"So the mission failed?" the Archbishop looked down at the messenger who came to report and nodded.
The Archbishop was a kind-looking old man, thin and shriveled, but also extremely amiable.
Through the abnormal mana within the snake tumor, he had roughly estimated the scale of the ritual magic. For insurance, he had sent out three Red Sun Knights and five excellent Night Watchers, but he didn't expect for a single troublemaker to appear and send those people to their deaths.
"Notify their families, make sure that the bereavement money and other benefits are paid" The Archbishop seemed to have thought of something and his expression changed: "Warn those people, their faith in God cannot be used as a reason for their mistakes"
"If I find out that someone embezzled the bereavement money again, they shall be judged, as such actions are staining the glory of God"
"If Crete's children are talented, send them to the knight training camp, Arda as well, they both have their own families, so life isn't easy. Order the others to take care of them"
"Also, Reid has a younger brother called Green, right?" The Archbishop replied. This old man knew most of the members of the Sun Shadow church, as well as a certain amount of their family situations. In fact, the Archbishop even remembered some of the knights who had died in battle 10 years ago, as well as their hobbies.
Some of the knights were even born and baptized by him, as well as their funerals. This old man clearly remembered every single person he came into contact with.
Although the memories of supernatural beings were strengthened, with how many people and things a person had come into contact with in their lifetime, it would be difficult to remember them unless they truly held them in their hearts.
"I recall that he failed to become a knight of the church due to his lack of faith" the Archbishop sighed: "The image of the church has affected his faith"
The town of Lohr was governed by divine authority, but God didn't care about how a city was governed, so it was easy to imagine what kind of thoughts the members of the church, who wielded absolute authority, would have when faith was the only thing that mattered.
Fearing and believing in God had nothing to do with one's character.
This also led to the rise of the Reformist faction within the church, who suggested that one's character be used as an important factor in selecting members of the church, changing the current situation where faith was everything. The Reformist faction believed that not managing the character of the members of the church would affect the image of the church, which in turn would affect the people's faith in God.
However, the resistance of the conservatives was particularly strong. They had vested interests, and as long as their faith was guaranteed, they could use the power of the church to do whatever they wanted. How could they be willing to add so many shackles to themselves?
Therefore, the reason why they opposed the reform was also very simple. The faith of God should not be blasphemed, and the character of man should not be placed above the faith of man, not even a little bit. Today, they could change the importance of the faith for the sake of character, and tomorrow, they could change the requirement of the faith for the sake of other things.
In the end, those who did not have enough faith would sit in high positions, which would only harm the interests of the church.
In fact, this was because of a fundamental problem. Even though the evil cultists kept stirring up trouble and all kinds of abnormal creatures often appeared, everything was under the suppression of the seven righteous gods. Those evil gods could only play some small tricks, but it was impossible for them to turn the tables.
It was precisely because they maintained such absolute dominance without much external pressure that the conservatives were able to maintain the upper hand.
The Archbishop could be considered a member of the Reformist Party. He hoped to see a better Church. Some time ago, he had only gone to the headquarters, and someone had dared to embezzle a knight's pension. The reason was that the family's faith was not up to standard.
"If Green can believe in God, then let him return to the ranks of knights" the Archbishop ordered. The old man then turned to the others with a serious expression: "Now that we've talked about the pension, let's talk about how to deal with the aftermath"
"Hunt down the sinner and send him to the Unrepenting Abyss!"
Negri put on Green's soul mask and acted out a scene of losing a family member and regret.
When he found out that the sinner had yet to be caught, he shouted that he would avenge his brother, but his faith was still not up to standard, so he couldn't sense the divine network and return to the ranks of knights.
While waiting for the outside world's reaction, Negri was also studying the Book of Snakes that he obtained from Isrig.
There were currently three types of supernatural powers that could be found in this world.
The first was to exchange power from God through faith. Both the Blessing of Glory and the Mark of the Red Sun were essentially divine spells, but they were enchanted into the bodies of knights by a Bishop-level priest. Even the holy water that gave the knights a powerful physique was a product of divine spells.
The second was the power of the blood of evil. Those with the blood of evil would turn into monsters, and the power that the Night Watchers used was also extracted from monsters.
The last was the power of magic rituals, and the Book of Snakes belonged to this category.
Magic rituals were based on axle rituals, and the function of axle rituals was to allow the user to connect to the source of that power through items that contained supernatural powers.
For example, the Book of Snakes was essentially created from snakes to create serpent potions, then through the axle ritual, connect to the Snake God and obtain the power of the Snake God.
Performing a complete ritual ring once would allow the user to obtain the corresponding power, through which, the user would be able to fully approach the Snake God and become one of the Snake God's faces.
In the end, this was nothing more than the power of an Evil God. Even if some axle rituals didn't target the Evil God, they would still target other dimensions like the underground abyss or the Unrepenting Abyss.
"This kind of power isn't desirable, every step of the axle ritual is nothing more than turning oneself into a clone of an Evil God, leaving a bit of self-awareness at most is the limit" "But this kind of thinking is worth learning," Negri closed the Book of Snakes and digested its contents bit by bit.
"The power is the Evil God's, but the axle ritual knowledge is my own." Negri couldn't help but sigh as he thought about the intricacies of the axle ritual.
Axle meant that the width of the tracks was the same, and here, it meant getting closer to other existences and connecting one's path with a greater existence.
There was a lot of knowledge, potions, rituals, incantations, mysteries, and so on. The principles of magic rituals were similar, and the only difference was which greater existence it was connected to.
Of course, apart from the axle ritual, the Book of Snakes also contained a lot of knowledge about how to use the Snake God's power. For example, using this incantation, one could use the Snake God's power to create a spell. This was all about the use of power.
There were also many things that Negri needed to learn.
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