Witch, Fireball and the Evil God of Steam-Chapter 919 - 192: Is This You?

The internal affairs of the Church should be resolved within the Church; an outsider shouldn't meddle.

This is Ethan's view on the Far West. Even if force is used to intervene, it will only sow seeds of hatred. Carlo has turned this land into a world completely different from the Empire, resulting in a significant discrepancy in the recognition of the people from these two lands.

It seems that Mary is dissatisfied with Carlo's long-term actions, but before addressing that, they have another matter to resolve.

"Before that, we have to figure out a way to reconstruct your body."

This was one of the meeting gifts Ethan prepared for Mary before they set off.

In theory, Mary now only has a faint soul, and once she leaves the ruins, her power will gradually weaken and could even lead to the complete disappearance of her soul fragments. After all, several thousand years have passed since Mary's time, and the mere fact that her soul still exists is considered a miracle.

Even worse, Julius and his teacher Turzan have exacerbated the loss of Mary's soul with their harmful rituals. The summoning ceremony they conducted in the Imperial Capital increased Mary's soul depletion, treating her merely as a disposable commodity. If not for Ethan timely stopping the giant sword suspended over the Imperial Capital and abruptly interrupting Mary's spellcasting, her soul energy would have been exhausted during the last trip to the Imperial Capital.

In contrast, the Pope and believers who built this ruins for Mary have done everything they could, despite them gossiping in private about Mary's violent temperament and suspecting her of polluting the heroic spirits in the Church's mausoleum. Yet, the array and casting tools in this mountain strive to prolong Mary's existence as much as possible.

"Don't worry."

However, Mary shrugged it off, "Once I meet him, I'll just cut him down with a sword."

"Things might not go as smoothly as you imagine."

Ethan shook his head, "Today's Pope Carlo is not what he used to be."

Ave previously reminded them over the phone that Carlo must believe he possesses a trump card strong enough to defeat the Empire, using the assassination of Bishop Solaris as a pretext to launch a Holy War against the Empire.

Several days have passed since the incident escalated, and everything they've seen along the way proves that Carlo is serious this time.

The Devoted Battle Group has begun their deployment, and the forces of various small countries in the Far West are gathering towards the border areas. According to Ethan's conservative estimate, this will be a front-line army with more than a hundred thousand soldiers.

Moreover, the Church has done an excellent job in keeping the development of the holy remains confidential. Neither their journey's observations nor the staff of the Sub-human Chamber of Commerce in various cities in the Far West nor the spies secretly infiltrating the military intelligence department in the Far West could reach these core secrets of the Church.

They only know Carlo has been mining the remains of the Goddess of Life everywhere, and the "Saint's Remains" mines are just one of them. These energy-rich materials exist in various forms throughout the Far West, and apart from the Church's core members, perhaps no one knows what weapon Carlo has turned the holy remains into.

In addition, there's a question Ethan can't figure out.

Why does Ave look exactly like Saint Mary?

In the months following the coup's end, Ave had been secretly investigating this matter, yet all the investigations led to the same conclusion—the Margaret Clan and Mary shared no blood ties. From a historical perspective, they weren't even from the same region.

And even if they shared the same bloodline, it would be impossible for someone to appear after thousands of years looking exactly like the "ancestor."

Even the tuft of lively golden hair on her head is identical.

It's known that Ave is quite an extraordinary presence in the Margaret Clan. Even though this tuft of golden hair is a feature of the pureblood family, in the entire clan, only Ave possesses a tuft so lively it seems to have a mind of its own.

Her father, from a scientific perspective, believed it was due to the emotional seal brought by the Holy Word Art. However, after reading many "unofficial histories" about Saint Mary, Ave was shocked to discover that her tuft of golden hair was identical to the Church Saintess from thousands of years ago.

Those "unofficial histories" recorded the glorious deed of the golden hair dealing with a Scarlet Church assassin in Mary's sleep. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

Ave increasingly felt her father was just making up pseudo-science, as clearly, this kind of coincidence couldn't be explained by the Holy Word Art.

"By the way, Mary, take a look at this."

With this in mind, Ethan took out a photo of Ave from her time in Ximu Town. Back then, she was the sheriff, always wearing a beige trench coat, only missing a detective hat and a pipe to perfectly fit the stereotype of a medieval detective.

Mary hadn't directly seen Ave the last time, so she might not know that there's a young woman in the Empire now who looks exactly like her.

"This is..."

Mary stared at the photo for a long time, "How do you have a photo of me when I was young?"

This isn't a candid shot, but something that theoretically couldn't exist.

Because when cameras and photos were invented, she had been dead for thousands of years, and she learned about these novelties from some believers guarding the ruins.

Moreover, the small town in the background also looks unfamiliar.