My Secret Cult Life with Points Added

Chapter 13 St. Audrey's Church

"The setting sun?" Lucius uttered the name of the sun.

The sun in this world undergoes this change once a day at noon, lasting for one hour.

Its name comes from the beginning of the Fourth Age.

In earlier times, the midday sun was brighter, there was neither night nor dawn, only the time of preparation for noon and the time of stagnation at noon.

The cause of the setting sun has been debated in academic circles for centuries, and the most widely accepted explanation is the doctrine of the Invincible Sun Church:

The midday sun was split apart, and the sun god was born.

Lucius looked away and walked along the cobblestone path to the East York University public carriage stop, where a four-wheeled carriage was parked.

Lucius stepped forward, took a penny from his pocket, and handed it to the coachman.

"Go to St. Audrey's Church."

The driver accepted the copper coins, then gestured with his chin toward the carriage, indicating that he should hurry up and get in.

Lucius stepped onto the carriage's footboard, bent over, and squeezed into the carriage, sitting down in the last empty seat.

The crimson sunlight streamed through the carriage windows. Lucius decided to rest for a while. He closed his eyes, leaned back in the hard leather seat, and let the carriage move and stop as it pleased.

After an unknown amount of time, Lucius opened his eyes at the coachman's prompting.

The carriage had already stopped at the small square in front of St. Audrey's Church, and he got up and got out.

A long line of people stretched from the stone steps in front of the church to the edge of the small square.

The people were dressed simply; most were workers in faded coats, women with headscarves, and a few boarding students in old school uniforms.

He almost forgot that today was Thursday, and St. Audrey's Church distributed free boiled eggs to poor citizens every Thursday at noon.

This is part of the Unyielding Order's "Forge of Grace" poverty relief program.

He hadn't eaten yet, and going to discuss life planning with a well-trained squad of Sequencers on an empty stomach was clearly not a wise choice.

Let's grab an egg to tide us over first.

Lucius joined the back of the line, and the crowd moved slowly forward. After 20 minutes, it was finally his turn.

Today, the priest, dressed in a gold and red robe, is distributing the eggs. As he hands the eggs to Lucius, he says:

"The flames of the forge in broad daylight illuminate you."

Lucius took the egg, raised his right fist, and tapped his left shoulder three times with his knuckles.

Shoulders, chest, shoulders.

This is the standard blessing gesture of the Unyielding Order: the first tap pays homage to the flame, the second to the furnace, and the third to regeneration.

Then, in the same practiced tone, he replied, "May her furnace burn forever."

Unlike the others, he took the eggs and didn't immediately turn away. Instead, he put them in his coat pocket and went inside the church.

If Archbishop Reiner Stuart isn't handing out eggs at the door today, he's definitely inside the church giving a midday sermon.

The interior of the church was a shade brighter than the exterior, with a soaring vaulted ceiling made of gray stone and stained glass windows on either side depicting the holiest work of the daytime furnace.

On the left is "The Fire of Rebirth Destroys the Old World," with red and orange glass pieces forming a flame that sweeps across the land.

On the right is "The Hand of the Forge Forges a New Heaven," where blue and silver glass forms stars rising from the flames.

He walked through the portico and along the side aisle toward the prayer hall.

Not far away, the air temperature was rising.

At first, it just felt a little warmer than outside, but with each step forward, the heat became more intense.

By the time he reached the end of the corridor leading to the prayer hall, he could feel a distinct burning sensation on his skin.

At the same time, a series of "clanging" metallic knocking sounds came from ahead, the sound crisp and rhythmic, and he unconsciously quickened his pace.

Lucius pushed open the side door of the prayer hall, and a wave of heat crashed into him like a transparent wall.

The entire hall unfolded before him, a brightly lit space that was almost blinding.

Unlike other churches, the Unyielding Order transformed their prayer hall into a forging ground.

The core doctrine of the White-Day Forge is "rebirth through fire": only after destruction can there be new life, and only after smelting can there be purity.

The souls of believers need to be repeatedly hammered in the fire like metal to remove impurities and temper them into fine steel.

Therefore, the entire prayer hall, from floor to ceiling, conforms to this doctrine. In the middle of the stone floor is a huge cast iron forging platform, on which a furnace is burning. Flames continuously surge up from under the iron grille, baking the entire platform red-hot.

Around the forging platform are rows of tiered benches for believers to pray silently while watching the forging process.

There were no chandeliers on the ceiling; all the light came from the flames in the forge and from the hundreds of candles on the walls.

The firelight danced on the stone wall, casting a warm red glow on everyone's faces.

Lucius casually found a seat at the back and, like everyone else, turned his gaze to the forging table in the center of the hall.

A blacksmith apprentice was standing in front of the forging table. He was a boy who looked no more than seventeen or eighteen years old, shirtless, his muscles gleaming bronze in the flames.

He wielded an iron hammer, firmly gripped a red-hot metal blank with pliers, pressed it onto the anvil, and the hammer fell repeatedly in a fixed rhythm.

Amidst the flying sparks, the old bishop Reiner's impassioned sermon could be heard:

"The forge of daytime, the god who recreates with fire, the god who ends the unchanging, the god who ends all night."

"I borrow your warmth to cleanse my soul, and your radiance to guide my way."

"I will pay homage to your sacred flame with a righteous heart until the end of my life."

……

It got faster and faster, more and more intense, and then suddenly stopped at the climax.

Just as everyone was still feeling annoyed, the "ding-ding-ding" sound became extremely ethereal, washing away all the restlessness.

Lucius was then surprised to realize that the blacksmith apprentice had completed the embryo in his hand, and that its bright red exterior revealed it to be an extraordinary dagger.

The next moment, amidst gasps of surprise, he brought down his hammer, and the entire embryo shattered into pieces.

This signifies the end of the sermon.

All the believers in the hall stood up and began to solemnly perform the shoulder-pounding ritual in the direction of the forging table.

One by one, the gentlemen and ladies began to leave, some straightening their clothes, others wiping the sweat from their foreheads with their sleeves, their faces calm and content, as if they had just completed a mental detox.

Lucius rose from his seat and walked through the dispersing crowd.

He greeted him with a smile: "Bishop Reina, what a lovely day!"

Reina Stuart was wiping away the slag that had splashed onto the edge of the forging table with a piece of burlap when he heard the sound and looked up.

He recognized Lucius, and a kind of elder's smile immediately appeared on his round face: "It's you."

He handed the rag to the apprentice beside him, wiped his hands dry on his robe, and said, "Lucius Anderson, a top student in the history department at East York University."

"Haven't seen you for days, what brings you to my forge today?"

Lucius glanced around. The apprentices on the forging table were tidying up their tools, and the nearest departing believers had already reached the passageway at the entrance of the hall.

He then took the six-pointed star epaulette from his inner pocket, placed it in the old bishop's palm, and said in a low voice:

"A lot has happened these past few days, but thankfully everything is going smoothly. Felix Bennett asked me to give this to you."

Reina took the badge, his eyes darkening. After a few seconds of silence, he asked, "Have you made up your mind?"

Lucius nodded firmly.

Seeing this, Reina stopped trying to persuade him, returned the badge to him, and turned to walk towards another passageway on the side of the hall.

After taking a few steps, he turned back to look at Lucius, gesturing for him to follow: "Come with me."