With Lord Sanctuary’s help, Wayne reformed his body into his human form. He stored the statue in his chest and beckoned Mona over to return to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral.

“Boss, you do attract demons!”

Wayne rolled his eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. You took me here, so you were the one who attracted demons.”

Mona nodded. That wouldn’t be inaccurate to say.

Wayne knew what she was thinking. She had to be roleplaying again. “I’ve gotten rusty. Only after the evil god reminded me did I remember that there is a warehouse in the church. Given the status Saint Patrick’s Cathedral enjoys, there has to be quite a lot of good stuff there.”

Mona’s lips twitched. If nothing unexpected happened, the cathedral would be hit by a demon today, its treasure trove unfortunately emptied.

***

“Sir Envoy, this is the sacred sword that the previous captain of the order of guardian knights wielded. It must not be taken by demons. Please reconsider!”

“Not this scepter either. It’s another divine artifact that means a lot to the church.”

In the cathedral’s warehouse, a few white-bearded old men clutched Wayne’s sleeves and reminded him not to cross the line. It would be fine for the warehouse to be hit with a theft; it wasn’t unusual for fires to break out during holidays. However, it would be too much for a fire to leave the warehouse a charred, empty shell.

Wayne stopped before he went too far, disregarding the old men’s opinions with sound justification. “I’m not the one asking for these, but the demon. You may be heartbroken, but I am, too. Going undercover always entails situations where you’re left with no choice... That long robe seems pretty nice. The demon specified that he wants it.”

You’re the demon! xN

The bearded old men had had enough. One of them said, “Sir Envoy, we’ve handed over what we could yesterday. If the demon continues to take from the cathedral, we’ll get in trouble.”

“True. You fail to protect the cathedral, allowing the demon to come and go and steal a large amount of treasure. You must be held accountable. I’ll report to His Holiness later,” Wayne said matter-of-factly.

“...” xN

“Don’t worry. I don’t mean to threaten you or make your life difficult. Why do you think I kept Hodgson around? Only to avoid alerting the enemies?”

Realization dawning on them, the old men suddenly felt the weight of guilt lifted, prompting them to freely offer praise.

“Your intelligence is long proven, Sir Envoy!”

“Your foresight and strategic mind hardly have any match.”

“Both long and hard!”

Wayne found it beneath himself to bother with such vermin. As if he were stocking up on groceries in a supermarket, he tossed all the expensive and impressive looking treasure into his personal storage, soon reaching the holy grail.

It sounded like a sacred thing, but it was nothing but a goblet with a long history. It only looked superior and impressive because of its previous owner’s incredible status and the gems that had been added later.

Basically, it was like a glass used by an idol, pushed to an absurd price in the market because of all the simps.

The goblet that Lord Sanctuary demanded was entirely made of gold, with a thick, smooth surface and a golden luster, like liquid sunlight taking form. A light tap made it hum with a lingering, resonating tone—the sound of gold.

“What’s special about this goblet?” Wayne weighed the holy grail.

“Sir Envoy, it’s Saint Patrick’s sacred relic. He once spread Father’s grace to all of Erland as a holy disciple.”

One white-bearded old man told the story of how Saint Patrick’s Cathedral was constructed. The holy grail had once belonged to Saint Patrick, making it the most precious item in the cathedral.

“The demon said that the holy grail once contained divine blood...”

“Perhaps it was Saint Patrick’s blood,” said the old man. It had been too long for the truth to be known. They couldn’t say for sure, either.

Wayne looked around, taking a few containers similar to the holy grail. He examined the holy grail and didn’t find anything special. What the demon wanted wasn’t the goblet, but the blood that remained in it.

***

“Saint Patrick must be a descended angel. What does the demon want the angel’s blood for?” Wayne asked from the passenger seat as Mona drove the black sedan toward downtown Dulin. He placed the holy grail and the other containers resembling it in the back seat. He didn’t know which was the item that the demon wanted, so he brought them all.

“Boss, according to the records kept by the church, there is a seal implemented by Heaven at the Gate of Hell. Demons cannot freely enter and exit from the human world, not even through their thoughts. The blood of angels and demons in the human world can help demons open the channel to our world. That may be why the demon requested the holy grail.”

“You know a lot.”

“It’s only my speculation.”

Mona was a career clergywoman who had studied the faith for thirty years. Although her speculation might not be a hundred percent accurate, it would surely be more reliable than a guess made by an amateur like Wayne. Wayne didn’t think much of it. Their priority was to find the demons and wipe them out.

Half an hour later, the car pulled over on a desolate clearing away from the highway. There was no one else in sight.

After ‘stealing’ the holy grail, Wayne had contacted Lord Sanctuary, who gave him a coordinate and said that someone would be waiting for him.

Mona got out of the car with Wayne clinging to her in the form of a clump of tentacles, pretending that he had parasitized her and broken into the cathedral’s storage through the pure clergywoman.

Mona walked up to the meeting place with an icy expression. Six tentacles dangled from her body, each holding a container. She felt a terrible aversion to the tentacles, the feeling of being tainted filling the depths of her heart. The moment it occurred to her, though, she would remember the intense battle last night, and the feeling would go away.

The fragmented memories embodied a haughty personality that continued to influence Mona’s self, but Mona found a way to fight the influence through actions.

The solution was incredibly effective. The haughty personality could not bear to see human flesh coming together and retreated as soon as Mona brought it up.

Hiss!

Black mist rose from the ground. Amid the mist, black venomous snakes hissed with crimson tongues and curled around to transform into a figure in a black robe.

Wayne took a look, extending a tentacle that opened a mouth. “Who are you? You’re not Lord Sanctuary, my faith.”

The black-robed figure was Lord of Envy’s familiar, Smedley...’s human vessel, carrying part of Smedley’s thoughts. He could be considered Smedley himself.

His voice was chilling, hissing like a venomous snake. “Lord Sanctuary cannot descend to the human world for now. His power is so great that no channel can carry him here. That’s why I’m sent to meet up with you.”

Smedley started spouting lies without thinking because of the habits he had cultivated at work. Only afterwards did he realize that there was no point in wasting his breath on a puppet. He said bluntly, “Contact Lord Sanctuary, and he’ll tell you everything.”

The plan succeeded without issue. It was time to wrap up!

To open the Gate of Hell and allow Lord Envy to descend, Smedley had put in a lot of effort, preparing several plans.

Plan A was the simplest, involving the most straightforward method of sacrificing lives to call to the Lord of Envy from the human world and force open Heaven’s seal on Hell. While it was the simplest solution, though, it also took the most energy. When energy was severely lacking, a great many lives had to be sacrificed.

Due to the plan being exposed, the evil gods of the Astral Plane had to evacuate, and they pivoted to Plan B.

Originally, Smedley had wanted Hodgson to execute the plan, but envoys from the Papal State had arrived all of a sudden. Out of caution, he chose to make Hodgson a red herring and seek out someone else to execute the plan.

During the search, Lord Sanctuary reported good news: an ignorant thief had picked up the gold left in the statue, thus corrupted to resemble the evil god. Smedley had been unconvinced and refrained from giving the go-ahead since it seemed like too much of a coincidence; now that he saw Wayne in person, though, he concluded that Lord Sanctuary was telling the truth.

The corruption was thorough, and the transformation couldn’t be more insidious. This face couldn’t belong to a spy. He was certainly on their side.

Smedley fantasized about the Gate of Hell opening and the Lord of Envy’s territory being projected to the human world. The army of Hell would turn the mortal realm into a second hell. His lord would thus gain power over the other six of the Seven Demon Lords, uniting Hell and achieving an unprecedented hegemony. Then, he would be his lord’s most trusted servant for the great contribution he had made.

Meanwhile, Wayne was contacting Lord Sanctuary through the statue. Confirming that the plan had succeeded, Lord Sanctuary stopped pretending, his powerful thoughts rushing out of the statue into Wayne’s body.

“My subject, I’ll grant you the greatest reward for your loyalty: you will be one with your faith, becoming a part of me.” Lord Sanctuary cackled. As soon as his thoughts entered Wayne, he moved his storage of the four elements in as well, reshaping the body that would become his.

It had decent potential, but lacked strength. It would be prudent to enhance it first.

As a great volume of four elements rushed in, Wayne’s cries mixed with Lord Sanctuary’s laughter, making it difficult to tell who was laughing and who was crying out. Smedley looked on coldly. Wayne was the fool that Lord Sanctuary had chosen, dreaming about reaching the stars without paying any price. However, Lord Sanctuary and the other evil gods were also the fools that Lord of Envy had chosen.

There was no unconditional love. A deal with demons would only end in betrayal!

“I’m good. Let’s get started!”

After a moment, Wayne spoke in the voice of Lord Sanctuary with his pale, tentacled body writhing. He didn’t know much about the evil gods in the Astral Plane, only that this evil god made for a pretty good snack with a high protein level. To make his act more convincing, he enveloped Mona’s body with his tentacles, covering her from head to toe.

“Murphy, you’re good, but the others have not come yet!” Smedley scoffed. He didn’t bother exposing the evil god’s intention to monopolize the gains. With a wave, he summoned the holy grails dangling from Wayne’s tentacles.

Smedley picked around and soon found the true holy grail that had once contained divine blood. His eyes lit up. The moment he touched the divine blood, an inverted pentagram swirling with black smoke appeared under his feet.

Smedley’s thoughts rapidly descended, and his power soared. He chanted under his breath, contacting the Astral Plane to create a channel for the evil gods to return to the human world.

“Now, let us welcome our great Master Envy to the human world...”

With Smedley at the center, a group of twisted monsters in black robes swung their tentacles around. Among them, Wayne looked the most deformed.

Wrapped in tentacles, Mona tamped down her disgust and asked telepathically if they should make a move now.

“If they can come, they can go. We wait for the venomous snake in the middle to descend with all his thoughts. Then we wipe them all out to eliminate the threats once and for all!”

No rush. Let’s play this game with them first!