They are all characters I control.

Even though she is one of the high priests of the 'Church of Life', holding the highest position in the 'Church of Life', and can remotely command hundreds or thousands of heretics.

They also have their own strongholds, both in villages and towns.

However, if there's anything special about the 'Church of Life', it's that they can recruit people quickly and produce 'Philosopher's Stones' by using war to sustain war, though it's somewhat labor-intensive.

Even Grace, or rather, Scarlet Witch Dorothy, knew very well that the Church of Life, which had only emerged and grown in the last hundred years, could not compare with the Church of Goddess, which had existed for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Teleportation magic is one of them, something only the Church of the Goddess possesses.

Grace, as a member of the 'Church of Life', had never experienced this before, but now she is enjoying it.

"We should still be in the Northern Kingdom, but it's quite far from the village we stayed in before?"

Claire looked around. Woods, snow, distant mountains. No village, no torches, no Mother Martha.

The air was filled with the scent of pine and snow; it was very quiet, with only the sound of the wind.

This means that they are indeed far from danger.

“Deep in the North, in another direction from the Northern Kingdoms.” Megan’s voice was soft, with a hint of vulnerability.

She leaned against the tree trunk, her face pale, the blood at the corner of her mouth dried, resembling a dark red scar.

The dead cat perched on her shoulder, its grey-blue eyes gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

Claire and Dorothy's gazes were both fixed on the 'resurrected' dead cat, which now seemed to have come back to life? This was quite a strange sight for both of them.

"Another direction? I thought you were going to teleport us all to the territory of the Church of Goddess." Dorothy teased Megan.

Now that her identity has been exposed, given Megan's status as an enemy, we should send her straight back to prison.

Megan had been monitoring her all along; she was in the cell next to Dorothy's before Eleanor went to prison.

Megan was actually monitoring Dorothy the whole time, keeping an eye on her as her fellow inmate. She was essentially monitoring Dorothy the entire way.

This time, the teleportation would have taken us directly to the territory of the Church of the Goddess, but instead we're in the wilderness.

“The teleportation was misdirected.” Megan coughed and took a few breaths. “Mel’s scroll interfered with the positioning.”

"How much off?" Claire asked.

He needed to confirm the locations of his group in order to determine their next steps.

“I don’t know, at least several dozen miles away,” Megan said in a low voice.

Dorothy crouched on the snow, grabbed a handful, squeezed it, and then threw it away. "At least I'm still alive."

"Yes, otherwise things will get complicated."

Megan raised her hand, palm facing Dorothy.

Then a pale golden light shone from her palm—not an attack, but a restraint. Dorothy froze, as if her hands and feet were bound by invisible ropes.

Holy magic bound Dorothy, giving her no chance to struggle.

"What are you doing?" Dorothy sighed helplessly. "Isn't this being a bit unnecessary? We've been companions all this way, haven't we? How can you do something like this to your companions? It's not appropriate!"

Megan did not answer, nor did she need to.

Although Dorothy's current body is just a clone of her 'molted skin,' there are countless such clones.

But that doesn't mean we can just ignore Dorothy.

“You too.” Megan looked at Claire, but didn’t raise her hand. “Your situation is also complicated. You’re on the watch list, but since you’re an enemy of the ‘Church of Life,’ I won’t do anything to you for now.”

Claire smiled and exchanged a glance with Dorothy.

They naturally knew that Megan wasn't unwilling, but rather unable to do it.

Judging from her current condition, she probably needs to rest for a while.

Although Dorothy had just sided with them, her identity was that of the Scarlet Witch, one of the three high priestesses of the Church of Life.

She followed them not out of loyalty, but out of curiosity. Once her curiosity wore off, she might turn on them at any moment.

“Okay, I understand. It’s better to tie this witch up. Don’t worry about me. I certainly won’t do anything dangerous. My relationship with the ‘Church of Life’ is not good.”

Claire shrugged, going along with Megan.

Although the guy's words had a slightly flattering tone, Megan decided to believe him for the time being.

After all, they had witnessed firsthand how this 'Eleanor,' with her different personality, clashed with Sister Martha.

"Then what should we do about this one?" Ronan asked, turning to the old man beside him.

At this moment, William remained silent.

Although he looked very weak, he was still alive.

“Protect.” Megan’s voice was calm as she looked at William and gave him a very direct answer.

It should be noted that, according to the records of the Inquisition, this church knight-captain should already be dead.

There are suspicions that he may have joined the 'Church of Life', but there has never been any evidence.

This confirms that William is alive and has been imprisoned by Mother Martha, one of the three high priests of the Church of Life.

Clearly, the Inquisition had many questions for William.

Especially regarding the 'Church of Life' and his experiences over the past few years.

If anything, at this moment, William is Meghan's most important objective on this trip; protecting William is more important than monitoring Dorothy.

The same thing happened when we first subdued Dorothy.

“I won’t say anything,” William said.

Megan remained silent upon hearing his words.

Dorothy chuckled as if watching a show, while Claire remained completely unsurprised.

At this point, perhaps only Eleanor herself was unaware of the situation.

[Eleanor: Why doesn't he say anything...?]

Seeing how naively this guy was asking the question, Claire knew that Eleanor was only acting out of her identity as a church knight, and naturally hoped that William would cooperate with Megan in answering.

However, Eleanor clearly overlooked one problem.

[Claire: Since you were also born while he was imprisoned, should we tell the Church of Goddess how you were born? Do you still want to be a church knight?]

Eleanor: ...

Chapter 72 Eleanor is not as good as Lia

Claire and her companions were in no condition to continue their journey, so they chose to find a cave to rest first.

The cave was small and sheltered from the wind. Several large rocks blocked the entrance, and some dry grass and pine branches were laid inside.

Grace, also known as Dorothy the Scarlet Witch, was sitting at the innermost part of the room, her hands bound by ropes of holy magic.

She sat with her legs crossed, a pine needle dangling from her mouth, looking as relaxed as if she were on vacation.

Anyway, she had no intention of running away, nor was there any need for her to run away.

Her current body is completely replaceable as a substitute for her 'molting', and she can replace it with a new one at any time. Even if she is captured and hanged, it doesn't matter.

Dorothy was more interested in Claire than in wasting her energy running away.

What's more, now there's William too. Although Dorothy and Mother Martha are from the same church, they constantly have conflicts.

Mother Martha's status within the Church of Life was undoubtedly special.

Even without extraordinary combat power, no one dared to underestimate Sister Martha. Naturally, Sister Martha's true role was in creating the 'Primordial Blood,' while everyone else could only create the 'Philosopher's Stone.'

Only Mother Martha could create the 'Primal Blood'.

The 'Primordial Blood' was naturally of great significance to other heretics, and Sister Martha, by possessing the 'Primordial Blood,' gathered a considerable number of heretics.

Now, the reason why Sister Martha was able to create the 'Primal Blood' has been found: it's William.

Therefore, William knew a lot about Mother Martha, while Dorothy was simply willing to stay and watch out of curiosity, wanting to see what Eleanor would do next.

Eleanor's performance this time goes without saying, and if Eleanor continues to torment Sister Martha, Dorothy will naturally help her.

In any case, within the 'Church of Life', the three high priests were all unwilling to submit to each other.

If it were Mother Martha or Mel, they would also have chosen to hinder Dorothy in this way. The 'Church of Life', which has not yet chosen a leader, is currently in a state of division.

Megan was leaning against the cave wall, her eyes closed, her face pale, the dead cat on her shoulder curled up in a ball, its gray-blue eyes half-open and half-closed.

Megan may seem completely unprepared, but in reality, no one knows what kind of backlash she might face if she does something.

Megan also needs enough rest to try and regain her magic.

William sat near the cave entrance, hugging his knees, his aged face resembling a weathered stone statue in the moonlight.

The old man was already exhausted. Compared to Megan, who could still recover, William's depletion was irreversible.

What has allowed him to maintain his current state is divine magic and the primal power of 'light of faith' that he possesses.

William called that primordial power 'light'.

Earlier in the basement, William had used up his last remaining source power, which further worsened his current condition.

But as for whether I regret using 'Light of Faith', I certainly don't.

At least at that time, William rediscovered his old friend, but unfortunately, his physical strength had reached its limit, and he could not use even 20% of the power he had used when fighting Claire.

William's feelings were complicated at this moment. He slightly opened his eyes and looked at 'Eleanor'.

He had seen this daughter before, but at that time 'Eleanor' had only been born a short time, and he didn't know how to face her.

That was undoubtedly the product of Sister Martha's experiments, and also the result of Sister Martha's long-standing conspiracy.

If Eleanor were allowed to live, Sister Martha would definitely keep pursuing her. If Eleanor were to be captured by Sister Martha, it would be tantamount to becoming an accomplice.

The best solution at present seems to be to get rid of Eleanor first.

But William had no intention of doing so. No matter what, Eleanor was his daughter, and someone he had always felt indebted to.

In that basement, it was dark every day.

It was Eleanor's presence that prevented William from committing suicide.

Regardless of whether Eleanor knew who her father was, she was undoubtedly his daughter and his family.

However, William didn't know how to face 'Eleanor'.

It seems my daughter doesn't need my guidance at all? She solves so many problems on her own.

Even now, I'm still alive thanks to Eleanor.

Inside this not-so-large cave, everyone had different thoughts.

At this point, Claire also didn't want to stay there any longer.

"I'll go gather some firewood; it'd be better to start a fire," Claire said, getting up to leave.

Watching Claire's retreating figure, Dorothy wanted to follow, but she was helplessly restrained.

Megan wanted to stop 'Eleanor' from leaving her sight, but she probably couldn't stop Claire now; forcibly stopping her would only be a waste of energy.

So Megan simply kept quiet; she didn't really think 'Eleanor' would do anything bizarre.

As for William, he could only look at Eleanor with some guilt, knowing he couldn't help her.

Regardless of what the creatures in the cave thought, Claire walked out of the cave.

Moonlight filtered through gaps in the clouds, casting a stark white glow on the snow-covered ground. The weather was relatively mild, with no snowfall, but it was still bitterly cold.

If it weren't for the fact that the people in the cave all possessed magic, were skilled in combat, and had good physical strength...

An ordinary person would have been shivering from the cold in that cave.

After emerging from the cave, Claire looked around to confirm the direction and the location of the cave before heading towards the nearby forest.

[Eleanor: I'll do it myself. Give me back my body.]

A barrage of comments surfaced in my mind, tinged with dissatisfaction.

Previously, due to the shock of Sister Martha and William's identities, Eleanor hadn't had time to tell this unidentified evil god about her body.

Eleanor has now calmed down.

Eleanor felt very uncomfortable seeing the evil god controlling her body.