In a dark corner, devoid of the crimson moon's light.
A woman draped in a dark cloak took a step out of the shadows. She watched the three Nighthawks landed on the building's balcony and returned.
Only when they disappeared did she took off her hood, revealing a long raven-black hair.
It was the woman the Nighthawks had encountered!
Multiple illusory bats gathered onto her hand and subsequently vanished. Seeing the night deepened, she began walking away.
Under the pallid glow of the crimson moonlight, the woman's piercing blood eyes reflects a narrow path.
There was a wooden cart slanted to a corner of a backdoor. Crates were stacked and dumpsters were overflowing of wastes.
She waited for ten seconds to pass before she opened her mouth and chanted a low incantation.
Then, the same spirit with only a head appeared before her, phasing out of the Spirit World.
"Take this back to Yesir." She said as she handed a paper slip from her pocket.
The spirit bit down on the paper without uttering a word.
Soon after it left. The lady quickly found the narrow path unbearable. She unfurled her illusory bat wings, wide enough to encapsulate her body.
With a sonorous flap and dash, she vanished into the streets.
...
In a room, situated somewhere in East Borough, renowned district for its concern of public safety.
Yesir, who had taken a budget hotel, locked his door behind after entering.
At this moment, he is currently in hiding in Pallar Street, near the area bordering the East and Cherwood Borough.
Throughout these past three days. He had been trying to contact the past pastors and former botanies who had abandoned their profession to believe in the Child of God.
It was a deliberate move to garner them, made by his grandfather, Falor Burming that escalated to a faction.
Some were already believers, while majorities have proselytized toward the now White Maiden.
A few did he encountered. Typically from his visits of local beyonder gatherings in the neighboring Cherwood Borough.
A member under an alias; "Mr. Pig's King" who attends frequently in gatherings convened by Aurora Order members, had agreed to meet earlier this evening.
His response was zealous, had he been in a recluse environment rather than an organized societal meeting, Mr. Pig King would have praised the Child of God numerously.
The revelation that the Goddess had converted into a new, retracted from vice title of White Maiden made a few suspicions rise.
However, it failed to make a bent as when Yesir later disclosed that the Goddess is ought to refer to as simply as Mrs. White, it fortified the man's belief.
"Praise the Maiden!" said Yesir, followed by a strike on his abdomen, he puffed his chest before reclining back.
"How is the reforming of our little group?" Suddenly, a deep voice of a man echoed in the room.
Yesir casted his sight toward the bed and saw a man, presumably in his thirties with refined body and toned bulky muscles, casually reading in a crossed leg position.
Wearing a dark-rimmed glasses over his high nose-bridge, the man slowly lowered his book and looked back at Yesir.
"I have already contacted them through their spirit messengers. While the majority have to be met in close proximity, the methods they've designed for meet-ups have already been utilized." replied Yesir in conviction.
The man tilted his head down and said, "Is the deity... You have came into contact with was truly the Child of God?"
His voice was ladened with concern over his own belief.
Yesir unknowingly creased his brow.
"The White Maiden is the Child of God." He firmly declared.
"White Maiden... Heh... Hahaha!" The man suddenly erupted into laughter. Instilling confusion toward the former priest.
His hysterical act recedes soon after. He did not hesitate to ask, "Do you know what Maiden means? An untouched, unclaimed young woman! And the Child of God was proven to have been wedded with the Giant King. Have you gone insane brother?"
Brother is often used by pastors to refer to other fellow male believers.
"She had been reborn." Yesir retorted. "Being reborn also associates with the shedding of vice. This is what I've seen during those dreams I have seen the Child of God with. A world of endless grassland and distant horizon."
The man stood up, his face was in a bit of pique.
"You've been rambling on and on about this dream. Have you not learned from the countless rituals we've conducted!? Jean was found and retrained by the very same organization we thought would support us maintaining the Goddess's lifeforce!" His voice now full of resentment.
"Jean and I are thankful for the blessing the Goddess had bestowed us. It allowed my previously infertile wife to be able to bear my child, an act we have almost lose hope. Giving us a reason to proselytized. However now...
The man gritted his teeth and furiously said.
"I allowed myself to be used, to slaughter in exchange for the Goddess to remain alive until my child is born. But... That very same organization worshiping the Goddess who brought that gift had taken both at once... Ahhh—Yesir!"
The man lounged at Yesir and held him high on his collar.
"Bring me my wife back you pathetic zealot!" As he yelled, his eyeglass fell from his face and broke on the cold floor.
Thud! Crack!
Yesir felt an adrenaline rush. His first thought was to instinctively land a strike to free himself.
However, a speck of clarity made him recall that this man was a former Doctor of the Harvest Church. Known for their physical, albeit lower than Warriors, brute force.
A trait of being a former Sequence 9: Planter.
"Y-You... will get your wife back!" Yesir replied with a high tone of desperation. "B-But you won't be able to do that if you kill me!"
That sentence rooted itself in the man that he eventually let go, realizing Yesir's importance.
He turned around and from his back, he muttered, audible enough to warn and inform the former priest.
"After this, consider me and my family, the Child of God's apostates." The man picked up his shattered glasses on the floor before resuming his reading by the bed.
Yesir sighed in relief. He quietly dusted his frock coat and inwardly scoffed.
Be thankful that the Child of God... No... The White Maiden now prohibits the attempts of Her descent, otherwise your child will be the next vessel...
He didn't dare blurted his thoughts out and waited patiently by the door.
Minutes later, a corporeal head materialized from a myriad of colors. This illusory spirit held a paper slip, pursed by its deathly parched lips.
Catherine! Yesir quickly recognized the spirit messenger that appeared.
He didn't hesitate to take the paper slip with which the spirit messenger left afterwards.
"East Balam Dock, behind 6th building warehouse. 12:15 pm."
"It's a location." said Yesir to Kothe.
Kothe didn't bother looking as he said, "Go and head there. Catherene is one of our valuable assets in gathering intel about the MI6, she's also one of our Vampires left. Having her should help us contacting the rest."
"You don't have tell me." Yesir muttered only for himself to hear.
Just as he opens the door. He promptly recalled something that made him turned to Kothe.
"Don't use the Goddess's former title. Ever. I have tried her current honorary title as the White Maiden and it points directly to her."
"..." Kothe stayed silent before saying, "I know."
After this, Yesir left.
At this moment of seclusion, Kothe brought his book down and stood up.
He inspected the room beforehand and found various ritualistic materials for a prayer.
Seconds turned to minutes and Kothe had managed to prepare a ritual site. A simple three candled stand in the middle of a table, followed by a fertile soil, a few ears of wheat and flowers.
Grasped by his hands was a silver dagger, it had a sharp dual-edged blade that binds the ritual in place.
After ensuring that the door is locked. Kothe completed the protective wall of spirituality.
He placed the silver knife down, clasped both his hands and bent his head.
Amid the flickering candlelight. Kothe muttered:
"The White Maiden from a distant time...
"The reborn daughter of a mysterious dreamworld...
"The beginning and the end of the extending vines...
...
Shortly after the incantations were cited and the prayers whispered. Kothe stood up and waited.
However, soon he realized there was no response.
Kothe did not find the absence of their Goddess's attention, inadequate. Instead, it fortified his conviction of half-heartedly devoting to the Goddess until he retrieve his wife.
With a sigh, he picked up the silver knife and prepared to tidy the room of any residue.
But just before he stepped out of the Spiritual Barrier. The fire burning from the wicks suddenly burgeoned into an emerald light.
Kothe saw the fiery light engulfed him. In a matter of seconds, he lose conscious on the spot.
The light returned as the candles swayed gently.
...
Serene Street, one district away from East Balam Docks.
Yesir alighted from the carriage and spent five pennies on the coachman as fare.
He had deliberately led the carriage to this street as a precaution for a possible spy tailing him, regardless of the obvious absence of anyone in the area.
Seeing the carriage drove away into the dead of night. Yesir, with the aid of crimson moonlight, navigated the alleyways, avoiding wide paths.
He kept his hooded cloak down to mask his face and soon he arrived at the docks.
It was devoid of pedestrians and workers. Only an occasional brazen shouts of drunkards from the nearby tavern and the soothing brush of ocean currents can be heard from where he stood.
1... 3... 5... 6... Yesir counted the warehouses he had encountered and inspected.
Nearing the 6th warehouse. He abruptly stopped.
He took out a root and punched it to his skin. Blood prickled and came into contact with the brown roots.
Pap!
Flames suddenly combusted from the javelin-like root held by Yesir. His hand threw down the root and watched it vanish into ashes.
Only after doing this did he concealed himself in the shadows of the warehouse and approached its side.
After arriving at the back of the building. Yesir took out a bronze pocket watch.
He saw the longer hand is almost reaching the upper-right side, whilst the short hand rested at the tenth segment.
"10:11..." Yesir withdrew his pocket watch back into his coat and waited patiently.
Minutes later, illusory bats swarmed an area bordering the coast.
And then, a lady with blood-red eyes and raven-black hair materialized amid the plague.
She wore a blouse, a trouser and a long, dark cloak. Her eyelashes were long and her nose bridge is slim.
Over her sickly pale skin, her rosy-red lips opened.
"Why did you summon me?" Catherine said as she disperses her bats.
Yesir shook off his feeling of smitten and quickly started with what matters.
"The Rose School of Thought had attacked by grandfather. At this moment, I don't know his current condition, perhaps... He's... already died..."
He felt his words choke his sentence.
"Did you managed to retrieve the insignia?" Catherine attempted to divert the topic.
Yesir nodded and said, "The book is safely stored in my apartment."
Catherine averted her gaze toward the ocean. Her eyes appearing brighter red.
"I have recently came into an encounter with Dylan before he disappeared." She said before facing Yesir.
"Apparently, another Rose School of Thought, a fractured side was residing within Backlund. The book may of be importance to them."
Yesir creased his brow. "What are you suggesting?"
Catherine walked closer to the edge of the dock, and glanced at Yesir.
"Do you think the items that were lended or given to us by the organization wouldn't be able to be divined and traced?"
Upon hearing this, Yesir staggered and subconsciously stepped back.
Catherine gave a solemn look at Yesir as she said.
"My profession as a medicine doctor was compromised because of that. The hotel's administrator mysteriously managed to know my whereabouts, regardless of my eye color." She presented a pair of small, transparent green contact lenses.
"Not only that. Most of our members was either caught by the Nighthawks or were restrained by the organization's members."