Three people—the Emperor, the Holy Mother, and Drakel—were currently inside a hidden underground room. The Holy Church, which was a tall tower built in the middle of the biggest city in this universe, served as a cover for whatever these free people were plotting. Only the three of them knew about the purpose of their actions, and their years of planning.

The Holy Mother who was as involved in this plan as the other two faced the device which was confined to Neige. Since that day when she received that revelation from the only presence that she acknowledged as superior, she had continued to use everything in her disposition to create this very moment.

At the very beginning, she, the Holy Mother, was just another girl that had been blessed with a bright mind. The Empire didn't exist yet, and not as many people possessed the gift. Yet, monsters had already continued to invade and destroy everything.

But, as everything should be, if there was a powerful evil, the natural order of things would make it so that a Hero would also appear.

Fascinating. The young girl was fascinated by this mysterious phenomenon, about the world, about the hero. How did it work? Why did the hero possess such power? What was his sword made of?

From then, she continued to search for answers and was hungry for more knowledge. However, no one could understand her. Why would anyone think about that? Can't we just live a peaceful life and be satisfied with that?

The girl had begun to hide her interest from the world, but she knew that working as a royal knight would give her access to more information, something along the lines of records of ancient unexplainable phenomena, a story about gods, and even demons.

She continued to scrutinize these materials to understand what was happening around her. Unlike those fools who relied on something they didn't even understand to save themselves, the girl, who had now grown into a beautiful woman, didn't wish to continue on the path of ignorance.

Her understanding of the world had indeed deepened after a few years, but it was not enough. And then, there was also the Hero.

At first, she perceived him as a soft and stupid human being, living like an animal who eats, sleeps, and produces children. Everyone around her was like that. This was also why she like working as a knight because she didn't want to find a husband or build a family, she didn't want something as bothersome as that.

But, all of sudden, the man had become a hero. This made her question various things. Why was he chosen? She couldn't understand.

And even after becoming a hero, his attitude didn't even change—it made her laugh. It was just so stupid, she thought.

The hero continued to protect people from monsters and grew stronger, yet she still couldn't understand anything about the reason why he was chosen. Was it because of something that would happen in the future? Maybe so, she concluded, seeing the hero's progress.

A hero was chosen because of what they would accomplish in the future. She found this logical, but it still didn't sit well with her. How could it be that simple?

One night, she skimmed through a pile of paper in which the deeds of past heroes were written, finding no clues, until..

"You desire to know, don't you? I will show you, but.." Suddenly, sitting on top of her bed, was an entity. She didn't know when this entity appeared, but she felt that there was nothing wrong with them being there.

She was unable to see their face and didn't even feel the need to move or to do anything about the situation. She just stayed there bewildered.

"..In exchange, I want you to do something for me," the entity continued.

*****

"Hahaha! This might be bad!" A voice brought the Holy Mother to reality as she was reminiscing about the past.historical

The Emperor should be using his power to gather people in groups around every church in the universe. From there, the holy mother would use her power to extract their soul which was tainted by corruption. This was the first step of this final plan. As such, the Holy Mother frowned when she heard the Emperor's words.

"Even the three of us might not be able to handle him," he added, looking exasperated.

"What are you talking about?" The Mother asked with a cold voice. Even Drakel looked at the Emperor with a puzzled expression.

The process shouldn't be interrupted, and failure would be not tolerated, everyone inside the room should be aware of that.

"Don't worry, I was just joking. You looked so tense. But we might need to take the matter related to that kid seriously. Drakel, why don't you look at what happened? I lost my connection with the four puppets, including your wife," The Emperor added, shaking his head as if he couldn't believe what happened. Still, his expression didn't show in the least that he was panicking. On the contrary, he looked like he was having fun.

'I really wonder why they didn't eliminate the kid yet, my master, and even her so-called God. Not that it matters to me though.. Unlike you, my happiness is already in front of me, kid,' he thought to himself.

"What? Tch.. She was a very rare specimen you know," Drakel said, sounding angry after hearing the Emperor's words.

"Make sure he wouldn't interfere. Eradicate him if needed," the Holy Mother said, at which Drakel nodded, not taking the Emperor's words as a joke. In the first place, it was his tendency to mess around that caused this, she thought.

".." The Emperor didn't say anything as he watched Drakel leave the room. "I finished my job. I made all of them gather around the church. Now, it's your turn." Seeing that the Holy Mother was glaring at him, even though her face was hidden, the Emperor reported the completion of his task.

Unlike other gifts, the Holy Mother's ability was ominous and was not restricted by any kind of distance—Soul manipulation. An abstract ability that let her materialize the soul. And as long as a fraction of her soul was close by, she could activate her ability and everyone around that fraction would be subjected to the effect of her power.

Soul resonance—a phenomenon that happened when a group of people, gather in the same place and enter a state of trance, which happened during religious rituals. At that moment, it was said that their soul leave their body. In a way, this theory was not wrong, but it was not totally true either.

However, the Holy Mother's power was something that was beyond her own existence. It was given to her to achieve a single purpose. Her soul had become a sort of magnet that drew other people's souls.

As such, she had materialized her soul and divided it into many fractions, then put them inside a puppet, known as a priest of the Holy Church. It took a long time to do so, and a lot of energy to not find a way to prevent her soul from vanishing, as well as create the puppets capable of hosting a fragment of her soul.

But little did she know about the real nature of her power. A real God might not lie, but was that entity a real God? Like the millions of believers, was she also putting her faith in someone that would lead her to her demise?

She was told that she would find the answer by herself as long as she followed the path traced by that entity for her. At first, she didn't believe it, but soon, she began to solve some of the mysteries of the world one after another, leading her this far—The Holy Mother had long discarded her doubts.

Rumble! The gigantic tower budged, changing its form, and revealing a huge chalice.

Those who didn't know about Adam's battle, and also those who didn't care about the whole ruckus were somehow this event.

Then, it began. There was only one, at first. They fell on their knees, coughing a black and viscous liquid until something black gushed out of their mouth.

People didn't know what was happening to them. And that was when they remarked that there were priests, wearing white robes standing here and there. No one cared about such a thing, thinking only about themselves.

The people living in the Empire were really living like livestock, not caring about anything. They were fed, they were protected and they had a home.

That was why, at that moment, they began to scream in fear as people fell one by one like flies, engulfed by a feeling of despair, not knowing what was happening to them.

"Let's begin the harvest." This was the harvest that the Holy Mother was waiting for. The harvest of soul. Souls that were now ready to be used for something greater.