Chapter 354: The Holy Relic

"Father! It's my fault; I shouldn't have given the patient that stimulating medicinal tea." The priest, rushing in upon hearing the news, failed to notice the mess on the table and helped turn the patient, who was gasping for breath after vomiting, onto his side, patting his back vigorously.

Blind attempts only made Dominic cough up more acid, achieving no positive effect.

Fortunately, the young man's good tolerance allowed him to endure until the violent vomiting subsided; his chest heaved, drawing in terrible, whistling breaths accompanied by a string of irregular coughs and gasps.

The two, completely at a loss, were utterly stunned, letting Dominic thrash and struggle on the floor for a while; after a difficult battle against physiological reflexes, he barely managed to regain his breathing rhythm.

He survived, for the time being.

Field's outstretched hand hovered in mid-air, unsure what to do. On one hand, he feared that moving the patient rashly would cause secondary injury; on the other, Dominic's current appearance was truly wretched, triggering an instinctive fear of a virulent disease.

However, conscience triumphed over instinctive disgust; the two stripped off that dirty outer garment on the spot, dragged the man to a dry place, and wiped his face.

It was then that they discovered Dominic's consciousness was still clear; his gaze followed the priest, and he grabbed the other's wrist with a trembling hand, his strength unlike that of a sick man.

The church owner reflexively shook his hand in fright, yet failed to shake him off.

A weak, disjointed, repetitive sound squeezed out from lips gaping like those of a dehydrated fish.

Bending down to listen closely, it was not a cry for help.

"Where did they go..."

Hollow yet resolute, like a drowned corpse beneath the ice, tapping that transparent, impenetrable boundary again and again with fingernails.

Even standing in the center of the church could not prevent a certain dark, cold sensation from rising, ignoring thick walls and clothing, pressing against the spine.

The two exchanged a glance, seeing the same thought in each other's eyes:

【Possessed by an evil spirit?】

Watching the priest's hand, already turning red from being gripped, wince in pain, Field apologized, decisively twisted Dominic's wrist to force his palm open, and顺势 flipped him over, pressing his face down onto the ground.

"Belt!"

Taking the only item on the scene suitable for restraint, Field successfully grabbed the other hand, tied them behind his back, then removed his sword, eliminating the danger factor before Dominic could further regain control of his body.

Regardless, a mentally deranged person must never be allowed access to weapons.

And Dominic's subsequent actions confirmed this. He suddenly threw his head back, springing up from the floor like a fish, striking the back of his skull against the nose of the person behind him.

The priest watched in horror as Field clutched his face and retreated, blood seeping through his fingers; it took three tries to find the holy symbol from his collar, and he recited the scripture at the fastest speed of his life, almost screaming.

"Lord! We pray in Your holy name; may You crush and drive away all the power of enemies, all dark things, all demonic deceptions; we implore You, hear our prayer..."

Dominic turned over, looking into his eyes. That gaze was not evil, merely regarding everything around as if it did not exist, seeking only an answer, as if trying to drill into the mind to dig out clues.

A moment of eye contact left the priest's body stiff, his trembling lips almost forgetting how to continue. But Field lunged forward, breaking the gaze, and angrily pinned his companion back to the ground with a hand covered in nasal blood.

"In the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit, and by His power, I command you, all unclean spirits, all powers of Satan, all harm from enemies of hell, all evil forces and demonic factions—depart immediately!"

That headbutt clearly made Field's understanding of the situation much clearer. He used his body weight to pin the still-struggling Dominic, freeing a hand to draw his own belt.

In the chaos, he seemed to hear a faint, muffled sound of something cracking slightly, but had no time to attend to it.

"... Creator of all things in the world, the Almighty Father commands you! The Holy Spirit commands you! Disappear and flee from this creation of God!"

With the exorcism more than half complete, Dominic calmed down slightly. It was hard to say whether the scripture was effective, or if the person pressing on his back and the two belts binding his wrists and ankles were more effective.

"We implore You to be willing to drive away the enemies of the Holy Church; hear our prayer!"

Field wiped the blood and spittle from his face, tentatively shifted his body weight away, relaxed the suppression, and waved his hand to signal the priest to stop chanting for now.

This time, Dominic did not spring up again; the fierce struggle just now seemed to have exhausted the last of the energy and strength in his sick body, plunging him into a deep sleep or faint.

The priest cautiously approached, extending a finger to test before Dominic's nose.

"He is still alive."

"I'm truly sorry; my friend has been a bit... uh, unwell recently." Field took some time to muster the courage to check the room's condition; among the mess, no fewer than two dozen books had been affected, and he dared not guess their value.

"Perhaps this very condition gave the evil spirit an opportunity to slip in; thanks to your help in driving it away."

Although he didn't quite understand the situation yet, it was best to pin the blame on a possibly non-existent evil spirit; after all, an evil spirit couldn't appear in the church to defend itself.

Of course, if the evil spirit did appear and speak, that would only further confirm that the accident was caused by the influence of evil forces.

The priest accepted this explanation readily, graciously admitting his own high-level exorcism skills in the emergency situation, yet still harbored doubts:

"What did he mean by 'Where did they go' just now?"

"Perhaps it was influenced by what he just saw." Field briefly mentioned the matter of the liturgical vessels, deliberately omitting speculation about the time and the identity of the caravan.

"Oh, you mean that set of silverware!"

Unexpectedly, the priest understood the object referred to easily and handed the holy symbol he had been holding during the exorcism to Field to inspect.

The pure silver holy symbol, due to frequent maintenance, shone as bright as new; the craftsmanship was good, especially the detailed carving of overlapping short feathers on the slender wings; some were even too detailed, the overly regular dense overlapping making them look not like soft feathers, but rather like the scales of a crawling creature interlocking with each other.

"This is one of the items in that set of liturgical vessels; my teacher—the former priest of this church—mentioned this to me before.

"At the time, he even worried that the caravan would return with money to redeem them, yet these items actually remained here.

"We still use them now; even in the hardest times, we didn't sell them, so don't think about taking them back!"

Field certainly could not redeem the items, moreover, they could not represent the monastery of those years.

Compared to this set of silver liturgical vessels, he wanted more to learn from the priest about that caravan: where they went, and what they were doing.

"My teacher only said they went north on the road, seemingly carrying something precious, not allowing others to approach, making it look like they were transporting a holy relic."

Few remembered the events of many years ago, but since it involved their family heirloom, the priest could still dig up some relevant information.

"That is a road leading to deeper, more remote places; what were they doing there?" Field was utterly puzzled. "And on the return trip? What were they carrying?"

"This... I really don't recall; my teacher didn't mention it. Perhaps they took a different route on the return? Why do you ask?"

"Nothing, just curious. Let's find a room for this fellow first; we can't leave him lying here forever."

?? Recently... very busy, circadian rhythm reversed, updates are quite difficult.

? _: (′□`」∠): _

? (Chapter End)