St. Petersburg, Kazan Cathedral.
An Orthodox clergyman was praying to the icon of the Virgin Mary enshrined in the cathedral.
For Viktor Letov, a devout believer, daily prayers before the icon of the Virgin Mary had been his routine for years, with each prayer seeking salvation and forgiveness. This time, as always, he murmured his prayers and made the sign of the cross over his chest.
It was then he heard a voice, "Viktor..."
He opened his eyes and was astonished to find the icon's Virgin Mary gazing at him.
A hazy halo descended from behind the Virgin, its sanctity overwhelming him to tears.
He fell to his knees, overwhelmed by an honor he had never dared to dream of, nearly fainting from bliss.
Yet, he still heard the Virgin's gentle, loving, firm, and undeniable voice, "Viktor, calamity. Calamity is coming..."
"Calamity?!" Viktor finally regained his senses from the tremendous shock of the Virgin's manifestation, the word sending a chill down his spine.
The manifestation of the Virgin Mary, as known to an Orthodox believer like him, had occurred before.
The Virgin had saved Russia three times, from the Mongols, Napoleon, and the Nazis.
Without a doubt, she only manifested in times of great crisis, when Russia faced existential threats.
And the calamity she spoke of must be such a terrifying event.
Could it be that Russia was once again facing a monumental crisis?
"Where is the calamity? Virgin Mary, please guide me..."
The Virgin's gaze turned southeast, repeating the terrifying prophecy, "Calamity is coming..."
Suddenly, the light vanished, and Viktor found himself still standing in front of the Virgin's icon, unchanged.
He trembled as he looked southeast.
Southeast of St. Petersburg lies Moscow, Kyrgyzstan, the ancient countries of East Asia...
What exactly is the calamity the Virgin referred to?
...
A similar scene unfolded overnight in countless churches and homes of Orthodox believers across Russia.
By morning, all of Russia knew: the Virgin Mary had manifested again, revealing an impending calamity.
...
When Murphy arrived at the Spring Palace, Lady Yaga and Sofia were already waiting in the reception room.
In front of them was an icon of the Virgin Mary.
Murphy immediately noticed the icon, understanding the meaning of "Maria's appearance" mentioned by Lady Yaga.
"This is..." Murphy asked uncertainly.
"Yes, this is the Maria you spoke of," Lady Yaga confirmed.
Murphy frowned, this was truly unexpected.
He had thought Maria was the name of a witch, but it turned out to be the Virgin Mary herself.
"My enemy, a god?" Murphy was incredulous, "Does she really exist?"
With magic already a reality, the existence of a god wasn't entirely unacceptable, but why did it seem that most wizards, who were more exposed to mystical forces than Muggles, appeared to be atheists?
They would not say Christ but would use "Merlin" instead.
And in the various documents of wizards, there wasn't much discussion about deities.
"I don't know if she exists," Lady Yaga said, "but it indeed displayed its power through the icon of the Virgin."
"What happened?" Murphy inquired.
"There are some wizards in Arkaim of Muggle origin, who were educated in this city and possibly settled down. Some of them are believers. Therefore, there are some wizards in the city who follow the Orthodox faith and have icons of the Virgin in their homes."
"About ten minutes ago, a few wizards noticed that the icons of the Virgin in their homes suddenly manifested, revealing a prophecy to them."
"The Virgin spoke of an imminent calamity related to the north."
At that moment, through the psychic network, Murphy also received an urgent communication from Barty Crouch Jr.
"Master, big news! Across Russia, icons of the Virgin in churches and homes of Orthodox believers have manifested, saying a calamity is about to happen."
"And based on their feedback, we plotted the 'directions' pointed out by the icons on a map. They converge at a location on the outskirts of Moscow, exactly where we recently decided to build the 'National Laboratory'!"
The National Laboratory?!
Was this Maria targeting the National Laboratory?
No, she had previously set traps for him through the fairies; her goal seemed to prevent his plans.
Murphy looked at the icon in the room, activating his magical vision, a splendid halo lingered on the icon, "Green, blue, purple..."
Purple... The magic residue on the icon appeared nearly black to Murphy's eyes.
Colors are essentially processed by the brain based on the intensity of visual signals received, and Murphy's brain directly used the model for processing optical signals, marking different magical signal strengths with the same color differentiation as optical vision. With his tetrachromatic vision, Murphy could see colors deeper than purple, into the ultraviolet range.
At this moment, the magic color on the icon nearly reached Murphy's visual limit.
Ordinary wizards' magical strength mostly falls within the yellow and green spectrum, rarely reaching blue levels.
Murphy glanced again at Empress Sofia and Lady Yaga in front of him. Sofia carried several items with high magical strength, the strongest reaching purple, but her own magic was a vibrant yellow-green — not much different from a Hogwarts graduate.
Lady Yaga's magic color was almost the same as Murphy's, a deep blue near purple.
But the icon's magic color was ultraviolet — indicating that whatever "thing" — whether it's a god or not — left magic on the icon, at least had a magical strength far beyond ordinary wizards, even stronger than Murphy and Lady Yaga.
This might be proof of its "realm" being higher than Murphy's.
"Is the owner of this icon an Orthodox believer? Can I meet him?" Murphy asked.
Soon, a wizard was brought to the reception room, the first to report the manifestation to Lady Yaga.
As soon as the wizard entered and saw Murphy, he exclaimed, "A demon?!"
Then he turned to run but was caught by Lady Yaga, "What's going on, what did you say he is?"
"A demon! He, he has horns, black wings... cloven hooves... and his body is wrapped in green lightning... Oh, God, there really are demons in this world..."
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