Leaving the Violet House, Reyn stopped by a tailor shop and bought several new outfits: after his figure changed so much, his old clothes no longer fit.
When the carriage turned onto Koshem Street, he prudently looked around, fearing a run-in with Hogan's fighter who might be looking for him.
He safely reached his home—Hogan was nowhere in sight.
"Maybe this Hogan doesn't even know I live on this street. I overestimated his abilities and waged a mental war with myself."
Reyn chuckled at his own paranoia.
Climbing the stairs, he bumped into a few neighbors, but since they weren't close, no one noticed the changes in him.
Back in his room, Reyn preened smugly in front of the mirror for a long time, quite pleased with his current appearance, and only then pondered his next plans.
The top priority was dealing with the trouble from the Seal of Discord.
While on the street, Reyn had used Soul Eye to observe many people, paying special attention to their faith flames. He found that most, both ordinary people and superhumans, worshipped the Empire's Three Gods: either one or several at once.
The Goddess of Magic had the most followers, followed by the Earth Mother Goddess—they made up over eighty percent of believers. About ten percent worshipped the God of Justice.
The remaining ten percent's beliefs were quite chaotic and unrelated to the Three Gods.
Reyn knew little about the deities and couldn't identify which gods these people worshipped. He could only roughly judge by the feel of their faith flames whether they followed light or dark gods.
And then true horror gripped him.
Because there were far more followers of dark gods than he had imagined!
On the way from the Violet House to his apartment, Reyn spotted over a dozen suspected dark god followers, including both ordinary people and superhumans.
Reyn couldn't distinguish light and dark gods with full certainty. In Ellunes, there were countless deities; each race had its own pantheon. The division into light and dark gods was subjective human judgment, based on their own ideas of good and evil and influenced by local church authorities.
All deities hostile to those worshipped by the church were declared dark.
These were all native Ellunes gods; they just had different moral codes due to their domains.
Some objectively minded believers called non-worshipped deities "other gods" and their followers "heretics."
The truly dark gods, recognized as such by all Ellunes races, were only four abyssal horrors!
The dozen or so people Reyn spotted were heretics. None followed Loki the Deceiver, so none could sense the Seal of Discord.
"Seal of Discord..."
It suddenly occurred to him: now that he could see faith flames, maybe he could find the Seal of Discord on himself too?
Activating Soul Eye, he examined himself for a long time but found nothing unusual.
"Still can't?" Reyn was a bit disappointed.
So far, Soul Eye let him see others' soul states but not his own. He could only judge his condition by the phone interface info.
"If only I could see my own soul..."
Reyn scratched the back of his head. His gaze slid to the mirror, and inspiration struck. He approached the mirror again and focused Soul Eye on his reflection—more precisely, his head.
Immediately, the head in the mirror became semi-transparent, revealing a glow inside.
"Damn, I should have thought of that ages ago! I look in the mirror every day and never once thought to use Soul Eye on myself!" Reyn slapped his forehead in annoyance and began studying his soul intently.
Like others', his soul was a clump of light, but its power far exceeded an ordinary person's. Even among superhumans, few could match him—roughly at third-rank superhuman level.
Deep in his soul, Reyn saw the familiar red flower.
"This must be my phone."
Reyn curiously examined the red flower. It resembled a strange but powerful element located at the soul's core, fully merged with it.
"If this red flower is an element too, what rank is it?"
Reyn thought of this and nodded confidently, silently mouthing: "At least legendary, maybe higher!"
The red flower's eight petals were open, and from its heart grew a vital tree. This tree had just one branch and three leaves, each bearing an element rune.
The World Tree, woven from soul force, occupied most of his soul. Nearby, Reyn spotted the Bloody Soul Curse.
He sighed involuntarily: even as a transmigrator, he couldn't escape the Dark Lord's curse.
And then Reyn finally found the Seal of Discord!
Above his soul hovered a black-red pattern: a distorted black skull surrounded by bloody glow, emanating a sinister aura. This aura allowed Loki's followers to sense its presence.
Reyn studied the seal for a long time but couldn't figure out what to do with it. It was linked to his soul—visible but untouchable. He was powerless.
Gazing at the seal, he suddenly remembered something important he'd forgotten.
Other people's souls had faith flames, but not his!
"Is it because I don't worship any deity?"
Reyn recalled his predecessor believed in the Goddess of Magic but not devoutly, praying rarely. Since taking over the body, he hadn't prayed once.
Too long without prayer, so the faith flame extinguished?
The Seal of Discord was also divine power and occupied the same soul spot as the faith flame. If his own flame never appeared, would the Seal stay there forever, never vanishing?
Vague unease gripped Reyn. He felt the lack of a faith flame wasn't good.
But he didn't really want to worship any deity.
Having lived here so long, he gradually understood some things.
In Ellunes, unbelievers' fate was terrible. People had to worship some deity, light or dark, for protection so their souls wouldn't go to the Abyss after death, becoming eternal slaves to dark gods.
Reyn had once been a staunch atheist, but after everything, his convictions wavered.
He hesitated a bit but decided to pray anyway.
If choosing which deity to worship, the Goddess of Magic was best.
This goddess was very indulgent, made no strict demands on followers, and rarely interfered in their daily lives. Ruling over "wisdom," "knowledge," and "magic," she favored erudite followers, and powerful magic made it even better.
Thus, the vast majority of human spellcasters, especially mages, followed the Goddess of Magic. Her chosen were almost always the mightiest mages.
In the Auriens Empire, faith in the Goddess of Magic ran deep, but her church, unlike the other two light gods', had less overt influence. Her temples were often libraries, and the believers' organization wasn't as strict.
Moreover, all Empire schools were essentially her temples, spreading her wisdom's light.
Reyn's mother, Marinda, was a devoted follower and teacher in a church school. Under her influence, the whole family followed the goddess.
He concentrated, recalled the prayer words, clasped his hands with index and middle fingers pointed upward, slightly closed his eyes, and mentally recited the prayer.
After repeating it three times, Reyn felt a strange power in his heart. It was very weak but brought peace and an indescribable sense of mystery and safety.
He looked at his mirror reflection and saw a rainbow, formless flame ignite in his soul. Above it formed a ghostly thread stretching into the void, to unknown distances.
"It really works!"
Reyn was overjoyed. As soon as his faith flame appeared, it began repelling the Seal of Discord, whose aura noticeably weakened.
He watched patiently for a while. The Discord Seal became less stable under the onslaught of the flame of faith. Although it was still far from complete disappearance, this was a good sign.
Reyn decided to pray regularly from now on, but not too often—just enough to maintain the flame of faith. At least, he had no intention of becoming overly pious; the role of a superficial believer suited him just fine.
After spending some time in the apartment, Reyn went back out onto the street and headed to the "Basilisk" tavern. The Shotgun was still hidden in his room at the tavern, and besides, he needed to meet with Roger—since he hadn't become a Demon Hunter, he should at least report it.
Taking a public omnibus, he reached the Rian district and discovered that in this slum quarter, the number of heretics was off the charts—a real hotbed of followers of the dark gods.
As always, the "Basilisk" tavern was noisy and crowded, the main hall full of Players playing cards. However, there was one change: there were noticeably more female figures. Their outfits were quite bold, if not outright revealing. Some flirted with men, others joined the card games, exchanging glances with their partners and making eyes at them, causing the men to lose focus, and bursts of laughter echoed through the hall from time to time.
"Damn, what's going on here?"
Reyn froze. It had only been a few days since he'd been gone, and the "Basilisk" tavern had turned into a brothel!
He didn't find Roger and approached the bar, where he saw the Dwarf Zoltan flirting with a plump woman by human standards.
"Zoltan," Reyn called.
Seeing him, the Dwarf gestured for the voluptuous lady to step aside. There wasn't a trace of embarrassment on his face.
"Ah, it's you, lad!" he laughed cheerfully. "If you hadn't paid for the room, I'd have thought you weren't coming back."
"My things are still here," Reyn glanced around the hall full of dolled-up girls and asked curiously, "Has the 'Basilisk' tavern decided to change its profile?"
"Ahem, it's just a way to attract customers. You can see for yourself, everyone likes it, heh-heh..." Zoltan flashed a knowing smirk, his mohawk swaying from side to side. "Want me to call a couple over for you?" he added cheerfully.
Reyn hurriedly shook his head, refusing. Zoltan's tastes were, to put it mildly, specific, if not downright perverted. Most of the women in the tavern were plump, below average in looks, and behaved like predators. In the short time he'd been standing at the bar, at least four or five of them had already been devouring him with their eyes. He felt no interest whatsoever and didn't dare get involved with them.
Besides, after meeting Viola, these vulgar girls were no comparison.
"And where's Master Roger?" Reyn changed the subject.
Zoltan pointed to the tavern's backyard and replied with a lewd grin,
"He's back there."