Chapter 794 — The Contagion Spreads
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
Deep within the hidden underground palace of the Never-Sleepers' headquarters, inside Typhon's borders.
Clad in white robes, his bearing gentle and refined, High Priest You Yaohéng led a contingent of priests at a brisk pace down a long, deep corridor.
The magic-crystal lamps lining the corridor shed a bright radiance, yet they seemed powerless to dispel the gloom gathered on the face of this priest of the Order of Radiance. His expression was dark, his gaze unusually stern, and the thud of his leather boots struck the ancient corridor like a tight drumbeat, echoing in the depths of every attending priest's heart.
Amid the faint grinding of mechanical devices, the magical door leading to the deep prayer hall swung open to either side. Yuri Charvin stepped into a crescent-shaped hall whose walls were traced with all manner of mysterious ancient runes, his gaze sweeping quickly across the room.
Several dozen priests in white robes or long gowns sat slumped and scattered across cushions throughout the hall—all of them young, yet surging with a powerful, distinctly undisciplined magic that bordered on losing control. Every one of them looked listless, as though suffering psychic injuries of varying severity, and beside each stood someone attending to them.
A Never-Sleeper priest stationed in the hall noticed Yuri's arrival and immediately hurried over. "Your Eminence of the Radiant Pole—"
Yuri raised a hand to cut off the greeting, speaking rapidly. "How is the psychic choir?"
The priest glanced back at the scene in the hall, his voice thick with worry. "The entire psychic choir has been disconnected from the network and returned to the real world—they're all here. The good news is that no one was killed or injured. The bad news is... they were psychically contaminated while covering the advance force's retreat."
High Priest You Yaohéng's brow furrowed in an instant. "Psychic contamination? The entire choir?"
The members of the psychic choir were all powerful masters of the mind, especially adept at resisting contamination originating on the mental plane and at shielding their companions within the various dream worlds. And yet now... an entire psychic choir, gathered together, had all fallen prey to psychic contamination?
Yuri and the attending priests were unwilling to believe it, yet the facts left them no choice but to accept the situation—
"The whole choir contaminated, not one spared," said the priest in charge of the deep prayer hall, his voice low. "Including Her Excellency 'Spirit Song' Wendy, a high-tier peak."
Yuri Charvin could not help drawing a sharp breath. A full two seconds passed before he slowly let the foul air out and asked in a heavy voice, "How deep does the contamination go... no, just speak plainly. How many devotees of the Upper Narrator are here?"
The priest managing the hall shook his head, his expression grim, and at that same moment Yuri's gaze had already passed over him, toward the members of the psychic choir in the rear of the hall who were receiving care.
Among the many "Singers," a young woman of exquisite features, dressed in a magnificent white gauze gown traced with gold patterns, noticed his gaze. She lifted her head and offered a gentle, serene smile, then raised her right hand and held it horizontally before her, palm down, as though covering the invisible earth. Her voice carried a faint magnetic resonance, as if it pierced straight into the heart: "Sir, please allow me a moment of your time to introduce you to our omniscient and almighty Lord, the salvation of all living beings in this world, the Upper Narrat—"