Chapter 218: Turmoil in North America
Inside the House of Rest.
William handed a cup of Holy Water to Bent: "What exactly happened?"
Bent's emotions had calmed down a lot.
"Zar and I took a commission to handle a supernatural incident in a community. Although the rating wasn't high, the two of us still followed the method you taught us before..."
"The process went very smoothly, but when collecting evil materials, I accidentally triggered an ancient seal."
"Zar pushed me away, but he himself was eroded by the foul aura. In order not to be controlled by evil, he could only choose to end his own life..."
After speaking, Bent painfully covered his face.
William sighed, patting Bent's shoulder and comforting him for a while.
In such a danger-surrounded world, one really had to be vigilant at all times.
A small oversight could be a fatal threat.
"What about Silas?" William changed the subject.
Bent took a sip of water, then his eyes became serious.
"The last time we met was five days ago."
"This guy was showing off in front of me and Zar, saying he was valued by a big shot in the Church in Washington D.C., and was about to transfer to the seminary there."
"But when I brought Zar's remains back, I was told—Silas colluded with evil forces to murder a Bishop."
"For this, the Church has issued a bounty commission to have this Church traitor face trial by the Vatican."
William narrowed his eyes upon hearing this.
Based on his knowledge of Silas, although this guy was a bit vain, he was a smart person and enthusiastic about power and status in the Church.
How could such a person commit an act like murdering a superior?
"What do you think?" He looked at Bent.
"Silas is not that kind of person." Bent's tone was firm.
"Moreover, I went to the apartment where he lived. Although it is already under Church surveillance, the important items in the house are still there; this doesn't look premeditated."
William nodded; there were many suspicious points here.
The Church had a strict hierarchy, which was very obvious in institutions with higher ranks, such as the branch of the Exorcism Institute last time.
With Silas's strength, wanting to murder a Bishop in such a place and retreat unscathed was almost impossible.
As for relying on evil power... it would be even harder to achieve; he would be discovered by magic arrays before even getting close.
"What else did the wanted notice say?" William asked.
"It is said that Silas stole a precious holy relic, and his family is also going to be put on trial because of it."
Bent clenched his fists.
"I also underwent several rounds of interrogation, but was released after they found I had nothing to do with that incident."
Thoughtfulness revealed in William's eyes, then he continued: "Is Joran also because of this matter?"
Bent shook his head: "The Archbishop seems to have been taken away because he privately cooperated with evil forces when investigating a case earlier."
"There has been no news since then. Now the Bishop of the seminary is taken over by Matthew."
Hearing "cooperated with evil forces," William felt a little guilty.
But then he was stunned: "Only this change?"
Bent nodded.
William raised an eyebrow upon hearing this; this was a bit too strange.
As an envoy of the Vatican, Joran possessed great power in the local diocese.
Based on William's understanding of the Church, if such a big shot had problems, the former would definitely handle it secretly.
After all, this concerned the majesty of the Church.
Besides, with Joran's personality, he definitely did this kind of thing a lot privately.
It was all running errands for the Church; getting things done was the most important thing.
Judging an Archbishop on such charges, William disbelieved it eight parts out of ten.
At the same time, he also ruled out political competition.
The previous trial of Bishop Julius was still vivid in his mind.
If it were really some political opponent intentionally smearing him, the position of Bishop of Dei Seminary would have been fiercely fought over long ago.
Even a guest professor like William would have been stripped of his position.
And the Church would not assign Archbishop Matthew to be in charge of Dei Seminary.
After all, everyone knew this Archbishop was "indifferent to fame and fortune."
From this, William had a guess—this was a rumor deliberately leaked.
As for why the Church did this, he didn't know.
But the personnel transfers in various churches recently were very frequent, coupled with the incident of Silas's defection.
William inexplicably had a feeling that the Church was brewing some big event.
"Should I go back to the community church to hide for a while?" he thought to himself.
No matter what the Church wanted to do, a lower-level Holy Clergy Member like him could only be cannon fodder.
But then he thought, as long as he was still a member of the Church, it would be hard to break away from it.
"Still have to improve my strength as soon as possible; only a fist is the most powerful guarantee." William made up his mind secretly, preparing to take on a few more commissions.
After this, Bent quickly left; he still had to pray for Zar.
William also took the opportunity to return to the seminary.
Besides inquiring about Joran's news, he also returned the token of this commission along the way.
And the result was exactly as William expected.
The matter concerning Archbishop Joran was kept strictly confidential, and his previous arrangements in the seminary were all retained; it didn't look like he had "lost power" at all.
During this period, William also learned a few pieces of news from Flora—
First, a new force had recently emerged in North America.
They called themselves the Lord Knights, inheriting from a sovereign empire north of the Mediterranean a thousand years ago.
These people claimed that the Church's belief was the true evil flowing in this land. Their mission was to expose the Church's corruption and reveal the true faces of these hypocrites.
To prove this point, the Lord Knights exposed a shocking scandal—all clergy members imprisoned in the "Place of Suffering" for violating Church rules were turned into "Holy Oil" to provide for Holy Clergy Members to practice Theology.
And the Church naturally denied it, calling this incident the "Provocation of Heretics."
The two sides thus engaged in a war of public opinion.
To the outside world, everyone seemed to just have the mentality of watching a show.
But clear instructions had already been issued within the Church to beware of assassinations from the Lord Knights organization.
From this, it could be seen that the strength of this organization should not be weak.
The second piece of news was also related to an organization—the Witch Association.
Since a thousand years ago, witches had always been synonymous with evil, which had only eased in recent years.
But today's witches still could only live in dark corners.
However, the leader of this generation stood up and issued a call to major forces in North America—all parties should unite to cope with the evil invasion of the human world.
The Witch Association was willing to become the liaison for all parties and share some small witchcraft that ordinary people could also use.
But there were different voices internally.
It is said that several witches jointly opposed the association leader, claiming the latter's behavior was a kind of betrayal.
The blood debts accumulated by witches over a thousand years could absolutely not just be glossed over like this.
Therefore, they proactively broke away from the Witch Association and established a new organization—the Rosicrucian Order.
This organization claimed that the Church had always committed crimes everywhere, only covering them up because of their massive power.
They would definitely make the Church pay blood for blood.
Currently, the Lord Knights and the Rosicrucian Order had established contact, and the two parties were secretly formulating a crusade plan against the Church.
The third piece of news was also about a new organization—Light of Humanity.
This organization was established by a wealthy man, with members including scientists, mediums, and various people in the community.
They believed that supernatural power would only bring disasters to humanity, and this situation must be contained.
At the same time, Light of Humanity believed that advanced equipment and instruments were the correct way to eliminate evil.
So they called on the people of all states to take up arms themselves instead of relying on others.
Currently, the above organizations had all issued statements respectively, stating they would actively participate in supernatural events occurring in North America.
It was conceivable that various places would be very "Lively" in the coming period.
The final piece of news was related to Demon Hunters.
After the last sealing ceremony ended, a new family rose in Louisiana.
This family used an "Eye" as their family crest, and within a short time, several Demon Hunters possessing inheritance weapons emerged.
Facing the olive branches thrown by various forces, this family stated they did not plan to participate.
"We only want to guard the peace of the land in the southern part of North America." They declared externally.
William rubbed his chin.
How did the world seem to have completely changed after I went out on one mission.
He already knew the news about the Demon Hunters; even the suggestion of "Refusing to participate" was proposed by William.
Sometime earlier, Sadie had sent a letter informing him that Allard had used traits to support a new family.
And the two families had also become the largest force in the southern part of North America in one swoop.
Coincidentally at this time, several forces secretly came to inquire, and even the Church was one of them.
Sadie couldn't make up her mind, so she wanted to hear William's advice.
Considering the increasingly frequent evil events, plus the new family had just gained a firm foothold.
Therefore, being too conspicuous would only bring trouble; it would be better to quietly develop strength in the dark—this was the wise move.
Looking at it now, Sadie took William's advice.
And the letter also said that the head of that new family wanted to come and visit William.
But was refused by the latter on the grounds of "Being busy with theological practice."
If the matter of them meeting was discovered by others, it would definitely cause unnecessary trouble.
After all, the target that various forces were scrambling to rope in actually proactively came to visit a priest.
In the eyes of the Church, this was undoubtedly a kind of contempt.
After returning from the seminary, he happened to bump into Lorraine coming to pick up Judy.
Ed had been discharged from the hospital a long time ago. After experiencing the Bishop Hans incident, the couple had not taken any commissions for a long time.
Relying on their previous connections, the Warrens were now hired as consultants for supernatural events by the local police department.
Specially responsible for answering some special cases.
Although the salary wasn't much, with their previous accumulation, the family lived affluently.
Now the couple had focused all their attention on cultivating Judy.
For this reason, they proposed multiple times to pay William.
The Warrens knew very well that this Father William was definitely a very formidable Holy Clergy Member.
For their daughter to be able to study with the other party was simply them picking up a huge bargain!
But William refused.
This wasn't out of kindness; William indeed planned to cultivate Judy into a powerful assistant.
This way, if evil really descended on this land, he would also have an extra helper.
This could be considered preparing for a rainy day.
After sending the two off, William went into his workshop to replenish the consumed holy artifacts.
Late at night.
Dei Commercial Street was silent and deserted.
Suddenly, a black figure appeared at the street corner.
This person carried a sack on their back and looked left and right for quite a while.
After confirming there was no one around, the black-robed person came to a shop on the street named "House of Rest."
Thump... thump.
After placing the sack on the ground and knocking gently on the door, the black-robed person quickly hid in the shadows.
Inside the shop.
William had long been standing behind the door holding a holy artifact.
Seeing the black-robed person could approach the small shop without being affected, it meant the other party was not tainted with evil aura.
But what was wrong with this person?
Not sleeping late at night and throwing an unknown object at someone else's door.
I deliberately didn't renovate this storefront just to be low-key.
Only bullying honest people, huh!!
William looked depressed. After thinking for a moment, he still opened the door.
No matter what this thing was, leaving it until the next day would definitely attract attention.
Might as well deal with it now.
Due to the "Eyes" ability, he didn't turn on the light.
But after seeing clearly the "Thing" in the sack, William was still stunned.
He saw it was a woman inside.
A head of pale golden long hair draped over her shoulders, her fair and tender face looking quite young.
But judging from her appearance, she was undoubtedly a beauty.
But this girl was only wearing a nightgown at the moment, and seemed to be unconscious.
Due to her sitting posture, her neckline was almost wide open towards the door, exactly visible down to the bottom at a glance.
William stared at it for quite a while.
A moment later.
He threw the sack next to the trash can on the commercial street.
Bang!
Then he quickly returned to the shop and closed the door.
"Phew... that was close." William breathed a sigh of relief.
"Living together with a beautiful girl who proactively delivered herself to the door... only the legendary Otakus would believe that!" He shook his head.
Placed in reality, this matter was just too bizarre!
At the same time, in a pitch-black corner of the commercial street.
Seeing the door actually close, the black-robed person was instantly stunned.
He hurriedly ran to the trash pile.
At this time, the mouth of the sack had already been tied up, and the words "Dangerous Goods" were even written on it.
The corner of the black-robed person's mouth twitched.
After taking a deep breath, he carried the sack again and came to the shop door.
This time after knocking, the black-robed person did not leave.
"What is it?" William looked vigilant.
He had been paying attention to the situation outside from inside the shop.
"Father William, it's me." Silas took off his hood.
William raised an eyebrow, sized him up and down, and said: "Come in and talk."
"That's how things are." Silas said holding a cup of Holy Water.
Because of his outstanding theological talent, he was valued by Archbishop Cole Zadok.
The latter came from the ancient Zadok clan of the Holy Land, was a former Temple Priest, and held a very high status in the Church.
In today's College of Cardinals in the Vatican, there was also a Cardinal from the Zadok family.
The other party privately found Silas and expressed the expectation to focus on cultivating the latter.
This sounded like a massive blessing.
And it was also the goal Silas had always pursued.
So he went to the invitation without hesitation.
But the result was hard for him to foresee.
That Archbishop indeed truly wanted to cultivate Silas, but there was a certain price—he must sign a Soul Contract.
According to the requirements on it, Silas must give a part of his soul to the Zadok clan and swear to serve the Zadok clan for all eternity.
There were many other conditions like this, every one of them very harsh.
Silas only saw two words from the contract—"Enslavement."
This obviously did not match his expectations.
Even though enthusiastic about power, Silas Roche would not sell his soul.
This was not only a humiliation to him personally but also a betrayal of the Roche clan behind him.
Therefore, he tactfully refused.
But at this time, Archbishop Cole revealed his true colors.
The other party forced Silas to sign the contract, otherwise, the Roche clan would completely disappear from North America.
And Silas would also be turned into a bottle of Holy Oil.
William only then knew that these so-called upper echelons of the Church had always strictly managed the Holy Clergy Members below.
As long as there were priests with outstanding talent, they would be invited by them.
If they agreed to sign, naturally it was easy to talk; otherwise, it would be regarded as betrayal, and the fate could naturally be imagined.
The reason why these guys did this was only one—the candidate for the Holy Son.
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