On the throne of white bones, Moonlight streamed from the White Night Creed in Wayne’s grip to his arms, spreading to the rest of his body. A streamlined armor formed, fitted to his body. The armor had a smooth, mirror-like surface with silver moon phases adorning the seams. The reflected light flowed like rivers under the moon. While formidable, the energy was serene and reserved, mysterious and noble.

Wayne had donned the divine artifacts of all five chosen knights. The strengths of the Moonlight Armor were its agility, flexibility, and speed buff, paired well with White Night Creed, like giving a tiger wings.

“This isn’t a projection from the inner world. These aren’t the same artifacts...”

Wayne murmured while stroking White Night Creed. Others might not be able to tell, but the Book of Greed could tell the difference. While the two White Night Creeds of the surface and inner worlds looked identical, the information they contained was night and day, with few overlaps.

Thinking of Darienne, who had entered the inner world for a mission, he speculated that the inner world was the Goddess of Moonlight’s laboratory, or the goddess was at the very least one of its shareholders.

Perhaps the goddesses of the Life Alliance had forged the inner world, and to match the overwhelming negative information in the world, they had modified the divine artifacts.

“But that can’t be right. If the gods were personally involved, the divine artifacts should grant immunity to negativity to ensure that the chosen knights were unaffected. Only with a rational mind could knights better complete their goddesses’ missions...”

Under the influence of the negativity, Garville had developed severe shortcomings, including his fragile mental defense. Wayne had thus been able to talk him to death. That wasn’t what a chosen knight should be like.

But what if it was the goddesses’ doing? Then the goddesses would’ve purposefully made the divine artifacts in the inner world flawed.

What for? Were the chosen knights in the inner world trash cans, too? And the more insane they were, the more rational the chosen knights of the surface world would be?

Wayne stroked his chin. That was possible. After all, the surface world was the foundation of the goddesses’ faith, and the chosen knights played such important roles that nothing must be allowed to happen to them.

“But no. The goddesses aren’t nice like that. They have to be up to something else!”

Wayne rubbed his chest. The Goddess of Darkness had a terrible personality, so the other goddesses couldn’t be nice women, either. The arrangements of the surface and inner world might not have been purposeful.

Of course, there was another possibility: Garville was so untalented that he could not tap into the full might of White Night Creed, making him a sorry excuse of a Moonlight Knight.

That was a distinct possibility since Garville had been only the Great Sage of the Church of Moonlight in the surface world, while Darienne was the actual chosen knight. It was only because the inner world couldn’t reflect Darienne that the White Night Creed chose Garville as backup.

“In that case, Auston and Wayne would be the most talented chosen knights in the inner world since they were supposed to be the chosen knights in the surface world...”

But then Wayne had to wonder what was going on with Senna. The Pope of the Church of Nature had secured consecutive victories with Elemental Mantra, crushing numerous churches. The Sun Knight had gone missing after defeat, and the Moonlight Knight had negotiated for peace. That wasn’t how a backup should’ve performed.

“Backups differ in strength. She’s so extraordinary that she’s lifted the dragon blood curse on her own.”

While Wayne was fully enjoying the deduction process, the elites of the Church of Moonlight swarmed up from all directions. After a prolonged silence, they speculated that the fight had concluded and had come to express their loyalty to the Pope.

Whoever won would be the Pope!

The Church of Moonlight’s headquarters wasn’t located in Palis, but ever since they moved in, they had followed the tradition of the white flag. Such was the influence of culture[1]!

They looked up at the stranger sitting on the throne of bones and realized that Garville’s rule was now in the past. The new Pope had routed the unjust regime and reinstated order, arriving in a Palis that was loyal to him.

Seeing the Moonlight Armor and White Night Creed filled them with envy. The transfer of ownership had been so easy that it would seem like the divine artifact wasn’t picky at all, like they could’ve done the same thing. If they had known how easy it would be, they would’ve banded together to overturn Garville. Now, however, they had allowed an outsider to benefit.

It wasn’t too late yet! Shall they try tonight?

If they tried, they would die. It was better not to carry the idea out.

After they exchanged glances, some took the initiative to drop to their knees and call out, “All hail the chosen knight!” And they condemned Garville’s evil rule, pledging to serve their just ruler with their flawed selves.

“With Sir Knight here, the Church of Moonlight will have peace. With Sir Knight here, we will see the blue sky of a bright future.”

“The sinner, Garville, was strong. Sir Knight must be far more powerful to have executed the beast. My admiration for Sir Knight runs deep and endless like the Seinube River and overflows like it.”

Those weren’t their actual words, but Wayne’s summary.

The vermin!

Wayne looked down at them with derision, shaking his head when he saw the fear and greed in those red eyes. To prevent unwanted variables, it was better to eliminate potential threats in their infancy.

Rumble—

White foam flooded from the bottom of the bone throne. The paleness rose into rumbling waves and parted the remains to sweep the members of the Church of Moonlight. Meanwhile, an eerie voice permeated the silence with a bleak, weak tone, with no rambunctious force. It sounded like the low groans of a patient.

Facing the tall walls of flooding white foam with a momentum that threatened to overwhelm all with irresistible ferocity, the followers of Moonlight tried to fight back, visibly shocked. Some of them even snarled and rallied everyone to band together. They had the numbers on their side. If they fought together, the Moonlight Knight might not be able to kill all of them!

The followers saw merits in that. Most of them were Gold-ranked mages, and there were a number of legendary mages, too. Even if they were all pigs waiting to be slaughtered, it would’ve taken the Moonlight Knight half an hour to go through them.

That would be enough time for many to retreat as they fought.

As soon as the fight began, when it was still the time to test the water, they were already considering sacrificing their teammates to buy time for their escape. The legendary mages, especially, were betting the least on the fight.

They couldn’t be blamed for their lack of fighting spirit. They had bottled up so much negative information that the Gold-ranked mages could not create vitality barriers, and the legendary mages’ vitality fields were a dice roll at best. Facing the fierce tides of Astral flesh, they feared that they would be consumed and discharged as waste if they were even one step late in fleeing.

Though the members of the Church of Moonlight had suffered greatly under the negative debuff and were thus severely weakened, in this moment of life and death, they still managed to make quite spectacular visual effects. Perhaps some of them would succeed in fleeing!

Rip!

At the heart of the pale waves, a vertical line split along the white flesh, and a massive eyeball opened all of a sudden. Low whispers alternated between whispering right into the followers’ ears and drifting over from a great distance, chillingly unpredictable. Though all of them knew that the voices were the corruption of the Astral Plane, that they should not listen, the enchanting whispers made them reluctant to turn away; they wanted to hear more.

That makes sense. I’ll just listen a little more, just a little. Then I’ll stop.

I’ll stop listening after this part! xN

Their fear and shock were short-lived, soon morphing into a bemused agreement. The mysterious unknown left them itching for more. They listened for more, and then more. With their curiosity captured, they refused to leave.

Ah, he’s so right! xN

I’ve come to understand everything!

The white tide swept over the faces with dawning realization. When the waves receded to the throne, no one was left save for the figure perched on the bone throne, Wayne.

“This world is advantageous to Astral creatures. I’d barely pushed before they fell...”

Wayne cleared the map with one single move, gaining experience in weeding out weaklings. In the inner world, the corruption of the Astral Plane was much more effective than divine artifacts, so much so that he had to wonder if there was a connection there.

“Is this part of the goddesses’ scheme?”

***

At the center of the ruined city, a light pillar of a hundred meters in diameter rose. Like an arrow that could pierce through any obstacles, the light vanished into the sky like a bolt of lightning, shockingly quick. Only the radiant trail it left lingered in its wake.

Sensing the powerful energy waves, Filomina started. She once again reined in her energy to ensure that no followers of Moonlight would find her.

The arrow light had come from White Night Creed. Wayne and Garville had started fighting.

She didn’t know who would win. While Garville, the Moonlight Knight, was powerful, Wayne was an eldritch horror that seemed immune to all forms of attacks. Filomina estimated the chance to be fifty-fifty. Out of respect for the White Night Creed, she would say that Garville’s chance was sixty percent, and Wayne’s, forty. The fight would take a long time.

She wished for their mutual destruction, with the followers of Moonlight caught in the crossfire. Hopefully, when she went to collect their remains, there would be nothing left except for the White Night Creed.

That would be the best-case scenario. Since Wayne was ‘her’ husband, though, she hoped that she would also find Wayne half dead. Then she could take care of him and win him over from her other self.

Though she and her other self in the surface world were identical, she was new to Wayne and should thus be more appealing. She would surely succeed if she just worked a little harder.

There was no point in following the thought process now, though. Wayne would have to live to be seduced.

Holding her breath, Filomina kept an eye on the battlefield. If Garville emerged, she would leave as soon as possible.

She waited for three hours.

Then a figure floated out of the hole in the ground. Seeing Wayne, Filomina was taken aback and frightened by his incredible power, but she remained in her hiding place, refusing to show herself. She should wait and see. What if this was Garville’s trap?

The hostile environment of the inner world made her more cautious and paranoid than her surface world self.

Hovering in the air, Wayne extended his thoughts and didn’t find Filomina. He landed with a shrug, taking out White Night Creed and turning his thoughts into a net large enough to cover several kilometers in radius. The bow string hummed as he shot an arrow of mana, which sped through the network of thoughts like a signal.

In three seconds, Wayne found Filomina’s hiding place.

That was the perk of having a teacher. Darienne had taught him many tricks of using White Night Creed, investing a lot of effort to make her successor a qualified knight as quickly as possible.

Garville, who had been exploring the divine artifact on his own, enjoyed no such perk. His mastery of White Night Creed left much to be desired. He hadn’t even figured out everything about the passive effects, let alone the active skills.

As soon as Wayne spotted Filomina, he nocked another mana arrow and shot. With a piercing whoosh, the arrow pierced through layers of obstacles and reached the depths of the sewers in an instant, stopping right in front of Filomina. The tip of the arrow glinted coldly, rotating like it was ready to penetrate her forehead at any time.

Filomina’s pupils contracted. She held her breath, not daring to make any significant moves. Her right hand tightened around her Single-edged Sword of Waning Moon as sweat beaded on the tip of her nose. Her shoulders and back were drenched in cold sweat.

Damn it! This is a trap. Wayne’s dead, and Garville has disguised himself as him.

She smells good! Wayne’s nose twitched. At least in terms of fragrance, this Filomina was just like his Filomina.

He put away White Night Creed and dispersed his silver armor, cocking his head innocently. “Filomina, didn’t you say that you would guard the door and watch my back? Is this how you did it, from two kilometers away?”

Filomina blurted out in disbelief, “You-you’re Wayne. You won?”

“What else?”

“...”

Filomina still wasn’t convinced. With her back pressed against the wall, she slowly sat down and said, “You acquired White Night Creed. It... doesn’t make sense. Why would the chosen knight's longbow choose you? Moreover, you seem familiar with the weapon. It’s not your first time using her.”

You must be Garville. Stop acting!

Wayne looked down at the defeated beauty with a smirk. “I forgot to tell you that your surface self’s husband is the Moonlight Knight. There’s nothing strange about me being adept at wielding White Night Creed.”

That surprised Filomina even more, though it did make her more convinced of Wayne’s identity. “So that prideful woman agreed to become yours because you’re the Moonlight Knight?”

Not really. She just gave herself away for free. I couldn’t even stop her.

Wayne kept the correct answer to himself. Both Filominas had failed to judge themselves fairly, naively assuming that reading a few romance novels had made them master heartbreakers when, in fact, they were heartbreakingly easy.

1. During the period of the Bourbon Restoration, France used an all-white flag, which has led to jokes about France being quick to surrender in wars. ☜