Chapter 392: Chapter 392

The man who led him here didn't step inside, instead gesturing for Jenkins to enter on his own.

A bad feeling struck him the moment he opened the door, a premonition that proved all too true. Mr. Coppola Bellini, the director of the Office of Special Item Management, and his assistant, James Hutt, were standing beside a long sofa, holding a small box. Two nuns waited nearby with basins of water.

The office was filled with other high-ranking priests and clerics, many of whom looked familiar, though he couldn't place their names. They all fell silent as Jenkins stepped inside.

"What's wrong with the Bishop?"

He set Chocolate down and hurried to the sofa. The old man was lying there, his eyes peacefully closed, but the silvery patterns on his face were starkly visible.

"It happened about half an hour ago... Miss Bevanna and one of the Keepers of Secrets have already examined him, but we still can't find the cause or a solution. Several other healers from the Church have tried as well, to no avail. Mr. Bellini was just attempting to use B-01-..."

The middle-aged man cut his assistant off, snapping the lid of the box shut with a grim expression.

"It's no use, Mr. Williams. Please, give it a try. If you can't help him either, our only choice is to wait for word from the other churches."

He took off his overcoat and handed it to a nearby nun, then knelt and took the old man's hands in his.

"Not yet. Miss Bevanna is currently assessing the incident's severity. We should have a decision soon," Mr. Bellini replied.

Jenkins gave a solemn nod, glowing green currents and motes of light already swirling around his arms.

Meanwhile, Chocolate scrambled onto the bishop's astonishingly large desk and, taking advantage of the distraction, began peering down at the documents.

The door opened again, admitting Miss Bevanna and several other Enchanters. Seeing Jenkins at work, they all fell silent in a shared, unspoken understanding.

Jenkins wasn't sure if a healing ability could dispel the effects of a divine art. His spirit drained away steadily, yet he could feel a foreign power actively resisting the flow of his Breath of Healing into the bishop's body.

This was getting him nowhere. He frowned, focusing his concentration, and his spirit began converting into a surging green aura at a much faster rate.

Oddly, this didn't seem to register as a negative condition; his Purification Candle remained completely inert. As he mulled this over, the green orb inside him began to tremble, showing faint signs of wanting to emerge from his body.

"No, I can't reveal this Bestow... wait, why not? It's not like I stole it."

He glanced at the expressions of the others in the room, then back at the ailing bishop. After a moment's deliberation, he relinquished his control over the green orb.

As an immense current of green energy erupted and swirled around Jenkins, everyone waiting anxiously for the outcome had to retreat a few steps.

The young Mr. Hutt stared in astonishment at the green gem materializing between Jenkins's eyebrows, but was instantly silenced by a sharp look from Mr. Bellini.

The gem pulsed with a verdant light, and a dense torrent of life energy cascaded from it like a waterfall. It flowed into Jenkins, and once converted, surged forth with unstoppable force, shattering the mysterious resistance and flooding into the bishop's body.

This was his first time using it , and Jenkins misjudged the intensity. A few strands of the bishop's snow-white hair actually began to darken back to their original color.

Miss Bevanna clapped a hand on his shoulder, and Jenkins instantly let go of the bishop's hands.

Everyone crowded closer. The old man's eyelids fluttered, and then he blinked his eyes open, looking around in confusion.

"What's happened? Has everyone stopped working?"

His voice was hoarse, but he sounded surprisingly vigorous.

Throughout the day, more cases of what was being dubbed "Silver Vertigo" emerged across Nolan City. By evening, the combined tallies from the municipal government, hospitals, and the five major churches had broken into the thousands, and the number was still climbing.

The good news was that the rate of new infections was slowing noticeably. Even so, the first signs of public unrest were beginning to stir in the city.

Given that this was a city-wide crisis, Miss Bevanna had already notified the Holy See, while the Nolan diocese was working feverishly to find the cause and a solution.

The investigation revealed no common threads among the victims in terms of gender, background, or place of residence. However, most of them fell into the category of "physically frail." Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs NovєlFіre.net

This included those whose health had irreversibly declined with age, those who were congenitally weak, and those already suffering from serious illnesses. Among the healthy and young, there were fewer than twenty cases.

By cross-referencing old records with information from the Holy See, they managed to identify the source of the faint silver patterns on the victims' faces within half a day.

The culprit was a disease caused by the secretions of a rare insect previously undiscovered in this Epoch: the Monopodal Silver Threadworm. According to the records, it feeds on metallic silver. If a human were to ingest its secretions, these markings would rapidly appear on the surface of their skin.

However, the secretions alone could not cause fainting. The prevailing theory was that someone had incorporated the substance into a ritual designed to induce a mass-fainting event, resulting in the current crisis.

The investigation into rituals requiring the Monopodal Silver Threadworm was ongoing, but it involved many long-lost rites and threatened to consume a great deal of time.

As he had hoped, no one from the Church of Knowledge and Books questioned the origin of his Bestowal. Miss Bevanna simply asked him to register the item once the crisis was resolved, just to keep their records complete.

Inspired by Jenkins's successful healing, further testing throughout the day finally yielded a conclusion by evening: the comatose citizens were all aging at an accelerated rate. Their life force was being slowly drained away, flowing toward a single, common destination.

The clue was too significant to ignore. At the stroke of midnight, representatives from the Orthodox Churches convened for a brief meeting at the Sage's church. They unanimously agreed to designate the Life Sharing Alliance as the primary suspect for the time being.

Operations commenced that very night. Meanwhile, the city's diviners gathered at the astrological tower outside the walls to prepare for a joint, high-precision divination.

This, however, would be a much lengthier process. Miss Audrey, whom Jenkins happened to encounter, looked rather worried.

"I have a bad feeling, Jenkins. It's best not to act alone for the next few days."

The city was placed under temporary martial law, with a curfew set to begin that night. By morning, newspapers would carry the story of Nolan's plight across the entire nation, and perhaps even the continent.

Jenkins found himself confined to the church, as Miss Bevanna forbade him from leaving. Yet there was one matter that could not be delayed. Even with a plague sweeping the city, it had to be done on schedule.

"This Wednesday, we will hold your baptism ceremony outside the city. It is a Scribe tradition, and the appointed time cannot be changed."