Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
After God had left, the Saintess still remained in the divine palace, kneeling with the Pope and the twelve blessed Saints. They all continued praying to God.
They did not stop praying there until after dawn. Within a single day, they had undergone many earth-shattering transformations. Newly rejuvenated, the Saints and the Pope Hodap now seemed to be emitting divine radiance.
Although they did not speak or test their new powers, everyone knew that the Saints were no longer ordinary humans. They had now become completely new existences.
Pope Hodap stood at the center of the crowd, making an announcement. “I declare the first day of January as the Baptism Day of the Church of Light. It will be the most important festival of the Church of Light. On this day, everyone must pray to and praise God, thanking them for bringing us into the new year with hope and glory.”
As baptism ritual ended, news of the events of the day began spreading. Many people gossiped about the appearance of God and the midnight sun which the whole world had seen. The entire continent was talking about it, making the influence of the Church of Light even more formidable.
Moreover, the influence of the divine incantations and the Saints extended even further. As time passed, their influences would expand, gradually affecting all of Maria’s World.
The Healing ability of the Saints could bring patients back from the brink of death, which caused the whole world to go wild. However, even though this ability had miraculous effects on physical wounds, it was somewhat useless against certain diseases. Nevertheless, since it was effective enough on most common diseases, most people found this more than adequate.
The Church proclaimed that the divine incantations could cure all diseases and bring the dead back to life. For those who could not be treated, they were said to have reached the end of their destined lifespan, similar to those who died of old age.
The other divine incantation was called the Judgement of Light. It was the legendary divine spell used for slaying devils. All heretics and sinners who possessed evil within their hearts would be burned by the Judgment of Light, until not even the last particle of their ashes remained. Even their souls would burn for eternity within the holy flames.
The Saints demonstrated their divine incantations. Then, the baptized bishops rushed back to their parishes in order to exhibit their miracles. The believers of the Church also increased dramatically, and former skeptics were converted into devout fanatics. This sort of orchestrated charity for the sick and the poor was very effective in convincing the lower classes into believing in the existence of the gods. They were taught that, as long as they believed in God, they would eventually escape from their suffering and ascend into the kingdom of gods.
The Church of Light was on track to conquer the entire human world. After Elliot VIII suppressed the rebels and the Gathering of Nobles within the Crete Empire, the leadership of the entire empire went through a huge period of change, from top to bottom, which even affected some of the smaller surrounding nations.
During this period, a large number of nobles were captured and killed, including many high ranking nobles, such as the earls and the marquises. The Gathering of Nobles suffered heavy losses, but due to the quick reaction of the secret leaders of the Gathering, they avoided total annihilation. In particular, they were able to maintain their secrecy and prevent their list of members from being exposed. In this way, the rest of the organization quickly hid themselves and were not captured.
The other faiths that had been hiding and protected by the Gathering of Nobles could no longer survive in the central province or any of the nearby human kingdoms. Under the intense persecution of the Church, many of their high ranking clergy were arrested and tried by the Judges of Light. Obviously found guilty, they were then tied to execution platforms and burnt alive. Those few who managed to survive fled to the Tuten Dynasty in the east and the Batko Empire of the desert.
The Church of Light was constantly trying to extend their reach into those two countries, but they were always strongly rebuffed. On the other hand, within the orc nations, the orcs believed in the various orc gods. They had gradually formed their kingdoms from tribes, so their civilizations were unique and quite different from the humans. Therefore, although the Church already had a group of firm believers, they had been unable to expand outwards.
In light of this situation, the Pope Hodap and Saintess Kelly created a new outreach strategy. Every six years, on the first day of the first month, there would be a Saint Baptism Day.
On this day, the most devout believers from within the Church would be invited to St. Sarl City to inherit the divine incantations. The Saints would spread the divine seeds and nurture priests, who would become the new generation of shepherds of God, tasked with continuing to pass down God’s glory from generation to generation. It was imperative that God’s light was able to shine from every corner of Maria’s World.
Lu Zhiyu hovered over St. Sarl for a while, watching the bustling city. He was in awe of the creativity of these human beings, as well as their civilization. No one could have imagined that the uneducated humans that had once survived in wilderness would one day build such a great city. They had developed from a weak marginalized race into a civilized culture that had spread throughout the entire continent of Alen.
Lu Zhiyu believed that divine incantations and wizardry would gradually also spread throughout the entire continent, just like how Ahenaten had brought civilization to mankind. These people would bring Maria’s World into a true era that was dominated by supernatural abilities. Lu Zhiyu had no idea what kind of era it would become, but he was looking forward to seeing it all unfold.
In the end, will the truths of the wizards conquer the world, through the spread of alchemy, witchcraft, and knowledge?
Or, will the divine system win out, creating an era that is dedicated to the gods in the sky?
Which of the two would become the pioneer of the next era?
After observing the prosperity of St. Sarl City for a while, Lu Zhiyu left again. As he passed through the dimensional gate, he traveled across millions of miles, returning back to his dimensional castle. Sargon was taking care of the wizard tower, after all, and there were also many second generation ant-people there to maintain order. Hence, there was not much to worry about in the short-term.
Since the creation of the magic network, the wizards, and the dragons, the laws of Maria’s World had been refined. The flow of time within the dimension had slowed down again, becoming a thousand times faster than Earth. Thus, the many years that Lu Zhiyu had spent here were only equal to three or four days in the outside world.
The first generation of ant-people in the dimensional castle were still alive, so they were tasked with maintaining the castle. Lu Zhiyu took Gaia from under the wizard tower. He intended to give it a second upgrade, which he had labeled as the Gaia Life Engineering Transformation Plan 2.0.
However, Lu Zhiyu was truly tired. He wanted to go outside to look around and take a break. Deciding to do so, he determined to implement this plan afterwards. After giving the ant-people a few more orders, and bringing or sealing off the essential items, Lu Zhiyu hurried through the dimensional gate, returning to Earth.