Chapter 603: Clues in the Starry Night

When night fell, Mirrorheart had just finished cooking.

Loren pulled the curtains shut first, then sat down at the dining table.

"The stars have been getting brighter and brighter at night lately..."

As the Divine War raged on, the Orthodox Gods' defenses against the Outer Gods had begun to lapse, and the Outer Gods' corruption of the world would only grow more severe.

Loren had originally planned to enjoy a couple more days of leisure, but looking at this, he had no choice but to get busy again.

Loren had already obtained the Extreme Cold Dragon's heart, a crucial component for crafting the Severance Ritual targeting the God of Light and Fire.

Next, all he needed was to find another mythical creature associated with the God of Light and Fire, along with one more key material, and he could perform the Severance Ritual.

Stripping away the authority of a dual-authority Orthodox God was a troublesome affair.

The mythical creature needed to sever the fire authority lived in the sea. Loren knew its location, but it was dangerous, so he planned to acquire more of the Perpetual Observer's authority before going after it.

The Eternal Ember Serpent, that was the mythical creature's name.

These mythical creatures had each lived longer than the last, but that came with a silver lining: they would certainly know the Observer, so they'd show the Perpetual Observer at least some respect.

The god Loren wanted dead most of all was the God of Light and Fire, not just because of the grudge between them, but more because He was the most dangerous.

After mulling it over for a moment, Loren decided to voice all his worries out loud.

Anna was no longer the child who needed his protection; she was now a strong person capable of standing on her own.

Though they couldn't really help much, they had the right to know.

After dinner, Loren returned to his bedroom, the room he knew best.

Lying down on the bed, Loren felt a wave of reassurance. He had lived here for a long time, and after his resurrection, he had come back to this very place.

Loren's house had plenty of rooms, but the four of them still squeezed onto one bed.

Veronica simply liked clinging to Loren, while the other two had ulterior motives.

Sure enough, once Veronica fell asleep, the two of them started making their moves.

They could have done it right in front of Veronica, but they were afraid it would affect her sleep.

Mirrorheart was fine; she had her volume muted. Anna was a different story.

She would try her best to keep her mouth shut, but her voice was still a bit too loud.

...

The next morning, after changing the bedsheets, Mirrorheart went to cook, while the others sat in the living room.

Loren was a bit bored. All the lab equipment was stored in Scarlett's space; there was nothing here, so he couldn't even research anything.

He couldn't exactly... do that with the others this early in the morning either. At most, he could go outside the door and practice his martial skills.

But after so many years, Loren had already studied just about every martial skill worth using. At this point, the most he could do was get more familiar with them while he still had enough strength.

Besides, given Loren's fighting style, he didn't need that many martial skills anyway.

Use Throat-Severing Slash on people, use Colossal Beast Cleave on monsters, and if he had no blade, use a Deliberate Heavy Blow.

If I have a skill with high damage, low cost, fast speed, and no recovery time, why would I need anything else?

"After breakfast, I'm planning to go out and stock up on some supplies. Do you all need anything?"

Living in a place like this, Loren didn't even have a single neighbor.

The boredom was one thing, but the main problem was the lack of information.

Right now, even buying a newspaper meant traveling to another country. Gathering intel was tough.

Newspapers only printed what the Church wanted ordinary people to know. There had even been an incident where a high-ranking member of a newspaper office was infected with the Rainbow Plague. The information in the papers was meaningless anyway.

But Loren had no other reliable channels, so he had to make do with the newspapers.

Loren found himself missing Movila more and more. He didn't know why, but Movila hadn't left a single copy at home.

That was suspicious. Loren couldn't help but start worrying about her.

"Nothing."

Anna shook her head. Normally, when Loren went out, she'd insist he bring back a bunch of snacks.

"I don't need anything either."

Veronica had no requests either. She had wanted to ask Loren to take her along, but that would be inconvenient in many ways, so she simply didn't bring it up.

"Bring back some ingredients."

Only Mirrorheart made a request. Lately, Anna's appetite had been shrinking, which meant the ingredients at home were being consumed much slower. It had been a long while since their last stock-up trip.

"Alright."

After the meal, Loren flew off. The ability to fly was still quite rare in this world; only angels could fly, and even Oath and Wind Sequence magic rarely included spells that allowed human flight.

Even if they existed, they were high-tier spells that were hard to come by.

Loren arrived above the remnants of a small town in the Gedlan Kingdom. It was being ransacked by bandits. Without the Church's protection, this sort of thing was commonplace.

They wanted to move to other countries too, but there was simply no place for them to establish themselves there.

Loren didn't land. He casually tossed out a few spells, slaughtering the pillaging bandits where they stood.

Though Loren hadn't seen it, he could guess that these people had likely taken part in the verbal attacks against him, so he didn't pay them much mind.

Helping them out when he happened to pass by was already going above and beyond.

Loren couldn't stomach even the slightest grievance. If he actually heard them badmouthing him, even if he didn't kill them, he'd still beat them black and blue.

The kid who once boasted about defeating Loren had been kicked straight into a haystack.

Soon, Loren arrived at the nearest country and casually picked up a newspaper.

This was also a border region, so the atmosphere was somewhat tense, but the newspaper still reported only the good news, working hard to keep people's spirits up.

The headline was about a great victory for the Bountiful Church:

The virus the Plague Church had painstakingly crafted was deployed to the northern territory of the God of Bountiful Harvest, but the Bountiful Church easily neutralized it. Several high-ranking members of the Plague Church died of rage.

This piece of news was somewhat useful, at least confirming that Loren destroying that ritual had indeed been effective. The rest of the news was all about winning from various angles.

There used to be less of this kind of content; the papers were mostly gossip before. It was just that circumstances were special now, and the people needed to be kept calm.

Loren quickly skimmed past these meaningless praises, searching for useful content.

"Recently, pseudohumans have been suspected to appear in multiple areas. Please stay vigilant...

"Pseudohumans..."

Pseudohumans were showing up again, but this time Loren couldn't be bothered at all. There was no one around him anyway, and pseudohumans couldn't possibly disguise themselves as the witches or Mirrorheart. They had zero impact on Loren.

So the pseudohumans could do whatever they wanted. Loren was no longer a member of the Bountiful Church, so he had no obligation to deal with them.

What truly caught Loren's interest was the information further down:

"Recently, miraculous sights have appeared in multiple locations, with night suddenly turning to day, or starry skies appearing during the day..."

These two pieces of information led Loren to identify two mythical creatures: the Dawn Magpie and the Starry Sky Whale. But the Starry Sky Whale's appearance couldn't possibly cause such a small commotion.

That left only one possibility: Starnight.