Chapter 491 — In the Darkness

Sevin Terry knew he could no longer turn back.

And in truth, he could not find a better path than the one before him.

He had read every leaflet the Cecilian had distributed after they entered the city, and he had heard the rumors circulating in the outer districts. He knew the Cecilian were preaching a doctrine of the Holy Light that bordered on heresy, one that blurred the boundary between man and god—and frankly, he had resisted it fiercely. A man who had devoutly worshipped the God of Holy Light for half his life could not accept the Cecilian claim that "the Holy Light springs from within."

But what he could accept even less was the Yaochen Church's present practice of turning faith into a tool for amassing wealth, and the Holy Light into an instrument of violence.

He had accepted Amber's invitation, and then learned in detail what he was required to do.

"We can find a way to disrupt the guards in the chapel district and shut down the defenses of the divine-art array, but the road to the cathedral is not under our control," said the middle-aged low-ranking cleric, describing the situation inside the church district. "The Disciplinary Brethren and the Church Knights guard every gate, and they answer only to the cathedral."

"How do the Disciplinary Brethren and the Church Knights fight? Do you think they would defend the cathedral to the death?"

"...The Disciplinary Brethren are a vocation better suited to faith-trials and disciplines of divine art; their direct combat strength is not great. As for the Church Knights... they were once the strongest garrison force of Frostgate Chapel, but last time the Rimefrost Cult took away every high-ranking knight, and a great many of the remaining mid- and low-ranking knights fell while assisting the noble army. What combat strength remains now is likely less than two-tenths," Sevin Terry explained carefully. "Only... to ordinary people, they are still deadly."

"Do not worry about that side of things. Other forces will enter to help. You need only tell me the route map and the guard dispositions of the church district."

"Very well."

After handing over this most vital intelligence, Sevin Terry felt suddenly lighter, as though he had completed a weighty mission, and he let out a long breath. Amber, watching the weariness that days had gathered in the middle-aged cleric's brow, suddenly asked, as if casually: "If I am not mistaken, quite a few clerics in the church district should be suffering a decline in their Holy Light power to varying degrees by now..."

Sevin Terry's face filled with astonishment. "How could you know that?!"

"At a heresy trial, the effects of divine art cannot lie," Amber said with a slight shake of her head. "Though I suspect there is something badly wrong with the divine art used to identify heretics. Perhaps it can make most ordinary people show signs of wavering faith, but for you clerics, who ought in theory to be deeply devout... its effect should not have been so pronounced. I watched each of your faces carefully at the time. Your wavering, your surprise, your panic—all of it was genuine."

Sevin Terry fell silent, and the two low-ranking priests beside him likewise lowered their heads with complicated expressions. After several seconds of silence, one of the low-ranking priests finally spoke. "...Your powers of observation are sharp."

"At least a third of the clergy have suffered a decline in power to varying degrees," Sevin Terry went on. "The worst cases have even regressed in rank. To be honest, it is not rare for clergy to lose power because of a brief period of confusion—but a wavering of faith on this scale is likely the first since Frostgate Chapel was founded..."

Amber pressed on. "When did the decline in power among so many first begin to appear?"

"Ever since the orders came from the Holy Spirit Plains to levy penance money and suppress the worship of foreign gods, my Holy Light power has stood still. Many in the church district are in the same situation as I am. We cannot accept such things, which run contrary to the Yaochen doctrine."

Amber blinked and murmured thoughtfully, "So it is as I thought..."

Just as Gao Yang had once surmised, what had happened to Wright was no isolated case.

The recent radical actions of the Yaochen Church had, on one hand, amassed vast wealth and rapidly boosted the Church's strength; on the other hand, they had provoked far too intense doubts among the lower-ranking clerics who still retained a conscience. The rift between the doctrine of the Canon of Holy Light and the Church's actual conduct had produced more and more low-ranking clergy whose faith wavered, like Wright—and as time went on, this would only grow worse...

Had the Yaochen Church truly failed to notice this rot spreading from the bottom? Or... even if they had noticed, did they have reasons that made it necessary—reasons that forced them to risk splitting the Church and driving some of the clergy to abandon their faith, to employ this drink-poison-to-quench-thirst method and make the Church grow with such furious speed?

Amber thought hard and found she truly could not work it out, so she simply shook her head and set the question aside for the moment—after all, she had only come in to gather intelligence and cause some damage; analyzing these headache-inducing matters was the specialty of that old zongzi far back at headquarters. When the time came, she would report the situation to him and let His Elderly Excellency do the worrying.

Sevin Terry had not caught Amber's muttering and asked curiously, "What did you just say?"

"Nothing," Amber said with a wave of her hand. "Let us settle it this way, then. We will speak further once the dust has settled."

Sevin Terry gave a slight nod, but before rising to leave, he seemed to think of something else. "There is one thing I feel I ought to remind you of—though I do not know what extraordinary power you have prepared, you must be careful of Falan Berang. I do not think his situation is normal."

"Falan Berang?" Amber raised an eyebrow. "According to our intelligence, he should be only a cleric at the peak of the mid-rank. If every high-ranking expert of the Southern Church had not been wiped out, he would never have had a turn at becoming bishop."

"He is indeed mid-rank, but he now controls the cathedral's core divine-art array, so his true strength is likely not so easy to judge," Sevin Terry said, his expression grave. "And ever since the heresy trial four days ago, he has shut himself inside the cathedral and has not once appeared. Even the leader of the Disciplinary Brethren has been granted no audience. That is very abnormal. When I pray to the Lord, the information the Holy Light returns to me is full of unsettling visions and wailing sounds. I can feel a powerful force gathering in the cathedral—very much like the Holy Light, but with something else mixed in... In short, he must be treated with caution."

"...Mother of god, don't tell me this is going to be one of those breakthrough-in-the-middle-of-battle routines..."

Sevin Terry did not catch it clearly. "What?"

"Never mind," Amber said hastily, waving her hand. "I will report the situation to my superiors. Rest assured, this operation is solid."

Whatever Falan Berang was doing inside the cathedral, the Cecilian had more than enough power to crush it. At worst, they would let the team make a scene in the outer districts, and then Byron and Philip could simply level the inner districts with artillery. Before works of sufficient yield, even a protagonist who broke through on the eve of battle would be useless—they would blow the whole "battlefield" flat...

Amber did not realize in the slightest that, without her noticing, her way of thinking had already been severely influenced by Gao Song...