章 224: The Celestial Chorus [1]

A faint, eerie glimmer of light seeped through the mosaic windows, its feeble glow barely illuminating the towering altar at the room's heart.

The air was heavy with an unsettling stillness, as if the very walls held their breath, waiting for something unseen yet deeply ominous.

"...." 

A man garbed in white stood before the altar.

His features were aged, framed by a white cassock adorned with a pellegrina and cinched with a fringed white fascia.

A golden necklace hung by his chest. 

Clasping his hands together, he prayed. 

"With reverence and devotion, we offer ourselves." 

His voice was brittle, echoing loudly within the confines of the church. 

"Bound to your will and purpose," 

There was a certain magnetism to his voice that pulled the ears of those present. 

"In this world and beyond," 

But there was something more to the voice.

Something more... sinister.