A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 258 Under the Aurora

The Star-Robed Mage couldn't understand Rorschach's psychological trauma; only those who had experienced it knew what that damned "Harvest Festival" meant.

"Can you monitor the aura of Mother Earth in real time?" Rorschach asked after finishing his water.

"It's inconvenient here, and the Starlight Torch Tower might not be available." Power realized he had let something slip and stopped talking, instead using the transceiver of the oscillating crystal to make contact.

"The etheric resonance of the Great Mass is not over yet, repeat the call a few more times," the captain reminded.

Even without activating Arcane Vision, Rorschach could sense that the aether in the environment was boiling and gradually forming a vortex, with St. Miller's Cathedral clearly at the center of the vortex.

Fortunately, it was not an evil aura, but a vast and sublime torrent belonging to the Lord of Light and Order. The sky was clearly on the verge of nightfall when the sunset burst forth with a new round of brilliance, and golden and red pillars of light shone down, enveloping the church and the square.

However, Deplesi frowned. A celestial phenomenon was abnormal, regardless of whether it truly belonged to the Lord of Order.

In his perception, the resonance generated by the believers had already been transmitted into the underground sealing chamber of the evil sword.

Should we persist? Deplesi carefully assessed the extraordinary power surging within the space; the Lord's radiance had cleansed the filth.

"Go forth, Mass is finished!"

He announced the end of the ceremony, but some believers were already prostrate on the ground, unable to maintain their composure. The cardinal frowned, raised his hand, and attempted to use his divine power to lift the believers lying prostrate in the square.

However, a sudden change occurred.

Rorschach and his group also received the results. A map depicting the entire city was laid out on the floor. Power used four kinds of crystals to press down the four corners of the map, and then sprinkled a transparent potion.

"The results of the detection will be transmitted to us. If the aura of Mother Earth is still present, the potion will change color at the corresponding location, forming a dot and a trace."

At first, the potion simply seeped into the map like water, without changing its color. Power looked at it and said, "See, this way there's no problem."

Before the words were even finished, large green spots began to appear, coalescing into points on the map, as if the map had instantly turned moldy.

"So many?" The three of them felt a chill run down their spines. It seemed as if the entire city was shrouded in the aura of Mother Earth, especially the eastern suburbs.

By this time, the eastern suburbs had become an out-of-control den of evil. Initially, the cultists mingled with the farmers who came to the city to work. These people who sold their labor were seasonal, and they would flock to Valuwana during the off-season after the fields were harvested.

There were also shawlers who had been incited and instigated; some of them lived the life of wandering knights, taking jobs at the Adventurers' Guild, while others banded together to form gangs. The ecstatic herbal powder is back!

In short, amidst the turmoil, the religious order has indeed revived. Even though the church and guilds are on guard, the religious order, which is no longer hiding, has once again started its "celebration".

Some roads were blocked, and the cultists lit bonfires, sending up thick smoke of life and death. Churches across the land mobilized, and the paladins and priests of the Lord of Order began to confront the madmen, while the cultists, disregarding ritual, raised their guns at the armored soldiers.

"Look out the window." Rorschach noticed that the spire of St. Miller's Cathedral was beginning to crumble. No, the entire cathedral seemed to be pulled by gravity, constantly collapsing and floating upwards against gravity.

The radiance of the sky had changed; darkness fell, and the golden rainbow transformed into an eerie, dreamlike aurora. A faint, otherworldly chanting of sutras drifted down from above.

Deplesi knew things were going badly, and quickly cast a protective spell to shield the believers as much as possible. "Priests, leave the church immediately! Paladins, lead the believers to evacuate! Evacuate!"

Inside the church, Priest Joseph, who was in charge of guarding the "evil sword" and organizing the purification ritual, originally thought he could completely end the pollution. However, as the believers' calls poured into the place and the Lord's radiance grew stronger, the pollution of Mother Earth at the tip of the sword became deeper and darker.

"Trial. The Great Trial!"

"What are you doing?!" Joseph roared at the erratic gray-robed knight, simultaneously using divine magic to push him away from the center of the ritual.

However, at this moment, the gray-robed knight's face began to blur, and a tremendous power erupted from his body and the sword.

"Impossible, impossible!" Joseph's pupils dilated violently. He would never harm or stop the knight again, because at this moment the Lord's aura had completely descended, and the human form that originally belonged to him began to collapse.

"Let's go, let's go!" Jane was the first to react, shouting for everyone to evacuate the scene.

In his final moments before leaving, Rorschach witnessed a strange scene: countless pure white, luminous wings unfurled within the uprooted church. Had he been at the epicenter of the anomaly, like Joseph, he would have seen the sword gripped by countless hands, one on top of the other, and looking upwards, he could not discern the owners of those hands.

Some of the other grey-robed men shouted excitedly, "It's an angel of our Lord!" But as soon as they finished speaking, they melted in the light and became "part of the angel."

"What the hell is that thing?"

"Seraphim, one of the angels of the Lord of Light and Order!"

Joseph and Deplesi maintained their selves amidst the violent storm of divine power, while the other believers had become part of the angel's descent. Finally, He descended with eight wings, four wings hovering in the air, enveloping His divine body, while His two heads, too high to be seen or looked upon, surveyed the city.

Rorschach and his group had already reached the underground passage, and the mages boarded the alchemical carriage.

"Hold on tight, the carriage is going fast!" Jane unleashed her full magical power to drive the alchemical carriage, the metallic clanging echoing through the passage, when suddenly a deafening lion's roar rang out.

Upon hearing the sound, Rorschach realized it was the prelude to a powerful attack. He turned towards the back of the carriage and raised his staff to charge up.

As expected, the blazing red lightning cleaved through the arched ceiling of the passageway, hurtling violently towards Rorschach's carriage. Rorschach's [Divine Exorcism] ray collided with it, but the spell, originally meant to dispel the divine power within the metamorphic dust, merely stalemated with the lightning.

Rorschach's magic was rapidly depleting. He could only channel the aether in the environment into himself, but the scorching sensation completely enveloped the boy. What was originally a breeze now felt like jumping into a pool of boiling water.

Fortunately, the carriage was fast enough that it didn't waste the time Rorschach had bought and successfully dodged the final bolt of lightning.

"Go and cause trouble for the people from the Earth Goddess Cult, don't hit us!" Rorschach roared. As if he heard him, the angel left the floating church, descended upon the royal city, and brandished his greatsword as he swung it toward the eastern suburbs.

"What is that?" "Is the Great Mother responding to us?" Amidst the wailing and lamentation at the ritual site, the members of the cult had already become immersed in hallucinogenic smoke.

They writhed in a daze, trying to awaken and please their mistress, but in their hallucinations they experienced real death.

Everyone looked up in horror as a being beyond human comprehension manipulated thunder, fire, and sword in the air. If any unreverent person looked directly at Seraphim, He opened His entire body with countless eyes, gathering and judging sinners.

(End of this chapter)