Secrets: Priestess

Chapter 129 Deviant Memory

"Aunt Jessica."

Claire walked up to Jessica, stopped, and greeted her with a smile.

Jessica covered her mouth with her hand. Her head felt like it had exploded, numb and empty. "Claire..."

Seeing Jessica's fragile expression, Claire sighed in her heart and said, "Aunt Jessica, you actually found me..."

There were traces of water in the corners of Jessica's eyes. She wanted to cry but also wanted to laugh. In the end, she made an awkward expression with a stiff mouth: "Claire... My little Claire, I miss you so much."

Jessica was so out of control that she was incoherent.

When Claire was called "Little Claire", she realized that her personal image was gradually becoming smaller.

She is getting shorter.

Her palm was shrinking.

From Jessica's perspective, Claire turned into a young girl with golden hair and red eyes.

A soft and comfortable princess dress in warm colors.

Wearing a soft fur hat.

This was Claire's favorite dressing style when she was a child.

This is also the style I am most accustomed to when getting along with Jessica.

The current scene of this encounter was created by Jessica contacting Claire's spirit with the help of Daly's psychic ability, which is equivalent to being in Jessica's consciousness.

So in this state, Jessica can use Daly's power to change the surrounding environment and the image of the characters.

Of course, the highly inspired Claire had the ability to refuse this change, but in order to take Jessica's current mood into consideration, Claire acquiesced to this change in image.

"Claire... why have you become smaller?" Jessica was shocked. She was unfamiliar with the mysticism and did not understand these changes. She even suspected that what she had seen was an illusion caused by her grief.

"It's not an illusion, Aunt Jessica." Claire stepped forward and held Jessica's hand. Her image gradually returned to its original form. "It's just that I'm currently in spirit form, so my image changes according to your thoughts."

Jessica was half-believing and half-doubting, and once again changed Claire's image into the golden-haired lolita look she had just seen. "I think... I understand a little bit."

Jessica said this, and for a moment she felt like she had found a toy, and even her sad and depressed mood improved.

In the process of making Claire's image bigger and smaller, Jessica simulated her impression of Claire at different ages.

But in the end, it still froze on the original image of childhood.

It can be seen that this is the look and period that Jessica misses the most.

This kind of mentality showed that Jessica's "condition" was not too serious. Although she was helpless about Jessica's childish behavior, Claire still felt relieved.

Holding Claire's small hand, Jessica asked with a mixture of anticipation and timidity in her eyes, "Then... can you stay?"

"No." Claire wanted to shake her head as she usually did, but with her current loli image, it only made people feel cute.

Claire noticed the awkwardness and cleared her throat before saying, "I'm actually doing pretty well."

Jessica's eyes revealed a thousand words of disbelief after hearing this, and her expression was gloomy. "The church can't even bury your body. They say you've been contaminated by some evil god... You don't have to lie to me."

"Aunt Jessica, I'm not lying to you," Claire explained. "Although I can't be buried in the cemetery due to the evil god's contamination, I can return to the goddess' kingdom."

"The kingdom of the goddess..." Having once believed in the goddess of night, he was naturally familiar with "The Revelation of the Night" and knew about the kingdom of the goddess, "The Kingdom of Dark Heaven".

"But... does the goddess really exist?" Jessica, whose faith had long been shaken, couldn't help but murmur.

"Yes, it does." Claire cutely drew a crimson crescent on her chest. "Because of my merits in life, my body will soon be taken to the Holy Temple. From now on, my spirit will live in the Dark Kingdom of Heaven. This is actually a kind of eternal life."

"Really?" Jessica wanted to believe Claire's words, but she instinctively didn't believe such high-sounding words.

She had prayed devoutly, but received no response. Especially when she heard that Claire's body would be sent to the church, she knelt devoutly in the church, but could not even see the body.

They were all talking about evil gods, pollution, and other things that were difficult for her to understand.

So in the end, Jessica's faith was shaken, and she even began to doubt the existence of the goddess.

But at this moment, Jessica sincerely hoped that the Goddess of Night existed and the Dark Heaven existed.

Sensing Jessica's sincerity, Claire said, "It's true. For example, when you pray for me, Jessica, I can occasionally hear your voice even in the darkness of heaven... At that time, I can respond to your thoughts and see you just like I am now."

Jessica's lips trembled, and she said in disbelief but with great desire: "In other words, can we still meet in the future?"

Claire proposed a method she had already thought of and said, "If you don't believe me, then on the first day of every lunar month, I will take the initiative to enter your dream at night. Is that okay?"

Jessica suddenly said, "Can I follow you into the goddess' kingdom?"

Claire sighed, returning to her normal self, and said, "What do you think?"

Claire said seriously, "Aunt Jessica, even if you are devout enough to enter the Dark Heaven, you may not be able to find me and reunite with me."

"That's right." Jessica, whose faith had been shaken, didn't have the confidence to enter the goddess' kingdom after death. However, she basically believed Claire's words at this moment. It was the promise of "meeting again in sleep on the first day of the natural month" that made Jessica believe Claire's words.

By this point, Jessica's spirits had calmed down considerably. She could smile again and said to Claire, "Claire, you know... I never thought you'd become a hero who saved a city. I thought after graduating from college, reality would shatter your fantasies, but you wouldn't want to bow to your father, so you'd eventually come to me. I worked so hard to accumulate wealth just to be able to support you."

Claire burst out laughing and said, "So I'm so incompetent in Aunt Jessica's eyes?"

Jessica shook her head slightly and said:

"It's not incompetence...it's your rebelliousness and your crazy and unrealistic fantasies."

"Claire, do you remember? You always told me there was something called a 'mobile phone' in the world. It could instantly transmit sounds and images from far away to the holder. It was a much faster way of long-distance communication than a telegraph."

A cell phone?! Claire's mind was shaken!
But in her memory, in Claire Meazza's memory, there was no such thing at all!?

"Did I tell you? What kind of phone is this?" Claire asked Jessica doubtfully.

Jessica laughed and said, "Have you forgotten everything? You also said it's a pity that our world lacks a raw material called 'oil'. Otherwise, the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution would be even greater, and our lives and our world would be transformed."

Claire's shock grew even more intense. She shook her head blankly and asked, "Did I ever say that? Or, when did I say that?"

Seeing Claire's appearance, Jessica also frowned. She was silent for a moment, "Claire, are you really Claire?"

"Of course. But I really don't remember saying that... Aunt Jessica, how about we compare our memories of when we lived together?" Claire asked Jessica to compare their memories.

Jessica, who was worried again, agreed.

The subsequent memory comparison made Jessica breathe a sigh of relief. Most of Claire's memories were fine, and she could clearly recount everything that had happened since she could remember.

Many things became blurred and forgotten in Jessica's memory, but were gradually recalled through Claire's recollections.

Therefore, Jessica could confirm that the spirit in front of her was Claire.

But Jessica also had doubts - when it came to Claire's "delusions" over the years, there was a discrepancy between their memories. Claire had not only completely forgotten those "delusions", but had also filled in many false memories.

Jessica reminisced, "I clearly remember that at the family banquet on your fifteenth birthday, you defied your father, rebelliously and boldly denouncing his conservatism and foolishness. You argued that the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution were far-reaching, and that the New Party's ideals were more suitable for the future. Although your father refuted your argument and even put you in solitary confinement for a few days, the family still adjusted some of its investment directions as a result."

Claire frowned as she recalled the memory of "Claire Meazza" and retorted, "But I remember that time... at my fifteenth birthday party, I was put in solitary confinement by my father for three days because of my rebellious act of refusing to perform the piano."

Such biased memories are not uncommon.

This made Claire suspicious. Could that woman also be a time traveler? Were her memories tampered with? Just as she had hidden the Beyonder's memories, had she also tampered with the time traveler's memories?
Claire kept having guesses in her mind.

Jessica, on the other hand, said with relief, "Is it your...death that caused these deviations in your memories?"

Claire forced a smile and agreed, "It's very likely. It seems that even with the goddess's protection, death always comes at a price..."

After saying that, Claire said goodbye to Jessica: "Aunt Jessica, I'm afraid that tonight's communication must end here. Communicating with spirits is very spiritually exhausting. If this continues, it will place a great burden on your spirit."

"Time flies by so fast..." Jessica truly felt mentally exhausted. She revealed a look of reluctance. Before leaving, she hugged Claire and said, "Claire, I will pray devoutly and look forward to seeing you every night."

"Me too." Claire returned the hug.

Afterwards, Claire's spirit broke off contact with Jessica and instantly flashed back to her body.

Jessica, who had just woken up from the spiritual contact, held the edge of the coffin with a tired look, looking at Claire lying in the coffin with reluctance. She wanted to reach out, but her regained rationality restrained her.

The agreement with Claire gave her at least some hope.

Daly, who was watching from the side, smiled with relief. Although she didn't know what her captain had communicated with Jessica during the contact, it now seemed that he had managed to soothe Jessica's heart.

"That way, Claire will probably feel comforted too..." Daly sighed in her heart. She helped Jessica, who was exhausted, up and sent her back to the Meazza family carriage waiting outside the cemetery.

Just as Daly was seeing Jessica off, a petite figure emerged from the shadows in the corner of the chapel like a ghost.

The petite woman walked straight to the coffin, which had been closed again.

Just as she was about to open the coffin, an illusory and transparent woman gradually emerged behind her, her long flowing hair covering her face. A pair of empty eyes were revealed through the gaps in her hair, staring straight at "Beth"!
"Beth" didn't even look back. Behind her, black flames suddenly rose up, burning the spirit behind her that wanted to get close to her!
The transparent woman howled in the black flames.

Outside the cemetery, watching the Meazza family's carriage go away, a strange light flashed in Daly's eyes, and her figure floated, flying back to the small church in the cemetery at an extremely fast speed.

At this moment, the interior of the chapel became extremely lively, and various spirits that Daly had arranged in the chapel in advance appeared and entangled the petite woman.

Although black flames were burning around "Beth", the spirits were still pushing and shoving towards "Beth" without any fear.

In this chaotic scene, "Beth" looked indifferent and calmly reached out to push down the lid of the coffin.

A spirit was squeezed close to Beth's body.

But just as it was about to touch the surface of "Beth's" body, the black flame that could burn spiritual objects spread directly from "Beth's" body to the outside!

The black flame was like a gluttonous monster that directly devoured the spirits that approached!
"Beth" was like a demon in the fire. Amid the shrill wails of hundreds of ghosts, she reached out and pushed the lid of the coffin in front of her!
The runes on the coffin lid suddenly lit up, and a much stronger hand ignored the black flames on "Beth"'s body and directly grasped "Beth's" left wrist as she wanted to open the coffin lid.

Beth frowned slightly.

This solid hand made a series of purple handprints on Beth's fair wrist. Streams of mist emanated from this hand and penetrated into these purple handprints.

But at the same time, a layer of crystal and solid frost quickly covered these purple handprints. The chill from this layer of frost even made the movements of the surrounding spirits become stiff!
The hand-shaped spirit was directly frozen into a hand-shaped ice sculpture because it was the closest!

Controlling the black flames and frost to resist the chaotic undead, "Beth" once again stretched out her arm covered with ice crystals, and tried to continue pushing open the lid of the coffin with force!
　Tessa is not a time traveler.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)