The bishop acted with remarkable efficiency. Upon receiving Loren's instructions, he immediately sprang into action, not even pausing for a drink of water before rallying the church members to begin preparations.

For this, Loren decided he would put in a good word for him the next time he met the Pope. He found this kind of person, so single-mindedly eager to advance, quite agreeable.

After informing the bishop of these matters, Loren left the church. He had other things to attend to, though it meant Movila would have to bear a bit more work.

Movila's clone needed to go monitor the bishop's work and, while at it, send a letter for Loren.

Loren planned to write a letter warning Caroline that someone had their eyes on her recently and that she shouldn't make any rash moves.

However, Loren didn't intend to expose the witches around him to Caroline. If Caroline were somehow tricked into revealing something, it would be disastrous.

Of course, the most likely scenario was that anything she said would be dismissed as an attempt to frame Loren, but Loren wasn't willing to take even the slightest risk.

The day passed just like that. Loren didn't accomplish much else. Before obtaining more information, he couldn't formulate a better method to counter the sacrificial ritual.

Gwen had already been dispatched by Loren to the Nofica Theocracy to investigate, as the recent disasters had all occurred there.

Moreover, with Loren's interference, the mastermind's ritual could no longer proceed normally. Loren guessed they would likely conduct a few more tests next, which also presented a good opportunity to gather more information.

Gwen was also carrying the items to counter the ritual. Their effectiveness had been proven yesterday, so Gwen naturally brought them along.

If Loren were that mastermind, he would definitely try to improve the ritual. But obviously, improving a ritual was no easy task.

Even counting Loren, there were probably fewer than three people in the entire world capable of refining a ritual this quickly.

...

"Was the letter delivered to Caroline?"

"It was delivered. I'm just not sure if she'll believe it..."

"It should be fine. I explicitly mentioned her identity as a witch in the letter. Even if she's foolish, she should realize the seriousness of the situation.

"She doesn't know the identity of the messenger, only that her witch identity has been exposed. Advising her is secondary; her best course of action now is to quickly leave this troubled place. Once she's gone, no matter what, she'll be safe."

Loren had considered many angles. This was indeed the optimal solution—it wouldn't expose them and could still serve as a warning to Caroline.

"What's left to do now is wait..."

Night had fallen. After dinner, Loren sat in his room, resting with his eyes closed, focusing on controlling Gwen.

Thanks to the World Card's ability, Gwen's mobility had become very high. Gwen had now arrived at the location Loren predicted would be the next sacrificial site.

Many people had already been evacuated here. Loren wasn't the only one who deduced this place would be targeted.

However, the church hadn't just evacuated people from this location; they had evacuated everyone in the vicinity. Loren even suspected whether the church had actually predicted the incident location at all.

"It's coming..."

Clouds suddenly obscured the moon, but the starlight grew even brighter. Loren knew very well this was the prelude to an Outer God's sacrificial ritual. Sure enough, the next moment, gray mist appeared in the city.

The gray mist spread with extreme speed, instantly engulfing several buildings. At this moment, Gwen was flying high in the sky, observing the scene below.

The origin point of the mist's spread had almost become a no-man's-land. Knowing the ritual could be interrupted by Loren's items, logically, the activation site should have as many people as possible, so the sacrifice wouldn't be in vain at the very least.

And yet, there was truly not a single person around here. Gwen didn't even see the person activating the ritual.

"Just as I guessed before."

Loren had previously told Koranda that the ritual was likely remotely controlled. The perpetrator had come to these places long ago, set up the ritual here, and would activate it from elsewhere when the time came.

But this world had no surveillance, making it difficult to investigate who had been here previously.

The gray mist continued to spread, swallowing some Bountiful talismans inscribed with runes. Finally, after reaching a certain extent, it stopped spreading altogether.

Bloody moonlight pierced through the clouds, shining upon the gray mist. The mist gradually evaporated under the moonlight, disappearing without a trace.

The gray mist appeared quickly and vanished just as fast. Even so, one street had been leveled to the ground, though fortunately, there were no casualties.

The God of Greed wanted everything, even all this miscellaneous junk. However, if nothing precious was sacrificed, it wouldn't give much feedback, so this sacrifice was essentially wasted.

Thinking of this, a rather peculiar idea suddenly surfaced in Loren's mind. He could completely use the God of Greed's authority to create a fourth-dimensional trash can.

With Loren's abilities, he could certainly do it. It just seemed like overkill for the task, and the risk factor was a bit high. In the end, Loren abandoned the idea.

"This investigation was still useful..."

There was no point in staying here any longer. Gwen flapped her wings and flew out, heading back towards the Gedlan Kingdom.

Unless absolutely necessary, Loren preferred to keep Gwen by his side. Who knew when some situation he couldn't personally handle might suddenly arise? Gwen would come in handy then.

On Gwen's way back, Movila, who was lying on Loren's lap, suddenly opened her eyes and exclaimed:

"Koranda really managed to lure Caroline out!"

"What?"

Loren also sat up abruptly. The development of events was somewhat beyond his expectations.

"Didn't she read my note?"

"She did read it, it's just..."

Movila's expression suddenly became one of barely contained amusement.

"When she read the letter, she flipped it back and forth several times. I thought at the time she was trying to study some secret in the letter. Now that I think about it... it's very likely she's illiterate and couldn't tell which side of the writing was up..."

"..."

Loren suddenly fell silent. This kind of thing was indeed beyond his expectations.

"I'll go check the situation..."

When he went out, Loren didn't bring his gun or the Requiem. His identity absolutely must not be exposed to anyone other than Caroline. This was also an opportunity to ally with the Witches' Church.

Even without relying on any external force and without using Blood Moon Condensed Light, Loren's own strength was comparable to a ninth-tier mage. He had no reason to fear Koranda.

Moreover, Loren had recently learned many high-level spells from the Night and Thunder sequences. It was the perfect time to test them. Loren's hands itched with the desire for a fight. This would also be his first proper battle since his strength had advanced by leaps and bounds.

Loren wasn't worried at all about anyone suspecting him, who had just obtained Night Magic. It was common knowledge that non-believers of a particular Orthodox God couldn't use that god's sequence of magic. Loren was a genuine, dyed-in-the-wool Bountiful follower; it was impossible for him to use Night Magic.