Chapter 914 — Something to Do with the Gods

The moment the words "something to do with the gods" were spoken, Kamael and Virodai were instantly seven or eight tenths tense.

Over the past year and more, the things Cecil had faced that were "a bit to do with the gods" had been quite enough already.

Seeing that he had successfully stirred up the mood, Gao Yang did not keep them in suspense any longer, but came straight to the point: "A report has come in from Daniel. Several cases have recently appeared in Typhon of war-god priests dying strangely in their churches — he has not yet been able to find out the particulars, but one thing is certain: the death toll is definitely above five, and all of them within the past half month."

"Priests dying strangely?" Hedy frowned first on hearing it. "If it were only priests dying strangely... it might also be some kind of assassination campaign against the church... In places where the conflict between theocratic authorities runs deep and the people are fierce, such things do happen, especially in the more remote regions."

"That possibility is basically ruled out," Gao Yang shook his head. "It is not one church but several, including regions where the war-god sect holds dominance. And if this were an attack by heretics, the war-god church would certainly have seized the chance to proclaim martyrs and trumpeted it far and wide — but in fact none of the deaths were made public, and even the scenes were sealed off. Daniel got the news through special channels."

At that answer, the people in the room looked at one another.

"Typhon's mainstream faith is the war god, and his priests hold very high standing in their society. Over the past century or more, quite a few war-god priests have died — but they died on all manner of battlefields in accordance with doctrine. Cases of strange death by assassination, deaths that afterwards could not even be made public, are few and far between — I can find only twelve records on my side, and those twelve are spread across a full two centuries," Amber broke the silence, relaying Military Intelligence's analysis. "One view on our side is that something has gone wrong inside Typhon's war-god sect, that the priests' deaths may be the result of some internal struggle, which is why they cannot be made public — except that..."

"Except that this speculation still lacks support," Gao Yang took up Amber's thread. "First, according to what we have, the Typhon war-god church has been unified and stable these years. The reigning pontiff, Malm Dunite, is in good health, the episcopal college's control over the churches at every level is intact, and Typhon's domestic situation is calm. The war-god church has no reason for internal strife."

"So that direction is hard to sustain," Virodai said thoughtfully, her gaze resting on Gao Yang's face. "But from the bare fact of priests dying strangely — why do you think it might have something to do with a god?"

"...Someone has gone mad," Gao Yang said flatly.

Virodai's eyes turned grave in an instant; the fingers gripping her platinum staff tightened slightly. Beside her, Kamael suddenly brightened, so much that the others had to squint.

"Several priests who came into contact with the death scenes afterwards went mad. Judging by the timing, they must have witnessed the deaths of those priests — or rather... seen some 'change' they should not have seen. The war-god church has tried hard to suppress the news, but some rumors are still circulating; and corroborating them, the great war-god cathedral in Aldernan suddenly held a closed-door meeting and shut off its outer cloister even on open days..."

"Shutting the outer cloister on open days, and after these incidents at that..." Virodai narrowed her eyes. "That... is indeed out of the ordinary."

"So I would like to hear what experts like you two think," Gao Yang looked at Virodai and Kamael. "Yours especially, Virodai — you should know something about how churches operate in the modern world."

"Judging by the worst possibility, the priests who died strangely all died by 'divine punishment' or some similar power of the gods. Their corpses must have borne the marks of desecration and contamination, and would have caused uncontrollable secondary contamination — which is why the churches everywhere sealed off the news," Virodai gave her view at once. "'Divine punishment,' or backlash from a god's power, is usually brought on by only two causes: either the priests deliberately did something transgressive without effective protection, or some powerful force interfered with the basis of their faith and made them lose their god's favor — priests whose minds are controlled by a mighty evil spirit often come to such ends."

She paused, then added: "But neither is very likely. First, the Typhon war-god church is stable now, its foundation of faith deep; it is impossible that within so short a time several priests scattered across different regions would one after another forsake their god. Second... evil spirits capable of controlling a priest's mind fear the power of holy relics; they work their mischief only in the wilderness — but those priests died inside churches."

Gao Yang nodded, then suddenly raised a point: "Ah — one detail. According to what Daniel has gathered, the priests who died seem all to have met their end while praying alone."

Virodai's expression changed slightly at once: "While praying alone?!"

"That is right," Gao Yang answered, his face stern.

"Then... I fear it is the third possibility," Kamael, who had been silent a long while, finally spoke in a low voice. "And the one we dread most..."

Gripping her platinum staff, Virodai closed her eyes slightly and said what Kamael meant to say: "The war god... has gone wrong."

"It is too early to conclude that, but we must be on our guard," Gao Yang said, graver than ever before. "Typhon does not need a warning from us. If the Augustus family is not stupid, they will have noticed something amiss by now — they have suffered under the gods' curse long enough to be alert in this regard. The key is that we must be prepared.

"The war-god faith is not strong within Cecil. There are believers in some number, but no very powerful church or priesthood, and they have already accepted the remaking by the Bureau of Civil Affairs, so supervision is relatively easy. Leave that side to Amber — keep watch on any stirrings among the war-god priests in the country.

"Beyond watching the priests, keep an eye on the believers as well. At present the news out of Typhon centers on the priests who died strangely, but it is hard to say whether the faithful are affected too. Hedy, you arrange that.

"Kamael, you and Jenny have already achieved a great deal in siren-rune research, and the mind-shielding systems have been tested in real combat. Now is the time for them to prove their worth again — we need more, and more effective, mind-shielding systems, enough at least to supply the whole army. Many soldiers follow the war god, and among them are no few devout believers. We must prevent trouble on that front..."

Gao Yang laid out his arrangements point by point; when he had finished, he began to ponder, considering what he might have left out. Just then the magic-web terminal set beside his desk suddenly lit up with a buzzing and clicking, and then a figure with white hair trailing to the ankles materialized out of thin air in the room.

"Naritel?" Amber glanced in surprise at the figure that had appeared from nowhere. "Since when have you been here?"

Naritel shook her head at once: "I was not eavesdropping..."

"Ah, I called her here, but she stayed invisible — I nearly forgot," Gao Yang tapped his forehead and looked at the former goddess before him. "Naritel, is there something you want to say?"

"That rune — it can go into the neural network," Naritel nodded, speaking earnestly. "I remember it was very useful. When I wanted to enter the real world, it blocked me for a long time..."