Glamorgan at night, under the full moon in the night sky, the water in Dazzle Star Lake sparkled with rippling light. Between the lake's glow and the moon's reflection, the Church in the center of the lake was still lit. The moment of the full moon is a very important and celebratory ritual time in the Mirror Moon faith, and within the Mirror Moon Church now, a ritual is being held, but it is not a Mirror Moon ritual.
Within the grand and magnificent sanctuary of the Mirror Moon Church, Gothsmore, disguised as a Light Sister, stood before the enormous mirror moon statue, gazing at the ongoing ritual "rehearsal" in the sanctuary. She watched the murmurs and steps of the assisting Sisters, observed the slow movements of the white Sister who was the main priest, and listened to the mysterious incantations from her mouth. The evil intent in the smile on her lips became increasingly apparent.
'That's right... that's right... servants of Light, continue your ritual. Young saint, continue chanting the bloody hymn, worship me... Gothsmore, the Spider Queen's witch. I am Her symbol in the present world, I am Her mobile statue!'
Gothsmore thought to herself. At this moment, deep within her gaze fixed on the ritual before her, there was a surging fanaticism. Just thinking that she was currently twisting the Holy Mother's ritual of sanctification, which originally belonged to the Light, into a replacement ritual dedicated to the Spider Queen, Gothsmore's joy was indescribable.
The Eight Point Nest people did not want to directly conflict with Vanya and seize the Mirror Moon Church to avoid Prit being highly scrutinized by Holy Mountain. Under these circumstances, the Eight Point Nest came up with a plan of Induction (inducement), to induce Vanya to unknowingly complete the ritual for them without conflicting with her.
The Eight Point Nest monitored Vanya constantly and learned of the existence of the advance team dispatched by Tivian. Then they ambushed and replaced the advance team midway, and then, in the identity of the advance team, they misled Vanya, causing her to carry out this "rehearsal" of the sanctification ritual according to their wishes.
This rehearsal before her, though called a practice, was actually a formal ritual. The incantations Gothsmore taught Vanya had nothing to do with the Holy Mother in their true meaning; they were entirely praises to the Spider Queen. These were the incantations required for the Spider Queen's replacement ritual! And although there were no symbols of the Spider Queen at the Church site, due to Gothsmore's special identity, she herself could act as the Spider Queen's symbol; she was a mobile statue of the Spider Queen!
To defile the sanctity of the Church's youngest saint, to make her unknowingly worship the evil god in their mouths, and to fill the originally sacred ritual with blasphemy – the success of this conspiracy excited Gothsmore. She was delighted to see these high and mighty, outwardly righteous Light believers commit grave sins under her invisible influence, especially that white Sister.
'Vania Chafilun... you are now praying to an evil god that Light cannot tolerate. I'm really curious, a devout believer like you, if you knew that you are currently serving the Deep Web Queen and committing a grave sin of blasphemy against the Holy Mother whom you are loyal to, what kind of expression would you show? Would you directly commit suicide out of shame and anger and become a martyr? I really want to see it, the final fate of this Church star...'
Gazing at Vanya, who was still devoutly chanting the incantations before her, Gothsmore thought with such malice. At this moment, she even thought that if Vanya's blasphemous sin committed today were exposed in the future and the Church could not tolerate her, perhaps the Eight Point Nest would still have a chance to recruit her.
Amidst Gothsmore's many malicious thoughts, the entire "sanctification ritual" "practice" gradually approached its end. Finally, when Vanya finished chanting the last incantation, the entire ritual was completely over. Gothsmore witnessed the entire process of the ritual, confirming that every step was correct, that there was no deviation in any part, and that every sound of the incantations Vanya spoke was accurate.
"Very good, Sisters, you did very well. The effect this time is quite good. Today's rehearsal ends here. Now everyone go back and rest."
With her usual smile, Gothsmore clapped her hands and said to the Sisters before her. Listening to Gothsmore's words, the Sisters who had finished the "rehearsal" all stood up straight. After breathing a sigh of relief, they all bid farewell to Gothsmore and Vanya, then left the Church's sanctuary together, took a boat, sailed away from the Church in the center of the lake, and returned to Glamorgan.
"Sister Vanya, that's all for today. You should also go back and get a good rest."
"Good night then, Gray Sister."
Gothsmore said her final farewell to Vanya. Vanya also responded slowly after hearing this. Then the two separated within the Church. However, Gothsmore did not rush to leave the lake-center Church after bidding farewell to Vanya. Instead, she found a more secluded corner within the Church. Here, a wisp of blood mist was condensing in the shadow, forming the shape of a hunched old man. It was none other than Bo Ade.
"How is the situation?" Bo Ade asked directly upon seeing Gothsmore's disguised Sister, and Gothsmore replied with a smile.
"It's done. The ritual went very smoothly. That Sister's learning ability was a bit beyond my expectation. I thought it would take her at least another day to learn the entire ritual." Waving her hand, Gothsmore replied with a somewhat casual expression, while Bo Ade continued to speak with a serious expression.
"The ritual was successful? That is to say... this temple of the Night Sky Empress has also been replaced by us?"
"Yes, we have succeeded without those guys noticing at all. Now, all that needs to be done is the final bit of confirmation work."
Saying this, Gothsmore bent down slightly and began to secretly arrange a very simple small ritual here. She wanted to use this ritual to confirm the current state of the Church, to confirm whether the Church's replacement ritual had been successfully completed.
After drawing the magic circle with dust, Gothsmore's ritual began. She closed her eyes and placed her hand on the magic circle, contacting the mysterious aspect of the entire Church through the ritual to confirm its state.
During the process of this small ritual, Gothsmore's expression was originally very calm and composed, but as time passed, her expression became increasingly wrong. The original calmness slowly disappeared, replaced by a touch of solemnity, and finally even turned into disbelief. She widened her eyes and said slowly.
"Impossible... impossible... How could this happen? This is impossible!"
Gothsmore murmured in surprise, and seeing her reaction, Bo Ade couldn't help but frown and speak.
"What's wrong, Gothsmore? Could it be that the ritual was not successful, and the nature of the temple did not change?"
"No... the nature here has indeed changed. The replacement ritual should have been successful, but the problem is... it hasn't become the Spider Queen's temple! It is now the temple of some other god!"
Gothsmore whispered with a serious expression. Listening to her words, Bo Ade couldn't help but widen his eyes.
"What..."
...
On Dazzle Star Lake, on the other side of the mirror.
In the colorless space, Dorothy floated above Mirror Lake as usual, peering at the scene in the present world through the large surface of the lake. At this moment, her gaze was focused on the Church in the center of the lake, focused on the statue that was so similar to herself.
"It's finally completed, my replacement ritual..."
Gazing at the scene of the present world on the surface of the lake, Dorothy murmured. At this moment, the magnificent Church she could see, which originally belonged to the Mirror Moon Goddess, now had a different main deity.
The god it now mainly worships is akasha, it is the system, it is Dorothy herself! Dorothy had successfully held the replacement ritual, transforming the domain that originally belonged to the Mirror Moon Goddess into her own temple!
And this ritual had just been completed. It was precisely that ritual which was ostensibly a rehearsal, but inwardly was the ritual Gothsmore planned to dedicate to the Spider Queen. However, the one who ultimately obtained the Church from this ritual was not the Spider Queen, but Dorothy herself.
A replacement ritual has two most crucial elements: one is the replacement of the main symbol within the temple, and the other is the incantations chanted by the main priest. The Eight Point Nest's conspiracy was to have Gothsmore, the Spider Queen's witch, act as the symbol, and first translate the incantations praising the Spider Queen into an ancient language that ordinary people could not understand, and then deceive Vanya, who was the main priest, into chanting them under the guise of defending against Spirit Sight.
And the symbol of akasha, or rather, the statue of akasha, although it did not seem to exist in the temple, in fact, it was at the ritual site from the beginning, and that was the Mirror Moon Goddess statue, the original statue of this Church!
For some reasons that even Dorothy herself was not clear about, the appearance of this mirror moon statue was extremely similar to Dorothy's own appearance. And the essence of the akasha god is the system; the system has no image, but Dorothy is the operator of the system, so the image of the akasha god is also equal to Dorothy's image.
Generally, there are two types of divine symbols: one is an abstract divine symbol, and the other is a concrete divine statue. If the akasha god had a statue, it would be based on Dorothy's own image, and Dorothy is very similar to the Mirror Moon Goddess, so after some minor modifications, the mirror moon statue could be directly used as the akasha god's statue.
Dorothy's modification to the mirror moon statue was done when the Church was still in the hidden space. Dorothy drew an ""enlightenment"" symbol on a hidden part of the statue to distinguish it from the original statue. This could be done because Dorothy and Mirror Moon's faces were too similar. If the Eight Point Nest were to modify the statue, they would need to replace the entire head of the statue, just as they had done in other Mirror Moon ruins before.
Just modifying the statue and creating a symbol for herself was not enough. For Dorothy to successfully perform the replacement ritual, she also needed to solve the problem of the incantations. The incantations for the replacement ritual have a set of writing principles, and any faith can refer to this principle to write their own incantations. Dorothy had written her incantations for herself a long time ago, but the problem was how to chant them during the ritual.
The incantations in the ritual must be chanted by the main priest. Dorothy could naturally make Vanya chant what she wanted her to chant very easily, but to prevent Gothsmore from noticing any abnormality, Vanya had to chant the Spider Queen's incantations that she taught her throughout, without any mistakes. Gothsmore was listening right there, so it was quite difficult to tamper with the incantations.
Facing this situation, Dorothy also thought hard for a while before finding a solution. The inspiration for the solution came from Adele's inherited sacrificial dance from her mentor. In the dancer's inheritance of the Fertility Goddess faith, dance is incantation, and movement is language. In their sacrificial activities, they convert incantations into movements and present them in the form of dance. After thinking of the characteristics of the sacrificial dance, Dorothy thought that she might be able to express her incantations in a form other than language.
And the form Dorothy chose was rhythm, a rhythm with hidden patterns. To put it simply, Dorothy encrypted and translated her incantations into a series of beats with specific meanings, similar to telegraph code, and then had Vanya produce these beats in different ways while chanting the Spider Queen's incantations during the ritual, such as blinking, stomping her feet, touching her hands, adjusting the speed of her speech, and so on.
During this process, Dorothy also had Vanya fully utilize the heretical knowledge she had previously acquired, using various techniques from the Nansha Cross Church to hide her beat-producing actions. Under the professional faith disguise techniques of the Nansha Cross Church, Vanya's hidden movements were completely concealed and not discovered by Gothsmore.
The god of ""enlightenment"" is the god of knowledge and wisdom, logic and mystery, mathematics and measurement. The former main god of ""enlightenment"", the Judge of Heaven, advocated mathematics, and its ceremonies and rituals were integrated with profound mathematical puzzles. Akasha is also a god of ""enlightenment"". It is naturally very reasonable and feasible for Dorothy to encrypt her incantations with numbers and rhythm.
In the replacement ritual just now, both Dorothy and the Spider Queen had the two conditions of incantations and symbols. However, it was Dorothy who ultimately successfully obtained the Church. The key to this was Vanya's attention. Although Gothsmore repeatedly reminded Vanya to focus her attention on her, who was the Spider Queen's symbol, when performing the ritual, in reality, although Vanya's gaze was always directed at Gothsmore throughout the entire ritual, the focus of her gaze was not on her, but on the large Mirror Moon Goddess statue behind her.
With both the ritual and the symbol in place, the main priest's attention was the final key to which side would succeed. And clearly, Vanya had always regarded the mirror moon statue as the key part of the ritual to worship.
The Eight Point Nest placed the Spider Queen's replacement ritual within the Holy Mother's sanctification ritual, thinking they could quietly complete the ritual of the alien god without the main priest knowing. And this time, Dorothy placed her own replacement ritual within the Eight Point Nest's ritual, completing her ritual without the Eight Point Nest knowing.
The ritual experienced in the sanctuary just now was ostensibly dedicated to the Holy Mother, secretly prepared for the Spider Queen, but essentially belonged to Dorothy.
"So, the replacement ritual is now complete. The first of the three rituals has succeeded. Next, there are two more, the Divine Item Creation Ritual... and the True Mentor Promotion Ritual."
Dorothy continued to murmur. She did not plan to perform her three rituals separately, but planned to complete all of them in one go tonight. The first replacement ritual could be completed safely and secretly by playing tricks, but the second and third would probably not be so easy. After the Eight Point Nest discovered that something was wrong, they might do something drastic.
And at this time, the key resource needed for Dorothy's remaining rituals was time. She had to buy enough time for herself under the potentially unstable influence of the Eight Point Nest. Fortunately, Dorothy had already prepared for this; she had found a bodyguard for herself.
"So, I'll leave it to you next, Mr. Principal."
Dorothy continued speaking, then she looked to one side. On the surface of Mirror Lake, there stood a figure calmly. He was a male figure wearing a gray trench coat and a gray bowler hat. Under that bowler hat was an old man's face that Dorothy was familiar with. That was her former principal when she was in middle school at Igwinte, Aldrich.