Chapter 87: Belief from a Foreign Race

"Whew, how does it feel?" Wang Yu asked, watching Avia, who stood with her eyes closed, absorbing the peculiar atmosphere of their surroundings.

"It is marvelous. I have never experienced an environment quite like this. At least half of the Void here overlaps with reality. While it cannot compare to the descent of the Void Evil God at the Mayne estate, it is truly unique."

Avia opened her eyes, and tiny points of light flickered into existence around her hands, swirling and dancing in perpetual motion—one of the most elementary wizard spells: Starlight.

Though basic, the spell requires immense multitasking once the number of lights increases; one must control the trajectory of each spark, maintain the runic structure, and provide a steady flow of Void energy, raising the requirements for the user significantly.

"Nineteen stars. The Void here is so much easier to manipulate than outside. I’ve already surpassed my personal best just by arriving. A fascinating place; I think opening an alchemy workshop here would be a brilliant choice."

"You wouldn't think it was so brilliant if you had to come here every day..." Charles muttered listlessly from the side. He had pestered Wang Yu to bring him along the moment he heard Wang Yu was part of the Night Church, ostensibly to scout out the future alchemy workshop of the master alchemist Avia. Wang Yu had no objections; if he wanted to come, so be it.

Wang Yu suspected the real reason was the "Eternal Darkness" he had unleashed while fighting the vampires.

Since Wang Yu had mentioned that one only needed to believe in the Lady of the Night to wield Her divine arts, Charles, a non-believer who constantly invoked the God of Light, likely felt his pride wounded and had to see for himself.

As for why the man was so lethargic, Wang Yu knew exactly why. He had read Charles’s report; while the content was specific and accurate, the man had spent the entire time subtly undermining the Professor.

Of course, it was just Charles being his usual self—there was no real malice—but the end result was the Professor smilingly finding Charles and handing him a magic crystal card for the Night's Edge food supplier, loaded with twice his normal salary.

It is worth noting that this firm is a professional military ration supplier, so they only provide dry goods and the like. Charles couldn't eat well even if he wanted to, and trading military supplies is illegal in Alastair, so cashing it out was essentially impossible.

Well, according to young Daniel, this fellow had severed ties with the Ryder family, so he truly had no source of income. Poor, poor man.

If Wang Yu hadn't happened to need food supplies and bought the ration card from Charles, the man would have been reduced to busking in taverns or on the street.

Thinking about it, Wang Yu had mentioned the Night Church to the Professor; it was hard not to suspect the Professor had done this on purpose, especially since Wang Yu had no good channels to acquire large quantities of food.

Anyway, that was that. The Lady of the Night had asked him to check on the situation here last time, and he was taking advantage of a gap between missions to do so.

Recalling the vision the Lady of the Night had transmitted to him, he found it strange, yet undoubtedly a good omen.

Ignoring Charles’s grumbling, Wang Yu led Avia and the others through the chaotic underground city. For convenience, once they entered the Shadow of the Royal City—where the Lady of the Night could exert Her power freely—Wang Yu cast "Concealment," the most fundamental divine art of the Lady.

The night flowed like water, wrapping the three of them in a gentle, meticulous shroud. By intentionally avoiding the main thoroughfares and gang strongholds, they remained entirely unnoticed.

Choosing to walk through the back alleys meant inevitably witnessing the dark, grim side of this subterranean city: sudden assaults and robberies, gang warfare in the narrow passages, and the sight of the half-dead or the already departed lying on the ground every few steps.

It was not that a multitude died every single day, but violence and greed were the most common and authentic facets of this underground world.

Wang Yu had long since grown accustomed to it, and Avia, having spent so much time with him, had followed suit; though she did not enjoy it, she did not take it to heart.

Charles, however, still frowned at the sight. There was nothing wrong with that; in a sense, he was the only normal one among them.

Traversing the chaotic and malicious city, the group arrived at their destination: the street where the Night Church resided, Black Street No. 7. At a glance, it looked no different than before; gangs roamed, crowds flowed, and people hurried about their business with their faces hidden.

But Wang Yu had already spotted the person waiting at the corner of Black Street No. 7. The horns on his head made him striking, and his black skin was quite distinct. He was a druid, and an elf—a dark elf.

"Hello, I am Wang Yu." Having been informed of this person, Wang Yu approached and greeted the dark elf druid.

"Greetings. You must be Lord Wang Yu, the Archbishop of the Church that Lady Darkness spoke of, correct? Please allow me to offer you my highest respects. My name is Holo, a devout follower of the Lady of the Night. Lady Darkness sent me to guide you."

The druid performed a very solemn bow and identified himself.

Darkness was the alias of the Lady of the Night, the name of the image She manifested before Her followers. When She had asked Wang Yu to help Her choose a name, he had casually improvised by transliterating the pronunciation of "Darkness" into a Common tongue name. He hadn't expected the Lady of the Night to like it so much.

After all, it would be too scandalous for a deity to wander the church in person, so such a cover was necessary.

In the sect, Darkness’s status was akin to that of a Saintess; in reality, she was the deity Herself. There was no one else who could be the Saintess.

The addition of this druid was quite a coincidence. The reputation of dark elves in this world was much like that described in the literature of Earth—not great, essentially treated as pariahs by everyone.

Although this should have been blamed on the dark elves of the Sunken Swamps, in practice, once the reputation of one group is ruined, the entire race suffers. It was a harsh reality; regional prejudice, combined with underdeveloped information transmission, made it even worse in this world.

No one welcomed this race, and given the dark elves' aversion to sunlight, it was difficult for them to find work in most city-states. Only a place like the Shadow of the Royal City, where the entire space was underground, was more suitable for them.

However, few dark elves could enter Alastair and reach this underground space. That Holo, a dark elf druid, had managed to enter was a stroke of luck.

This underground space was, in theory, created by the Alastair royal family to contain the Sea of Subconsciousness; it was Alastair territory, protected by comprehensive security measures.

But in reality, such a vast underground space could not exist without subterranean rivers or cave passages. Holo had entered the Shadow of the Royal City through a river that flowed from the surface into the underground space.

...

"I am an apostate..." When he said this, Holo’s tone became noticeably low and sorrowful, yet it carried a faint, underlying joy of rebirth.

"I betrayed the Church of the God of Nature, but I do not believe I did anything wrong. What they practice is absolutely not the will of nature." Holo clenched his fists. He looked to be about fifty or sixty years old, which, for an elf, meant he was likely over two hundred.

During the walk, Wang Yu had expressed interest in learning why a druid like Holo wanted to join the Night Church. He was curious why a member of another race would seek to join such a little-known, obscure church.

"We were originally a branch of dark elves living in the Sorenson Mountains. Ah, even though we were driven from there, those remain the days I miss the most..." The druid’s words were filled with nostalgia.

Through the druid’s narrative, Wang Yu gradually understood the life trajectory of this alien believer.

They had originally been reclusive dark elves living in the Sorenson Mountains, no different from other reclusive elves except for living in a darker place.

Their faith was simple: a dual belief in ancestral spirits and the God of Nature. Compared to the God of Nature, Holo preferred to say he believed in Nature itself.

Feeling the voice of nature, listening to the words of plants and animals, and finding ways to coexist harmoniously with nature—this peaceful and harmonious lifestyle had captivated Holo, which was the primary reason he became a druid.

Those calm days were worth missing, making the subsequent changes all the more tragic.

At some point, a phenomenon known as "Corruption" appeared deep within the Sorenson Mountains. Wherever it passed, animals died and vegetation withered; every day, he could hear the wailing of those lives.

He had tried to use his power to stop the corruption, but he failed utterly. His power was too insignificant in the face of a corruption capable of affecting an entire mountain range; the spells he cast could not even save a single forest patch being consumed.

The other druids were the same; in the face of this corruption, the power of these guardians of nature seemed far too small.

Faced with the increasingly sparse trees and dead ancient forest giants in their territory, Holo and some of the younger elves, while in agony, chose the path of migration.

But the elders were adamantly opposed. To them, the ancestral land was more important than anything else. Both sides had their reasons, and this dispute lasted until a discovery by the Church of the God of Nature.

Life. Life could stop the spread of corruption. By killing living beings on the edge of the corruption and burying their "life" into the earth, they could halt its spread.

Thus, the elders' proposal became their choice: hunt wild animals and bury them at the edge of the corrupted land at fixed times each year to stop the spread, thereby avoiding the need to migrate the tribe.

However, as time passed, the corruption's demand for life grew. Initially, moderate hunting did not affect the forest, and the druidic creed did not reject such hunting.

But the corruption's demand for life caused the hunting to become excessive, even... insane.

At some point, the hunting targets of the Church of the God of Nature began to shift. After discovering that over-hunting wild beasts caused problems for the forest, they began to hunt other races.

Orcs, goblins, even lone dwarves and humans—they discovered that the lives of these intelligent beings could better satisfy the hunger of the corruption, so the hunting became more frequent.

In the eyes of the Church of the God of Nature, humans and their ilk were not part of nature, so they felt no psychological burden in hunting them. But to Holo and some of the other dark elves, this was wrong.

Watching the bodies of those intelligent beings, who died with their eyes wide open, being swallowed by the corrupted land, Holo felt a genuine sense of disgust and revulsion. This was not right. Holo told himself firmly, and he told his bishop the same.

The result was that his fellow sect members looked at him as if he were a madman, as if he were the one who was wrong.

Holo felt that this forest had gone mad, that this mountain range had gone mad. He chose to flee, along with some dark elves who shared his thoughts. They were going to leave the forest.

But he did not expect the Church of the God of Nature to be more extreme than they had imagined. The day after they discovered Holo’s dissent, they captured him and branded him with the mark of an apostate.

Believers bearing this mark would never be accepted by other sects because they were traitors.

The other dark elves who planned to flee were also discovered due to a mole in their midst.

The hunting targets of the Church of the God of Nature had shifted to their own kin. They would kill these "traitors" and bury their lives into the corrupted land to protect nature.

Driven to a dead end, these "traitors" chose to force their escape. Most were captured, killed, and buried in the corrupted land.

A few, such as Holo—a druid with considerable strength—combined with a bit of luck, managed to escape, even bringing his family with him.

But the hunting by the dark elf Church of the God of Nature continued. They tracked these "traitors" with the goal of killing them and burying them into the corrupted land.

Holo’s family hid for a long time. Because of his apostate mark and their status as dark elves, they dared not go to the cities of other races or non-reclusive elves, and could only hide in other forests on the outskirts of Sorenson, evading the pursuit of the church.

One day, due to a mistake, Holo’s family was cornered. With nowhere left to run, they jumped into a turbulent river in the forest and vanished into the dark currents.

And in the end, perhaps by some small miracle of fate, they did not perish, but emerged through the subterranean river into this very city, the shadowed capital of Shadowed Reach.

"Your Excellency, you understand that possessing features akin to the elves, combined with the status of an outcast without protection, is hardly a blessing in these lands," Holo remarked, his voice heavy with bitterness and resignation.

"Yet, at the very least, I have encountered you, the author of such scripture, and a faith as wondrous as this." With a bow, Holo inclined his body, guiding Wang Yu’s gaze toward the vista ahead.

Wang Yu looked, his eyes widening in quiet astonishment.