Philibell jumped up from his chair and took over the letter with his slightly trembling hands. He wondered if the Congress had declared war against them.
In his mind, he believed that the assassination had succeeded, because this was the only explanation why the letter was sent by the sorcerer that they bribed, instead of their other channels. If the Congress managed to take over Holm, the fact that some sorcerers were working for the Church would be easily found out. For the sorcerers who wanted to gain as much benefit as they could, the best scenario would be the one where the balance between the Congress and the Church was maintained.
Casting holy light from his eyes, Philibell first scanned the letter to make sure that it was safe to open. He had been dealing with the sorcerers for so many years since he took over the Holm parish, thus Philbell knew how cunning and crafty those sorcerers were. For example, the letter could possibly contain some kind of medium for casting the spell, Invade Brain.
After making sure there were no magic traps in the envelope, Philibell finally opened it and unfolded the thin piece of paper in it:
"The Will of Elements presented a simple experiment simulating the pre-historic natural environment. Under the close watch of many arcanists and the two night watchers, and without the intervention of neither magic nor divine power, after a week of cycling, life ingredients were created in the reactor, including aspartic acid and more. The two night watchers and one old sorcerer who followed the God of Truth could not handle the research finding with their collapsed ontology, and thus they were devoured by their inner power right on the spot.
"God created the world in seven days… Cardinal Philibell, is this how it was?"
Then the letter briefly introduced how the reactor was built, how the experiment was conducted, and what the findings were.
"Life ingredients…? pre-historic natural environment" Philibell murmured the words as if he was dreaming. And he recognized the handwriting immediately—the letter was not from a random sorcerer that the Church bribed, but from Douglas, the president of the Congress of Magic!
Douglas mentioned every single step of the experiment. Philibell knew what this meant: Douglas, as an outstanding grand arcanist, was too proud to lie, and he was a hundred percent confident that the experiment was valid and correct.
Philibell’s hands had senile plaques on them. Holding the letter, his hands started to tremble fiercely, "My Lord… What shall we do here? What are you trying to tell us? Why do you want mortals to enter your realm?"
His pure, crystal-like soul appeared in the air above his body, whose light lit up the study in a gentle way. The piece of paper gradually dropped onto the ground.
"Philibell, what’s wrong?! Don’t let your belief in the Lord be affected!" as Vaharall was shouting at him, black waves appeared and surrounded Philibell to stabilize his power.
"I’m okay… and I’ve never doubted God." Philibell calmed down a bit and slightly shook his head, "Don’t worry about me. I’m not going to collapse. I did forecast this before when the sorcerers successfully synthesized carbamide and fatty acid, but I just did not expect that the result could be so shocking that it almost hurt my soul."
"What’s on that letter?" Varantine picked up the piece of paper on the ground. He believed that he was already mentally prepared for this.
Philibell did not stop him, but stared at Varantine to see his reaction with a pair of meaningful eyes.
"Bastards!" Without even finishing reading the letter, Varantine swore aloud out of rage. He could not believe that those vicious sorcerers actually did this experiment to pry into the forbidden realm of God. He could not believe how disrespectful they were and how they dared do this!
Doing an experiment like this, in Varantine’s mind, was enough to p
ush someone into hell thousands of times. His core understanding of this world and fundamental belief in God was built on Creationism, and after reading this letter, something warm and sweet upwelled to his throat.
Golden blood gushed out from his mouth, and his body was covered with dim light. Despite the fact that his soul was injured, Varantine gnashed, "We shall declare war! An all-out war! We shall purify the Congress of Magic to defend the glory of God!"
Luckily for Varantine, he had already gone through the most difficult time when the previous two researches came out, so he didn't get severely injured when facing the words from the president of the Congress of Magic, Douglas. However, this was still the first time in the past a hundred and sixty nine years that Varantine spat blood like this since he had come to this level.
In contrast, when the bad-tempered Vaharall finished reading the letter, he was not too shocked, but his face still looked very gloomy. Slowly, he squeezed the words out of his teeth with great rage, "We shall not always focus this much on the heresy sect in the north anymore. It’s time to pull back our attention and put it on those vicious sorcerers who are trying to reach their bloody hands to the exclusive realm of God!"
Vaharall was a legendary knight, and his power was from his own Blessing. Therefore, the great impact on his cognition might affect his belief in God to some degree, but could not kill him.
"What we shall do right now is to block the information, calm the pastors down, and then gradually modify their understanding of Creationism," Philibell said to them.
The pastor who brought the letter was standing in the corner. He dare not read the letter on the desk.
At this time, there came some hurried footsteps outside of the study, and cardinal who was wearing a red robe and long shawl rushed in the study, and, as a relatively powerful pastor, he still looked helpless and nervous, "Lord Philibell! A pastor in Radiance Church just got devoured by holy light! And many parishes have reported that most pastor, even cardinals, are experiencing great impact on their cognition of their belief! Although so far we only have two pastors who were devoured by their power, most of the pastors are feeling confused and desperate now. They’re urgently begging you, Lord Philibell, to prove to them that the experiment which produces life ingredients in a pre-historic natural environment is fake!"
"What?!" Philip was even more shocked now. He had never expected that the Congress could spread the news so fast.
In the early morning, a bunch of newspaper kids were yelling on the streets energetically,
"Newspaper, newspaper! Latest Holm News! Earlier than usual!"
Hearing that, many people on the streets started looking for five Fells in their purses, as they knew that there must be something important in the newspaper.
Influenced by those magic schools, common people living here in Holm were more educated than the average people in other countries across the ocean, and they also more or less cared about the development of magic. Therefore, newspapers here, especially in Rentato, sold better.
Meanwhile, those nobles who did not need to rush to work were right now enjoying their breakfast while reading Holm News as usual, and those people included many pastors and cardinals.
A young pastor left his room and came to the cathedral’s dining hall. After his praying, there was buttered bread and sausages on the plates in front of him. Beside the plates, there was a pile of newspaper.
"Holm News?" the pastor was a little bit surprised, and he asked the pastor who was still in training sitting close to him, "Isn’t this issue earlier than usual?"
"My Lord," the pastor answered respectfully, "I’m not very sure, but it’s said that something big just happened in Rentato."
"Oh?" The pastor picked up the newspaper. As usual, the first page was about the old king, who just went for hunting the other day, followed by lots of nobles, but Prince Patrick was not there.
However, when he turned the newspaper to the second page, a striking black title appeared in his sight, "An Experiment Simulating the Pristine Natural Environment."
"Experiment?! Those sorcerers are on the newspaper now?" The young pastor was shocked. As he read it even further, he added, "Lie! Shameless lie! This is blasphemy!"
The other pastors in training were all scared. When they saw that the pastor started throwing plates and bowls onto the ground, they all took a few steps back.
After a long time, the pastor murmured to himself in a puzzled way, "Lie… This must be a lie! I’m gonna report this to the head Cardinal, and he will prove that it is a lie!"
The same scenario occurred in most of the churches and cathedrals in Holm parish, and almost simultaneously in churches in the Kingdom of Colette.
The Congress of Magic had shown its great influence!
"That's basically what happened." The other cardinal slowly calmed down a bit.
Philibell asked seriously, "But why would Holm News publish this experiment?"
"The headquarter and divisions of the newspaper are right now under the control of the Congress. They’ve printed out the latest issue of Holm News in every city," the cardinal explained. "However, all people involved in this had fled."
Philibell was still confused, "But how can they communicate with each other in real time? Sound transmission spells cost a lot and casting those spells means lots of work… How could they take action so fast?"
"So far, we have no idea yet, Lord Philibell," answered the cardinal.
Vaharall said to Philibell seriously,
"Philibell, you stay here and control the situation. I go to see the pope for his instruction."
When Philibell was left alone in the study after everyone got their own tasks, he signed slowly, "What is your true will, Lord?"
Lance, the Holy city.
Benedict II, the Pope, was right now calmly looking at the cardinals standing in front of him. Then, lifting his scepter, he said to them seriously, "Have you all forgotten the word from Lord? It is always the soul that goes up to Mountain Paradise, not one’s flesh and blood!"