Chapter 320: Shifting Tides
Vatican City, St. Peter's Square.
Under the warm sunlight, the square's perimeter was lined with the red-and-white banners of the Church.
Beneath the towering obelisk stood a sea of people. Countless clergymen in black robes gazed solemnly toward the basilica.
Moments later, several cardinals emerged from the entrance.
Behind them followed more than a dozen clergy members, each wearing a grave expression.
Cardinal Parolin, holding a Bible, stepped onto the main platform overlooking the square.
"Today, in the name of the Father and the Son, we gather to mourn our brothers and sisters who fell within the Holy War Land, and to honor those whose courage and sacrifice made salvation possible..."
A month had passed since the Angelic Descent Incident.
On the day the mysterious phone call arrived from a burrito shop, Cardinal Parolin had personally flown to North America to meet the survivors.
After extensive research through ancient Church archives, the Vatican confirmed that the location where Jolan and the others had emerged was indeed the legendary Holy War Land.
A thousand years ago, Church missionaries had accidentally stumbled upon that region and discovered traces of demonic activity.
To eradicate the evil festering there, the Church dispatched a massive force—an undertaking that eventually became the historic Holy War.
Today, the area lay on the edge of Texas.
For centuries, it had been nothing more than barren mountains and rocky wasteland.
Yet the moment Jolan and his group returned, countless local residents witnessed an incredible phenomenon:
An entire forest had appeared out of nowhere.
That very night, the Church secured authorization from local authorities and sealed off the region.
The decision sparked significant controversy across North America.
Many claimed the Church had overstepped its authority and unlawfully seized private land.
Yet investigations inevitably uncovered the shadows of organizations such as the Knights Order and the Wizard Association behind many of the protests.
The Church refused to offer any public explanation.
Instead, it maintained an unusual and absolute silence.
That silence only deepened public curiosity.
Combined with the earlier attack on the Holy Land, many supernatural factions began forming their own theories and quietly dispatched agents to investigate.
Within weeks, the area was flooded with exorcists, occult investigators, and independent hunters.
Numerous skirmishes and secret clashes followed.
What truly happened there, however, remained known only to a select few.
---
Meanwhile, Jolan's expedition team had exceeded all expectations.
Not only had they successfully completed the mission, they had also ensured the survival of the vast majority of Church personnel despite facing both hostile cultists and powerful evil spirits.
To many, it bordered on a miracle.
Yet Jolan himself rarely spoke about the achievement.
Whenever questioned, he insisted the success belonged to far more people than himself alone.
In interview after interview, survivors repeatedly mentioned the same name:
A young priest.
Nearly all of them claimed they would have died in the Holy War Land without him.
Several members of the Holy Families and regional Church representatives also spoke highly of the man.
As a result, his reputation skyrocketed within the Church.
Young clergy members admired him.
Even certain ancient Holy Families attempted to recruit him.
Yet he declined every offer.
Then, at the height of his fame, he simply vanished from public view.
Ironically, his refusal to chase recognition only earned him even greater respect.
---
The Clerical Order Selection drew more than five hundred participants.
In the end, only seven candidates passed.
Not only had they participated in rescue operations, but they had also recovered the Church's lost millennium-old relic—the Tablet of the Ten Commandments.
Their qualifications were unquestionable.
One successful team consisted entirely of Holy Family members, which surprised no one.
The other team, however, was led by a provincial priest and achieved something unprecedented:
Every single member survived.
Naturally, many became curious.
Further inquiries revealed something even more astonishing.
The leader of that team was the very same priest credited with saving numerous trapped survivors.
Not long ago, he had been nothing more than an ordinary parish priest serving a local community church.
People loved stories of humble individuals rising to greatness.
As a result, he became a symbol of hope for countless clergy members from ordinary backgrounds.
---
Another rising figure was Bettice Mason.
Thanks to both her remarkable performance during the expedition and her striking appearance, she attracted considerable attention.
Her family, the Mason Family, also became far better known within Church circles.
Yet the greatest surprise belonged to none other than Hugh Medici.
For years, the second heir of the Medici Family had been regarded as little more than an arrogant loudmouth.
Few believed he possessed any real capability.
Yet during the final battle, it was Hugh who bought precious time by delaying Wings of Vengeance, allowing the angelic descent to succeed.
His status transformed overnight.
The Medici Family soon announced that they would reevaluate his qualifications as a successor.
---
Many others also received recognition.
Sister Olivia of the Guerrero Family was honored after successfully saving more than thirty survivors through calm judgment and decisive leadership.
She was awarded admission to the Vatican Theological Academy for advanced study.
Father Luen Clauso of Miso Cathedral likewise earned distinction.
Rumor held that his unusually pure soul had attracted evil spirits throughout his entire life, placing him in constant danger.
Yet during the Holy War Land expedition, when his group became trapped by cultists, Luen relied upon his spiritual sensitivity to identify an escape route hidden among countless evil spirits.
His courage and unwavering faith embodied the Church's ideals.
As a result, he was granted the rank of Bishop and allowed to continue serving his original diocese.
---
However, more than any commendation ceremony, the world remained captivated by one topic:
The Descent of an Angel.
According to Archbishop Jolan, the cultists had completed a sacrificial ritual that summoned an evil entity into the Holy War Land.
Just as despair consumed everyone present, a miracle occurred.
Though most core participants remained reluctant to discuss details, the Church officially confirmed the event.
The news spread like wildfire.
Believers across the globe knelt facing the Holy Land, praying to the angel and sharing their burdens with Heaven.
Not everyone was pleased.
Organizations led by the Knights Order openly questioned the story, accusing the Church of staging a publicity campaign.
The Church responded with undeniable evidence:
A relic known as the Sacred Feather.
Allegedly shed from the angel's wing itself, the feather contained an immense and extraordinarily pure holy power impossible to counterfeit.
And once again, the artifact's owner was none other than the priest who had played a pivotal role throughout the crisis:
Father Gideon Black.
According to his testimony, he had been abducted by Mashal and placed in mortal danger.
When despair overwhelmed him, a sacred feather descended from Heaven and delivered him from death.
With physical evidence supporting the story, believers became even more enthusiastic.
Church membership surged dramatically.
Other factions, meanwhile, grew increasingly uneasy.
Besides launching investigations, many sought private meetings with Father Gideon in hopes of uncovering the truth.
Every attempt failed.
---
As for Father Gideon himself—
He had already returned to North America.
Dey Commercial Street.
House of Rest.
Alone in his room, Gideon sat quietly in a chair, staring at a golden feather in his hand.
It looked identical to the Sacred Feather causing such a sensation throughout the world.
Except it was not the same one.
Back in the Holy War Land, he had attempted to communicate with that sacred being.
Instead of speaking, the entity had simply placed a thought directly into his mind.
The sensation was peculiar.
As though he had always known what needed to be done.
Afterward, two feathers had fallen before him.
According to the information implanted in his mind, they could shield him from evil influence.
Even a fallen angel would struggle to reach him while he possessed them.
That protection was the reason he had dared return alone.
"So this is what it feels like to have someone backing you up…"
He smacked his lips thoughtfully.
Since neither feather had been used during the crisis—and because he needed something to present during the Church's investigation—he had handed one over.
Thinking of that, Gideon narrowed his eyes.
He never revealed the existence of the Sacred Chapter.
Instead, he claimed that after Mashal kidnapped him, he discovered an ancient ritual altar containing records of a summoning ceremony.
The ritual supposedly required century-old holy relics.
Conveniently, he had collected several such relics earlier, leading to the miraculous event.
Naturally, there was a reason for the deception.
The Sacred Chapter was priceless.
If a simple parish priest discovered something of that magnitude and failed to surrender it to the Church, people would inevitably start asking questions.
Judging by the reactions of Church leadership afterward, even if they remained suspicious, they probably believed Gideon knew only fragments of the truth.
---
Jolan had also sought him out privately.
"…Cooperating with demons is absolutely forbidden. You only used that evil spirit to deceive the cultists. It was guidance from the Lord, nothing more. Do you understand? I'll speak with the Holy Families personally…"
Gideon merely shrugged.
If Jolan insisted on explaining things that way, he certainly wasn't going to argue.
Still, among all those involved in the Holy War Land expedition, Jolan was arguably the greatest beneficiary.
During the Vatican commendation ceremony, his extraordinary achievements earned him a direct promotion to Cardinal Candidate.
The position granted him a seat within the Cardinal Council and placed him only one step away from becoming a Cardinal.
His family name—Borha—would also receive official recognition as a Holy Family lineage.
It was the kind of accomplishment countless clergy members spent their entire lives pursuing.
True to his reputation as a man of action, Jolan wasted no time after his appointment.
On his first day, he proposed sweeping reforms.
These included increasing the frequency of Spiritual Awakening ceremonies and providing spiritual assistance to talented individuals lacking powerful backgrounds.
Most of his proposals received approval from the Cardinal Council.
Jolan himself was assigned responsibility for overseeing their implementation.
---
Meanwhile, shortly after the ceremony, the Church issued a new directive:
Acquire powerful evil materials.
Ordinary people failed to grasp the significance.
Gideon, however, learned more through Jolan.
The recovery of the Tablet of the Ten Commandments would allow the Church to establish a brand-new Source Power Channel.
As a result, far more clergy members could emerge.
Even the birth of a Holy Child would become possible.
The title represented not merely holiness, but immense power and influence.
Naturally, demand for rare evil materials skyrocketed.
Several major Holy Families immediately dispatched personnel throughout North America.
Numerous commissions and contracts followed.
---
Beyond Church affairs, the entire exorcist world experienced a seismic shift.
Only days after Gideon returned home, North American authorities publicly acknowledged the existence of supernatural evil.
The announcement sent shockwaves around the world.
The Vatican condemned the decision, arguing it would create unnecessary panic.
The Knights Order and Wizard Association openly supported the disclosure and promised to help protect civilians.
Eventually, the Church compromised and pledged to deploy additional personnel to maintain public safety.
Yet the public response proved far stranger than anyone expected.
Certainly, many people expressed concern about evil entities.
Others reacted very differently.
Across North America, a bizarre trend emerged:
People began actively searching for the supernatural.
Armed with smartphones, they flocked to abandoned houses, isolated forests, and remote locations, hoping to capture sensational footage and become internet celebrities.
Regarding this phenomenon, Gideon had only one conclusion:
The American tendency to tempt fate was apparently encoded directly into their DNA.
Still, the craze created enormous demand for professional exorcists.
Even the Warrens found themselves invited to universities across the country, where they lectured students and faculty on surviving supernatural encounters.
Naturally, they were using Gideon's safety handbook.
Compared to all those developments, the rewards from the Holy War Land expedition were what interested Gideon the most.
Besides successfully earning a place in the Holy See Clergy Corps and receiving a large number of high-grade holy relics as rewards, he had also been granted an opportunity for Ancestral Spirit Infusion.
At first, Gideon had assumed it involved communing with the spirits of deceased clergy.
Instead, the so-called infusion turned out to be a direct transmission of knowledge and experience.
The benefits were enormous.
His progress in theology advanced significantly once again.
Take Divine Eye Restraint as an example.
Originally, deciphering a single spirit-particle rune required considerable time and effort.
Thanks to the System-like panel assisting him, Gideon had always learned faster than most.
Now, combined with the accumulated experience of generations of ancestral spirits, he could skip countless preliminary steps and continue his studies directly from where his predecessors had left off.
The amount of time saved was staggering.
No wonder the Church had remained dominant for over a thousand years.
A legacy like this was simply too powerful.
---
His understanding of the Holy Light Barrier, part of the Flesh stage, had also deepened considerably.
Back in the Holy War Land, Gideon had already begun to grasp some of its hidden applications.
The ancestral knowledge confirmed his insights.
Simply put, the Holy Light Barrier could continuously expand through cultivation, eventually forming a unique domain belonging solely to the priest who created it.
Within that domain, the owner could influence the surrounding rules themselves.
For example, gravity could be weakened—or even rendered meaningless.
According to the ancestral records, once cultivated to its highest level, the barrier could evolve into an independent Holy Sanctuary, completely separate from the outside world.
Within that sanctuary, every law and principle would be determined by its creator.
Even Gideon couldn't help feeling amazed.
Such power was already approaching the realm of gods.
---
His mastery of the Blood Stage had also reached a foundational level.
By using blood to inscribe sacred formations, he could unleash significantly more powerful holy arts.
This stage was unusual because its growth depended heavily on progress in both the Flesh and Bone stages.
As those two paths advanced, the practitioner's blood itself would gradually become sacred.
As things stood, Gideon had nearly completed his theological progression.
Only one stage remained:
Heart.
---
Ordinarily, there should have been another stage before that—the Spirit Bridge.
A priest was meant to construct a bridge of spirit particles leading to Heaven, allowing their holy power to undergo a qualitative transformation.
It was one of the most important milestones in a clergyman's life.
Unfortunately for the traditional curriculum, after personally welcoming the descent of an angel, that sacred being had simply built the bridge for him.
Directly.
At this very moment, that magnificent Spirit Bridge shone brilliantly within his soul, dazzling enough to nearly blind this humble earthly priest's—ahem—eyes.
For the first time, Gideon truly understood what people meant by overwhelming power.
In short:
This was divine blessing.
---
All that remained now was the Heart Reconstruction stage.
This represented the crucial step where an ordinary human began transforming into a holy body.
The process required the priest to completely shatter their own heart and forge a new Sacred Heart from the remains.
It sounded simple.
It absolutely was not.
A single failure meant instant death.
No second chances.
Fortunately, another method existed.
If one could obtain a heart already saturated with holy power, it could serve as a substitute during reconstruction.
Afterward, the two sources of power would merge together.
The problem was obvious.
The material requirements were absurdly strict.
No sane clergyman would voluntarily donate their own heart.
As a result, the technique had long been classified as forbidden knowledge and survived only within ancestral records.
---
Coincidentally, Gideon actually possessed a spare heart.
His gaze fell upon a chunk of flesh resting inside a wooden box.
It was the heart he had obtained from the progenitor mountain man during the Wrong Turn incident.
For years it had been gathering dust in storage.
Unfortunately, the thing was overflowing with evil power.
Using it as reconstruction material would be little different from committing suicide.
Gideon had no intention of taking that risk.
"Looks like I need to find a way to completely purge the evil first…"
He muttered to himself.
Previously, he had attempted to purify the heart using conventional cleansing methods.
Every attempt had failed.
The power contained within the organ was fundamentally different from ordinary evil energy.
For now, there was nothing he could do.
With a sigh, Gideon closed the wooden box and set the matter aside.
---
He then picked up a letter.
A golden lion-and-cross seal marked the envelope.
It came from the Vatican.
The contents were straightforward:
An official invitation for Gideon to travel to the Vatican and attend the induction ceremony for new members of the Holy See Clergy Corps.
The ceremony would take place in two days.
Every member of the Corps would be present.
After team assignments were finalized, the recruits would receive their first official mission.
"The Clergy Corps, huh…"
Gideon murmured thoughtfully as he looked at the invitation in his hand.
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