By the coast, white sea spray crashed against the reef over and over again.
The Cat-person Priestess, Crescent, squatted on a rock, her tail swaying gently behind her, her amber vertical pupils staring intently at the movement beneath the water's surface.
A dark shadow flashed through the water. She lifted both claws upward, and a pillar of earth bulged up from the water, launching a half-arm-long scale-light salmon out of the water.
Crescent's right claw struck out like lightning, piercing through the soft flesh behind the fish's gills. The fish struggled twice on her claw tips and quickly fell still.
She grinned, revealing sharp canine teeth, and brought the fish to her nose to sniff.
That fresh scent mixed with the salty fishiness of the seawater made her nod in satisfaction. She planned to use this fish to make a soup, giving the High Priestess a change of taste.
"Truly not easy, meow."
They were currently hiding on an uninhabited coastline in the western part of the Empire. This place was close to Elinore's territory and specifically belonged to a vampire Baron. However, because it had no value and there were no settlements nearby, it was desolate and uninhabited.
This was one of the many concealed hideouts of the Hand of Passage. The reason they hid here was because they valued its concealment and convenience. Being close to the seaside allowed them to easily obtain food without needing large-scale foraging, reducing the probability of being discovered.
It was just that, looking at it now, it was a bit of a miscalculation.
The concealment was indeed concealed enough; having hidden here for so long, no one had searched this way.
However, a problem arose regarding food.
For some unknown reason, more than half the fish in the sea had disappeared. The efficiency of scooping fish from the sea wasn't even as good as going into the mountains to pick berries.
Although she didn't know the specific reason, in Crescent's view, since the world was gradually dying, it was presumably normal for various anomalies to occur.
A few years ago, how could she have ever imagined that Kruger, who had worked with her for over ten years, would fall to a Puchi's tentacles?
Speaking of which, Puchis didn't even have tentacles a few years ago.
Suddenly, Crescent's furry ears twitched, catching a trace of the wind sound brought by sharp claws slicing through the air.
She jerked backward, her soft body bending into the shape of a bow.
The fish in her claw was flung out by her sudden movement, then sliced through by something invisible in midair, cut into four pieces that scattered around.
The Cat-person grabbed the staff on the ground and leaped backward, but enemies also popped out from behind her.
However, as the radiance of mana condensed on the staff, a giant rock hand reached out from beneath the feet of the invisible enemy behind her. It grabbed it and squeezed fiercely. Purple blood dyed half of the climbing stone golem.
"Purple blood, it's the Chisi from the sea, meow!"
Crescent jumped onto the stone golem's shoulder, raising her staff high, smoothing out all the distorted light around her, revealing those bizarrely shaped bugs.
The numbers weren't many; under the condition that Crescent had already noticed them, they simply couldn't threaten her.
She then noticed an eyeball bug hiding in the sea. She quietly condensed a stone cone in her palm, planning to finish this thing off.
Unfortunately, the eyeball bug was very vigilant. Seeming to notice her movement, it immediately drilled deep into the seabed. The other Chisi, even after two more were trampled to death by the stone golem, dove back into the water without any desire to keep fighting.
Looking at the routed Chisi, not a hint of joy could be seen in Crescent's eyes.
The appearance of monsters from the sea meant that this hideout wasn't as safe as they had imagined.
Moreover, she somewhat suspected whether the scarcity of fish in the sea was also related to the Chisi?
If that was truly the case, it meant the number of Chisi might be far greater than they and the Empire had anticipated.
After confirming no invisible Chisi were following, a heavy-hearted Crescent returned to the hideout.
As soon as she returned, she saw Gini and the still-weak High Priestess studying a Puchi.
"What are you doing, Gini, meow? How can you bring a dangerous Puchi directly in front of Her Ladyship?"
"Don't worry, this is just a Puchi responsible for moving things at the factory over there, and I've already bound it absolutely tight," Gini said.
Crescent still wasn't at ease. The scene of the Knight Puchi killing Kruger right in front of her remained vivid in her mind.
She persuaded, "Lady Mira, this is too dangerous, meow. Haven't we already confirmed that these Puchis have some kind of special messaging ability? If your location is exposed again... We are too weak right now; we need more power, meow, to be able to resist them."
"Resist, why?" the High Priestess asked softly.
This question made Crescent somewhat puzzled: "Why... they killed Kruger, and didn't the oracle also say..."
The High Priestess, however, shook her head:
"The oracle did not say that."
"Crescent, we shouldn't take it upon ourselves to fill in the blanks of the oracle. That is disrespect; it is the arrogance of replacing the divine word with our own will."
The Cat-person lowered her head, trembling unexpectedly: "Disrespect... I... I'm not, meow..."
"I know your devotion," the High Priestess extended a somewhat emaciated palm, gently stroking the Cat-person Priestess's cheek, looking at the believers busily arranging the new ritual not far away. "Everyone who was able to follow us here has firm faith, but do not make this kind of mistake again. We no longer have the chance to make up for it."
High Priestess Mira touched the mushroom cap of this motionless Puchi: "Although the oracle is incomplete, the mushrooms mentioned in it are highly likely these Puchis and the Mushroom Tribe. Regardless of whether Our Lord wants to destroy it or utilize it, we should try our best to understand them before obtaining the complete oracle."
Crescent nodded and obediently squatted beside the Puchi, no longer stopping them.
However, she still mentioned the matter of her being attacked by Chisi on the coast, asking if they should consider relocating again?
Gini sighed, however: "There aren't many safe hideouts left now. This is the only one close to Elinore's territory. You also know that within the Empire today, Puchis only exist in Elinore's domain."
"Moreover," she looked toward the new ritual not far away, "we don't have many materials left we can get our hands on. It would probably be difficult to scrape together enough to set it up all over again. Not to mention, the believers responsible for assembling personnel have already set out. Relocating now will inevitably cause many problems."
Adding point after point together, it was indeed impossible to easily relocate again.
That previously interrupted ritual consumed more than half of the Hand of Passage's foundation. They could no longer pull off another large-scale sacrifice right under the nose of the Empire, which had intensified its searches.
And outside the Empire, there was entirely the threat of the Mushroom Tribe.
The last thing they could do was an internal sacrifice, using the most devout batch of believers to complete the remaining portion of the interrupted ritual.
The so-called "assembling" was to gather the devout believers still scattered everywhere through various channels to come over for the sacrifice.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call this a last-ditch effort.
Crescent sighed: "If only Kruger were still here. He could always think of some unusual, good methods to solve difficulties."
...
Beside them, the High Priestess touched the Puchi's soft body. Through those several layers of seals, she unexpectedly sensed that this Puchi actually possessed some kind of mental protection method.
However... very weak.
She tried to invade it. In the next moment, darkness surged from her pupils, startling Crescent and Gini into retreating repeatedly.
"Wh... what's wrong, meow?"
(End of Chapter)
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