiritual damage.
Although the Grid was currently congested, this only hindered communication; casting this type of Divine Art was not a major issue.
"Why is it so noisy outside?" Isabella frowned. Earlier, upon discovering the Whale Transformation Sickness, they had organized a search party at dawn and explicitly warned the villagers that it would be best to remain inside their homes today.
Could it be that these villagers had only managed to stay indoors for a mere morning and half an afternoon before losing their patience?
Her internal unease reached its absolute peak at this moment.
Isabella immediately stood up, her gaze falling upon a wooden board nearby that bore Nemus''s handwriting.
Nemus had written that he was going to find the Watchman and the others. His goal was to locate the patient afflicted with Whale Transformation Sickness before anyone else could, thereby interrupting the Old Priest''s experiment.
As for being left all alone in this half-collapsed Cathedral, Isabella did not see any problem with it.
She was not some delicate, pampered young lady.
''Nels went out to snatch the patient with Whale Transformation Sickness. With his experiment disrupted, the Old Priest will most likely take the initiative to strike.''
With this realization, Isabella did not go outside to investigate the commotion. Instead, she rushed straight to the Divine Idol in the Cathedral, pulled out a small knife she carried with her, sliced her finger, and swiftly began writing on the statue.
Secret Art: Blood Prayer.
This was a technique evolved from an ancient Blood Sacrifice.
By using one''s own blood to write a Sacred Whisper on an object connected to a deity, the caster infused their Mental Power into it, drawing the god''s attention.
Of course, in the vast majority of cases, deities completely ignored such prayers.
Usually, only a Saint possessed the ability to communicate directly with a god through this method.
Therefore, Isabella had only one purpose in mind as she inscribed the Blood Prayer at this very moment—
''Right now, the Divine Idol is saturated with my Mental Power. The Blood Prayer should last for about fifteen minutes.''
''During these fifteen minutes, it will become incredibly difficult for other priests to draw upon the faith stored within the idol. That means for the next quarter of an hour, I am the only one who can borrow the idol''s faith to cast Divine Arts.''
''But why has the Power of Faith within this Divine Idol diminished so much?''
The Divine Idol originally held seven hundred years'' worth of the Power of Faith. Casting Divine Arts did not actually consume that much faith; rather, the faith acted more like a catalyst in a reaction. Yet now, the Power of Faith stored within the statue had dwindled to a mere five hundred years.
With no time to dwell on these discrepancies, Isabella sensed impending danger and instantly cast a Spell.
"The God of Precepts resides in this world, and the trajectories of all creation abide by His divine laws. By the majesty of the divine, I command you to step into the light!" Isabella raised her arms, holding them upright in front of her. Her Mental Power converged upon her arms, rapidly forming a magical array.
Sacred Spell: Divine Manifestation!
An invisible yet tangible ripple erupted from Isabella''s hands, surging outward and washing over her surroundings.
A shapeless mass caught within this ripple was immediately affected, forcefully revealing its true form to Isabella''s eyes.
It was none other than the Old Priest, and the colossal monster composed of black lines looming behind him.
"You have a solid foundation in Sacred Spells," the Old Priest praised with a smile.
"Teacher, it really is you." She had basically deduced the Old Priest was compromised the moment she discovered Big Black inside the Cathedral.
Isabella had already deduced the root cause of everything that had happened.
Yet, seeing the Old Priest truly standing before her in such a sinister state, an overwhelming wave of sorrow still washed over her.
"You only have yourselves to blame for interrupting my experiment." The Old Priest displayed absolutely no trace of shame or remorse.
"This is all wrong! You taught me that we must walk the path of the divine..."
"This is exactly walking the path of the divine." The Old Priest ruthlessly cut off Isabella''s agitated words. "Everything I do is guided by God."
"Besides, the Bloodline Experiment was merely put on hold back then; it was never completely abandoned."
The Old Priest slowly unveiled a truth that Isabella found impossible to accept. "The Bloodline Experiment was suspended simply due to a lack of funds. From beginning to end, I never faced a single punishment from the Church."
"This experiment was fundamentally approved and sanctioned by the Church itself."
"It was only in recent years that my experiment achieved a major breakthrough."
"Over the past three years, Opper ''accidentally'' acquired a large amount of strictly controlled supplies."
"Did you really think the Church was completely oblivious to all of this?"
"The Precept Church follows neither precepts nor holiness!"
Isabella froze in place. She had always known that the Church was not entirely pure, but she had merely assumed that a few corrupt individuals had infiltrated the ranks of the Clerics.
Yet looking at it now, was she actually the minority?
A massive barrage of black lines shot forward, tearing through the air with a sharp "Swish-swish" sound.
However, in the very next moment, these black lines suddenly burst into flames as they drew near Isabella.
Isabella, who had appeared to be frozen in shock, was entirely engulfed in a massive surge of holy ripples.
Divine Art: Sacred Fire!
It was an offensive-defensive Divine Art. Any malicious attack that approached her would trigger the ripples and ignite the Sacred Fire.
Furthermore, once this Sacred Fire was kindled, she could manipulate it to launch a counterattack.
To reiterate, Isabella was far from being some delicate, pampered young lady.
The entire time she was arguing with the Old Priest, she had been secretly preparing this Divine Art.
The Blood Prayer only afforded her fifteen minutes, and she absolutely refused to let a single second go to waste!
The Big Black from before was similar to this, only much larger in size.