Chapter 79: Let’s explore the area ahead another time
Right, there was still that cross.
If Elise hadn’t reminded her, Peiya would have almost forgotten she had it. She usually didn’t like using power from unknown sources.
Those old men in the Church were all as cunning as ancient foxes. Using their items made it hard for her to feel at ease.
But the situation was special now. Using it was the only choice. And when it came to purification magic, the Church was truly the best at it.
Peiya took out the bronze cross from her pocket, cleaned off the dirt with water magic, and held it in her palm. Then she began to call upon holy light magic.
Very quickly, the beautiful scene around them faded away like a receding tide.
The once shining crystals became dark and dull. In the broken parts, you could see filth like muddy ground after rain.
Just one look made her stomach turn.
A strong feeling of nausea spread through her body. The space they were in now felt like a huge swamp, full of filth. The black, broken crystals reflected blurry faces.
“So this is what it really looks like…”
Peiya covered her nose and mouth, trying not to breathe in the foul smell.
It was hard to believe that just a moment ago, she had been casually talking in a place like this.
What made her feel even worse was that even though she only breathed in a little, her nose started reacting uncontrollably. Already short of air, she ended up taking a big breath of the stench.
No one could handle that easily. Peiya sneezed hard.
That only made things worse, she inhaled even more of the smell. As expected, she bent over coughing for a long time, almost dropping the Judgment Cross in her hand.
If it really fell on the ground, she definitely wouldn’t pick it up from such a disgusting place!
“Are you okay? I have some mint leaves, smell this.”
Elise took out a small round container from her bag, opened it, and poured a few triangular leaves into her hand. She crushed them and directly pushed the juicy mint leaves into Peiya’s nose.
The strong smell felt like both ice and fire at the same time. It helped her recover, but it also felt like it took a bit of her life away.
If this happened a few more times, her body probably wouldn’t handle it well.
“Why do you even carry something like this?”
“I explored a bat cave before. It smelled really bad, so I brought this. If you’re better now, let’s look around. Maybe the exit is nearby.”
Peiya nodded and followed Elise deeper into the cave. Drops of water hung from the rock walls, but now they had turned black.
“The Ice Bear King has such strange taste, choosing a place like this. And it doesn’t even clean it up.”
Peiya muttered to herself. When they turned a corner, both of them froze.
Several Church members’ bodies were lying on the ground.
Peiya quickly walked over to check them. Unfortunately, none of them had a Judgment Cross like the one the previous Judicator had.
She looked a bit disappointed. “Looks like they’re just low-level soldiers. Not even a single cross.”
“You think crosses grow everywhere?” Elise said. “These regular soldiers are usually equipped with something called ‘wave markings.’ Look here.”
She pointed at the strange golden patterns on their hands and arms.
They looked like bars rising and falling in a line, like an audio waveform or spectrum.
The shape was quite unusual.
“It looks like some kind of musical wave pattern. I thought it would be a cross.”
“No, it’s called a ‘wave string.’ If normal people directly take in the power of faith, their bodies will suffer permanent damage. So the Church gives these wave strings to ordinary soldiers, turning their bodies into receivers. By chanting specific verses, their magic resonates with the wave string inside them…”
“...This lets them briefly use the power of faith to strengthen their magic. The Judicator you saw earlier was chosen by the Sun. So praising the sun is, in a way, how he activates his power. But once someone reaches the level of a Judicator, their body is strong enough to resist the damage from faith power, so wave strings become less necessary. Of course, there are exceptions. Some beliefs place great importance on chanting poems, like the Sun God cult…”
“...Their praise of the sun has become part of their daily life. Even if they don’t need wave strings, they still keep the habit of praising the sun to activate their power. As for why they use Judgment Crosses, it’s simple. Compared to using wave strings and burning your own body, using a divine medium is much safer. Many of the high-ranking elders in the Church are already old. With their aging bodies, burning their life force to use faith power isn’t worth it.”
After listening to Elise’s explanation, Peiya gave a knowing smile.
In simple terms, faith power was like an endless source of magic. Using it directly was fine when you were young, but if you kept doing that when you got older, the cost would be too high.
It seemed life in the Church wasn’t easy either. Young soldiers used their bodies as tools to force out faith power.
When they got too old and their bodies couldn’t handle it anymore, they were “promoted” and given tools to use deeper power instead.
In reality, it was just to prevent trained members from suddenly dying. It wouldn’t be worth the loss otherwise.
It was actually quite similar to adventurer guilds.
Ordinary adventurers facing disasters were nothing more than expendable resources in statistics.
Peiya let out a small laugh. “Heh, so the Church really has a strict hierarchy. I don’t like it.”
Elise smiled helplessly. “But you’re using quite a lot of their stuff right now. Saying you don’t like it after using it? Is it that the holy light isn’t useful, or the cross isn’t cool enough? Before you say that, maybe take your hand off the cross first, it would sound more convincing. Anyway, it won’t be long before they notice you. Even if you don’t want to meet them, you’ll have to.”
“Hmph, we’ll see if they can even find me.”
Peiya didn’t continue the topic. Instead, she bent down to examine the fallen soldiers. She noticed signs of mineral sickness on their bodies.
That wasn’t surprising. Being exposed to such a large amount of pollution, it would be strange if they weren’t affected.
As she checked their robes, Peiya noticed something simple about their sleeves.
“Why do all their sleeves have leaf patterns? And they’re gold… golden leaves?”
“That’s not just any golden leaf. You won’t find this in books. How should I explain it… do you know where the Church stores its faith power?”
Peiya frowned. “You just said I wouldn’t know, so how would I know?”
“In that case, I won’t keep it a secret. The Church’s faith power is actually stored in a huge Golden Tree. Some historians say it was a sapling planted long ago by ‘Knowledge.’ Later, the Church raised it and turned it into their sacred tree. The faith power in your Judgment Cross comes from there. As for the golden leaf patterns on these soldiers’ sleeves, they also come from that Golden Tree. Many things in the Church are decorated with leaf patterns, kind of like how kings like to use roses and lions in their symbols.”
“Does that mean the kingdom’s power comes from lions?” Peiya’s eyes lit up. She was impressed by how much Elise knew.
If Elise were a book, Peiya would want to open it and read every page.
Elise blinked mysteriously, a playful smile on her lips.
“Well… that’s a secret. You can slowly discover it yourself later. There are many interesting things in the kingdom~”