More crucially, from their expressions and reactions, Ariel felt that they weren't very familiar with each other.

A bit strange...

While thinking, Ariel scrutinized Kassy for a while.

Observing her condition, at least on the surface, Ariel didn't see any problems.

Believers would occasionally think they were cursed and come to the Church seeking curse removal, but in reality, they were basically just scaring themselves.

Generally speaking, arranging a confession ceremony and sprinkling some holy water would be enough to comfort the believers.

In Ariel's view, Kassy's situation was probably similar to those believers—nothing to make a big fuss about.

However, considering that Sophia had actually come to find her for this matter, Ariel still decided to examine her seriously.

She extended her hand, placing her palm over Kassy's forehead.

Kassy's body trembled, instinctively wanting to dodge, but she ultimately endured it.

A faint white light enveloped Kassy's face. After a moment, Ariel shook her head: "I don't detect anything abnormal."

Facing believers who came seeking help, Ariel showed sufficient patience.

"If you're still worried, I can arrange for a priest to hold a confession ceremony for you, to confess your sins to the Goddess and pray for protection."

Hearing this, Sophia's eyes widened in surprise, and she couldn't help but glance at Celitia.

She hadn't expected that even Ariel couldn't detect the curse on Kassy without being told the details.

As Celitia had said, perhaps the Church was also powerless against this.

Feeling that things were more complicated than she had imagined, and thinking about possible future consequences, Sophia hesitated.

She didn't know whether she should simply go along with Ariel's words and continue concealing the matter.

But Kassy didn't think so.

A struggling expression appeared in her eyes. After wrestling with herself for a while, Kassy finally gritted her teeth and spoke:

"Please wait a moment."

Placing both hands on her chest, Kassy no longer hesitated and began unbuttoning her shirt.

Even knowing her behavior was quite abrupt, Kassy couldn't care about much else.

"Excuse me, Lady Saintess... please look at my body before making a decision."

Ariel's face was full of shock.

This was in the chapel, under the Goddess's seat, and this woman was actually undressing?!

Her eyebrows visibly twitched as Ariel forcibly suppressed the anger rising in her chest, watching Kassy coldly.

As the collar gradually opened, Kassy's chest skin was exposed inch by inch.

Below her jade-white collarbone, the skin color gradually darkened, turning pitch black at the heart area, as if a mass of thick fog was entrenched there.

"This is the state when the curse isn't active," Kassy explained. "Once it activates, this black fog will spread outward from here until it erodes my entire body..."

Kassy forcefully pinched her chest area, and the thick fog seemed to be affected, slightly changing shape.

Ariel's expression gradually became grave.

She placed her hand virtually over Kassy's chest, the white light in her palm becoming brighter as she examined the condition of that mass of fog.

After a long while, Ariel withdrew her hand.

She straightened up, standing before Kassy and looking down at her, her brow furrowed even tighter.

"It really is some kind of unknown curse... I can feel a trace of weak but very unpleasant ominous aura."

More importantly, if Kassy hadn't actively triggered it, Ariel would have really been deceived.

If it wasn't that the curse was too weak, then it was too strong. Given Kassy's situation, the latter possibility was obviously greater.

Kassy looked up, gazing at Ariel with hope: "You're the famous Lady Saintess, you must have a way, right?"

"A way?"

Ariel laughed coldly, staring at Kassy with quite displeasure.

"Curses are different from conventional seven-system magic—it's hard to find patterns in them. To this day, we're only dealing with them based on past experience. Otherwise, we wouldn't be so earnestly advising believers not to touch dark magic or go to forbidden places that are explicitly prohibited. You should tell me—what exactly did you do to be entangled by this strange curse?"

Under the gaze of those oppressive golden eyes, Kassy's throat rolled as she couldn't help but swallow.

"I'm sorry, Lady Saintess," she said weakly, "I've lost the memories of that period..."

This was half true and half false.

Kassy had indeed forgotten the memories related to the evil god ritual before, but after the contract was dissolved, she had basically recalled the cause and effect.

But the Church was quite concerned about this, and Kassy didn't know if she could speak about the ritual.

She just wanted to quickly brush Ariel off and get her to agree to help find a way to break the curse.

For someone cursed, losing certain memories was quite normal. Kassy could only stick to this excuse.

"Don't remember?"

Ariel narrowed her eyes. "You need to know that you have to tell me as much information as possible for me to determine whether I can actually help you."

Kassy nervously swallowed again, unable to help turning her head to glance at Celitia.

Ariel's gaze followed and fell on Celitia: "What? Is she not letting you speak?"

Seeing the matter suddenly involve Celitia, Sophia immediately became anxious:

"Ariel, don't talk nonsense. This has nothing to do with her."

Sensing Sophia's obvious protective intent toward the girl beside her, Ariel couldn't help but look at Celitia a few more times.

From their reactions, Ariel vaguely felt that although the ones who came to seek her help today were Sophia and Kassy.

In reality, the one in the dominant position was actually this girl in the middle who hadn't spoken a word.

Speaking of which, Sophia hadn't even introduced her name—was she deliberately trying to protect her?

Ariel's gaze toward Celitia became three times sharper than before.

Under Ariel's stare, Celitia remained unmoved, saying flatly:

"Kassy, don't be nervous. Whatever you should tell Lady Saintess, just tell her."

Kassy gritted her teeth: Since she had agreed to listen to Master, then...

"I... I only remember that when I was passing by a certain place, I was drawn into a ritual and lost consciousness. When I woke up, I had become like this. I really don't remember anything else..."

She was determined to stop there.

This amount of information should be enough, right?

"What ritual?"

Ariel's expression changed immediately as she pressed further: "Where was it held? Explain clearly!"

There were always some heretical beliefs among the people. If they didn't cause trouble normally, it was fine, but now they could actually involve curses?

Kassy shook her head repeatedly, tears welling up in her eyes as she looked ready to cry: "Lady Saintess, I really don't remember!"