The Land Where Holy Light Descends

At the church entrance, Tilis noticed Luo Wei's serious expression.

She couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? We’ve already caught the assassin. Could there still be more to this...?"

Luo Wei shook his head. "I don’t know..."

His gaze shifted to Captain Raymond, who had just jumped off a carriage and was hurrying toward them. With a resigned sigh, he added, "Maybe it’s only just begun."

"Luo Wei, it's bad!!!"

The same familiar line...

The moment Luo Wei saw him appear, he knew trouble was coming. Even Ophelia and Tilis wore the same tense expressions, as if bracing for disaster.

By now, they’d all developed a conditioned reflex—seeing the captain meant something was about to go terribly wrong.

"What is it this time, Captain? Another big case?" Luo Wei cut straight to the point.

"Here’s the situation," Captain Raymond replied without preamble. "Massive riots have broken out in multiple cities in the southern region of Leicester County—almost identical to what happened in Kent City before. It’s all orchestrated by underground resistance groups!"

"Resistance groups again?" Tilis immediately turned to Luo Wei. "Based on your theory, those groups Eleya colluded with were just decoys, right?"

"Multiple cities? Large-scale riots?" Ophelia exchanged a glance with Luo Wei, and both seemed to realize something at the same time.

"Even if they’re just decoys..." Luo Wei muttered to himself.

"In a situation like this, if she wants to accelerate the spread of the new divine arts, even decoys can be useful..." Ophelia added.

Luo Wei stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Since we stopped the assassination attempt and she can’t target the high-ranking clergy directly, her only option is to overwhelm the local churches."

Ophelia mirrored his gesture. "If those monsters are summoned all over the country, the local churches won’t stand a chance. We’d see disasters like Kent City repeating everywhere. And that’s the perfect opportunity to promote the new divine arts—after all, their healing effects are undeniable, and desperate times call for desperate measures..."

Watching the two of them with identical pensive expressions, Tilis couldn’t help but sigh. "Seriously, you two are like a pair of synchronized performers. Can’t you just say everything at once?"

When they both looked up at her in unison, she felt even more exasperated. She had to admit, their thought processes were eerily similar at times.

"Wignar is huge. Overrunning every local church isn’t that simple," Tilis retorted impatiently. "Are you really giving her that much credit?"

"Let’s go see for ourselves," Luo Wei said, turning to Tilis. "Take us to any local church—the farther from the capital, the better."

With a flash of a teleportation circle, Tilis transported the group to a small coastal town near Brugge in the southern part of the empire.

The moment they arrived, Luo Wei heard gunfire from the shoreline. Looking toward the long breakwater, he saw swarms of grotesque, half-human, half-fish creatures crawling onto land.

These "Deep Ones" shrieked in an inhuman, ear-piercing cacophony, assaulting the fragile minds of the humans. Corpses littered the shore, and white-robed clergy rushed to aid the wounded. Luo Wei’s eyes locked onto one priest whose glowing orb of light seemed unnaturally pure—radiant to an unsettling degree.

"This must be happening in many places at once," Ophelia murmured with a frown.

"I’ll contact the Arcane Hermitage. Give me a moment." Tilis effortlessly blasted away a cluster of monsters before activating a magical communication link to the Grand Library in the archipelago.

Though the Arcane Hermitage was small in number, their intelligence network spanned the continent, with the churches as their primary observation targets—after all, both the Eastern and Western Churches were their sworn enemies.

After a lengthy exchange, Tilis’ expression darkened. "So far, at least twelve local churches are dealing with disasters like this. And the number might keep growing..."

"Did Eleya distribute all the forbidden tomes the Church confiscated over the past thousand years...?" Ophelia sighed.

Next, Tilis teleported the group to several more towns, each scene much the same—bizarre monsters, panicked civilians, Church knights, and healing priests...

In one inland city, Luo Wei strode straight toward a particular priest.

Midway through casting a divine art, the priest suddenly widened his eyes in ecstasy, then began babbling uncontrollably. His strange behavior drew the attention of his fellow clergy.

Curious, Luo Wei approached. "What’s going on? The danger isn’t over. Why are you so excited?"

The priest trembled with fervor. "I heard it! I heard the voice of the divine! I felt it—the sacred, supreme light! He has returned! The God of Light has returned!!"

"What?!" Gasps rippled through the clergy. "Is it true? Has the God of Light truly come back?"

"He’s returned! He really has!" The priest was nearly in tears. "The darkness will finally recede! He will bring back light and order to this land! A thousand years... we’ve waited a thousand years for this day! We’re saved!"

A wave of fervent cries erupted among the Church ranks. And this very scene was playing out in churches all across Wignar.

Many priests claimed to have felt the descent of the light, to have heard the "divine edict." The fervor mirrored the glorious era a millennium ago, when the true God of Light still walked among them.

The local churches were falling faster than Luo Wei had anticipated. Though their group could teleport, they were powerless against the rapid spread of the "Holy Light." And Eleya had exploited a critical weakness—the strongest figures in each region, the bishops, had all been summoned to the capital by Adrian for a meeting...

Soon, Wignar would truly become the "Land of Holy Light’s Descent."

[Chaos Level: 24↑]

[Chaos Level: 26↑]

The escalating chaos triggered system notifications before Luo Wei’s eyes.

To him, this situation was nothing short of slow death.

And this time, he hadn’t even caught a glimpse of Eleya herself. It reminded him of her confident smirk during his last reload.

It had been a long time since anyone had pushed him this far—forcing him to reload repeatedly. Luo Wei exhaled sharply, his expression darkening as he pulled out his old friend—the revolver.

"You’ve played all your cards. Now it’s my turn, Eleya."

With a grim resolve, Luo Wei decided it was time to flip the table.