Rewind time to approximately one hour ago, inside the main hall of Modi's Arcane Forge.
Modi sat behind the counter, his two calloused fingers unconsciously rubbing the edge of the ledger, fraying the corner of the rough parchment.
He was the manager of this alchemy materials shop, known to his neighbors as a penny-pinching miser who clung to every Copper Shell.
But he had another identity.
He was one of the only two remaining Bishops of the secret church—the New Moon Sect.
Last night was the full moon.
According to the sect's sacrosanct ancient calendar, last night should have been the time for a grand sacrificial ritual.
Bennis, his fellow Bishop—a fanatic who wore a ridiculous mask and thought of nothing but martyrdom—had long ago set up a magic circle in the depths of the city's outskirts dungeon, preparing a large number of sacrifices.
Modi glanced up at the mechanical pendulum clock hanging on the wall; the hour hand ticked away.
The full moon had long since passed, and the sun was high in the sky.
However, Bennis had not returned.
There wasn't even a magical messenger sent to relay news.
This was absolutely abnormal.
Though Bennis was a madman, he was always more eager than anyone else to report the results of the sacrifice to the Moon Goddess.
On previous full moon nights, as soon as the ritual in the hall ended, the crystal ball on Modi's desk would inevitably light up with a piercing silver glow, accompanied by Bennis's sickeningly arrogant voice boasting about how he was one step closer to receiving a response from the Moon Goddess.
In truth, the Moon Goddess responded to almost every ritual.
But they never really had anything important to say when they called her down; they just hoped for her protection.
The Moon Goddess, however, never granted it.
Over time, she became reluctant to descend personally, sending only a mana clone each time.
Even so, Bennis tirelessly performed the ritual every single month.
But today, the crystal ball was as silent as an ordinary glass sphere.
Modi's brow furrowed deeply.
He had warned Bennis long ago.
“Don't make too much noise,” Modi had told Bennis at a gathering three months ago.
As a conservative within the sect, Modi had always adhered to the principle of acting with caution.
In this land of Solitude, cursed by the Moon Goddess, survival itself was already an extremely difficult task.
The strict Companion System, the omnipresent patrol guards, and the civilians whose nerves were frayed by fear.
In a world where anyone left alone at night would simply vanish, any abnormal disappearance of personnel would attract immense attention.
Yet that pig Bennis, in his pursuit of so-called pure souls, had the insanity to suggest kidnapping civilians directly from the streets, and had even extended his black reach to foreign merchants traveling with guards!
Humanoids were high-quality materials.
The higher their affinity, mana potential, and various talents, the better the quality of the material.
Bennis had originally used ordinary humans without talent as sacrifices.
But all he received was a cold glance from the Moon Goddess upon her appearance.
Then she would vanish.
“She looked at me,” Bennis would declare proudly. “I will find higher-quality humans to sacrifice.”
Modi scoffed at this.
This was clearly seeking a path to death.
While official governance was limited against casters of their level, it didn't mean the Kingdom was a blind cat.
Once the patrol guards intervened on a large scale, or if high-tier adventurers were drawn in, regardless of what happened to the Bishops, the low-tier cultists would certainly not survive.
Furthermore, Bennis, whose mind was filled only with the Moon Goddess, had no idea how to operate in the shadows.
Modi was a master of spells; he was proficient in improving incantations, constructing hidden barriers, and disguising all sorts of magical materials.
He could complete a small blessing with the faintest ripple of mana, never alerting a soul.
But Bennis? That guy was a ritual master who only knew how to throw resources around and create a spectacle.
The giant magic circles he set up leaked mana like a bonfire lit in the middle of the night; the wicked fluctuations could be felt for ten miles around.
But Modi couldn't interfere with him, as they were both Bishops.
And now, the man was missing.
An indescribable chill crawled up Modi's spine.
He fished a silver crescent moon badge with a chipped corner out of a hidden compartment under the counter and rubbed it repeatedly in his palm.
If it was just the local patrol guards raiding the base, that would be manageable.
Modi had a few hidden connections in the government; he could always suppress the matter by spending a few dozen Gold Suns.
But the true fear in his heart came from another rumor that had recently been spreading like wildfire through the underworld.
A new legendary adventurer—the Hero—was heading toward Solitude.
As the sayings on Discord went:
“The blonde mad dog from Destinos has crossed the kingdom's border.”
“The unreasonable Holy Light thug is approaching the industrial heart.”
“The cold-blooded Heretic Inquisitor has entered the Discord outskirts.”
“Kaila has breached the outer fortress.”
“The Hero Kaila is nearing the underground factory.”
“The supreme Holy Light Arbiter has arrived today at her loyal Evernight City!”
In any case, after that, the Witch Cult on Discord became much more inclined to singing and dancing, and rarely posted anything anymore.
That executioner known as the Hero would slaughter any cultist related to witches without hesitation, never listening to explanations and never accepting bribes.
Dammit, did Bennis run away because he heard this news?
He could have at least told me.
A battle shouldn't have occurred; with Bennis's strength, even against the Hero, he should have been able to drag the fight out for several days.
Even if he were to lose, it would be a narrow defeat.
And Bennis wouldn't have failed to ask him for reinforcements.
Now that the man was gone, he had undoubtedly betrayed the organization and fled.
Without Bennis, the New Moon Sect had essentially lost a pillar.
Modi had plenty of spells, but only ritual circles could communicate with the Moon Goddess. If they couldn't call the Moon Goddess, how could they call themselves the New Moon Sect?
The sect's current situation had reached the brink of life and death.
The New Moon Sect needed a new ritual caster.
It didn't matter if they were weaker than Bennis, but they had to be at least a Mid-tier Ritual Expert, right?
But Solitude was a border country rarely visited by adventurers. Where could he find such an expert?
Until that woman pushed open the shop door.
At first, Modi treated her entirely as a noble lady with more money than sense.
A ridiculous wooden mask, a spendthrift attitude, a useless body with almost no mana, and she immediately asked for the best private ritual room.
No one is going to peek at your alchemy; what's there to hide? Are you afraid of blowing yourself up?
Judging solely by her mana capacity, if Modi were to fight that woman...
He could hang her up and beat her senseless.
However.
The New Moon Sect still had to eat.
Seeing the five Gold Suns...
Modi immediately put on his characteristic merchant's fawning face and scurried to the warehouse to dig out the high-grade materials he had kept at the bottom of his crates.
On the surface, Modi calmly guided her into the shop's highest-specification alchemy room, while internally he was already calculating how to squeeze a few more gold coins out of her once she inevitably wasted all the materials.
The ironwood door, which isolated mana fluctuations, swung shut.
Modi leaned against the counter with nothing to do, straining his ears to catch any sound from within.
As it turned out, less than fifteen minutes later...
Bang!
The heavy ironwood door was violently thrown open.
Did the ritual circle explode after all?
Then he would have to collect a hefty compensation fee.
That woman—that noble lady radiating an incredible aura of wealth—stumbled out.
The girl's face was actually quite pretty.
But what made Modi's heart skip a beat was the scent on her.
A scent of blood so thick it was almost tangible.
The materials she just bought didn't include any blood plasma.
And then there was her wrist, which was pulsing with blood.
Did she come to his shop just to lower the property value?
Or was she some scatterbrained noble lady who had tried some forbidden flesh-refining ritual and ended up like this?
Before Modi could ask, she shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Holy water! Do you have holy water? Give me two bottles of the highest purity!”
She wanted holy water?
After suffering such a heavy injury, instead of buying healing potions, she wanted holy water?
The entirety of Solitude was shrouded by the Moon Goddess's wings; therefore, the churches of the ancient orthodox gods had long since declined.
Want to call the gods?
You have to get past the Moon Goddess first.
Prayers, rituals, blessings... those were things of a bygone era.
The orthodox churches could only produce diluted holy water, holy meals, holy wafers, and saintesses...
They had long ago become titles with no practical meaning.
However, their New Moon Sect had the real thing.
Considering he still wanted to squeeze some Gold Suns out of this young lady, Modi sold Sophie the high-grade holy water blessed by his own sect.
Holy water was good stuff, but it was useless to the average person.
And it wasn't meant for drinking.
To a normal person, this high-purity divine mana was practically a poison that would burn their internal organs to ash the moment they drank it.
And for the wicked creatures of the Abyss or undead monsters, it was a lethal corrosive liquid; a single drop could dissolve half a body.
This substance was usually only used as an environmental purifier during exorcism rituals.
However, just as Modi was about to remind her of the correct way to use holy water...
He witnessed a scene that he would never be able to understand in his life—one that was enough to overturn all his knowledge of magic.
The woman directly yanked out the cork.
She tilted her head back.
Gulp, gulp, gulp!
She poured an entire bottle of high-purity divine liquid down her throat as if she were drinking the cheapest ale in a tavern.
Modi's jaw hit the floor.
Holy hell, she really is a competitor sent to lower the property value, isn't she?
He stared intently at the woman's stomach, waiting for her body to explode under the rampage of divine mana or for her to roll on the ground in agony.
But nothing happened.
Nothing at all.
On the contrary, the woman let out a long sigh of relief and wiped her mouth.
“Ha—I’m back from the dead.”
Modi's pupils shook with shock.
How was this possible?
What was she?
Modi stood frozen in place for a full two minutes.
Countless magic theories collided and shattered in his mind, and he could no longer reassemble them.
A person who was heavily injured and covered in the scent of blood had drunk high-purity holy water and not only remained unharmed but actually looked healthier, with her bleeding wrist scabbing over and healing in an instant.
If it were a monster like a vampire, he could understand them recovering health by drinking blood.
But what kind of being recovered from injuries by drinking holy water? A celestial?
An angel? A heroic spirit? A saint? A unicorn in human form? A feathered serpent? Or someone from the Empyrean?
Weren't those just myths and legends?
Modi had another hypothesis.
A Divine Chosen.
Only a being deeply favored by the gods, whose soul had been thoroughly cleansed, and who represented ultimate light and purity, could treat violent divine power as life-giving rain.
Since she recovered by drinking the holy water of our New Moon Sect, then she must be fated to be with us.
Or to put it simply...
Her Majesty the Moon Goddess sent her to help me.
Modi's legs began to tremble uncontrollably, and he swallowed hard.
Furthermore, the ritual aura leaking from the open door...
He had only ever felt that kind of ritual aura from one person.
That was Bennis, the High-tier Ritual Master.
She was also a ritual master.
Bennis was gone, and the sect was worried about not having a ritual master to oversee things.
The Hero who hated evil was about to arrive, and the sect was facing an existential threat.
At this life-or-death moment, such an extraordinary being who could absorb the Moon Goddess's divine power had walked into his shop!
Was this a coincidence?
This was the arrangement of fate.
Modi's gaze changed.
Greed and calculation faded away, replaced by a fanaticism for the Moon Goddess.
The Goddess had granted him this opportunity; of course he had to treasure it.
Furthermore, with her, even if that Hero named Kaila really made it to Silvervein City, the sect would have the capital to fight back.
Hmph, Hero, I’ll make sure you never return.
Modi paced back and forth behind the counter, his heart pounding like a drum.
He had to seize this chance.
He had to persuade her.
He waited outside the alchemy room door, his eyes burning as he stared at the heavy ironwood door.
This was the New Moon Sect's only hope, and it was the last straw for Modi to survive in this chaotic world.
The ironwood door made a dull sound as it slowly swung open.
Sophie, having just completed a large-scale refinement, walked out of the room looking visibly exhausted.
Modi took a deep breath.
He stepped forward to meet her.
“Miss, could you spare a moment of your time? I would like to tell you about our Mother and Savior—”
“The New Moon Lady.”
Rate on N.U.
