"Never mind."
Bernadette didn't dwell on it. She tossed Katerina's letter into the Secret Door, then turned and slipped through the Spirit World to the Aurora Order's stronghold. "Is Leonard here?"
The attendant blinked. "Mr. A, we don't have anyone here named Leonard."
"...I mean your Squad Leader Ed."
"Oh, he just got back."
Soon enough, the attendant brought Leonard over. "Mr. A, Captain Ed is here."
"Mr. A, you wanted to see me?"
The moment Leonard learned Mr. A wanted him, tension spiked through him — because he knew perfectly well that this Mr. A, so clearly different from the rest of the Aurora Order, saw right through the act he'd been putting on.
And yet Mr. A had played along, kept him on in the Aurora Order, and even pulled strings behind the scenes to get him promoted, sent to infiltrate the Church of the Evernight — a whole chain of moves so strange even a "cunning old fox" like the old man inside him couldn't quite figure out what he was thinking.
"Ed."
Bernadette leaned back against her personal sofa, looking at Leonard. "Any progress from your undercover work these days?"
"..."
Is he asking about my cover in the Aurora Order, or my cover in the Church of the Evernight?
Pallez coughed in his mind. "Don't panic."
"I... I'm actually still working on getting in deep — the Church's vetting process is strict. Sorry, I know I've let you down."
"Oh, not at all."
Bernadette shook her head. "I never expected much from you to begin with."
"..."
"But I do have a very important task for you right now! Are you confident you can pull it off?"
Leonard nodded firmly at once. "Yes!"
"Good."
Bernadette gave a small nod. "Next week, we're going to team up with the Witch cult for an operation in Backlund. They'll be unleashing a plague fog across the whole city, and holding a ritual to bring down their Primordial Witch."
"At the same time, we'll be holding our own ritual to bring down our Lord."
"!!!"
Leonard's heart started pounding hard. Dropped two terrifying pieces of news on me all at once — she really doesn't hold anything back, does she?
"And you're going to play an extremely important role in bringing down our Lord."
Leonard swallowed. "I... won't fail you."
Bernadette pulled out a map and handed it over. "You've probably heard the rumor sweeping Backlund lately — that the Loen Emperor, George III, is using an excavated Fourth Epoch tomb to hold his own ascension ritual."
He lowered his head. "I heard."
According to the old man, George III was trying to advance to Sequence 0 — to become an actual "god"!
A god, brought about by an ordinary person just drinking a potion — how shocking, how blasphemous a thought was that? If it hadn't been a Fourth Epoch elder telling him this, Leonard would never have believed it.
"This map marks one of the tomb locations. Our partner in this operation — is George III."
"!!!"
Another stunning piece of news.
"George III needs our strength to complete his ascension. And we need him, to carry out our sacrificial ritual and bring down our Lord."
"That tomb has the 'lamb' George III's already prepared for our sacrifice. When the time comes, I need you to make contact with George III's people there, and fire the first shot for our Lord's descent."
"Pull this off, and you'll be the number one hero of the Aurora Order!"
"..."
Leonard swallowed again, then quickly forced himself into a display of fanatical excitement. "Understood! Mr. A! I'll make sure to carry out your instructions — I'll welcome our Lord myself."
"Of course, to be safe, we've got a backup plan too. George III's side is also arranging for MI9 to simultaneously use Lanevus for a parallel descent ritual. As long as one of the two succeeds, our Lord's light will fall across this filthy land once again."
Lanevus!
Leonard's breath caught — that was the man behind the "offspring of an evil god," who'd nearly destroyed Tingen, gotten Melissa killed, cost the Captain both his legs!
Loen's MI9... was actually going to use him to bring down the True Creator, that evil god?!
Had they lost their minds?
Bernadette's face carried a knowing, meaningful smile. "Don't disappoint me, Ed."
"..."
"All right, go get ready. Wait for my next order."
"Understood."
Leonard bowed deeply, stepped back a few paces, then hurried off.
Once Leonard's figure had disappeared, the smile vanished from Bernadette's face just as quickly. "Hope this actually does some good."
...
Leonard didn't let out a breath of relief until he'd left the Aurora Order stronghold entirely, then quickened his pace into a run — but he'd barely gone any distance before something occurred to him, and he slowed back down, asking anxiously in his mind, "Old man, is anyone following me?"
"No."
Pallez said flatly, "You don't need to worry about that at all."
"How could I not worry? If I get found out, I'm not going to die a pretty death."
"Found out doing what?"
Pallez gave a snort. "Found out secretly feeding information to the Church?"
"What else, then?"
The Thief Pathway's "Last Conscience" chuckled softly. "I said before I couldn't figure out what this Mr. A was up to. After that meeting just now, I think I finally get it."
"Get what?"
Leonard asked quickly. "Is he going ahead with something terrible, according to plan?"
"That, I don't know. But one thing I'm sure of..."
Pallez paused deliberately for a few seconds. "Mr. A has known from the very start that you're the Church's 'mole.'"
"What?!"
"He deliberately kept you in the Aurora Order, deliberately got you 'promoted' so you'd have access to more classified intel, and just now, he deliberately told you every plan the Aurora Order, the Witch cult, and George III have."
"???"
Leonard was completely lost. "Why?"
His heart skipped, and he asked, startled, "Are you saying he's deliberately feeding false information, trying to deceive the Church into making the wrong call?"
Pallez rolled his eyes inside Leonard's body. "Can't rule that out. But my read on it is, he's simply using you to pass this information straight to the Church."
"His goal... is probably to stop all of this from happening."
Leonard stopped in his tracks, rubbing his forehead. "Wait, let me get this straight from the top."
"You're saying... the Aurora Order's Divine Envoy, knowing exactly who I am, deliberately let me infiltrate as a mole, deliberately told me all this crucial intel, specifically so I'd pass it to the Church — to stop the Aurora Order, and the Witch cult, from carrying out their plan?"
"Old man, do you even hear yourself?"
"That's the Aurora Order — a bunch of fanatics worshipping an evil god. How could they possibly turn around and stop their own god from descending?"
Pallez gave a cold laugh. "What, you think you understand the Aurora Order — understand the True Creator — better than I do?"
To be continued…
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