Chapter 529

The hero of Arvil, the Sword of the Starry Sky.

It was a new nickname given to me after I ended the Arvil tragedy with a single sword strike that cut through the heavens. The title “Knight of Radiance” could no longer be officially used since I had abandoned my position as a holy knight of Elpinel.

Personally, I thought I might get a nickname like “Evil God Slayer,” but the fact that I had defeated the Arm of the Evil God was not widely known—it had instead become the highest state secret of the Holy Kingdom.

The Arvil incident was officially declared a tragedy caused by a massive monster summoned by a dark sorcerer, and witnesses to the Evil God’s descent were ordered to remain silent. As a result, only a handful of people within the Holy Kingdom knew the truth.

“Even if it was just the right arm, if it became known that summoning the Evil God was possible, it would cause massive chaos across the world.”

According to Lacey, countless people had tried various means to summon gods or evil gods, but no one had ever succeeded.

Most rituals didn’t even activate, and even if they did, they usually summoned monsters instead of gods or evil gods.

It was widely accepted in academia that summoning divine beings was impossible for mortals.

Thus, what Belcus had achieved held immense significance, both in terms of dark magic and theology.

“The citizens would be deeply shaken just by the knowledge that an Evil God tried to manifest in this world. There would be a surge of demagogues inciting the masses, claiming the end times had come.”

The first case of a partially successful Evil God summoning. In other words, the answer sheet for the Evil God Summoning Ritual had suddenly appeared.

“And if the Evil God Worshippers were to learn the truth of this event…”

The theologians of the Elpinel Church Order meticulously analyzed the structure of the summoning ritual demonstrated by Belcus, cross-referencing it with past records to uncover the principles behind the summoning ritual.

From the groundwork for the summoning to the sacrifices required and the final trigger.

—

First, a massive city-sized magic circle was constructed, with a tower built from a thousand fetuses born with sin at its center. The entire city was filled with corruption, sin, and despair. This was the basic groundwork.

Within this city of vice, the ritual was activated using the souls of clergy who had met blasphemous deaths and vast amounts of dark magical energy as fuel.

When sufficient sacrifices had been accumulated, a dark sorcerer connected to the Evil God—someone who had received the Evil God’s power—would trace the mark of the Evil God engraved on their soul to open a gate to the Evil God’s realm.

The Evil God itself would then pry open the dimensional gate to descend into the mortal world.

It was more of an invitation than a summoning. Theoretically, it was a perfect ritual. And not just in theory—it had actually worked.

“The fact that the Evil God’s descent was realized must be kept absolutely secret. If it were to leak out, cultists across the world would attempt rituals like Belcus’s.”

Even among cultists and dark sorcerers, few aimed to summon the Evil God. As mentioned earlier, no one had succeeded in hundreds of years, so it was common knowledge among them that it was impossible.

But if Belcus’s success became widely known, they would no longer be content with merely offering sacrifices to gain the Evil God’s power. Instead, they would all aim to summon the Evil God, causing large-scale tragedies.

If even one of them succeeded, a truly horrific catastrophe would unfold.

Thus, the only people who knew the truth of this incident were the involved parties like myself, the leadership of each church, and a few theologians tasked with analyzing the Evil God Summoning Ritual to devise countermeasures.

“I’m not sure if we can trust the cardinals… What if information leaks out like it did with Isabella?”

The traitor who leaked information to Isabella was likely Cardinal Rübitz of the Grimnir Church, but that didn’t mean we could trust the other cardinals.

Take the cardinal from the Shaulite Church who turned into a torch while I was sleeping—he was a complete scumbag.

The Astraea Church might be trustworthy, but the other churches were still suspicious, their true intentions unclear.

While no one openly opposed Lacey, who had risen to power by burning down anyone in her way, including Karnius, we couldn’t be sure what schemes they might be plotting behind the scenes.

“Don’t worry. I’ve taken precautions in advance. If any of them leaks information about the Evil God Summoning Ritual, we’ll be able to identify the traitor immediately.”

Lacey smiled reassuringly.

The theologians of the Elpinel Church Order had successfully deciphered Belcus’s ritual, but under Lacey’s orders, they had slightly distorted the ritual’s structure before sharing it with the other churches.

And they had made the distortions different for each church.

If a malicious cardinal leaked information about the Evil God Summoning Ritual, the discrepancies would allow us to identify the source of the leak.

For example, one church was told that the tower required twelve hundred fetuses, while another was given a slightly different incantation for activating the ritual. This was Bels’s idea.

It wasn’t 100% foolproof, but it was at least a safety measure.

—

“Holy Relics?”

About twenty days after waking up from my sickbed, when I could move around without difficulty, Lacey suddenly called us all together to discuss something.

“Yes, to be precise, ‘2nd-class Holy Relics.’ Unlike 1st-class Holy Relics, which can only be used by those aligned with the church, these are special relics that even non-clergy can use.”

She went on to explain in detail.

The Arvil tragedy had been officially declared the work of monsters, but the leadership of the Holy Kingdom knew the truth. Lacey and Ernliter had emphasized that those who had personally stepped forward to defeat the Arm of the Evil God, despite not being members of the Holy Kingdom, deserved a national-level reward.

After much debate, it was decided that five 2nd-class Holy Relics would be awarded.

“We can’t grant them territories like the Empire does, nor can we appoint foreigners to high positions within the church. Granting honorary paladin titles would be meaningless in practice.”

“So you’re giving us Holy Relics instead?”

“Yes. We’ve been granted permission to open the vault where 2nd-class Holy Relics are stored, allowing you to choose five relics of your choice. The vault contains a wide variety of relics, so I’m sure you’ll find something you like.”

Not bad… No, actually, it was a pretty good reward. Holy Relics that could be used by non-clergy were essentially magical tools that didn’t require mana.

And being called Holy Relics, they would undoubtedly outperform ordinary magical tools. Well… they probably wouldn’t be on the level of Durandal, though.

The reason we could take five relics was that there were five of us from the Empire who had contributed to resolving the Arvil incident.

Me, Leonor, Nigel, Damien, and Milia.

Damien and Milia hadn’t fought the Evil God, but they were included due to their exaggerated contributions in defeating Eljure.

Hersh, being a former member of the Five Swords and a slave, was excluded from the reward distribution, as she was considered my property.

However, since I had promised to free her from slavery and make her a knight upon returning to the Empire, she didn’t seem particularly disappointed about missing out on the relics.

Lacey, Agnes, and Seilon, who were originally members of the Holy Kingdom, would receive rewards from their respective churches.

Thus, that evening, we headed to the Holy Relic Vault near St. Eluniel Cathedral.

—

The Holy Relic Vault was originally built to store relics whose origins were unclear but were undoubtedly holy.

While 1st-class Holy Relics could only be used by clergy, making it easy to determine which church they belonged to, 2nd-class Holy Relics could be used by anyone, making it difficult to determine their divine origin.

Eventually, it became a place where all churches stored their 2nd-class Holy Relics, and only those with permission from the cardinals could borrow or take them.

The health management relic that Drexler and I had used was also borrowed from here.

The priest managing the vault greeted us with utmost respect and guided the five of us—excluding Lacey and Hersh—to the 2nd-class Holy Relic repository.

The relic storage room felt like… a museum.

Inside the three-story space, countless glass display cases were neatly arranged, each containing a variety of holy relics.

Below the marble display cases were descriptions of the relics’ origins and effects, written in ancient language rather than Imperial, so we had to ask the priest guiding us to explain each one.