The Star Robe Mage couldn’t understand Rorschach’s trauma. Only those who had experienced it knew what the damned "Harvest Festival" truly meant.

"Can you monitor Mother Earth’s aura in real time?" Rorschach asked after finishing his water.

"It’s not convenient here, and the Starlight Torch Tower might not be available..." Pavard realized he’d said too much and trailed off. Instead, he activated the transceiver on the Oscillation Crystal to make contact.

"The ether resonance from the high mass isn’t over yet. Keep calling," the captain reminded him.

Even without activating his Arcane Vision, Rorschach could feel the Ether in the environment churning as if it were boiling, gradually forming a vortex. It was clear that Saint Miller Cathedral was the epicenter.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a malevolent aura. It was a vast, sublime torrent belonging to the Master of Light and Order. The sky was on the verge of nightfall, but now the sunset erupted with a new round of splendor. Pillars of intermingling gold and red light rained down, blanketing the church and the square.

However, Dipresy frowned. A celestial phenomenon was an anomaly, regardless of whether it truly belonged to the Lord of Order.

In his perception, the resonance generated by the faithful had already been channeled into the Evil Sword Sealing Room underground.

’Should I continue?’ Dipresy carefully assessed the Extraordinary Power reverberating through the space. The Lord’s radiance was cleansing the filth.

"Go forth, the mass is concluded!"

He announced the end of the ceremony, but some of the faithful were already prostrate on the ground, unable to contain themselves. The Red Archbishop frowned. He raised a hand, attempting to use his Divine Magic Power to lift the congregants sprawled across the square.

But then, something unexpected happened.

Rorschach’s group had also received the results. A map depicting the entire city was spread out on the floor. Pavard used four different crystals to weigh down its corners, then sprinkled a clear Potion over it.

"The detection results will be transmitted to us. If there’s any trace of Mother Earth’s aura, the Potion will change color in the corresponding locations, forming points and trails..."

At first, the Potion just soaked into the map like water without changing color. Pavard glanced at it. "See? This means everything’s fine..."

Before he could finish, large green blotches began to appear, coalescing into points all over the map, as if it had instantly grown moldy.

"So many?" The three of them felt their scalps tingle. It seemed the entire city was shrouded in Mother Earth’s aura, especially the East Suburb.

The East Suburb had already become an out-of-control Demon Cave. At first, the Cultists had blended in with the farmers who came to the city for work. These laborers were seasonal, flooding into Valuva during the slack season after the fields were harvested.

There were also the *sans-culottes*, incited and instigated, some of whom lived Ranger-like lives, taking jobs from the Adventurer’s Guild, while others gathered in groups to form gangs. The herbal powder that sent people to ecstatic bliss was back!

In short, amid the turmoil, the Sect had indeed been revived from the ashes. Even though the Church and the Guilds were on alert, the Sect, no longer in hiding, had begun their "celebration" once again.

Some roads were blockaded. Cultists lit bonfires, raising a thick smoke of life and death. Churches all over dispatched their forces; Holy Knights and Priests of the Lord of Order began to confront the zealots. But the Cultists didn’t stick to rituals—they raised their guns against the Armored Warriors.

"Look outside." Rorschach noticed the spires of Saint Miller Cathedral were starting to crumble. No, the entire church seemed to be pulled by some force, shattering and floating upward in defiance of gravity.

The light in the heavens had warped. The sky darkened, and the golden-red radiance transformed into a bizarre, dreamlike aurora. An ethereal, inhuman chanting drifted down from above.

’This is bad,’ Dipresy thought. He flicked his hand, casting a Guardian Divine Skill to protect as many of the faithful as he could. "Priests, leave the church at once! Holy Knights, lead the congregation to evacuate! Evacuate!"

Inside the church, Priest Joseph, who was in charge of guarding the Evil Sword and organizing the Purification ritual, had thought he could finally end the corruption. However, as the prayers of the faithful poured into this place, the stronger the Lord’s radiance grew, the deeper and darker the corruption of Mother Earth at the sword’s tip became.

"Judgment... The Great Judgment!"

"What are you doing?!" Joseph roared at the deranged Gray Robe Knight, simultaneously unleashing a Divine Art at him, trying to push him away from the center of the ritual.

But then, the Gray Robe Knight’s face began to blur. A tremendous power erupted from both his body and his sword.

"Impossible... Impossible!" Joseph’s pupils trembled. He would absolutely not harm or hinder that Knight now, because the Lord’s presence had fully descended. The originally human form had begun to disintegrate.

"Go, let’s go!" Zhen was the first to react, yelling for everyone to evacuate the area.

In his last moments before leaving, Rorschach witnessed a bizarre scene. Within the uprooted church, countless pristine, glowing white wings unfurled. Had he been at the epicenter of the transformation like Joseph, he would have seen the sword being gripped by innumerable, overlapping hands, and looking up, he would have been unable to glimpse their owner.

One of the other Gray Robe Knights cried out in excitement, "It’s an Angel of our Lord!" But as soon as he finished speaking, he melted in the brilliant light, becoming "part of the Angel."

"What the hell is that thing?"

"One of the Angels of the Master of Light and Order—Seraph!"

Joseph and Dipresy managed to maintain their sense of self amidst the violent storm of Divine Power, but the other faithful had already become part of the Angel’s advent. Finally, It descended in an eight-winged form. Four wings were held aloft, four wings shrouded Its holy body, and two heads that could not be looked upon, could not be perceived, scrutinized the city.

Rorschach’s group had already reached the underground tunnels, where the Mages boarded an Alchemy Carriage.

"Hold on tight, this thing is fast!" Zhen unleashed all her Magic Power to drive the Alchemy Carriage. The clang of metal echoed through the tunnel, but was suddenly drowned out by a deafening lion’s roar.

Hearing the sound, Rorschach instantly recognized it as the wind-up for a major attack. He turned toward the back of the carriage, raised his Magic Staff, and began to gather power.

Sure enough, a crimson bolt of lightning cracked the tunnel’s arched ceiling and charged furiously toward Rorschach’s carriage. The Ray from his Divine Exorcism Technique collided with it. The Magic, which should have been able to strip the Divine Power from Transmuting Dust, could only hold the lightning to a stalemate.

Rorschach’s Magic Power was draining rapidly. He could only draw on the surrounding Ether to replenish himself, but a searing heat completely enveloped the young man. What once felt like a gentle breeze now felt like being plunged into a pool of boiling water.

Fortunately, the carriage was fast enough. It didn’t waste the time Rorschach had bought, successfully dodging the last of the lightning.

"Go pick a fight with Mother Earth’s cult, not us!" Rorschach roared. As if it had heard him, the Angel left the floating church, descended upon the royal city, and swung its Great Sword toward the East Suburb. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

"What is that?" "Has the Great Mother answered us?" At the ritual site, filled with wails of agony, the Sect’s members were already lost in the hallucinogenic smoke.

They writhed their bodies in a trance, trying to awaken and please their Matron, but found real death within their hallucinations.

Everyone looked up in horror. A transhuman entity wielded lightning, Fire, and sword in the sky. If any who knew no reverence dared to look directly at Seraph, It would open countless, densely packed eyes all over Its body to focus on and judge the sinners.