Beneath Royal Crown University, King’s Campus.
In the ruins, Dorothy was still staring at the Old Imperial inscription on the hidden wall, lost in thought as she pondered its contents.
“This inscription... was left by the clergy who once worshipped this statue. According to their account, this goddess once had a widespread following across the Three Islands of Pritt Kingdom. However, due to some unknown ‘agreement,’ her worship had to withdraw from Pritt Kingdom. Her clergy, if they wished to continue following her, had to leave their homeland and journey eas.”
“If what this inscription says is true, and her faith once spread across all of Pritt Kingdom, then it makes sense that her statues would appear in distant places like the Razor Mountains and Tivian. In fact, it’s possible that her ruins are scattered throughout the Three Islands.”
Dorothy thought this over, then tried to recall the history of Pritt Kingdom from her textbooks to see if she could find any information about this goddess from a mundane historical perspective. However, after some time, she couldn’t come up with an answer.
In all the history textbooks Dorothy had encountered, the origin of history was traced back to a thousand years ago, when the Radiant Savior saved the world. From that point onward, the Radiance Church’s Three Saints Sect became the dominant faith across the mainland. Any non-Three Saints faiths were labeled as heresies or cults, and no nation on the mainland officially allowed the existence of such faiths.
If this wall inscription was true, and this goddess’s faith had once been widespread across the Three Islands of Pritt Kingdom, it must have either existed at some point a thousand years ago, or the history textbooks meant for the general public were fabricated.
“What’s noteworthy is that the clergy in this inscription mentioned an ‘agreement,’ suggesting that the withdrawal of the goddess’s faith from Pritt Kingdom was a peaceful, negotiated process. I wonder what could have compelled a deity to abandon an entire nation’s faith…”
Dorothy pondered this, then turned her attention to another part of the inscription.
“The clergy in this inscription mentioned that this altar was built within the ancient ruins for training and meditation. This means that the ruins belonging to the Star Numerology Scriptorium predate the altar. The fall of the Star Numerology Scriptorium occurred even before this altar was built.” Dorothy analyzed this. According to what Beverly had said earlier, after the fall of the Star Numerology Scriptorium, the ruins beneath the school had been used as a base by multiple factions. It seemed that this goddess-worshipping religious organization was one of those factions. They merely used the ruins as a hidden base and likely had no significant connection to the Star Numerology Scriptorium itself.
“Although I don’t know what the Eight-Spired Nest is trying to do with this altar left behind from a thousand years ago, or what their goals are, since it has nothing to do with the Star Numerology Scriptorium, it’s not particularly relevant to me.”
With this thought, Dorothy had her corpse marionette pick up the gas lamp and prepared to explore further. The goddess’s altar wasn’t the deepest part of the ruins. There were still stairs leading further down, and Dorothy felt that what she was looking for must be in the deeper parts.
Of course, investigating the goddess statue wasn’t entirely without reward. The inscription on the wall contained cognitive poison, a form of mystical knowledge. Dorothy extracted 3 points of Shadow and 1 point of Revelation from it.
“So, this goddess likely belongs to the Shadow domain? Indeed, she doesn’t seem to have much connection to the Revelation of the Star Numerology Scriptorium. If I want to find remnants of the society, I’ll need to delve deeper.”
With this in mind, Dorothy controlled her corpse marionette, holding the lamp as she descended the stairs, exploring the deeper parts of the ruins.
...
Meanwhile, North Pine Forest, north of King’s Campus.
The chase between the hunters and Thorn Velvet came to an abrupt halt with the appearance of a new figure.
After a swarm of bats instantly killed three Hunters, the remaining Hunters and their captains stopped in their tracks. They watched as the swarm of bats coalesced into a tall, pale-skinned man with a bald head and crimson eyes.
"To transform into a swarm of bats and move at high speed... a vampire?!"
Seeing the man who had suddenly appeared, the two Hunter Captains stood still, their expressions serious as they warily watched the cold-faced man named Claudius.
They knew that "vampire" wasn’t the name of a mythical creature but rather the title for a White Ash Rank Beyonder on the Shadow path, with Shadow as the primary and Chalice as the auxiliary.
White Ash Rank! This unfamiliar man who had suddenly appeared was a White Ash Rank Beyonder! Though they didn’t know why he had come to save their target, he was not someone they could handle.
"Retreat! Scatter!"
Seeing the situation, the Hunter Captains quickly made a decision. They ordered their team to retreat, and in an instant, all the Hunters turned and scattered into the forest. The two captains also quickly left. Realizing they were outmatched, the Hunters chose to retreat decisively.
Facing the rapidly dispersing Hunters, Claudius didn’t pursue them. He simply watched as all the Hunters disappeared into the darkness, leaving behind only the three bodies he had killed with his bats.
"S-sir Claudius, you just let them go... Those black dogs killed Amin and the others..."
Kneeling on the ground, Thorn Velvet spoke urgently to Claudius, who turned his head and coldly replied.
"Hmph... If I were to wipe out two patrol teams of the capital’s Hunters here, how do you think the Black Dog Headquarters would react? It would only prompt them to send several stationed captains to investigate. Nothing but trouble."
Claudius’s tone was stern. He let the hunters go because he didn’t want to escalate the situation. If two Black-rank captains died in this incident, it would be enough to provoke the Serenity Bureau into deploying multiple White Ash Rank forces to investigate.
For Claudius, now was not the time to escalate things to that level.
"Uh... I was foolish, sir. I didn’t think it through..."
Hearing Claudius’s words, Thorn Velvet responded with fear, and after glaring at him, Claudius continued.
"Weren’t you supposed to be raiding the base of that so-called ‘Rose Cross Order’ small society? How did you end up encountering the black dogs?"
"We were likely deceived from the start, sir! The place we raided had no gathering. Instead, it was an ambush by the black dogs. The ‘Rose Cross Order’ might not even exist! This could all be a plot by those black dogs!"
Thorn Velvet explained to Claudius, who frowned slightly and then spoke seriously.
"What’s the situation at the school now?"
"Sir, most of our people were brought out for the raid. Only a few remain on standby," Thorn Velvet replied.
Hearing this, Claudius’s expression grew grave, and he spoke with urgency.
"Let’s go... We need to return immediately."