
by COSMICINJAPAN
In a pre-industrial, pseudo-European world, astronomers detect an impossible phenomenon: a colossal shadow moving faster than light, crossing the sky in perfect cycles. As fear spreads, a calculating bureaucrat named Thomas joins forces with Eugene Halbert—a suspicious, heretical religious figure who has fallen from the path of mainstream ecclesiastic advancement and is currently being watched by the Church's Inquisition. Driven by deep political ambition, they plot to present the terrifying cosmic phenomenon as a series of divine miracles, utilizing the public's panic to seize absolute political and religious authority. Inside the cathedral’s darkroom, a young monk named Luca discovers a fatal contradiction in the shadow’s cycle. His findings threaten the very foundation of both the state and the church, pulling him into a dangerous struggle over truth, power, and the nature of their world. A science-fiction story about control, belief, and the limits of human understanding. A fully completed story consisting of 30 chapters in total. ---I am a Japanese author. The story, plot, and characters are 100% mine, but I use AI to translate my original Japanese text into English.This story is currently unreleased in Japan, making this English edition the exclusive first look at this universe.[COMPLETE]
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 23 Oct 2026, 02:38 UTC
Entry forecast updated 23 Oct 2026, 02:38 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 26% of similar stories
not enough data yet
needs about a week of observations
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 20–49 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views lifetime.