Under the night sky, the Empire Capital was being oppressed by dark clouds that had gathered unnoticed. Amidst the gloom, hot arcs of electricity roamed the dusky clouds.
"We have finally succeeded."
"The Sacred Relic passed down by our ancestors has actually responded to our supplications once more."
Inside the dilapidated house, several people were animated with excitement. They were all dressed in grayish-white robes, with a distorted snake emblem embroidered on their collars.
Unlike other evil cults full of confidence, determined to overturn the Empire Capital and spread the will of the Evil God they served to every corner of the continent, these people had never held much hope for the coming of their lord from the start.
For already a millennium, even before the Holy Calendar was established in the Third Era, they could no longer hear the voice of the lord they served.
No matter how they prayed to the Sacred Relic, even the most powerful cult leader with the purest faith could not receive a response from their lord.
A Religious Order whose deity could not demonstrate miracles or respond to the expectations of its followers naturally could not sustain itself in the long run.
Thus, slowly, the once-glorious Angel Family "Mercury's Blood," which had been the covert ruler of several human empires during the Third Era, began to decline and wither.
In the end, only this small branch remained.
Time passed, and the Third Era ended, giving way to the Fourth Epoch.
Because they were too weak and had too little influence, even the Dawn Church had declared the once brilliant Angel Family "Mercury's Blood" to have perished and did not include them in the list of heretical cults.
Their presence in the Empire Capital was not to conspire with other evil cults.
It was merely because the few remaining ties from their family had accidentally uncovered the news of the evil cults plotting in the Empire Capital.
So, with the attitude of grasping at straws, they also came to the capital to see what the commotion was about.
Because the rituals had been forgotten due to the long passage of time, this small branch of the Angel Family descendants could only rely on their impressions and wild guesses. They began by imitating the Dawn Church, making the sign of the cross and sprinkling Holy Water; then they emulated the evil cults in their worship.
Unfortunately, their current strength was so weak that they couldn't even find a human sacrifice, let alone buy livestock like goats or sheep due to a lack of funds. At last, they had no choice but to kill a few chickens and ducks to spill some blood as substitutes.
Unexpectedly, this chaotic effort, akin to a headless fly, actually received a response. In that instant, thousands of bolts of lightning descended from the black clouds.
Then, in the sky above the dilapidated house, silver-white plasma converged into a hazy shadow.
It was a creature resembling a snake, entirely pure white in color.
"We never imagined that the lord recorded in the ancient family scriptures would actually descend into the world once again."
Upon seeing the ethereal snake-like creature resembling mercury, the people below couldn't help but be moved to tears.
After hundreds of years of persistence, their family lineage had wavered.
They contemplated whether to switch allegiances or to find another patron, join some other evil cult, or become followers of the Seven Gods of Dawn.
They had also pondered whether the lord their family served had long since died and departed, lost deep within the Astral Realm and unable to return, or had simply been usurped by other deities in some covert battle of the gods and stripped of its Authority and Divinity.
But now, it seemed it all made sense.
The lord had not forsaken them; this was only a long, millennium-spanning test.
And now, He had responded to their call again.
Their family's current pitiful state, too destitute even to afford livestock for sacrifices, was naturally about to change.
This was a True God walking the world anew.
As the most devout followers who remained through the toughest times, they would naturally receive the kindest of rewards from the lord. Restoring the former glory of the Mercury's Blood Angel Family naturally went without saying.
However, in the midst of their frenetic fantasies and hopes at that moment, nobody noticed that a young man with black hair and black eyes, wearing a long black robe with red clouds, had silently slipped among the crowd at some point.
"Is this the last one?"
"Compared to the others before, this one doesn't seem that impressive."
On Shiayar's shoulder, the little white ferret yawned lazily, the blood-red tomoe and silver moonlight in its eyes slowly fading. With Silver's current Rank as a Legendary Species, using Illusion Technique to make Shiayar blend in among a group of Transcendent beings, none of whom were even 4th Order, was practically overkill.
Shiayar looked at the small snake with closed serpent's eyes and a body filled with flowing mercury blood, his gaze contemplative.
After ten years in the Garden of Eden, he was no longer the 2-Ring Beastmaster who was largely ignorant of the supernatural world.
Silvia's tutoring had been invaluable. Additionally, Shiayar had spent a decade reading almost every ancient text Jayee had copied from the White Tower and the Empire Capital Grand Library. As a result, his understanding of the mystic arts now surpassed that of most Legendary individuals on the Western Continent.
Yet even so, he couldn't identify exactly what this creature before him was.
He did sense a trace of Divinity when his spiritual power scanned the area.
Therefore, after finishing up elsewhere, Shiayar had hurried over.