Chapter 1

Inside the cathedral, lights blazed, and the combined spiritual power of thousands of clergy and the accumulated sacred attributes of the temple itself created a clear division between the cathedral and the outside world. The outside world was shrouded in heavy dark clouds, and the low, oppressive abnormal celestial phenomena seemed to foreshadow the coming turmoil and tribulation. Yet, just a wall away, the interior of the cathedral was filled with warmth and light.

However, even with the "holy ground" attributes of the cathedral, the bright lights could not dispel the nervousness and unease of the clergy.

The Pope had locked himself in the prayer room for over twelve hours. During this time, there were dozens of powerful bursts of divine magic from within. No one knew if this first "dialogue with God" in centuries would be successful. For the newly appointed Pope Otumus, this was the career challenge he faced as a clergyman. For the entire Radiant Order, it was the moment to verify whether the traditions passed down through countless generations were correct—if the Pope successfully heard the divine will and a miracle occurred, then the Order's millennia of tradition would be confirmed, and its foundation would be unshakeable. But if the Pope failed...

Then the Radiant Order would be finished. All previous debates and interpretations of doctrine would be meaningless. As a church that served a true god, the church's value would cease to exist the moment the true god denied its significance.

The young acolyte came to the front of the prayer room, where several bishops were already waiting. He respectfully greeted them and whispered to one of them, "Has His Holiness not come out yet?"

"The Pope is still praying," the bishop replied expressionlessly.

"Marshal Aufra is already in the cathedral," the young acolyte said, "She carries the King's decree."

"But no one can enter before the prayer is over," the bishop shook his head, "Perhaps the Pope's dialogue with God has reached a crucial moment."

The young acolyte nodded slightly and waited with the bishops in front of the prayer room door.

Inside the prayer room, Pope Otumus's dialogue with God was indeed at its most crucial moment.

The Goddess of Creation was imparting to him special prayers that could resist the spiritual erosion of the Lord of Madness. Along with them, she was also imparting a large number of powerful divine spells and rituals that had been lost in ancient times.

Otumus had been baptized since birth, and had received theological education in the Radiant Order as an altar boy from the age of five. But in his decades-long life, he had never been so excited as he was today—the knowledge imparted by the God was so precious, especially those parts that had been lost in thousands of years of tradition. Generations of clergy had exhausted their efforts to restore those divine spell models from fragments of ancient scrolls. Almost everyone believed that the ancient knowledge could not be completely restored, and that the loss of that knowledge was a punishment that mortals had to bear for their arrogance. But who could have imagined that one day they would be restored in this way?

The God not only did not blame her people for their dullness and forgetfulness, but personally re-taught everything.

Otumus believed that he was probably the luckiest Pope in the history of the Radiant Order.

As for the unintelligible words that the God occasionally muttered while imparting this knowledge, such as "much simpler than the Five-Three", "one lesson one practice is so useful", and "there are actually four ways to solve this problem", Otumus believed that these were precisely the embodiment of the God's profound thoughts—anyway, he couldn't understand them.

But before recording the divine spell models, he first carefully recorded the prayers that could resist the erosion of madness. After all, when it came to inheriting knowledge, one had to survive first to be qualified to discuss it.

As the divine light gradually dissipated, Otumus looked at the enchanted scrolls that had already been filled with various spell models and prayer originals, and said devoutly in his heart: "My Lord, I have recorded these things."

"Very good, next I will also issue edicts to all believers around the world. They will know what is about to happen in this world, but not everyone can use high-level divine spells—therefore I will give you the original texts of the prayers. You must send them to all bishops and clergy above the rank of bishop. Within a month, you must master the method of using these prayers and set up defenses all over the world.

"Remember, from the moment you receive these prayers, you bear the responsibility of protecting the people. You will directly face the erosion of that mad monster on the soul level, and face the most terrifying side of this universe...

"If anyone feels that their will is not firm, they should withdraw in advance. I will not blame them, because such a wise withdrawal will prevent loopholes in the defense of the mortal world in advance—but if they choose to accept, then they must persevere to the end, and I will always be with you.

"Remember, you are not fighting alone."

Otumus felt his heart being touched like never before. He devoutly prostrated himself before the sacred portrait: "Lord, I am ready!"

"Then go, I still have two questions to write..."

Otumus touched the ground with his forehead in awe, then stood up, but just before he left the prayer room, the Goddess of Creation's will suddenly swept over again: "Wait, Otumus, there's one more thing."

The Pope immediately stopped and turned to the sacred portrait: "My Lord, please instruct me."

"What exactly is drawn on this chaotic mess in front of you that looks like an abstract painting?"

"...Huh?"

At this moment, Otumus felt that his life as a clergyman was facing the greatest challenge in history!

"Lord... we drew you..."

"...Huh?"

At this moment, Leah, who was billions of light-years away, also felt that her life as a goddess was facing the greatest challenge in history!

After a small amount of awkwardness (well, in Otumus's view, it was a huge amount of awkwardness), the two sides finally reached a mutual understanding and consensus on the issue of the sacred portrait. The new sacred image would replace those abstract patterns handed down from the "Chaos Age", and in order to ease the overly awkward atmosphere, Otumus had to find a new topic: "My Lord, the abnormal celestial phenomena today..."

The goddess's voice sounded a little confused: "What's wrong with the celestial phenomena?"

"Is it also foreshadowing the upcoming turmoil and chaos? We need to explain all this to the believers..."

There was a two-second delay before the Goddess of Creation's voice came again: "Ah, my power sweeps across the world, and occasionally it will cause some abnormal weather due to reactions with the free energy in the atmosphere. It actually has no predictive function."

Otumus: "...Then how should we respond?"

"So you guys hurry home and collect your clothes! Why is this child so stupid!"

Otumus: "..."

The door of the prayer room finally opened.

The young acolyte and several bishops who had been waiting outside the door quickly stepped forward. They saw that Pope Otumus had a tired expression on his face that they had never seen before.

Communicating with God was indeed a heavy burden for mortals. Even the most powerful Pope in the church could not bear it—the bishops had such thoughts unanimously after seeing Otumus's staggering footsteps.

"Your Holiness," a bishop came to the Pope, "The divine will..."

"God has descended," Otumus said before the other party could finish, and at the same time took out the scroll from his arms that was filled with surging divine power. The divine power emanating from the scroll, the purity of which far exceeded the imagination of human clergy, immediately shocked everyone, causing the devout priests present to bow involuntarily. "This is the knowledge He has bestowed. The Lord has also issued a decree, ordering us to unite and prepare to face the greatest challenge in the history of this world. I will tell everyone the specific situation at a bishop's meeting later."

The bishops bowed and prayed devoutly, their voices full of joy and determination: "Praise our Lord."

Otumus took a breath, tried to calm his mind, and then continued: "Our Lord also has two other edicts..."

The bishops said in unison: "Please enlighten us, Your Holiness."

"First of all, the sacred portrait should be repainted. As we discussed in several previous meetings, our current sacred portrait is a collective hallucination produced under the spiritual interference of the 'eldest son'. Because the eldest son was contaminated by evil forces, the sacred portrait was also distorted—the goddess did not blame us for this, but we must repaint the image of the god."

As he spoke, he took out another scroll: "God has descended an inspiration, and the new sacred image can be drawn based on this."

A bishop took the scroll, as if holding the key to guide the fate of the world, and solemnly unfolded it. He saw that the scroll depicted a very beautiful little girl, who was putting one hand on her hip and stretching out the other hand towards the viewer, making a V sign.

The bishops: "..."

Otumus: "..."

"The divine will is the divine will," after a long time, Otumus said firmly, "Just do it."

One of the bishops finally reacted: "Then... what about the other edict?"

"The goddess told us not to guess about the weather, and quickly notify everyone to go home and collect their clothes."

The bishops: "..."

Otumus closed his eyes, and in an instant, he seemed to have aged ten years: "The divine will is the divine will."

The bishops finally dispersed, and Otumus finally breathed a sigh of relief. In just these short ten minutes, he felt that he and the previous Pope did have a considerable gap—although their qualifications were similar, his state of mind really needed to be tempered.

He also noticed the young acolyte who was still standing there. As the other party walked towards him, he took the initiative to say: "Marshal Aufra should have been waiting for a long time, right?"

"She is waiting for you in the cathedral—she refused our arrangement to send her to the lounge."

"In the Radiant Order, which advocates purity and asceticism, the lounge is not much more comfortable than the hall," the Pope nodded slightly and walked forward, "Let's go see her together. A war is about to begin. God is already in position on the battlefield of God, and people should also step onto the battle line of people."