Late at night, Nimrod stood near the Governor's Mansion. Rather than entering directly, he waited quietly in the woods at the edge of the hill, watching.
Over the past few days, he had worked out the sequence of the upcoming Lent celebration. First, Ava Lizier, who had been chosen as the "Spring Elf" that afternoon, would be escorted from house to house through the village square, then taken to the garden beside the Governor's Mansion.
That was the endpoint of Lent's first stage, the "Blessing Procession."
After arriving there, the village's young people would crowd around Ava, the "Spring Elf," and escort her out of the village to the river flowing through the mountains for the second stage, the "Waterside Ceremony."
After the Waterside Ceremony, they would enter the church of the Eternal Blazing Sun for the third stage.
Once the third stage ended and they left the church, someone would announce the end of Lent at the church entrance and send off the "Spring Elf."
Of course, in this warped Lent celebration, the "Spring Elf" would be sent off with a single swing of an axe, turning her into a "Spring)(Elf."
A rustling came from the distance. Nimrod turned his head and saw Lumian emerge from behind the bushes.
With his greatly improved Excellent Observation, he noticed the shovel in Lumian's hand and the fine grains of soil clinging to him. Smiling, he asked Lumian:
"Already dug the traps?"
"Yes," Lumian said modestly.
"Just like you said, I didn't set any traps near the church-even though I didn't see the Father of the Parish or anyone else, I couldn't be sure my movements wouldn't be noticed. That could easily expose what we're trying to do. I only made a few different traps up in the mountains and by the river, disguising them as things the village hunters hadn't properly cleared away."
"You did well." Nimrod nodded.
"Next, we'll go set up some... explosive-like things beside the church."
He took several substances from inside his clothes, some powders and some liquids. These were all materials imbued with Beyonder powers that Nimrod had brought over from the Mysteries Timeline.
"These can be combined into occult explosives. They aren't as effective as Occult smelling salts, but they're more than enough to blow apart the church's pillars."
Blow up the church... Although Lumian hadn't understood what Nimrod meant by "Occult smelling salts," Aurore often said things he couldn't understand either, so he didn't dwell on the term.
But the way Nimrod had so casually mentioned "blowing up the church" left Lumian, a delinquent born and raised in this world, somewhat apprehensive-and somewhat thrilled. For the first time, he felt a flicker of admiration for his newly acknowledged Godfather as a kindred spirit.
This was far more radical than his usual pranks!
"...But wouldn't that be blasphemy against a god?" Lumian couldn't help asking. "That's Saint Sis's church, after all..."
"How is that blasphemy? We're just blowing up a church to catch heretics. The Eternal Blazing Sun probably won't smite you for that. Just watch out for the man-made divine punishment from official Beyonders."
As Nimrod led Lumian downhill, he remarked casually:
"In one place I know, there's even a bunch of angels who blow up their own cathedral after filing a report..."
Lumian couldn't make any sense of that sentence. He had no idea Intis words could even be strung together like that.
Under cover of a thin gray mist, Nimrod and Lumian quickly set up several concealed rituals. Each time they finished one, Nimrod spread a little thin gray mist over it as though he were icing a cake, using Sefirah Castle's power to protect these occult arrays and ensure the priest within the dream wouldn't discover them.
These arrays involved no prayers to any god. Essentially, they were enhanced chemical bombs, merely using Beyonder powers to boost their strength and activate them.
Lumian was rather quiet on the way home. When they were nearly there, he finally asked Nimrod in a low voice:
"Godfather, do you think we can succeed?"
"Of course we can," Nimrod answered as he went upstairs with Lumian.
"But I think you need to be prepared, no matter what. This ritual isn't that simple, and even I can't work out any more information from the clues we have."
At that, he turned his head.
"Perhaps the hidden secrets will only reveal themselves to us once we disrupt the ritual."
"In any case, get a good night's rest and prepare yourself. Tomorrow's celebration is when it'll be your turn to act."
Lumian nodded. He looked at Nimrod, who was sitting in the room, then withdrew his gaze and slowly closed his eyes.
Watching Lumian, Nimrod smiled. Gray mist gradually rose around him, flowing back and forth through his figure as though he were a spirit.
When Nimrod opened his eyes, he saw the Celestial Worthy in Sefirah Castle, drinking tea while watching little figures made of gray fog fight before him.
Seeing Nimrod appear, the Celestial Worthy gave a "Yo," then turned to look at him.
"...I suspect you have something to tell me."
"You're always guessing, but this time you're right." Nimrod pulled over a clump of gray fog, kneaded it into a chair, and placed it beside the Celestial Worthy.
"Haven't you seen plenty through my eyes? Why are you still watching a puppet show you made yourself?"
Nimrod was referring to the little figures molded from gray fog in front of the Celestial Worthy.
"Oh, get lost. What's so interesting about that dream you're in?" the Celestial Worthy said disdainfully. "You aren't planning to have any fun in there. Surely you can't deny me a little relief from my boredom here?"
"It's only the first layer of the dream, after all." Nimrod smiled. "But did you really not notice traces of your own handiwork in this dream?"
This time, the Celestial Worthy turned and fixed his star-flecked eyes on Nimrod.
Only after a moment did the Celestial Worthy speak, his tone as cold and still as the eternal, unchanging darkness of the cosmos high above.
"You shouldn't be able to see those things. No one knows the limits of a Mystery Pryer better than I do."
The Celestial Worthy's gaze settled heavily on Nimrod, his tone utterly certain.
"Then... you've seen something belonging to the future."
"Did you overdraw Sefirah Castle's power, or did you use your own authority?"
Perhaps neither? Nimrod answered with a smile:
"Weren't you constantly going on about working with me before? Have you changed your mind already?"
Before you continue