The Truth Detector showed no reaction, which clearly meant this was true. That suggested Alba was indeed an orphan. Then came the next question, "Why did you pretend to be a Saintess?"
"I did not really want to say. At that time I did not even have clothes to wear, so maybe it was the will of the gods." The Truth Detector still showed no reaction, meaning this was also true, including that line about divine will.
That almost sealed it. There was a real chance she truly was someone cast down by a god to gain experience. Faced with such an opportunity, how could they not pull her in.
The two exchanged a look. Since she had agreed, they could start preparing and move on to formally bringing her into their group. "Alba, you said you do not remember anything here beyond basic common sense, and you have no relatives, right?"
"Then that works out perfectly. Since you agreed, it also means you have indirectly joined us. From now on, if you have any trouble, you can come to me to solve it, even though besides having money, I really cannot do anything else." Raina said this boldly while patting her chest.
Beside her, Elvin stepped forward and extended her hand. "Since you have joined, come with us later to do a small prayer as your initiation ritual." Alba laughed lightly and nodded. "Ah, okay."
At that moment, she did not think about anything else. She just needed to smile. Alba took Elvin's hand and shook it, then suddenly caught a key phrase she had heard earlier. "Wait, initiation ritual? Which Church of Holy Light?"
"We are Followers of Light, so naturally it is the Church of Holy Light. Although you have a candidate Saintess status right now, strictly speaking you are not a true believer yet, so we are filling that in now."
That made sense. Even though she held a holy relic, could use Holy Light, and might even be directly watched by a god, strictly speaking Alba was still an unregistered member of Church of Holy Light. The previous Saintess activities had used Raina's identity.
Since that was the case, she agreed. Joining sooner or later seemed inevitable anyway, and being watched by powerful figures left her nowhere to run. "Alright then, thank you for the trouble."
"Good. Follow me. There is a hidden shrine chapel in the basement." Raina and Elvin led the way, pressing a small hidden switch on the bookshelf. Once again, a concealed passage appeared inside the mansion.
After walking in, the lights gradually came on. Not far ahead stood a large door carved with a sun mural. When Alba followed them in, she paused slightly. A hidden Church of Holy Light shrine did not sound like a problem by itself.
But there was something strange. Raina herself was a candidate Saintess and also a believer, so why would she need to build a place for Prayer inside her own home and deliberately hide it? Given Lynna's wealth, building a chapel or even a full Cathedral City would not be an issue at all.
It felt unnecessary, which made it unsettling. Still, they had arrived. When the door was pushed open, the scene inside was dazzling with gold everywhere, so bright it almost hurt the eyes.
Though the space was not large, it was filled with incense, cloth banners, white marble, branches carved from pure Gold, and traditional murals of the three major divine aspects. Alba relaxed a little. This looked like a perfectly normal Church of Holy Light church interior.
She was just a bit surprised. These two really were believers. People who looked like they were always planning something big were actually devout followers, which felt strange.
"The process does not need to be complicated," Elvin said. "With the two of us guiding you, you only need to perform a complete basic Prayer before one of the gods we worship."
"All of us revere Daylight or the image of Dawn. But if the Lord is Dawn, then the nature of light itself has no fixed form. So the image of God of Light in our understanding may differ slightly from what you know."
She spoke very sincerely, though Alba felt her expression was a little odd. Still, differences in a god's appearance did not seem like a big deal. Interpretations varied everywhere.
"It is fine. It is just a small change in appearance as long as…" Alba replied with a smile as she knelt into the posture for Prayer. Then she turned her head to look at the mural and froze.
What she saw was not a sun or a white robed woman. It was black. Deep black.
On the massive mural was not any traditional image, but a pitch black, ferocious shadow with wings extending beyond the frame, a tail behind it, sharp claws on its limbs, and horns on its head. The background was blinding white light, which only made the darkness in the center stand out even more.
The outline of the dark figure was blurred, but it was clearly not human. It was a dragon. Its claws were held before its chest as if clasped together, its upper body upright and floating, with a bright halo behind its head and a striking red mark on its face.
Seeing Alba freeze, Elvin felt a jolt of tension, though this reaction was expected. After all, this was indeed the form of God of Light they had witnessed. The mural itself was a masterpiece painted by one of the thousands of survivors back then, who had exhausted himself to capture even a fraction of that presence.
The Black Dragon form of God of Light was very different from the common understanding of the three traditional aspects, so being stunned was normal. "I told you not to be surprised," Elvin said. "It is new, but believe me. Back then, we saw just a trace of that being's radiance, and that is how we reached where we are today."
"I swear on my life that this is absolutely God of Light. There is no mistake." To Alba, however, it was not new at all.
In fact, the image felt disturbingly familiar. That jet black form and those crimson eyes like a Rift made her swallow hard. A strange sensation followed, and her pupils trembled.
In an instant, World seemed to pause again. A ripple spread out from the mural, and the shadows in the corners flowed like something alive, filling in the figure completely. The two beside her froze as well, their shadows covering the being in the same way.
The head in the mural became clearer, its mouth seeming to slowly Rend open. Shadows completed its wings as they extended beyond the painting, and a faint blue glow appeared, flowing over its body like rivers across mountains. On its face, three more Rift gradually Rend opened.
A long cry echoed, as if from the depths of Hell. The bright shrine seemed to fall into a place beyond darkness, where all light was stripped away, leaving only one existence. It looked over.
"Thou… what… art…?" "Long… unseen… can… be…!" "Can… will… dark…"
Then the world spun. When Alba came back to herself, everything was normal again, as if nothing had happened. The Prayer had gone smoothly, and Elvin watched the entire prayer.
Alba kept her head very low, looking extremely devout. That made her a formal believer now. In a rough sense, they had successfully pulled her onto their ship.
"Welcome, Alba. From now on, we are together." Alba did not wait for a response. "Since we are leaving in three days, I will go back to my room and pack first."
She turned and walked away quickly, hurrying back to her room. Once inside, she threw herself onto the bed without hesitation. Making sure the Simulator was usable, she opened the simulation, not to plan or gather information, but to vent.
"Why…" "Why me?" "I am just an ordinary person. Being targeted the moment I arrived was already bad enough, but I did not expect more than one to be watching me."
"I thought this was as far as it went." "And now you tell me they were all the same one? Then what am I even supposed to do?" She pulled the book from her clothes, her mind in pieces.
Now it seemed that the book was not just black on the cover, but black through and through. Thinking back, why had Elvin helped her at that critical moment? Why did these two, including Raina, have such confidence in her and think she was worth pulling in?
Why could she use Holy Light with barely any prayer, and why could she carry the seemingly opposite Elder God Relic without any problem? If all of this had been arranged by someone, then everything made sense.
If her arrival, the Simulator, using Holy Light, and getting dragged into so many dangerous events were all part of some great being's boring game, then it all fit. Holy Light and Elder God Relic at that level could easily be disguised, something ordinary people could never tell apart.
Candidate Saintess? "More like an Evil God Saintess. This is completely over. I thought I met good people, but I walked straight into a cult trap."
Alba lay on the bed like a salted fish, her eyes full of chaos and exhaustion. She was tired and did not want to play anymore. She even wished it would all just end.