Chapter 447: Chapter 433: Breaking the Myth of the Church’s Invincibility! Chapter 447: Chapter 433: Breaking the Myth of the Church’s Invincibility! Three days had swiftly passed, and the news of the Church’s punitive army’s tragic defeat, the disappearance of the Judgent Chief, and the death in battle of the forr Holy Maiden Lucia quickly spread across much of the empire.
Rumors and gossip spread like wildfire within the Holy City, as the devout Believers could not believe that the news was true—the powerful and noble Holy Maiden and the Judgent Chief, ssengers of God on Earth, had perished at the hands of those wicked demons!
Those Wizards and nobles lurking in the shadows, dissatisfied with the Church’s rule, were all fueling the spread of these rumors, so much so that within just a few days, everyone in the Holy City knew about it.
On the morning of the third day, Pope Alvis proclaid the divine oracle, announcing to all the Believers throughout the empire a sorrowful ssage—the Judgent of Doomsday was upon them!
Upon hearing this, both the empire’s nobility and common people were shocked and plunged into profound panic!
Everyone understood the implications of the Judgent of Doomsday…
In the final pages of the Holy Scriptures, the Apocalypse chapter states that the greed and sins within people’s hearts will invite the scrutiny of demons, bringing famine, disease, and plague!
Should these burgeoning sins break through a certain threshold, the demons imprisoned in the abyss would co forth to the human world, and at that ti, the entire world would undergo a great cleansing, with all souls being dragged to hell to face the Judgent of Doomsday!
Now, only the arrival of the Lord Himself on Earth could halt this calamity of the Apocalypse!
“Let us offer our most devout faith to the greatest, holiest, most righteous, and rciful Lord!” the resounding voice of Pope Alvis echoed throughout the Holy City.
Hundreds of thousands of Believers knelt down, so loudly praising the holy song, while others wept and confessed their own sins, praying for the great Lord to bestow salvation and deliver them from plunging into the abyss!
…
While the Church was fabricating reasons for the defeat of its army, inside Fire Oil City, the victorious Wizard Council was also troubled by various tedious issues.
For in this battle, they too had incurred losses, with more than half of the one hundred or so airships tasked with diverting the Church’s main forces getting damaged, and casualties exceeding two thousand people!
The Council’s top warriors were nearly all injured!
Harrov had endured a full-powered blow from Lucia, and Vittorio’s eyes were blinded by a nuclear blast; both were recovering.
As for Lynn, after breaking through to the level of a fifth-ring Wizard, though he no longer risked falling into brain death when drawing upon the power of the magic web, doing so for extended periods could still cause significant spiritual exhaustion.
The Wizards who attacked Fire Oil City were also scattered and injured by the Judgent Chief Joshua, with two of them falling on the spot.
This had happened only because Lynn’s strategy had worked, preventing them from having to engage the Church directly in combat. The powerful Saintess Lucia and tens of thousands of Church’s punitive army had all perished in the nuclear blast; otherwise, the casualties would have been even more severe!
Therefore, after their victory, the Council did not hastily pursue their advantage but instead took so ti to recover.
After several battles within the year and a large number of injured, the Council’s stockpile of Magic Potions was nearly depleted, not to ntion a very critical problem of radiation that needed to be addressed!
Fire Oil City was less than seven kiloters from the closest point of the nuclear blast!
Such close proximity ant that they would inevitably be affected by the radiation, and the water from the nearby river could no longer be used for irrigation or consumption!
In the recent days, a number of Wizards had suggested abandoning the city or even destroying it!
Yet Lynn had vetoed the idea!
Because the population of Fire Oil City was vast and the townspeople’s resistance strong, a large-scale relocation was not feasible.
The most critical aspect is its geographical location, which isn’t far from the oil field and hence has value worth preserving.
Considering this, Lynn and a group of Alchemists racked their brains and, based on the properties of radiation, constructed a magical barrier that covered the entire city, capable of blocking those dangerous rays from entering.
Several days later, the personnel dispatched to gather intelligence gradually returned, and the Wizard Council reconvened a eting of its mbers.
Shaping Wizard Del gave a succinct report of the intelligence collected in recent days.
Deciding the outco of a battle isn’t just about tactics, resource mobilization, and the ability to fight head-on; the gathering of intelligence is also crucial. The council naturally placed great emphasis on this and had made early arrangents.
Shaping Wizards, adept in magic transformation, undoubtedly had a distinct advantage in intelligence collection.
Aside from being able to transform into specific creatures, they could also modify their own appearance to a certain extent.
If they could find soone with a similar shape and face, coupled with the mory search of Spiritual Energy Wizards, they could replace that person entirely, operating covertly with a legitimate identity.
Of course, such disguise wasn’t unbreakable. In the face of powerful clergy, the magic power within them could very possibly be detected, which is why Del and the others didn’t dare to get too close to the Holy City. They could only gather information by interrogating the passing rchant caravans.
When they heard that the news of the crusading army’s defeat had spread through half the empire via various rchants, Lynn and the others were quite surprised.
“So quickly? Didn’t the Church try to stop this news from spreading?” Harrov frowned and asked in confusion.
“According to what we know, they didn’t,” Del said with a hint of hesitation. “Instead, those Priests and Bishops are fanning the flas, using this to promote the Judgent of Doomsday described in the scriptures.”
“Judgent of Doomsday?”
Harrov and the others were taken aback. What did this have to do with the end of the world?
Del quickly related what he had learned about the clergy’s claims concerning the approach of the end tis.
After listening, those present were utterly speechless. One had to admit, the Church’s ability to hoodwink its Believers was off the charts!
They could even spin this around!
“They really can concoct quite the tale!” Vittorio sneered and shook his head, seeing through the opponent’s intentions.
Rather than waiting for the news to arrive and cause chaos within the empire, shaking the faith of the Believers, it was better to co up with a suitable reason to muddle through.
“Looks like your plans are going to fall through!” Aurora looked at Lynn and said laughingly.
“No matter, this news isn’t just for those fanatical Believers!” Lynn shrugged, not too concerned.
The entire empire wasn’t a unified block; the conflicts between divine authority, nobility, and populace weren’t unique to the kingdom alone.
It was just that in the past, the Church’s power shone like the midday sun, suppressing all rebellion, making these issues seem less noticeable. But once a sign of decline appeared, these problems would resurge!
So no matter how those Priests and Bishops tried to justify it in various ways, they couldn’t change one ironclad fact—the crusading army was facing consecutive defeats in the kingdom!
They shattered the myth of the Church’s invincibility!
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