Pandora's departure did not hinder them.
The bishop smiled and expressed his regret at Pandora's departure, then led the three of them out of the small room.
They went to the attic located high up in the church.
It's more like a bell tower than an attic. A huge bell hangs in the center of the attic. Every day, the bishop comes here to ring the morning bell, using the Gospel to awaken the sleeping church.
They watched as Pandora, dressed in black, left the church. Instead of driving the carriage, Pandora left it beside the church and departed alone.
Now, they are the only ones still awake in the church.
The soft rays of sunlight spilled across the horizon. The rays twisted and intertwined, forming a towering, almost divine silhouette. His gaze was gentle, and his compassionate voice reached the hearts of everyone present.
Daylight broke.
A miracle occurred.
The city's still-sleeping people raised their faces. Some, whose heads were always bowed, had their faces gently lifted by God—everyone who was still alive had stepped over their corpses. They existed, with either pity or anger, lifting the living towards this miracle.
Their eyes were fixed on the miracle.
God said that He would bring divine punishment upon sinners.
A pale, white-gold light spilled down from mid-air, its warm glow equally illuminating every inch of the land beneath the sky.
He, composed of sunlight, vanished. And the sounds of people talking rose like dust.
The bishop smiled. She calmly gazed at the illusory image of God gradually disappearing into the air. She had already seized new divine authority; creating a divine phantom was an incredibly simple matter for her.
With three people possessing extraordinary abilities around her, she didn't need to worry about her safety.
But merely being a god, or the position of a pope... is far from enough.
She needs to be in the open to have the right to attack those rats hiding in the shadows.
She could no longer see the shadow of God.
“It’s time,” the bishop said.
Upon hearing this, Ai Cao used the [Good Pregnancy] skill on the individuals targeted in this operation. She shook hands with Lillian, and Ai Cao's own vision darkened.
She was shared with Lillian's field of vision.
She walked through the darkness and saw a scene slowly emerging from it.
She was in a beautifully decorated building.
As dawn broke, bright light streamed through the window and shone on the furniture. She reached out and touched the intricate carvings on the wooden furniture, and the fresh, splattered blood, like a red birthmark.
The mugwort weaved through the crooked, fallen vases and decorative paintings, stopping before the man with a distorted face. His pristine white papal robes were torn in two along with his body, the rough fabric stained with blood.
Red flowers are in full bloom.
The woman beside him smiled, turned her head, greeted her—who didn't actually exist there—before lowering her head again, ripped out the man's eyes, and stuffed them into his mouth. The smile on the woman's face did nothing to affect her actions.
She separated the man's facial features and organs from the body and then filled them into the holes in the body one by one.
The scene before Ai Cao's eyes darkened again.
In the next scene, the man lying on the bed still maintains a struggling posture. A red flower path, paved with his flesh and blood, extends from his abdomen all the way to the main hall. Standing at the end of the flower path, the woman hums a song, her blood-stained fingertips acting as a brush, drawing a beautifully sculpted cross on the wall, then filling it with color using the man's flesh and blood.
...
Artemisia walked through the long darkness again. Light returned to her eyes, and she met Lillian's somewhat worried gaze.
Lillian asked hesitantly, "Are you scared?"
Helen, standing to the side, scoffed and whispered, "She's afraid?"
Lillian's eyes were serious. Ignoring Helen's spoilsport, Ai Cao thought seriously for a moment and answered, "No." She couldn't say she had no thoughts about the scene just now, but she certainly didn't feel any "fear."
Ai Cao thought about it again and said, "It might feel a bit wasteful. But with so many targets, a little waste won't matter."
She turned to Helen and said, "I also have things I'm afraid of, but these things don't frighten me."
"What was wasted?" the bishop asked calmly.
Ai Cao shrugged: "A corpse? If you want to shock people, you should make the scene more grand."
After all, the significance of this performance far outweighs its practical significance. Ai Cao doesn't believe that simply killing a few particularly sinful bishops can help ordinary people in this world survive.
It's just a dead person, not a matter of dividing property.
Since it's a performance, the grander the better.
The bishop chuckled softly.
She smiled as she looked at the mugwort, as if she were looking at an immature child: "You don't know humans. When they encounter something too serious, they block out their senses. Their bodies try to forget it, pretending it never happened."
“But if we don’t make it so serious,” the bishop said, his eyes crinkling gently, “they will remember it. When they pray to the Lord, when they worship, or when they pass by those buildings… they will think of it.”
The bishop's voice became softer and more ethereal.
Lillian smiled and said, "So I deliberately had them make the scene more...dreamy? So that it would enter their dreams and memories." She turned to confirm the wording with the bishop, and then continued, "Sister Artemisia isn't from this world, so she has no concept of the suffering they've witnessed."
Ai Cao nodded: "I have only seen the suffering they have encountered, but I have not personally experienced their suffering." She said calmly, "I will not allow myself to become like that, and naturally I do not understand why they became like that."
“You are not from here, Artemisia,” the bishop said. Her tone was calm, without a hint of reproach towards Artemisia: “If you were born here, you would know something about this place. If I were not by the Lord’s side, I would not be with you.”
Ai Cao shrugged: "No, it won't be like that. If you weren't like that, I would choose another way—I will always achieve what I want."
Although she appeared to be arguing with the bishop, the atmosphere between them remained peaceful. It was like having afternoon tea with friends, chatting about unimportant things.
Even if what they were saying had absolutely nothing to do with afternoon tea.
“…Yes.” The bishop smiled. “You will eventually achieve what you want. And since we are on the same page, I will also have what I want.”
She walked slowly to the edge of the bell tower and looked down at the garden located in the church.
The flowers and plants in the garden are thriving.
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