Chapter Sixty-Two: The Dark Church

Since it had chosen the American government as its target, the Dark Church naturally had some understanding of it. In a capitalist nation, so long as one could control the capital behind the regime, one could control the country itself.

And what was it that capital desired most?

Wealth and power it already possessed. What remained, evidently, was health and longevity.

This was where the Dark Church’s great advantage revealed itself. Through its knowledge of life, it could prescribe precisely to the needs of its prey: grant wealth to those who desired wealth, grant immortality to those who desired immortality. These were things the Church of the True God could never bestow.

Add to that the fact that Midgard’s society was in an age of restless indulgence, where living for the moment had become the people’s creed, and the Dark Church found even more openings through which to work.

...

“Hey, James, have you heard? There’s a church going around lately claiming it can give eternal life to its believers. Do you think that’s real or fake?” Toby leaned over with one leg crossed, lowering his voice to share the information he had gathered with his friend.

“How could that be true, Toby?” James rolled his eyes. “You believe in this kind of cult nonsense too? It’s the twenty-first century, not the Middle Ages.”

Toby gave a sly grin and leaned closer to James’s ear. “But I heard your father has already joined that church, and even donated a huge sum of money.”

“Who did you hear that from?” James frowned and set down his glass. “Our family has always been Catholic.”

Toby licked his dry lips and said quietly, “I got home late the other night. By chance I heard my father on the phone. I didn’t know why, but I listened in on a few words.”

James frowned at his friend. Seeing the nervous look on Toby’s face and judging that he did not seem to be lying, he stood up. “This isn’t the place to talk. Let’s go to Whisper Hall.”

Whisper Hall was a club James had opened. Its members were all the local rich heirs, and the club’s main selling point was secrecy and safety. That was why James wanted to go there with Toby and figure out what was really going on.

After the two left, they discussed the matter at Whisper Hall for a long time. In the end, James decided to investigate secretly with Toby. They were worried their fathers might have been bewitched by some cult. After all, although their families were not among the very richest, they were still wealthy enough to count as elite, and this matter might well involve other magnates as well.

Through their covert investigation, James and Toby also discovered strange behavior in their fathers. It seemed that three days every week, they would go to some hidden location. James and Toby suspected that it was the cult’s headquarters, and during their inquiries they also found traces of several other wealthy men.

However, because James did not trust the abilities of the other second-generation heirs, they never spread the news, nor did they call the police. After all, their own fathers were involved in the cult’s gatherings too. What if they were all arrested together? More importantly, they still did not know what the cult actually intended to do. Was it really just a scam for money?

So, during one cult gathering, James and Toby quietly followed their fathers to that place. They had already planted listening devices there earlier, and now all the secrets were about to unfold before their eyes.

What they had not expected was that once they heard the ceremony begin, the listening devices suddenly failed. This made the two of them extremely annoyed, and they decided to scale the wall and eavesdrop from outside.

But after they climbed over, everything turned strange. The building that had been right in front of them vanished, and they found themselves standing on a stretch of blood-red sand.

Cold sweat broke out on both of them at once, but they soon forced themselves to calm down. As students at a prestigious university, they agreed that they must have fallen into some kind of illusion. So they resolutely stayed where they were, planning to wait until the gathering ended. At least their fathers were there too.

Yet they had not expected that just as they settled on not moving, a strange fragrance swept toward them, clouding their minds. Before they knew it, they had wandered away from the spot and gone who knew where.

When the two woke again, they found themselves tied to a stone table. A group of hooded figures stood around them, chanting obscure incantations.

Though they were terrified by their situation, the two quickly seized upon a ray of hope. They spotted their fathers in the crowd.

At that moment, their fathers were looking at them with troubled expressions, but like everyone else, they were dressed in bizarre garments and murmuring strange prayers.

The two immediately shouted to their fathers, saying they had only followed because they were worried, and begging them to save them.

But soon they stopped shouting, because their fathers were brought before them by the crowd, staring down at their sons with a peculiar look in their eyes. In their hands, they held a strange ceremonial blade.

“Father, I only came because I was worried about you. Why are you tying me up?” James sensed something was wrong, yet he still looked at his father.

As a rich heir, he had always enjoyed a good relationship with his family, and his father had only one heir: himself. So he had never really worried that his father would do anything harmful to him.

But the next movement utterly baffled him and filled him with terror. His beloved father raised the strange long sword high above his head. Only then did James finally recognize the shape of a sword in that ornament, and in the next instant it was driven fiercely into his abdomen.

James stared at his father in disbelief. He could not understand why his father would turn on him so brutally, but the agony of his torn abdomen left him unable to form words. All he could do was scream in pain.

Toby on the side suffered the same fate. He, too, was pierced through the abdomen by his own father and was howling in misery. Neither of them noticed that no blood was gushing from their wounds. The blood was being absorbed by the long sword.

As the pain deepened, James felt his consciousness growing lighter and lighter. He sensed his blood draining away, yet still he could not understand why the father who had always loved him would try to kill him. Was it only because he had discovered his father had joined a cult? What exactly did this cult want?

As life slipped away, James would never understand that all he had done was worry that his father was being deceived by a cult, and for that he had paid with his life. But what Toby suffered was even more horrifying.

Watching his friend’s breathing grow weaker and weaker, Toby burst into tears. It was all his fault. He should never have dragged James into this. He had not expected this cult to be like this. He was the one who had killed his best friend.

But he did not notice that after James died, his wound no longer bled. Nor did he notice the strange smile that had appeared on his father’s face. As for the surrounding cultists, they too no longer encircled James’s corpse. Instead, every one of them turned to look at the sobbing Toby.