Abnormal Cognition (Seeking Follow-ups, Seeking Monthly Votes~)

The bishop's pupils were a pale violet, and within the gem-like lenses, countless microscopic black lines were slowly swimming.

Under the flickering firelight, if one looked closely, it was as if tiny insects were wriggling inside them.

"The bishop's eyes are a bit strange. Could it be a manifestation of his ability?"

At this moment, in the vision of the Spirit Sight, Little George's body had stopped trembling; he stood rigid, his eyes as hollow as if veiled by mist.

The cluster of light representing Little George's thoughts remained motionless in Ivan's consciousness, without even a flicker of activity.

"Little George seems to have been hypnotized by him? Is this the method he uses to tamper with memories?"

"No, I cannot let him extract information about the Holy Spirit Society."

Ivan attempted to touch the cluster of light representing Little George's thoughts within his consciousness to see if he could awaken him.

There was no resistance as expected; his consciousness felt as if it were passing through a layer of warm water, and he was instantly enveloped by a sense of weightlessness.

When he opened his eyes again, his field of vision had suddenly dropped, and the scent of old fabric and dust lingered at the tip of his nose.

Ivan instinctively looked down and saw a coarse cloth jacket covered in patches, the cuffs worn shiny.

He stretched out his hands; the knuckles were rough, the palms calloused—not the transparent tentacles of a jellyfish, but a human body.

"I... I've taken over Little George's body?"

Ivan's consciousness surged with shock. He tried to clench his fingers, and a real tactile sensation traveled from his fingertips; even the warmth of flowing blood was clearly discernible.

What was even more miraculous was that he could clearly perceive the residual Shaman Spirituality within Little George's body, and could even mobilize a faint trace of water-based power, though it was currently suppressed by the bishop's hypnosis and could not be unleashed.

"Child, you have yet to answer my question." The bishop's voice rang in his ears, as gentle as if he were coaxing a toddler.

Ivan looked up to meet the bishop's gaze. The black lines in those pale violet pupils had vanished, leaving only composure and serenity.

He hurriedly feigned a half-dreaming, half-waking state and answered with Little George's mouth:

"I... I believe in the great Lord..."

Hearing this answer, the bishop was not surprised; he continued to press.

"We all believe in the great Lord. But the divinity of the Lord is distributed across every corner of His body.

Do you believe in the Blood of the Lord, the Eyes of the Lord?

Or perhaps the Brain of the Lord, the Heart of the Lord, the Tentacles of the Lord?

Or is it the Beak-tongue of the Lord, the Gill Filaments of the Lord?"

"What?" Ivan asked through Little George's throat, his voice carrying just the right amount of confusion.

He was truly bewildered. The "Lord" the bishop spoke of sounded nothing like a human, but rather like some kind of monster.

"Tentacles of the Lord," "Gill Filaments of the Lord," "Beak-tongue of the Lord."

These terms instantly reminded him of creatures in the ocean and birds in the sky, and even made him think of his own jellyfish form. A chill crawled up his spine.

"You don't know? It seems you are not a missionary sent by another kingdom, but merely a poor child accidentally snatched up by the bailiffs."

The bishop sighed slightly. From start to finish, he had not detected anything unusual about this child, who had been hypnotized by him with ease, without even a shred of spiritual resistance.

A storm surged in Ivan's heart as a bold hypothesis took shape within him.

"The faith in the Creator God has been dismantled into faiths for different parts of the body. And this Creator God isn't even humanoid."

He probed the bishop once more:

"I believe in the entirety of the Lord. The Lord Himself."

Hearing this, the bishop's face clouded with confusion. He looked at Little George strangely, leaning in closer and closer, making Ivan's skin crawl.

This bishop, he wouldn't have any designs on a little boy, would he...

The bishop seemed as if his memory had been disrupted; his speech began to stutter, and even the scene around him began to show signs of fragmentation.

"Silly child, the Lord was never a complete individual, but rather fragments scattered across our world, bestowing blessings upon the people."

"Where would such a notion of the 'Lord Himself' come from?"

His tone was vacant, not as if he were deliberately lying, but as if, in his cognition, the divine had never been a complete entity, but rather a collection of pieced-together organs.

Ivan felt his understanding being subverted once again.

"The bishop of the Church of Divine Grace in Trino City doesn't know that a complete god exists either?"

He fell into deep thought. If it wasn't that the bishop's rank was insufficient, then the act of erasing this knowledge was not something done by the Church of Divine Grace itself.

"Then what exactly erased people's knowledge of the Creator God and the Old Church? Could it be that everything really is just Old Harvey's delusion..."

Ivan felt a lack of confidence now. He had no way to verify Old Harvey's claims. If there was no one else in the world who knew of the Old Church's existence, then this would forever remain an unsolvable mystery.

However, based on this division of body parts, one could imagine that the Lord of the past was indeed a complete individual.

If so, Old Harvey's words were likely true, only the memories—or even the cognition—of most people had been altered by some power.

That was why they didn't find it strange that their faith was divided into pieces.

The faith of the Rhine Kingdom was merely the Eyes and the Blood, after all.

"Hmm... I, I remembered wrong. I believe in the Eyes of the Lord; He guides the path we walk."

Hearing this, as if a stalled mind had begun to turn once more, the Bishop gradually recovered from that strange state.

He rubbed his temples, seemingly suffering from a headache, and hurriedly fished a crystalline substance from his robe pocket, swallowing it in one gulp.

That is? A Beyonder material related to the Eyes of the Lord? Is it a condensation of an eye?

Ivan watched the Bishop's unmasked actions with a surge of excitement; he had finally found a material that could grant Little George Beyonder abilities.

He just didn't know how to get his hands on it...

After the Bishop consumed the crystal, his Spirituality recovered slightly. He looked at Little George's dazed expression and nodded.

"It seems the constables were indeed mistaken."

The Bishop sighed, his eyes blinking, and the surrounding scene shattered abruptly like a mirror.

Everything just now really was a dream? It seems the Bishop hypnotized Little George, pulling him into a dreamscape to interrogate him.

When the Bishop had stalled earlier, Ivan had noticed that the space here was somewhat unstable, not resembling the real world.

Just as he had anticipated, once the Bishop finished questioning Little George and confirmed he was not an anomaly, he activated his ability to end the dream.

As the dream shattered and reality returned, Ivan felt another will awakening within his body.

He hurriedly withdrew his Spirituality, returning to his own consciousness.

Little George slowly woke up, opening his eyes to look at the Bishop in the shadows, feeling somewhat bewildered.

Why has he been silent this whole time?

He wanted to open his mouth to ask, but the Bishop's gentle voice spoke first:

"Very well, child, you may return. Under the guidance of the Eyes of the Lord, you shall walk the correct path."

"Uh... didn't I just get here?" Little George's face was full of confusion; he had no idea he had just been hypnotized into a dream.

"Heh, loyalty to the Lord does not require the test of time."

Having said that, the Bishop turned and sat back into the shadows, as if he did not wish to waste any more breath.

Little George stood blankly in place, unable to grasp the current situation.

Ivan's voice rang out in his mind at the perfect moment: "Let's go. You were just hypnotized, but you were under my protection the entire time, so it's nothing to worry about."

Though Little George had his doubts, he did not hesitate. He turned around in a hurry, pulled open the side door of the church, and returned to the sunlight.

A while later, a church deacon knocked on the door of the side hall and walked in.

He stood at the entrance, bowed, and asked the Bishop in the shadows:

"Your Excellency, was this one also unsuitable?"

"Of course not. He is merely an ordinary person."

"Then, regarding your promotion to the Rank 4 [Dream Mentor]..."

"Wait a little longer. I have gathered enough ordinary people, but without a Beyonder, the requirements for the promotion ritual cannot be met."

"If Abel cannot find the Beyonder he discovered that night, we will have no choice but to..."