How could this be...

After listening to Leon’s deductions about the situation in the Weaving Oath, the female angel felt a sharp pain in her chest, and her vision was filled with swirling golden stars. She relied on grasping the slowly floating light strands nearby to avoid collapsing to the ground.

Creating goodwill by helping the Lost Souls, then extracting this goodwill and distributing it to all the angels to maintain the purity and goodness of the realm?

Oh, Holy Mother above... Does this mean that all those people I saved were eventually sent into these light cocoons and became the... material for maintaining everyone’s goodness?!

"If you can’t stand, just wait here for me."

He helped the staggering female angel regain her footing, and then Leon squinted as he studied the light cocoons at the lowest level of the Weaving Oath, saying:

"What I just guessed is only a hypothesis, not necessarily the entire truth. I need to check further."

"..."

Yes, yes! The situation may not be exactly as it appears!

Regaining a glimmer of hope from Leon’s words, the female angel’s body slightly trembled, finally infused with a bit of vitality, and she hurriedly followed along.

For now, it’s all speculation; the situation might not be as she imagines it. Perhaps the Holy Mother... she has her reasons? Or maybe these Lost Souls haven’t been...

"Crack!"

A crisp cracking sound came from below, and the female angel looked towards it, discovering that several light cocoons at the bottom of the Weaving Oath had suddenly cracked open... no, it wasn’t the light threads forming the cocoon that cracked, but rather those indistinct Lost Souls within them!

"This..."

"This is probably why you suddenly received the transfer order."

Striding towards the cracked light cocoons, Leon touched the motionless shells inside before retracting his hand, saying expressionlessly:

"The Lost Souls arranged at the very bottom layer are likely the ’oldest’ of the remaining Lost Souls. They’ve been completely drained by these light threads and new ’material’ needs to be quickly supplied.

Hmm... my earlier guess was indeed incomplete. Simply distributing ’goodness’ to all angels can’t eradicate the ’evil’ generated within themselves. Therefore, what your Holy Mother is doing is actually a clever displacement.

You angels linked by light threads don’t have your evil thoughts enter your souls. Instead, through these threads connected to the Weaving Oath, your evil thoughts are directly exchanged into the bodies of these Lost Souls, using your evil to swap out their goodwill.

And when the goodwill within is exhausted, and the accumulated evil overflows the soul, solidifying so much that even the flesh can’t bear it, these Lost Souls will be shattered by the malevolence. Then all light cocoons slide down in sequence, vacating the top position for new Lost Souls to be added."

"?!!!"

The female angel, hearing this, trembled all over and asked in a trembling voice:

"You... you mean to say..."

"I mean that it can now be basically determined that your Pure White Holy Mother is white only on the outside; her heart is probably completely black."

Glancing at the blackened insides through the coarse cracks on the shells of the shattered Lost Souls, Leon looked down into the dark pit at the bottom of the Weaving Oath, then turned back to ask:

"Where does the pit below lead?"

"What?"

"After the Lost Souls completely shatter, the mixed fragments of malevolence with their souls and wills fall into the pit below."

Glancing at the somewhat dazed female angel, Leon patiently explained:

"Those black shell fragments contain concentrated malevolence swapped from countless minds. They can’t simply disappear into thin air; they must undergo some kind of processing... so where does the pit below lead? Or rather, what lies below the Weaving Oath?"

The area below the Weaving Oath...

Muttering Leon’s words again, the female angel shivered as she responded:

"It’s the Redemption Dome that grants sinners salvation, and the Immaculate Bureau that purges uncleanliness and filth..."

"What exactly do you mean by salvation and purging?"

"Salvation... is by the burning of the Holy Light, allowing those laden with sins to be purified, and purging is... those who have been tainted by sins..."

"Enough, you don’t need to say anymore."

Even salvation begins directly with a fire punishment, burning them clean first, then purging must be even more thorough; probably starting with crushing and scattering bones to ashes.

Shaking his head slightly, Leon observed the Lost Souls within the light cocoons, then waved his hand to break off some light threads, pulling down those who could still be saved one by one from the light cocoons.

And the moment the numerous light threads broke, a familiar will descended, and the surrounding white light threads abandoned all Lost Souls, rushing towards the top of the Weaving Oath, weaving and entangling into a giant eye, looking gently at the two of them. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Number 3."

The white eyeball made of light threads slightly shifted, looked at Leon below, and with a somewhat helpless tone belonging to the Pure White Holy Mother, said:

"We meet again... I didn’t expect to be able to hide it from you forever, but aren’t you investigating a bit too quickly?"

"It’s alright, this time was actually kind of slow."

Answering nonchalantly, Leon squinted at the Pure White Holy Mother above, expressionless, saying:

"Actually, you performed quite well. I almost believed it, but what’s acted out isn’t the truth. No matter how well you act, you’re just a hypocritical false Holy Mother, naturally pierced as soon as touched."

"Is that what you think?"

The Pure White Holy Mother’s eyes blinked, then smiled as she asked back:

"I’ve heard a lot about you from others. Don’t you also want to transform the existing world, turning it from a cruel and vile place into a harmonious and beautiful pure land? Isn’t the pure land I created good enough in goodness and beauty?"

Indeed, the Pure White Pure Land is a beautiful place, filled with angels radiating goodwill, free from any evil or insidiousness. Even the ideal future world I imagined is surely far less in this aspect.

But alas, what’s fake is ultimately fake. The beauty of the Pure White Pure Land is built upon ugliness. Such false and filthy things are not the kind of beauty I long for... but there’s no need to explain this to a lunatic like you.

"Mia, my child."

Seeing the bullhead turn and glance at her before silent, without any desire to communicate, the Pure White Holy Mother’s eye turned towards the female angel beside Leon, the bright white pupils slightly melancholic as she asked:

"You’ve brought Number 3 to the Weaving Oath, and upon seeing me, you no longer greet me as you used to... so have you decided to betray me and stand by his side?"

"I..."