Chapter 1426: Chapter 1426
Chapter 1426: Saint (Part 1)
A cold look appeared in Gagas’ golden eyes when Ugar mentioned the wardens . The look stemmed from pure hatred . If there had been a possibility for him to acquire powers of the oracles, he would have destroyed the Tribunal to make them pay for what they did .
His hand was accidentally exposed holding half a carving—a demon with twin horns .
He recalled the demon giving him the carving when his village was destroyed . He recalled the X-shaped holy prose in the sky that killed every living thing in his village except him, because he was protected by the carving of the demon .
He never thought that it would be something left behind by the demon that would save his life .
The oracles came to him and gave him power . They reforged his body, making him worthy of becoming the pope . However, the two oracles were not good people . If he had not sold them out, Fycro might not have been able to take them down so easily .
Gagas rubbed on the carving of the demon in his hand as he zoned out .
Ugar’s plans had greatly irritated the bishops from the Pivotal Council . They left the Grand Church of Nick and returned to another church in Holy City, looking into ways to counter Ugar’s plans .
There had been over 100 red-robed bishops in the Pivotal Councils . The very powerful ones had all been drafted by Theisio and did not return . The current Pivotal Council was a changed place . The ones originally in power had been replaced by new holy masters .
If the Holy See had not been so messy internally, the war at the Qin borders would not have ended the way it did . No one bothered with the logistics of the expeditionary force, and there were no reinforcements . They ended up being repelled back into Kroraina by forces that were hardly considered formidable, and retreated further and further away .
According to astrologers’ theories, the Holy See was swaying in the midst of a raging storm, and a considerable amount of power of faith was being drawn away by the Nature Faith .
The power of faith did not appear in every single person . People were constructs that relied on the planes they existed in . If there were more than two gods spreading their religion on a plane, both sides would definitely go to war due to the fact that there was a set amount of how much mystical power a plane could produce . It was not to say that the more powerful god would definitely acquire more power .
The key was the number of believers . The god with greater number of believers would be able to acquire more benefits .
The power of faith came from the planes, and humans were conduits . There was no way the gods could make that conversion on their own, which was why they needed to expand their number of believers .
When the power of faith of a plane was sucked dry, that plane would fall into decline .
The believers would not be able to reach heaven and would only struggle in pain in the plane that had become hell .
A drained plane needed hundreds of millions of years, maybe even more, to recover . Even the shortest living plane had tens of billions of years of life . If the gods did not extract power in a frenzy, the plane would be able to last until their natural deaths .
However, most gods would not bother with any of that . To the gods, the power of faith was life and power in itself, and the survival of the gods hinged on it .
The gods did all they could to exhaust the power of faith latent on the planes . Unless they were peculiar, like the Metal God, everyone was essentially quenching their thirst by drinking poison .
If every single plane in a crystal wall system became farms for the gods, it would be the end of said crystal wall system .
That was what gods were like—claiming unceasingly and without restraint .
The Pivotal Council bishops discussed the matter in their secret meeting room, which definitely would not have happened when Theisio was alive . Gagas had no connections . He was shoehorned into his role by the oracles .
Everyone in the meeting room exchanged looks . According to rankings, there were 24 bishops deemed fit to enter the room .
The First Bishop spoke first . He was a veteran red-robed bishop and had many followers in the ranks of the Pivotal Council .
“Ugar intends to exhaust the Heaven Knights’ powers, and I don’t think that would be a bad thing . ”
“Why would that be, my lord?” the Third Bishop, who had always served as the First Bishop’s deputy, asked .
“There is no way Cologne City can be defended . However, we might be able to use the opportunity to have God advent . Get 3,000 believers ready . We need ones of purest of faith . Ask the Oracle Corps if we can’t get enough . ”
“My lord, are you going to do a Holy Sacrifice?”
All bishops got excited .
The Holy Sacrifice was a blood sacrificial ritual, a divine spell activated using the blood of those of purest faith, to incite their god through the deaths of saints, prompting their god to send a double to their plane .
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If the Lord of Glory advented, the child without the three godly items would definitely be ousted . The Pivotal Council would then become the core of the Holy See once more .
It was not enough to kill the believers to invoke such a large scale divine spell; the enemy had to be the ones doing the killing . Saleen had done more than enough to draw their god’s attention .
If even one among the 3,000 believers were to fit the requirements of becoming a saint, it would be enough to have the Lord of Glory advent .
“Yes, the Holy Sacrifice indeed . If the ritual is a success, Holy City shall be ours once again . ” A peculiar, intoxicated look formed in the First Bishop’s eyes . “Now go out and search for believers in your areas . The younger, the better, and they best be younger than 16 years old . ”
“My lord!” The Second Bishop was about to voice his objection, but he quickly caught the glares from his colleagues .
It was simply too cruel .
Not being even of 16 years old meant that they would all be children, and children were the purest . The method did not sit well with the Second Bishop, but there was little else that could be done . He too, wished to obtain power from their god, hoping to get the double of the Lord of Glory to advent .
Saleen was simply too powerful, and the Holy See was in shambles . Unless Black Dungeon Island agreed to back them up, the only city they would be able to protect was Holy City .
There were divine spells left over by the Lord of Glory in the city, which made it difficult for even the flying city to get near .
“By the way, the Holy Sacrifice of the 3,000 believers will require many divine crystals . Gather them as well . ” There was no way the First Bishop would foot the bill all on his own . Divine Crystals in the Holy See were akin to magic nuclei among mages .
The crystals were used as currency . Secretly crafted divine crystals replaced gold coins in trades between high level holy masters, but the only way to make them was to steal power of faith from their god .
Everyone had been practicing it for over 1000 years, so they all assumed that their god would not mind .
Divine crystals bestowed by their god were not enough to bestow believers with power . It worked the same way as mages working for nobles being paid in magic nuclei .
Saleen’s Floating City continued to head west . They were near Cologne City, but Saleen decided to shift the angle a little bit and head north instead .
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He wanted to scatter all surrounding holy masters of the city before he attacked Cologne City .
Saleen had no intentions of leaving Cologne City intact . Saints had emerged from that city, and places like that needed to be destroyed . It served as a symbol of the faith, for it had been visited by their god . It was not Holy City, but their god had left a divine spell behind, enabling anyone who met the requirements of a saint to use the divine spell, becoming the most powerful holy master found on the plane .
There was a reason why millions of believers made pilgrimages . If it was simply a historical place, no one would bother . Everyone wanted to know if they were fit to become saints .
But people who harbored such thoughts would never be favored by their god .
The surroundings of Cologne City were filled with believers, as even villages had churches . Most places were not even staffed by peasants . The people working on the farms were slaves .
The common folk had all become believers and did nothing but pray every day . The churches fed them for doing that . The slaves, without a doubt, belonged to the churches . The priests were bafflingly rich, due to toll gates everywhere . Tolls were collected in the name of their god .
Does God need gold coins? No one was willing to ask such questions, as the ones who had asked had been sent to the Tribunal and dissected .
One church after another was reduced to dust under Saleen’s magic cannons . He brought 3,000 magic cannons with him and half of them had been destroyed . There was no way a destroyed magic cannon could be repaired, as Saleen lacked the skills and necessary materials to do so .
Of course, attribute-less granules or bone crystals of the giant would allow him to create magic cannons that would never be damaged, but using those materials for such purposes was a terrible waste .
Saleen kept the Floating City in midair after losing half of the cannons . He returned to Metatrin City and took another 3,000 from the city’s warehouse .
The cost in magic nuclei was exorbitant, so Saleen had begun throwing in low level elemental creatures to replace magic nuclei .
Every single bombardment was a luxury to the mages .
None of the 360 large Thunder Dragon Blasters were damaged . However, such weapons were meant for attacking Holy City, so he never used them to bombard cities .
The Floating City had used ranged attacks as well . Saleen never descended to the ground the whole time he had been in the area .
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He spent about three days circling around Cologne City and cleaning up the 300 churches . The number alone was harrowing .
A church had at least 100 believers in them, which meant that there had been 30,000 believers in the 300 churches . The believers were all tasked to receive people who ventured out on pilgrimages . That meant that there were at least 30,000 people who practiced that as a trade .
“This is a market of faith indeed . ” Saleen concluded .
The little girl said, “Market? Only the likes of you who have no faith would see it all in such a crude manner . They are in service to god . If they were to be bereft of income, how could more people embrace God?”
“No, you’re the one with the wrong idea,” Saleen replied seriously . “I have written a codex, built a huge temple, gathered tens of thousands of believers, and even established organizations like Temple Knights, the Pivotal Council and the Oracle Corps as well . Do I still sound like I know nothing about religion?”
“Faith never seeks returns . What you’re doing has a price . ”
“Yeah, they indeed have a price . Those who give more are able to rise higher . That is my understanding of gods . ”
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