Under the full moon, by Dazzle Star Lake, the mirror girl with light veil and jade skin floated slightly in mid-air, looking at the broken and terrifying Gothsmore, who was being pierced by countless blood needles. Listening to the words spoken from her lifeless face, she responded softly.
"Although my situation here is tricky, I have my own way of dealing with it. It's not like I have no strength left. This land has revered me for a thousand years, and the traces I left here won't disappear so quickly. As long as the time is right, I can still glimpse Prit's night sky again."
The mirror girl slowly replied to Gothsmore. Hearing her words, Gothsmore sneered, then continued to speak slowly.
"Heh... I underestimated you, Celine. I didn't expect you to still have such a powerful backup here. I admit, this time you won..."
Gothsmore said this, and then a hint of danger appeared in her originally dull eyes.
"However, this is not over yet. I will eventually take back everything that should belong to me..."
After saying her final words, Gothsmore's body began to collapse, dissolving and splitting into wisps of blood mist that dispersed into the air, until they became thin and disappeared.
Watching Gothsmore completely disappear before her eyes, the mirror girl paused slightly, then she looked around again. After appreciating the surrounding scenery with her silver eyes, a strange look appeared in her eyes, and then she sighed softly.
"Alas..."
After that, the mirror girl shifted her gaze to the Church still suspended in the distance. Under her gaze, the Church slowly descended, finally landing back in the center of Dazzle Star Lake.
After returning the Mirror Moon Church to its place, the mirror girl began to focus on her hands. She placed her crystal clear hands in front of her eyes, gently stroked them a couple of times, and then focused her gaze on the ring with a moon pattern worn on her hand.
Just as the mirror girl was looking at the ring, a sudden change occurred. Subtle distortions began to appear on the mirror girl's body, and her entire figure began to become blurry and ethereal. Seeing this scene, the mirror girl couldn't help but frown slightly and murmur.
"Reached the limit...?"
After speaking, she once again focused her gaze on the ring on her hand. She reached out and gently stroked the ring, then lowered her hands.
Then, the mirror girl floated back down to the ground. Barefoot, she slowly walked to a large tree by the lake. She leaned against the tree trunk and sat silently on the grass.
Just like that, the mirror girl sat on the grass under the moonlight, leaning against the thick tree trunk, completely relaxed, silently appreciating the sparkling lake surface before her. The silver gaze that looked out was either in thought or in recollection.
Listening to the rustling of leaves in the evening breeze, the mirror girl silently lowered her head, her eyes slowly closed, and her entire being completely fell silent, as if she had fallen into a deep sleep.
And just a moment after she fell asleep, wisps of silver light emanated from her body. The layers of light veil covering her body slowly disappeared, her skin began to lose its mirror-like and jade-like texture under the silver light, and her entire body also gradually shrank.
When the traces of divinity faded, what finally appeared under the tree was Dorothy's figure. At this moment, she had already returned to her original appearance, her loose hair was re-coiled, and the dress that had been hidden was now worn on her again. At this moment, Dorothy still maintained the same posture as the mirror girl had just now, with her head lowered, sleeping under the tree, allowing the gentle breeze to blow.
After a moment, Dorothy's eyebrows twitched slightly, and then she slowly opened her eyes. Dorothy, who seemed to have just had a good sleep, stretched out a big yawn and then rubbed her eyes.
Then, Dorothy slowly stood up from the grass, looking at the calm surface of Dazzle Star Lake before her. After a moment of slight confusion, she spoke softly.
"Is it... all over?"
...
Somewhere in the Mirror Moon Church within Dazzle Star Lake. At this moment, a group of people were lying unconscious here. On the cold floor, Vanya and her pilgrimage guard were lying here, completely in a state of unconscious sleep.
When the entire pilgrimage guard was knocked down by Bo Ade, Aldrich activated the Mirror Moon Church's Golem transformation, saving the members of the pilgrimage group in a critical moment. During the Mirror Moon Church's Golem transformation process, Aldrich specifically used the transformation process to collect the entire pilgrimage group into a room within the Golem that was equipped with a balance device, ensuring their safety.
Since the Puppeteer is an Extraordinary primarily of "Stone" and secondarily of "enlightenment", Aldrich was able to use some of the hypnotic abilities within the Mirror Moon Golem to a certain extent. However, this part of the ability was very weak for Aldrich, and he did not use it in the battle against Gothsmore and Bo Ade, as they were both Scarlet-level "Shadows" and could not be hypnotized by the hypnotic power Aldrich could control.
However, the situation was different with the pilgrimage group. The entire pilgrimage guard was injured by pain-intensifying thorns during the battle with Bo Ade. Including the ascetic, almost everyone in the group was tortured by intense pain to the point of near mental collapse. In order to avoid unexpected situations, Aldrich decisively hypnotized the pilgrimage group, whose mental state was not good, so that they remained in a state of sleep during the battle.
It wasn't just the pilgrimage group that was hypnotized, but also many ordinary people. Aldrich hypnotized and deepened the sleep of ordinary citizens around Dazzle Star Lake, and even almost the entire Glamorgan, so that they would not wake up due to the huge commotion on Dazzle Star Lake. If those ordinary people gathered in large numbers at the edge of Dazzle Star Lake out of curiosity, they would inevitably be affected by the battle between the Scarlet-level beings, causing unnecessary casualties.
On the cold floor of the Church, the pilgrimage guards were still silently sleeping. The mental damage caused by the Scarlet-level beings made it impossible for them to wake up on their own for a while. The only one who could wake up now was the one who was not injured by the subtle blood thorns during their previous confrontation with Bo Ade, and that was Vanya.
"Hmm..."
Along with a slight twitch of her eyelids, Vanya gradually woke up following some inner guidance. She slowly opened her eyes and slowly woke up on the cold floor.
Vanya, dressed in a white Sister's robe, stood up in this room. She looked at her companions around her and the moonlight outside the window, her expression full of confusion.
"Where... am I? What... just happened?" Covering her slightly aching head, Vanya couldn't help but murmur in confusion. She tried to recall what she had seen before she fainted, and then she remembered nothing but the shaking ground and the attacks of powerful enemies.
"Right... there were enemies... Now, what is the situation outside!" Thinking that her side might still be in battle, Vanya's heart couldn't help but feel a surge of tension, and at this moment, a voice she was familiar with sounded in her heart.
'Don't panic, everything is over.'
'This voice is... Miss Dorothy! You said it's over... Have those cultists... been stopped?' Hearing this voice in her heart, Vanya was startled at first, then immediately replied in her heart.
'Yes... Thanks to your help and the help of some others, our plan went very smoothly. The Eight Point Nest suffered heavy losses this time, and they shouldn't have any more movements in Prit for a short time.' Dorothy replied in Vanya's heart. Hearing Dorothy's words, Vanya couldn't help but breathe a slight sigh of relief, then replied with relief.
'Is that so? That's great, thank the Lord's protection...'
After hearing the good news, Vanya, as usual, began to want to pray and give thanks, but at this moment, Dorothy spoke again to interrupt her and said to her.
'Now is not the time to completely relax, we still have aftermath work to deal with, some of which require you to do a little.'
'My... aftermath?' Hearing Dorothy's words, Vanya couldn't help but look slightly confused, and Dorothy quickly answered in her heart.
'Wake up your people quickly, then go to the woods north of the lake. There you can find the Archbishop of the Prit diocese. His condition is very bad and he needs your help...'
'Eh... Cardinal Francesco!?'
...
In the dark night, on one side of Dazzle Star Lake, Dorothy, who had almost recovered her spirits, was standing here at this moment, looking at the sparkling lake surface before her, she focused her gaze on the Church in the center of the lake and said slowly.
"It seems that the people of the Eight Point Nest are really worried about their affairs. They upgraded in the eyes of the Holy Mountain. They finally resisted the urge to give the defeated opponent a final blow."
"Of course, after all, for the Church, the Archbishop is their highest representative in a country. The death of a person of this level is enough to elevate the priority of this country's affairs to the highest level in the Cardinal Council..." The one who answered Dorothy was the old man standing not far from her, wearing a trench coat and a top hat, Aldrich. After thinking for a moment, he continued to speak.
"The current high-level officials of the Church, due to the Pope's ascension to heaven and not returning, have begun to show obvious power struggles and a situation where various factions restrict each other. The remaining six Saints are unable to reach a consensus, which has reduced the overall unity and responsiveness of the Church. Many societies have taken advantage of this opportunity to become active. They have begun to boldly take some large-scale actions that they would not have taken in the past, but no one wants to make too much noise. For the Church, excessive stimulation may cause them to re-unite and solve urgent problems. No one wants to be that problem."
Aldrich continued to speak slowly like this. Hearing his words, Dorothy felt a little surprised for a moment. It was also the first time she had heard that the intense internal conflicts of the Church now originated from the Pope. Did the meaning of ascending to heaven and not returning mean going to the inner world related to "Light" and not coming back?
"The Pope's ascension to heaven... I didn't expect you to be so generous as to tell me information of this level now. If it were before, wouldn't this cost a few hundred pounds?"
With a hint of sarcasm, Dorothy said this to Aldrich, and the other party smiled and replied.
"This information has spread among the high-level officials of many slightly larger societies. It's not something too valuable, and even if it were sold, it wouldn't be worth much. It's a bit disrespectful to the Shadow Lord to bargain with the Night Sky Empress's oracle with such small information..."
Aldrich said this to Dorothy with a smile. Hearing his words, Dorothy couldn't help but twitch the corner of her mouth, thinking to herself, good heavens, it turns out that this cunning businessman's way of doing business also depends on the person's identity.
"Speaking of which, you've already directly judged that I'm the Night Sky Empress's oracle?"
"Otherwise? You can draw on the power of the Night Sky Empress, and your appearance is so similar to the Night Sky Empress's statue. If you're not the Night Sky Empress's oracle, what are you? Do you want me, this old man, to admit that an ordinary girl completely unrelated to the Extraordinary can be promoted all the way from an ordinary person to Scarlet in one year? Where do I put this old face of mine, who is several hundred years old and still a flawed Golden?"
Spreading his hands, Aldrich said this to Dorothy. In his understanding, it seemed that only the explanation that Dorothy was the oracle chosen and specially cared for by the Mirror Moon Goddess could explain how she could jump four levels in one year. Although this explanation also had many doubts, it was already the most reliable one Aldrich could find.
Hearing Aldrich's words, Dorothy was a little speechless for a moment. Then, after slightly composing herself, her expression became a little more serious, and then she continued to ask Aldrich.
"Speaking of which, just now, did you see anything on me?"
Dorothy asked Aldrich this. After being attached to the power of the Mirror Moon, she fell asleep. At this moment, she wanted to know from someone else's perspective what happened after that. At that time, the only person who might have been conscious nearby was Aldrich. However, Aldrich's response made Dorothy a little disappointed.
"I saw nothing. When the power of the Night Sky Empress descended, all I saw was darkness, all I heard was Silence, all I touched was nothingness... In this situation, it was absolutely impossible for me to have any thoughts of peeking at any god. I could only pray to the Forge in this eternal darkness until the return of Light..."
Aldrich said this to Dorothy. After hearing his words, Dorothy couldn't help but sigh and speak.
"You don't know the situation at that time either? That's a bit of a shame... If the order construct core had really responded to you at that time, maybe you could have seen something."
Dorothy said this with a slight hint of joking, but hearing Dorothy's words, Aldrich couldn't help but frown slightly. He immediately turned to Dorothy and spoke.
"You just... what did you say? Who did you say heard my prayer?"
"Ah? The order construct core, your Craftsmen's Guild's god, the God of Craftsmen. Aren't the order construct core and the Forge both one of His titles?" Facing Aldrich's question, Dorothy replied as a matter of course.
"order construct core..." After hearing Dorothy's words, Aldrich murmured with a slightly strange expression, then immediately spoke in a solemn tone.
"This name... Where did you hear it from?"