Although Shade and Mr. Barton's party had not left the house through the same door, the bloodstains on that "Professor Magis" were so heavy that when Shade circled around to the alley behind the house, the blood-colored halo was still very conspicuous.
Especially in the heavy fog, those halos were practically like highlighted display bars in his field of vision
"A Circle Caster of the Truth Society... they couldn't have just finished killing someone before coming here, could they?"
To prevent being discovered while stalking, Shade did not call for a carriage, but instead traversed the city on foot with Mia the cat.
He maintained a fast pace, leaving the urban area and entering the southern suburbs of the city in about an hour. However, the bloodstains did not lead into the mountains; instead, they turned into the manor district of the local nobility beneath Mount Sicar.
Russell Manor, where the Spiritism Cult had opened the interstitial passage for Shade a month ago, was also nearby.
"Could it be that the Circle Casters sent by the Truth Society to Midhillburg this time are all gathered in the nearby manors?"
Leaning against a tree in the woods, Shade thought in surprise. But precisely because he thought of this, he chose not to proceed further
"I should head back into the city and tell the witches, or tell the Church. On my own, if a fight actually breaks out, I'm afraid even escaping would be a struggle."
"Meow~"
Mia, who had long grown impatient with the unfamiliar city, let out a cry as if she had seen through Shade's thoughts and was agreeing with him.
"Tomorrow I still have to go deep into the interstices with the witches, so today I'll just—"
He turned to leave, but from outside this woodland belonging to some nobleman, the sound of dense hoofbeats echoed.
Shade instinctively hid behind a tree. Through the thick fog, he saw a convoy of carriages and riders passing before him. It was a convoy from the Church of Nature; the holy emblems barely discernable on the carriages proved this. Among the people in the convoy, more than half were Circle Casters. One middle-aged man with strange green hair riding a horse was someone Shade didn't even dare look at directly.
It wasn't that the opponent possessed mental pollution abilities, but rather that Shade feared he would be discovered if he looked directly at him. That man was very likely a Thirteenth-Circle Caster of the Church of Nature.
"What have I stumbled upon? What is the Church of Nature doing? That direction... seems to be where the blood-colored halo was heading."
The carriage in the center of the convoy possessed a heavy concentration of Whisper elements; judging by the density alone, it was absolutely no lower than [Sage-level]. Shade held his breath against the tree, covering little Mia's mouth, quietly waiting for the convoy to pass. But before Shade could even retreat from the woodland, footsteps suddenly sounded from the depths of the forest behind him.
This time it was Circle Casters from the Church of the Sun, thirteen in total—a standard combat squad configuration.
They were not rushing forward, but were instead scattered around, sprinkling shimmering powder into the thick fog. Occasionally, a member holding a compass would stop and bury something in the ground, which looked like stone runes.
"Are they setting up a corner of some large-scale ritual?"
Even though he possessed the witch's jewelry, Shade knew very well that he was no match for a full squad of Circle Casters. He hurriedly moved toward the other side of the woods; fortunately, this foggy weather was perfect for hiding.
In less than ten minutes, Circle Casters appeared again from the depths of the fog. This time they were from the Church of Creation, and like the previous group, they were sprinkling powder and burying rune stones. Shade chose another direction to leave, but soon realized that staying put was actually safer.
Shadows of divine rituals seemed to be everywhere in the fog. It seemed that in just half an hour, the base array for a massive regional divine ritual had been deployed nearby. Elements were being channeled, and the Church's Circle Casters were moving through the mist. If Shade guessed correctly, something big was about to happen.
"It looks like the Church has completely surrounded this place... things are developing even more smoothly than I imagined. If the Truth Society is wiped out here and Mr. Joey Barton is captured by the Church, then everything I've done in Midhillburg this autumn will have the most perfect conclusion."
Shade did not advance toward the center of the Church's encirclement, nor did he attempt to break through the perimeter. Instead, he remained in the woodland, intending to wait until the matter was settled before leaving safely.
He waited from the afternoon until evening. Shade sat on a tree branch, watching the sun on the horizon slide westward through the thick fog with Mia. As the brilliant sunset gradually appeared on the horizon, the sun eventually disappeared behind Mount Sicar.
Light and shadow fell upon Shade and the cat, their mottled shadows swaying constantly on the ground. It was as if they were completely stationary while time flowed rapidly.
The final rays of the sunset reddened the faces of the man and the cat. Shade gazed at the sun, contemplating the future, while Mia stared wide-eyed at the crimson orb. She seemed to understand something, yet seemed to understand nothing at all.
The wind brought someone's longing from afar, then passed by them. Watching the sun vanish from the horizon, time passed faster than Shade had expected.
When the last sliver of the setting sun completely disappeared, the fog still shrouded the sky, preventing the sea of stars from being easily glimpsed.
With the help of [Moonshadow's Illusion], Shade was confident that he would not be discovered by anyone.
Around seven o'clock in the evening, the peaceful night finally experienced a ripple.
As the normally stable elemental environment around them underwent a strange fluctuation, the "she" in his ear gave a prompt.
Shade climbed to the top of the tree and looked out into the distance with the cat. In the depths of the thick fog, under the western sky, the shadow of a giant, verdant tree suddenly appeared. That giant tree was far taller than any tree in the forest, as if it could support the sky and the earth.
A green halo made the distant fog glow. The verdant tree was silent, but merely seeing it allowed one to feel a natural power that seemed to embrace everything. However, the giant tree soon collapsed into countless specks of light, lingering in the night sky like a tornado.
"Such rich Enlightenment elements. What happened over there?"
Shade hurriedly placed Mia on his head, squinting to see more clearly
"Is this a Maze-Lock? Or Words of Ascension? Is that Thirteenth-Circle Caster of the Church of Nature making a move? Who is his opponent?"
The drifting green light particles reached the woods where Shade was located a few minutes later. Those green lights looked completely harmless, merely swaying with the wind, making the quiet night in the fog even more ethereal.
At 7:10 PM, shortly after the burst of Enlightenment elements in the distance, a blood-red light abruptly flashed, shooting straight into the sky. Then came a rumbling sound, like an entire munitions depot exploding, spreading continuously across the night sky.
[Whisper elements.]
"I know. What grade of relic is this? Isn't this audio-visual effect a bit too exaggerated?"
But something even more exaggerated happened next. Holding the cat, Shade stared dumbfounded at the fog in the sky. As the soaring blood-light suddenly weakened, the starry sky appeared overhead. Then, the distant constellations shifted, and a distorted black hole abruptly appeared within the blurred sea of stars. With just one glance, Shade immediately heard a slimy, writhing whisper like that of tentacles.
He immediately averted his gaze
"What is in there?"
A giant meteorite enveloped in flames "slowly" flew out of the black hole, leaving cracks in the air as it smashed directly into the location of the distant battlefield.
The flame tail trailing behind the giant fireball was abnormal; instead, it looked like fiery red tentacles constantly writhing and swaying. Upon seeing that meteorite, the whispers in Shade's ears became clearer, tempting him to worship a Great One dwelling in the starry sky—a Great One who possessed the ability to summon meteorites
"Damn it, did the Truth Society use an Angel-grade relic?"
Even though the meteorite's landing point was far from Shade, watching it descend brought an inescapable, primal panic to his heart. As the fragmented whispers grew louder, the fireball finally slammed into the ground.
Shade expected an earthquake or something similar to follow, but to his surprise, golden light ignited all around. Subsequently, the fog of the entire region was lit up by golden spiritual light from the ground. If one were to look down at the foot of Mount Sicar, a perfect circle had bloomed amidst the rugged mountains.
Within the light of the pre-arranged divine ritual, a giant golden figure with wings appeared in the sky amidst the thick fog.
A faceless angel, giant as a titan, wore a simple robe, yet dense golden runes could be seen shimmering upon the fabric. Amidst a siren-like wail that nearly pierced the eardrums, a massive Life Ring of a Twelfth-Circle Caster, perfectly proportional to its size, appeared behind the angel.
This was the first time Shade had observed a Life Ring so clearly. The central core spiritual runes were [Holy] and [Spirit Summoning]. Of the fifty-plus spiritual runes in the twelfth circle, most were related to the concepts of summoning and divine arts.
The rotating, giant brass Life Ring met the meteorite head-on. Then, as the giant angel slashed with a golden sword, the fiery red and golden lights vanished simultaneously. In the light that illuminated the entire region, the meteorite with its tentacle-like flame tail disappeared silently.
Shade didn't know what to say anymore
"A Twelfth-Circle Caster of the Church, using the power of a divine ritual to directly counter a high-danger relic? I knew it. As long as the Orthodox Churches are prepared, those lunatics could never succeed. Which one was it? [Star-Calling Magic Stone], [Writhing Star-Husk], or [Star-Curse Object]? Oh!"
The shockwave produced by the collision between the divine ritual and the star-calling relic nearly knocked Shade, who was watching the spectacle from the tree, to the ground. The surrounding trees rustled, and the yellowed leaves of late autumn fell with the wind.
After this strike, which seemed capable of leveling Mount Sicar, a cry of agony echoed from the distance, reverberating through the silent night. Then came another muffled thud, and the ground trembled slightly.
By now, Shade had returned to the ground with the frightened cat. Hidden by his illusion, he leaned against a tree, waiting for what would happen next.
Rumbling sounds continued to drift over, and the flickering golden spiritual light on the ground fluctuated with the rhythm of a breath. Pitch-black light soared into the sky, only to be covered by the divine light. Faintly, he could hear someone shouting Words of Ascension under the night sky, but due to the obstruction of the fog, he couldn't hear them clearly.
The Orthodox Churches were suppressing the Truth Society; this was not a fair fight to begin with. Having witnessed tonight's events, Shade confirmed once again that as long as the Church was prepared in advance, no Circle Caster force in the material world could contend with them... with the exception of the three Great Academies of Mysticism.
PS: The twelfth circle requires a minimum of 48 runes, but it's not necessarily a case of upgrading every four runes per circle.
(End of Chapter)