Although the planetary government of the United Nations of Earth's colony had brutally persecuted the Circle Cult's priests, the believers remained tenacious, worrying the Empire's Ashes agents who had infiltrated their ranks.
They had merely taken their activities underground. The believers remained, and the Circle's power grew ever stronger, gradually influencing their minds.
Only the protection of the Empire's Psionics Mind Network kept the Ashes agents free from interference by the Circle's mysterious power.
After extensive crackdowns, worship of the Circle had declined significantly, but many believers had gone underground and continued spreading their faith.
Such activities were difficult to stop. Or rather, once that mysterious power began encroaching on the colony, everything that followed became inevitable, just as the saying went: the past is the future.
After the initial period of calm, the conflict erupted.
Fanatical believers in the Circle of God were multiplying at an unusual rate on the United Nations of Earth's colony.
They could be found in every city on the planet, and they had devised a series of citizen-led rituals across every walk of life. The entire species displayed an irrational enthusiasm for them.
The rich choreographed elaborate Circle Dances for their celebrations. The poor covered their doors with intricate Circle Symbols. Even the games in playgrounds praised the natural circle of time.
Ashes headquarters ordered all agents to return to the Empire's Homeworld immediately for mental purification.
Even the Holy World Guardians did not know what the Circle was. The bishop had spent her entire life consecrating things in Zarqlan's name; asking her to research something like this was rather too much.
[Teacher] only knew that it involved time and a powerful creature, the Time Worm. He knew nothing of the finer details.
Xi Yan, however, insisted that this was merely the Time Worm's