Dulin, Capital of the Republic of Erland.

Officially, the Republic of Erland was still governed by Windsor, but Windsor’s inhuman ways were an open secret. Erland was nothing but one of the gems on the Queen’s crown and a sheep waiting to be slaughtered. They were not on the same boat, and sooner or later, they would part ways.

The Republic of Erland did have the means to achieve that. Her political power and international influence fell far short of Windsor, but she had the Church of Heavenly Father’s support behind the scenes. In fact, the church had contributed significantly to the establishment of the republic.

Wayne disembarked with his lady and secretary. Two bodyguards dressed in black and a driver had been waiting for him for a long time, but Wayne, wanting to keep a low profile for this visit, told the bodyguards and drivers to leave him with the car. He would drive to the villa in the suburbs on his own.

The Lando family was so wealthy that they had properties around the world. That was especially true after the rebellion, and they couldn’t even turn down the transfer of properties. It was quite a hassle.

Due to the Ministry of Magic’s limited budget, Wayne couldn’t book two rooms. To ensure that no outsiders would disturb them, he made the most of the money and booked all the rooms on the same floor.

Mona and Kristen saw through him, but remained silent with matching eye rolls. Their joint experience last night made them embarrassed to face each other today, but they had undoubtedly gotten closer.

While the two women cleaned up the room, Wayne sat on the sofa and studied the information at hand. He circled four investigation targets on the map.

“Kristen, do you want a walk to explore the local landscape and culture?”

“No thanks. I’m not going anywhere but staying here to work on my book.” Kristen worried that another round awaited her if she left with him, so she insisted on outlining her story at the hotel. Once Wayne returned from the investigation, she would’ve finished her outline. Then he could tell her what was wrong with it.

Wayne smiled in satisfaction at her startled look. Patting Mona on the backside, he said, “Come with me. The Sanctuary Sect hands out eggs in a town nearby. Let’s go check.”

Mona nodded, putting the documents on the table in her personal storage.

***

The Sanctuary Sect was based in Town Ford, in suburban Dulin. It was quite close, taking them less than half an hour of driving time.

Wayne had chosen to start with this particular sect because its base was nearby.

Mona was the one driving, as usual. Wayne marked the map from the passenger seat, connecting the locations of the sects suspected to be Geocentrism Sect 2.0. Perhaps there would be traces of a large-scale sacrificial magic circle.

Hexagram, pentagram, cross star, triangular star... He went through the possible formations but found nothing.

Looking down at the map, he said, “These sects have emerged altogether after the declaration of war. Rather than a coincidence, I believe that an organization is behind the emergence, and one at a significant scale at that.”

“Do you suspect demons, Boss?”

“I didn’t say that.” Wayne rolled his eyes at her. “You’re too fixated on demons and attribute everything to them, Mona. That’s a mistake. An organized plan doesn’t necessarily mean the involvement of demons. It could be the local nobles’ ploy to gain profit, or a branch created by a local church to work against the Life Alliance in Windsor.”

He listed the different possibilities before saying with a frown, “Still, the fact that they’re handing out eggs is reminiscent of the Geocentrism Sect. If this is another Geocentrism Sect, it would mean more than one evil god is returning to the human world from the Astral Plane...”

There were two types of evil gods: a mage fallen in the Astral Plane, and a demon from Hell. The latter was self-explanatory. It wasn’t easy for demons to enter the human world, and they couldn’t descend outside of extraordinary circumstances. The former were usually legendary mages such as Marshall, the Lord of the Void. Gold-ranked mages were so weak that they couldn’t even fall; given their lackluster power, they would lose their senses as soon as they saw the Gate of Truth, not even having a chance to learn the advanced knowledge contained in the Astral Plane.

In fact, not even legendary mages could stay in the Astral Plane for a prolonged period. Due to their desire for progress, the more they learned, the less they knew, and, unable to resist the temptation of knowledge, they would get addicted and lose their mind, becoming one with the Astral Plane.

The legendary mages rarely, if ever, recovered themselves and returned from the Astral Plane. Moreover, if those who had recovered themselves had succeeded in acquiring the evolution of the Astral Plane, there would be no point in returning to the mortal realm.

“Perhaps it’s for faith, or more likely, it’s a sacrifice...”

“This may be a large-scale, organized return from the Astral Plane to collect faith. Then a great number of lives will be sacrificed at once...” Wayne’s scalp tingled, shaking his head. “In that case, they would be no different from demons even if they aren’t demons.”

“What do you plan to do, Boss?”

“We investigate thoroughly first. If it’s a ploy of the nobles to earn money, we expose the crime and let the Queen handle it. If she can’t handle it, we contact the local Church of Heavenly Father. Many lamp posts are in need of decorations, and nobles go well with lamp posts.”

“If it’s the doing of legendary mages from the Astral Plane, the solution is simple: just find all of them and kill them.”

The plan was simple and straightforward, requiring little to no thinking. Only raw power was needed.

Half an hour later, the black car arrived at Ford. It was away from the highways with narrow, winding streets, mostly paved with grey bricks. The houses lining the streets varied in height and shape, with moss blanketing the walls.

The town was serene, quiet, and picturesque like an oil painting.

Just like most other towns, an old church stood in the heart of Ford, its spires tall and sharp. The courtyard in front of the church was quite large.

Wayne looked out of the car window, extending his thoughts to look for traces of thoughts corrupted by Astral Beasts. Mona slowed down her driving past the different shops. They approached the church at the end of the road.

Soon, a few white-robed figures blocked their way. They were followers of the Sanctuary Sect. Each holding a basket of eggs, they came up to the car and knocked on the window, handing Wayne a brochure and asking if he would be interested in following their faith.

If he converted, they would give him the whole basket of eggs, but even if he didn’t convert, he could take two eggs. As fellow subjects of the holy Lord Sanctuary, they should take care of each other.

“Give me four. My wife and I have come for a stroll, so we have time. If the eggs are good, we’ll consider converting.” Wayne took the brochure and then four eggs. Closing the car window, he told Mona to drive around Ford once. He flipped through the brochure and found doctrines that were almost identical to those of the Church of Heavenly Father. There was so little modification that they had more or less just copied everything.

“Interesting. Given the Church of Heavenly Father’s overbearing nature, why would they tolerate this?”

Wayne raised an eyebrow, increasingly suspecting that the emerging sects were the church’s doing, meant to work against the Life Alliance and the Churches of Darkness and Death once they became stronger.

Mona frowned silently.

Wayne examined an egg in his hand. It seemed no different from regular chicken eggs inside and outside, and it was difficult to tell that there was anything wrong with it through magic.

He was no regular mage, though, and he could test the egg by talking to it.

He injected it with a wisp of thoughts and preached the truth of life. Soon enough, the egg wobbled, and eight tentacles broke through the shell, waving and shimmering.

The strange creature resembled a starfish in appearance, but its eight boneless tentacles were far more agile than those of a starfish. In its abdomen, where the mouth was, lights the size of rice grains glowed rhythmically. Those were its eyes and its olfactory organs.

The creature waved its eight tentacles around to gather information. Then it suddenly leaped up and latched onto Wayne’s face with the tentacles, grappling his entire head...

Then sank into him.

White foam wriggled and devoured the small newborn creature. Once Wayne’s face returned to normal, he commented, “Tastes like chicken. It’s not for the consumption of humans in the Chosen Land.”

The small starfish-like creature was a Blue Spine Parasite, named the Underground King by the Geocentrism Sect. It was an Astral Beast that could reach an incredible size after maturing, known for its terrifying procreation ability.

Their destructive power was mediocre, placing them at the bottom of the pecking order in the Astral Plane. They were weak to fire, and to survive with their lackluster power, they put everything into procreation.

While weak, it was still an Astral Beast with formidable corruptive capability. A Blue Spine Parasite’s larva was an efficient parasite. Once it latched onto a potential host, it would merge with the host, melding its skin and flesh with theirs until it was impossible to physically separate the two.

Wayne gave Mona a rundown on what the Ministry of Magic had learned about the creature. Shaking his head, he said, “Now we know. An evil god from the Astral Plane is behind everything, and the evil god likely serves the same organization as the Lord of the Void. We’re going to find the headquarters of the Sanctuary Sect and its egg factory, burning them to the ground when night comes.”

Mona nodded. Demons were evil gods, and legendary mages who had fallen in the Astral Plane were evil gods. Thus, fallen legendary mages were basically demons.

The equation filled her with eagerness.

“But I have a question...” Wayne turned to the church in the center of Ford. “It’s reasonable for regular mages to be oblivious to the modus operandi of the Astral Plane, but the Church of Heavenly Father’s influence in the Republic of Erland is great, far greater than in Londan. Why have they done nothing to all the evil gods suddenly popping up in their territory?”

“Should I head to the church and check first, Boss?”

“Let’s go around the town and find the sect’s base and egg factory first. We’ll see which place we should start with at night.” To be on the safe side, Wayne decided against visiting the church immediately.

He was pretty sure that the evil gods had already enthralled the clergy members of the church.

***

Dusk.

Ford quieted as soon as the sun set, as if someone had pressed the mute button. The mist floating from the distant mountains made the silent town seem even more eerie.

Mona drove the black car along an empty road, pulling over right before the church’s courtyard. Wayne opened the door and stepped out, putting an arm around her waist to enter the church’s front entrance as a newlywed couple.

The church had been around for at least a century. It remained open even after sunset, and with the thick mist and the darkness of the night as backdrop, the bright light coming from the entrance provided a sense of security, but also created a terrifying sort of oppressive atmosphere.

Wayne boldly walked toward the door. Before he reached it, he heard people arguing inside.

“Raymond, the Sanctuary Sect is suspicious. Why are you stopping me from looking into it? What if they serve the demons?”

“Harrington, this is a land graced by Father’s light rather than Londan, which is crawling with demons. The Sanctuary Sect is willing to become our subservient sect and has gained the recognition of the Archbishop. Your stubbornness is only going to interfere with the Archbishop’s plan.”

Inside the church, two bishops got into a drawn-out argument. The clergy members were divided into two factions. Raymond had the majority support, while Harrington lacked help; his voice was soon drowned out by the rowdy crowd.

“Raymond, you’ll regret this!” Harrington exclaimed.

“I am the Bishop in charge of this church at the end of the day.”

Bam!

Harrington left, slamming the door behind him. Raymond waved at his people to have them follow him so that they wouldn’t do anything reckless.

Afterwards, he saw the newlywed entering the church. With slight surprise, he came up to them and said, “Greetings. Our clergy is about to rest. If you’re here for confessions, please return tomorrow.”

“No, we’re from the Papal State. His Holiness has issued an order. We hope that you’ll cooperate with our investigation.” Wayne brought up his false backup without hesitation.

After a pause, Raymond shook his head, warning Wayne not to lie in the church, or he would be securing a seat on the train to Hell.

With a smile, Wayne patted Mona on the bottom. She took a step forward, her eyes glinting gold.

“Any other problems?”

“Um...”