Chapter 158: A Tribute to the Prayer Network

Hugin remained silent for a long time before he suddenly let out a sigh. He wearily removed the old brown hat he always wore and placed it on the document-strewn desk. Then, he retrieved a pipe from his pocket and took a long drag.

He exhaled deeply, releasing a cloud of smoke that filled the room and veiled his face in a faint mist.

His expression became unreadable. Wang Yu could tell that Hugin felt a sense of helplessness, surely a rare feeling for him. As one of the most important leaders of the Nightblades, Hugin typically exuded composure and stability. Yet now, the subtle but undeniable frustration in his demeanor was evident.

"My apologies in advance. If I tell you that despite knowing all of this, we still won't take any action, will you be disappointed?" Hugin set down his pipe and looked directly at Wang Yu. Smoking wasn't his objective—it was merely a habit cultivated over the years.

"I won't be." Wang Yu shook his head naturally, maintaining his usual calm composure.

"Really?"

Hugin blinked in surprise. That was surprising, even for Wang Yu. How could the Nightblades sit back and do nothing despite the royal family's blatant exploitation? Even so, as one of its leaders, Hugin found himself powerless to act.

"The royal family is, by nature, the most difficult force to oppose within this kingdom. Unless we know exactly what they're planning—and as long as their actions don't directly threaten the Nightblades—confronting them would be highly dangerous.

"Besides, this doesn't prove much by itself. It merely gives me more insight into the possible reasons behind the existence of the slums by the inner walls and the capital's shadow. Nothing changes the fundamental fact that the royal family rules this kingdom, not even the creation of this bizarre Destroyer-class automaton," Wang Yu explained.

He analyzed the situation rationally after delivering this critical intelligence.

Hugin nodded. Wang Yu's level-headedness had pulled him out of his fleeting sense of powerlessness. Indeed, there was no need to worry about Wang Yu losing his composure, and what he said was largely correct.

𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

The information they had gathered confirmed that the Destroyer-class automaton bearing intense mental pollution had been created by the royal family. Furthermore, the royals had no immediate intention of clashing with the Nightblades. However, they harbored significant dissatisfaction toward the nobility, and it was likely they would take action against them when the time was right...

While this revelation shattered the royal family's carefully maintained image of benevolence, that was it. The Nightblades could hardly use it as a justification to rebel against their nominal superiors. At most, they could resent the fact that the royals used their members' lives as expendable resources for testing.

"Hah... Being a Nightblade leader is exhausting. Not only do I have to fulfill my duty to protect the people of this kingdom, but I also have to constantly maneuver around those scheming nobles. Honestly, I wouldn't mind if the royals just wiped them all out. But damn it, those royals don't even consider the lives of ordinary Nightblades as lives worth saving. It pisses me off."

Hugin abandoned his earlier frustration and leaned back against his chair, adopting a rare air of resignation as he openly complained to Wang Yu about the burdens of his position.

For a moment, he seemed like a completely different person from the strategic and composed leader everyone knew. Wang Yu, however, understood. Hugin always appeared calm and dependable, but the pressure he endured and the number of matters he had to handle were anything but insignificant.

Just like when Hugin had unexpectedly proposed the idea of faith in two deities, the God of Light and the Lady of the Night, his frustration had stemmed from constantly having to deal with the nobility while managing the affairs of the Nightblades. It had made him far less composed than usual.

Now, as he vented about his frustrations, this side of Hugin... felt incredibly real.

"Sorry you had to see me like this. Still, this intelligence is important—thank you. We can't directly confront the royal family over this, but at least we now know that those lunatics from the Cult of the Abyss in the capital's shadow were nothing more than nobles playing pretend. That means we can finally get rid of them. I'll have to ask for some help from our friends in the Church of Nightfall."

Having finished his complaints, Hugin shook his head and swiftly regained his usual composure. He calmly issued orders for their next steps.

While their current options were limited, the revelation about the Cult of the Abyss's true nature presented an opportunity. Their mysterious activities had long made them difficult to deal with, but now they could be eradicated. This would strengthen the Nightblades' hold in the capital's shadow and benefit the Church of Nightfall's expansion as well.

"Agreed. I'll inform the Church of Nightfall's followers. If we can lend a hand, we will. Honestly, the current scale of our operations has already outgrown our base in Black Street."

Wang Yu smiled. Hugin's intent was clear—the Nightblades planned to wipe out the Abyss Cult, and by "asking for help" from the Church of Nightfall, he was really suggesting that part of the cult's territory would be handed over to the church for further development.

A series of knocks came from Hugin's office door. He glanced at the magitech device on his desk with a view of the outside and saw a tired-looking Gilbert. He had arrived quickly after Wang Yu's notification.

"Come in," Hugin called out. Wang Yu opened the door, allowing the Nightblade who had barely escaped death to enter.

Hugin's office door, like Sieg's and Fang's, was linked to the Gap. When activated, it created a spatial connection allowing direct entry. Otherwise, one could also simply enter from the corridor proper.

Gilbert entered and formally saluted both men. Officially speaking, Sieg and Hugin both outranked him by a considerable margin.

"You did well. No one could have predicted that this sudden incident would be connected to the royal family. You performed admirably, and getting this crucial intelligence out was no easy feat.

"For now, keep this information confidential. If word spreads at such a critical juncture in the war against Selwyn, it could cause unnecessary panic. I'll have trusted personnel conduct further investigations."

Hugin outlined his plan to Gilbert. Keeping this information under wraps was essential—if the royal family learned that the Nightblades were aware of their plans, unnecessary conflict might become inevitable. It was best not to make themselves a target just yet.

"Understood." Gilbert nodded. While he was somewhat dissatisfied with this course of action, he trusted Hugin's judgment and would follow his orders.

His comrades remained in a deep coma, their minds severely damaged by the mental onslaught they had suffered.

Though the sudden disappearance of the mental pollution had prevented them from being fully anchored to Heaven's Gloom, their spirits had been scarred. Even if they recovered, they might never regain their former strength.

And the culprits behind all this, suspected to be from the royal family, would go unpunished. This filled Gilbert with frustration and helplessness. He understood why it was difficult to act, but that didn't make it any easier to accept.

Then, recalling something that had been nagging at him, Gilbert hesitated before speaking.

"Mr. Wang Yu, I have a question. When I prayed to the Lady of the Night, why was it you who answered me? And... does the sudden disappearance of the mental pollution have anything to do with her?"

After confirming with the old military doctor that his mind was unharmed, Gilbert quickly made his way to where Hugin was. Along the way, however, he remained puzzled by what had actually cleansed the mental corruption had gone and why his prayer had connected him to Wang Yu.

The latter was something he simply couldn't wrap his head around, but as for the former, considering that the only thing he had done before the corruption vanished was to pray, it was impossible for him not to connect the disappearance of the corruption with the Lady of the Night.

"Hm... I was actually planning to inform you both about this. I suppose it's good timing."

Wang Yu pressed a finger to his chin and pondered the situation for a moment. Previously, only Charles and Avia had known about the system he had created using the Tree of the Night, which allowed for communication among believers. This seemed like a good opportunity to inform Hugin and Gilbert of the system—after all, he had just discovered an incredible new application for it.

"I am the Archbishop of the Church of Nightfall, and I have a rather unique constitution. I don't even know my own limits when it comes to mental resistance, but I do know that I can directly withstand the presence of gods like the Lady of the Night. In a way, this means I can communicate with them directly."

The first thing Wang Yu said completely overturned Gilbert's understanding of reality. To directly converse with a god was unthinkable!

Gilbert nearly froze on the spot. His first reaction was disbelief, but then he recalled how his prayer to the Lady of the Night had been answered by Wang Yu himself. No matter how absurd it sounded, the facts were undeniable.

Hugin, on the other hand, was already aware of Wang Yu's peculiar nature, but he was still curious about what he was about to reveal. A prayer to the Lady of the Night being answered by Wang Yu? And how exactly had Wang Yu received Gilbert's information?

"The Lady of the Night granted me partial authority over her power. Specifically, authority over the connection between her power and her followers. I have made some modifications to this power.

"First, I made it easier for Nightblades to receive divine blessings from the Lady of the Night. Second, I restructured this power so that the connection between her and her followers could extend laterally, allowing followers to connect with each other—enabling communication through prayer."

Wang Yu succinctly summarized the "programming" he had done to the Tree of the Night and revealed the existence of the nascent but functional "Prayer Network" to them.

Wang Yu's first remark—that he had adjusted the Lady of the Night's distribution of divine energy to favor the Nightblades—was already a bombshell to both Hugin and Gilbert. Just how much did the Lady of the Night value her archbishop that she would entrust him with even partial control over the allocation of her power?

And when Wang Yu explained how he had further modified this authority, their astonishment grew. They immediately recognized the immense strategic value of this Prayer Network.

A real-time communication method that required no magitech devices, was immune to interference, and, as far as they knew, was impossible to eavesdrop on—it had no barriers to entry and no downsides. Its utility was nothing short of a game-changer for sharing intelligence and battlefield coordination alike.

Hugin was just about to speak when Wang Yu continued his explanation. Not wanting to interrupt, Hugin held back and instead focused on further analyzing the potential applications of the Prayer Network.

"Gilbert, at the last moment, your prayer to the Lady of the Night happened to connect to the Prayer Network. That allowed me to realize a much greater potential use for it within the Nightblades: dispersing mental corruption."

"You mean... the mental corruption that erupted from the Destroyer-class automaton was absorbed by this network?" Gilbert asked in astonishment.

"To be precise, the Prayer Network—which links all of the Lady of the Night's followers—distributed the corruption evenly across them all. Nearly ten thousand believers bore a fragment of the corruption, effectively neutralizing it."

Wang Yu corrected Gilbert's phrasing. He had already learned from the Lady of the Night herself how the framework he had established had processed the mental corruption. He believed that this capability would be particularly invaluable to the Nightblades.

"I believe this Prayer Network will be of immense use to the Nightblades. Any follower of the Lady of the Night should be able to offload mental corruption into the network. This means that Nightblades in the field can share the burden of mental corruption with those who aren't directly exposed.

"With a large enough base of believers, each individual share of corruption would be insignificant, and as the number of believers grows, the network's capacity to handle mental corruption will only improve. Of course, using this system requires becoming a follower of the Lady of the Night—but that's a rather simple process."

After Wang Yu finished explaining this new function of the Prayer Network, silence engulfed Hugin's office. Neither Gilbert nor Hugin spoke for a long time.

Then, the sound of two pairs of legs snapping together in unison echoed through the room. Almost simultaneously, Hugin stood up and Gilbert straightened his posture. They both turned to face Wang Yu. With the utmost gravity, they performed a deep, formal salute—the highest gesture of respect in the Nightblades, and a salute that was never given lightly under any circumstances.