Ch.529Five Sacred Treasures

Hero of Arvil, Sword of the Starry Sky.

A new nickname given to me after I ended the Arvil tragedy with a single slash that cut through the sky. The title “Knight of Radiance” was no longer something I could officially use since I quit my position as a Paladin of Elpinel.

Personally, I thought I might get a nickname like “Vanquisher of Evil Gods,” but it seemed that the fact that I had subjugated an evil god’s arm was not widely known—rather, it had become a top secret of the Holy State.

The Arvil incident was publicly declared as a tragedy caused by a large monster summoned by a Ma’in, and witnesses to the evil god’s descent were ordered to remain silent. As a result, only a select few in the Holy State knew the truth.

“Even though it was just the right arm, if the fact that it’s possible to summon an evil god became known, it would cause tremendous chaos throughout the world.”

According to Lacy, countless people had been researching rituals to summon gods or evil gods using all sorts of methods, but not one had ever succeeded.

Most rituals failed to activate at all, and even when they did, what emerged was not a god or evil god but some kind of monster.

It was the consensus in academic circles that it was impossible for people of the mortal realm to summon divine beings.

Therefore, what Valkers had done held enormous significance, both magically and theologically.

“Citizens would be greatly disturbed just knowing that an evil god tried to appear in this world, and groups of charlatans would frequently emerge to incite the masses, claiming the end times had arrived.”

It was the first case of a successful, albeit incomplete, summoning of an evil god. In other words, the answer key to an evil god summoning ritual had suddenly appeared.

“Moreover, if worshippers of evil gods were to learn the truth of this incident…”

The theologians of the Church of Elpinel thoroughly analyzed the structure of the summoning ritual demonstrated by Valkers, and after studying it against previous records, they identified the principles of the summoning technique.

The groundwork for the ritual, the sacrifices needed for the summoning, and the final trigger.

—-

First, build a tower with a thousand fetuses born with sin at the center of a massive array the size of a city, and fill the entire city with corruption, sin, and despair. That was the basic preparation.

Then, within this city of blasphemy, activate the ritual using the souls of clergy who met sacrilegious deaths and enormous amounts of dark mana as power.

When sufficient sacrifices have accumulated, a Ma’in who is spiritually connected to the evil god—in other words, one who has received the evil god’s power—traces the mark of the evil god engraved in their soul to open a door to its realm.

So that the evil god itself could tear open the dimensional door and descend to the mortal realm.

A method closer to invitation than summoning. It was a ritual that worked perfectly in theory. And not just in theory—it actually functioned.

“The fact that an evil god’s descent was realized must be kept strictly secret. If this information were to spread as rumor, cultists all over the world would attempt rituals like Valkers did.”

Apparently, even among cultists and Ma’in, those who aimed to summon evil gods were rare. As mentioned earlier, since no one had succeeded in the past several hundred years, the common sense that it was impossible had become entrenched even among them.

However, if Valkers’ deed became widely known, they would not stop at offering tributes to evil gods in exchange for power—they would all aim to cause large-scale tragedies to summon evil gods.

If even one of them succeeded, a truly terrible catastrophe would occur.

Therefore, only those directly involved, including myself, the heads of each church, and some theologians who needed to analyze the evil god summoning ritual to research countermeasures, knew the truth of this incident.

“I’m not sure if we can trust the cardinals… What if information leaks out like it did with Isabella?”

While circumstantial evidence strongly suggested that Cardinal Lübitz of the Church of Grimnir was the apostate who leaked information to Isabella, I couldn’t blindly trust the other cardinals either.

The cardinal of the Church of Saulite who turned into a torch while I was sleeping was nothing short of a complete bastard.

The Church of Astraea might be trustworthy, but I still had doubts about the other churches, unable to discern their true intentions.

Though no one would openly oppose Lacy, who had risen to become the terror of the cardinals after destroying all who stood in her way and even burning Carnius, there was no telling what schemes they might be plotting behind the scenes.

“Don’t worry. I’ve already prepared for this concern. If any of them leak information about the evil god summoning ritual, we’ll be able to immediately identify the vile apostate.”

Lacy smiled reassuringly.

The theologians of the Church of Elpinel had successfully deciphered Valkers’ ritual, but on Lacy’s orders, instead of sharing it exactly as it was with each church, they deliberately distorted parts of the ritual’s structure—differently for each church.

The intention was to identify the source of any leak based on which incorrect details appeared, should a cardinal with ill intent disclose information about the evil god summoning ritual.

For instance, telling one church that the tower required twelve hundred fetuses, while telling another church a slightly different incantation needed for activating the ritual. Apparently, it was Belsa who came up with this method.

While it wasn’t 100% foolproof, at least some safety measures had been put in place.

—-

“Sacred artifacts?”

About twenty days after waking from my sickbed, when I was finally able to move without difficulty, Lacy suddenly called all of us together to discuss something unexpected.

“Yes. To be precise, ‘Type 2 sacred artifacts.’ Unlike Type 1 artifacts that can only be used by those affiliated with a church, these are special sacred items that can be used even by those who aren’t clergy.”

She continued with a detailed explanation.

Although the Arvil tragedy was publicly attributed to monsters, the Holy State’s leadership knew the truth, and Lacy and Ernritter emphasized the need for a national-level reward for those who personally stepped forward to subjugate the evil god’s arm despite not being members of the Holy State.

After much debate about compensation, it was finally decided that five Type 2 sacred artifacts would be bestowed.

“We can’t grant territories like the Empire does, nor can we appoint foreigners to high positions in the churches. And offering honorary paladin positions would essentially be a reward with no practical value.”

“So they’re giving us sacred artifacts instead?”

“Yes. They’ve authorized the opening of the vault where Type 2 sacred artifacts are stored, allowing you to select five items of your choice. The vault contains a wide variety of sacred artifacts, so you’ll surely find something to your liking.”

Not bad… no, it was quite a good reward. Sacred artifacts that could be used even by non-clergy were essentially magical items that didn’t require mana.

And being designated as sacred artifacts, they would have performance far superior to ordinary magical items. Well… probably not on the level of Durandal, but still.

The reason we could take five artifacts was because there were five people from the Empire who had contributed to resolving the Arvil incident.

Myself, Leonore, Nigel, Demian, and Millia.

Demian and Millia hadn’t fought against the demon, but they were included thanks to slightly exaggerated accounts of their role in subjugating Eljur.

Hush was excluded from the reward count because of his past affiliation with the Five Swords and his slave status, which legally classified him as my property.

Perhaps because I had promised to free him from slavery and make him a knight upon our return to the Empire, he didn’t seem particularly disappointed about not receiving a sacred artifact.

Unlike us, Lacy, Agnes, and Ceylon, who were originally affiliated with the Holy State, were to receive separate rewards from their respective churches.

And so, that evening, we headed to the sacred artifact repository located near the Grand Cathedral of Elpinel.

—-

The sacred artifact repository was originally built to store items that were clearly sacred artifacts but of unclear origin, rather than those that clearly belonged to specific churches.

Type 1 artifacts could only be used by clergy, making it easy to determine which church they belonged to, but since Type 2 artifacts could be used by anyone, it was difficult to determine which god they were associated with unless their origins were precisely known.

Later, it expanded to store Type 2 artifacts from all churches, becoming a place where people authorized by the cardinals could withdraw or borrow sacred artifacts.

The health management sacred artifacts that Drexler and I had used were also borrowed from this place.

The priest in charge of the repository greeted us with extreme courtesy and guided the five of us, excluding Lacy and Hush, to the vault of Type 2 sacred artifacts.

The sacred artifact storage room we finally reached was, how should I put it… similar to a museum.

Inside the three-story space, countless glass display cases were arranged in a regular pattern, with various sacred artifacts exhibited inside them.

Beneath the marble display cases were inscriptions explaining the origins and effects of each artifact, but since they were written in ancient language rather than Imperial, we had to ask the priest who guided us to explain what each inscription said.