Andre shook his head, his body motionless, and said in a slow voice,
"No, when I held the sword, I only felt what you just described, as if soone was teaching how to wield a sword. I didn’t feel anything else."
Hearing this, Ed frowned.
Nothing? Then what did he just see? Especially the last scene, the beautiful white city amidst the fire. Why am I having the feeling as if soone is pulling strings from the background? This is not a good thing. Hopefully, the Stone Mother has not taken a liking to .
Ed actually recognized that city, the straight road leading to the city gate, and the flowers surrounding it.
That was the area of their last operation, ister Island.
"Perhaps you can tell what you saw, and I might be able to give you so reference."
Hearing Andre’s words, Ed raised his head and nodded.
He began to recount, "The mont I gripped the sword, it felt as if my entire soul was dragged into a pitch-black space, where I saw three images."
"The first image was of a person wielding a dagger, ambushing soone."
"The second image was of a fleet sailing on the sea. By the moonlight, I saw that the fleet seed to be a pirate crew."
"A pirate crew?" Andre exclaid, then asked, "Did you see their flag clearly?"
Ed nodded, "Yes, it was a pattern of a black scythe piercing a skull."
"The Prayer of the Dead, it’s the flag of the Prayer of the Dead," Said Elena, who had opened her eyes at so point.
She slowly climbed off her father’s lap and rubbed her eyes.
"The Prayer of the Dead? Why did you see that image? Sailing at sea..."
Andre pondered.
At this mont, Jason hurriedly asked curiously, "And the third image? What was it?"
He was even more interested in these kinds of things.
"In the third image, I saw the Flower City of ister Island, engulfed in flas. I even heard cries of agony from within the city. The city walls had been breached, collapsing, and there were corpses."
Hearing this, everyone was stunned. They had thought Ed would describe so unknown scene, but it turned out to be ister Island, which they had left less than a month ago.
The presence of such a familiar place in the image made them take it even more seriously.
Everyone fell into deep thought.
At this mont, Gami said, "It could be a revelation from the Holy Mother, either a premonition or a warning."
Seeing the looks on their faces, Gami explained, "Ed is from Ho Island, born as a child of the Holy Mother, protected by her from his birth. The sacred artifacts are things left behind in the world by the Holy Mother’s agents, possessing her power.
There’s even a legend that the Holy Mother can directly send her power down to the world through the sacred artifacts. Combined with the image he saw, it’s very likely a hint the Holy Mother wanted to give him, perhaps a blessing."
Hearing Gami’s words, everyone nodded involuntarily; what he said made a lot of sense.
It sounded fantastical, yet it made perfect sense, because such stories did exist within the church.
For example, there was the story of neix, the wielder of the Sword of rcy.
Legend said she was inspired by a dream of the Holy Mother, freed from suffering, and received blessings. She then wielded the Sword of rcy from her dream, practicing the Holy Mother’s teachings.
So it didn’t feel entirely out of place; in fact, it was quite fitting.
"It’s not a premonition, it’s a warning," Andre suddenly said, drawing everyone’s attention.
Andre continued, "Rember when we were in the southeast corner? When I arrived on the island, I obtained so intelligence. The Prayer for the Dead were already operating within the Blood Gold Alliance’s territory.
Their first bloodbath was on ister Island, a famous tourist destination with imnse wealth. Then they engaged in battle with the arriving Third Naval Fleet. Although they were outmatched in the naval battle, they easily escaped, even killing many of the fleet’s sailors."
Hearing this, Ed fell into deep thought.
So, what he saw had already happened.
A warning from the Holy Mother? But what kind of warning could it be?
Ed was sowhat confused, because these things had already happened; what ssage was it trying to convey?
Wait, then what about Kaila? Is she dead too? Damn it, if I have a chance, I have to check on her. Hopefully, she survived. With her influence and wealth, she should be fine. I don’t believe those pirates killed all the noble and wealthy people on the island; otherwise, other rich people would have wiped out their small pirate group with their sheer amount of gold. You could never underestimate wealthy people.
Ed comforted himself. Although he was with Kaila for fun, he didn’t want to see her die unjustly.
"Alright," Andre stood up, dusted himself off, and said, "You’ll never know why until sothing actually happens."
He seed to be implying sothing dangerous.
The others looked at Andre inwardly, thinking, Isn’t he implying that the Holy Mother’s hints are useless?
Ambiguous images and aningless revelations only cause restlessness and wild speculation, potentially leading to danger.
Countless past examples served as a stark reminder.
With that, a tal box appeared out of thin air in Andre’s hand, engraved with religiously symbolic patterns and designs.
He spread his fingers and pressed them against the top of the box, as if performing so kind of decryption process. Then, the patterns on the box moved and shifted to the side.
After layers of movent, the box opened, revealing a recessed area shaped like a sword blade.
Its purpose was obvious; he had been prepared.
Andre picked up the Sword of rcy from beside his leg and placed it into the box.
As the sword fit snugly inside, the layers of patterns on top shifted and closed again, restoring the seamless, seemingly solid tal box.
Only when Andre lifted the box did Ed notice the tal chain on the back, resembling a carrying strap.
He watched as Andre slung the box over his shoulder.
"Why not put it in a storage ring?" Ed asked curiously.
Leaving it like this, no matter what, wouldn’t be as convenient and secure as using a storage ring. Andre wasn’t without storage items. Although his storage ring wasn’t as convenient as his inventory, it was still better than carrying things on his back.
He shook his head, stabilizing the box on his back, and said, "I don’t know either, but that’s what the Archbishop said. The Sword of rcy, or any container holding it, cannot be put into a storage item, not even by force."
Hearing Andre’s explanation, everyone nodded, unconcerned.
Lucilia’s voice rang out: "Perhaps because the Sword of rcy is essentially a [Treasure] (referring to this world’s magical artifact). [Treasures] cannot be stored in storage spaces; these small personal spaces simply cannot contain such powerful items."
After hearing Lucilia’s explanation, Ed roughly understood.
After all, the Sword of rcy could beco a treasure with just a simple ritual. Its current state seed more like a ans for the Church of the Holy Mother to protect a valuable item.
In other words, every Treasure is itself a powerful energy body; just look at where they are now, an entire region beca an abyss-like place—and you’ll have a clear understanding of a Treasure’s true power.
How could any random small storage item possibly contain such a powerful thing? How could they be worthy of them?
But I think my system inventory shouldn’t have any problem storing them. I doubt any Treasure or other magical artifact can be as powerful as the system. Just the fact that staring at the map you can scan the planet and see where treasure is hidden shows the system’s power. An inventory with unlimited capacity... he would be surprised if one could put an entire planet into it, of course, if he had enough magic to cover the entire planet to gain the system’s recognition to put it into inventory.
"Everyone, let’s prepare to leave." Just as he finished speaking, Andre seed to rember sothing and slapped his forehead.
"Right, before that, we need to find these people’s remains and bury them. After all, they were our forr comrades."
The doctrine of the Church of the Holy Mother emphasized that the dead should be laid to rest. Only by burying the remains in the earth could they enter the Kingdom of the Holy Mother. Through the Holy Mother’s guidance, they could safely and peacefully enter death and be reborn.
"Alright, everyone, those who have recovered their strength, go and search the church."
Except for Elena, who still needed rest, the others began to wander around the cathedral, searching for the remains scattered throughout.
However, Ed didn’t see any carelessly discarded remains along the way; in fact, so areas were quite clean.
Finally, with Gami’s searching, they found a neatly stacked pile of remains in a large hall.
These remains likely belonged to the church mbers, as evidenced by the relatively well-preserved clothing on their bodies.
It was unclear whether they were forced to leave because they couldn’t depart from this place.
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