Dorothy’s Forbidden Grimoire Novel - Chapter 472

Chapter 472

The spacious office was illuminated by a guttering candelabra, adorned with a lofty portrait, vibrant floor carpets, and scattered religious ornaments. Behind a desk burdened with stacks of official papers sat Cardinal Amanda, clad in crimson. Reclining in her chair, her brow deeply furrowed, she confronted the spectral form of a nun, a ghostly presence floating before the desk.

“Your Eminence, matters feel unsettled,” the apparition spoke with grave seriousness. “Rumors are swirling within the Church and beyond that Sister Vania is to be sent as an envoy to Ados to address the heresy crisis. This news hasn’t just surfaced in secular newspapers; even our own Church publications, Gospel News and Salvation Times, have carried it. Word of Sister Vania’s assignment to Ados spread almost instantly everywhere. It reeks of deliberate manipulation.”

Hearing this, Amanda released a slow breath before responding. “Naturally it was manipulated. Hildebert… I underestimated his willingness to stir such fervor merely to pressure me. This time, I was negligent.”

Amanda spoke deliberately; the situation had clearly taken her by surprise. “I didn’t foresee the request letter from the Ados nobility arriving at this precise moment—neither sooner nor later—allowing it to be weaponized against me in the last Consistory meeting. Things have become rather problematic now…”

Rubbing her temples, Amanda murmured heavily. The ghostly nun before her spoke again. “What is our course now, Your Eminence? Must we truly dispatch Sister Vania to Ados? The situation there exceeds her capabilities.”

“Now we have no alternative. Hildebert seized the timing flawlessly. His sweeping publicity campaign coincidentally merged with ours, thrusting that young sister into the storm’s center. Under these conditions, the journey is unavoidable.” Amanda’s expression hardened. After weighing the options, sending the young sister to Ados was the only path. Whatever the result, it was preferable to outright refusal.

“Begin assembling the envoy delegation for Ados immediately. Ensure the security detail is as formidable as possible. While we shouldn’t anticipate major achievements from that young sister, we can at least guarantee her safe return,” Amanda continued. Ados was currently engulfed in chaotic and perilous strife. Venturing there without strong protection invited disaster.

As an envoy sister, returning empty-handed would only damage the influence she had carefully built. But if misfortune befell her there… the consequences would be severe…

“Understood… I will oversee the arrangements personally… However… concerning security preparations, Cardinal Hildebert appears to have infiltrated influence in numerous areas. Do you have specific instructions on that matter, Your Eminence?” The ghostly nun addressed Amanda with profound solemnity. Hearing this, Amanda narrowed her eyes slightly, a contemplative gleam appearing within them.

……

On the North Coast of the Conqueror Sea, in Iwig.

Night had settled over Adria, Iwig’s major coastal city. As darkness fell, countless lights ignited across the metropolis. The river’s surface split the luminous nightscape into mirrored halves of light and shadow, granting the tourism-focused city a uniquely captivating vista rare elsewhere.

Seated in a private room of Adria’s upscale restaurant, Dorothy, wearing a cocktail dress, gazed at the splendid night view. Before her on the table lay the thick volume, Sea of Texts Navigation, its open pages filled with her recent exchanges with Vania. Sipping coffee, she absorbed both the scenery and the correspondence.

‘Lecher Valley, the holy site where the Saint Mother first descended… yet it features a colossal tree akin to Summerrye Island. And the church constructed beneath this immense tree… resonates strikingly with the sacrificial grounds under the Sacred Tree on Summerrye. Combined with Adelle’s teacher’s ancestral home—that former shrine to Plenty converted into a Saint Mother parish—it appears the Saint Mother faith shares an extraordinarily deep connection with Plenty. The Saint Mother’s holy land in Lecher Valley likely served as a temple to the Goddess of Plenty in ancient times, but on a far grander, more significant scale than Summerrye Island… perhaps even the primary temple.

‘According to the Radiant Scriptures, Lecher Valley is the site of the Saint Mother’s descent. After the Glorious Savior divided into the Holy Trinity, it was here the Saint Mother manifested. And upon appearing, She immediately vanquished the Southern Beast rising from the sea…

‘This Southern Beast is equally impossible to overlook. Gestation, water, disease, devouring, temptation, flesh… In the Scriptures’ account, the Southern Beast exhibits nearly every major power tied to “Cup,” its image almost identical to the Cup Mother. If the Southern Beast truly *was* the Cup Mother… how could the Saint Mother—a mixed-element divinity—have defeated such an entity?

‘Goddess of Plenty, Cup Mother, Saint Mother… three goddesses intrinsically linked to “Cup,” yet a complex, elusive relationship weaves between them… What connection truly binds these three? It is profoundly puzzling…’

Dorothy stroked her chin, contemplating these divine relationships. Two were pure “Cup” deities—one the former sovereign, one the current. The other was a mixed deity: primary “Lamp,” auxiliary “Cup.” Logically, the close bond between Plenty and the Cup Mother, deities linked by direct succession, made sense. But what justified the Saint Mother—this mixed deity—fitting so intimately into this picture? Wasn’t the Saint Mother fundamentally a divine power within the “Lamp” sphere? Even if connections existed with the two pure “Cup” deities, surely they wouldn’t be this intense…

Gazing out the window while pondering the tangled divine tapestry, Dorothy sighed inwardly. Finding no immediate resolution to this theological puzzle, she returned her focus to the Sea of Texts Navigation, reviewing other significant news from Vania. The most crucial update was Vania’s recent rank advancement.

Facilitated entirely by the Church, Vania had successfully undergone her Advancement Rite within the Cathedral of Redemption at the Saint Mother’s holy site. She had ascended from a Healing Prayer to a Disciple of Grace—a White Ash rank practitioner on the Path of the Saint Mother.

A Disciple of Grace possessed enhanced fundamental abilities in both “Lamp” and “Cup” compared to a Healing Prayer, bolstered curative powers, and gained entirely new capabilities.

Her healing was faster and more potent. She could now confer a passive mark upon willing Blessed Subjects through a simplified “Blessing” rite. Once marked, Vania could remotely sense the subject’s physical condition across great distances, detecting injury or death. This mark acted like a spiritual beacon, allowing the Disciple to perceive the subject’s precise location at all times.

Within a kilometer’s radius, she could remotely heal a Blessed Subject’s injuries. This restorative effect intensified significantly if the Disciple had the subject within her direct line of sight.

Beyond healing, she could bestow passive augmentations equivalent to a first-rank “Lamp” or “Cup” boon upon Blessed Subjects. Individuals lacking these passive abilities—whether ordinary people or practitioners of other paths—would experience enhanced strength and resilience. This blessing also provided considerable defense against bodily diseases and toxins, even dispelling minor illnesses or poisons outright.

Another intriguing ability allowed a Disciple of Grace to invoke a specialized blessing upon insubstantial entities like ghosts. This phenomenon forcibly materialized the entity to a tangible degree, making it susceptible to physical harm. This transformation invariably caused extreme discomfort, even pain, as incorporeal beings felt their essence anchored and bound by burgeoning flesh. Invariably unwilling, they fled swiftly before the rite completed. Consequently, this could actively repel or “displace” such spirits.

Critically, this transmutation could never reconstruct a full, living body to resurrect a spirit. Instead, corrupted, uncontrollable flesh bloomed aggressively around the spiritual core, trapping its animating consciousness. The spirit would find itself immured within a prison of its own newly formed flesh—a cage it could not command. Damaging this fleshy prison inevitably harmed the spirit within. Every incorporeal entity recoiled profoundly from this agonizing “gift,” making it one of the Church’s most potent countermeasures against such hauntings.

‘Disciple of Grace… seems a solid non-ordinary rank. Vania gained not only remote tracking and vital monitoring, but also healing from a distance.

‘Tracking and health monitoring spans hundreds of kilometers. Combat healing reaches a kilometer… quite impressive range. The limitation, naturally, is the prerequisite “Blessing” ritual: she must touch and bestow the mark upon a willing subject beforehand. She can’t simply project healing onto any target.

‘Functionally similar to my Puppet Marks—intended for comrades and allies, not adversaries in battle. Less useful for debilitating foes.

‘For conventional Disciples of Grace focused on support roles within the Church, this constraint shouldn’t be an issue; healing allies is sufficient. For Vania, who wields Malefic Healing to inflict harm, the limitation is regrettable. She can no longer remotely afflict enemies with her malignant cure—restricted instead to close combat, requiring touch on existing wounds.

‘More fascinating is her new ability to forcibly materialize the incorporeal with flesh-infused blessings. It dramatically increases lethality against physically intangible entities like malevolent spirits. Imagine ‘blessing’ a vengeful ghost and then casually shooting it dead? Turning ghost stories into flesh-horror, truly a surreal power!_’

Staring at Vania’s written update in the Sea of Texts Navigation, Dorothy mentally dissected it. Vania’s advancement sparked fascination, particularly that seemingly benevolent power twisted into effective anti-spirit ordnance. Conventional weaponry still played a key role in Dorothy’s arsenal. Guns were useless against intangible phantoms. Vania’s new tool suddenly made conventional arms lethal against specters!

“Vania’s ascendant abilities appear robust overall… justifies the considerable groundwork beforehand. Evidently, her Advancement Rite concluded without notable incident…” Dorothy murmured softly. Concerned about mitigating potential complications, she and Vania had quietly undertaken numerous preparatory steps. For instance: to avoid detection scans assessing accumulated spiritual resonances inside the holy site, Vania clandestinely purged herself of miscellaneous spiritual energies unrelated to “Cup” or “Lamp”—energies persistently gathered via the Sacred Number Reading ritual that, if detected by scrutinizing clergy, might arouse suspicion requiring complex explanations.

Rituals rendered spiritually inert offered the best draining potential. Divination rites consumed both “Lamp” and “Enlightenment” elements simultaneously. Even repeatedly botched rites focusing on a single element just purged energy levels contained within specific residues. Dorothy had Vania perform continual botched divinations specifically targeting her secluded quantification milestone [“启”], consecrated via the Reading method; systematic failures magnetically siphoned off the core-affixed [“启”] signatures.

Naturally, not every divination attempt failed. Roughly half employed the proper structured procedure, actively combining both elements [“灯 & 启”], yielding accurate insights that benefited both individuals. Dorothy’s requests examined diverse queries throughout the sequence. Multiple investigations focused specifically on intelligence gathering relating to the Eight-Pointed Nest, Wolf-Blood Society, Abyss Sect, Gloom Gold Society, Underworld Coffin Society, etc. As anticipated, the results immediately encountered powerful shielding, yet minimally agitated the nerve centers within the cult hierarchies. Prices documented for [“启”] related commodities reflected a general rise in market tension, discouraging moderation.

Had there been no prerequisite for Vania to possess maximum saturation levels [“灯”] pre-ritual for tactical suppression reasons, Dorothy might have consumed all the existing [“启”] signature projected towards advanced scrying matrices instantly, neglecting the energy-draining purpose. Instead, the minimal expenditure possibility was diverted towards journeying destination scenario profiles until Vania could replenish her resources that night. The accumulated [“启”] capture exceeding twenty quantification markers promised significant impact whenever deployed strategically…

Sitting in her restaurant nook, Dorothy took another delicate sip of coffee. Finishing her review of Vania’s correspondence, Dorothy turned to another densely filled page—Nevis’s distinctive script. Recent progress involved more than just one individual.

Nevis’s pursuit quickly followed a familiar pattern: an accelerated parcel service spanning over a week and a half relayed subsequent Davis-origin handwritten script dispatched directly northeast from Tiwin metropolis towards the coastal convergence point at Adria. Perusing her grandfather’s delayed memoranda sequences culminated in discovering the sought clarification—characterization guidance detailing the Spirit Possession Path’s White Ash rank advancement ceremony congruity formulae.

According to the subsequent Davis manuscript notation, reliable investigation into the formal gathering ceremony step required locating a place characterized by massive spectral wanderer congregations; extracting pure substantial spiritual energy stemming from “Silence” was necessary for satisfactory reproduction of the harvested matrix. The ceremony mandated collecting three crafted soul fragments from imprisoned shadow spirits originating from Black Earth level practitioners. These fragments were positioned for preliminary execution commencement at dawn, a potent fundamental procedure constraint. Apocryphal lore suggested a limited constraint bound the narrative arc: it mandated the participation of a White Ash level spirit forcibly lurking imprisoned within the initiator’s system concurrently during the scheduled ascendance ceremony to catalyze the transition success parameters.

Davis’s insight specifically formulated the characterization fact: experienced recognition showed that “Silence” commensurate non-ordinary practitioner progression consistently requires a location marked by a spectral accumulation nexus. Successful execution generally occurred within architectural zones visited ceremonially during an occurrence window. Leading examples typically fell among slaughter aftermaths, archaeological catastrophe excavations, boundaries of immense historic battlefields, or monument legacy architecture. However, the majority of such locations currently fell under the jurisdictional coordination strategies of established non-ordinary law enforcement institutions, directed exclusively towards authorities like the Underworld Coffin Society. Their command alignment and annexed positions, alongside the defection implication, meant lingering aggregation spiritual latitude sanctuary phenomena persisted solely in two pronounced frontier territorial extremities.

Firstly: an establishment containing immense wilderness spirit convergence, located within the intricate tangling ancient botanical darkness web of the New Continent’s canopy forests.

Secondly: assured security originating within the densely coordinated architectural networks of northern Ufrican territory; a massive graveyard culmination of centuries of mass prisoner burials, souls entombed beneath scarlet sands, flourishing freely specifically within ancient tombs where vegetation sovereignty denied formal oversight across the historical expanse.