Chapter 930 — Darkness

Gao Yang waited for the people in the conference room to digest the previous topic, and Hedy, at his side, finished recording the proceedings. Only then did he clear his throat and speak: "Next, we should discuss the matter of Typhon."

"There is also a God of War over there who may already have gone mad," Virodai said calmly. "Purely from an academic standpoint, this is a valuable observational specimen. We can directly observe the traits a god gradually reveals after descending into madness, and the subsequent chain of effects upon the mortal world."

"But this is not merely an academic question," Gao Yang said. "It is time we wrote a letter to Luoyan Augustus—the 'anomalous change' in the Goddess of Magic, Myrmina, might make a fine opening topic..."

...

A thin mist shrouded Typhon's imperial capital; faint sunlight filtered through the clouds and fog, conjuring in the city below the mood of a twilight in the mist. In this season, as autumn deepened, cold winds were beginning to blow through the courtyards and open-air corridors of the Obsidian Palace. Only within the royal gardens, sheltered by the greenhouse barrier, did green flourish and warmth remain.

Matilda Augustus stepped into the royal garden in the central court of the Obsidian Palace; a warm breath rushed to meet her, swiftly dispelling the chill she had carried in from outside. She followed the pebble-paved path deeper into the garden, and in the dim light of the approaching dusk, she saw her far-sighted father standing beneath a podocarpus, seemingly gazing at the flowerbed at his feet.

It was a flowerbed in poor condition.

"Father," Matilda said, coming to a stop several meters behind Luoyan and bowing her head. "I have returned from the Grand Sanctuary."

Luoyan did not turn around, merely uttering a faint "Mm," and asked casually, "Did Malum Dunite receive you in the inner sanctuary?"

"Yes," Matilda nodded. "And still in accordance with proper ceremonial standards and procedures."

"At least on the surface, everything appears normal, does it not?" Luoyan nodded, his gaze still not shifting from the flowerbed. "Tell me what you observed. We urgently need to know the situation inside the Grand Sanctuary."

"I asked the Pope directly about the recent rumors concerning the churches in various regions—since these rumors have already spread, not asking would have been abnormal in itself," Matilda answered with a nod. "His Holiness Malum did not answer directly or offer an explanation, saying only that someone was maliciously attacking the Church of the God of War, and that the Grand Sanctuary had already launched investigations into the dioceses where the rumors had appeared... It was a reply befitting his station and the circumstances.

"The Pope himself looked entirely normal, and our conversation proceeded in a perfectly ordinary manner, but inside the Grand Sanctuary I clearly sensed a rather eerie... atmosphere.

"A tense, oppressive atmosphere hung over the entire Grand Sanctuary. Although every officiant I met seemed fine, that atmosphere was undeniably present—and it was there even in places entirely devoid of people. It felt as though... the tense, oppressive air was emanating from the Grand Sanctuary itself.

"Without drawing attention, I spoke with some of the officiants. The ordinary officiants in the Grand Sanctuary clearly knew of the rumors from various regions as well, and their answers differed little from His Holiness Malum's. But one thing struck me as strange... some of the officiants grew somewhat agitated when answering me, as if they had been somehow offended—though I am certain there was nothing improper in my words or conduct, and the questions I posed regarding those rumors were phrased in gentle terms, even leaning toward the Church of the God of War."

The latter anomaly Matilda mentioned sounded like a trivial detail, yet Luoyan turned around, his expression grave: "You think there was... something else in those officiants' 'agitation'?"

"Only a vague feeling," Matilda said. "Their emotions flared very suddenly, and afterward they all apologized with nervous, somewhat bewildered words. While talking with them, I constantly felt a faint, elusive gaze moving around me, and at times their voices would suddenly turn hoarse... I believe their emotions were being influenced by some external factor—a factor that made me very uncomfortable."

"What else did you see?" Luoyan furrowed his brow. "Regarding the Grand Sanctuary itself—did you discover anything?"

"...Some of the corridors in the Grand Sanctuary are rather dim," Matilda said after careful thought, in an uncertain tone. "I do not know whether it was my imagination. There are countless candles in the Grand Sanctuary, along with new magic-crystal lamps for lighting, yet I always felt it was very dark there—a darkness that does not impair vision, a darkness of the mind, as it were. I confirmed with the attendants, and it seems only I experienced this feeling; no one else noticed anything unusual."

Luoyan's brow furrowed little by little. He gazed at his daughter and for a long time said nothing.

Because of the curse that originated two centuries ago, the members of the Augustus family... were somewhat different from ordinary people in terms of "perception." Especially in certain domains involving the gods, they could often see and hear things that ordinary people could not detect. It was precisely for this reason that he had sent Matilda to inspect the situation at the Grand Sanctuary.

This, Matilda herself was clearly well aware of.

But this young pearl of the Empire was not so "experienced" as her father—she had observed those details, yet unlike Luo Yan Augustus, she did not dare to draw the terrible conclusions.

"Father," she could not help but speak, "do you think..."

"The Church of the God of War's influence in Typhon... is deep-rooted," Luo Yan suddenly broke the silence, saying something that struck Matilda as rather inexplicable, "like an ancient tree rooted for a thousand years, its tendrils have become part of this entire land; everything that grows upon this land is, to greater or lesser degree, shaped by it."

Matilda opened her mouth, about to ask something more, when she suddenly heard undisguised footsteps approaching from the side. The black-haired head maid had entered the garden at some unknown moment—by the time the footsteps sounded, she was already ten meters away.

"Dai Lan," Luo Yan looked at her, "what have the Wanderers found?"

"Those priests who met with misfortune may have died in exceedingly blasphemous and distorted manners, which is why the bodies were disposed of secretly and swiftly. Multiple witnesses have been taken into the local church's custody; the Wanderers attempted to ascertain the state of those witnesses, and have confirmed that at least four priests went mad from mental corruption," the head maid Dai Lan reported in a calm, flat tone. "In addition, it has been confirmed that churches in certain regions have reduced the scale of the weekly prayer services and closed portions of church facilities under the pretext of repairs—the relevant orders came from the Grand Cathedral, personally authorized by Malm Dunite, and bypassed the College of Cardinals. The Pope personally authorizing such a thing is itself an anomaly."

Listening in on Dai Lan's report, Matilda suddenly found herself wide-eyed—

The Church of the God of War had always operated independently and in seclusion; imperial authority could find no purchase in it. But since when... had the Wanderers—the crown's own agents—been able to investigate the church's internal secrets to such a depth?