"No."
Charles shook his head. "This church was built at the end of the seventeenth century. After the Mist descended, it remained abandoned here until Saintess Chloe led us here several years ago and turned it into our place of refuge within the Mist."
"Did Chloe create the barrier here that disperses the Mist as well?"
"That's right. Only the Saintess can perform such a miracle." Fanatical reverence appeared in Charles's eyes.
"Chloe... when did your Saintess arrive here?" Number 27 asked with a frown as he followed behind Lin Qiye.
"About six or seven years ago," Charles replied. "If not for the Saintess, we might have been trapped in that 'Human Circle' forever."
"You used to be raised in the 'Human Circle'?"
"That's right. It was a small world with an extremely harsh environment. We could only gain strength by bathing our bodies in the blood of divine beasts, and only by sticking together could we survive. The knight order was established back then as well."
Lin Qiye finally understood how these knights had survived in the Mist. They were all residents of the "Human Circle," essentially no different from Amamiya Haruki and the others, except their power system was somewhat different.
Just then, he seemed to think of something. "Then do you know Jinian?"
"Jinian? That silver-haired girl?" Charles nodded. "I know her. She originally wanted to take us to Utopia, but we refused. We still hoped to follow the Saintess's footsteps... though she took one of our Knight Commanders with her."
The blond knight Lin Qiye had seen in the Shang Xie Association immediately appeared in his mind. So he had once been a member of the Holy Judgment Knights too? No wonder he could unleash such formidable strength using only his physical body.
The four followed