Eliosa's fingers trembled as she reread the passage, her eyes darting over the jagged, ancient script. She had misunderstood at first, searching for a simple poison or a physical curse. But the Necrofell Folio offered something far more catastrophic.
It wasn't about a simple elemental reaction. It was about a Sacrilegious Transmutation.
The text spoke of a forbidden ritual where a bearer of the Light—one who possesses deep scriptural knowledge—willingly corrupts their own divinity with the raw energy of hatred. By weaving holy verses with blood-soaked intent, one could summon an army of "Solar Husks."
These beings were neither divine nor demonic; they were monstrosities born from the collision of celestial energy and pure, human malice.
"When the Night strikes the hour of the Full Moon, and the Saintess pours her rancor into the scriptures, the Light shall cease to heal and begin to consume. This army shall be the antithesis of the Void—a blinding, burning force designed to collide with the Obsidian shadows until both are obliterated."
Eliosa felt a cold, intoxicating rush of power. The more she hated Regina, the more she loathed the child Valerie, the stronger this army would become. She didn't need Draven's soldiers. She didn't need the King's permission. She would become a God of her own making—a goddess of a scorched earth.
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Draven, sensing a strange tension in the air, increased the patrols around the Palace. He felt the Cinderwisp Ring pulsing on his finger—a warning of a heat that was not his own.
He visited the Church, looking for Eliosa, but she refused to see him, claiming she was in "deep, silent meditation for the Empire's future."
She was indeed meditating. But she wasn't praying for peace.
She was standing in the center of her ruined room, the Folio open on a pedestal made of broken wood. Her palms were bleeding, the red drops soaking into the pages of the holy scriptures. As she chanted the inverted verses, the shadows in the corners of her room didn't retreat from her light—they were burned away by a sickly, golden fire that radiated from her skin.
"Wait for the full moon, Regina," Eliosa whispered, her eyes glowing with a terrifying, holy fervor. "I will show you that even the Night can be turned to ash."