Free Web NovelChapter 96: Chapter 73: Demon’s Gospel and Steadfast Faith
A wise idea.
The choice of a clever person.
Power, money, fortune... Whatever you desire, as long as you offer the Four Gods your most sincere Loyalty and faith, your pleas will always be met with a generous response.
Compared to the Four Gods, the Divine Emperor is both despicable and stingy. He never answers the prayers and pleas of his followers, only demanding your selfless devotion.
Courage, wisdom, life, love.
Choose your faith, and your future will change. Wield Mighty Power, achieve fame and success...
If you question the Mage’s speech, they will ask you in return: what has your steadfast faith in the Radiant Divine Emperor ever brought you?
Suffering? Poverty? Or... hunger?
It is often at such moments, faced with a cruel and heartless reality, that your faith begins to waver. You begin to question why you believe in the Divine Emperor at all.
You raise your head.
You see the Mage’s fingers, adorned with glittering gemstone rings.
You witness the Mage restore a terminally ill patient to perfect health.
You behold... that coveted Extraordinary Power. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
And so, the Empire’s Judges often prefer to converse with these silver-tongued Mages using weapons enhanced by Imperial Technology.
Of course, if force fails to suppress them, all you can do is pray in silence for the Divine Emperor’s protection.
...
Caster Monastery was nothing special.
It was just one of the countless, unremarkable grassroots monasteries of the National Church within the Empire.
Even its High Tier Cultivators were merely senior Monastery administrators who held a modicum of Scriptural Exegesis Authority, responsible for supplying the Empire with the most loyal and outstanding National Church Priests.
Among the fresh blood of these National Church Priests were many young people with Knight Talent or a Wizard Bloodline. Their future was to become the backbone of the National Church Knight Order, the steadfast support of the Supreme Court, and the attendant Priests for the various Main Battle Corps.
In the early days of the fourth millennium, when the Radiant Empire was first established, those who possessed a Wizard Bloodline were often regarded as an Alien Race, forbidden from entering the main Legions and religious institutions.
But six hundred years ago, the third Lord of the Empire and the Regent Council signed a new supreme law: any human whose faith had withstood the test, who possessed Scaya Dragonfolk or Wizard Bloodline, would enjoy the same rights as Imperial Citizens.
For long before the Empire was founded, during the long and dark era that preceded it...
Wizards ruled countless worlds and enslaved myriad living beings, until the Wizard Civilization utterly collapsed on its path in pursuit of wisdom.
Stellar energy warped reality, connecting with the souls of intelligent life. The birth of Demons and the Void Realm was the masterwork of the Supreme Mages.
This was knowledge Reinhardt had never encountered on Grillers World, which he had found in the library of Caster Monastery.
According to the Empire’s administrative Level classifications for different worlds, Grillers World was one of the most primitive and backward agricultural and mining planets.
Seventeenth, the world where the Desolate Wasteland Ruins were located, had once been a vital military supply station in the Empire Border region. But after its last resources were drained, the technicians and upper class withdrew en masse, and the world’s fate was sealed: to become an abandoned Military Port on the Empire Border.
Four years ago, Caster Monastery and the Provincial Governor Federation would still occasionally receive directives from the Radiant Holy City. But after the great rebellion and the birth of the Void Storm, no more information from the outside world ever reached this one.
The Lower City District was swarming with mutated Cultists.
Blasphemous slogans posted by Mages covered the filthy, rust-stained walls.
Sacrificial Arrays for performing wicked rituals were laid out brazenly on the streets of the Lower City District, where one could even see the used remains of humans and scattered animal bones.
On more than one occasion, Raphael had gone over the heads of the Monastery’s High Tier Cultivators to report the blasphemous acts in the Lower City District to the City Lord. But after the local Judgement Court suffered a catastrophe of annihilation, he never mentioned the matter again.
He would only occasionally sigh in frustration before Reinhardt and say, "I really wish this world had a National Church Judge, or even an Imperial Knight..."
The streets outside the Monastery were growing more and more chaotic.
Screams.
Shouts.
Raphael and Reinhardt exchanged a look. The Divine Emperor’s fanatical believer bolted from the room and sprinted toward the Monastery’s main gate.
Perhaps Mortals couldn’t perceive the pervasive blasphemous aura.
But to Reinhardt, the aura was all too familiar.
Demon.
Grabbing the plain Iron Sword from behind the door, Reinhardt followed Raphael out of the Monastery’s main gate.
A strange, bewitching fragrance filled the air, clouding the mind.
Outside the Monastery gate, the wide streets of the Upper City District were now crammed with panicking local residents.
"Blasphemy—!"
"Demon! It’s a Demon!"
"By the Divine Emperor, how dare they..."
Sunlight filtered through the thick dust, casting a reddish-brown glow upon the industrial city, which had been decaying for a hundred years. Nobles and commoners alike, and even the sacred Radiant Holy Image atop the Monastery’s church, all seemed to be coated in a layer of corrosive rust.
A slender man with a refined, elegant demeanor stood smiling outside the Monastery gate, enjoying the fear and panic of the Mortals.
He looked up at the Radiant Holy Image, his gaze filled with a frivolity that spoke of a complete lack of faith or reverence.
His magnificent purple robes were embroidered with all sorts of golden threads, and his bejeweled fingers and extravagant necklace made him look like a decadent king.
A Red-Eyed Crow was perched on his shoulder.
An ominous, blasphemous aura, like black smoke, flowed down to the ground. It formed a mysterious black cloak behind the man in the purple robes and coalesced in his hand to form a wicked Scepter.
