Turadin's blazing gaze locked onto Cheng Shi, her eyes brimming with gratitude and trust.
Cheng Shi swallowed hard, his smile frozen stiff enough to frighten.
'Bro — no, sis — no... whatever. First things first: your decision was entirely of your own volition and had nothing whatsoever to do with .
All the Corruption coming out of my mouth is fake. But you — you look terrifyingly real.'
Absolutely terrifying!
"So the father of the child in your belly — the future you, Aph Ros — where did he go?"
Turadin's face darkened.
"He stole the Descent Technique and imdiately used it to bestow a child upon . But he chose not to flee.
Because he is . We both understand our father. That cold-blooded Head of Church Berios — if he wanted to quell tonight's chaos, he would certainly make an example of soone. And if that soone were , the effect would be unexpectedly powerful.
Besides, he knew it was . The seals in the library were all crafted by his own hand — only the blood of Berios's bloodline could undo them. The mont soone broke the seal on the Descent Technique, His Eminence the Head of Church had already sentenced his own child to death.
So Aph Ros is dead. He sacrificed himself so that our Holy Infant could co into the world."
Turadin's voice dropped low, but after stroking her belly a few tis, a renewed light began to shine in her eyes.
"But they don't know anyone nad Aph Ros. All they know is that the Head of Church's child is dead.
So Turadin is dead — killed beneath the God Descent summoned by his own father.
And the one standing before you now is a follower of Corruption, your sister, the mother of the Holy Infant — Aph Ros.
Well, my brother? Do you like my new na?"
"..."
"..."
"..."
Cheng Shi didn't dare utter a word, because he rembered what Turadin had just explained: children born through the Descent Technique grow up to beco identical copies of the caster.
So, in this tapestry painted with the colors of Birth, Corruption, and Ti, the final scene was...
The present Aph Ros and the future Aph Ros had together conceived a new Aph Ros, soon to be born.
"..."
Cheng Shi clenched his hands helplessly, his mind in utter disarray. Watching Turadin's belly visibly swelling before his very eyes, he suddenly thought of his Birth acquaintance.
'Hiss—'
'If Hu Xuan were here too, could this situation get even more convoluted?'
The instant that thought surfaced, Cheng Shi shook his head furiously, flinging the mad tangent from his mind.
He looked at Turadin with a complicated expression, fell silent for a mont, and finally steered the conversation back on track.
"Fine. Regardless of everything else, our plan so far has been... going smoothly. Yes, smoothly.
Now we have the Holy Infant too. Everything is in place.
It's ti to spread the news of the Holy Infant — to let everyone know that far above in the starry sky, a new deity has begun to turn its gaze toward Dolgod!
I never told you about my Lord's divine na propagation plan. Not because I didn't trust you, but because without the Holy Infant, any plan would be nothing but castles in the air.
But now things are different. Now we can launch the plan.
And this plan is called — Joy Under Fear!"
"Joy Under Fear?" Turadin murmured the na under her breath, her eyes alight with excitent.
Gao Ya watched this NPC being led along so thoroughly and turned her head away, barely suppressing a contemptuous snicker. She couldn't help herself, but she also didn't dare sabotage Cheng Shi's plan. So she compromised — mocking in a whisper.
Scorpio was dumbfounded again. He hadn't expected the accident he'd caused to sohow find its way back on track, yet he also couldn't recall Cheng Shi ever ntioning a plan called "Joy Under Fear."
He looked at Cheng Shi, his heart a turmoil of emotions.
'Bro, just how many plans have you got hidden in there?'
'Watching you turn Turadin into... this — honestly, it's a little frightening. You wouldn't be pulling the sa thing on , would you?'
Cheng Shi naturally had no idea Scorpio was badmouthing him internally — and that for once, his suspicion had hit the mark. He nodded and continued addressing Turadin:
"That's right — Joy Under Fear.
Fear is our Lord's gift. Joy is our Lord's guidance.
If we want His existence to be accepted by Dolgod's ordinary Birth-following citizens, conventional evangelism won't work. Their minds have been so thoroughly poisoned they've hardened into stone. They refuse to adapt. Their devotion is blindly fanatical."
Gao Ya's eyelid twitched at those words. She shot Cheng Shi a look and opened her mouth — then closed it again.
Cheng Shi gave her a aningful glance, then pressed on:
"So we need to take an unconventional approach. First, we strip away the shell of their fanatical faith. Then, into their exposed, vulnerable hearts, we drive a shot of pure Corruption will — straight into the core!
Step one: spread Corruption's divine na as widely as possible. Fabricate terrifying stories of blasphemy against Birth. Plunge all of Dolgod into fear.
Of course, we cannot allow the Theocracy of Growth to trace any of it back to a source — otherwise the fear won't have ti to build.
Once fear has blanketed every corner of Dolgod, we find a way to introduce Corruption's true will. We show the fearful masses that He isn't terrifying at all — that He is, in fact, quite 'joyful.'
The release that cos after sustained fear will amplify the citizens' emotional pendulum to its extre, and they'll experience manifold happiness. Our Lord's will would then be like a seed dropped into the fertile soil of their hearts — slowly germinating.
By the ti they realize that following Corruption lets them live far more freely and unreservedly than following Birth, the deity watching over this city from the sky above... might just change."
With every sentence Cheng Shi spoke, Turadin grew more fired up. Judging by her expression, she wanted nothing more than to execute the plan that very instant and change the Theocracy's allegiance within days.
But Cheng Shi had no intention of actually accomplishing all this in a matter of days. His real goal was to buy ti. As long as Turadin gave birth and they endured the trial's remaining duration, whatever Dolgod beca afterward was none of his concern.
And the trial's fiction wouldn't beco real history anyway — after all, there were no more followers of mory here.
"That's the general idea. As for the specific execution, I think that you, Aph Ros, understand this far better than I do."
With Cheng Shi's encouragent, Turadin swept aside the hurricane of emotions on her face and gave a firm, resolute nod.
This galvanizing mont had finally arrived. She felt as though she could see the most brilliant ray of dawn piercing through the darkness — the brightest possible future for Dolgod.
And so she smiled — a genuine, heartfelt smile — one so radiant it drained the color from the entire room, leaving the three people present seeing nothing but Turadin's breathtaking face.
"Aph Ros... what a hopeful na."
Turadin chuckled softly, then turned serious. "To be honest, I don't actually know how to do any of this."
???
That single sentence plunged all three into silence.
Cheng Shi stumbled and nearly face-planted on flat ground.
Gao Ya almost failed to restrain her contemptuous glare, hastily turning her head to channel her entire reservoir of ridicule at the ceiling.
Cheng Shi's expression froze into sothing ugly. He managed a strained laugh and was about to speak when Turadin continued, as if delivering a dramatic pause:
"But I can find soone who does."
Phew—
'Thank goodness. Almost broke character mid-bluff.'
If the Head of Church's offspring he'd worked so hard to protect turned out to be dead weight, Cheng Shi's reputation would've been utterly ruined.
"Who?"
"Soone I don't particularly like.
If we want to fabricate blasphemies against Birth that provoke the Church's wrath and the public's terror, we need soone who understands the Church — and understands Dolgod even better.
I know Dolgod well enough. But when it cos to the Church, I'm only familiar with its vulnerabilities. This person knows the Church inside and out — even better than I know my own father, Head of Church Berios.
The things that terrify the Church and the Head of Church — I imagine this person would find them rather delightful.
And he's probably the true culprit behind tonight's chaos. He seized the opportunity created by the commotion you started to move against my father — driving the great and selfless Head of Church to rcilessly kill his own son.
So I believe seeking him out is the right move."
Cheng Shi raised an eyebrow, sowhat surprised. "It sounds like he's your father's rival within the Church?"
"Precisely, my brother. You truly are perceptive."
"...Save the flattery for later. If he's a follower of Birth, do you really think he'd help us just for the sake of political infighting?"
"One needn't be a follower of Birth before becoming Head of Church, my brother. We're not the only two clever people in this world.
Lis Field isn't truly devout toward Birth. He's simply enamored with the power that Birth grants him.
If Corruption could offer him that sa power, his faith would be Corruption. And aren't we in need of soone to manage Dolgod in His na?"
Perfect!
Admiration flashed through Cheng Shi's eyes. He nearly started a round of applause for Turadin.
'You — you were born to belong to Corruption.'
This Lis Field character sounded like a pitiful soul enslaved by his lust for power. Then again, the thirst for power was itself a species of desire within the Sea of Desire — making him a "colleague" of sorts.
Still, he had to wonder — was this Theocracy of Growth genuinely not a Corruption incubator in disguise?
...
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