Chapter 36: Echo of Memory

The fishy wind in the wilderness had not yet completely dispersed, and the mixed smell of rot and blood lingered.

The last wailing member of the God-Burying Society finally died from his own potent poison, his body already decomposed into a pool of bloody water.

Bai Jin panted slightly, forcibly suppressing the dizziness caused by continuously driving the reversal.

As her mental power was consumed, the glowing substance surrounding the authority in her mind became even scarcer.

Bai Jin had her own speculation about this substance.
‘After all, this is the death energy that circulated out of Lilith’s body, so it can be considered my own power, right?’

‘It’s just that every time I touch it, I remember that blood-red ocean of consciousness.’

“That’s right, Vera!”
Lilith no longer paid attention to the two who were cleaning up, and with Bai Jin, spurred the horse and charged towards the familiar low wall of the orphanage not far away.

The courtyard gate was ajar, and inside was a dead silence.
An ominous premonition welled up in Lilith’s heart.

“Director Emma! The children?!”
Lilith dismounted, pushed open the creaking wooden door, her voice filled with anxiety.

The children’s toys were scattered on the ground in the courtyard.
On the clothesline, a few of the children’s clothes hung, swaying slightly in the wind.

The kitchen door was open, and a faint residual smell of bread could still be smelled.

But there was no one.

Lilith quickly walked through the empty courtyard and pushed open the door of the main house.

The dining table still had uncleaned tableware, and a few pieces of half-eaten bread.

It was as if the people who were eating just a second ago had disappeared into thin air the next.

“Where are the people? Where did they all go?”
Lilith’s voice was particularly clear in the empty room.

Bai Jin carefully checked everywhere, her brow furrowed tightly, “No signs of a fight, no bloodstains… everything is still here.”

“It’s as if they suddenly left as a group, or were taken away?”
Bai Jin remembered the townspeople who were entangled in death energy.

‘Could it be…’

‘Vera is the key. Her purification ability is crucial in this situation of spreading pollution.’

Just then, a chaotic sound of horse hooves came from afar, accompanied by the flustered voice of Bishop Carlos.

“Your Holiness the Saintess! Are you alright? Damn God-Burying Society! How dare they attack Your Highness again!”

Carlos, with a small team of panting Holy Blood Knights, appeared at the entrance of the orphanage.

His face was filled with worry and self-blame.
He quickly hurried to Lilith’s back and bowed slightly.

Lilith whipped around, her angry eyes staring fixedly at Carlos’s hypocritical face.
Her small body erupted with an astonishing momentum, her finger almost poking Carlos’s nose.

“Carlos! Is this the result of your strict patrol?!”

Her voice was sharp and piercing, fiercely attacking Carlos.

“The trash from the God-Burying Society set up an ambush and attacked openly on the outskirts of the town! The monsters of the Void Abyss pollution are breeding and spreading in the wilderness!”

“And now, where are the people from the orphanage?! You tell me, what are you, a bishop, good for?!”

“You don’t even know there’s an orphanage at the edge of town? Are all your men blind?!”

Carlos was berated head-on, and fine beads of cold sweat instantly broke out on his forehead.

He bent his waist even lower, his face turning pale and then green.
He was so aggrieved he was about to explode.

He, a dignified regional bishop, was being reprimanded like this in public!
But he could only repeatedly apologize.

“Your Highness, please quell your anger! I never expected that those heretics would be so rampant! And this orphanage is in a remote location. I’ve just arrived, and the deployment of manpower…”

“Can you shirk your responsibility with a single ‘I didn’t expect’?”
Lilith sneered repeatedly, interrupting his pale defense.

“Twilight Town is now the area under your charge! Could it be that Bishop Carlos thinks this is a poor and remote place, not worth your effort at all?”

“Or is it that the elites you brought are all useless trash like you, who only know how to enjoy themselves?”

Carlos’s face flushed red.
His arrangement of manpower was naturally for spreading the faith, but he didn’t expect the people from the God-Burying Society to act so quickly!

“I will immediately dispatch more men to thoroughly investigate the whereabouts of these people! I will dig three feet into the ground to find the missing people!”

He was eager to make up for his mistake, and also to escape this embarrassing situation.

Lilith forcibly suppressed her anger.
Getting angry now would not solve the problem.

Her gaze swept over the knights Carlos had brought, then at the silent Abraham and Cain standing on the side.
Her mind raced.

“Then take all your men, and the elites you brought from the Holy City, and immediately! Right now! Go find them for me!”

Carlos, as if granted a great amnesty, immediately bowed and accepted the order, radiating out in all directions with the orphanage as the center.

As he turned, a venomous and calculating light almost overflowed from under his lowered eyelids.

‘Just you wait, you yellow-haired girl…’

“Your Highness, we…”
Cain had just started to speak.

“We’re staying.”
Lilith interrupted him decisively.
“The target of the God-Burying Society is me. They’ve just suffered a loss, and they will definitely not let it go.”

“Carlos is making a big show of searching with his men. The target is too big, and the town will be left empty.”

“It’s very likely they’ll pull a surprise attack, or have other plans. You two guard the town.”

“Then Your Highness, you…”

“I’ll go check on the situation of those two unlucky fellows. I hope Carlos finds the people soon.”

In the tents at the square of Twilight Town, several white-robed Shepherds took turns keeping the two alive.

They were full of doubts.
Clearly, to fight against these evil things, all they needed to do was grant these people the power of the Holy Blood.
Why were they doing this laborious and thankless task now?

But there was no way around it.
It was an order from the important figures, so they had to do it.

Lilith and Bai Jin also arrived at this time.
Seeing the crowd gathered outside and the Shepherds doing their best to transfuse life force, Lilith was also relieved.

Lilith pacified the restless crowd and had them disperse.

Then she took over the Shepherds’ work, allowing them to rest and recover their life force.

In the tent, only Lilith and Bai Jin, and the two townspeople entangled in death energy, were left.

“Before, you used the power of 『Reversal』?”
Lilith’s hands were maintaining the life force of the two people.
She suddenly said this, making the dazed Bai Jin instantly clear-headed.

“You clearly have no death energy. How did you drive it?”
Lilith clearly knew the mechanism of reversal.
After all, that was her sister’s power.

Bai Jin rubbed her somewhat stinging temples.
“It’s very strange. What drives it are those glowing things entangled in my mind.”

Bai Jin pointed to her forehead.
“They appeared when I saved you that day. I’m very surprised that these substances can drive reversal.”

“But every time I use it, it makes those memories of yours clearer, constantly impacting my spirit. The consumption is very large.”

Lilith stared at her, and the movement of transferring life force from her hands also stiffened.

“Glowing substances? And they can drive authority?”
Lilith’s voice trembled slightly from extreme shock.

Bai Jin was stunned by Lilith’s reaction, “Yes, do you know what that is?”

Lilith sucked in a sharp breath.
“That’s Memory Matter! It’s something that only existed in the last era, and it’s also what the gods now covet!”