I reign supreme in the Western fantasy world for eternity.

The so-called holy water is, in full, sacred purifying water.

The method of making it remains unknown. Rumors circulate that it was made by a church saintess, but the church doesn't have a saintess position at all. If there were, she would have been added to the hero's party as a fixed teammate long ago, and there would be no need for adventurers to line up and buy it.

The actual production was controlled by the church's high-ranking officials, and the specific process was a secret of the Holy City; even the archbishops of the various dioceses did not know the recipe.

The effects are quite clear: exorcising evil, bestowing blessings, healing wounds, serving as an energy source for high-level holy light spells, and having a natural advantage against undead, demons, and dark-attribute monsters.

In the absence of a chaplain, a bottle of holy water can often save a life.

Nobles collect high-quality holy water as a luxury item, while adventurers hoard ordinary holy water as a consumable, demonstrating its considerable influence among the common people.

Regardless, Sonia's way of using holy water like firecrackers is really strange.

The bottles she just showed off had flowing runes on their surfaces, a clear luster, and were of excellent quality; each bottle was worth at least one platinum coin on the market.

Of course, Shirley didn't care whether Sonia was throwing money around or not, and said quietly:

"I heard from my junior sister Lilith that she encountered a benefactor of an evil god who was immune to magic and holy light when she passed through a village. What if those monsters are like that too? What will you do then?"

Sonia was stunned, then leaned back in her chair with an air of nonchalance.

"It doesn't matter, I still have a backup plan."

She opened her spatial ring again and took out a light gray rattan armor with a rather girlish design.

Seeing Ji Tian's interested expression, he tilted his head slightly and handed it over, introducing it as follows:

"The Royal Capital Merchant Guild recently sent me several gifts, including this. They said it's woven from some special vine, offering even greater protection than heavy dragon armor, and it's also lightweight and breathable, making it suitable for everyday wear."

Ji Tian reached out and took the piece of rattan armor, recognizing its material the instant he touched it.

vine.

To be precise, it refers to the materials inside the World Tree that adventurers like Amy and Dean call "Thunder Sea Vines".

Mason's aunt, Isabella, initially acquired the exclusive agency rights from him, but the finished product was created so quickly and has already entered the royal family.

He handed the rattan armor back to Sonia, saying, "It's really a good thing."

Sonia took the rattan armor and patted it triumphantly: "Of course, this princess has more than just these as backup plans, but there are some that my father instructed me not to tell you."

……

The royal treasury is located in a separate stone chamber deep within the inner court, guarded by four royal guards on duty day and night. Entry and exit require both blood verification and magic frequency testing.

The two checkpoints run in parallel and are indispensable. Each entry is recorded and reported to the royal family daily by the treasure trove manager.

The archmage calmly handed the token bearing the royal crest to the guard at the door.

"I have come to retrieve the sacred object on His Highness's orders."

The guard verified that the token was correct and then asked him to leave samples on a blood crystal and a magic sensing stone respectively.

Blood seeps into the blood crystal, and the patterns inside glow with a pale red light; magic is injected into the sensing stone, and ripples appear on the stone surface that perfectly match the recorded frequencies.

Both checkpoints were passed simultaneously.

The guards bowed and made way for him. One led him inside, while the other recorded in the register: "October of the Imperial Calendar 1706, His Highness the Crown Prince sent someone to retrieve a sacred relic. The person retrieving the relic is: Chief Royal Guard, whose identity has been verified."

The archmage stayed in the treasury for about fifteen minutes. When he came out, he had a black wooden box in his hand. The box was engraved with fine sealing patterns and the four corners were reinforced with silver edging.

He nodded slightly to the guards and strode quickly toward the inner court.

The guards closed the vault doors again and returned to their positions.

After a moment of silence, the younger guards whispered:

"Why has Your Highness been so interested in the sacred objects in the treasury lately? Just a few days ago, two offensive sacred objects were transferred away, and today you personally sent people to retrieve them. Those items have been sitting in the storeroom collecting dust for over a hundred years; I almost forgot about them if you hadn't mentioned them."

The older captain of the guards lowered his voice and spoke:

"Why are you meddling so much? His Highness has his reasons for wanting the sacred object. We just need to guard the gate."

"That's not what I meant. I meant—"

Footsteps came from the other end of the corridor.

The archmage returned, his steps quickening slightly, the hem of his robe billowing out.

He walked to the entrance of the vault and took out the token again.

"By order of the eldest prince, retrieve the 'Mirror of Shadows' for me."

The guards looked at each other in bewilderment.

The head guard stepped forward cautiously, speaking as politely as possible.

"You could actually bring out two items at once, so you wouldn't have to make an extra trip."

The archmage's expression froze.

"What two items?"

"Didn't you just take a sacred object? That black wooden box, we checked it, there's nothing wrong with it."

The archmage suddenly sensed something was wrong, and his face turned from confusion to ashen within a few breaths.

"No, I wasn't here just now."

The head guard was stunned.

"But that person just passed the blood and magic frequency tests. The token is genuine. Your face, figure, and even your habitual pauses in speech are exactly the same as yours. All four of us saw it; there's no mistake."

The archmage released his grip, took a half step back, and glanced at the faces of the four guards.

Having served as a guard in the palace for decades, he knew the reliability of blood verification and magic frequency detection; these two checkpoints had never made a mistake since their construction.

In other words, the enemy possesses the bizarre ability to completely replicate a person.

"So what did he take?"

"this……"

"explain!"

"The Well of Eternal Night, a sacred relic gifted to the royal family by the church three hundred years ago."

The archmage's expression changed drastically, and he turned and rushed towards the exit of the treasure vault.

The Well of Eternal Night is a sealed artifact that was taken from the evil god by the Fourth Sage, Saint Het, made into a sacred relic, and then given to the royal family.

The moment the archmage rushed out the door, the wall lamp at the end of the corridor went out.

He raised his hand to cast a holy light spell, but the light was slowly shrinking, as if something was gnawing at it bit by bit from the edge.

"Close the vault! Seal all entrances!" he shouted behind him.

The guards frantically pushed at the gate, but the sound of the hinges turning had barely begun before darkness had already engulfed the threshold.

The entire palace is losing its light.

In the banquet hall, the crystal chandelier flickered briefly before going out completely.

The guests' laughter stopped abruptly.

"What happened?"

"Why did the magic lamp go out?"

"What about the spare? Quickly!"

After a few urgent commands, several spare magic lamps were lit, but the light lasted only a few breaths before being swallowed by darkness again.

Darkness seeped in through the cracks in the windows, corridors, and skylights, like invisible ink seeping into every corner.

Hundreds of nobles in the banquet hall were plunged into complete darkness at the same time, unable to even see their own fingers.

"Don't move!"

"Who stepped on my skirt?!"

"Attendants! Where are the attendants?!"

The chaos was even greater than during the Shadow Fiend attack.

The Shadow Fiend attack was at least visible with holy light and lightning, but now it was absolute darkness, where not a single ray of light could be found. The nobles' composure crumbled rapidly after losing their sight.

……

Royal Cathedral.

Valentine was going through copies of documents sent from the forbidden library when he finally found a record on a yellowed parchment about the mysterious death of Prince George that day:

The mechanics of Shadowdoers, the effect of Holy Light on shadows...

Prince George was replaced by an evil god.

Fortunately, the Holy Light can effectively stop its spread.

He breathed a sigh of relief and was about to instruct the steward to organize and file the documents when he heard hurried footsteps outside the door.

A gray-robed deacon pushed open the door and entered, his face pale.

"Archbishop, the candles in the palace chapel have gone out."

Valentine looked up.

The sacred candles are monitoring points of the Holy Light set up by the Church within the royal palace. The candles are lit by the main altar of the cathedral and share the same source of the Holy Light as the main altar.

The candlelight continued to burn, indicating that the suppression of holy light in the palace area was functioning normally.

Once extinguished, it means that the holy light in that area has been forcibly suppressed or devoured by some force.

"All extinguished?"

"Yes."

Valentine stood up, his metal arm gleaming coldly under the light.

His mind works very quickly.

The simultaneous extinguishing of the sacred candles signifies the presence of a dark force within the palace capable of suppressing the holy light.

Only beings at the level of evil gods can suppress the holy light.

This means that there is more than one evil god in the palace.

Valentine closed the document and tucked the parchment into his sleeve.

"Immediately contact the Knights Templar stationed in the suburbs to seal off all entrances and exits of the royal palace, notify all churches in the capital to enter a state of emergency, and set all altars of Holy Light ablaze."

"Archbishop, where are you going?"

"To the palace."