In the dimly lit basement, a stone statue stood still and solidified, with occasional flashes of red light.
On the third day of the vigil, Fina opened her eyes, held the stone statue's outstretched hand for a moment, and slowly stood up.
Returning to the ground, he walked up to the second floor dormitory and looked at the huffing and puffing man inside with a slightly cold gaze.
"Boo!"
A sudden pop and a splash of glass on the second floor of the watch store set off the early morning quiet.
The witch, who died in her sleep straight away, was reborn and ran out in shock and fury.
"What's gotten into you again!?"
"This is my bed, get out!"
"OK, OK, OK, you can have the bed, I'll go down there."
The witch came down to the basement in a huff and ran over to the stone statue, muttering something.
In the tailor store, Fioz pushed up his old glasses and looked across the street to the second floor.
"Why do I seem to hear another woman's voice?"
He slowly closed his eyes, closed his vision, and launched into listening.
"False, Empty Illusion, is the Flavor of Lies ..."
The black cat, licking its fur on the table, froze when it saw his figure slowly disappear, and quickly purred across the room.
Fina, who was changing the sheets, was startled and quickly ran downstairs again, rushing into the basement.
Unfortunately, it was already too late, and the witch was already dead with her throat wiped.
Standing in the shadows, his father carried his dagger and frowned at the slowly dissipating body on the ground.
"Rebirth?"
"Dad, why are you using your powers again."
"Eleazar, who is this woman?"
Fina sulked back, "Yes... Our friend..."
"You guys are friends with a witch?"
"Geez, stay out of it!"
Fina pushed her father out, "You're not allowed to use your powers anymore!"
Fioz turned back in disbelief and said, "That's a Mythic-level hidden room, a collection accumulated by the elders of the Shadow Council over thousands of years, if any of the main materials in there are missing one, Eleazar's Five Great Rituals will fail, how can you just let outsiders in!"
After sending the Shadow Warrior home, the Warlock looked back at the completely stunned Witch.
"See what you're getting into? If you don't want to die, stay in your room."
"..." Evelea opened her mouth as if she wanted to curse something, but seemed afraid to say it.
After two more days, the stone statue in the basement still showed no signs of awakening.
"It's all your fault!"
"If you don't come over, then nothing will happen!"
The two women had worried faces and scolded each other as soon as they met.
In the evening, Fioz came over again and knocked on the door of the clock store to call out his daughter, who was already living across the street.
"Get ready, tomorrow is New Year's Day, and the Pure Light begins again."
"Uh..."
Back at the store, Fina looked at the witch faintly
"Tomorrow is New Year's Day, so I hope your prophecy spell won't be any more of a surprise."
"Heh, who knows~"
Evelea folded paper cranes without looking up.
...
...
On January 1, 693 of the Silver Moon Calendar, the New Year arrived and the grand annual celebration opened.
On this day, every town and city in the country of Celine hosts a variety of lively events to attract residents to the streets.
It was a day of revelry for the common man, a day of doom for the transcendent...
In the Oracle City, the headquarters of the Seven Obsidian Church, the pure white temple began to shine brightly under the sunlight.
The energy was channeled in a steady stream, feeding through countless subtle circuits into that magnificent golden staircase inside the temple.
A dozen or so newly minted religious, chalices in hand, stepped up the ladder one step at a time.
With every step, light bursts out of them.
As if enduring a test of light, people fell one after another on their way up the ladder, swallowed up by the light without mercy, leaving not a trace of their existence behind.
Finally only five remained who staggered to the end of the steps, and with a nod from the Archbishop they drank the liquid from the chalice in a single gulp.
Instantly, five pillars of light rose up, intersecting and merging with the entire magnificent divine hall, transforming into an even more majestic pillar of light that shot up into the sky.
Divine light, diffused over the whole country.
In the eyes of the average person, the sunlight just gets brighter.
But in the eyes of the transcendentalists, it was a terrifying light that incinerated everything.
On the street, inexplicably, people were turned into ashes.
The entirety of all transcendental things exposed to the ground were purged.
In the clock store, the two women hid behind thick curtains, watching the holy light outside sweep through the streets, not daring to utter a single breath.
The church has been organizing Holy Light services more and more frequently, from once every five years, once every three years, and more recently, once every year.
This shorter and shorter cycle has become too much for many Transcendents to bear and have fled abroad.
Every year, I don't know how many newly minted Transcendents, without knowing it, went to the New Year's celebration and were then burned to ashes by the holy light.
Fina silently pulls back the curtains.
It was the only place to hide from the council. Looking back at the witch, she asked faintly, "Can you begin your prophecy spell now?"
This time Evelea didn't pull any tricks and silently took out her crystal ball.
"What are you trying to prophesy?"
"Our future..."
Evelea chuckled, "That's it? Do you have some kind of misconception about prophecy magic?"
"It's true that I don't know much about this legendary spell, except that I can see the future." Fina admitted her ignorance graciously.
Evelea explains wistfully, "Our destiny is changing every moment, the results you see now are not necessarily the true future, because as we grow, we create more unknown factors that can cause the results to be skewed, and the great thing about Prophecy is that it's useful to predict the outcome by adding in some of the factors that you think will happen. "
She glanced up at the pondering warlock.
"Is it hard to understand, I can give you a few examples of the future you want to predict right now without wasting this legendary spell that can only be used 3 times a year."
"Acceptance: he accepts you for who you are and you live happily ever after."
"Resistance: he couldn't accept this and avoided your presence."
"Hostility: he can't control his killing intent and slaughters you."
The witch looked at the crystal ball lightly, "It's nothing more than these three outcomes, but the truth is that we both know that he shouldn't be able to lay his hands on you, and even if he does slaughter you, you'll be able to resurrect yourself through the soul fragments, and you'll still be able to slowly repair your relationship."
"So, the conclusion is: don't you fool around, wash up and go to bed, and I'm going to take over."
Evelea put away her crystal ball in boredom and prepared for her shift in the basement.
"Wait!"
Fina stopped her, "Then add a factor,, to predict that outcome."
"Oh?"
Witch Dawn raised an eyebrow in interest, "Interesting, you still want to see how much he loves you don't you?"