After informing the Evernight Goddess through prayer that a trace of the aura left by the Mother Goddess of Depravity had called out to Omebella, Angel closed her eyes and waited a moment. She received no direct response from the Goddess, nor did any bishop come to the Prayer Hall to convey a divine revelation.
Strange. The Goddess helped us hunt the Demonic Wolf, which means accommodating Death's Uniqueness hasn't left her completely unable to answer prayers. But why hasn't she responded to something this important?
Angel pondered this, recited the honorific name again, and offered the same prayer once more. Still, there was no response.
There were two possibilities. Either the Goddess already knew about this and considered Angel's status and strength far too low for her to intervene, just as when she had drawn Adam's likeness and sacrificed it to the Goddess seeking answers shortly after advancing to Sequence 8, or the Goddess's condition had suddenly worsened, leaving her unable to respond normally to her blessed's prayers.
Judging by the anxious believers filling the Prayer Hall and Church Square, and the wavering faith in Evernight throughout Backlund and even Loen, Angel leaned toward the latter.
There was little she could do to help with this. Even if she emptied Dream City's food stores and seized the Gift of the Land to plant it in Backlund, she would struggle to resolve the food shortage undermining public morale. This was no longer merely a matter of merchants hoarding resources. The effects of the Intis and Feysac armies' initial occupation of food-producing regions and severing of sea routes were gradually becoming apparent. Loen's decline was not something she could reverse alone, even as an angel.
Moreover, now that the battle lines encircling the greater Backlund region had formed, even if Angel