Fran Belang and his group of priests hid in the church and locked the gate of the church. This was probably the stupidest decision he had ever made in his life.
He gave up the outer city and crushed the last bit of unity of the Church of Holy Light.
After that, three days passed.
Three days ago, the completely out of control and farcical heresy trial ended with the complete lockdown of the church. After that, the whole city was surrounded by a strange atmosphere.
At that time, the civilians who gathered around the burning platform watched as the gate of the church was closed. They gathered for a long time, but in the end, no one did anything rash like storming the church or knocking down the priests. On the contrary, they finally dispersed. However, Amber knew very well that it was only the crowd that dispersed. The fire in the people's hearts had been ignited.
The next three days were the three days when the fire burned brighter and brighter.
For three consecutive days, Cecil's "flyer bombardment" did not stop. Every morning, noon, and night, there would be a round of bombardment. The flyers would be carried by special canisters to the sky of Louen City, and then blown away by magic power and scattered throughout the city.
These flyers would not only fall in the outer city, but also in the church area of the inner city. This time, the priests in the church area finally gave up on cleaning up these flyers.
They let these flyers fly everywhere in the city, even covering the roofs and courtyards of the churches. They let the outer city go completely out of control and seemed to have completely given up on the idea of restoring order.
The people in the outskirts of the city began to openly collect the leaflets that had fallen into the city. They began to openly discuss the clergy in the church. They gathered in the streets and communicated with each other. During the day, wave after wave of people came to the square in front of the church and glared at the sealed gate. At night, countless candlelight moved between the streets, and from the shadows of the candlelight came words that openly attacked the church.
The curfew system had completely failed. The outer city had fallen into a strange situation of mixed calm and excitement, indifference and madness. The sweet smell of blood seemed to have spread in Louen City, but in the church area in the center of the city, everything was abnormally quiet.
Since Fran Belang had entered the cathedral, no other priest or Knight of the Holy See had seen him come out...
Night fell on the fourth day. In a secret stronghold near the square, the MIB officers gathered in a room. The flickering candlelight lit up the small room. The officer nicknamed "Skinny" stood by the table and reported the information he had just collected.
"The gate of the church area is still sealed. From the high ground of the outer city, we can see the situation in the chapel area, but we can't see the movement in the cathedral at all. Fran Belang seems to have locked the cathedral inside as well... "
Another military intelligence agent also stood up. "There are no signs of the priests in the church area fleeing …"
"The civilians have taken the initiative to block all the exits. We spread the news that the priests of the cathedral were preparing to flee. Now it seems that the news has worked."
"Some of the church soldiers who were stranded in the outer city have taken the initiative to disarm. They came out from several outposts in the outer city, tied each other up, and came to the streets to beg for food from the civilians. We tried to guide the civilians to share some food with the church soldiers. Now, the soldiers are on our side."
Amber quietly fiddled with the dagger in her hand as she listened to the reports of her subordinates. She seemed to be waiting for something. Her long elven ears quivered slightly in the air, and from time to time, she would keenly turn to a certain direction. She looked absent-minded.
One of her subordinates finally noticed his boss's situation. He could not help but ask curiously, "Boss... Are you listening?"
"I'm listening." Amber waved her hand casually, and then her ears quivered again. "But let's stop for a while. We have guests tonight."
The members of the Military Intelligence Bureau looked at each other in shock. Meanwhile, with a flick of her wrist, the poisoned dagger that she had been fiddling with a second ago was silently put away by her. Then, almost at the same time, there was a sudden knock on the door.
"Go and open the door. Don't use force."
The MIB officer standing near the door received Amber's order and immediately went to open the door. But even though Amber said not to use force, the officer still put his hand on his waist, where there was a dagger for protection.
The door opened, and a middle-aged man in ordinary linen clothes, thin and tall, with short brown curly hair, who looked like a commoner, stood at the door. There were two people standing behind him, also in ordinary linen clothes, dressed like commoners.
The lanky man glanced at the room with a trace of vigilance and nervousness on his face. The MIB officers in the room also looked at the "guest" at the door with the same vigilance. Almost at the same time, every one of them subconsciously tensed up all the muscles in their bodies.
Although the three people standing at the door were all wearing coarse linen clothes, they were definitely not commoners. The three people's skin was full and lustrous, and although they looked nervous, their eyes were bright. They obviously had not been hungry recently, and people with such characteristics... could only be from the Church District!
Just when the atmosphere suddenly became tense, Amber's voice came from the deepest part of the room. "Let them in. I know they're coming."
The officer at the door stared at the three people in front of him and stepped back slightly to let them in. After the three people entered the room, he immediately poked his head out to take a quick look at the situation outside. After confirming that no one was ambushing or following them, he quickly retreated and closed the door.
The three people who entered the room came to Amber under the watchful eyes of several people. The latter looked up and down at the tall and thin man who was obviously the leader. After a moment, she took the initiative to break the silence. "I thought you wouldn't show up. Then I can only use the backup plan."
The tall and thin man smiled bitterly. "... We've been looking for you for a long time, but we didn't expect you to be hiding so close to the Church District, right under our noses."
"The more dangerous a place is, the safer it is. Just like the more devout a place is, the less religious it is." Amber's casual words made the tall and thin man's face twitch. Then, without giving the man a chance to refute, she said, "Introduce yourself. My men are curious."
"... Savin Terry." The tall and thin man was silent for a moment, and then said with a little hesitation. "A low-grade priest, the manager of a small church in the west. These two are my friends — Amir Crete and Coleman Rodney. "
Amber nodded and casually explained to the men around her. "This man named Savin Terry was called by me. I secretly stuffed a small note on him and asked him to come."
The officers in the room were a little shocked, but they were all personally groomed by Hu Po, so they instantly realized what these three Priestesses who ran out of the church district meant. No one raised any questions, but quietly watched the development of the situation.
"To be honest, I thought you would come alone." Amber looked at the priest named Savin Terry and said with a slightly playful tone. "When I heard three footsteps, I almost gave you a death sentence."
Sylvan Terry ignored Amber's vague threat. Instead, he asked curiously, "Why did you contact me of all people?"
This tall and thin middle-aged priest was one of the priests who had been punished in the Heresy Judgement Square. He was wearing a linen robe, walking barefoot, and was watched by the disciplinary monks. However, he was not the only one who was punished at that time, which made him very curious.
Amber casually replied, "There was once a priest who was preaching in the south who passed by Loan City. His name was Wright."
"Leit … the big guy?" Savin Terry was stunned for a moment, but then he reacted. "Ah, then I understand … It seems that he is with you. I remember him. Since the reform of the Divine Arts, it is rare to see a classical priest like him. How is he doing recently? "
"Not bad. The God of Holy Light dumped him, and then he dumped the God of Holy Light. Now he is making his own holy light and teaching others how to make holy light." Amber shrugged. "I can't explain his situation in a short time. I just want to tell you one thing: Leit said that if there were a few people in Louen who still held a conscience, Savin Terry must be one of them. That's how you were chosen. "
"Holding a conscience is a rare quality of the clergy?" Savin Terry's tone was full of sarcasm, but his expression soon returned to normal. He looked at the short half-elf in front of him and the officers in the room with a complicated expression on his face. "You … or the duke behind you, what do you want?"
Amber smiled and said politely, "We want the Church of Holy Light to get out of here."
Savin Terry's face trembled again. "Aren't you afraid that I will report you to the cathedral immediately?"
"Don't say such stupid words. It will make me doubt Leit's vision. Now that things have come to this, you should be able to see the situation clearly. Do you think we are worried about your report? Besides … do you think the Church of Holy Light can still stand firm in the south? "
Savin Terry's expression was uncertain. He seemed to want to refute something, but before he could speak, Amber suddenly picked up a piece of paper from the table beside her and handed it to him. "Take a look."
Savin Terry took the paper curiously. At first, he thought it was another leaflet printed by Cecil's people, but after reading the content, his expression froze.
It was a newspaper, dated yesterday. On the first page of the newspaper, there was a line of headline written in huge font:
"Evil breeds in Louen City, millions of people in the south look forward to the lord's restoration of the Holy Light Order."
Under the horrifying headline, Savin Terry saw a scene that made him dizzy. In the lifelike black and white portrait, the Knight of the Vatican and the church soldiers in Louen City dragged the beaten and dying civilians to the stake.
This scene of a heresy trial, which had been very common in recent years, was particularly terrifying because of the angle of the photographer and the atmosphere of the square background.
"This is a newspaper. I don't know if you have heard of this when you were under lockdown, but I can tell you that this thing is published twice a week in the whole Southern Territory. Do you think there are many leaflets in the city these days? In fact … those leaflets are just the leftovers of these newspapers. "
Savin Terry let go of the newspaper in his hand in disappointment. All of his persistence and wishful thinking had disappeared.
It turned out that the terrible, overwhelming leaflets in Louen City were just the tip of the iceberg of Cecil's actions.
When he thought of how long these people had been lurking in Louen City, and how much of the situation in Louen City these people had spread out through some kind of magic power, the priest felt a chill run down his spine.
And all of this … must have been planned by the fearsome founding hero, Gawain Cecil, right?
"What can you get by banishing the Holy Light?"
The devout priest of the Holy Light finally spoke. His voice was so hoarse that it startled him.
"You're wrong about one thing. We didn't intend to banish the Holy Light from the beginning," Amber immediately corrected him. "We only want to banish the church. Only by banishing the church can the people get the Holy Light."
"Banish the church?" Savin Terry's heart, which was about to sink to the bottom, suddenly jumped. He seemed to have grasped the key point. "You mean …"
"A new Order of Holy Light … Hah, I never thought that I would actually discuss such a thing with a Holy Light Priestess, but this is my job. We will establish a new Order of Holy Light, and all of this will require a little cooperation from you."
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