Inner Destroyer

　"Hold on for a moment. You're taking this a bit too far."

　044: The meaning of my existence!

　For obvious reasons, both Elaine and Father Amos were very reluctant to let Qi Xing talk to Satan alone in the room.

　But since Qi Xing insisted, they didn't have many other choices.

　So they chose to eavesdrop outside the door.

　What they overheard wasn't very encouraging. And when they heard the second half, Samael waved his hand and soundproofed the inside and outside.

　"Looking at the bright side, Qi Xing at least rejected Satan's temptation and did not succumb to it.

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　As for her, she's doing some kind of sorcery that shoots bullets into the sky."

　After a moment's silence, Father Amos said,

　"He's right. I was the one who let these people in, and I was the one who brought this disaster upon myself. We have to find a way to solve this problem ourselves."

　He said with a sullen face.

　"Let 'Master Leipu' gather his strength and focus on defeating Romani Domingo. Since the spell of tonight's heavy rain isn't the power of the silver coin, we'll find a way to break it ourselves."

　It's virtually impossible for mortal magic to directly overcome the Silver Coin's divine power. Even the most powerful mortal magic must dissipate before the Silver Coin's miraculous power. A pyromancer's heat shield cannot stop the Silver Coin's divine fire power; a psion's mental defenses cannot resist the direct command of the "Master" Silver Coin.

　——But on the other hand, if the power is not used directly, but the silver coins are used to strengthen the holder's original spell, then because it is still a "spell", it is possible to resist and break it normally.

　At least in theory, it is possible. Of course, it is still very difficult.

　To give a crude example: the power of silver coins is like a modifier or a control panel. If it directly changes a game character's data, then the game character will be unable to resist no matter how hard they try.

　However, such direct use is very crude and is also the most likely to cause the Silver Coin Messenger to self-destruct. Just look at how Professor Vanstra drove himself crazy.

　On the other hand, if I only use silver to modify a character's original attributes and skills, for example, a Fireball originally deals 50 damage, but I use silver to change it to 9999 damage. While a normal person would definitely die instantly if hit, a high-level character with 100,000 HP would be able to withstand it. If someone cleverly prepares fire immunity spells in advance, they can certainly resist the attack mechanically.

　For example... you might remember that Elaine once used a holy talisman to resist Professor Vanstra's hypnosis. Because the professor's heart had long since collapsed, he couldn't use the power of the "Dominate" silver coin effectively. He simply used the silver coin to enhance his own hypnosis skills. This gave Elaine the opportunity to prepare in advance.

　If the "Silver Coin Messenger" cheats too much, it is easy to cause a bug and get stuck, or even crash first.

　If the cheat is too small, (in theory) it is possible for mortals to find opportunities and flaws to kill you.

　This intermediate level is something that the Silver Coin Messenger needs to grasp on his own. This is also the main means for mortals to fight against the Silver Coin Messenger.

　So what Father Amos said can basically be said to be reasonable.

　However, Elaine just listened beside him and seemed a little absent-minded.

　"What's wrong, Sister Elaine?"

　Amos frowned.

　"fine."

　Eight out of ten people who say they're fine actually have problems. Elaine kept glancing at the door as she spoke.

　Although Father Amos has never been in love - don't complain about why he has never been in love, he is a priest, and it was because he had fought in World War II and had a very cruel experience that he had nothing to be attached to, so he became a priest - but he still understands a little bit.

　However, precisely because the old man only knew a little, he was now a little puzzled. "Rep" rescued an average of two beautiful girls per week, and less than half of them fell for him. The priest often saw Elaine calmly writing reports on these matters. "I've never seen you panic before, so why are you so flustered now?"

　She certainly had her own changes in mentality.

　But no matter what, the real work still needs to be done.

　Since the church has to rely on its own strength to solve the problem of Tonight's White Rain, it has to bring out the strongest people that the Holy See has at its disposal.

　At this moment, the leader of the Knights of the Holy Lance and Lady Remina Dracula were also waiting in the lounge next to them.

　"'Rip Master' won't help with this rain? That's fine."

　After hearing the current situation from Father Amos, the usually calm Captain Gwendolyn also nodded calmly.

　"Since this is just an evil ritual imitating a West African creation myth, we have a way to break it."

　"The premise is,"

　Mrs. Remina, who was sitting next to her, interrupted slowly.

　"That ceremony was not presided over by the Silver Coin Messenger himself."

　As she spoke, she flicked her red dragon tail.

　Gwendolyn is a Catholic vampire. And Dracula's clan is a Catholic dragon - to be exact,

　Alovit is a folk belief of the indigenous people of the Balkans, and is widely praised in Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia.

　Some people might be wondering here - isn't Dracula a vampire? How did he turn into a dragon?

　But the word "Dracula" actually means "Son of the Dragon." Vlad III's title was "Little Dragon Prince." Their family crest depicted their ancestor, the fire dragon Zmeu from Romanian mythology, which is also the origin of the name "Dracul."

　Originally, Dracula means "son of the dragon" and has nothing to do with vampires.

　Vlad III was once a renowned hero in Romanian history. Not only was he a "king guarding the nation's gates," he was also a noble warrior hailed as the shield of the Christian world.

　Vampire is just a stigma given to him by later generations in novels. He is an innocent monster.

　The reason why the word "Dracula" became a synonym for vampire can only be attributed to Vlad III's desire to fight against his enemies and protect his own

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　The country is acting too unscrupulously and its actions are too bloody.

　It's exactly the same as Qi Xing's title "Lepu Zhenren".

　Back to the point. Unlike the commonly seen dragon legends, the Romanian Zmeu is a dragon with the ability to transform, possesses various magical powers, enjoys intermarrying with humans, and is inherently arrogant and conceited.

　As a descendant of these dragons, Lady Remina has obviously inherited her ancestors' pride, self-confidence and a touch of willfulness, making it difficult to ignore her existence.

　The highest fighting force of the Roman Catholic Church is a vampire who believes in God, a dragon who believes in God, and a werewolf who believes in God and is too late to return from Northern Europe. This is extremely strange no matter how you look at it or how many times you say it, but this is how the world is.

　The vampire is the sword, the dragon is the Holy Grail, the werewolf is the scepter, and the "guild" represents the "wizard" and is the star pentacle of the church.

　These four things, which seem heretical no matter how you look at them, happen to represent the traditional "four powers" of the Roman Catholic Church in the supernatural society.

　As everyone knows, the Vatican has a long tradition of employing alchemists, astrologers, and other professionals, dating back to the Middle Ages. The "Association" is actually a modern version of this, so it's not surprising.

　However, at this moment, even a strong person like Lady Remina, who was confident in her own ability, did not think that they could defeat a "Silver Coin Messenger" together.

　"even so,"

　Captain Gwendolyn's tone remained calm, but she frowned slightly.

　"We also have a vow to protect the Church..."

　However, before they could finish their words, they heard an unexpected person next to them say something unexpected.

　"This rain-making ceremony was probably not personally performed by the Silver Coin Messenger."

　Elaine spoke quietly at this time.

　For a moment, the leader of the Knights of the Holy Lance and Duchess Dracula were stunned. They didn't expect her to say such a thing.

　“Where does this conclusion of “should” come from?”

　Then Madam Remina smiled and asked with interest.

　"Because Romani Domingo was hit hard several times in a row during his battle with 'Rip Master'. In the last five minutes of the battle, 'Rip Master' also fully utilized the power of the silver coins, basically completely suppressing Romani Domingo."

　Elaine explained calmly,

　"It's hard to imagine that Romani Domingo could maintain his war dance spell and engage the all-out battle against 'Rep Master' while simultaneously presiding over such a massive and complex creation myth ritual. He likely simply infused the ritual instruments with the divine power of the silver coin, initiated the ritual himself, and then handed it off to his subordinates to maintain."

　This statement does make sense according to the common sense of magic in this world.

　The magic of voodoo, or rather, the magic of all shamanism and animism, their rituals, to be honest... are mostly crude.

　Some of you may know that voodoo is a relatively new religion, developing after Africans were transported to the Americas through the slave trade. Therefore, voodoo blends native African deities with European Catholic worldviews, some folk magic, and even Native American customs and cultures of immigrants from around the world.

　Judging from the richness of its elements alone, it is indeed a new religion.

　However, when it comes to techniques, theories, and so on, voodoo can hardly be considered an advanced religion. Most of their spells are copied from other religions and witchcraft, and their gods are also borrowed and mixed from other religions. They also lack their own original theological theories. The famous voodoo doll is actually a common technique in other witchcraft systems around the world and is completely unoriginal.

　You must have seen spells in other religions and legends that involve hammering nails into dolls to curse them, right?

　In some places, voodoo practitioners even worship Guan Gong, as they learned about this deity from Chinese immigrants to the United States. But can you say that Guan Gong has become a voodoo deity? That doesn't seem plausible; it's simply an "imitation."

　The vast majority of voodoo magic is human imitation of the power of gods, so most of it is very complex ritual magic.

　The ritual of imitation is essentially a performance.

　Imagine an ancient myth. It might tell the story of the origin of the world, the deeds of gods, or the legends of heroes. These stories aren't just about the past. They also carry people's understanding and expectations of the universe, life, and the supernatural.

　Religious and magical rituals are actually like a "performance" or "re-enactment." In the ritual, people "re-enact" the mythological story through specific movements, language, symbols, music, and symbols.

　And when a myth is "re-enacted," this reproduction can inspire a power similar to that of the prototype.

　"The West African creation myth that Romani Domingo is currently 'imitating' involves filling an egg with three kinds of body hair and a fluid, hatching the 'world egg' to create the world. This ritual could easily be completed by handing the egg over to someone else to incubate it after the first step."

　Elaine explained calmly,

　"On the contrary, when 'Rep Master' was fighting Romani Domingo, we didn't find anything like eggs on him or hidden nearby. Considering that this was a battle between two 'Silver Coin Messengers',

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　The battlefield was already destroyed by the aftermath of the battle, so it was more likely that he had handed over the maintenance of the ceremony to his subordinates in advance."

　Madam Remina nodded slowly. "That makes sense... but it's still just a guess. Much of the Silver Messenger's power is still unknown. Perhaps he truly has the ability to accomplish something like this."

　“It’s not unknown.”

　But Elaine said,

　"I've checked all the records of battles involving the Silver Coin Messenger since the 4th century in the Vatican's secret archives. I've discovered 11 instances of this phenomenon, totaling 138 pieces of relevant intelligence—when the Silver Coin Messenger uses silver coins to enhance the original ritual, it cannot break the relevant magical rules. I'm absolutely right."

　Her calm words stunned both Lady Remina and Captain Gwendolyn.

　"Analyze and compare battle records going back to the 4th century? Where do you get that much time?" Lady Remina was particularly shocked. "It's only been a few hours since the rain started... three or four at most."

　"That's enough for me."

　Elaine replied calmly.

　For a moment, the dignified Duchess Dracula couldn't help but look at Father Amos beside her with a pleading look: "Amos, your apprentice is not... what's that called, that popular thing among young people these days? AI stuff?"

　"No," Father Amos replied, his tone finally showing some pride. "It's the result of her talent and hard training."

　Headmaster Gwendolyn also spoke up and asked, "Sister Elaine, do you have a photographic memory?"

　Photographic memory, also known as the perfect memory ability, is a talent that was once made very famous by a Japanese light novel heroine. It is not a superpower, but a very real and rare talent that can quickly and almost perfectly remember all images without the use of auxiliary memory methods.

　But Elaine shook her head. "It's not photographic. I always wish it were, but when I read, I still have to read it twice with mnemonics to fully remember it."

　Captain Gwendolyn was speechless - in a way, this was even more terrifying than the pure gift of perfect memory.

　(No wonder the Papal Council asked her to come... I thought they were just trying to win over new "Silver Messengers"...)

　"Well, that's good news."

　The Knight Commander nodded and said as if to summarize,

　"Let us quickly find the location where this ritual is being performed and maintained, interrupt it, and break this sorcery. We must also gather as much intelligence as possible about Romani Domingo from his subordinates to help 'Rep Master' defeat him."

　"Everyone, let's take action."

　No one had any objection to this.

　Father Amos immediately hurried to find the fortune tellers of the "Association" and asked them to work together to calculate the location of the witchcraft ceremony.

　Elaine, on the other hand, did not leave immediately. She waited until Father Amos left before she asked, "Captain Gwendolyn, I want to ask you something."

　Her expression was a little gloomy.

　“Ask, Sister Elaine.”

　The most powerful figure in the modern Church, the Vampire Paladin Ji, raised an eyebrow.

　Elaine looked at this beautiful and powerful person and couldn't help but sigh softly: "I know this question is shameless, but is there any way to make me stronger quickly?"

　045: You are just a CP fan!

　"I know this question is incredibly shameless, but is there any way to quickly become stronger?"