The Holy Light in Mona’s eyes was pure, and her sacred presence was dignified. Her powerful Holy Light magic could not be faked. While these two might not have come from the Papal State, the great raw power they had demonstrated was enough to stop Raymond from questioning their identities.

“What do you hope to investigate, sir, ma’am?” Raymond asked respectfully, his head lowered.

The other clergy members took their leave, a few of whom seemed to be in a hurry. Wayne noticed, but didn’t expose them. Instead, he took out the Sanctuary Sect’s brochure and berated him like his superior, “What’s the deal with this so-called Lord Sanctuary? Why aren’t you doing your job as a bishop? There is only one god in the Chosen Land, don’t you know?”

“Um, please allow me to explain. The Sanctuary Sect is subservient to—”

“Cut your nonsense. They are heretics!”

Wayne splattered saliva as he scolded Raymond for two full minutes. Raymond wiped his sweat, waiting until Wayne had finished the scolding to say with a troubled face, “You haven’t been here long enough to see the truth of the Sanctuary Sect. Please believe me. You’ll understand once you check in person.”

“Fine, I’ll give you one more chance.”

“This way. I’ll take you.”

Raymond led the way. There was still confusion in his eyes about where Wayne and Mona came from and their relationship. They could be investigators sent by the Papal State, but hadn’t they been too touchy-feely? How could she be a pure clergywoman when Wayne had groped her bottom?

Raymond’s questioning gaze didn’t escape Mona’s notice. She felt ashamed, suddenly remembering how Wayne’s punishment had felt in the past. Ever since the punishment became sweet rewards, she had gotten used to it, so it had been a while since she last felt shame.

Raymond beckoned a few clergy members over. Two cars escorted Wayne and Mona’s black sedan toward the headquarters of the Sanctuary Sect. The cars’ headlights illuminated the way at night as they gradually parted from the town, reaching an empty field.

It was a dark, windy night with mist shrouding the middle-of-nowhere. This was the perfect place to discard a body.

The two cars in the front and in the back stopped. Once Mona pulled over, Wayne opened the car door and asked, “Where is the Sanctuary Sect’s headquarters, Bishop Raymond?”

“In Hell.” Raymond’s face darkened. “I’ll send you there to find the headquarters.”

Wayne sighed. “Bishop Raymond, are you under the evil god’s control, or have you always been one of theirs?”

Raymond scoffed rather than giving a response, gesturing at the clergy members to make a move. The six of them each drew a gun and aimed at Wayne and Mona.

“Wait!”

“Why, do you have any last words?”

“More or less. I want to know if the Archbishop has defected and how many clergy members have fallen under the evil gods’ control.” Wayne pressed his hands together. “See, I’m dying here. Can’t you answer my question so that I can die in peace?”

“You’ll know everything once you’re in Hell!”

Raymond didn’t deem that a proper answer, or perhaps he knew nothing. He signaled his subordinates to pull the trigger.

Bang, bang, bang!

A series of gunshots rang out. Wayne and Mona remained unmoving, while the six gunmen collapsed with pale faces after getting shot in the arms.

Raymond scowled at the darkness, his eyes glinting. “Harrington, you’ve come.”

“Raymond, both you and the Sanctuary Sect are suspicious.” Harrington emerged from the darkness with a grave expression, wielding two handguns. Dressed in a white pastor's outfit, he had a cross necklace on his neck. Every element of his style fit perfectly together.

“Good timing. I’ll take you out, too.”

Raymond and Harrington exchanged a look and drew their guns. After emptying their bullets, they fought with their Holy Light magic. Since both were Silver-ranked mages, their magic wasn’t even a spectacle, leaving Wayne stunned.

He thought he was the protagonist.

Raymond was the bishop of a church and held a high administrative role, yet it didn’t reflect on his magical abilities. In combat, he was no match for Harrington. After a few exchanges, Raymond was pushed against a scarecrow in the field.

His long white clergy robe was cut by wind blades, half of it dyed red by his own blood. He growled, his body suddenly inflating and distorting, merging with the scarecrow behind him.

The resulting abomination stood at three meters tall. On its tall, twisted body was an unusually large head, in stark contrast with its slim limbs. Its eyes were two empty, bottomless sockets. Its grin revealed the disorderly, sharp fangs in its mouth.

Its body was covered in a layer of pale skin. Its fingers resembled dried branches, the fingertips sharp like stings. The decayed straws and broken hemp ropes inside the body popped out, emitting a repulsive odor.

“That’s too normal!”

Wayne raised an eyebrow. Unfortunately, he had arrived late. Perhaps Raymond had once been a clergyman, but now... he was an evil god’s follower, having been corrupted by the knowledge of the Astral Plane. No treatment could bring him back.

Roar—

Amid beast-like roars, the gunmen who had collapsed to the ground mutated. Running on all fours, they rushed to circle Harrington.

Wayne and Mona were once again rendered mere spectators. Wayne blinked. This wasn’t right. He would take back the protagonist’s spotlight.

Before he could do anything, Harrington took a cross pendant from under his robe and murmured. The white long robe he wore radiated golden light, which formed a golden cross on the back.

It was the church’s battle gear, integrating both defense and offensive buffs to great effect in real combat. It was thus widely praised by the clergy.

With the buff, Harrington conjured a greatspear of Holy Light and fought the group of wolves and the strange strawman. The two sides exchanged blows, evenly matched.

Ten minutes passed.

“Pretty good. At least you have adequate stamina,” Wayne commented. Narrowing his eyes, he extended his thoughts to disturb the enemies. The permeating whispers rang in the wolves’ and strawman’s heads, destabilizing their mutated pale flesh until they collapsed into white foams. Harrington pierced through their chest with his spear.

The epic fight left Harrington panting like a dog, exhausted. When he realized that Wayne and Mona had not left, he went up to them with a frown. “You two, I heard you say that you were from the Papal State. Do you have any evidence?”

Wayne patted Mona’s behind. She radiated golden light from her eyes.

“That only proves you to be Gold-ranked mages...” Harrington shook his head. Out of respect for Gold-ranked mages, he didn’t say anything else.

“Alright, since you’ve seen through us, we’ll stop pretending,” Wayne said sincerely. “We came from Saint Paul’s Cathedral in Londan, belonging to its tactical team. Under Bishop Gunther’s order, we’ve come to investigate the emerging sects here.”

Harrington compared their power and reluctantly chose to believe Wayne. With a frown, he said, “I was once a member of the knight order guarding Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Dulin. Archbishop appointed me here to take over Raymond, but not long after I arrived...”

Harrington explained how the Sanctuary Sect had risen all of a sudden and how Saint Patrick’s Cathedral had turned a blind eye. After a pause, he said, “I do not know if the Archbishop has become enthralled by the evil gods just like Raymond has. Friendly reminder, the Archbishop is a powerful legendary mage. If even he has succumbed to the evil gods, the two of you Gold-ranked mages won’t be able to deal with this danger. Get out of here while you can.”

“How about you?”

“I have to investigate further, at least until I confirm the Sanctuary Sect’s real goal and who Lord Sanctuary is. I won’t be able to send intelligence with only baseless speculations.”

“How many have retained their rationality like you?”

“I don’t know. I trust no one but myself now.”

Harrington picked up the guns on the ground to resupply his armory, planning on visiting the headquarters of the Sanctuary Sect late at night to gather useful information. He wasn’t sure if Wayne and Mona were actually fellow members of the Church of Heavenly Father, so he didn’t request to join the team. Instead, he left in one of the cars.

“Let’s go,” said Wayne. “We have to eliminate all potential risks. Tonight, we wipe out the Sanctuary Sect.”

He had gathered enough information. Once in the car, he said to Mona, “Don’t pull your punches later. Take care of the Sanctuary Sect as quickly as possible. Then we’ll return to downtown Dulin immediately. I’m paying Saint Patrick’s Cathedral a visit. The Archbishop is beyond suspicious.”

Mona’s eyes glinted golden. She sped toward the headquarters of the Sanctuary Sect at top speed.

Good news, the egg factory was near the headquarters, so they could get rid of both in one fell swoop.

***

The Sanctuary Sect’s headquarters was located west of Town Ford. The ancestral home of a fallen noble had been renovated into the sect’s base, and a makeshift chicken farm was constructed on the abandoned land in the vicinity.

It was obvious that the construction was completed in a rush, so the layout was far from as proper as the Geocentrism Sect. It all looked very amateurish.

Thanks to their relentless effort in giving away eggs, though, the sect quickly won over a large number of devoted followers. As long as there were eggs, there would be faith in them. If there was no egg... then wait until there was a fresh supply the next day.

Bread was the staff of life—or eggs, in this case. People’s faith was straightforward.

Worried about alerting his enemies, Harrington stopped the car at a distance and found his way to the backyard of the Sanctuary Sect’s headquarters along the route he had scouted ahead of time. With a graceful leap, he landed on the other side of the wall. When he looked up, two people seemed to have been waiting for him.

Wayne and Mona.

=͟͟͞͞=͟͟͞͞(ÒꈊÓ|||)

Harrington shuddered. He almost thought that he had been exposed as soon as he infiltrated the sect. He lowered his voice and asked, “Why are you here? And... how did you come so soon?”

“There’s a shortcut. We scouted it out during the day,” Wayne explained helpfully, gesturing at Mona to take care of the sect, while he served as an insurance outside. As long as nothing went wrong, he wouldn’t have to make a move tonight.

The Goddess of Darkness’s partial thoughts remained sealed in his chest. While his existence was more advanced than the goddess’s, the goddess was in a different league entirely in terms of power. Therefore, even a small part of the goddess’s thoughts would take a great toll on him.

Moreover, Wayne wasn’t aiming to simply seal the goddess’s thoughts, but to reshape Her thoughts as he had done to Senna!

Knowing what he was planning, the Goddess of Darkness continued to resist, and they entered a prolonged tug of war.

The Goddess of Darkness had underestimated Her opponent out of overconfidence, accepting the corruption willingly. That destroyed the possibility for Her partial thoughts to revert to their original state, thus dooming Her to defeat.

It would depend on Her how long the push and pull would last.