Muttering to himself, Beryl moved the pendant in another direction, and it imdiately burst into flas in his hand.
"See? This proves an Enchanter is here."
The light of the red and blue twin moons cascaded over the tranquil land. As he spoke, figures erged from the shadows of the buildings surrounding the square: Scribes from the Church of Knowledge and Books, Gravediggers from the Church of Death and End, Stargazers from the Universal Star Church, Navigators from the Church of Ocean and Exploration, and even the adherents of the Church of All Things and Nature, whom Jenkins had just asked to relay a ssage.
In an instant, the square that had held only Jenkins and Beryl was surrounded by the combat squads of Nolan City's Orthodox Churches.
Each of the five Orthodox Churches in Nolan had dispatched two seven-person combat squads. In the shadows of the surrounding buildings, even more support and reserve units lay in wait, ready to act.
The man leading the charge held up his right hand, a rusty needle dangling from a thread wrapped around his index finger.
"Well done, Mr. Williatte."
As he spoke, he and his companions, all clad in crisp black coats, closed in, encircling the square. Jenkins, anwhile, took several steps back, lting into the newly ford crowd.
Given his cautious nature, Jenkins had sensed sothing was wrong with Beryl from the start. That, combined with the unnatural stirring of his [Twin Demons] ability, imdiately made him suspect a demon summoner.
Playing the hero by himself was out of the question—Jenkins was not that kind of fool. Of course, if he had been holding a piece of divinity, he might have entertained the idea for a few seconds.
After requesting help from the adherents of the Church of All Things and Nature, he had intentionally disembarked from his carriage early, successfully luring Beryl out. The dangling arrowhead was a spiritual artifact used for divination, paired with a tracking ability. One of the church mbers had given Jenkins a handkerchief, which allowed them to pinpoint his location at all tis.
"Good work."
Soone clapped Jenkins on the shoulder—an acquaintance from the Church. He was about to exchange a few words when he saw Captain Bincy beckoning to him.
"Why are there so many people?"
He asked in a low voice. The surrounded Beryl seed completely oblivious to the tightening circle of Enchanters. He held a pendant shaped like a goat-horned demon before his eyes, incessantly muttering questions to it.
"The Church was worried you might be in danger," Bincy explained, "so we simply notified the other churches that the demon summoner had been located. And as you can see, we were not exactly wrong..."
No one gave the order, but gunfire erupted with a grim, unspoken consensus. Bullets peppered Beryl's body, but they had no effect whatsoever.
At that very mont, a bank of dark clouds rolled in from the horizon, completely eclipsing the twin moons. Faint black flas began to lick at Beryl's feet.
Boom!
A bolt of black lightning tore across the sky, followed by a violent tremor that shook the very ground. From high above, certain streets in Nolan City flashed with a crimson light, their layout forming a massive, yet incomplete, ritual circle.
"Haha! After all this ti, to fail at the final hurdle! Damn you, mortals..."
A strange energy, which had been suffusing the air, now surged from every corner of the city, converging on the central square. Beryl let out a roar of agony as the clothes on his back incinerated, revealing bizarre black tattoos that pulsed with light. With both hands, he lifted an ancient parchnt scroll toward the heavens.
Black lightning rent the fabric of space itself as eerie whispers slithered into everyone's ears. But only Jenkins could truly hear them, only he could see what followed. With a sound like a colossal sheet of glass shattering, a massive hand, wreathed in black flas, tore its way out of the void.
"Praise the Sage..."
"Death walks with ..."
"All things are one with ..."
"Vast is the starry sky..."
"The will of the storm..."
"The light of silence..."
Six different prayers rang out at once, their combined voices subtly vibrating through space and energy. The mont the giant hand appeared, every Enchanter from the Orthodox Churches surrounding the square looked to the heavens. They all felt the gazes of their great and righteous gods upon them, and they began to pray.
Jenkins watched in astonishnt. After muttering his own prayer and tracing the holy sigil over his chest, he saw golden light erupt from every Enchanter. The light coalesced, weaving itself into a great net that ascended into the sky.
This was the power of faith, the power of divine arts. The Righteous Gods were intervening, using the strength of their followers!
The city fell silent once more. It seed as if the earthquake and the brilliant golden light had gone completely unnoticed by the public.
Through his Eye of Reality, Jenkins saw the scene unfold under the night sky. The demonic hand, summoned by the incomplete ritual, was ensnared in the golden net. It thrashed violently, revealing the end of its arm: a stone wall embedded with innurable, grotesque faces. Black flas raged around the colossal hand, and as another bolt of dark lightning struck, jagged cracks spread across its arm.
Blood-red magma and wisps of ghastly white soul-mist poured from the fissures.
Back in the material world, visible to all, Beryl raised his hands and cried out, spitting a black stone onto the ground. The square trembled again as the stone lted into the flagstones, and a dais rose from the very center, lifting Beryl high into the air.
"In the na of the Ashiash family!"
The pale man stood upon the dais and bellowed. At his cry, a phantom, pitch-black door swung open behind him. Two dark hands reached out from within, plunging into Beryl's chest. Amidst his bloodcurdling screams, they tore out his heart and shoved a black, light-devouring stone into the gaping cavity.
"What is going on?"
Jenkins bowed his head in agony, blood streaming from his eyes the mont he had laid them upon the giant hand. He had activated his Eye of Reality and seen sothing forbidden. Faint, seductive whispers and a throbbing headache tornted him, while the rush of profane, bloody knowledge flooding his mind made him retch.
A warmth spreading from his forehead and the light of his purification candle were all that allowed him to cling to his sanity. The Sage's blessing still held.
He had never imagined that apprehending a single low-level, demon-summoning Enchanter could escalate into such a catastrophe. The demon in the sky had clearly been summoned by Beryl, and it was trying to break through the world's boundary into the material plane. Jenkins sensed that the entity was nowhere near as powerful as the great sovereigns or the gods themselves, but for six of the Righteous Gods to intervene simultaneously, there had to be a very good reason.
Though the gods had not manifested physically, he could feel their collective gaze fixed upon the scene.
The Enchanters of the Orthodox Churches had all collapsed the instant the demon made its attempt to manifest. Those of a higher level or with stronger spirits were already struggling to their feet, but a few would never rise again.
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