In the Land of Death?!
Alvis's brain went blank for a moment, nearly losing his balance and bumping into the divine altar behind him.
"Your Holiness?!" The Archbishop cried out in horror.
Pope Alvis stopped the Archbishop's attempt to help him, then spoke with a trembling voice, "Contact Tessis immediately with the spell and tell him to leave the Land of Death, now!"
"But... but Lord Tessis entered an hour ago...it's likely he's already..." The Archbishop stuttered.
In fact, when they received the message, they immediately used the Communication Divine Skill, but got no response.
The entire force was almost certainly annihilated under the assault of doomsday magic!
Alvis clearly understood this as well, his face turning extremely ugly.
"Monroe..." Alvis growled, then suddenly realized, the church spy appointed by himself and selected by Gustav must have already betrayed them!
What food wars, volcanic eruptions—all bullshit!
These were clearly conspiracies plotted by the Wizards!
He had actually been foolish enough to believe it!
Even believed it twice!
A strong sense of humiliation surged into Alvis's mind.
Before, Monroe was merely a minor officer of the divine punishment army, his appointment to this important task proved Alvis's trust and favor in him. The man had not only betrayed this trust but also dared to mock him again and again!
Alvis's chest heaved with undulating rage, his eyes filled with anger and murderous intent.
If it weren't for the fact that the man was now in Fire Oil City, under the protection of Wizards, Alvis would dearly love to flay him alive, extract his soul, and cast it into the eternal purgatory!
"It may not be Monroe, perhaps he's been captured by the Wizards..." Saint Randall suddenly proposed a hypothesis.
According to Gustav's advice, Monroe was a warrior with firm beliefs and an exceedingly devout Believer. It should not be possible for him to have been turned in just two months.
It's also possible that their spies were captured by those Wizards, and the images they saw before could have been faked.
The disguising abilities of those Shaping Wizards were not weak, it wasn't impossible for them to use Shaping Magic to take on Monroe's appearance from hundreds of miles away and deceive their senses.
Yet Alvis just scoffed, his spies in Fire Oil City were numerous, and they reported back to him every week on the internal situation.
For these past two months, Monroe had stayed comfortably in the Wizard College, with a very regular routine, not at all like someone who was coerced or captured.
It could only be said that he had been wrong about him!
Fortunately, Alvis had foreseen the possibility of traitors within the ranks, hence he arranged the kingdom's spies in various independent systems that wouldn't affect each other. Even if one part encountered problems, it wouldn't lead to the doom of everyone involved.
However, that twenty thousand of the empire's elite troops had been sent to heaven due to his gullibility...
At this thought, Alvis felt painfully tormented!
Most importantly, the Wizards' use of doomsday magic once again had invalidated all their previous conjectures, hanging like a sword over everyone's heart.
As Alvis was pondering countermeasures, he suddenly seemed to sense something and his expression immediately became serious.
Randall beside him was no exception.
It was God's oracle descending upon them!
The impact of the Hydrogen Explosion lasted for a full three days before it could be completely settled, just like Lynn had anticipated. The kingdom's opposition, who had emerged because of the previous grain wars, seemed to have been silenced in an instant, even public order in the towns had improved notably.
No one dared to provoke the ire of the Council at this time...
On the afternoon of the third day, the Wizard Council once again announced major news—that a grand examination would be held in all the cities of the kingdom!
Anyone who could recognize two hundred words of the common language and could read was eligible to partake; the Council would select administrators for each city from among them.
Lynn had to thank the Church's centuries-long rule over the continent for this, as despite the different language systems in various regions, the script had been largely unified, saving them a lot of trouble.
Such explosive news naturally caused an uproar within the kingdom. The idea of selecting local officials through an exam was unheard of in the empire's hundreds of years of history.
Furthermore, the Council did not restrict the social background of the exam candidates, having only two basic requirements: literacy and the ability to speak the common language.
This meant that even a child from a poor family could leap to nobility by passing the exam and becoming the local lord, which in the territories of the Wizards was called a Mayor.
Despite not being hereditary and having defined terms of office, with removal from position if one performed poorly, it still enticed many!
After all, having control over an entire city was akin to being a nobleman of old, wasn't it?
Susan, looking at the large announcement posted on the wall, also began to entertain fantasies in her mind.
Her two children were in the commoners' school, reputed to be doing quite well.
In the past, Susan had only hoped that after graduating from the commoners' school, her children would enter the research workshops of the Wizards, becoming their assistants, which would be far more relaxed than her and her husband's work in the glass and firearms workshops. But now, she saw a new path emerging.