Daly stared blankly at the words on the altar for a full ten seconds. Normally, rituals were held to pray for the Goddess to heal a companion, create charms, or grant the power of fate, darkness, and so on.
No matter what one prayed for, one would simply wait for the Goddess's response after reciting the prayer.
The Goddess generally responded to the prayers of the Nighthawks.
But that response was merely the Goddess bestowing some form of power. Never before had there been a response in the form of a sentence appearing on an altar.
Only when that overwhelming drowsiness faded did Daly come back to her senses. "Hobart? Who is Hobart? Which Hobart?"
At last, she looked toward the young man carrying an Oil Painting, who was talking with Selena in the courtyard.
Hobart called Selena over to the two enormous "moths." "They were once Beyonders, but they were contaminated by some high-level power and became like this."
Selena had seen them earlier, but she had not looked closely. Now, she found them horrifying. "Teacher, is this what the world is really like?"
"Yes." Hobart said, "I mentioned in my letter that I wanted to talk with you recently. This was what I wanted to discuss.
"Both you and Elizabeth have relatively high spirituality, so you are more likely to encounter Beyonder incidents. The Aurora Society from before—that divination teacher of yours—wanted to recruit you as an outer member because they valued your spirituality."
For the first time, Selena felt an immense sense of danger. "Teacher, what should I do?"
"Either pretend nothing happened and warn yourself to avoid Beyonder incidents, or anything that seems or sounds strange." Hobart examined the "moths" before him. "Or become a Beyonder as soon as possible and gain the ability to