Harem Sync: Divine Edition

Chapter 74: Cemetery Beyond the Cathedral

// * ... marks the voice of the spirits

"The Church has a lot of power here," Isabela murmured. "Sometimes more than the nobles."

They entered through the main gates; sacred guards in white and gold armor bowed as Flavius showed his inspector’s license.

The interior was even more impressive.

A very high vaulted ceiling painted with frescoes of divine battles, massive marble columns supporting everything, incense burning in golden braziers filling the air with the scent of sandalwood and myrrh, light entering through the stained glass windows creating colorful patterns on the polished stone floor.

Reverent silence.

Very few people, some priests walking slowly, nuns kneeling in prayer, faithful lighting candles.

A sacred atmosphere that even made Haru feel the need to speak softly.

"Wait here," Flavius said. "I’ll go find the priest in charge of the mission." She left, leaving the group standing near the entrance.

Yukihime held Haru’s hand, gazing in wonder at the frescoes. "Papa... are the angels real?"

"I don’t know, daughter. Maybe."

Kira sniffed the air. "Strong smell... I don’t like it."

Isabela observed everything with a neutral but respectful expression; she knew the power of the Church, she knew that causing trouble here was terrible for any noble.

Haru looked around curiously. He saw a side corridor with more stained glass windows. "I’ll just take a quick look..."

"I’ll be right back," she said quietly to Isabela.

"Haru, don’t get lost..."

He was already gone.

He walked down the corridor, walls covered in religious paintings, closed doors on both sides probably leading to study rooms or priests’ quarters.

Turned left, then right.

Another corridor.

"...Where the hell am I?"

He tried to go back, turned wrong, now he was lost. "Shit."*

He turned the corner hurriedly trying to find his way back...

and he collided with someone coming from the opposite direction.

*THUD.

They both fell, Haru backward, the other person on top of him.

"OW!"

Haru blinked confusedly, looking up.

Nun.

Twenty years old perhaps, long, straight black hair falling around her face, violet eyes wide with surprise, pale, almost translucent skin, traditional black and white habit, gold crucifix hanging around her neck.

Angel-like appearance.

She was literally on top of him, hands resting on Haru’s chest, face inches from his.

They stared at each other, and then something wrong happened.

The spirits inside Haru exploded into activity.

```

[WARNING - DIVINE PRESENCE DETECTED]

```

*DEVOUR* The voice screamed in his mind, urgent, desperate. *NOW* *RUN!* something Haru had never heard before. *THIS CREATURE IS DANGEROUS! RUN! RUN!*

The voices pounded in Haru’s mind like discordant bells, each shouting a different order, conflicting, creating a mental cacophony that made him squeeze his eyes shut in pain.

The nun remained on top of him, completely frozen, her face gradually turning red.

"I-I-I... I’m sorry... I d-didn’t see... I..." her voice came out in extreme stutter, timid to the point of being almost inaudible.

She tried to get up but her hands trembled, almost falling again.

Haru instinctively grabbed her shoulders to stabilize her.

And when it touched...

[TOUCH OF GODDESS: Processing Entity]

The spirits screamed louder. *DANGER DANGER DANGER* *DO NOT TOUCH* *DEVOUR BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE* *SHE WILL PURIFY US*

Haru felt as if electricity had passed through his fingers, not painful, but strange, as if he were touching something that shouldn’t exist on the same plane as him.

The nun finally managed to stand, stumbling backward, her face completely red, her hands covering her mouth.

"S-sorry! Sorry! I’m so c-clumsy! I..." she looked at the scattered books she had knocked over. "The b-books... I need... oh no..." She bent down to pick them up, but her hands trembled so much that she dropped them again.

Haru stood up too, still processing the mental chaos.

"What on earth was that? Why are the spirits so... terrified? And at the same time wanting to devour?"

He helped her pick up the books, thick tomes on purification rituals, exorcism, spiritual containment.

Each time their fingers almost touched, picking up the same book, she recoiled as if she had been electrocuted.

Finally, all the books were collected. She held them against her chest like a shield, looking at Haru but not in the eyes, looking at the ground near his feet.

"T-thank you... I... s-sorry again..." Her voice barely came out. "I d-don’t usually... bump into people..."

She bowed quickly and ran, literally ran down the hallway, her habit fluttering, disappearing around a corner.

Haru stood there processing.

The spirits still murmured softly in his mind, no longer screaming, but restless, agitated.

"That creature... isn’t normal..." they whispered. "Dangerous to us. Very dangerous."

Haru touched his own chest where she had placed her hands.

"Who was that nun?"

[TOUCH OF GODDESS: Failed]

"HARU!" Isabela shouted from afar. "WHERE ARE YOU!?"

"Here! I’m coming!"

He ran back, still feeling the ghost of her touch on his shoulders.

```

◊Unknown Nun - Divine Presence Detected

◊ Spirits Reaction: EXTREME FEAR + HUNGER

◊ Warning: This entity is dangerous.

```

And he stopped running when he saw who was with Flavius.

A Custodian with that usual upright posture, as if living in a constant state of alert.

Haru visibly hesitated before approaching, his steps slowing, his body tense. He didn’t like Custodians. He never would.

"Where have you been?" Flavius asked when Haru got close.

The Custodian turned his head, observing. "Yes... where?" His voice was muffled by the mask but clear, analytical.

"I went to see some paintings that caught my attention." Haru answered too casually. "The Cathedral is beautiful."

"Hmmm." The Custodian didn’t seem convinced but didn’t press the issue.

Flavius pulled a small, gold coin from his pocket, the size of the Custodians’ coins.

"I presume you have one of these?" he showed it to everyone.

Isabela immediately pulled hers out of her pocket.

Kira searched her own clothes, then Yukihime’s bag, and pulled out two, one for herself and one for the child.

Haru felt his pocket; it was empty.

"Damn, where is it..."

Kira had already pulled out his too and tossed it to him without saying anything.

Haru caught it in the air, silently thanking him with a look.

The Custodian picked up the coins one by one, examining them. Finally, he picked up Haru’s and stopped.

He observed it for far too long, ten, fifteen seconds, turning the coin in the light. "Potential coin..." he thought.

He returned the coin.

"It seems Mr. Flavius was right." He told the inspector, "Everyone has a seal. Everything’s in order."

Flavius smiled. "See? I told you everything was fine."

Apparently, the Custodian had come to check when Flavius had requested access to the sacred mission.

"mmm..." The Custodian turned to Haru specifically. "Hey, kid..." his voice sounded different now, less formal, almost... friendly. "You can come here more often. I feel there’s something here that might interest you."

He turned and walked away slowly, his cloak dragging on the marble floor.

Haru was processing it all. "He wants me to come back? Why?" But then he remembered the nun.

Violet eyes. Black hair. A touch that made the spirits scream. "...I’ll be back," he thought. "But not because of the Custodians."

...

They arrived at the Old Cemetery of the Western District, the sun beating down on the old tombstones, creating long shadows.

The cemetery was on a small hill surrounded by worn stone walls, a rusty iron gate creaking as they opened, twisted trees scattered among the graves, a thin mist beginning to form on the ground even though it wasn’t cold.

It wasn’t scary in the traditional sense. It was wrong. Candles on the tombstones, all unlit, but no wind. They should have been lit (tradition) but they were dead.

Fresh flowers left by visitors, wilting in seconds, petals falling, turning to ash.

The air felt heavy, breathing was a little harder, as if something invisible were pressing on their chests.

"This..." Isabela murmured, "...doesn’t look like a normal cemetery."

"Because it isn’t." Flavius replied, stopping at the entrance, picking up the paper with mission information. "Let me explain before we go in."

"Spirits are not complete souls. They are residues, fragments of will and memory that remain attached to the material plane when a person dies with strong regret, an unfinished mission, severe trauma, or an immense will..."

Flavius pointed to the cemetery. "Normally, the Church performs a purification ritual that releases these fragments, allowing them to dissipate naturally. But during a ritual a few days ago... something went wrong. Twenty-three spirits escaped before the purification was complete."

"And they came here," Haru concluded.

"Yes. The cemetery is less than five hundred meters from the Cathedral. It’s a natural refuge, many spiritual residues accumulated here, easy to hide."

Kira frowned. "But... how are we going to see them?"

"Good question!" Flavius smiled. "Here comes one of the Laws of the Spirits, written by Vandris first:"

Everyone’s eyes widened... "Vandris," but no one opened their mouths, not yet.

Flavius paid no attention to their wide-eyed stares, he continued the explanation... He raised three fingers.

"The stronger the spirit... the less visible it is."

He let it sink in.

"Spirits Below, those that have just formed, without accumulated power, appear as translucent shadows. You can see them with the naked eye."

He lowered a finger.

"Medium Spirits, a few years of existence, beginning to accumulate energy, appear as distortions in the air. Like heat rising from the road. Difficult to see but possible."

He lowered a second finger.

"Spirits Above, decades or centuries accumulating power, become completely invisible. You can only detect them by sensation, sudden cold, weight on the chest, shivers." He paused.

"The twenty-three that escaped are a mix of the three types."

"How do we catch them then?" Isabela asked.

Flavius took ten glass vials from his grimoire, each engraved with symbols around it, its cork stopper sealed with red wax.

"Sealing. The oldest and most popular method."

He showed the symbols.

"These vials were consecrated by the Church. When a spirit makes contact, the symbols activate and pull the spirit inside. Then we seal them and take them back for purification."

"And how do we make a spirit touch the vial?" Haru asked.

"That’s where adventurer skill comes in." Flavius smiled. "You need to force them..."

He handed a vial to each of them.

"The Church didn’t send Sacred ones because they deal with bigger problems than runaway spirits... Twenty-three uncontrolled spirits? A job for competent adventurers."

"And how do we see them?" Kira insisted.

Flavius took glasses with bluish lenses from the grimoire.

"Enchanted lenses. They reveal spiritual presence. That’s why necromancers and mages wear glasses or monocles; it’s not aesthetics, it’s a tool."

He handed a pair to each of them.

Haru put on the glasses, and the cemetery changed.

Through the bluish lenses, Haru saw:

Translucent shadows wandering among the tombstones, weak spirits, blurred humanoid forms, moving slowly without direction.

Distortions in the air near some graves, ripples like heat, marking medium spirits trying to hide.

"How many do you see?" Flavius asked.

"Seven shadows," Isabela counted.

"Four distortions," Kira added.

"And..." Haru looked around, "...there are at least three areas where I see nothing but feel something."

"Twenty-three in total, confirmed." Flavius marked it on the parchment. "Let’s start with the weak ones, gradually moving up."

But then something happened.

Haru’s right eye began to throb; it didn’t hurt. But it changed. The vision through the lenses was different in his right eye.

He saw the spirits clearly now, not blurred shadows, but defined shapes. Faces. Expressions. Memories floating around them like mist.

And more, he saw energy within them, small cores of condensed spiritual power, glowing faintly.

"This... looks like dungeon cores..."

*WE CAN EAT. WE CAN DEVOUR.*

The eye began to turn completely black, darkness spreading around, too obvious, impossible to hide.

Flavius turned to him, his eyes wide. "Mr. Haru, you..."