Millennium Witch

Book 3: Chapter 239: The Omniscience Sect

In a city of adventurers where all sorts mingle, any commotion is to be expected. For Lucia, a novice adventurer and a student, it was something to mind. As a member of the Disciplinary Committee, her instincts ran opposite to the risk-avoiding habits of adventurers.Yvette Loxivia also saw no need to rush to register at the Adventurers’ Guild. Noticing the questioning look Lucia sent her, she gave a slight nod, telling her to go take a look.

Unlike the clean, orderly City of Truth, Adelock’s alleys always carried the sour reek of rotting trash and a faint mustiness. They went in along the lane. Dim light squeezed between the eaves of timber-and-stone houses on both sides, breaking into ragged patches on the ground.

After a turn, they looked aside and saw three men in burlap robes, faces smeared with eerie greasepaint, hemming in two children curled up in a corner.

The older was a boy of about ten. His clothes were in tatters and bruises mottled his face. Like a small beast driven to the wall, he shielded a younger girl behind him with all his might. The girl shook, and the muffled sobbing came from her.

“Ezra, stop resisting,” rasped the tall one in front, his accent oddly twisted. “Your father’s sin must be washed by the souls of his blood kin. It is the price, and it is your honor.”

“We don’t want your honor!” The boy, Ezra, trembled but stood his ground. “Father did nothing wrong. Taking us away from that hell was right. You’re all insane!”

“Blasphemy!” another grease-painted robed man barked. He stepped forward, reaching for the little girl.

A wall of wind sprang up between them, cutting both sides apart.

The sudden change finally drew the three men’s eyes to the two not far away and to the cinnamon-haired girl’s brief runic glimmer. The tall man’s gaze turned vicious. “Outsiders, don’t think a trick of magic lets you meddle at will. This is an internal matter of our sect. Interfere and bear the consequences.”

“A sect? Which sect?” Lucia asked at once.

“Our great god is the Omniscient Eye. Only by fusing with the god can one glimpse the world’s truth,” the tall man said, a note of fanaticism in his voice.

“The Omniscient Eye—that’s an eldritch god, isn’t it?” Lucia blurted.

Elsewhere, common folk might not tell second-tier deities apart, much less eldritch gods. The Disciplinary Committee, however, taught clearly about True Gods, gods, and eldritch gods. In recent years, the three most notorious have been the Omniscient Eye, the Blood God, and the God of Chaos. The Omniscient Eye has been active for centuries and remains the worst of the lot.

“That is slander by those false-god believers in the Kingdom of Sitt,” the tall man said coldly, a hint of wariness in his eyes.

Yvette caught his phrasing and thought of much. Her study of comparative religion showed that while the three major churches do suppress the three main eldritch gods, each church focuses on different targets.

For example, the Crimson Sanctum puts special effort into striking the Omniscient Eye. The Three Saints Church and Evergreen Revelation also fight it, but not as zealously.

Likewise, the Blood God and the God of Chaos each have a True God church that treats them as bitter foes.

Did that mean what made an eldritch god “eldritch” was crossing one particular True God’s line?

Before relations soured, might an eldritch god have been a normal deity like the Lord of the Firmament or the Sun God?

Just then, the boy sheltering behind the wind wall spoke up, pleading. “They’re a cult. They want to drag me and my sister back as sacrifices to their eldritch god. Please, kind ladies, save us!”

The air went taut. The wind wall still held, which meant the newcomers meant to intervene. The tall man flicked a glance at his two companions.

A heartbeat later, the two had daggers in hand, blades gleaming an ominous green. They rushed Yvette and Lucia, bodies lit with a faint violet glow. They were magi-warriors.

“If you insist on dying, we’ll oblige you. After you’re dead, I’ll offer your souls to our Great One. That will be your—”

His tone had a sick excitement, certain the two young women could not be their match.

Seconds later, his voice faltered. The mysterious mage woman had yet to lift a finger. The red-haired girl beside her had already floored both of his companions with ease, so fast he barely registered it.

“Who did you say was looking to die?” Lucia said, eyes hard on him.

The tall man’s face went stiff. The three of them bore boons from their god and could match a Silver-tier adventuring party, each on par with a novice Magic Swordsman. In most Adelock teams, that strength put them in the top fifth.

Yet that sure, overwhelming force could not handle even one of these two?

“The god will punish you,” the tall man blustered, then fled with his scrambling comrades.

“Don’t run!” Lucia called, but she did not give chase. She hesitated where she stood.

In the City of Truth she would already have cuffed them. In Adelock she had no authority. At best she was a good Samaritan.

She glanced at Yvette and saw her give a slight shake of the head. Lucia nodded, regretful. It seemed this was as far as they could go.

It was not. Yvette had already slipped a small shard of anima into each of the three cultists. When she had time to harvest them, she should gain some information about the cult.

She had also returned to researching faith elements lately. Many new ideas had arisen, but she lacked samples. Learning how a cult operated might help her set a course for the work ahead.

One thing she could say already: faith elements likely did nothing for breaking through realms. Otherwise, with so many divine and saint-tier figures, more would have founded their own churches by now.

Once the three cultists fled, the mood in the alley eased. Lucia crouched and spoke gently to the terrified children. “It’s all right now. Don’t be afraid. The bad men are gone. I’m Lucia Sterling. This is my teacher, Yvette Loxivia. What are your names?”

“I’m Ezra Yaro. This is my sister, Aina. Thank you so much.” The tense little boy loosened at last. He introduced himself in turn, bowed with his sister, and thanked their rescuers.

His eyes still held shock and awe. To him, those three had been terrifyingly strong. He did not expect them to be so helpless before these kind ladies.

More surprising yet, the two were not companions but teacher and student. He wondered if that was truly so or if there was some special reason.

At Lucia’s questions, Ezra laid out why he and his sister were being hunted.

He, his sister, and their father hailed from a small village near Adelock called Rute Village. It had been one of countless ordinary villages, surviving on crops and hunting, and supplying passing adventurers.

A few years ago, a church calling itself the Omniscience Sect came to the village. They preached their deity, the Omniscient Eye, and offered purification and blessings.

At first it seemed normal. Many sects did the same. In the last half-year, the Omniscience Sect added a new service. Offer up a soul—any soul—and the god would grant a measure of power in return.

That lit the villagers’ desires. Who prefers to live and die obscure in a tiny village, rather than become a powerful practitioner and win renown?

Some had a bit of magic aptitude and had built up two or three hundred mana through early meditation, but stayed for lack of money for proper study. The new way gave them special boon-magic they could use without learning. Others had neither aptitude nor knowledge, but by sacrificing more souls they could restart cultivation and become the magic experts they dreamed of.

After a portion of souls were offered and power truly granted, hearts began to shift. To harvest more souls for their god, some villagers started murdering innocent travelers.

Naturally, many with any conscience left could not stomach it. Yet bound by ties of kin and village, they hesitated to report it and instead tried to leave. Not long after they slipped away, hunters came. Ezra and Aina Yaro’s father was one such victim.

“Doesn’t Adelock’s city guard care?” Lucia asked, then answered herself before Ezra could. Adelock should not be measured against the City of Truth but against Autumnwind City near her old home.

Autumnwind had city guards to keep basic order. There were no courts, no prisons, no police. If bandits robbed you, without extra pay the guard would not help. You solved it yourself.

As the City of Adventurers, Adelock was likely the same. Posting a job at the Adventurers’ Guild might be more effective than appealing to the guard.

“What about the churches?” Lucia shifted tack.

“I… I don’t know. My father said someone secretly went to report it at the Crimson Sanctum’s chapel, but we never heard what came of it,” Ezra said.

“Maybe the report never went through?” Lucia said, puzzled.

“Or they couldn’t handle it,” Yvette said at last, having listened in silence.

On the way in, Yvette had noticed that the three major churches’ chapels were no larger than two centuries ago. In today’s bustling Adelock, they even looked small and shabby, and were outmatched by the Cloudpeak and Sunflare sects’ churches.

The Kingdom of Sitt sits in the northwest of the continent, near the pass between East and West. The Free Alliance’s capital is in the south-central region. For the Crimson Sanctum, which hails from the Kingdom of Sitt, projecting power here is hard.

In Adelock, the Crimson Sanctum might be less help than the Sunflare or Cloudpeak sects. Yet the Omniscient Eye is exactly the eldritch god the Crimson Sanctum cares about most.

“Then, teacher, what do we do next?” Lucia looked at the helpless siblings, then to Yvette for guidance.

“We can go take a look,” Yvette said, curious about the cult’s workings. She turned to the children. “Where is Rute Village?”

“No, kind ladies, please don’t.” Ezra shook his head bitterly. “The place is full of the Omniscience Sect. It’s too dangerous. You’d be throwing your lives away.”

He had seen capable adventuring parties stop in the village and be murdered by villagers, then sacrificed to the eldritch god. Those Bronze- and Silver-tier “experts” had fallen to the cultists’ swarming attack. If these two young ladies went, the outcome was easy to imagine.

He had already planned their next steps. He would take his sister to the five different churches in the city and see if any would take them in. If so, even as drudges they might scrape by.

“If the god’s main body is not present, it should be manageable,” Yvette said.

Even if it was present, it would be fine.

She mostly wanted to know how cultists offered souls and why an eldritch god needed others to offer them in the first place.

“…” Ezra and Aina looked at each other. They had never heard anyone speak so casually. “If the main body isn’t present”—that sounded like someone on par with an eldritch god.

Who talks like that?

Instinctively, Ezra trusted them less—not their strength, but their judgment. He feared these sisters had power but did not grasp how terrible the Omniscience Sect was. If they went, they would die, and drag the siblings down with them. Then the two offered to cover the siblings’ room and board, and he wavered.

In the end, money won. He agreed to lead Yvette and Lucia to a distant vantage near the village to take a look and confirm his account, but no more than that.