Advancing to Fifth-Tier Long Night Champion

The strange, ancient vision faded from sight. Shien opened his eyes and saw the Weeping Saint Altar once more.

His hand still rested on the pedestal, and the Canon of Grace and Righteousness deep in his mind had not closed. He could no longer tell how long he had spent in that vision.

What he had just seen was far too much to take in, well beyond the scope of this governor's succession. Yasol had never mentioned that he would see any of it, so Shien suspected it had something to do with the Canon of Grace and Righteousness in his mind.

Questions sprang up one after another. Where had the first Sacred Flame come from? Who was that figure whose face he could not make out? Why had the Canon of Grace and Righteousness reacted to the Tears of the Holy Mother? And more besides.

Any one of those questions could take him a long time to investigate. But now was not the time. He had something more immediate to do.

Shien drew his attention away from the Sacred Canon and looked again at the stone statue of the Weeping Saint Mother. The long-still Platinum Flame suddenly changed.

The transparent tearstone on the Mother's chest lit up. An ancient Holy Rune appeared at the edge of the altar and spread inward across the stone. A second rune lit up, then a third, until every pattern on the walls of the Holy Grotto was shining.

Shien kept his hand on the pedestal. He could feel the White-Gold Sacred Flame within the Tears of the Holy Mother pulsing in time with the power radiating from the Canon of Grace and Righteousness.

He could feel the power that had once belonged to the Weeping Saint Mother reaching toward him of its own