At night, the moon hung high, and stars filled the sky. On a small, secluded balcony, a mature woman with long golden hair, wearing a simple white robe, sat on a chair. On the small tea table in front of her, a stack of documents was piled up. She held one of them, examining it carefully with a solemn expression.
Amanda gazed at the document in her hand for a while, then took a deep breath before placing it on the table. She turned her head to look at the translucent, ethereal Sister standing quietly nearby, and then slowly spoke.
"Is that all?"
"That is the preliminary investigation report regarding the Tivian Saint Chant Church attack incident. What is written in it are basically confirmed investigation results." With her hands clasped in front of her, the ethereal Sister Awei continued to speak to Amanda with a calm expression.
"It can now be confirmed that the organization that planned this attack is the Wolf Blood Society, one of the Taiyi Three Teachings. The personnel participating in the attack included a Crimson Tier Fearful Demonic Wolf. The Wolf Blood Society used some means to create puppets that could almost perfectly simulate Scarlet Extraordinary reactions under Tier Vision, used to lure Despenser's Scarlet away.
"However, due to the caution of Acting Archbishop Vania Chafilun, Despenser's two Scarlets were not all lured away at once. Prince Harold, who was advised by Sister Vanya to stay behind, was able to arrive in time when the Saint Chant Church was attacked. Finally, with the support of Sister Vanya, he successfully killed the invading Fearful Demonic Wolf, and the remnants of the Wolf Blood Society below the Demonic Wolf were also almost completely wiped out."
Awei reported slowly, roughly recounting the investigation summary of the Saint Chant Church attack incident that occurred not long ago. Amanda rubbed her temples while listening to her words.
"Vania Chafilun... it's you again... It hasn't been long since the last Glamorgan incident, has it? Heh, now it's involved in another secret society incident, this time it's the Wolf Blood Society, what will it be next time?"
Amanda said with a slightly helpless bitter smile in her tone, seemingly having become somewhat accustomed to Vania's propensity for causing trouble. If this trend continued, all major secret societies in the Secret World might become involved with her.
"However... that something might happen at the Saint Chant Church recently was something I had anticipated before. The original Archbishop in charge is not there, and the new Archbishop is slow to arrive. This news is an opportunity for some people who already have ulterior motives. That's why I recommended Vania as the Acting Archbishop to prevent incidents from happening while they were bickering.
"I estimated that something might happen there these past few days, but I didn't expect it to reach such a scale. A Scarlet cultist leading a team to raid a divine-level grand Church, such a thing hasn't happened for a long time."
Amanda continued speaking like this. Overall, the occurrence of this event was within her expectations, but the final severity and maliciousness of the incident somewhat exceeded her expectations. Such an event, where a cultist Scarlet leads a direct attack on a grand Church in a major country's capital, usually only occurs during large-scale holy wars.
"Based on some existing investigation results, a few days before the raid, news about the vacancy of the Saint Chant Church's Scarlet circulated throughout Tivian's Secret World. The instigator of this, perhaps, was the Eight Point Nest. This is their retaliatory action against our intervention in the Glamorgan incident."
Awei continued speaking in a calm tone, and Amanda, after listening, placed the document in her hand on the small tea table. Then, after picking up a cup of tea and taking a sip, she slowly said.
"I heard that the Court of Tribunal wants to make an issue out of this again, to accuse Sister Vanya of being highly suspicious?"
"Yes, that is indeed the case. The source of their accusation comes from Sister Vanya's initial report, specifically the description of the Fearful Demonic Wolf's combat process. Some parts of it differ from the Saint Church's past combat records with Fearful Demonic Wolves.
"In the report submitted by Sister Vanya, the Wolf Blood Society's Fearful Demonic Wolf, after invading the Saint Chant Church through a long-distance leap, opened the forbidden library there to search for something. After finding it and coming out, it encountered Prince Harold, who had been stationed there. A fierce battle erupted, and Prince Harold inhaled miasma due to carelessness and became weakened, but the Demonic Wolf was also almost exhausted. Finally, the weakened Prince Harold killed the Demonic Wolf with the support of Sister Vanya, who arrived on the scene.
"However, according to the records in the Scripture Court, Fearful Demonic Wolves should have the ability to greatly go berserk before death, but there was no similar content in Sister Vanya's report. The Court of Tribunal's investigation team used this as a reason to question the authenticity of Sister Vanya's report."
Awei continued to report to Amanda with a calm expression. Listening to Awei's words, Amanda closed her eyes and thought for a moment, then opened her eyes and said leisurely.
"Since the establishment of the Scripture Court's War Record Hall over eight hundred years ago, it has recorded over seventy instances of contact with Fearful Demonic Wolves and over twenty instances of direct conflict. Most of these occurred during the Turbid Current War. In these more than twenty conflict records, Fearful Demonic Wolves exhibited as many as nine different abilities. The abilities displayed in each conflict were not entirely the same, generally believed to be related to their devouring characteristic, mutating different abilities by devouring different Extraordinary components.
"To this day, how many specific abilities do Fearful Demonic Wolves possess? What kind of impact can different types of Extraordinary components have on Fearful Demonic Wolves? These questions remain a mystery. No one can definitively say what abilities a Fearful Demonic Wolf possesses in what state. To accuse a warrior who fought bravely on the front line simply because an ability that a Fearful Demonic Wolf had before is not present now... this really fits the style of those madmen."
Amanda said this, seemingly having some right to speak on this issue as she had studied Fearful Demonic Wolves to some extent. She was not satisfied with the Court of Tribunal's casual accusation.
"However... in the more than twenty records of direct conflict with Fearful Demonic Wolves, the berserk ability was recorded in the only three kill records and one near-death escape record. To some extent, this seems to indicate that the berserk ability is an inherent ability of Fearful Demonic Wolves at the brink of death. These current four kills are the first instances where berserking did not occur, which can indeed be considered a point of suspicion, but it is only a point of suspicion... it allows for questioning but is far from reaching the level of making an accusation.
"After all, there are many examples where abilities cannot be used... or where the effect after use is not ideal or insufficient, involving the state of the Extraordinary themselves. Those who did not personally experience the battle dare not speak rashly."
Amanda continued, she did not deny that there were points of suspicion in Vania's report, but the degree of suspicion was far from warranting a special investigation. At this time, Awei began to add.
"Speaking of the state of the Extraordinary, in the latest investigation progress, it seems the Court of Tribunal has also confirmed that the Fearful Demonic Wolf was not in good condition during the battle, and there is indeed a possibility of ability defects."
"Oh... new investigation progress, tell me?"
Listening to Awei's words, Amanda asked again with a curious expression, and Awei answered calmly.
"In the Saint Chant Church incident, after the Fearful Demonic Wolf was killed, Sister Vanya did not idle. After initially treating Prince Harold's wounds, she immediately reorganized the Saint Scarlet Church's forces after the battle, contacted Prit's side to launch a large-scale search and capture operation for the remnants of the Wolf Blood Society throughout the city, eliminating or capturing many cult remnants. Those captured Wolf Blood Society remnants were eventually taken over by the subsequent Court of Tribunal investigation team."
"After the Court of Tribunal's investigation team took custody of these cult remnants, they immediately began identity verification and interrogation. Most of these individuals were Apprentices and small fries with little intelligence value. There was only one Chalk big fish. He resisted capture with another Chalk initially, and he was successfully apprehended, while the other Chalk died in resistance. Out of the three Chalk who directly attacked Saint Chant Church, the final outcome was one dead, one captured, and one missing."
"Oh... a Chalk level cadre. In this kind of operation, even if they are only Scarlet's deputies or exist to execute certain key tasks, they should be able to squeeze out a lot of useful information... But given the endurance of Treading the Path of the Beast, it's difficult to make them talk through interrogation..."
Amanda said thoughtfully. After listening to her words, Awei also nodded and continued to respond.
"Yes, the people from the Court of Tribunal used various tortures on that Werewolf, but they couldn't make him yield. Instead, he mocked the interrogators in various ways. The interrogators increased the intensity of the torture and conducted continuous torture for six hours, but they still couldn't make that Werewolf budge. After his linguistic ability recovered, he continued to mock them even more. It's clear that his faith in the King of Gluttony is extremely loyal, and his loyalty to the Wolf Blood Society is extremely strong."
"After judging that the Werewolf was a die-hard who was immune to interrogation methods, the Court of Tribunal's interrogation team resorted to the final measure. After borrowing Saint Chant Church's setup for a soul-binding ritual, the interrogation team executed that Werewolf and then directly interrogated his soul in the form of a spirits trial. Due to the investigation team's previous failure to summon the souls of the high-level Wolf Blood Society members who died in the incident, they believed that the Wolf Blood Society had provided high-level soul protection to their Chalk and Scarlet members in this operation. Therefore, they also set up this soul-binding ritual to the highest level they could achieve."
Awei said softly. Listening to her words, Amanda also said with a slight sigh.
"Spirits trial... This is truly the Court of Tribunal's foolproof ultimate interrogation method. After all, the souls of dead people are bound to speak and are bound not to lie. What they say is absolutely the truth known to their own will, but sometimes the cost is a bit high, and occasionally it can create awkward situations for those guys in the Court of Tribunal... But thankfully, for clearly identified cultists, this kind of situation generally doesn't occur..."
Amanda said this. The awkward situation she referred to was wrongful imprisonment. In the era when the Inquisition was rampant, inquisitors could convict people on fabricated charges and then capture them for torture, leading to an extremely high rate of wrongful convictions. Almost all of these wrongly accused people were subjected to severe torture by the Court of Tribunal. Most of them would confess under torture in pain, while a very small number of people would insist on their innocence even under various tortures. In some cases, this group would force the Court of Tribunal into the final stage of interrogation, the spirits trial.
After execution, the Court of Tribunal would directly interrogate the soul of the prisoner. If the interrogation was correct and confirmed that they were an otherworld or a heretic, that was fine. But once the interrogation was wrong, even if they were a soul and still insisted on their innocence, it would mean completely overturning the entire case. The inquisitor responsible for investigating and interrogating the otherworld would not only lose all progress in the entire case, but he would also be responsible for the person who was wrongly executed. For the wrongly accused, although their innocence was restored, they were already dead. Although the inquisitor responsible for the case was punished afterwards, the huge negative impact that such wrongful death incidents brought to the Church's reputation was difficult to eliminate.
In the past, there were many such examples in trials against lower-level Extraordinary nobles and commoners. At one point, this even forced the Court of Tribunal during the Turbid Current War to the point of canceling the trial stage and directly applying torture, which led to even more severe consequences.
Returning to the balcony, Awei continued to respond to Amanda's words with a steady attitude.
"The spirits trial for that Werewolf quickly yielded results. He confessed everything he knew. His name is Bill Max, and he operated in Tivian under the alias Vaughn Hunter. His superior, the Scarlet Fearful Demonic Wolf who died in battle, was named Duval, one of the elders of the Wolf Blood Society."
"Through the confession of this Werewolf, we roughly understood their purpose. Their purpose in attacking Saint Chant Church was to seize a secret transmission sealed in the forbidden library. After hearing the intelligence that Saint Chant Church lacked Scarlet power, they immediately began preparing for many days, and their preparation was only completed on the day of the action."
"According to that Werewolf, in these preparations, a very important part was the bait. Those bait puppets that could almost perfectly simulate the Extraordinary reactions of a Scarlet Tier Fearful Demonic Wolf are the latest technological product of the Wolf Blood Society. They are obtained by eroding and transforming ordinary beast-shaped individuals with the fresh essence blood and flesh of a Fearful Demonic Wolf. However, this technology is not yet mature and has certain flaws. The Fearful Demonic Wolf providing the fresh essence blood and flesh will experience a temporary loss of ability. Under the Wolf Blood Society's current technology, this is unavoidable."
"In the attack, the one who provided the blood and flesh for the bait puppets was the Fearful Demonic Wolf Duval, who later participated in the attack. Since the blood and flesh had to be kept fresh, he could not excise it in advance and take time to slowly repair the damage; he could only continue the operation with the damage. In their original plan, there would be no Scarlet battle in this operation, so even if Duval's ability was damaged to some extent, it would not affect the overall situation much. However, even so, Elder Duval had some resistance to using this technology and even privately negotiated with other elders of the Wolf Blood Society, but ultimately he accepted the outcome. The excision surgery was performed by Duval himself, and Bill was responsible for external emergencies at that time."
"According to the latest interrogation intelligence, the reason why that Fearful Demonic Wolf did not exhibit the ability of death-before-madness should be due to his use of immature technology to excise essence blood and flesh, and a series of unexpected situations ultimately led to Duval's death."
"After extracting this intelligence, the Court of Tribunal seems to have no intention of continuing to pressure Sister Vanya. Moreover, Captain Harold, who had just barely recovered, also provided his testimony to the investigation team, which matched Sister Vanya's report. After Bill Max's and Captain Harold's statements corroborated each other, there were no problems with Sister Vanya's report. Due to face-saving issues, they will not withdraw the accusation in a short time, but they will not pursue it further either."
Awei continued to report and respond to Amanda. Listening to her words, Amanda thought for a while, then nodded, and then continued to speak.
"New technology? A group of people with hidden rage disorders developing technology is quite inspiring, and it seems not surprising how many problems arise in this process... If all this is true, then the Wolf Blood Society should also learn a lesson: don't rush to practice immature technology. However, given their nature, they will likely not learn even if they have a lesson."
With a slight smile, Amanda continued, looking at Awei and speaking.
"Since they have gone as far as a spirits trial, the intelligence provided by that Werewolf is not just this, right?"
"Yes, according to Bill Max's confession, their actions this time were also assisted by another faction within the Tayi Sect... the Order of Rot also participated. They not only directly sent a Chalk to join the operation but also provided Duval with a 'gift,' a... parasite..."