Chapter 272: The World at the Bottom of the Well
Clack... Clack...
A group of remains wiggled and wobbled, slowly gathering into a line.
Subsequently, they each extended their right foot bone, quickly retracted it, and then all turned to the right in unison...
"Currently, I can only do some simple movements. Once it involves precise operations, it will be quite difficult," William thought inwardly.
He must be able to freely assemble the remains and seamlessly switch between attack and defense.
Only then would it possess value in actual combat.
After practicing in place for a while longer, William controlled the remains to line up neatly.
At present, having just mastered this Holy Art, he couldn't take all these bones away.
Therefore, he still decided to purify them all.
After all, these victims had suffered a lot during their lives; their remains should also have a burial place.
Furthermore, when using the Holy Art [Spirit Bone Preaching], the best materials are those dead who possessed powerful strength while alive.
Its essence is the same as when practicing—such skeletons can better establish a connection with Holy Power.
Clack... Clack...
Slightly uneven footsteps echoed in the sewer as the group of remains walked downstream one by one.
The drainage outlet near the Kissing Bridge was not far from here; William planned to place all these remains in the forest over there.
As the remains left, the entire sewer also emptied out a lot.
The original garbage mountain was also completely exposed—
This was an object like a pedestal, covered with dense holes, looking like the lair of some kind of creature.
William frowned. After thinking for a moment, he still threw a bottle of Holy Water.
Sizzle... Sizzle...
The vertical lair quickly began to collapse, turning into a puddle of rotting flesh.
At this time, a faint light suddenly flew out of it. Extremely fast, it vanished into a circular well within the sewer in the blink of an eye.
This circular well had a diameter of about two meters and should be a lower-level drainage channel.
William only then remembered that in the original work, after Pennywise was defeated by the kids, it drilled into this exact well and didn't return until 27 years later.
He immediately placed some holy artifacts around, and then slowly looked toward the bottom of the well.
Whoosh... Whoosh...
There seemed to be a suction force inside the well; the airflow at the edge all surged downwards.
Although it was pitch black inside, relying on the power of his eyes, William still saw some things.
That faint light was a light orb, identical to the things inside Pennywise's throat.
It went all the way down deep to the bottom of the well, where some abnormal energy lingered.
In addition, there were some severed limbs and remains at the edge of the well wall. Judging by their size, the deceased should be children.
These limbs were all dried out and parched, as if they had been exposed to the scorching sun all year round.
Around the remains were also some small granules, white with a tinge of pale yellow, looking like some kind of ore.
But what caught William's attention the most was a halo of light in the middle of the well bottom.
The light orb vanished precisely into the halo, causing a ripple of energy fluctuation.
William narrowed his eyes.
Relying on the ability of the [Missionary], he detected a trace of disharmony on the halo.
That halo didn't seem to belong to this world, but was rather an entrance leading to another space.
This surprised him a bit.
In past Church texts, places of this kind usually only existed when evil descended or some kind of summoning ritual was performed.
But at this moment, there were no powerful energy fluctuations within the halo.
"Could it be something like the Hawkins National Laboratory?" William pondered secretly.
But regardless, the existence of this thing was definitely not a good sign.
William tried throwing a few bottles of Holy Water in, but the halo only shook for a moment before returning to normal.
Seeing this, he decided to seal this place first, and flip through texts after returning to see if he could find any clues.
After spending some effort, a nested seal consisting of three layers of isolation magic arrays and five layers of exorcism magic arrays was completed beside the well.
The moment the magic arrays took effect, the airflow at the bottom of the well suddenly spurted upwards.
Those severed limbs and remains were quickly blown up.
William looked down again. The halo still existed, but the power surging from within had been restricted to the bottom of the well.
"This will have to do for now." He clapped his hands.
At this time, he looked at those things blown up onto the ground.
"Consider yourselves lucky; you can also have a burial place."
William simply pieced these remains together, barely managing to form a human shape.
"But... what is this?"
He squatted in front of those ore-like things.
To William's surprise, these substances actually contained very pure power internally. Their form was very close to Source Power, yet somewhat different.
He inspected them carefully. After confirming there were no anomalies, he chose to put the things away first and study them later.
At this time, Judy finally woke up.
"Don't! Don't come near!"
She shouted loudly, her hands waving continuously in front of her chest.
While Judy was unconscious, William had already taken back the face mask, so the young girl had now recovered her original personality.
Judy shook her head, only then realizing that Pennywise had long been defeated by William.
"Uhm... well... that appearance earlier... wasn't my personality." Her cheeks felt a bit hot, and she lowered her head embarrassedly.
Although she was wearing a mask, she remembered everything that happened during that time.
"Of course. This is the side effect of the mask; you don't need to take it to heart," William shrugged and said.
"Then why didn't you tell me in advance!" Upon hearing this, Judy immediately puffed her cheeks.
"Uh..." William looked aside. "Wasn't I afraid it would cause you psychological burden... It's fine!"
"You!" Judy clenched her fists.
Thinking of herself pinching the clown's face and speaking in that tone just now...
"So embarrassing! I was like a pervert!" Judy clenched both fists tight, even her toes curling together.
"Will! I hate you!"
The young girl's angry roar echoed in the sewer.
One day later.
Sheriff Real, Stanley, Bill, Ben, and the others gathered at the town entrance.
"Beverly, you have to write to us in the future," Bill hugged the young girl and said.
"Okay, I will," Beverly nodded.
After Bill stepped back, Ben took a deep breath and walked up.
Today he had specially worn a white shirt and even tied a black bowtie.
"T-that... that..."
He twisted his hands together.
Beverly was stunned for a moment, realizing something in her heart.
"I wrote that postcard to you!"
Ben gathered all his courage to finish this sentence, then immediately ran away.
"Postcard..."
Beverly quickly remembered that letter that had warmed her heart.
"So it was you..." Her heartbeat quickened a bit.
But then she saw Ben lower his head, his entire face turning bright red.
Pfft.
Beverly couldn't help but smile.
"Who runs away right after confessing!" she thought inwardly.
However, outwardly she still waved at Ben: "Thank you! Wait for me to come back."
Ben raised his head upon hearing this, his eyes brimming with joy.
"Sigh, the sour smell of love is everywhere."
William leaned against a tree, shaking his head and fanning the air.
"Will, you couldn't be jealous, right?" Judy aside turned her head.
"How is that possible? I have dedicated my entire life to the Lord's cause and have long transcended such basic pursuits. Besides, the Church also does not allow Holy Clergy Members to marry," William said seriously.
"Oh~" Judy nodded in agreement. "So it's because the Church doesn't allow it~"
"You brat!" The corner of William's mouth twitched. "Believe it or not, I'll go into town right now and spread rumors that you wet the bed?"
"No, don't, I was wrong!" Judy hurriedly begged for mercy.
"But... don't many Holy Clergy Members in the Church have illegitimate children?"
"Don't look at how everyone has a tacit understanding about this rule; essentially, it still violates the commandments," William said in a serious tone.
"It's fine if there are no conflicts of interest, otherwise this will very likely become a weakness targeted by enemies."
"The evil in this world isn't just evil spirits; the human heart can equally be sinister."
Judy nodded, half-understanding.
She thought for a moment, then suddenly asked: "Then... if you leave the Church one day, would... you?"
After asking, her heartbeat suddenly accelerated, but on the surface, she still maintained a calm appearance.
"Leave the Church?" William rubbed his chin.
Although there was also intrigue within the Church, with his current status he basically couldn't come into contact with it. Besides, he could also use the Church's name to block a lot of trouble.
Thinking of it this way, he really didn't have an excuse to leave the Church, at least not in the short term.
However, William still spoke: "Probably, when evil completely leaves the human world."
If North America was still like it is now, where you could run into an evil spirit even at home, he might as well grow old alone to prevent his family from becoming hostages used by evil to threaten him.
Judy's eyes aside brightened slightly, but she quickly turned her head away, though the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly.
"Father William, Judy, let's go," Beverly walked up to the two.
Because this girl's father died tragically at the hands of Pennywise, plus she had no other relatives in town.
Therefore, Beverly had essentially become an orphan.
Sheriff Real had offered to help Beverly find a new home, and the other boys also said Beverly could live with them.
But William refused after thinking about it.
According to the rules in the American Horror world, the probability of Beverly finding a good family was infinitely close to zero.
And judging from the showdown between the residents of Derry town and the clown, the former clearly lacked good educational capabilities either.
Entrusting Beverly to them under these circumstances would very likely lead to a terrible life for this girl.
It might even cultivate a potential evil human.
Beverly also readily agreed. Although there were traces of her life in the town, more of them were unbearable memories.
So William decided to take Beverly away and find a family worthy of entrusting her to.
He had already thought of the specific candidate—the Joyce family in Hawkins town.
This lady's bravery, intelligence, and love for children had left a deep impression on William.
With such an excellent person around, Beverly at least wouldn't become a problem girl.
William had already communicated with this friend, and the other party very much welcomed Beverly's arrival.
And during Beverly's stay, all her expenses would be borne by William until this girl completely reached adulthood.
With the cooperation share from the Allard family, this bit of money was no burden to William at all.
After saying goodbye to the townspeople again, the three took a ride to the airport.
A day later, William met Joyce.
Compared to before, this lady's complexion was much better.
Besides her, Jonathan, Will, and Eleven also came.
William only then learned that after resolving the Hawkins Laboratory incident, Eleven had also stayed at Joyce's house and was now attending school in town.
Eleven, with her long hair, looked no different from a normal young girl, and she happily hugged William.
Afterwards, the group returned to Hawkins town, and Joyce even prepared a welcome party for Beverly.
Seeing such a warm scene, the worries in Beverly's heart lessened a lot.
She also expressed her thanks to William once again.
After the welcome party, William once again infiltrated the bottom of the laboratory.
The facilities here had been updated a lot, and that entrance had unsurprisingly opened again.
William didn't know if this was Samael's doing, or if those researchers were courting death again.
However, coming here this time he also had new discoveries.
The energy fluctuations in the channel were very similar to the bottom of the well in Derry town.
From this it could be seen that William's initial judgment of the halo at the bottom of the well was not wrong; that was an entrance leading to another dimensional space.
Pennywise also highly likely came from another world.
William didn't try to destroy the entrance, just added some seals on the periphery.
Before finding relevant annotations, rash destruction might cause more accidents.
Three days later, House of Rest.
William sat on the floor.
In front of him sat a wooden jar, and at this moment a dead spirit with a deathly pale face was floating out of it.
The latter constantly flailed its limbs in the air, trying to grab William, but its spirit body was firmly fixed in place, unable to move at all.
As William narrowed his eyes, the dead spirit's limbs also became sluggish, eventually stopping completely in mid-air, as if time had been paused for it.
Fear flashed in the dead spirit's eyes. It stared at William, its pupils trembling constantly.
William understood the other party's plea for mercy.
He gently waved his hand, and the dead spirit regained its freedom again.
Before he could act, the dead spirit automatically flew into the wooden jar. Immediately after, a spirit thread reached out from inside and stuck to the lid, covering the seal of the wooden jar.
William blinked, deactivating the Holy Art [Divine Eye Seal].
This spell allowed him to control the aura near spirit bodies, thereby achieving the effect of "restricting spirit bodies with his gaze."
As a supportive method, this ability was very powerful.
As long as the evil spirit he opposed was not as strong as William, he could trap the other party in an instant. It would be very difficult for evil spirits to sneak attack him in the future.
After tidying up a bit, William went to the shop's cash register.
Judy went home today, so he was the only one in the shop.
William sat on the stool, looking at a letter in front of the desk.
This letter was from Archbishop Jolan, passed on by Matthew.
The content of the letter had no pleasantries, only one piece of information—the selection for the Holy See's Priest Order will begin in half a month.
Regarding this selection, William had heard Jolan mention it many times.
All Church Holy Clergy Members could enter the Vatican after the selection ended.
This was not only a symbol of honor but also a shortcut to power.
But the quota to enter the Priest Order was limited, and the competition was very fierce.
Jolan mentioned in the letter that this time, besides the squads from each diocese, even those "ancient families" in the Holy Land would send candidates.
Those people were true monsters.
Not only sitting on the resources of the entire Church, but their ancestors were witnesses to and participants in Church history.
Competing with such guys, the vast majority of Holy Clergy Members could only be foils.
Therefore, Jolan instructed William—to make more preparations.
He also specifically mentioned that the selection venue this time was very dangerous, and a slight misstep could result in death.
Regarding this, William could only shake his head helplessly: "I also want to be a foil..."
But he was just thinking about it.
With Jolan's methods, he would definitely discover William slacking off and dodging work. Having received many favors from this Archbishop previously, he would pay it all back in one go this time.
"I'll slack off after entering the Priest Order!" William decided secretly.
However, regarding the matter of "safety," he naturally wouldn't slack off.
William took out a piece of paper with the words "Edge of the Orleans Forest" written on it.
This was the clue given to him by that Sister Lynn back then—regarding the whereabouts of a complete set of Saint's Remains.
"It's time to go get this thing."
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