The Joint Investigation Team

Lya also noticed Michel's abnormality, turned her head to look at Ryan, and asked with her eyes whether she should just knock her out.

At this moment, Lumian spoke up, saying to Michel, "Is the Parish Priest not here?"

Michel's eyes suddenly turned intense:

"The Parish Priest is resting; you can come to me to pray."

His face was full of pleading.

Lumian hesitated for a few seconds, then reluctantly said, "Okay."

Seeing Michel's excited and happy expression, he turned to Lya and the others and said, "What's wrong with you? Coming to Church to pray is something every believer should do. What's there to be afraid of?"

His implication was that since we'd all left the Basement and hadn't been caught red-handed, what was there to worry about?

As believers of the "Eternal Blazing Sun," coming to Church to pray is perfectly normal. As for taking a shortcut through the side door, that's a minor, negligible issue. And what does it matter to us if the Parish Priest and a few servants take too long of a lunch break?

Lumian knew that such an excuse could only fool ordinary people and would never fool the Parish Priest. However, before the Parish Priest received the "Gift," he would definitely pretend to be confused and would not expose him unless Ryan and the others put on an act as if they were going to report to their superiors immediately and Termination all the abnormalities in Cordou Village.

As long as Lya and her companions continue their habit of wandering around the village, chatting with people everywhere, and acting as if they haven't gathered enough information from the Church Underground, the Parish Priest will certainly be happy to maintain the status quo.

With the Underground Altar destroyed by Ryan, it will probably take them some time to repair it. Lumian estimates that the Parish Priest has little hope of receiving the "Gift" in the next two days, and the earliest he might receive it is the day before Lent Festival.

When Lent Festival begins, the abnormal outbreak will occur, and it won't matter whether you are suspected or not; "normal" will be the biggest problem.

Upon hearing Lumian's words, Assistant Parish Priest Michel Galligu nodded repeatedly in agreement:

"Yes, yes, yes! No matter what you have done in the past, as long as you pray sincerely and are willing to repent, God will forgive you."

Is that so? What if the Parish Priest were to confess to the "Eternal Blazing Sun" now, saying that he had gone astray some time ago, believed in Evil God, and now wants to return to the right path? Lumian didn't believe it in his heart, but on the surface he was very Devout and Past towards the Altar.

Michel led the way with light steps, as if she were about to take flight.

Seeing such a fanatical and Devout Clergy, Lya couldn't help but glance at Valentine, only to find that her companion's expression was quite complicated.

This should have been a state that Valentine greatly approved of, but he was also well aware that the Assistant Parish Priest was clearly not normal.

Leaving her gaze from Valentine, Lya quickly moved to Lumian's side, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, "When you said those things, did you consider that half the people here aren't followers of the ' Eternal Blazing Sun '?"

"You're not?" Lumian, quite surprised.

This wasn't because he was perceptive enough to understand Lya's hint; rather, of the five people present, excluding the unusual Assistant Parish Priest, Valentine was definitely one of the remaining four, and Lumian himself could barely be counted as well—that was already half.

Lya nodded slightly, causing the bell to ring crisply.

She smiled and whispered, "Ryan is from ' Machinery Hivemind,' and I'm from the Eighth Bureau. Neither of us belongs to the ' Eternal Blazing Sun ' Church."

Lumian had heard his Older Sister mention that "Machinery Hivemind" was roughly equivalent to the Tribunal of the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, and was a branch of the Church God of Steam and Machinery responsible for handling supernatural affairs. The Eighth Bureau, officially known as the Eighth Bureau under the Intelligence and Homeland Security Committee of Intis, was the Republic's most official organization in the supernatural field.

"I thought you were sent by the Church?" he asked curiously as he found a chair to sit down.

Lya sat down next to him and said with a smile, "In recent years, there have been many dangerous incidents involving the supernatural in the border areas of various countries, especially in places where jurisdiction is disputed. Therefore, as soon as we received the Request for Help from Cordou Village, we took it very seriously. After preliminary investigation and intelligence gathering, and after confirming that there was indeed a problem, the higher-ups decided to set up a Joint Investigation Team to go into Cordou Village to find out the specific situation and provide the most reliable reference for subsequent handling."

"Who knew, here..."

She suddenly couldn't continue speaking and couldn't help but shake her head repeatedly.

The strangeness and horror here were beyond her imagination.

Sometimes, she even felt that Valentine's idea of reporting the whole story and requesting the complete destruction of Cordou Village was correct.

However, she didn't want to die, so she had to suppress her professional instincts and her inner morality.

At this moment, the Assistant Parish Priest, Michel Galligu, picked up the books placed on the Altar and turned his gaze to the four people who were preparing to pray.

Lya then raised her arms, crossed them in front of her chest, and lowered her head and body slightly.

"..." Lumian was a little stunned.

You still say you're not a believer in the "Eternal Blazing Sun"!

Lya sensed his gaze, turned her head and smiled, "When carrying out missions, pretending to be a follower of another Church won't offend the Deity. You'll see..."

She pointed to her other side with her mouth.

Ryan, from the "Machinery Hivemind," also crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking very Devout.

It turns out there can be a flexible moral bottom line when carrying out a mission... Lumian wanted to mock Lya and Ryan like that, but everyone started praying, and he couldn't fall behind.

After he had assumed the posture and closed his eyes, Assistant Parish Priest Michel Galligu turned the Holy Scripture and solemnly recited. "God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light in the world..."

Sitting in his usual Church, listening to the familiar Sermon, Lumian suddenly felt a pang of emotion.

Before, when he came to pray, he just followed the crowd and was never focused. He would often look around and whisper to himself. But now, he wished that everything could be the same as before, even if it required him to make the most Devout prayers.

Activities he used to dislike are now things he misses dearly.

When Lumian and the others left the "Eternal Blazing Sun" Church, the Parish Priest and the servants were still asleep.

Ryan glanced in the direction of the Castle and remarked sincerely, "That One lady is far more powerful than I imagined."

"How strong?" Lumian asked curiously.

Ryan considered for a moment and said, "It seems like I've touched the threshold of Divinity, yet it also seems like I haven't."

You seem to have said something, yet you seem not to have... If it weren't for the fact that I'm currently relying on Ryan and the others, Lumian would have already spoken her mind.

However, being an expert in advanced Mysticism knowledge, he could roughly guess what Ryan meant by the Divinity gate:

Sequence 4! The Beginning of Half-God and Half-Men!

He thought for a moment and said, "I think Pualis's state was a bit strange when she appeared as the ' Night Lady '."

He had already told Lya and the others about the Otherworld and the legend of "Night Lady".

"I feel the same way," Lya said with a laugh, "Like a Frankenstein's monster, and the kind that hasn't been stitched together successfully yet."

Ryan nodded in agreement:

"We do know something about the ' Night Lady '. In this area where our Intis and the Kingdom of Feynapotter meet, similar things have happened many times in the Past few years. Some are called ' Night Lady ', some are called ' Madam Helt ', some call themselves ' Benevolent Lord ', and some call themselves ' Malevolent Lord '. But so far, we have not captured any of the 'Ladies' and we still lack a systematic understanding of them."

"Hmm, this is the first time I've heard of ' the Otherworld '."

As Lya walked towards the edge of the Village Square, she said, "I've come up with something from the description of the ' Otherworld '."

"What?" Lumian never felt ashamed to ask questions.

Lya turned and glanced south:

"In the ' Earth Mother ' Church in Feynapotter, there is a saying:"

"The soul returns to the earth."

The soul returns to the earth... In Lumian's mind, the Wilderness and the Undead wandering Wilderness immediately came to mind.

He had to admit that there was some truth to Lya's associations.

Reaching the Elm Tree at the village entrance, Ryan looked around and said, "Let's not provoke That One lady anymore. In breaking the Loop, she won't be an ally, but she won't be an enemy either. We just need to keep an eye on her movements and see if we can take advantage of that specific time point she mentioned."

Isn't the reason for not provoking them simply because it's obvious we can't beat them? Lumian suppressed the urge to speak.

He then inquired about Valentine:

How many minutes left?

He was worried about missing the deadline, so his Older Sister triggered the Loop, Reboot everything.

Valentine took out a Gold-Cased Pocket Watch, snapped it open, and glanced at it:

Ten minutes left.

"That's good..." Lumian breathed a sigh of relief and waved to Ryan and the others. "I'm going to find Aurora. If you're free, help me find Sybil's husband, Jean Mori, and investigate who's spreading the rumor that the Zodiac are about to change and everyone will have good luck. If you find anything, come find me at my house. Goodbye, my cabbages!"

This was exactly what Lya and the others planned to do, so naturally no one objected.

As Lumian bid farewell to the Joint Investigation Team and walked towards the agreed-upon edge of the village, he fell into deep thought.

After completing his exploration of the Church Underground, he developed a complete hypothesis regarding the Mutation in Cordou Village:

The perpetrators of this Loop must be the Parish Priest and his gang. They had been secretly Evil God Worship for at least half a year, and had secretly sacrificed many people from other places and foreigners in the Church Underground, in exchange for many "Gift".

Lent Festival, thanks to one of the three Beyonder brought back by the Shepherd Pierre Berri, the Parish Priest and Pons Béné, among others, received "Gift." The former even became a very powerful Beyonder. Thus, they began a grand Ritual starting with Lent Festival.

On the Twelfth Night, in the final stage of the Ritual, That One Hidden Being known as Fate accepted a large-scale sacrifice, preparing to complete a certain matter requested by the Parish Priest and others. But at this moment, an unexpected event occurred, the Ritual failed to be completed, and the power involving the Past, present, and Future dissipated, bringing about Time Loop.

As for why this unexpected turn of events occurred, Lumian recalled something That One mysterious Lady had once said:

"You were destined to be severely Corruption, but fortunately, the mark left by That One Great Ones was activated, and the corresponding power descended upon you, sealing the Corruption and restoring balance..."