The nameless statue did not answer Lin Yuan's question.
It merely rang the nonexistent bronze bell again.
"People revere gods because gods grant bountiful harvests, drive away disasters and disease, and decide life and death."
"You can't do any of those things."
"If mortals believe it, then it is real."
Black words peeled away from the walls, turning into ripples that bore down on Lin Yuan. The space where he stood grew narrower and narrower, while the stone slabs beneath his feet turned into countless hands reaching downward. They seized his shadow, trying to drag him to the ground.
A blurry image flashed before Lin Yuan's eyes.
A torrential downpour flooded an unfamiliar city, and a god whose face could not be seen stood among the clouds. That god had once asked a similar question amid the thunder.
Why did mortals revere gods?
Back then, some had prayed in the rain, some had offered livestock, and others had been pushed to the front because they had no offerings.
The Lin Yuan in the image seemed to have given an answer.
The memory was shattered, and he could not hear his own voice clearly. He remembered only that thunderbolts had fallen afterward, and he had not knelt.
"People thank the clouds that bring rain, and fear the thunder that destroys their homes," Lin Yuan said. "But neither gratitude nor fear means they have to hand over their lives."
The statue's dark red eyes lit up.
"Those who deny the gods must be punished."
"You keep saying what other people should do."
Lin Yuan raised his right hand, and black-and-silver magic flowed between his fingers.
"Sounds more like you're afraid people will find out you can't do anything."
Mira, kneeling behind him, couldn't help letting out a laugh.
"Could you talk while you fight?" She braced herself against the floor with her demon claws. "This position is embarrassing!"
"Right away."
Rather than attacking the statue, Lin Yuan reached for the black words covering the room.
The statue's commands did not take effect out of thin air. Every "kneel" had to travel from where it stood to the consciousness of whoever heard it. Sound could ignore walls, but the rule still had to cross a distance.
As long as a distance existed, Space God Slayer Magic could capture it.
Lin Yuan folded that stretch of distance backward.
The command bearing down on everyone suddenly changed direction and slammed back into the statue along its original path.
Boom!
The nameless statue abruptly sank lower, its base pressing spiderweb cracks into the stone slabs. The words on the walls dimmed at the same time. Macao was the first to break free, raising a hand and releasing purple flames.
The flames swept beneath Mira's feet, and the black hands entwined around her shadow quickly withdrew.
Mira stood up and rolled her shoulders. "Can I smash it now?"
"Just don't bring the roof down!" Macao said.
"So that's a yes."
She lunged at the statue, her demon fist slamming into its base from the side. Wakaba rose at the same moment, smoke wrapping around the stone statue's arms and holding it in place.
The statue kept reassembling itself, but its dark red eyes turned toward the depths below.
"You cannot save this town."
A second bell toll rang out without warning.
Black ripples passed through the walls and spread down the mountain. The flame signal above the meeting hall swayed violently, and every bronze piece in town rang out with a piercing noise at once.
"It's still summoning the townspeople," Wakaba said.
"The bell isn't in this room." Lin Yuan looked down at his feet. "Whatever is actually making the sound is hidden deeper below."
"Can you cut it off?" Macao asked.
Lin Yuan closed his eyes, searching for the connections between the church and the outside world.
The mountain path, drainage channels, windows, cracks in the walls, and even the directions in which the bell's sound traveled all became intersecting black-and-silver lines in his mind. Their number made it far more complicated than folding a small patch of space.
"I can, but once it's cut off, we won't be able to get out either."
Macao considered it for only a moment.
"The mayor and the guards are outside, and the missing people have already been sent away. Stop the bell first. People from the Guild will come for us."
He did not ask how long Lin Yuan could hold out, nor did he demand that the young man do it alone.
"Tell us what to do."
Lin Yuan pointed to the room's four corners. "I need to know the church's full boundaries. Use flames to mark out the foundation, and fill every passage with smoke. Mira-"
"I'll do the smashing."
"You're in charge of keeping it from touching me."
Mira clicked her tongue in displeasure, but still stepped between Lin Yuan and the statue.
Macao's purple flames split into four streams, racing along the base of the underground walls. Wakaba's smoke slipped into every corridor, crack beneath every door, and drainage hole, tracing a clear outline throughout the building.
Lin Yuan saw the entire church.
He spread his hands to either side and grasped every distance connecting the inside of the church to the outside.
He did not destroy them.
Instead, he made every route to the outside connect back to the interior.
The bell's sound struck a window, only to return through another; black lines slipped into cracks in the walls, only to emerge from the opposite wall; even the drainage channel joined end to end, becoming a loop that would never lead to an exit.
The statue sensed the change, and dozens of black lines stabbed at Lin Yuan at once.
Mira stepped forward and swept her demon right arm across, knocking every black line off course.
"Just close the door!"
Lin Yuan closed his fingers.
Black-and-silver light rapidly closed along Macao's flames and Wakaba's smoke.
The townspeople at the foot of the mountain saw only the air around the Sleeping Church twist for an instant. The third bell toll had barely begun when it was cut off completely.
The church still stood halfway up the mountain.
But from that moment on, neither sound, magic, nor roads could cross the folded distance between it and the outside world.
In the basement, the nameless statue let out a furious roar for the first time.
Lin Yuan had shut the entire Sleeping Church inside its own space.