Immediately Sister Marie finished her introduction with a soft smile, Gregory's face paled, the fear and horror on his face vastly evident.

The man had lost every ounce of confidence he previously had, shuddering as he fixed his eyes on the five squirming black insects on the tray.

He was well aware of the ominous reputation surrounding these eerie spirit eaters.

It was said that three years ago, before the churches had noticed their mutation and rushed to issue the containment order, these bugs were responsible for a number of ghastly deaths within various cities and town settlements.

Multiple people of different occupational backgrounds, particularly market merchants and sellers, were found dead in their homes, with several small black insects surrounding their decaying corpses.

These bugs were said to silently burrow into the flesh of their victims, consuming them from the inside out and using their rotting flesh as hatching beds for their younglings.

They were said to reproduce so fast that a corpse could be found to be surrounded by hundreds of these insects when only two or three had initially parasitized the victim.

Gregory was able to learn within his information circles that these newly mutated amphibians actually first find their way into the Inner Body of Truth of the victim, before moving to consume them from the inside out.

The victims usually die while being afflicted with an unknown pain coming from the deepest recesses of their very soul, oblivious as to what had caused their imminent demise.

These parasitic insects would then move outwards after feasting on their very soul, consuming the blood, skin and bones before using the remnant decaying corpses as a hatching bed.

The very image of hundreds of insects burrowing out of his flesh caused Gregory to shudder, with his mind simulating the scenes of his potential demise.

"You—you damn lunatic! What the hell are you doing in possession of those things? Don't you know how dire it is for an ordinary Disciple to be in possession of a designated Oddity? Don't you fear for your life? Aren't you afraid of death?!"

Gregory screamed in desperation, his body instinctually tensing up as he kept his gaze locked onto the seemingly harmless insects as if they were an ominous sign of hovering calamity.

Sister Marie maintained her soft smile, with a lingering hint of ruthlessness and resolve hidden beneath her eyes.

"I don't think that is something you need to worry yourself over. The way I see it, you have more immediate concerns at the moment."

Her voice was still soft and gentle but caused the fear-ridden man's face to pale further as if he had just heard the voice of a cunning devil.

She calmly walked over to him, causing him to recoil in fear while drowning him in a feeling of dread.

"No! Keep those things away from me you hear, keep those damned things away from me!"

Seeing the resolved Nun not show any change in pace, Gregory gritted his teeth, before shouting out with a voice laced with contempt.

"Aren't you supposed to be a Nun? Aren't the teachings of your church all about peace, tranquility and the essence of life? This is directly going against the doctrines you teach, as well as ignoring the will of your goddess! this is sin, this is sacrilege!”

Gregory's urgent wails echoed within the room, causing his chair to topple over from all his insistent actions.

Sister Marie squatted right beside him, before yanking up his head and prying his mouth open. "You need not concern yourself with my sins, that's for me and my goddess to sort out amongst ourselves. As of this moment, your sins are what we shall judge."

After saying this, Sister Marie unhurriedly poured the contents of the tray Into Gregory's open mouth, before lapsing down on it as the man squirmed with dread.

His eyes suddenly widened with pain, as his body continued to squirm much more violently. He desperately tried to pry his mouth open but was unable to do so, as Sister Marie's slender, but strong, hand held it shut.

He felt a pain that he could not identify, as if a bunch of ants was nibbling on his very essence of self.

His skin started to squirm, his eyes lost its color, and his soul was being consumed.

This caused his body to spam and seize, as his eyes started to water with pain as he turned towards his assailant with a defeated expression.

The previously stubborn man had started to sob pathetically, as the looming figure of death hovered over him, gripping his heart with baleful fear.

Sister Marie emotionlessly looked at the man's fear-ridden face, whispering with a voice neither soft nor loud. "So, are you ready to talk?"

Gregory urgently nodded his head, his once bloody, but energetic face, now looking as pale as that of a corpse.

Sister Marie smiled softly, before removing her hand from his head and allowing him to gag.

She then issued a command in an indistinguishable language, causing the gaging figure of Gregory to jerk back his head.

Five little black insects slowly emerged from his ears, before silently crawling onto the plate of their own volition.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Sister Marie then slotted the tray under the polished black box, before replacing the used white rune paper with a new one and finally closed the box.

She looked at the huffing figure in front of her, giving him a few more moments to steady himself before squatting beside him with a soft smile.

"Well... I'm listening."

After extracting all the information she needed to know, Sister Marie rounded up her tools, before exiting the house from the front door, leaving the half-dead body of Gregory behind.

The man looked like he didn't have much time left to live, as an injury to the Inner Body of Truth was too severe for a regular Disciple to recover from.

Sister Marie predicted that he had at most a month left to live, so she decided not to kill him, as she didn't want to have unnecessary blood on her hands.

Standing in front of the now-closed door, Sister Marie lingered for a bit, before looking up at the empty sky while sighing.

She mentally reviewed all of the information she had come across, before clenching her fists in worry. "Bernard... Just what in the goddess's name did you get yourself into."

Upon asking herself this silent question, a wave of immense pain suddenly overwhelmed her, causing her to instantly buckle over in the dark.

Her body felt like it was being bitten into by invisible assailants, causing her face to morph into torment.

After a relatively short bout of intense pain, Sister Marie straightened back up, her once calm face now a gloomy and disheveled mess.

She silently gazed at the black polished box in her hands, before shaking her head dejectively. "The pain keeps getting more and more intense as these little guys grow stronger. It seems like I need to limit my use of them from now on."

As she spoke to herself, she suddenly felt a series of unknown gazes focused on her in the dark, as she raised her head and was met with nothing but foggy ash.

She observed her surroundings for a bit, noting how eerie the atmosphere was at night.

Sister Marie felt like the town was quite strange, and decided to make her way to the entrance in order to leave as soon as she could.

'No wonder Gregory chose to hide out here. This type of environment is perfect for hiding away in secret. I should leave fast so I can get back to the church by sunrise, the children need me.'

As she vigilantly made her way back to the town entrance, ash fell upon the town more earnestly, covering it in a foggy film, as if isolating the town from the light of the night sky.

...

A series of soft groans echoed across an academy suite, as if escaping from the mouth of an awakening individual.

A figure resting silently on a table stirred awake, his face dimly illuminated by the soft luminance of the silver moon, as well as the orange light of a gas lamp.

Elias slowly raised his head from the table, his head still bearing the aftereffects of the previous ordeal.

He could feel his brain pulsing as if urgently trying to distribute blood throughout his body.

Speaking of his body, it felt quite haggard and weak, as if he had been put through a bout of extreme physical exercises. He could barely keep his eyes open, causing his eyes to be partially full.

He thought back to the events before he fell unconscious, causing him to jerk off his seat while enduring the pain from his tired body.

"What—what the hell happened?"

Elias instinctually moved his hands towards his eyes, as if to ensure that both of his eyes were still present.

Before he had the chance to question further, Elias materialized beside him, his face a conflicting canvas of worry and relief.

"You are finally awake! Thank the gods! I almost thought I had lost you for a second."

Elias turned towards his brother's sullen face, addressing him with a soft, but weak voice. "Lars? Why do I feel so weak... What happened?"

Lars once again fell into worry, as his brother looked so weak and fragile, a contrast to his former self. "You were spiraled in pain, and you kept shouting without sounds escaping from your mouth."

He then paused for a bit, before pointing to the blood on the floor. "Your eyes then started bleeding, and you almost used that quill to stab them. You looked like you had spiraled into insanity, similar to the display of that old True Scholar. I didn't know what to do."

Elias thought back a bit, trying to piece together the fragmented pieces of memory present within his mind. He could recall a little bit of what Lars had said but found himself unable to reconstruct the full picture as if some events had been disjointed from the rest.

He held his head in pain, bearing the brunt of the mental fatigue that came as a result of his forced recollection.

In the end, he sighed weakly, before asking Lars to fill him in on all of the details.

After Lars had finished his narration, Elias realized that the catalyst for the incident had been the book he was reading.

He slowly walked towards the table, before picking up the brown-backed book that was now spiraled on the floor.

Upon scanning through its contents, Elias realized that the book was simply listing out the method of detecting the Wisp of Blessings for rookie Disciples.

This was an introductory book and should have been vetted by the various educational councils before being allowed into the library. It definitely should not have caused that type of reaction.

Elias thought for a bit in contemplation, before slowly turning towards Lars. "We need to speed up our investigations. Something seems to be terribly wrong with me."

Lars nodded gravely, before regarding his brother with a questioning glance. "Do you remember anything that happened while you were under the painful spell? Particularly, anything that could help us act as a clue?"

Elias lingered for a bit, before holding his head with a troubled expression. "I—I'm not sure. All I remember is hearing a soft clicking sound within my mind before those spiraling mists of light overtook my vision, causing me excruciating pain. There was also a voice echoing within me, saying something I just cannot remember."

Lars contemplated for a bit, before sullenly speaking out. "All of this seems to be tied back to that black, inky mist, but this appears to be a much more confusing case. You were just observing the Wisp hidden within you. Why would you suddenly hear a click? Did you unknowingly open up something within it?"

Suddenly, Elias and Lars both widened their eyes in realization, before the latter lunged towards the textbook in his brother's hands.

He hurriedly scanned through its contents with abnormal speed, before settling on a vague line on one of its concluding pages.

He urged his brother to focus on its contents, causing Elias to lean in closer.

"Upon passing the trial stipulated for the unlocking of the first individual seal, every Disciple will feel a soft but distant clicking sensation, before being enveloped by a supernatural feeling. This marks the Disciple's first step into the divine path, and their official elevation from a Disciple to an Apostle."

The line was short, but the meaning it held caused both Elias and Lars to unconsciously hold their breaths.

Elias had already become a Disciple, as a Disciple was simply anyone who had passed the Apostolic Assessment and was a bearer of a Wisp of Blessing.

The academy stamped on the title of 'Apprentices' to each of its students, as a way to denote that that they were simply disciples-in-training under their institution.

This meant that Elias could drop out of the academy whenever he wanted, and still be treated as a Disciple within the outside world.

Graduating from the academy just helped to add more weight to the title, as well as adding preliminary experience and knowledge as a side bonus.

That was the main purpose of White Helm Academy.

The dimly lit student quarters were enveloped in stilling silence, with both brothers not knowing what to say.

Lars moved to speak in the end, his voice a mix of astonishment and confusion. "Elias... Doesn't this mean that..."

He lingered for a bit, assessing the gravity of what he was about to say,

"Doesn't this mean that you have already become an Apostle?"