Chapter 482: Black-Cloth Shrine (Part One)
After a dozen minutes, the Holy Power Flame on Jessie finally toned down a little. At the same time, the [Wings of Bless] also disappeared on his back as if they had the intelligence of their own.
The priest who lost his lower legs was now out of life-threating danger; the wounds stopped bleeding. Right now, the injuries were healed, and it looked like he lost his lower legs for ages. It was impossible for someone to recreate his lower legs; even the Sun-Class Lords couldn't do it. After all, only the gods could have that kind of power.
"You guy…… Can get up now." Jessie knew that he couldn't keep his low-profile anymore. He looked at his peers who were kneeling and sighed, "You guys don't need to act like this. I'm really just a priest-in-training. In terms of my strength…… I'm from Black-Cloth Shrine."
"Black-Cloth Shrine?" some of the people on the ground gasped, "The shrine that is forgotten by God?"
What Jessie said created an uproar.
The Holy Knights no longer looked at Jessie with respect like how they did a moment ago, and they seemed relieved and were gloating again. Some of them even stood up and didn't want to kneel anymore. An embarrassed expression appeared on Red-Robed Deacon Pellegrini's face, and the anxiety and the hopelessness he was feeling disappeared. With the help from a few priests around him, he grabbed onto his golden cross wand and stood up.
He already regretted his decision; he felt like he overreacted too much. Kneeling for a member of Black-Cloth Shrine was a big shame for him.
The expression on Alan's face changed repeatedly. In the end, he looked sorry for Jessie; he didn't expect that this kind and powerful priest was from Black-Cloth Shrine.
Black-Cloth Shrine was a shrine that a lot of people in the Holy Church didn't want to mention.
More than 100 years ago, this shrine was at its peak! It reached a height that no other shrine has achieved in the history! Out of the six most recent Popes, four of them were from Black-Cloth Shrine. The former Pope, Nicolas the 130th, was from Black-Cloth Shrine, and out of the eight branches of power such as the Execution Department, the Administrative Department, and the Holy Knight Legion, five of their heads were from Black-Cloth Shrine. In that era, no other shrines could compete with Black-Cloth Shrine, and the priests and Holy Knights who were from Black-Cloth Shrine were all proud of themselves. Put it in simple terms, even the low-level workers in Black-Cloth Shrine had higher statuses compared with priests and Holy Knights from other shrines.
However, that situation quickly changed in the recent 100 years.
Perhaps what goes up must come down. 100 years ago, both Pope Nicolas the 130th and Black-Cloth Shrine's [God's Favorite Child] suddenly disappeared from the Holy Mountain, Waulu Mountain.
This news was a huge shocker to the continent. In the beginning, no one believed the report. Pope Nicolas the 130th was one of the top masters on the continent, and the [God's Favorite Child] of Black-Cloth Shrine was also a Sun-Class Lord. It was unbelievable that two people like them disappeared from the Waulu Mountain entirely without leaving a trace.
Afterward, there were massive shifts in the power dynamics of the Holy Church and its four Regional Churches.
The other masters in Black-Cloth Shrine started to investigate and seek revenge. Soon, the Holy Church connected the mysterious disappearance of the Pope and the [God's Favorite Child] to Undead Shrine; they believed that the Undead Mages from Undead Shrine sneak-attacked the two]. Therefore, the masters in Black-Cloth Shrine started to kill all the Undead Mages on the continent. However, some intellects sensed something fishy; even though a lot of Undead Mages were killed in this period, the most powerful masters in Black-Cloth Shrine also died mysteriously in the process.
The effect of that incident continued for 20 years.
20 years later, Pope Blatter the 131st, came into power; he was from a shrine that stood opposite to Black-Cloth Shrine.
The new Pope represented the rise of a new power.
As the biggest threat to the new Pope, Black-Cloth Shrine that was still considered the most powerful shrine at the time suffered a lot. After the former Pope disappeared, the heads of the forces in the Holy Church who were from Black-Cloth Shrine died one after another. The strength and the influence of Black-Cloth Shrine quickly diminished.
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Chapter 482: Black-Cloth Shrine (Part Two)
At first, the shrine was still able to make its voice heard since it had a lot of accumulation of resources, but it declined and fell rapidly after the new Pope and other new forces attacked it together.
Of course, Black-Cloth Shrine that still had an accumulation of resources tried to fight back.
50 years after Pope Nicolas the 130th disappeared, the loyal members of Black-Cloth Shrine brought out a talented [God's Favorite Child] named Platini. This [God's Favorite Child] became a Sun-Class Lord at the age of 25, and the light he radiated covered all the brilliance emitted by other talented geniuses in his time. He was loved by all, and the members of Black-Cloth Shrine who had poured a lot of resources into him thought that he was the hope of the shrine.
However, who knew that the same person would destroy the only hope Black-Cloth Shrine had. Right after Platini became a Sun-Class Lord, he declared that he couldn't accept the faith and teachings of Black-Cloth Shrine, and he betrayed Black-Cloth Shrine to join Pope Blatter's shrine.
This blow was destructive and lethal to Black-Cloth Shrine.
Although the faithful members of Black-Cloth Shrine found some [God's Favorite Children] to nurture later, these efforts were useless. These [God's Favorite Children] never got the chance to fully mature, and they all died for various reasons. In the end, Black-Cloth Shrine didn't get a [God's Favorite Child] in 40 years, and they never got the chance to fight for the throne of the Pope. They were no longer the main shrines in the Holy Church, and they were on the outer edge of the power circle.
Since Black-Cloth Shrine didn't get a single [God's Favorite Child] in 40 years, it was associated with bad luck. Therefore, this shrine that was once popular among everyone became a beggar-like existence. In the end, there were only about 100 faithful members who stayed in the shrine.
Without new blood and the support from top-tier masters, Black-Cloth Shrine continued to lose in the battles between the shrines, lost their privileges, and even got kicked out of the Holy Mountain. In the end, Black-Cloth Shrine had to close their shrine on Waulu Mountain and move away to avoid the tragedies.
After that day, the 113 members of Black-Cloth Shrine moved to the Northern Regional Church and had to do whatever they needed to do to survive.
The fact that the once dominating shrine fell this low made a lot of people feel sorry for them.
Since there was no sign of uprise, they were pushed out of the power circle even more and were forgotten. Many people in the Holy Church thought that this shrine already disappeared, and Black-Cloth Shrine was a laughingstock in many people's eyes.
The members of this Execution Team were shocked to find that this Half Moon Elite was from Black-Cloth Shrine.
They were feeling a lot of emotions. They were terrified and scared by the strength Jessie showcased a few moments ago; they thought that he was a genius who belonged to a powerful force, and they wanted to lick his toes and beg for forgiveness. However, since they found out that this young priest was from Black-Cloth Shrine that even lost the privilege of participating in the Grand Worship Ceremony in the Northern Regional Church, they were no longer afraid of Jessie. To them, Black-Cloth Shrine was worse than cancer; no one in the Holy Church wanted to be associated with this name.
In the Holy Church, strength equaled status. However, the status was also influenced by background.
Even though Jessie was young and had a lot of potentials, everyone knew that he could never enter the core power circle in the Holy Church. In the current era, Black-Cloth Shrine no longer represented honor and glory but shame.
Everyone knew that the current Pope Blatter didn't like Black-Cloth Shrine, but this shrine no longer posed any threats to him. If Black-Cloth Shrine didn't get a lot of merits from the past and didn't have some loyal followers who believed in its faith, it might have been wiped out by now already.
P.S. A big shout out to Clinton B. and Guilherme! Thanks for the support on Patreon!