Holy City, District Three, St. Benedict Street
Fully armored Templar Knights in silver armor had sealed off the entire street, and deep within a mansion on that street, dozens of high-ranking priests, led by several purple-robed cardinals, were protected by over ten black-robed Judgnt Knights as they set up a divine ritual to isolate the area.
A loud dragon’s roar echoed as a Silverhorn Dragon, belonging to the Holy Court, descended from the sky.
Imdiately afterward, Charlotte, dressed in her saintly robes, jumped down, flanked by Fabio, the Deputy Commander of the Templar Knights, and Aaron, the acting Grand Inquisitor, with Sebastian, Nice, and the Guardian Scepter following behind her.
“Your Holiness!”
Angus, the Grandmaster of the Templar Knights, and Selina, the Grand Inquisitor, who were leading the priests and knights in the mansion, stepped forward and respectfully saluted.
Charlotte nodded slightly, then turned her gaze to the large rift in the center of the mansion’s garden.
It was a black spatial rift, with faint purple lightning flickering inside. Surrounding the rift were platinum-colored particles flying around, with glimpses of golden runes and space fragnts resembling shattered glass.
“What’s the situation?”
Charlotte asked after withdrawing her gaze.
Grandmaster Angus respectfully replied.
“We have confird that this is indeed a spatial rift created by the Myrick Shrine. However, we have not detected any artifact power fluctuations, leading us to believe that this is rely a passage to the hiding place of the Myrick Shrine.”
“In history, District Three experienced a spatial collapse disaster during the Rose Rebellion, making it the weakest area in terms of spatial strength in the entire Holy City. Therefore, Lady Selina and I speculate that the traitors might also be hiding here.”
“However, this rift is highly unstable and could collapse at any mont. We also cannot rule out the possibility that it is a trap, so we have decided to first stabilize it using a divine ritual. Then, Lady Selina and I will lead a team to investigate.”
“Considering that stabilizing the space requires a vast amount of holy power, we plan to carry out the operation tomorrow afternoon. We have already mobilized the twenty most powerful holy practitioners currently in the Holy City, and by that ti, the rift should be sufficiently stabilized.”
Charlotte nodded slightly.
Although Grandmaster Angus said that the rift might be the traitors’ hiding place was just a speculation by him and Selina, from Charlotte’s perspective, she was certain that this rift was indeed her target.
The reason was simple: standing there, she once again felt that ominous sense of threat.
It was a crisis she had been sensing ever since she entered the Holy City, a feeling that intensified after she settled in the Holy Palace.
However, after successfully establishing a connection with the Holy Court’s faith network, this sense of threat diminished. And when she destroyed the underground stronghold of the Inquisition, the threat in the Holy Palace disappeared entirely.
But Charlotte knew that it hadn’t truly disappeared; it had rely “shifted” following the disappearance of Gregory XII.
Now, following this subtle feeling, Charlotte could make a clear judgnt: the endpoint of this “sense of crisis” was within this spatial rift.
Moreover, Charlotte vaguely sensed a faint call.
It was a call of bloodline, a call of the soul, as if sothing important deep within the rift was calling out to her.
After so thought, she stepped forward toward the rift.
“Your Holiness!”
Seeing Charlotte approach the rift, Grandmaster Angus and Selina were startled and called out simultaneously.
They instinctively moved to block Charlotte’s path.
“Your Holiness, this rift is too dangerous. Until it is fully stabilized, even you must not enter!”
Charlotte remained indifferent.
A re spatial rift, of course, couldn’t harm her now that she was a Demigod.
Of course, the holy practitioners didn’t know this.
As she approached the rift, Charlotte beca more certain of her judgnt, as the faint call grew stronger.
With this in mind, Charlotte looked at the rift and shook her head slightly.
“We can’t wait. Tomorrow will be too late, and there are too many uncertainties. Let try.”
With that, she extended her hand and pointed at the divine ritual being constructed.
Platinum light burst from Charlotte’s fingertips and quickly spread, soon enveloping the ritual array.
Under the astonished, fervent, and admiring gazes of the holy practitioners, the divine ritual array completed itself and instantly lit up with radiance.
Holy runes arose, transforming into eight platinum holy locks that secured the spatial rift from different directions. In no ti, the once thunderous rift cald down, its black void replaced by a serene white halo, like the surface of a still lake.
The rift had been fully stabilized into a spatial passage in re seconds!
Grandmaster Angus and Selina looked at Charlotte in stunned disbelief, their gazes filled with awe.
Stabilizing a spatial rift with holy power was a high-level divine ritual of the Holy Court.
But for one person to perform a ritual that would normally require the cooperation of dozens of high-ranking priests over an entire day, even as Legendary holy practitioners, this was sothing they’d never witnessed before.
“Your Holiness, your holy power is truly unparalleled and worthy of reverence!”
Cardinal Selina couldn’t help but exclaim.
Charlotte smiled faintly and did not respond.
Her holy power was indeed strong, as she was now connected to Harald’s faith network. The imnse holy power accumulated over thousands of years was almost entirely at her disposal. The more holy power there was, the more she could use.
Of course, that statent was a bit exaggerated. Utilizing holy power also required ntal strength, and since it wasn’t her own power, it consud more of her ntal energy when she wielded it.
Even though she solidified the space rift in an instant, Charlotte, despite her Demigod status, felt a bit fatigued.
However, this slight fatigue didn’t affect her strength.
“Let’s go. We’ll enter the rift and investigate now.”
Charlotte said.
With that, she took the lead, walking toward the now-stable spatial passage.
Grandmaster Angus and Selina were montarily stunned but quickly gathered their senses, hastily summoning the other high-ranking clergy to follow.
A platinum radiance flashed.
In no ti, the figures of the group disappeared into the soft glow.
A familiar sensation of weightlessness ca over them—it was the “sensory disorientation” that accompanied spatial travel.
When their senses fully returned, the group found themselves inside a solemn and majestic palace.
This was an extraordinarily magnificent palace, grand and sacred. The group of clergy widened their eyes, and even Charlotte was slightly taken aback.
“The Holy Palace? Isn’t this the Holy Palace? Have we been transported back to the Holy Palace?!”
Deputy Commander Fabio exclaid in disbelief.
Indeed, it was the Holy Palace.
The familiar columns and identical palace architecture all indicated that after crossing the space rift, they had returned to the Holy Palace, specifically to its main hall—the Temple of Creation.
However, Charlotte quickly noticed sothing different.
Beyond the tall, beautifully stained glass windows of the palace, instead of the familiar garden scenery, there was only a vast expanse of white.
Moreover, the statue of the Creator God in the temple’s center had subtle differences.
The sacred robes of the statue bore intricate patterns, and when Charlotte looked closely at them, her expression grew peculiar.
Those patterns were a combination of crosses and roses.
Charlotte was sowhat familiar with those patterns—they were the crest of the First Legion led by Harald, which she had deliberately erased during the ancient battle when she led the Free City-States Alliance to victory against the Old Gods.
In later generations, during the Bloodline Era, it was known by a more prominent but ultimately buried historical na—the Royal Blood Clan, the crest of the Kirali Clan.
“No, this isn’t the Holy Palace!”
Grandmaster Angus quickly noticed these differences as well. He frowned at the decorations on the statue of the Creator God, his expression filled with anger.
“This is not the divine symbol of our Lord. This is a blasphemous statue! This must be the stronghold of the heretics! This must be the idol they worship!”
With that, he stepped forward, gripping the ring cross symbol in his hand, his voice filled with both anger and devotion.
“Praise be to the Divine! The glory of our Lord shall not be desecrated. I, Angus, swear here and now that these heretics who defile our Lord shall pay a heavy price for their wicked deeds!”
As soon as his words fell, platinum light burst from his hand, and at the sa ti, the statue of the Creator God at the front of the temple was also enveloped in holy light.
Tiny photons rose from the statue as if responding to Grandmaster Angus’s oath, swirling around him before… covering his body.
For a mont, everyone sensed that Grandmaster Angus’s holy power seed to have grown even stronger.
Angus’ angry expression instantly turned to one of bewildernt.
“A Holy Oath? What’s going on?! Isn’t this a blasphemous statue? How could the Grandmaster’s oath take effect imdiately?!”
The other temple knights who had entered the palace also widened their eyes in shock.
A Holy Oath!
This was the highest vow a devout believer could make before the statue of the Creator God, binding them with the strongest forces of the Miria continent and receiving the Creator God’s affirmation and the reward of divine power!
Making such a vow not only required the believer’s devotion but also a direct connection to the divine, aning the statue must be recognized and blessed by the Creator God.
The stronger the blessing of the Creator God, the easier it was for the believer to make a Holy Oath before the statue.
The fact that Grandmaster Angus could casually make a Holy Oath in his mont of anger could only an one thing—that the statue before them, which the clergy considered heretical, was more recognized by the God than the actual statues in the Holy Palace!
In other words, it resonated more strongly with divine power, making it… more legitimate…
The priests and knights who had entered the temple were all high-ranking clergy, more knowledgeable in doctrine and holy power than ordinary priests.
They quickly realized the mind-boggling, even worldview-shattering, truth—this statue, bearing a divine symbol entirely different from that of the Creator God, was sohow closer to the God!
“No… Impossible… This can’t be!”
Grandmaster Angus also widened his eyes, his tall fra staggering.
“Lady… Lady Charlotte! Grandmaster Angus, Lady Selina! Please… Please look at these murals!”
A trembling voice ca from the other side, hoarse and filled with endless fear and confusion, instantly drawing everyone’s attention.
They all looked toward the source of the voice, only to see a bishop standing by the wall, his body shaking as he pointed at the relief murals.
His face was pale, his expression terrified, as if he had seen sothing horrifying.
Charlotte’s gaze also followed.
She imdiately noticed the most striking relief in the mural.
It depicted a tall young man, his cloak adorned with the symbol of the cross and rose, and faint bite marks visible on his neck. He was kneeling on one knee, paying homage to a throne not far away, his expression full of admiration and gratitude.
And on the throne, a woman sat lazily with her legs crossed, one hand resting on her chin, the other holding a goblet, exuding both grace and authority.
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