Volume 8, Chapter 45 – Doubt and Resolve

With a bang as the wooden door slammed against the wall, the two people in the room turned their gazes to the entrance. Upon discovering that the newcomer was their companion, the wariness on their faces gradually subsided.

“Lin, what’s the situation?”

“There isn’t much time.”

Placing the straw raincoat she had been wearing on a low cabinet by the door, Lin, her black hair soaked with rain, took off the fox mask from her face.

It was a face no different from a human’s, yet far more bewitching. Apart from the deep purple eyes that seemed to be able to suck one in, the most striking feature was the few scales on the side of her cheeks. If such a thing were to appear on an ordinary person, they would surely be seen as a monster. But on this girl with long black hair and a cold aura, the inhuman impression transformed into a demonic allure, like a poppy: knowing it was dangerous, yet unable to resist its temptation.

The reason she usually wore a fox mask was to cover the inhuman features on her body. Anyone who saw her would come to this conclusion.

The two of them were first stunned by Lin’s act of taking off her mask, then quickly assumed a tense expression, ready for battle at any moment. The first to speak was the flamboyant, red-haired woman.

“Not much time? What do you mean?”

“A letter from the Pope. He wants us to terminate the current plan.”

“Why? Did the Pope’s interpretation go wrong, causing the Gospel to change its plan?”

Without answering the red-haired girl’s question, Lin quickly took out a scroll of paper from her long black dress—this size meant it was a pigeon post. To confirm that she hadn’t misread it, Lin hurriedly unrolled the scroll and read it again by the dim candlelight in the room. The other two girls quickly gathered around.

Then, as if something major and incredible had happened, the brows of the purple-haired and red-haired girls also furrowed tightly, just like Lin’s.

“The Pope wants us to terminate the plan? Although the plan did have some unexpected errors, at this point, all the preparations have been completed. All that’s left is to light the fuse. How can we just stop it like this? Purple, you think so too, right?”

The red-haired girl looked at the purple-haired girl, who had a thoughtful expression. The latter shifted her gaze to Lin.

“Lin, you hold a Holy Gospel just like the Pope. The content of the two Gospels should be exactly the same. If the Pope sent us a message because the Gospel’s prophecy has changed, then the Gospel in your hands should have changed as well.”

“No,” Lin shook her head. Because the rain outside was too heavy, the straw raincoat and hat couldn’t block all the water droplets. So when she shook her head, her black hair, swaying with the movement, flung water droplets onto the other two. But they paid no attention to this detail, just stared intently at Lin. “I’ve confirmed. The Gospel has not changed.”

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“It hasn’t changed? Is it still the same as when we left the Church? But why did the Pope suddenly change his mind? The will of the Gospel is absolute. How can the Pope go against it on his own!”

“Wait, Red. Let Lin finish.”

“Mm. Although the Gospel has not changed its prophecy, the Pope would not act without reason. He must have discovered something, and it’s something that requires us to stop the plan.”

“Discovered what? Isn’t it already very clear in this letter?!” Red pointed to a line on the paper. “He wants us to invite that person back to the Church as an honored guest! To stop a long-planned operation for just one person, and to go against the will of the Gospel, even if it’s the Pope, I will never agree!”

The reason the Divine Religion was able to gather followers in such a short period of time and drive the Ymir Church out of the south was because of the existence of the Gospel. In the eyes of the numerous grassroots believers, the Gospel was not so much a book of fate that could point out the direction of the future, but the god itself. And compared to the Goddess Ymir worshipped by the Ymir Church, the Gospel was real and was at work at all times. Therefore, the position of the Pope, as the ‘spokesperson of God,’ naturally had much less power in the Divine Religion than the Pope of the Ymir Church. If the Pope’s words were to contradict the Gospel’s prophecy, then the followers would surely choose to side with the Gospel.

The Pope’s power came from God. When he went against God, his power would naturally disappear.

Due to her excessive agitation, the red-haired girl’s breathing could be heard throughout the room, as if she might smash something in anger at any moment.

The purple-haired girl lightly placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Calm down, Red. Even Lin isn’t angry. What are you in a hurry for?”

“…I know.”

Without making an excuse, the red-haired girl suppressed her anger.

Although the two of them hadn’t been with Lin for a long time, they both knew very well that Lin’s faith in the Gospel was deeper than anyone else in the Divine Religion, even deeper than the Pope’s. It would not be an exaggeration to say that Lin was born for the Gospel. If someone were to go against the will of the Gospel, then Lin would be the first to act as the executioner. Sometimes the two of them often had a feeling that even if the Gospel were to have a prophecy that required Lin to kill them, she would carry it out without hesitation.

As for the reason, it was not because Lin was saved by the Gospel and wanted to repay it, but something else, very similar to the ultimate goal of the Divine Religion—to save humanity from fire and water. But compared to the others in the Divine Religion, Lin seemed too benevolent.

The process of promoting peace was inevitably accompanied by war, and where there was war, there would be sacrifice. But as long as the final result could be achieved, the sacrifice would become acceptable. This was not just empty talk from the Divine Religion. If the price of victory in this war was the destruction of the Divine Religion, then every single member would be willing to die for the future. Everyone in the Divine Religion, from top to bottom, including the Pope, would quietly end their own lives.

Just like the crippled bishop in Gota City who was tasked with retrieving the angel, his death was not the Pope’s will, but the Gospel’s command. The Gospel had conveyed that he was to die in Gota City, which was why he had, with an obedience that Yisi had found strange, looked forward to being executed by Lin in front of everyone. Every follower of the Divine Religion had the same resolve as this bishop.

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But Lin was an exception.

If the Gospel recorded that a certain organization was to be eliminated, and did not specify the scope of this elimination, then the members of the Divine Religion would, at all costs, not only wipe out all the members of this organization, but even clean up anyone who might be related to it, to extinguish all possibilities that could affect the Gospel’s prophecy. But if it were Lin, she might only kill the members of the organization and not touch those who were not on the list.

In the eyes of outsiders, this was kindness. But in the context of the Divine Religion, Lin’s benevolence seemed out of place. Everyone knew that the main purpose of the Gospel was to exchange the least amount of sacrifice for the happiness of more people. If an error occurred midway, the Gospel would certainly correct the path, but the number of people sacrificed in the end would surely be more than if they had not shown a moment of benevolence. It was more accurate to say that Lin was cruel rather than benevolent.

Of course, this did not mean that Lin would go against the will of the Gospel. It just meant that she would not make what outsiders would consider meaningless sacrifices. Lin was both the same as and different from the people in the Divine Religion. Even now, Red and Purple could not understand what was in her heart. It was as if there was a layer of something separating them, preventing them from forming a deeper bond.

Swallowing, the red-haired girl asked.

“Lin, are we going to follow the Pope’s order and interrupt the Gospel’s plan?”

Her hands resting on the table, her eyes fixed on the paper as if she couldn’t believe what was written on it, Lin was silent for a long time before answering.

“…I don’t believe it.”

“You don’t believe this letter is from the Pope?”

“Mm. Even if it has the Pope’s wax seal, I can’t believe that person would go against the will of the Gospel—if it were just that, it would be one thing. But it also asks us to invite Yisi Enya before the Gospel. It’s unbelievable… The Ymir Church is an enemy recorded in the Gospel, and also the first major enemy we face in the ‘Apocalypse’ plan. To voluntarily stop the plan just as it is about to unfold and invite the enemy’s cardinal to visit, I can only think that someone has found out about our plan and now wants to throw us into chaos.”

“Unfortunately for the person who wants to sabotage our plan, they don’t know that you also have a Gospel in your hands.”

The purple-haired woman let out a sneer, leaning sideways against the table, her languid movements full of the allure of a mature woman.

With the purple-haired woman’s words, the tense atmosphere in the room gradually dissipated, and the solidified air began to flow again.

The red-haired girl nodded.

“Mm. Since the Gospel’s prophecy hasn’t changed, we have no reason to change our strategy. Even if this letter was really written by the Pope, we don’t have to obey it. Not to mention that this is very likely a trap set by a villain. Lin, the people below are ready.”

Since Lin was still staring at the paper without moving, the red-haired girl could only call out again.

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“Lin? Are you still thinking about the letter?”

“Mmm… I’m just thinking about why the Pope would do this.”

“I told you, it’s false information. Before you came back, the merchant reported to us. The refugee camp is ready. We’re just waiting for you to finalize the plan.”

There were two final plans before Lin. The outcome of both was the same: Alice dies, and the kingdom falls into civil war. But the process was not entirely the same.

The first was to let things develop on their own. The Divine Religion only needed to continuously worsen the barrier, making it seem more and more like the World Dragon was about to break out of its seal, thereby throwing the nobles into a panic. In the end, the nobles would naturally, through various means, make Duke Wozwahl hand over Alice, and thus Alice would die.

The second method was a more direct one. To attack Alice’s carriage while she was out, kill her in the chaos, and frame it as a noble who had tried to snatch her away but had accidentally killed her in the process. Then, on the other side, to incite the noble faction, telling them that the missing king was hidden in the Wozwahl household, and that the one who had attacked Duke Herbis in the morning was also Duke Wozwahl, thereby igniting the powder keg. Both methods would throw the kingdom into chaos.

Of course, the mastermind behind all this was the Divine Religion itself. Whether it was making the king fall into a coma, causing the magic formation to collapse, secretly moving the king into the Wozwahl residence, or attacking Duke Herbis in the morning, these were all the results of the Divine Religion’s operations. The Divine Religion had been established for two hundred years. With the help of the Gospel, it was not difficult to plant spies in the kingdom, even by the king’s side. As long as the person planted had sufficient strength—whether he was one of the Fallen or a powerful warrior—he could move the king out of the palace without anyone knowing.

And the person who had made the king fall into a coma a month ago was the court physician who had watched the king grow up and was deeply trusted by the king and the three great dukes. The reason the king had been frail and sickly since childhood was not because he was born that way, but the result of long-term consumption of a slow-acting poison. It could be said that the Divine Religion could make the king fall into a coma whenever they wanted.

As for why they didn’t just kill the king, but went to such great lengths to throw the kingdom into chaos, even if you were to ask the Divine Religion itself, they would only answer that they didn’t know. It was all the Gospel’s arrangement. They were just following the Gospel’s prophecy. The Gospel had foreseen that killing the king would not be as effective as the current method, which was why it had given the current plan.

However, the execution of the plan was not smooth. In the Gospel’s account, there should be four people in the hero party now—one more angel—and Red and Purple’s levels should also have exceeded forty due to receiving the dryad’s Nectar. But the reality was clearly not so.

What was worse was that if Red’s level had exceeded forty back in the cave, the magic barrier she released would have been enough to resist the magic impact generated by the barrier. In that case, they would have been able to enter the barrier that sealed the World Dragon, provoke it, and make the lie that ‘the World Dragon is about to break out of the barrier’ become real, making the nobles more anxious and further intensifying the conflict between them and Duke Wozwahl.

And the cause of this series of failures all originated from that existence named Yisi Enya. If the three of them had gotten the two levels they should have, and the angel from the labyrinth, then the hero of Gota City would have been them. At the same time, the plan to liberate the World Dragon would also have succeeded.

At this thought, Lin fell into deep thought again.

What exactly is that existence named Yisi Enya? The Gospel would give feedback on the strength of the people around them in the form of heat. Yisi Enya was clearly not an ordinary person, but the Gospel had no reaction at all. At first, she had deduced that Yisi Enya was one of the three great demon lords, Tartaros—the preface of the Gospel described its flaws: it could not detect the existence of the demon lords and the Goddess. But at the Warriors’ Association, when Yisi Enya had passed by her and she had quietly said the name Tartaros, there was only surprise on her face. If she were really Tartaros, she would never have had such a puzzled expression.

“Lin, you’re spacing out again. We need to finalize the plan. Are we going to let things develop and use the nobles’ hands to kill Alice, or are we going to take the initiative and eliminate her ourselves?”

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Her companion’s words snapped Lin back to her senses. She let out a long sigh.

No matter what Yisi Enya was, at this point, she had only one path to take.

“We will take the initiative. I don’t want to drag this out for too long. I have a bad feeling.”

“Alright, we’ll do as you say, Lin. I’ll go and have the merchant make the arrangements now.”

“Mm, go,” nodding in permission for the red-haired girl to leave, Lin turned her gaze to the purple-haired girl. “Purple, the crystal you intercepted from the Empire’s researchers last time, you have it on you, right?”

“The intercepted crystal?” The purple-haired girl looked puzzled, then quickly had a look of realization. “Ah, you mean the half-crystal that fell from the son of the great demon? I still haven’t figured out what it does. What do you want it for?”

“It’s a teleportation stone. It can summon the demon holding the other half of the crystal to one’s side.”

“Huh, how do you know?”

“The Gospel’s encyclopedia has an explanation,” Lin frowned in thought. “Since the son of the great demon was clutching the teleportation stone like a life-saving straw before he died, the demon holding the other half cannot be weak. If we encounter an irresistible enemy, we can immediately use the teleportation stone and use the summoned demon to hold them off.”

“But what if the demon attacks us instead?”

“Isn’t there also the possibility that it will attack our enemies? Compared to being certainly killed by the enemy, it’s better to burn our bridges and try the last possibility. But in the end, this is only a last resort. I won’t use it unless I absolutely have to.”

“Hah, I’m really impressed with you. If it were me, I wouldn’t dare to make such a gamble. Here you go. Just don’t summon it while we’re sleeping.”

Her tone was a little joking. The purple-haired girl handed the half-crystal to Lin, who put it in her pocket.

The image of Yisi Enya flashed through her mind.

I hope there won’t be a day when I have to use it.