The next day, Rorschach returned to Saint Miller Cathedral at Joseph’s invitation. The Priest led him past the Holy Knights’ cordon to the source of the disaster.

The magnificent Cathedral was somehow still floating in the air. If the streets hadn’t been sealed off and Divine Arts used to repel passersby, countless onlookers and believers would have surely flocked to witness the miracle of the Angel’s descent.

"You go on up yourself. I’m old, and my limbs aren’t what they used to be." With that, Joseph stopped and watched as Rorschach cast a spell on himself and flew into the Cathedral’s interior.

Though it was called the interior, when Seraph had taken flight, it hadn’t cared about the Cathedral’s long history or its status as a world cultural heritage site; it had burst straight through the main structure. Fortunately, every piece of the building was now suspended in the air, and only Rorschach and Dipresy were present.

"You’re here." The Red-robed Prime Minister seemed to have aged a great deal overnight. "In the end, was Seraph destroyed by you Mages?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"It was exiled from the Material Realm."

Dipresy accepted this reality. "Then it was destroyed. He was already dead to begin with."

Rorschach walked through the shattered great hall. Stone carvings, marble floors, stained-glass windows... treasures of both art and sanctity, now blown to pieces. He came to stand before Dipresy, the Cardinal, who was sitting in his own church.

"Will the Cathedral keep floating above Valuva?"

Dipresy shook his head. "Perhaps for a few days, perhaps for a few months. It might come crashing down, or it might descend slowly. In any case, nothing is eternal.

"Divine Spirits will perish, miracles will be forgotten, and the Church and the Magic Guild will one day be relegated to history."

"You are very weak." Rorschach noted the Archbishop’s poor condition. The man had always been full of energy and majesty in their previous meetings, but now, bathed in the morning sun, he radiated an air of twilight.

"It’s not just me. The Church within the Holy Kingdom is at its weakest point, even weaker than during the collapse of the Old Empire—back then, God had not yet departed.

"In this Age of Silence, the power of a Divine Benefactor has two sources:

"First is the order constructed within the esoteric arts by the Master of Light and Order. Although the creator no longer responds to His followers, the system He left behind still functions well. But in the end, the Divine Arts we use now are merely echoes of a bygone era.

"Second, ever since the first Monarch of the Holy Kingdom, Clovis, was anointed and crowned by the Holy See, the Church has been an integral part of the Kingdom’s founding and rule. The Order Church itself is the guardian of the Kingdom’s order. For the past few decades, the position of Prime Minister has been more important to me, and to the Church, than my status as Archbishop.

"Therefore, a Divine Benefactor draws power from order in two dimensions, the mystical and the mundane, to bring forth miracles. Yet, today..."

Dipresy gripped his staff, trying to rise and continue, but failed. He remained seated on the broken pew and went on, "The Kingdom is in grave crisis. The old order is crumbling, and its collapse is now irreversible."

"The Kingdom is a ship leaking from the top. If you were King, the Holy Kingdom might have enjoyed a more stable prosperity." Rorschach added, "And at least Nekker wouldn’t be so stifled."

"The only thing I’m thankful for is my humble birth. If I were King, the first thing I’d do is throw that dangerous, slippery fellow into the Bastie." The Prime Minister offered a rare smile, but it vanished in an instant as the topic was too heavy for him to bear.

"But for a Kingdom’s prosperity to depend on its Monarch’s wisdom only proves the incompetence of the old order. Returning to the matter of the Church, due to Mother Earth’s revival, the Divine Art System built by the Master of Light and Order on the Original Layer is also under assault. The Church’s decline is therefore not limited to the Holy Kingdom; it is a worldwide phenomenon. Of course, this process began when the Eternal City lost the north.

Ultimately, a Church that only has a ’past’ has no future."

Rorschach was more concerned about Mother Earth. "Revival?"

The Archbishop didn’t answer immediately. He adopted a listening posture, pausing before he continued. "...There is no point in saying more. Most of the corruption on the continent has now been drawn to the Royal Capital and dealt with—by our hands."

During the High Mass, Dipresy had sensed that the ritual prepared by the Church was no longer sufficient to expel Mother Earth’s presence from the entire city. The moment he took up his sword, he received a divine oracle, which indirectly set the stage for last night’s events.

However, the process had been completely beyond his expectations.

First, he never expected the remains of Archangel Seraph to descend. Second, he never expected the Magic Guild to be able to destroy the corruption-bearing Angel in a single stroke.

’From the looks of it, the power of the Mages has already completely surpassed that of the Church.’

Rorschach, for his part, pieced together the information Dipresy revealed. ’The "White Dwarf Star" I saw must have been the symbol of the Angel,’ he thought, ’and the Lord of Order’s intentions are becoming clear.’

’The gathering of the Cultists must have been deliberately engineered. The Lord of Order dispatched an Angel to absorb all of Mother Earth’s corruption, then borrowed the Mages’ power to exile the Angel, eliminating Mother Earth’s presence from the continent in the process.’

"Why couldn’t the Holy Knights have eliminated them one by one? The Magic Guild’s stance toward Cult Groups is identical to the Church’s. We could have reached an agreement on this."

"It is precisely because a joint encirclement would have failed that God arranged things this way. Even if you and I cooperated here, what about the Empire? What about Istani? There are also many conceptual and supernatural incursions. It was the Archangel’s judgment and consumption that gave you the opportunity for a concentrated annihilation."

Dipresy understood now. ’The Lord of Order must have foreseen the chaos about to engulf the Kingdom. If He allowed Mother Earth’s infiltration to continue amid that chaos, the consequences would be unimaginable, and the Church’s power would only grow weaker in the future.’

’The power of a Divine Spirit... and yet, He can only interfere indirectly...’

"I’ve told you all this because I need you to go and thoroughly investigate the world’s last festering sore: the Istani Kingdom. All signs indicate that much of the support for the Cult Groups comes from that island nation."

Rorschach was stunned. The clues from the final mechanism and Dipresy’s request both pointed to the same place: Istani. He asked instinctively, "Why me?"

"Why you...? How should I know? Don’t you understand yet? I am not the one making this request." In an instant, the Cathedral was plunged into darkness. The two of them found themselves standing in a vast, starry cosmos, where blue, violet, and red starlight glimmered with shifting intensity within swirling nebulae.

"So go! You can’t stay in the Kingdom now anyway. The hope for your promotion to Great Mage lies within this task. That is what He said."

Rorschach felt himself begin to fall. Before he landed, he heard Dipresy’s final words: "As for me... I am tired. The Kingdom and the Monarch no longer have need of a Red-robed Prime Minister."

...

The event, which came to be known as the "Seraph Calamity," was a crushing blow to the Church. A host of Bishops immediately withdrew from the council and departed from the mansions of the Nobility and the King’s banquet table. They anxiously questioned Joseph about what had transpired before hastily returning to their dioceses or setting out for the Eternal City.

Although the emergency response that night was excellent—thanks to the joint efforts of the Church and the Guild—the total casualties from the Cultists’ ritual and the Angel were still fewer than the lives claimed by starvation throughout the Kingdom.

Nevertheless, the incident severely frayed the already taut nerves of the Royal Capital’s citizens, and the entire city began to arm itself.