The eye of the Eternal Blazing Sun. The eye of a god had appeared right before him just like that.
Suah, the Abomination, merely stared at it for a while before choosing to leave the basement.
The light here was too dazzling, and He did not like it very much. At the same time, He needed to stand guard outside to prevent anyone from disturbing the process.
Suah left the basement and entered one of the villa's rooms, where a prosperous-looking middle-aged man stood respectfully to the side.
Yam Sauron was an unimportant member of the Sauron family. Aside from being allowed to spend his retirement in this villa, he had long since been excluded from the Sauron family's center of power.
The unwillingness and resentment, darkness and desires within his heart quickly led him to become a new member of the Rose School of Thought. He even offered up his villa as the Rose School of Thought's new hiding place.
Yam Sauron respectfully said, "Lord Suah, the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun is currently searching the entire city for tonight's thieves. With their abilities, I'm afraid they'll find this place very soon. Should we leave first?"
"Send people to create chaos in various places and try to divert the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun's attention."
Suah then assigned several core members of the Rose School of Thought, ordering them to do everything they could to draw away the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun's attention.
Right now, He needed a period of time in which He would not be disturbed.
With members of the Rose School of Thought creating chaos everywhere, Trier grew increasingly restless and turbulent tonight.
Hastur was particularly sensitive to such an atmosphere of chaos.
He had no intention of sleeping tonight in the first place.
After the eye of the Eternal Blazing Sun had been returned to the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, he knew something interesting might happen tonight. Thus, he had the waiter prepare some wine and food so he could drink leisurely while waiting.
Now, chaos had begun to descend, and part of the credit belonged to him.
This also accelerated the digestion of the Mentor of Disorder potion within him. If this chaos became large enough, he should be able to finish acting as a Mentor of Disorder ahead of schedule and begin preparing to advance to Sequence 4.
That would be the first true leap on the Beyonder pathway. By then, the Hall of Stars should also undergo brand-new changes.
Hastur silently sipped his wine while gazing at the explosions and commotion continuously rising in the distance.
Cattleya sat nearby with Sharon, but she did not possess Hastur's patience.
Ever since learning about the contents of the newspaper, she had repeatedly tried to contact Bernadette, but every attempt had failed.
This proved that Bernadette was currently unable to free herself, to the point that she couldn't even send her a reply.
On such a chaotic night, Cattleya became even more worried about Bernadette's safety. She had wanted to go out and search for her, but Hastur stopped her and told her there was no need to worry.
Unable to calm herself, Cattleya stood up and silently looked down upon the chaos in the distance.
"Is this why you came to Trier?" Sharon was the one who asked.
"I didn't know exactly what would happen here. I just vaguely felt that I should come here," Hastur patiently answered. "You know, sometimes spirituality reminds you where you should go next, allowing you to seek benefits and avoid danger."
Sharon said nothing more. Hastur chuckled and said, "Sharon, I'm about to catch up with you."
A strange look flashed through Sharon's eyes. She turned slightly aside, avoiding Hastur's gaze.
His words meant that he was about to finish digesting the potion within him and advance to Sequence 4, thereby catching up with her on the Beyonder pathway.
Yet the light in his eyes seemed to be referring to something else.
Silence. Waiting.
Until a gigantic mushroom cloud suddenly erupted from deep underground!
The rumbling explosion sounded like hundreds of muffled thunderclaps going off simultaneously, reverberating throughout Trier's night sky.
No matter how deeply someone had been sleeping, they were awakened by the tremendous noise.
Except for those at or near the center of the explosion. Their bodies, along with their houses, had been completely destroyed.
Powerful shockwaves swept outward. Some houses had their roofs directly torn away, while storefront signs along the streets crashed to the ground and shattered.
Even Hastur and the others, who were far from the center of the explosion, could feel the powerful shockwave.
Within the shockwave, there were faint traces of the Eternal Blazing Sun's aura, as well as that of the Supernova Dominator.
As expected, those two had clashed tonight.
Hastur was not particularly surprised by this turn of events.
If there was a trap hidden within the eye of the Eternal Blazing Sun, then it had undoubtedly been prepared to target the Supernova Dominator lurking in the shadows.
The Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun had probably deliberately allowed the eye of the Eternal Blazing Sun to be stolen. That was why they hadn't been particularly serious when pursuing Ulrich at first.
Originally, they should have intended to use Ulrich to deliver the item to the Supernova Dominator. However, Hastur had intercepted it along the way and returned the item to its rightful owner, which led to another performance of a sacred relic being stolen from the temple.
Hastur carefully thought it over and quickly reconstructed most of what had happened.
As an outsider, it was always easier to see through the schemes of others. That was his advantage, and it was also the position he ought to occupy in the future.
As the One Who Returns the Stars to Their Positions, he should face all Great Old Ones with this kind of attitude and approach.
Not long after the massive explosion, golden light pierced through the billowing smoke from deep underground. The dazzling radiance seemed intent on turning night into day.
As the golden light grew increasingly intense, two spheres of light, one large and one small, flew out from deep underground, one after the other.
They fought against each other. The blazing golden radiance completely dispelled the darkness of the night, transforming Trier's entire sky from night into day.
Along with the dazzling light came unbearably scorching heat.
Any person or object slightly closer to the two spheres of light was completely melted away, like a layer of snow easily dissolved beneath the sunlight.
Fortunately, the two spheres of light quickly flew away from the skies above Trier, resembling two suns continuously rising toward deep space.
Otherwise, the mere aftermath of their all-out clash would have been enough to destroy the entire capital of Intis.
The two suns, one large and one small, dispelled the darkness along their path, casting down the light belonging to the new day ahead of time.
"So that round stone really was the eye of a god."
At this moment, Cattleya no longer had the attention to spare for worrying about Bernadette. Her gaze had been completely captivated by what was happening before her tonight.
After staring in shock for a while, her expression gradually became strange. She had personally suggested throwing the Eternal Blazing Sun's eye to the dogs.
If the Eternal Blazing Sun decided to settle accounts, wouldn't she be the first one He came after?
It would be great if He lost.
That thought suddenly surfaced in Cattleya's mind. At this moment, she actually found herself hoping that the Eternal Blazing Sun would lose tonight's battle.
But she quickly shook her head and suppressed the thought. Although she detested the Church of the Eternal Blazing Sun, she did not dare let her imagination run wild at a time like this.
"This isn't something we can get involved in. We should get some rest early." Hastur offered the suggestion with a smile.
He was preparing to enter the Hall of Stars to observe yet another confrontation between the Supernova Dominator and the Eternal Blazing Sun.
Here in the real world, without the Hall of Stars to protect him, he would never dare casually spy on a battle between gods.
Cattleya stared curiously at Hastur. The meaning in her eyes was obvious.
"You can actually sleep under circumstances like these?"
Hastur didn't look at her. Instead, he turned toward Sharon. "There are quite a few members of the Rose School of Thought out tonight. Remember to be careful."
"Mm." Sharon nodded and returned to the mirror, concealing her aura to avoid being discovered by the currently frenzied members of the Rose School of Thought.
Nothing might necessarily happen, but trouble would certainly be unavoidable.
"..." Left all alone, Cattleya glanced at the two suns that were already nearing the starry sky, then swept her gaze across the turmoil engulfing Trier tonight.
She truly couldn't understand how Hastur and Sharon could remain so calm. There was no way she would be able to sleep tonight.
Elsewhere, Suah, who had also been closely watching the situation, inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief after seeing the drastic changes tonight.
It seemed His luck remained as the same as ever.
"Mother..."
After a brief silence, Suah returned to where the basement had previously been. It had now been replaced by a gigantic crater.
The black tree that had once been lush with branches and leaves was now withered. Its trunk was badly damaged, while nearly all of its roots, each as thick as a giant python, had been burned into charcoal.
Thick, viscous black liquid now covered every damaged part of the black tree, rapidly healing its injuries.
During the earlier explosion, the black tree had undoubtedly suffered the most severe damage.
It was precisely because the black tree had endured most of the impact that Trier had suffered relatively little damage. Otherwise, the first massive explosion alone would have been enough to destroy more than half of Trier.
"Mother, I'll take you away from here."
Suah did not hesitate. His two arms extended outward and wrapped around the entire black tree before pulling it up, roots and all.
During the process, the black tree continuously shrank its body until it finally transformed into a tiny sapling that landed in Suah's palm.
Because of tonight's incident, the Mother Tree of Desire's aura had already leaked out. If they did not leave quickly, it would easily attract the divine descent of other gods.
Suah merged the small black sapling into His body, then tore open a passage into the spirit world and rapidly fled the area.
As for that newly risen sun, He could no longer concern Himself with it, nor did He possess the ability to interfere. That was a confrontation between the Supernova Dominator and the Eternal Blazing Sun.
Although the Eternal Blazing Sun had seized the initiative tonight, victory was not necessarily assured.
Bernadette and Ross Hurley, who had been above the clouds high in the sky, had already left, avoiding the two competing suns.
Even they did not dare approach this war between gods too closely.
"Suah ran away. Aren't you going to chase Him?" Bernadette asked, voicing her doubts.
Roselle shook his head. "I don't have the ability to keep Him here. Being able to use this opportunity to clean up the inside of the Church is already enough for me."
This was his home ground, but it was also the place where He had too many concerns holding Him back.
"Perhaps you could give it a try. After all, I also have a score I'd like to settle with Him," Bernadette encouraged.
Ross Hurley smiled and declined the suggestion.