From an official standpoint, the majority of supernatural artifacts that didn't originate from the seven Righteous Gods would be destroyed by the church, this was to prevent dangerous artifacts from spreading in this world. However, that only applied to underqualified supernatural artifacts.
Ever since he saw through the fact that this world had become a cattle farm, Negary immediately understood that the seven Righteous Gods''harvest' of this world was a thorough one from every aspect.
From the point of view of truly powerful entities, the beginning of the path to becoming strong was at the third stage of release. Before that point, the release of [Origin] could be achieved easily by just piling resources onto an individual, although there was a prerequisite that the released individual's mind and willpower could withstand the pollution of the [Origin].
After the third stage of release, the important thing was the construction of one's own pathway and the deeper comprehension of it, as this was the only true way of becoming stronger.
This kind of pathway didn't come into existence by sitting still and simply imagining it. It required the deep observation of the universe's truths, principles and laws; which would then be integrated into one's pathway through one's own comprehension and wisdom.
Because of that, the seven Righteous Gods did not simply harvest the world's Source Energy, they would also release a portion of this Source Energy to stimulate the overall wisdom of all the individuals in this world, then harvest the inspiration and thoughts that came from them.
For that reason, whenever they came across interesting supernatural researches, the seven churches of the Righteous Gods would not necessarily destroy them, but keep them and wait until 'Divine Offering Day'– which was also the day of the Gods' harvest – to send it all to their respective Righteous Gods.
To these Righteous Gods, the majority of the supernatural knowledge obtained from these humans might be utter nonsense, but if even a single bit of these researches could provide some inspiration for the Righteous Gods on their own research, it would be considered worthwhile profit.
〖 Because of this, there should be a storage room in the Sun Shadow church to keep these useful supernatural knowledge. From the various information bought from some people of the church, the existence of such a room has been confirmed 〗
Walking through the nighttime street, Negary thought about their target tonight.
In the Sun Shadow church, the higher one's position was, the more devout they were to God. But the existence of faith wasn't mutually exclusive with other human characteristics. These men were also greedy and lustful, so long as he had a grasp of their weaknesses, it was quite simple to obtain a bit of information from them.
Through the organization of all collected information, Negary was able to approximately locate this room within the church, followed by numerous more probing and investigation from Shade Attendants, they had finally pinpointed the exact location of the storage room.
Negary stopped, glanced into a certain house and displayed an intrigued smile.
The serial killer Birosius was hiding inside, devoutly performing the necessary ritual to cut off the pinky finger of this house's female owner.
…
After carefully treating the pinky finger he just obtained and placing it into a cloth bag, Birosius sighed in relief.
The source of his power was a certain Evil God. And the catalyst this Evil God required was the female pinky finger.
By offering the pinky finger to God and having it become a part of God, the Evil God would form a connection to the human world, the pinky finger would then become an entity that was both mortal and deific in nature. The more pinky fingers he had, the more power Birosius would be able to draw from his Evil God.
Recent events had truly left Birosius with a giant headache.
By hiding his identity and becoming the butler for the Farnate family, helping them manage their store, no one ever managed to link him to the pinky finger serial killer. But he didn't think that the Farnate family's internal matters would come to light and expose him in the process.
Originally, it should have been nothing but a normal suicide. However, the Soundless cult was then found to be involved, leading to those fat police officers calling in more people to conduct a full house search.
Left with no other choice, he could only act and kill the majority of them, only to run into actual patrolling knights from the Sun Shadow church in his terrible luck. In the end, he had to escape with only a portion of the fingers he had kept, leading to his strength diminishing.
Not too long ago, a young Glory knight and Chromie had cooperated to push him into a corner, if not for his luck, he would have been defeated and arrested right there.
That brat Chromie didn't hold any supernatural powers, but was a genius with both the sword and combat in general.
While the young Glory knight was even worse, as he had both tempered swordsmanship and a perfectly kept-up daily training regime. If this young knight was any stronger, Birosius would have lost his life right there.
It was because of this that Birosius was in so much of a hurry to hunt more fingers.
He was carrying several cloth bags with him, the sense of overflowing power from within had gotten Birosius addicted beyond any doubts, and this was also the reason why he didn't want to leave Lohr. Fingers could not be kept in perfect condition forever, and once they rot, they'd lose their effect.
And yet, the only place in this region with appropriate targets for him to hunt was the town of Lohr. Losing those fingers while escaping had already caused him to feel extreme discomfort, and Birosius felt like he might go crazy if he didn't replenish his ever-waning supplies.
The instant after that, an extremely ominous feeling appeared in his heart, causing him to turn around. Only to see that a person was standing on the rooftop right outside the window with both arms crossed, currently observing him with an indescribable gaze of complex intentions.
Compared to this person, the eerie moon hanging overhead felt dim, like it was no more than a backdrop to a greater omen. Facing this entity with the fatal ominous sensation caused him to feel uncontrollable fear from the bottom of his heart.
"Who are yo- Who might your Grace be? And what do you want?" Birosius forcefully pushed the fear in his heart down and tried to ask a probing question in a low voice.
〖 I want you to help me do something 〗
Negary stood looking down on this man, he had some decent skills, enough that Negary had considered taking him into the Hermit Order. However, this person had other secrets, and pushing the boundaries too much would cause issues.
"May I ask, what does your Grace require of me?" Birosius lowered his head. He understood that when an entity stronger than yourself stood in front of you, unless you had a way to retaliate, your only choice was to accept whatever request or proposal they offered.
〖 Simply accept my little gift 〗Negary leapt down from the rooftop and swung his hand to cut open the metal bars on the window. Landing in front of Birosius, he pressed a finger against Birosius' forehead.
When Negary approached him, the Evil God's power within Birosius wanted to act up, but some sort of power had immediately surrounded the bag of fingers at his hip, cutting off his connection to it and instantly stripped him of all forms of retaliation.
Negary didn't stop at that. As his finger pressed against Birosius' forehead, the germs quickly assimilated it. Like poking into a slab of cow fat, Negary's finger then swiftly sank into Birosius' forehead without obstruction.
The finger then turned into a large amount of germs that invaded Birosius' brain, infusing numerous complicated knowledge into his mind.
Just as Negary had said, this was his little gift, but whether or not Birosius could actually bear to receive this gift was completely dependent on Birosius himself.
In fact, Negary had already considered the other party's situation and used a relatively mild form of knowledge infusion. A soul that hadn't released their [Origin] wouldn't die from receiving this knowledge, but there were no telling of any other side effects.
"I…" Birosius' pupils completely shattered, with many things seemingly wanting to erupt from inside: "Have witnessed the truth"
