Chapter 620 : Substitution

In the night of Glamorne, under the full and radiant moon, the waters of Lake Starbind shimmered with rippling light. Between moonlight and lake reflections, the cathedral at the center of the lake still glowed with firelight. The hour of the full moon was an important and celebratory moment in the Mirror Moon faith, and within the Mirror Moon Cathedral at this moment, a ritual was indeed underway—though it was not a ritual belonging to the Mirror Moon faith.

Inside the grand and magnificent central nave of the cathedral, Gossmore—disguised as a nun of the Radiance Church—stood before the towering statue of the Mirror Moon Goddess. She watched intently as the ritual “rehearsal” unfolded before her. She observed the pacing and murmurs of the assistant nuns, the slow and reverent motions of the white-clad officiant nun, and listened as the mysterious incantation flowed from her lips. The smile at Gossmore’s lips grew increasingly sinister.

“Yes… yes… Servants of Radiance, go on with your ritual. O young saint, keep singing your bloody hymns—worship me, Gossmore, the Witch Regent of the Deep Web Queen. I am Her symbol in the material world! I am Her walking image!”

So Gossmore thought to herself, her gaze on the ritual suffused with frenzied fervor. The sheer thought that she had distorted the Sanctification Ritual meant for the Holy Mother of Radiance into a substitution ritual for the Spider Queen thrilled her beyond words.

The Eight-Spired Nest, in order to avoid drawing the direct scrutiny of Holy Mount, was unwilling to clash with Vania head-on and seize the Mirror Moon Cathedral by force. In this situation, they devised an alternative strategy: manipulation. Without alerting or opposing Vania directly, they would guide her into unknowingly completing the ritual for them.

By monitoring Vania closely, they had learned about the existence of the advance team sent from Tivian. The Nest intercepted them mid-route, eliminated them, and replaced them. Posing as the advance team, they deceived Vania and led her—without her realizing it—into carrying out this "rehearsal" of the Sanctification Ritual.

But this so-called rehearsal was, in truth, a fully executed ritual. The incantation Gossmore had taught Vania had absolutely nothing to do with the Holy Mother—instead, it was composed entirely of praises to the Spider Queen. It was the proper incantation for a Spider Queen substitution ritual. And while the cathedral lacked a physical symbol of the Spider Queen, Gossmore herself—by virtue of her unique role—acted as the substitute. She was the Spider Queen’s walking image!

To defile the purity of the Church’s youngest saint, to make her unwittingly worship a so-called evil god, to turn what was meant to be a holy ceremony into an act of blasphemy—this victory thrilled Gossmore to the core. She delighted in seeing these lofty, sanctimonious Radiance followers commit grievous sins under her invisible influence—especially that white-clad nun.

Vania Chafferon… Right now, you are praying to a god forbidden by Radiance. I wonder… a devout believer like you—if you were to find out that you’ve unknowingly served the Deep Web Queen and blasphemed against the Holy Mother you so revere—what would your expression be? Would you be so ashamed you’d take your own life in martyrdom? I’d love to witness the fate of the Church’s little rising star…

Watching Vania continue to chant the incantation in pious reverence, Gossmore thought with vicious glee. She even began to consider whether—if Vania were cast out by the Church after this blasphemy was revealed—there might be a chance to recruit her into the Nest.

As Gossmore’s malicious thoughts swirled, the entire “Sanctification Ritual” rehearsal neared its end. At last, Vania finished reciting the final line of the incantation, and the ritual came to a close. Gossmore had observed the entire process, confirming that every step had been performed correctly, every segment executed without deviation, and that Vania had pronounced every syllable with perfect accuracy.

“Excellent. Well done, sisters. Today’s rehearsal went very smoothly. That’s all for now—please return and get some rest.”

Clapping her hands with her usual smile, Gossmore addressed the gathered nuns. At her words, the nuns stood up straight, visibly relieved, and one after another bid farewell to Gossmore and Vania. Then they filed out of the cathedral, boarded boats, and left the island cathedral to return to Glamorne.

“Sister Vania, that’s all for today. You should rest as well.”

“Good night, Sister Gray.”

With that, Gossmore said her final goodbye. Vania responded softly, then the two parted ways within the cathedral. But Gossmore did not immediately leave. Instead, she found a hidden corner inside the Mirror Moon Cathedral, where a cloud of blood mist was quietly gathering in the shadows, coalescing into the form of a hunched old man—Boade.

“How did it go?”

Boade asked plainly upon seeing Gossmore in her nun disguise. Gossmore smiled and replied.

“All taken care of. The ritual went perfectly. That nun’s learning speed was beyond my expectations—I thought she’d need at least another day to memorize the whole thing.”

Waving her hand dismissively, Gossmore replied with an easy expression. Boade, however, remained grave.

“So the ritual succeeded? In other words… we’ve successfully converted the Queen of the Night Sky’s temple into our own?”

“Yes. Without any of them noticing, it’s already done. All that’s left now is a final round of verification.”

As she spoke, Gossmore bent down and began to set up a simple, miniature ritual—one meant to verify the cathedral’s current spiritual condition and confirm whether the substitution ritual had indeed taken effect.

Using dust, she sketched the formation on the ground. Then she began. Placing her hand on the array, she closed her eyes, allowing the ritual to touch the cathedral’s mystical surface, probing its hidden properties.

At first, her expression was calm. But as the ritual progressed, her face grew increasingly disturbed. The composure faded from her features, replaced first by tension—then shock. Eyes wide, she muttered.

“No… No, this can’t be happening… This is impossible!”

Boade, seeing her reaction, furrowed his brows and asked.

“What happened, Gossmore? Did the ritual fail? Did the temple’s nature not change?”

“No… the nature of the space did change. The substitution ritual succeeded. But the problem is… this is no longer the Spider Queen’s temple!”

Gossmore spoke in a grave, hushed tone. Boade’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“…What?”

…

On the surface of Lake Starbind, on the other side of the mirror.

Within the colorless space, Dorothy floated as always above the Mirror Lake. Relying on the vast lake surface, she peered into the material world. At this moment, her gaze was focused on the cathedral at the lake’s center—on the statue that bore an uncanny resemblance to herself.

“It’s finally complete… my substitution ritual.”

Staring at the scene in the material world reflected above the lake, Dorothy murmured to herself. The grand cathedral she now saw, once dedicated to the Mirror Moon Goddess, had changed. The god now presiding over it had shifted.

The god it now honored… was Akasha, the System—Dorothy herself!

Dorothy had successfully performed a substitution ritual and turned the Mirror Moon Goddess’s domain into her own temple.

And this ritual had just been completed moments ago. It was the very same ritual that, on the surface, appeared to be a rehearsal—one Gossmore had plotted as an offering to the Spider Queen. Yet in the end, it was Dorothy, not the Spider Queen, who seized the temple.

A substitution ritual rests on two key components: the replacement of the central symbolic object within the temple, and the chanting of the incantation by the officiant. The Eight-Spired Nest’s scheme was to have Gossmore, the Spider Queen’s Witch Regent, act as the symbolic object while Vania, as chief officiant, would chant praise-words to the Spider Queen—phrases translated into an ancient language incomprehensible to the layperson, and passed off under the excuse of avoiding cognitive poison.

But Akasha’s symbol—or rather, Akasha’s divine statue—while seemingly absent from the ritual, had actually been present from the very beginning. It was none other than the original statue of the Mirror Moon Goddess!

For reasons even Dorothy herself didn’t fully understand, the statue’s appearance resembled her own to an uncanny degree. Akasha, being a system, had no inherent form—but Dorothy, as its operator, naturally became its image. Thus, Akasha’s image would inherently resemble Dorothy.

Gods typically have one of two kinds of symbols: either abstract symbols or tangible statues. If Akasha were to have a statue, it would take Dorothy’s likeness as its form. And since Dorothy already bore a near-perfect resemblance to the Mirror Moon Goddess, only minor alterations were needed for the existing statue to serve as Akasha’s.

Dorothy made those subtle changes while the cathedral was still within the hidden space—inscribing a small Revelation symbol in a concealed part of the statue to distinguish it from the original. This was only possible due to her resemblance to the Mirror Moon Goddess; if it had been the Nest making the change, they would’ve had to replace the entire head, as they had done in other Mirror Moon ruins.

But modifying the statue alone wasn’t enough. To complete the substitution ritual, Dorothy also had to solve the problem of the incantation. The substitution ritual follows a known format—any faith can write their own incantations according to these guidelines. Dorothy had composed hers long ago. The challenge was: how to have it spoken during the ritual.

The incantation must be recited by the chief officiant. While Dorothy could easily make Vania say anything she wanted, to avoid tipping off Gossmore, Vania had to flawlessly recite the Spider Queen’s incantation as taught. Not a single line could go awry—not with Gossmore listening intently just a few feet away. Sneaking in changes was near impossible.

Faced with this, Dorothy had pondered long and hard. The solution came from Adele’s inherited knowledge: the Ritual Dance passed down from her teacher. In the faith of the Goddess of Abundance, dancers express incantations not with words, but through movement. The dance itself is the incantation—gesture as language.

Inspired by this, Dorothy conceived of a way to render her own incantation into a non-verbal format.

She chose rhythm—a coded beat pattern. In short, Dorothy translated her incantation into something akin to Morse code: a series of meaningful rhythms and tempos. Then, during the ritual, she had Vania recite the Spider Queen’s incantation while simultaneously tapping out Dorothy’s encrypted message using blinks, foot taps, hand gestures, changes in speaking pace… each representing a different beat.

To aid in this, Dorothy had Vania draw upon her prior exposure to heterodox ritual techniques—particularly from the Amakusa-Style Remix Church, which specializes in religious camouflage. With its expert techniques, Vania’s subtle rhythmic signals were perfectly hidden. Gossmore noticed nothing.

The deities of Revelation are the god of knowledge and wisdom, logic and mystery, mathematics and measurement. The former Revelation deity, Heaven’s Arbiter, favored mathematics. His rituals and rites were fused with arcane puzzles. Akasha is likewise a deity of Revelation. So Dorothy encoding her incantation in mathematical rhythm and tempo was both thematically fitting and entirely valid.

In the ritual just completed, both Dorothy and the Spider Queen fulfilled the requirements: incantation and symbolic object. But in the end, Dorothy was the one who seized control of the temple. The key deciding factor was Vania’s attention. Gossmore had repeatedly emphasized to Vania that during the ritual, she must keep her focus on Gossmore, the supposed symbol of the Spider Queen.

But in truth, throughout the entire ritual, although Vania’s eyes were pointed toward Gossmore, her true focus was on the statue of the Mirror Moon Goddess behind her.

When incantation and symbol are both present, it is the officiant’s attention that determines to which god the ritual belongs. And Vania, from beginning to end, directed her veneration toward the Mirror Moon statue—which had already been altered to represent Akasha.

The Nest had embedded the Spider Queen’s substitution ritual within a Sanctification Ritual to the Holy Mother—believing they could complete the evil god’s rite without the officiant’s knowledge.

But Dorothy, in turn, embedded her own substitution ritual inside theirs, completing it without them knowing.

The ritual that took place in the cathedral earlier? On the surface, it appeared dedicated to the Holy Mother. Beneath that, it was secretly meant for the Spider Queen. But in truth, it was Dorothy’s all along.

“…Now that the substitution ritual is complete, the first of the three is done. Next is the Divine Blessing Creation ritual… and the advancement to the Omni-Law Mentor ritual.”

Dorothy continued murmuring. She had no plans to separate the three rituals. Tonight, she would finish all of them in one go. While the substitution ritual could be completed through trickery, the second and third would not be so simple. Once the Nest noticed something was amiss, they would no doubt take drastic measures.

And what Dorothy now needed to complete the remaining rituals was one critical resource: time. She had to buy enough of it to act before the Nest interfered. Fortunately, Dorothy had prepared for this.

She had hired a bodyguard.

“…Then, I’ll leave the rest to you, Headmaster.”

Dorothy spoke softly again, then turned her gaze to the side—toward a figure standing calmly on the lake’s surface.

A man in a gray trench coat and low gray fedora stood upon the water. Beneath the brim of the hat was a face Dorothy knew well—the elderly features of her former high school principal in Igwynt.

Aldrich.