Tivian, on the east coast of the Preet Kingdom.
During the daytime in Tivian, a light, continuous rain fell from the sky. The huge city was shrouded in a hazy mist, and on the damp, grey streets, pedestrians could be seen everywhere silently walking with umbrellas. The entire city was in a state of coolness.
On the side of a street in the north city district, in a restaurant that was not large but elegantly decorated, Dorothy, wearing a long black coat and a narrow-brimmed round hat, was sitting there slowly sipping a cup of black tea. Opposite her, at the table, a young man in a shirt and vest was sitting there enjoying a fried codfish. It was Grego.
"I originally thought that your study tour, Dorothy, would probably only take a few months before you came back. I didn't expect you to go for more than half a year in one go. To be honest, I was quite worried about you staying abroad alone for so long. If it weren't for the telegrams you sent back not stopping, I don't know how anxious I would have been."
While eating the fried codfish, Grego said this to his sister across from him. Dorothy, upon hearing these words, calmly put down the black tea cup in her hand, then smiled and spoke.
"Originally, we did plan to come back in just three or four months, but on a long trip, all sorts of unexpected things are always hard to predict. Things like bad weather causing flight cancellations, or suddenly encountering interesting sights and temporarily changing the itinerary... When there were more of these situations, it slowly extended the time of the whole trip."
"Accidents... Heh... Speaking of accidents, not long after you left, I saw news in the newspaper about a ship that unexpectedly sank. The ship's destination was the same as yours. I was so worried then, but fortunately, I received your telegram not long after," Grego continued. Dorothy, seeing this, showed a thoughtful expression and then responded.
"The ship sinking, you're talking about the shining white pearl incident, right? That time, we were on a different ship and weren't on that sunken ship. But even if we were on it, it wouldn't matter. Didn't the newspaper say that almost all the passengers were rescued by a Church ship that happened to pass by? It's fine," Dorothy continued to say leisurely, while Grego took a sip of water and then spoke.
"Hmm... It seems so. If I remember correctly... The newspaper said that the Church fleet was going on a pilgrimage! Right! It seems Sister Vania Chafilun was in that fleet. Afterwards, the pilgrims on that fleet were captured by the island natives in the Conquest Sea, and in the end, it was Sister Vanya who resolved the crisis after enlightening them. Many places say that was the beginning of Sister Vanya's path to sainthood."
Grego said with a sudden realization, his tone seeming to carry a hint of happiness. Dorothy, seeing this, tilted her head slightly and then continued to speak.
"Grego, you seem quite interested in that Sister's affairs..."
"Of course. Sister Vanya is the pride of our Prit. She's a hot topic in the newspapers this year. Whenever there's news about her in the newspaper, you can see people discussing it everywhere in Tivian. Unless Miss Adele has a new performance, few people can surpass Sister Vanya in popularity. Not long ago, after Sister Vanya returned to Tivian, I even planned to go and pay my respects, but unfortunately, I couldn't get away due to work."
"Oh, right, I remember that Sister Vanya has been to some of the cities that you have also visited, Dorothy. How about it? Did you see her in person during your trip? Is she really as good-looking as she is in the newspaper photos?" Grego asked Dorothy directly in this way, and Dorothy then answered.
"I didn't, actually. My itinerary for visiting each city was quite packed, and I didn't have any extra time to do other things. But now that Sister has already returned to Tivian, perhaps there will be a chance to see her someday."
"Is that so... Then Dorothy, how did you feel about your trip overall? You've been to quite a few countries in the past six months, haven't you? Unlike me, I haven't even been abroad yet," Grego said to Dorothy, picking up another fried fish with his fork, and Dorothy continued to respond.
"I felt pretty good. The food abroad is quite delicious, and the cultural scenery in many places is nice, especially the people. I like to communicate and interact with the locals through a translator whenever I go to a place, to experience their culture. They often give me local specialty gifts, and sometimes I feel bad accepting them. No matter where I go, I always gain something, more or less. I still have some local 'friends' I met during my travels; they gave me a lot of 'help'."
Dorothy said this with a slightly meaningful smile, and Grego also nodded repeatedly after hearing Dorothy's words.
"It's good that you gained something... It's quite rare for you, Dorothy, to have such an opportunity to broaden your horizons at this age, unlike your brother, who hasn't even been out of the country since childhood until now."
With a hint of self-mockery, Grego slowly said, and Dorothy also responded softly.
"Speaking of which, it's been more than half a year since I last saw you, Grego. How have you been recently? From what you just said, it sounds like you've been very busy with work lately?"
"Me? I have been quite busy recently, but it's over now. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Dorothy, your brother is going to be promoted soon!" Grego said to Dorothy with a proud expression and a smile on his face. Dorothy couldn't help but show a hint of surprise in her eyes after hearing his words.
"Promoted? I remember you've only been at the Tivian headquarters for about half a year, right? And you're already getting promoted again?" Dorothy said in surprise, looking at Grego in front of her, and Grego continued to speak with a smile.
"Yes, my former superior was transferred due to some matters, so I was promoted to her original position. Dorothy, listen to me, your brother is now a manager-level person in the company, and he's also the youngest manager in the entire headquarters. It's rare to reach this position at my age; it's hard to come by in decades. Many people say I'm a genius."
Adjusting his collar, Grego said to Dorothy with a proud air. Dorothy listened and touched her chin as she spoke.
"A young manager, hard to come by in decades? That's really impressive..."
Saying this, Dorothy couldn't help but gently applaud.
...
After more than half a year, Dorothy finally met her older brother again. After finishing the welcome dinner hosted by Grego, Dorothy said goodbye to him again.
After saying goodbye to Grego, Dorothy walked on the streets of Tivian with her small umbrella, slowly waiting. After a while, a carriage driven by a Corpse Puppet coachman appeared in front of Dorothy. After controlling the Corpse Puppet to open the carriage door, Dorothy got into the carriage.
Closing the carriage door, Dorothy controlled the Corpse Puppet coachman to return to his position and drove the carriage forward. Dorothy sat on the seat in the carriage, looking at the streaks of rain on the carriage window and the hazy street scene, and couldn't help but fall into thought.
'Finally... I've been back for so long and finally saw Grego. At first, I was worried about how to explain to my brother after becoming Scarlet and returning to Tivian, but I didn't expect things to change like this. Vania actually became the acting Archbishop of Prit...'
Dorothy thought this in her heart. Earlier, Dorothy had been thinking about how to meet Grego after she was promoted to Scarlet. She had originally planned to transfer her "studies" again. She would transfer to other cities around Tivian, but when Dorothy actually became Scarlet, an unexpected change occurred.
In the previous battle with Gothsmore, the original Prit Archbishop Francesco was urgently sent to Holy Mountain due to severe injuries. Dorothy had thought that during this critical period, Holy Mountain would quickly send a successor, but the result was that no successor arrived. Instead, Vanya was unexpectedly appointed as the acting Archbishop, temporarily taking charge of the tier of vision in Tivian.
'The Church clearly has so many Crimson Tiers; they should be able to easily spare someone to succeed in Tivian... But instead, they didn't send anyone, and instead appointed Vanya, a Chalk, to temporarily act as the Prit Archbishop. What a strange operation...
'The only reason that can explain this bizarre operation is the internal political struggle within the Church. The current situation should be a result of disagreements among the high-ranking officials of Holy Mountain regarding the Prit issue. Vanya's ascension should be a temporary compromise resulting from this conflict. It feels like the tendency for internal division within the Church is becoming more and more serious. Hopefully, nothing major will erupt because of this.
'But no matter what, Vanya becoming the acting Archbishop of Prit is the best possible outcome for me. Not only did it allow me to return to Tivian, but it also gave me some understanding of the so-called tier of vision.'
Dorothy thought this in her heart. Not long ago, Vanya officially accepted the appointment from Holy Mountain at St. Yong Cathedral and became the acting Archbishop of Prit. After this, she took over the large-scale ritual held using St. Yong Cathedral as the ritual site, the tier of vision.
That's right, the tier of vision is a ritual, a powerful detection ritual. One of the natures of the ""Lamp"" is insight and faith, and the tier of vision is a ritual that performs insight based on faith.
The power of the Three Saints of Shining Light comes from the faith of billions of widespread believers around the world. This vast power of faith is gathered and transmitted through the countless Churches of Light spread across the world as nodes. In other words, the faith of all Shining Light believers in Tivian will mysteriously gather within St. Yong Cathedral and then be sent to the Inner World from there.
With the permission of the Three Saints, not all faith ultimately flows to the Three Saints in the Inner World. A tiny portion flows to the Churches themselves, becoming the foundation of the Extraordinary systems of these city Churches. Relying on a continuous stream of powerful faith, the city Churches of Light have acquired many powerful abilities, and the tier of vision is one of them.
Once an Extraordinary of the ""Lamp"" at least at the Crimson Tier links with the city Church's Extraordinary system, the tier of vision within it begins to work. Within the entire city and its surrounding area, as long as other Extraordinary at the Crimson Tier exist, they can be detected almost immediately.
Facing the tier of vision, it is extremely difficult for an Extraordinary of the ""Shadow"" to shield themselves using the power of the ""Shadow"". Even a Crimson Tier expert who mainly uses the ""Shadow"", as long as he dares to confront the tier of vision directly, his own ""Shadow"" Spirituality will quickly be exhausted because he is facing the faith foundation of almost an entire city.
Although the tier of vision has extremely powerful detection capabilities, it has a drawback at the ritual structure level, which is that there is a limit to the number of targets it can detect simultaneously. Theoretically, in a city with a city Church, no Extraordinary can escape the powerful detection of the tier of vision. However, if there are simply too many Extraordinary in the city, the tier of vision cannot find all of them at once. Its target locking has an upper limit. After locking onto the maximum number of Extraordinary units, the remaining ones cannot be locked. It can only unlock previous targets to lock onto subsequent ones.
The locking limit of the tier of vision is relatively low. In a large metropolis like Tivian, the number of official Chalk Extraordinary alone can easily exceed this limit. Therefore, out of necessity, the tier of vision in city Churches around the world has been customized to be effective only against Extraordinary at the Scarlet Tier and above.
Compared to Apprentices of Black Earth and Chalk, the number of those at Scarlet Tier and above is much, much smaller. And for the official Church, the threat of one Scarlet is far greater than that of ten or more Chalks. The defense against a Crimson Tier is much higher than against dozens of Black Earth and Chalks. Thus, the tier of vision has become a detection method specifically targeting high-tier Extraordinary, with no restrictions on mid- and low-tier Extraordinary.
The tier of vision is essentially a ritual and requires a Crimson Tier ""Lamp"" as the ritual maintainer to function. If there is no Crimson ""Lamp"", a God-blessed item level ""Lamp"" ritual tool can be used as a substitute. This is why Vanya can take charge of the Tivian tier of vision; as the guardian of the "Sacred Remains Scroll," she is the only one in Prit who is currently qualified to preside over this ritual.
'A Lamp's line of sight that penetrates everything, based on the faith of thousands upon thousands? The overbearing nature of the tier of vision is, in a sense, one of the manifestations of the Shining Light Church's faith hegemony. Other societies don't have such abundant resources to create something like this. Something like the tier of vision could only be created by the Shining Light Church.
'However, for me, who is already a Scarlet, this powerful ability cannot completely restrict me, and it's not just because of Vanya...'
As Dorothy said this, she shifted her gaze to her hand, looking at the family heirloom ring she had worn for many years, the silver ring adorned with a crescent moon.
The ring of concealment, this is one of the Extraordinary items Dorothy used most frequently. It helped Dorothy conceal herself from various Extraordinary detections time and time again. And it was this familiar ring that, after the battle at Dazzle Star Lake, emitted a strange silver light. It was only after a good while that Dorothy noticed the change in her ring.
Ring of Waning Moon, this is the new name that the ring displayed under Dorothy's appraisal skill. Its function is not much different from the original ring of concealment, just with a few other changes.
The Ring of Waning Moon conceals Dorothy's Extraordinary presence from various Extraordinary detections by consuming ""Shadow"". This is consistent with the function of the ring of concealment, but the consumption rate of ""Shadow"" is only half that of the ring of concealment. This means that when Dorothy wears this ring, she can use less ""Shadow"" to withstand Extraordinary detections targeting her. In addition, it has an extra small function, tier Lakhman.
Simply put, when Dorothy wears the Ring of Waning Moon, she gains the ability to conceal her tier. In simple terms, as long as Dorothy does not use her Crimson Tier abilities, she will not be perceived as a Scarlet in the eyes of any Extraordinary detection. When facing the tier of vision, Dorothy only needs to avoid using abilities beyond the scope of Chalk, and the tier of vision will not be able to detect her presence. This is something Dorothy had Vanya help her experiment with before.
In other words, with this ring, even in a city where another Archbishop presides over the tier of vision, as long as she doesn't use abilities beyond the limit, Dorothy can still move around safely.
'The change in the ring of concealment... it's clearly the work of Mirror Moon. Is this a gift she left for me? She seems to know exactly what I'd worry about after my advancement...'
Looking at the ring in her hand, Dorothy thought this to herself. Then she slowly lowered her hand and continued to sit comfortably in the carriage, moving forward.
'The top priority now is to quickly replenish my missing Spirituality, but the current situation in Tivian is also worrying. No matter what, Tivian now lacks a Scarlet Archbishop, and its Extraordinary defense has significantly decreased. This is likely to breed some incidents. I hope the recent period can transition smoothly and that a new Archbishop can take office safely...'