*****

''Phew... This should be far enough.''

In the distant corner of the Backrooms, Aurora, armored in her robe and G mask, stands. She looks calmly at the girl lying on the makeshift bed, unconscious.

It actually took quite a lot of effort to lure Luxia to a kidnappable place and make her sleep, and even more effort to isolate her from the creatures here, but she managed to do it. For now, this girl will be staying here while the operation is ongoing.

The Backrooms now is more or less Aurora's domain, so she can customize it to a certain extent, which means she can seal the hallways in case Luxia wakes up before everything is over. In fact, she has already done that.

Nevertheless, after waiting for a whole day, it is now time to act.

Aurora takes a final look at the girl in front of her again before teleporting away.

Appearing in an abandoned building on the outskirts of Neveah, Aurora is greeted with the sight of two people sitting awkwardly across a table.

''Ah, Miss G!'' The woman, Linsey, hurriedly greets Aurora, while 049 just nods at her lightly.

''Time's up. Let us move.'' Aurora immediately replies. ''Linsey.''

''Alright.''

As bishop Linsey begins to pray, an almost invisible blanket of mana manifests in the air and gradually falls onto the three. Linsey's skill helps erase their presence to a nearly unfair degree, able to fool even the sharpest of Wings.

Best of all, this is a unique skill she gained from praying, one that does not appear on the status screen. As such, no one knows about it yet.

''Hoh, this is quite intriguing indeed.'' 049 takes a look at his body and ponders.

After waiting for a bit, Aurora takes the hands of the two and teleports to the backyard of the main church. Passing by some people unnoticed, the three enter the building through a small path. Soon, they reach a long and empty hallway, where the atmosphere is especially eerie.

Following Aurora and her strange subordinate, Linsey can't help but gulp nervously. There is something about this man in black that makes her feel very... Wrong. His unusual mask, his unusual demeanor, his unusual aura... She can't peek into his status screen either.

For one, the objective to this stealth operation is to sabotage Vincent Neveah's plan, and this man is apparently needed for it. 

Vincent wants to summon a divine entity to save this planet and rule it in place of the missing goddess. He chooses Celius, the dragon hailed as the Guardian Of Stars since ancient times. Adding to the credibility of the tale, Celius's egg, its incarnation, is resting right below the church.

According to an old document, to awaken the divine dragon, one needs to offer a body part, each of thirty different people with potent mana, to the egg. This will allow the dragon to gain consciousness and use those body parts to kick off its cultivation journey. 

However, no one can verify whether this supposed dragon egg is a real dragon egg or not, which is the main reason Linsey's faction opposes the plan in the first place. The answer, according to Miss G, is yes, but the thing inside isn't Celius's incarnation at all. It is actually Celius's spawn, one that can't be controlled easily.

''...''

Although skeptical, Linsey has no option but to follow through with her promise—she is a woman of integrity.

After what seems like an eternity, the three arrive at a small room in a corner of the church. Four holy knights can be seen guarding the door, and they are not weaklings either.

Despite this, Aurora calmly raises her hand and chops two of them down right away. 

''Hm? What—''

When the other two turn to their colleagues, 049 gently touches both of them and activates his skill, making them limp away and lose consciousness. Forcing one to go to sleep is easily achievable for his skillset.

Immediately, 049 lets out a small grunt.

''What's wrong?'' Aurora asks.

''Excuse me, the smell...'' 049 shakes his head lightly.

Aurora has a clue as to what is going on. The Pestilence. Despite her hesitation, she slowly opens the door and peeks inside the prayer room, where she sees a group of people with specific skills related to different body parts. A quick headcount confirms that there are exactly twenty-five people in the room.

There is another thing in common here—they are all unconscious. It seems they have decided to do this to prevent any potential resistance. 

''Tch, tch, tch...''

''...What do you see, 049?'' 

''The Scourge! To think it has spread this far... Sickening! Sick! They're sick! Ma'am!'' 049 turns to Aurora; his exaggerated gestures surprise Linsey. ''Please, do let me operate on these poor souls!''

A dark, almost foul aura pours out of the man's body.

In response, Aurora issues a stern warning: ''Remember your role, 049.''

''Argh...''

After flailing around a bit, he shakes his head in frustration and begins his mission. He goes around the room and touches every person, making sure to disable their body parts in accordance with their skills.

Watching this scene in silence, Aurora can't help but be amazed. To permanently erase bodily functions like that... She wishes she could just make this guy deliver instant death to the dragon in the egg. Still, a needed condition for his ability is to touch directly the body, which, considering the dragon is still in the egg, would most likely be impossible, not to mention the tight security there.

Nevertheless, after the operation is done, the three promptly teleport back to their temporary base.

''Good work, Linsey.''

''I appreciate it, but... Will you really be able to prevent it...?''

''Yes.''

After answering that question confidently, Aurora opens the door to the Backrooms, which 049 immediately enters. Once that is done, the owl girl in her mask snaps her finger, making the door disappear before exiting the building and sinking into the night.

Around an hour later.

The city of Neveah, after a full day of restless movements to find the saintess, has now seemingly fallen into an exhausted state. Quietly, the people begin to enjoy their little break from the situation, unaware of the cogs moving right under their feet, fueled by their own leader.

GRAHHHHHHHHH—!!!!!!!!

A deafening roar awakens every single soul of the city; the raw energy radiating from the creature on top of the main church forces most to get on their knees, helplessly crushed by the intensity of it. 

The ritual has succeeded.

By sacrificing thirty different body parts of thirty people, the golden dragon—a divine entity—has been summoned. The giant beast slowly rises to the night sky, its movements graceful, its body magnificent, illuminating the city as though it is the sun.

On a balcony of the main church, Vincent and his close subordinates are standing, admiring the creature in a joyful mood. Even though The Wings themselves each just sacrificed one of their parts—a left eye, a right eye, a right ear, and a left ear—Vincent even went as far as giving away half of his brain to ensure the success of this ritual.

Eventually, the golden dragon manages to pull its entire ridiculously long body out of the magic circle, floating around leisurely as its length almost fills the whole sky. 

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Name: --              

Race: Guardian D-32 (Juvenile)                  Title: --

Level: 60

HP: 355/355                    MP: 400/400

STR: 7.0                     INT: 7.0

AGI: 7.0                    STA: 7.0

Skill: [Super Regeneration Lv.9],
[Lightning Magic Lv.9], [Light Magic Lv.9], 
[Inspect Lv.9], [Status Condition Nullification Lv.7],
[Physical Nullification Lv.7], [Domination Lv.7],
[Hard Scale Lv.5], [Light Resistance Lv.5],
[Lightning Resistance Lv.5].

State: Normal.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

When the city is holding its breath, waiting for the creature to make a move—

'''' !!! ''''

A burst of energy can be felt from the dragon's gigantic jaw. Slowly, a catastrophic-level spell is manifested as it opens its mouth. It is a swirling ball of pure destruction; it shines brighter than the sun itself, and it is aimed at... The city.

BOOM—!!!

Before the people can even register the impending danger, an ice spear of enormous size swoops in from a distance, thrusting itself into the dragon's spell.

GRAHHH—!!

The result is an explosion, one that instantly disrupts the flow of the golden guardian, sending its head flailing around.

When everybody diverts their gazes toward the direction from which the spear just came, a mysterious female figure is seen floating still in the air. Although the stars have all been obstructed by the light emitting from the dragon, the ones in her mask are still blazing through, shining brilliantly.