The Astley Family held enormous influence locally. Aside from their ancestral home in the Upper City District, they also owned vacation estates, racetracks, factories, and a range of family assets in the outskirts. Though their wealth certainly could not compare with Moon Bay's Belinder Family, the surname "Astley" truly carried considerable weight here.
Taking this opportunity, Miss Lorraine gave Shade a detailed account of the Astley Family's current situation. She truly was a loyal housekeeper. But at half past three in the afternoon, just as Miss Lorraine was smilingly recounting amusing stories about thirteen-year-old Wei Ge swinging on a swing, a sudden clap of thunder sounded outside.
Shade and Miss Lorraine both looked outside. Shade asked in confusion:
"The rain has been light today, and there hasn't been any thunder. That thunderclap just now didn't sound like normal thunder to me. It sounded more like... a Sunlight Gun?!"
[Sunlight Gun] was Iluna's favorite and most practiced Thaumaturgy, equivalent to the [Moonlight Slash] in Shade's hand. Thus, Shade was very familiar with it.
Miss Lorraine shook her head and headed toward the study's terrace to check the situation, but at that moment—
BOOM!
The tremendous noise and violent tremor of the ground in that instant nearly made Shade think the mountains were about to collapse. Every pane of glass in the mansion shook from the blast, and tea even splashed straight out of the cups on the tea table.
Though the deafening sound had faded, a rumbling Echo still lingered in the distance for a long time. The commotion was far greater than Saturday's explosion in Tobesk. Miss Lorraine stared outside in shock and did not dare continue toward the terrace, while Shade had already risen to his feet:
"Judging from the sound, it came from the Creation Church's headquarters to