They were safe now. They had to be.
The United States congressmen, who had been dancing wildly against their will to the sound of the flute, broke into delighted smiles when they saw the black cloth.
The shroud had originally been an ordinary piece of cloth, a swaddling cloth a nun had used to wrap the newborn Son of God. But anything connected to him was extraordinary. It was a Divine Artifact.
Over the years, the black cloth, which had shown no Mystic Power at first, had gradually changed in substance and revealed its wonders.
Then one day, the dried blood staining it—the blood of the Son of God, or rather, of God—suddenly turned gold. It had never faded.
With that, its transformation was complete.
An ordinary shroud whose symbolic value had outweighed its practical use had become a Divine Artifact representing the Son of God's birth and death.
Recently, the artifact had transformed again. It had devoured another cloth kept in the Papal State, one that had wrapped the Son of God's body more than two thousand years ago. No longer an artifact symbolizing birth and death, it had become a great Divine Artifact symbolizing the beginning and end of all things.
No one knew why it had suddenly happened, what powers this artifact named the Shroud of Turin possessed, or why it was called a great Divine Artifact.
But there was no doubt that this swaddling cloth—and shroud—was one of the Papal State's greatest assets. Alongside the legendary Godslayer Dagger Florence, it ranked among its supreme Divine Artifacts.
And now an angel had brought it out. Victory would surely be theirs.
Lisa held the Shroud of Turin with reverence and unfolded it.
There was no vision, no sign that anything had happened. The endless darkness and Corruption pouring