"Ahem, then I'll ask directly. You two... have you heard of [Named One]?"
Nora froze for a moment, as though something had occurred to her. She frowned and sank into thought.
Chloe answered bluntly, "I have."
"You still remember the Mechanical Cathedral, right?"
How could he forget? The priest who had killed him had likely been from the Mechanical Cathedral. The prayer used to awaken the Machine Soul had been a Mechanical Cathedral prayer, and the steam rifles in the Banshees' hands had also been creations of the Mechanical Cathedral.
Theus's impression of that Church was one of all sorts of bizarre, chaotic black technologies. They seemed to make some sense at first glance, but the more he thought about them, the more wrong they felt.
Take those steam rifles, for instance—they actually used mercury vapor. Or the mechanical priests: the steel prosthetics they used looked nothing like servo motors.
"The Mechanical Cathedral was formerly the Mechanical Society. Back then, we were the Moth Chasing Flame sect under the Candlelight Society and had a very friendly relationship with them, so we knew some of their secrets."
"For example... the Great Sage Bruno called himself a [Named One]."
"But as for what exactly a [Named One] is, we don't know any more than that."
Theus turned to Nora. "Do you remember anything?"
"I do, but I don't know the specifics." Nora swayed the vase from side to side. "There must be records of it in the Temple."
"Oh? You're that sure? Have you seen it before?"
"[Buriers] bury some harmful knowledge. That is how we resist Pollution. I suspect I may have buried the knowledge related to this—but the Silent Temple must have backups."
After saying that, she stared fixedly at Theus. "The world may forget, but the Crow of Bones