Strictly speaking, the founder of the Church of Shadows is not Anna.
Bishop Jon is.
Rules, status, and beliefs are all controlled by Jon
Even the relationship between "gods and believers" is not close. Among the thirty-six core believers, one hundred and six followers, and thousands of believers, only a few have ever seen Anna in person.
Because Anna doesn't need their faith.
It's just that Bishop Jon's belief in the Girl's Shadow was devout enough to continue in Lu Li.
Because Anna, they are also followers of Lu Li, as evidenced by the increasing number of threads lingering around Lu Li.
The home base of the Church of Shadow is located on the Allen Peninsula, or it can be said to be the Main Continent.
Although the Badlands are more friendly to these pagans, the Church of Shadows cannot enjoy this treatment because their god is missing.
In the desolate land, the church without gods can only live under the command of Midnight City or other small towns. As time goes by, devout believers fall into madness due to questioning the gods, and shallow believers gradually convert.
So they only kept one stronghold in Midnight City to spread the news, and the symbolic significance was greater than the actual significance.
This made the Church of Shadows extremely slow to respond to the news of Lu Li's return. They only learned of this information when the newspapers in Weiner's Freezing Port spread all over the place.
Then, because Lu Li arrived at the Main Continent and was protected and started running around, it was difficult for them to find traces of Lu Li, so that Lu Li took the initiative to search for them.
But they didn't lose face completely. Because after Lu Li arrived in Watchtown, he turned into Bishop Jon Lu Li and guided Lu Li to the Stone Forest.
In addition to the Midnight City stronghold with greater symbolic significance, there is also the Holy Land Stone Forest, and the Main Continent is their home base. The strongholds are distributed in many towns, and some gathering places have even been converted into church strongholds.
[It is known that they have strongholds in Midnight City, Tower Wind City and Vig Town, and we are still continuing to interrogate them. 】
Wow
One-eyed Vic tore open the parchment angrily.
"That's all?"
In the dark and damp upper level of the dungeon, he approached the silhouettes of black uniforms standing in a row in front of him and asked mockingly.
"A group of the most outstanding interrogators from the Tribunal, after being tortured for so many days, could not find out where the stronghold or lair of these ugly bugs was, and they did not even know the name of one of the bugs!"
"The Mainland of the Lord..."
A faint voice of defense sounded.
The one-eyed Vic suddenly turned his head, walked lamely and approached the young man in black uniform who was defending him, pressed his forehead against his forehead, stared at the evasive eyes and taunted: "I also know that you were born to your mother, not your father, right?"
Ignoring this idiot, One-Eyed Vic returned to his original position, looked around and said in a low voice: "I'll give you one last day. If you haven't pried open their mouths yet..."
All the uneasy interrogators knew what was left unfinished.
Suddenly there were stumbling steps on the stone steps, followed by a drawn-out shout.
"Mayor Mateus is here!"
Surprised and trivial whispers sounded one after another.
"Quiet!"
One-eyed Vic shouted impatiently, telling them to shut up.
"That flatterer? He actually came to the dungeon..."
He took out the pipe from the pocket of the interrogator's uniform and put it in his mouth. He asked his men to disperse and stood alone in the hall waiting.
The sound of chaotic footsteps sounded faster than expected. Mayor Mateus, whom he had often seen in newspapers recently, was surrounded by guards and walked into the dark hall.
His young assistant came to One-Eyed Vic and said in a businesslike tone: "Inquisitor Vic, where are the two Shadow Church believers who were captured by you?"
"Believer? What are you talking about?" Smoke emitted from the lit pipe, covering the narrowed eye of the one-eyed Vic.
Assistant Valendo looked away from the panicked interrogator on the side and looked back at the mayor. After getting the signal, he moved forward and almost felt the heat of the pipe.
"I said."
Assistant Valendo stared closely at the one eye with an ugly scar on the bridge of his nose.
"Where are the believers who you concealed their actions, arrested privately, and interrogated in violation of regulations?"
"...the third floor of the dungeon...counting down."
In the eyes of other interrogators, the one-eyed Vic, who represented integrity, was unwilling to bow his head.
Ugly politics and power, even if they are on the verge of death, a group of greedy people will still cling to them...
"Thank you. We will talk about your unauthorized interrogation later. Please lead us now."
Assistant Valendo returns behind Mayor Mateus.
One-eyed Vic glanced around, and with a gloomy face led the mayor and others into the dungeon.
Not far away, the men who received the prompt turned around and ran into another dungeon entrance.
…
The worms that were taken away return to the long worm tunnel connecting Watchtown and Himfast.
"You actually reached a cooperation with the Beholder Worm..."
Jon was impressed by Lu Li's ability.
This made the "trial route to the stone forest safely" that they arranged for Lu Li useless.
Not only Bishop Jon was there, but all the believers in the stone forest followed Lu Li and left, eating yellow plum grass and entering the insect tunnel.
The destination is Watchtown.
Just like Ophelia suggested, save their companions first.
Bringing the Shadow Church is a part of saving your companions.
In addition to searching for Anna, Lu Li asked the Shadow Church to contact believers in other areas to find the missing Catalina and Andrea.
After traveling for more than ten minutes, they arrived in Watch Town and headed straight to Hades' home.
The Shadow Church believers stayed on the ground, while Lu Li and others melted the cooled rocks again and entered hell.
After passing two levels of Hades' deception, they came to the surface. With distorted vision, on the hot and desolate land composed of red and yellow, the lemures were building a city wall in the distance, and Hades under the parasol was leisurely throwing wooden sticks into the distance.
Let Pusius take it back.
"You guys came just in time, I'm exercising Pusius's body."
Finding them back, Hades waved to Lu Li who was approaching.
"You look like you haven't woken up yet."
Hades, who had not been in contact with humans for more than 20 years, noticed the changes in Lu Li.
Then he seemed to notice Ophelia's presence: "Anna? The way you look now... Of course, I mean you are as beautiful now as you were before."
"She is Ophelia."
"Well, anyway, you always have these weird...friends." Pusius shrugged, making a "whew" sound in his mouth, picked up the basin and called Pusius to come back for a drink of water.
"The little one woke up not long after you left."
In the distance, Pusius, who noticed the arrival of Lu Li and others, had already thrown away his stick, wagging his two tails wildly to avoid Hades, and rolled at Lu Li's feet, exposing his belly.
The hellish environment made him no longer look wet, and the whispers that bewitched his consciousness no longer sounded.
"You are back! Have you found Miss Anna?"
Lu Li and Ophelia fell into silence. The eldest sister came out of her hood and answered, "No."
