"I just saw the Holy Mother. She told us to immediately stitch together the Holy Son's body," Archbishop Matthew said to those around him.
Many people were doubtful, thinking the old archbishop was so overcome with grief that he was hallucinating.
Still, sewing together the Archbishop's body was the proper thing to do, so they did not refuse. They only asked, "What does the Holy Mother intend to do?"
"I don't know," Archbishop Matthew replied blankly.
Truth be told, even Holy Mother Dany did not know what she could do.
If it were treating wounds of the living, she had confidence she could show results within a day or two. But for the dead...
It was her first time thinking of using the Holy Mother's divine power to drive healing magic, her first time applying it in practice, her first time attempting to heal the dead. With so many firsts colliding together, even Holy Mother Dany did not know what would happen.
So she had given Matthew no guarantees.
If, by some miracle, the High Sparrow had saved the universe in a past life and was now lucky enough to be revived by the Holy Mother, she could smile enigmatically and say: Of course I must resurrect the Holy Son!
But if he was doomed, and the attempt failed, the Holy Mother would compassionately tell the faithful: I am here to guide the Holy Son to heaven. You should rejoice for him. The Holy Son has fulfilled his mission on earth and is about to enter paradise, beginning the next stage of his glorious journey. Now, bid him farewell!
Then dragonfire would consume him, burning away his soul and body, turning into spiritual essence to nourish her dragon child.
In short, Dany needed a miracle to restore the faith of her followers. The life or death of the High Sparrow was not what truly mattered.
He had tormented Cersei, troubled the maesters of Oldtown, disgusted the Iron Throne and the nobles of the Seven Kingdoms, owed the Iron Bank a mountain of debt, and allowed Drogon to successfully usurp the priesthood of the Seven. Even in death, he could still help the Dragon Queen complete a valuable experiment.
His mission was already more than accomplished. He could now rest in glory.
As more and more believers chanted the scriptures, threads of faith converged upon Archbishop Matthew, and the Gate of Faith opened.
Through that gate, the Holy Mother's divine power descended upon the Great Sept.
To those watching, it appeared as if the statue of the Holy Mother suddenly shot forth a beam of sacred white light, enveloping the High Sparrow lying on the ground.
Cersei turned her head and, seeing this miracle, could not help but tremble in shock: the Holy Mother had revealed herself.
What frightened her even more was that the Sparrow's torn flesh and sinews were actually writhing, slowly regenerating.
In truth, they were growing.
To be honest, even Dany herself was stunned by the effect of "Holy Mother's Power + Healing Magic."
Although the divine energy was being consumed at an alarming and painful rate, the Sparrow's wounds were undeniably healing.
But Dany also noticed something unusual: since the Sparrow had already died, the positive life-essence within him had transformed into negative essence. Now, though his wounds were closing, that negative essence had not disappeared.
This was no small matter.
For negative essence signified undeath.
A body filled with negative essence could not be considered truly alive.
Dany even had a sudden realization: Lady Stoneheart and Beric Dondarrion must have been revived in the same way, their bodies sustained by negative essence. They had lost the vitality of living humans, no longer needing food or sleep.
The body lost its vitality, while the most precious part of the soul was taken by R'hllor.
Such a resurrection—what was it really?
Dany now faced a serious dilemma.
If things continued like this, she would only revive a monster.
That was not her intention.
But the negative essence had spread throughout the Sparrow's entire body; there was no way to cut out just one part of it.
The faithful inside the Sept, and the spectators before the magic mirror, were all shocked by the Holy Mother's descent. Yet the Holy Mother herself was trapped in a terrible choice.
Should she abandon the healing and burn the Sparrow's body to ash?
Or should she resurrect a creature whose future even she could not predict?
She would not act like R'hllor, seizing part of the Sparrow's soul. Perhaps he might retain his personality after revival, but physical corruption would sooner or later affect the mind.
"If I could burn the body away and then, using the same method as hatching a dragon, reforge a new body from fire... but then wouldn't he become a dragon?" Dany chuckled at her own absurd thought.
Fire could indeed burn away negative essence, but could the Sparrow withstand such flames without turning to ash?
"Alas, forgive me, good brother. May you rest in peace—"
Suddenly, Dany caught sight of the pool beneath the Sparrow's soul.
Two streams of the Song of Water had entered the Pool of Faith, merging with the power of belief into "Water's Divine Power."
The Sparrow was wandering aimlessly within the pool.
In his awareness, it felt like suddenly losing consciousness—death—then being carried along a white light into a world filled with the aura of the Seven, with a clear ocean stretching beneath his feet.
The sea was shallow, only to his ankles. The water was sacred, boundless, and vast.
There was no doubt in his mind that he had reached heaven. After cleansing his sins in the holy water, he would soon be summoned by the Holy Mother herself.
So the Sparrow was bathing in the water.
"This..." Dany froze.
It was not his action that shocked her—for before the divine power of water, the souls of mortals were as small as fish in the sea.
The key was that as the Sparrow washed his hands and face, the negative essence within his soul-body was actually dissolving into the water!
When people die, the life-essence of the body becomes negative, and so too does the essence of the soul.
"Does the divine power transformed by the Song of Water truly have this effect?" Dany was bewildered.
In fact, it was not solely the Song of Water.
The Seven were gods of absolute justice, and the Pool of Faith dedicated to them naturally carried pure, sanctifying properties, repelling corruption and resisting evil.
When the Song of Water falls into the pool of faith of the Evil God, and the High Sparrow enters the waters of divine power, no negative spirit essence is expelled. Instead, the positive spirit essence dissolves.
Daenerys knew none of this, nor did she have time to study it. The Holy Mother was descending right now!
Realizing that the divine power of water carried such an effect, she immediately drew a portion of it and merged it with the divine power of the Holy Mother's healing spell, channeling it into the High Sparrow's body.
"Buzz…" Within the milky-white holy light surrounding the High Sparrow, a faint golden shimmer of vitality suddenly appeared. The onlookers did not understand what it meant, but they were shocked to see black blood seeping from the pores of the High Sparrow's skin.
Daenerys was even more astonished than they were.
The effect of the water's divine power was unexpectedly good!
When type-B active spirit essence dissolved into the water's divine power, it actually began repairing the cells corrupted by negative spirit essence. Daenerys thought of them as cells, though in truth, they were not.
If a cell dies, it shatters directly, part of it turning into nutrients for other cells to absorb, while the rest is expelled as waste.
In short, the healing spell (empowerment with type-B active spirit essence) could only heal wounds, that is, physically missing parts. It would never repair parts of the body that were still intact.
But after adding the divine power of water, it changed.
For example, when a gecko loses its tail, type-B spirit essence can allow the wound to regrow the missing tail, but it will never cause a second tail to sprout from its belly.
Or if a hand is cut by a knife, type-B active spirit essence accelerates healing of the wound, and when driven by the Holy Mother's divine power, the recovery is even faster—so fast it can be seen with the naked eye, a true miracle.
However, if someone is poisoned, healing spells based on type-B active spirit essence become ineffective, and even the Holy Mother's power is useless.
Unless, in the future, Daenerys were to discover a type of spirit essence specifically attuned to poisons.
But that was another matter.
For now, when the negative spirit essence within the High Sparrow's body encountered the added divine power of water, it was neutralized by the positive type-B active spirit essence.
In short, the divine power transformed by the Song of Water within the Seven's pool of faith was especially effective for resurrection!
"What kind of principle is this?" Daenerys was overjoyed, but also deeply puzzled.
"Hiss—" When she came back to her senses, her heart ached as if it would bleed. The two clusters of the Song of Water, one large and one small, had now been reduced to only the larger one.
"And the power of faith… even if the High Sparrow prayed for a hundred years, it would not be enough! The price is far too great. What a loss."
After calculating the cost, Daenerys almost regretted it.
But it was too late for regret.
She had no choice but to grit her teeth and send out another large portion of faith power to wrap the High Sparrow's soul—like dressing a soul in armor—then channel it back into the body that had been dead for over half an hour, through the holy mark on the High Sparrow's brow.
"Ahhh—" Two Silent Sisters, who were cleaning the black blood from the High Sparrow's skin, suddenly tore open their throats and screamed hysterically. Silent Sisters, as their name implied, had taken vows of silence.
Why would devout Silent Sisters scream?
"Ahhh—" The monks standing close to the High Sparrow also cried out.
"The High Sparrow is alive! His finger just moved, I saw it!" Lancel's eyes widened in disbelief.
"His Excellency's cold body has warmth again," one Silent Sister said in horror.
"Silence!" Archbishop Matthew was trembling with excitement, yet still forced himself to remain composed. He scolded, "The Holy Mother is descending. What kind of behavior is this?"
Indeed, the beam of light upon the High Sparrow had not yet faded. The Holy Mother was still in the process of descending!
So, the monks once again joined in chanting.
This time, they were more devout than ever before. The faith flowing into the pool doubled in an instant.
A miracle was unfolding before their eyes. How could they not be devout?
Not only the monks—nobles and commoners attending the tournament around them were shaken to their cores. Their gazes toward the statue of the Holy Mother were filled with awe.
"Mercy of the Holy Mother!" Strick dropped to his knees with a thud, bowing his head to the statue.
"Mercy of the Holy Mother!" Devout nobles wept with tears streaming down their faces, trembling as they knelt in worship.
"Mercy of the Holy Mother, who brings the blessing of life, who protects every woman, whose smile ends wars and tenderly cares for children."
"Whoosh!" In the cathedral, apart from Cersei and a few others, everyone else knelt upon the marble floor, chanting the "Song of the Holy Mother" in the most humble postures, with the most reverent voices and the most fervent hearts.
"Thud! Thud!"
Even those in front of the magic mirror lost their composure. Quentyn and old Aemon slid from their chairs, kneeling on the ground.
"By the Seven, the Holy Mother has manifested! The High Sparrow has come back to life!" Tyrion's eyes widened, as if he were dreaming.
The horse-maidens Qiqi and Yili were terrified and uncertain. They exchanged glances, then turned their large, dark almond eyes to their pillar of support.
They sighed in relief—Khaleesi remained calm and composed, eyes narrowing as if she disdained the Holy Mother's manifestation within the mirror.
As expected of Khaleesi!
Seeing Quentyn, Aemon, and the others shouting and kowtowing, the horse-maidens even felt a strange sense of superiority. How ignorant they are! No matter how powerful the Holy Mother is, can she compare to Khaleesi, the one destined to bear the steed that rides the world?
"By the Seven! The High Sparrow is truly moving!" Cersei rose on tiptoe, peering into the crowd kneeling around him. She saw him frowning, rubbing the back of his neck where Robert Strong had snapped it.
A cold sweat instantly broke out along the back of her neck, her soul nearly leaping out of her body.
"Mercy of the Holy Mother—why bring the High Sparrow back to life?" Cersei wailed, dragging Robert Strong toward the cathedral's doors.
After a few steps, she noticed Euron still standing there, his expression solemn, his eyes glinting. Cersei hissed, "Why are you still standing here? Hurry and escape while you can!"
"I am assessing the Holy Mother's authenticity," Euron said, his voice low and eerie.
"Assessing wh—" Cersei froze. At some point, Euron had lifted the patch over his left eye, revealing a black eye gleaming with malice.
In the instant her gaze met his, "Whoosh—"
It was as if a storm had descended, sucking her soul into its depths, dragging it into the storm-filled skies.
"You—" After what felt like countless years, Cersei came back to herself, exhausted. Pointing at Euron in terror, she gasped, "Your eye…"
(End of chapter)
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