In a quiet booth inside a café on the edge of the cathedral district in North Tivian, Dorothy sat listening to Nephthys’s report while sketching in her notebook. Before long, a rough drawing of a vicious two-headed direwolf appeared on the page.
“There’s another version of the story… It’s said that a strange illness is spreading throughout Tivian. People infected by it turn into terrifying beasts. The authorities haven’t made this disease public, but the rumor goes that the Hymn Cathedral was secretly housing these infected people and conducting research. That terrifying roar the other day was due to a containment failure…
“As of now, that’s the latest rumor going around. Fewer people seem to know about this one compared to the earlier ones. The most widely circulated story is still the first one I mentioned—the one about the seal. After all, most folks believe in the Radiance Church, and stories about saints sealing evil monsters are pretty classic. But even so, this last rumor is spreading quickly—especially among rebellious youth. At my school, tons of students are already talking about it. My roommate’s even started developing conspiracy theories about secret experiments being conducted by the Church.”
Seated across from Dorothy, Nephthys was sharing what she’d seen and heard over the past few days—gathered rumors from all over Tivian. After listening to all the bizarre urban legends, Dorothy glanced at her sketch with a thoughtful expression and couldn’t help but sigh lightly.
“What a colorful array of stories… I didn’t expect so many variations to pop up in just a few short days. Humanity’s imagination really is boundless…”
Dorothy commented as such, while Nephthys, having taken a sip of coffee, set her cup down and added softly.
“Yeah… The rumors keep getting more and more exaggerated. Ancient monsters, secret viruses—people are really going wild with it. But really, it was just a Crimson-rank wolf attacking. It caused a bit of a stir and then it was over. Everyone’s overreacting.”
She spoke carelessly, and Dorothy’s mouth twitched slightly at her words. In her mind, she thought:
“A Crimson-rank Beyonder—there are maybe only four or five of them in the entire Pritt Kingdom. That werewolf nearly killed one, and now you’re calling it a ‘bit of a stir’?”
“Senior Nephthys… You don’t seem to think Crimson-ranks are all that special?”
Dorothy asked with a faint smile. At her words, Nephthys quickly shook her head.
“No, no, it’s not that. We’ve encountered Crimsons before, and I know their abilities are powerful and on a completely different level from White Ash. But the way I see it… if you’re going to walk the Beyonder path, you can’t treat Crimsons like some unreachable divine beings. Otherwise, you’ll lose the motivation to work hard. Even reading becomes pointless.
“Hmm… it’s like when I was preparing for the Royal Crown University entrance exams back in high school. The teachers always said: don’t treat getting into Crown U as too easy, but don’t treat it like it’s impossible either, or it’ll just weigh you down.”
After mulling over her words, Nephthys offered that comparison. Hearing this, Dorothy blinked, then followed up.
“So, you’re saying getting to Crimson-rank is like applying to college?”
“Well, not exactly. Getting to Crimson is definitely harder than getting into university. They’re completely different things. But to me, they’re both goals that require effort, so I just share some mindset overlap.
“A genius girl like you, Miss Dorothy—you made it into Crown U at such a young age, and now you’ve become a Crimson while still young. You’re my role model. I may not be as gifted as you, but I believe that if I just put in more time, I can reach the same level of achievement you’ve reached.”
Nephthys waved her hand casually as she spoke, sounding completely at ease. Dorothy was momentarily speechless. She wasn’t sure how to respond, and after a pause, she could only say:
“Having a good mindset… is a good thing, I suppose.”
“Of course! With the right mindset, everything else follows… Hm? Looks like I’ve finished my coffee. Miss Dorothy, please wait a moment—I’ll go get us something else.”
With that, Nephthys stood up, opened the booth door, and stepped out. Dorothy watched her leave, then turned her gaze toward the street outside, staring at the tightly guarded cathedral gate in the distance, and began to reflect.
“It’s been a while since Duval’s death. Vania is still sitting in the acting archbishop seat. Aside from a bit of trouble from the Inquisition investigation teams, nothing else has happened. Seems Holy Mount has accepted her performance—the matter’s more or less settled.
“Good thing. Looks like that Mr. Warren’s testimony did help.”
So Dorothy mused. Ever since the surprise attack by the Wolfblood Society, she had spent her days handling post-incident cleanup. The main goal of that work was to erase all traces of her involvement in the event.
Two major parts formed the backbone of her cleanup strategy: First, orchestrating a staged scenario that allowed the Crimson-rank Serenity Bureau Director to testify, thereby covering up Vania’s use of the Sunlight Spear. Second, providing the Church with a carefully arranged captive for interrogation.
On the day of the attack, deep within the underground forbidden archive of the cathedral district, Dorothy had used her Anecdotal Night Demon at the last moment to lure the direwolf Duval outside to clash with Harold. Meanwhile, his two subordinates—Blond and Warren—seized the chance to escape the underground vault. In order to avoid getting caught in the crossfire of the Crimson-rank battle, they barely thought twice before fleeing the district.
But of course, the movements of Blond and Warren could not escape the notice of Vania, whose powers of perception were fully deployed over the Hymn Cathedral. Dorothy, through her information channels, could also observe the entire area through Vania’s field of vision—offering her a 360-degree omniscient view of the cathedral and its surroundings. She didn’t even need to dispatch her corpse marionettes to track their precise movements.
Among the two werewolves, Warren had long since been fully profiled by Dorothy. All it took was a simple trigger—like locking eyes with a crow marionette—to activate the command she’d planted in his psyche beforehand, compelling him to abandon all resistance and become her living marionette. He flipped sides instantly and, while his companion Blond was completely unguarded, launched a surprise attack and killed him.
After the intense battle in the Record Tower, Blond’s spirituality was completely drained. With Dorothy’s assistance, Warren had no trouble taking him down in a single strike.
Afterward, Dorothy manipulated the beast-shaped corpse of Blond and, together with the controlled Warren, continued their “escape” until the situation inside the cathedral district had settled. At that time, Vania, as the acting archbishop and highest authority in the Pritt diocese, began assigning pursuit tasks to the Church’s armed forces stationed around the cathedral. Using the cathedral’s detection abilities as reasoning, she guided them toward specific locations and requested that they attempt to capture the two fugitives alive—whose spirituality was now nearly exhausted.
The Church’s armed units, which had previously been expelled from the cathedral district, promptly moved into action, arriving at the designated locations and soon “discovered” the still-fleeing Blond and Warren. Since both were under Dorothy’s control, it was entirely up to her whether one would “resist capture and die in battle” or “collapse from exhaustion and be taken alive.”
Once Warren was captured, Dorothy only needed Vania to find an opportunity to see him—just once. That alone would allow her to use Spiritual Thread Manifestation, activating abilities through Vania as an anchor to reprogram Warren’s personality again. She could alter his memories and sculpt a loyal persona, fully prepared for questioning by the Holy Mount’s investigators. The inquiry team from Holy Mount would then hear the “truth” Dorothy wished them to know—truth backed by Warren’s real, altered memories. To them, it would appear utterly sincere.
Thanks to Vania, who held the highest authority over the Hymn Cathedral and the Pritt Diocese, Dorothy had an exceptionally easy time with post-battle cleanup. She could erase traces from any location discreetly and thoroughly. After all, the overall command of the Church’s side was in the hands of her ally, and the entire cathedral district and its surroundings were under surveillance. What could possibly go wrong?
Several of the incidents during the Hymn Cathedral assault were outside of Dorothy’s expectations. Fortunately, she was now a Crimson-rank Beyonder herself, with power sufficient to handle unexpected developments. Though she successfully resolved every situation, it did cost her a fair amount of spirituality.
Her greatest expenditure during this operation was in the creation of the Night Demon’s Anecdotal Body. Crafted using anecdotes gathered from across Tivian, the Night Demon possessed Crimson-rank speed and agility, and came at a steep cost. Thankfully, the summoning could be ritualized to reduce consumption.
Although Dorothy couldn’t locate a high-grade Shadow temple anywhere in Tivian, she still had the Dreamscale Censer on hand, not yet returned to the little foxes. With it, she hastily drew a crude ritual site—one even below shrine-grade—and paired it with a divine artifact core. This greatly reduced the spiritual expense. Ultimately, Dorothy spent 5 Shadow and 2 Chalice to summon the Night Demon. Without the ritual setup, the cost would have been far higher.
Aside from the Night Demon, another significant expense came from converting a group of beastkins into living marionettes. Thanks to her high spiritual proficiency, this didn’t cost much to sustain. The main expenditure came during the process of solidifying spiritual threads—amounting to 2 Chalice. Additionally, modifying Warren’s personality several times cost 1 Shadow—not too much.
In total, Dorothy’s operation consumed 6 Shadow and 4 Chalice.
Her remaining spirituality now stood at 4 Chalice, 4 Stone, 8 Shadow, 8 Lantern, 11 Silence, and 8 Revelation.
While the total cost wasn’t extreme, her spirituality was already limited to begin with. Thus, her reserves now looked rather bleak, with many aspects reduced to single digits.
Still, this operation didn’t just help Vania secure her standing within the Church—Dorothy also gained quite a bit on the side.
With Vania as her cover, Dorothy naturally took the opportunity during battlefield cleanup to visit the heavily damaged underground forbidden archive and do a little treasure hunting.
Since she knew Vania’s archbishop title was only temporary—and would soon be replaced by a formal appointee from another Holy Mount—Dorothy had been careful. She had refrained from exploiting Vania’s position to access the vault for reading, so as not to leave behind any traces that might be noticed by the next archbishop.
But now the situation was different—Duval himself had violently blasted open the vault door and wrecked the place. With that, Dorothy could freely search the vault under the guise of battlefield cleanup, and any future issues could be pinned entirely on the Wolfblood Society. No risk at all. Perfect.
While cleaning up traces of beastial transformation in front of the Archive Tower, Dorothy also sent a corpse marionette into the ruined forbidden vault. From within the rubble, it retrieved several mystical texts. Due to time constraints, Dorothy only managed to collect texts whose safes had been damaged by Duval and scattered on the surface. She skimmed them and returned them afterward. Ultimately, she only read about a dozen.
Most of those mystical texts were rather useless—songs praising various foreign gods, or deranged works created by mortals driven mad by cognitive poison. While they did provide spirituality, they weren’t of much use in Dorothy’s study of the mystical world. Only four texts held any real value.
The first was titled "The Thirst of Devotion." Its author appeared to be a nun of the Radiance Church from ancient times named Unina—a devout, borderline fanatical follower of the Holy Mother. The text recorded all her reflections and practices surrounding the Holy Mother’s teachings. Spanning multiple stages of her life, it portrayed unwavering piety—she held the Holy Mother as the very core of her soul.
In daily life, Unina adhered strictly to the Holy Mother’s doctrines: charitable, humble, ascetic, and kind to the poor. In some ways, she resembled Vania—except she was even more rigid and extreme. A Vania pushed to the edge by fanaticism.
From her writing style and forms of address, Dorothy deduced that Unina must have become a Beyonder on the Healing Prayer Priest Path due to her talent, gradually rising in the Church. Despite her rise, she remained uncorrupted by power, often clashing with the darker aspects of the Church in the Holy Mother’s name. Even when slandered and attacked, she remained undeterred—her character seemed lofty and pure.
Based on its early parts, the mystical text read like the memoir of a faithful and virtuous servant. But the latter sections took a turn.
As her devotion deepened, Unina grew increasingly unsatisfied with merely practicing the teachings. She yearned to hear the Holy Mother’s voice, to speak to Her directly, to listen to Her divine will. Yet such desires were considered a grave sin—punishable by the harshest Church sanctions if discovered.
Bound by Church doctrine, Unina dared not speak her yearning aloud, but the craving festered in her heart, growing ever stronger. It began to warp her mindset.
“O Lord… merciful Lord… I have served You for so many years, devoted my heart and soul to Your will, achieved countless deeds. Are none of these worth a single word from You?
“The Holy See has sat on the throne for centuries, uniquely blessed by the Trinity. Their glory is eternal—surely they deserves such favor. But what of the millions of faithful across the world? Among them, are there not countless who are just as pious and sincere? We who have given our entire lives in quiet devotion—are we truly unworthy of even a whisper from You? Why have You never acknowledged us…
“O Lord… all-just Lord… I long to hear Your sacred voice. Even if it is heresy, even if it damns me forever, from now on I will stop at nothing to draw near to You, to gaze upon You. Even if it makes me a sinner beyond salvation.
“To hear Your will—that will be the sole purpose of the rest of my life. And I shall begin… by striving to sit closest to the Holy See, the place nearest to You in this world. I shall claim the name of Saint Amanda…”