Chapter 101: Holy Relics, Secrecy, Treasured Artifacts, Sacred Vessels
Just as he had said, Knight Wolf merely glanced from afar before leaving.
Before his departure, however, he left behind three chests.
“The Lord is absent, so according to tradition, these three items are to be entrusted to the bishop.”
“Though it is now a Church and no longer merely a Small Church,”
“I can no longer keep these things in my possession.”
“Simply transporting them back already cost the lives of two young men.”
“In the two days they remained in my house, another seven from the family died.”
“If not for the help of Nyx, that number might have doubled.”
These were the words left by Knight Wolf before his departure.
To ordinary people, Secrecy remained far too dangerous.
Instructing the Temple Warriors to shut the Church Entrance, Bishop Corleon placed the three chests beneath the Lord’s Throne.
Without hesitation, he opened the leftmost chest.
Inside lay a bone shovel.
This was a Holy Relic brought by the Cave Dwellers.
The Three Western Baronies to the west had no being like the Wolf God, so Bishop Corleon had long since seen these Cave Dwellers using this type of bone shovel-shaped Holy Relic.
Cave Dwellers were subterranean creatures, highly skilled in digging. A thousand Cave Dwellers could dig an underground city the size of York Town in just one month.
And this bone shovel was a Holy Relic of the Cave Dwellers, used precisely for digging.
In the recent battle, the Cave Dwellers had tunneled beneath Baron Sacker’s territory, creating holes everywhere.
Not only was it useful for ambushing Baron Sacker’s people, but it also served as daytime shelter for those Dark Creatures.
Moreover, leveraging the power of this Holy Relic, the Cave Dwellers nearly uprooted the entire Church from Baron Sacker’s land.
Corleon thought that if given to Cicero, he would certainly be delighted.
Leaving aside other uses, with one swing of this shovel, Cicero could excavate foundations precisely as he envisioned.
However, there was a price to using this item.
Most of the Holy Relics of the Dark Creatures were created through the most primitive Rituals.
The reason the Cave Dwellers had not fully excavated and buried Baron Sacker’s territory over such a long time was simply due to their limited numbers.
Each use of the Holy Relic required the sacrifice of Cave Dwellers.
To dig a pit the size of a large Church would require at least three Cave Dwellers.
Using other life forms as substitutes was possible, but their effect was far inferior to that of Cave Dwellers.
Lifting the bone shovel, Corleon’s eyes gleamed golden.
Soon, he placed the shovel back down.
Perhaps these Holy Relics needed to be refined, transformed from Dark Creatures’ Holy Relics into Sacred Vessels of the Church of the Sanctuary.
The middle chest was half the height of a person, containing a cage inside.
This was the Goblins’ Holy Relic, a birdcage.
These cowardly, cunning, and cruel creatures had slain a bird-type magical beast and turned its corpse into this Holy Relic.
Compared to the primitive Ritual-based Holy Relic of the Cave Dwellers, this cage required less of a price to use.
By throwing a few Goblins inside as sacrifices and sincerely praying to the Bird God, the cage would produce a Meat Bird as needed.
These birds served as food.
One Meat Bird created from a single Goblin sacrifice could feed a hundred Goblins for a day.
Similar to the Cave Dwellers’ Holy Relic, using other life forms in sacrifice yielded much weaker results.
The Cave Dwellers’ shovel was used to build the underground city, while the Goblins’ Holy Relic produced food.
Together, these combinations allowed the Dark Creatures to establish a foothold in Baron Sacker’s territory, nearly conquering it.
Of course, like the bone shovel, this birdcage would also need to be refined into a Sacred Vessel of the Church of the Sanctuary.
After closing the birdcage’s chest, Corleon turned to the rightmost chest.
This one was quite small but much more finely crafted, even adorned with a gem.
It had been specially prepared by Baron Sacker for Knight Wolf to transport Mystery with greater ease.
Brushing over the chest and lifting the lid—
Whoosh! Black Mist burst forth, as though to engulf the Church.
At that instant, the cross atop the Lord’s Throne radiated light, purifying the Black Mist in a flash.
As if encountering its nemesis, the mist instantly recoiled, revealing its true form.
It was a slender horn.
Golden light shimmered in Corleon’s eyes as he stared fixedly at the horn.
“Come, let me see what you are,” Corleon said, and the horn inside the chest trembled as if in fear.
But soon, that faint trembling subsided into calm.
“So that’s what it is.” The golden light faded slowly from Corleon’s eyes—he had seen the horn’s True Name.
“Slumbering Horn, so it steals the power of dreams.”
Each instance of Mystery, once birthed, bore its own name.
Upon mastering and understanding it, one would learn its True Name.
This was its anchor.
So long as someone knew its True Name, the Secrecy would retain its form as a Treasured Artifact.
However, even as a Treasured Artifact, if one lacked the ability to control it, its True Name would gradually fade, much like a Lucid Dream.
Such was the case with this horn.
Though the baron’s Church had successfully stolen the power of dreams, they lacked the capacity to wield it.
Otherwise, the baron would not have given the horn to Knight Wolf so easily.
Corleon picked up the horn, gently rubbing it in his hand.
Mystery created by humans was more refined than Holy Relics of Dark Creatures.
Once blown, the Slumbering Horn would plunge all who heard it into Eternal Sleep.
The warriors who transported it, as well as the members of Knight Wolf’s family, had been tainted by the mystery that leaked from the horn, leading them into Eternal Sleep.
And those who fell asleep could never be awakened again.
In the instant they slipped into dreams, they had already lived out an entire lifetime.
What awaited them next was natural death of the body.
Corleon felt somewhat thankful that this era lacked technology like telephones or broadcasts.
If the sound of this horn were broadcast worldwide...
Even as a Treasured Artifact, if its wielder lacked sufficient ability, they too would fall into Eternal Sleep.
“What a dangerous thing,” Corleon muttered, shaking his head as he placed the horn back into the chest.
Then he closed his eyes and entered the space where the Light Orb resided.
Now, the Light Orb was covered in over a thousand Threads, and Corleon could no longer discern which thread belonged to whom.
Only by ‘seeing’ the threads and sensing the strength of their Faith could he barely match them to their respective people.
Corleon had considered condensing a higher-tier Commandment of Priesthood—such as the supreme Pontiff.
But he felt it would require at least tens of thousands of threads to construct.
Closing his eyes, Corleon reached out to touch the Light Orb.
Meanwhile, within the Church, the cross on the Lord’s Throne emitted a faint glow.
As though reaching out, one invisible thread was drawn from each of the three chests.
All power in this world had a source.
The Slumbering Horn nurtured within the human Church remained connected to the ancient, slumbering God of Dreams.
Within the Light Orb's space, Corleon grasped the thread belonging to the Slumbering Horn and forcefully severed it, crystallizing both ends and fixing them within that space.
The God of Dreams’ power continued to be siphoned, but the space would now act as a filter.
Only the filtered power would then enter the Slumbering Horn.
This would weaken the horn’s power but would also prevent irreversible outcomes upon activation.
At the very least, those who fell asleep could now be awakened by the Church.
Compared to this dangerous horn, the two Holy Relics of the Dark Creatures could almost be deemed harmless.
Their modification was also simpler.
Since both had been formed through sacrificial Rituals, Corleon merely needed to change the object of worship to the Lord.
Thus, the activation of their Holy Relic powers would shift from blood sacrifice to Faith.
Though this alteration weakened their power compared to blood offerings, at the very least, they had been ‘tamed.’