In the prayer hall of the Patriarchal Cathedral, Bornova sat at the very front, closest to the triangular holy emblem, his hands clasped before his mouth and nose, praying calmly.
Behind him, Thomas Mores, the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery's Trier Diocese, with his neatly groomed short, salt-and-pepper hair and deep-set features, was reporting to Bornova on the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery's encounters and losses during the previous incident.
Suppressed anger was visible in his grey-brown eyes, and his voice was hoarse; as the Archbishop of the Trier Diocese, he hadn't even seen the intruder's figure, yet the opponent had left safely.
After quietly listening to the report, Bornova nodded calmly, drew a triangular holy emblem on his chest, and chanted in a low voice:
"Praise be to You, the great God of Steam and Machinery, You are the embodiment of essence, the guardian of Artisans, the radiance of technology."
As the prayer ended, Bornova rose from his seat, turned to face Archbishop Thomas Mores behind him, and calmly said:
"I have received an oracle. God said: Let war come, let conflict begin, let the radiance of technology envelop the Southern Continent; all rebels, ignoramuses, and blasphemers shall receive Purification!"
Thomas Mores extended his hand and tapped his chest three times, drawing a triangular holy emblem, and devoutly bowed towards the triangular holy emblem in front of him, saying:
"Your will be honored!"
Then he looked at Bornova and said with a firm and serious tone:
"Your Highness Bornova, I will go to the council center in Quartier Éraste to convey God's will to the council members. However, do we need to contact the Eternal Blazing Sun Church? They may not agree to a rash war."
"They will agree. This is what they want to see as well," Bornova responded with certainty, a subtle emotion flickering in his light blue eyes.
After a two-second pause, he walked towards the back of the prayer hall, heading to the Mechanical Hall underground where sealed artifacts and mystical items were stored, as those items needed to be re-sealed.
In Leston Province, located in southern Intis, at Layak Port along the Fog Sea, ethereal "light" composed of intricate information surged from the distant horizon, approaching with extreme speed.
The terrifying torrent of complex information, like a flood, converged at a private port on the southernmost tip of the city, rapidly reconstructing Leyton's body.
He raised his right hand, clad in a mechanical glove, and snapped his fingers; fragmented starlight shimmered, and his appearance, image, and demeanor rapidly changed, his half-flesh, half-starlight body quickly transforming into a complete body of flesh and blood, even the cold, oppressive, and mad sensation on him seemed to be rapidly fading.
With "Cinderella," which could alter external appearance, plus some illusions, he successfully concealed the issues with his body.
Exhaling softly, Leyton glanced around, then walked towards the location described in the letter Bernadette had sent via the speedster messenger.
Beneath the ornate clock tower adorned with gold, several greenish vines descended from mid-air, cascading to conceal Leyton's body, drawing him into a forest woven from countless greenish vines, isolated from reality.
Bernadette's figure appeared on a swing woven from vines in front of him; she was half-reclining there, her aura somewhat erratic, seemingly injured from the previous standoff and struggle with Bornova.
Her gaze was fixed ahead, and she spoke with a hint of weariness:
"Your condition isn't too good. Is there an issue with the characteristics contained within that sealed artifact?"
Leyton nodded calmly, saying, "Some corruption. I'll need some time to resolve them."
Bernadette nodded slightly, directly skipping this topic, and instead said:
"I just foresaw some future events: the flames of war will ignite in the Southern Continent, slowly engulfing the entire Southern Continent, spreading across the Five Seas, and extending to the nations of the Northern Continent."
"This is an inevitable development. Some existences wish to initiate a War of the Gods to annex the authority of others; some desire a full-scale war to conceal their true motives; some need to alleviate their own pressure by inciting disaster and chaos; and still others wish to complete a grand ritual."
Leyton's lips curled into a somewhat mocking smile, his eyes gazing deeply forward as if he could see through the interwoven information to the figures hidden in the shadows.
Bernadette did not press further on who wanted to start a War of the Gods or who needed a grand ritual. After a brief silence, she sighed softly and said:
"I will be staying in Backlund for the near future. If things go smoothly, I will later have the Dawn help you intercept some Intis armies in the Fog Sea."
Leyton smiled and saluted Bernadette, saying:
"Thank you for your help. I was just thinking of issuing bounties to the Pirate admirals and Pirate Kings on the sea."
"Adventurers and bounty hunters always target pirates for bounties. You're the first to issue a bounty to pirates," Bernadette murmured.
As her words faded, her body suddenly dematerialized, breaking down into streams of complex information, surging away into the distance.
Without Bernadette's maintenance, the layers of greenish vines rapidly retracted and vanished, and Leyton's figure reappeared beneath the clock tower at the dock.
Gazing at the sun gradually setting over the distant sea, Leyton sighed deeply and murmured:
"A bit troublesome. It will be difficult for me to adjust my state in less than one or two months. I hope too many unforeseen events don't occur during this time."
As he murmured, his disguise quickly vanished, and his half-flesh, half-starlight body became illusory, gradually disintegrating into pure, complex information streams, transforming into a pure information-flow being that flowed towards the densely populated areas of the port.
In a three-story detached house in Backlund West Borough, starlight flew out of the void, rapidly constructing a dim, mysterious "Travelers Door" inscribed with countless enigmatic patterns and symbols.
Leonard stepped out of the Travelers Door in good spirits. He was holding two mystical items he had brought from the Patriarchal Cathedral's underground. Although he hadn't had time to check their effects, anything stored in the Church of the God of Steam and Machinery's underground Mechanical Hall was bound to be powerful and dangerous enough.
"Old man, do you know the effects and negative impacts of these two items?"
"I think I should know their negative impacts."
A light voice, tinged with a smile, belonging to a young man, entered Leonard's ears. The latter looked up in surprise at the sofa in front of him, where a figure had appeared at some unknown time.
It was a young man with black hair and black eyes, wearing a black classical robe and a matching pointed soft hat. He had a broad forehead, a thin face, and was toying with a crystal monocle.
He seemed to have been there all along, waiting for him, quietly watching him emerge from the Travelers Door.
Amon, while putting the monocle back on his right eye, smiled and asked:
"Pallez, do you like the surprise I prepared for you?"
As he acted, the surrounding light suddenly brightened, and a hundred-meter-tall cross fell from above, plunging heavily into the living room floor. Centered around this massive cross, grey-white stone pillars, tall walls, and stained-glass windows filled with color emerged from the ground.
In an instant, a Corpse Cathedral materialized. In this church, every stone pillar, every archway, every section of the dome was embedded with countless skulls—from demonic wolves, giant dragons, giants, demons, and strange birds—densely packed, watching Leonard with different eye sockets, watching Pallez, who was parasitic on him.
On the walls, windows, and doors around the church, transparent, distorted faces protruded, seemingly souls sealed within, isolating the Spirit World and the Astral World!
"That fanatic committed suicide some time ago. As his only legal heir, I had no choice but to begrudgingly inherit his legacy."
"In this Corpse Cathedral, the gazes of the gods will also be shielded. No one will disturb us."
As he spoke, Amon rose from the sofa. His figure suddenly grew as tall as a mountain, and phantoms of Worm of Times with twelve transparent segments seeped from his body, some wandering and intertwining within the Corpse Cathedral, others converging above his head into an ancient, mottled, colossal phantom.
Leonard stood bewildered, his mind a blank as thoughts and ideas, as soon as they surfaced, were stolen, leaving him in a dazed and unresponsive state, unable to react to the outside world.
"Alas~" A somewhat aged sigh sounded from Leonard's body.
The next second, Pallez, with white hair and dressed in an exaggeratedly simple white robe, floated out of Leonard's body. His figure rapidly expanded, and in the blink of an eye, he became as tall as Amon.
Above his head, a phantom of a stone-carved wall clock also appeared, divided into twelve segments, each either grey-white or dark green, intermingled but clearly distinct, with different symbols.
Dong! Dong!
Melodious, ethereal chimes rang out simultaneously, and an indescribable, invisible torrent surged around, as if traversing a long history.
Something seemed to have changed around them, yet upon closer inspection, nothing seemed to have changed at all.
Without Amon stealing his thoughts and ideas, Leonard finally recovered from his dazed state. He stared in astonishment at the Corpse Cathedral that had materialized around him at some unknown point, the two towering figures confronting each other, and the Worm of Time phantoms wantonly wandering about. Unprecedented panic and fear filled him.
Pallez looked down at Leonard, then waved his hand dismissively. A cobalt-blue charm in Leonard's pocket quietly shattered, and his body instantly dematerialized, like something nonexistent, uncontrollably flying backward.