The words had been written beneath the small prayer stand. The bloodstains had already been wiped away, yet the fluorescent traces appeared with perfect clarity before Diana's eyes. She saw the lines trembling and twisting, every stroke seeming to contain all the strength of the person who had written them—as if she could see the overwhelming emotion Malm Dunite had felt when he wrote them—
Nearly insane.
Diana withdrew her gaze from the frenzied writing and searched the entire room again. This time, she found nothing more—the priests responsible for cleaning up had been quite diligent.
The black-haired head maid blinked, turned around, and prepared to leave the scene.
Yet at the very instant she turned, a powerful Magic Fluctuation suddenly gathered in the room—no, it had appeared out of nowhere, as if descending upon the chamber!
Diana spun around at once. The next second, she sensed an invisible wind of magic sweeping through the prayer room. Strands of black-red vapor emerged from the air, gathering and taking shape around the small prayer stand like a vortex, as though blood once spilled here were flowing back into some long-vanished body. The dim little lamp suddenly flared to life, and amid its abruptly brightened radiance, a tall, translucent figure of smoke and light condensed in midair!
"Blasphemous heretic!" The illusory, distorted figure fixed Diana with a furious glare and let out an enraged roar. Its smoke-wreathed face vaguely resembled Malm Dunite's. With that roar, it suddenly spread its arms and cried out in prayer, as though embracing or offering itself up. "Lord! Send down the punishment of souls and destroy this heretic who has defiled the holy sanctuary!"
The instant the phantom appeared, Diana had already assumed a defensive stance. A faint gleam rose in her eyes, pale white rings suddenly