Lumian leaped out of bed and walked to the window.

Blue-violet flames rolled out from within his body, quickly condensing into pieces of iron-black armor.

In the blink of an eye, Lumian had transformed into a knight clad in full armor.

After digesting the potion to a certain degree and stabilizing his condition, he could finally transform his flames into actual weapons or armor, though he could only maintain this for 10 minutes.

Lumian reached the window and looked outside, seeing only the bright crimson moon, sparse twinkling stars, and a quiet, peaceful night with nothing unusual.

He made an instant decision, issuing orders to each team member through the mental channel: "Get ready. We'll move to the New City of Silver in five seconds."

Learning from the experience and lessons of the Vortex incident, Lumian chose to immediately leave Trier, taking his team members to the Church of The Fool's headquarters to maximally avoid potential accidents.

Once in a safe location, they could report to Mr. Fool, await possible orders, think about what had happened, and plan their next steps.

As Lumian's voice echoed in their minds, Franca used invisible spider silk to help her change clothes, tie her ponytail, and enter combat mode.

Five seconds quickly passed, and Lumian didn't wait for Jenna, Anthony, and Ludwig to gather before directly activating the black mark on his right shoulder.

As a team leader, he no longer needed to grab his team members' shoulders to teleport them to their destination—the only requirement was that they be within a 10-kilometer range.

Amid rapidly receding layers of color blocks, Lumian and the others appeared at the entrance of the Church of The Fool's headquarters.

After confirming this was real and not a mirror image or scene from a painting, Lumian let out an undisguised sigh of relief.

"What happened?" asked Jenna, wearing a dress as sleepwear.

"I dreamed I was attacked by a Montsouris ghost," Lumian said while walking toward the headquarters cathedral, which remained open even in the deep night.

"As an Angel and former Demoness, all dreams necessarily have meaning," Franca explained, following along. "Moreover, as far as I know, the Eternal Blazing Sun Church and the Church of Steam and Machinery are sending several Saints carrying Sealed Artifacts into Fourth Epoch Trier tonight, hoping to eliminate Louis Gustav and Madame Pualís."

"As an Angel and former Demoness, all dreams necessarily have meaning," Franca explained, following along. "Moreover, as far as I know, the Eternal Blazing Sun Church and the Church of Steam and Machinery are sending several Saints carrying Sealed Artifacts into Fourth Epoch Trier tonight, hoping to eliminate Louis Gustav and Madame Pualís."

Anthony connected the previous statements and speculated, "Due to the influence of the two Churches' actions, Fourth Epoch Trier experienced some anomalies, triggering Lumian's spiritual premonition?"

Lumian crossed the spacious area and sat in the first row of seats facing the Fool's holy emblem, smiling as he responded to Anthony, "I wouldn't leave Trier if it were just the anomalies and potential effects from Montsouris ghosts. With evil gods temporarily unable to descend, I don't actually need to worry too much. Plus, you're all practically half-Angels now. As long as you don't leave the team's effective range, safety is sufficiently guaranteed. Together, combined with the ability to get help by sacrificing to the essence of war, we could resist even a Sequence 1 Archangel for some time, maybe even with hope of victory.

"But since this involves Madame Pualís, it's better to stay away—calamity needs to stay away from the mother."

"Yeah." Jenna strongly agreed with Lumian's choice.

She sat down too, letting mirrors fly out from the Traveler's Bag. "Stay alert tonight. If anything unusual occurs, immediately organize believers to take refuge in the nearest orthodox cathedrals," Jenna transmitted these messages to the various bishops and priests of the Sick Church through the mirror world and marked mirrors.

Meanwhile, mirrors also flew out from Lumian and Franca's Traveler's Bags.

Using mirrors they had positioned that were still in Trier, they projected the corresponding scenes onto the mirrors before them to observe the subsequent situation and respond in time.

After finishing this, Lumian lowered his head, pressed his hand to his chest, and began to pray.

…

Deep in Fourth Epoch Trier.

Upon encountering the Montsouris ghost, Angoulême turned to the monk Jack Walton, "Should we eliminate it?"

Even if he weren't an Unshadowed, Angoulême wouldn't fear Montsouris ghosts, as these ghosts hadn't previously shown particularly strong power and would even avoid the protection of orthodox Churches. Even if they could cause trouble for Saints, it would at most be an annoyance.

Moreover, Beyonders of the Sun pathway were most effective against such dark, black evil beings named after ghosts.

Jack Walton, as the leader of this search and cleanup operation, thought for two seconds.

"Yes, but don't cause too much commotion."

He remembered that Montsouris ghosts' curses were extremely persistent. He worried that in the upcoming battle with Madame Pualís, these ghosts might suddenly join in and interfere from the side, potentially tipping the balance in an already dangerous fight. Better to clear them out now while it was relatively safe.

Angoulême quickly said to his two colleagues, "Prepare to remove the seal."

For this operation, the Eternal Blazing Sun Church and the Church of Steam and Machinery had each provided their clergy with a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact to ensure the ultimate goal could be achieved.

Both Churches had long known that the Shadow of the Beauty Goddess from the Rose School of Thought had allegedly fallen into the hands of Madame Pualís, who was hiding in Fourth Epoch Trier. This was also a Grade 0 Sealed Artifact, and among the more powerful ones at that grade.

Under these circumstances, simply sending six Saints to search for and eliminate Madame Pualís and Louis Gustav would be sending them to their deaths. Therefore, each team carried a targeted Grade 0 sealed artifact that could counter the Shadow of the Beauty Goddess to some degree.

Since passing through the "Blood Well" became more dangerous with higher Sequences, they didn't send Angels but deployed Grade 0 Sealed Artifacts instead!

With these two Sealed Artifacts, even if Angoulême and the others couldn't kill Madame Pualís, they could hold her off. Then the Eternal Blazing Sun and God of Steam and Machinery could locate Their high-ranking clergy and, using them as mediums, deliver a fatal blow to Madame Pualís through the seal.

As the three Unshadowed began removing the seal on the Grade 0 Sealed Artifact, the Montsouris ghost slowly crossing the intersection suddenly changed direction and walked toward them step by step.

Jack Walton, dressed as an ancient stonemason, watched as the Montsouris ghost quickly transformed from a rather blurry shadow into something clear.

It truly wasn't a hunched elderly person—its main body was viscous black liquid that had been stretched into human form by some influence.

Those drops of black liquid stacked together, their edges merging while their cores remained independent.

Within each independent black liquid core appeared different faces—some laughing wildly, some walking among dismembered limbs and internal organs, some filled with anger, some with dark red eyes, some flaunting their own lust, some wearing necklaces strung with human skulls…

They were all distorted and shouted in unison at Angoulême and Jack Walton, "Human nature is evil!"

This was Devil Language!

As these words echoed, the three Unshadowed were unaffected, but the clergy from the Church of Steam and Machinery, including Jack Walton, suddenly felt intense malice.

It was resentment from being assigned to dangerous missions.

Then, Jack Walton and the other Saints saw more hunched black shadows slowly emerging from the intersection behind them and the alleys on both sides.

They all appeared to be Montsouris ghosts.

Dozens, hundreds of Montsouris ghosts!

Meanwhile, the first black shadow—that Montsouris ghost—had its stomach rapidly swell up, then split open, spewing out viscous black liquid that stretched and elongated to form a new Montsouris ghost.

Seeing this, Angoulême, Jack Walton, and the others suddenly had a realization.

Montsouris ghosts shouldn't normally undergo such changes.

This was a phenomenon possible only through the Earth, Moon, or Banshee pathways!

Was this Madame Pualís's doing?

And what did the Montsouris ghosts correspond to? What developments would such proliferation bring?

"Human nature is evil…" The ghost's earlier words suddenly echoed in Angoulême's mind.

As far as he knew, the evil of human nature corresponded to the Devil and Prisoner pathways, both deeply influenced by the Mother Tree of Desire.

Right… Angoulême's temple suddenly throbbed.

The Shadow of the Beauty Goddess allegedly obtained by Madame Pualís came from the Rose School of Thought, and the Rose School controlled the Prisoner pathway as loyal followers of the Mother Tree of Desire!

At this thought, Angoulême formed a speculation that frightened even him as an Unshadowed:

the transaction involving the Shadow of the Beauty Goddess during the Vortex incident wasn't just a one-time deal—it concealed some subsequent cooperation!

The Vortex incident had ended, but its influence continued. The Great Mother and the Mother Tree of Desire had reached some understanding and decided to cooperate to a limited extent on certain matters!

Angoulême's expression tensed as he said gravely, "Clear out the Montsouris ghosts here quickly!"

Any later, unwanted mutations might occur!

As Angoulême spoke these words, in Underground Trier, near the seal of Fourth Epoch Trier in a certain mine, a brownish-green, gnarled-rooted, semi-real giant tree suddenly grew.

It extended branch after branch, growing extremely fast, as if it had received the best healing and most abundant nutrition.

…

New City of Silver, Church of The Fool's headquarters.

Through the floating mirrors before them, Lumian and the others saw that under the dark night, in many corners of Trier, the ground was cracking open as brownish-green roots or branches grew out.

"Tree of Shadow?" Lumian stood up and chuckled. "Heh, I really want to go back to Trier now and burn it. It couldn't be burned to death before, but today might be different."

He now had the Fire of Destruction!

Just as Lumian finished speaking, he suddenly turned his gaze toward the rows of large windows in the cathedral.

Outside the windows, the crimson moon had grown very large and hung very low, as if it had pressed against an invisible barrier.