Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 102 Living Saints and Authority
Living saint ?
After seeing clearly the shadow vaguely emerging behind the other person, William frowned slightly.
Being able to send a "living saint" to this place, it seems that the Holy Spirit Church attaches much more importance to Ravenwood than one expected.
You know, even one thousand and eight years ago, when legendary wizards were everywhere, extraordinary creatures appeared in large numbers, and high-level moon-realm monsters descended on the world every few days, the "living saints" of the church were absolutely rare.
How rare is it?
Before the seven disasters, the Holy Spirit Church was still the largest force in the entire continent, and their most important pillar was the number of living saints in the church, which reached a historical peak at that time - as many as nine people.
At its peak, there were less than two handfuls of them on the entire continent.
Of course, later on, in order to personify the Holy Spirit, the church directly sacrificed seven of them, which led to widespread disasters. That is another matter.
If the player opens the "God Scroll Reader" career file, the top title is "Living Saint". Unlike the "Magic Chanter" profession, which can upgrade all thirteen spells to the top configuration, the "God Scroll Reader" cannot become a "Living Saint" of seven holy spirits at the same time - the player can only follow three holy spirits at most at the same time... Although William thinks it is unreasonable to believe in three holy spirits at the same time.
As for the strength of the "living saint"... In the Judgment Seat, as the "Divine Scroll Master", Discipline Markus follows three holy spirits, "Father", "Boy" and "Sage". In the encounter battle, the fully equipped Markus can be said to be the first person under the Chief Judge.
If he were an enemy, Marcus's fighting power would be so great that even William would find it difficult to deal with him.
Of course, it might be too exaggerated to say that the gap between Marcus, who could summon three solid shadows of the Holy Spirit at the same time, and the guy in front of him who could only barely summon a simulated shadow of the Holy Spirit, was like that between humans and ants. But it was at least a little bigger than the gap between a six-year-old child and a world free-fighting champion.
Even though William was under a bunch of debuffs at the moment, it wouldn't take much effort to kill the opponent. At least it was easier than killing a demon general in the Moon Realm.
So, William just watched the other person take out the silver ring that looked very familiar to him and put it on his hand.
The shadow behind him quickly became solid—the Holy Spirit "mother" with a halo behind her head appeared with a baby in her arms and a loving expression on her face.
Holy Spirit Guardian Ring?
Seeing this, William couldn't help but be a little surprised.
Such an immediate effect, it doesn’t seem fake.
The seven-piece set of Holy Spirit Guardian Rings was the most advanced artifact in the hands of the Divine Enlightened. But for the Mage, they could only be used as accessories to avoid damage. Previously in Black Crow, he relied on the seven Holy Spirit Guardian Rings to block the direct attack from the four Void Kings.
Using the Holy Spirit to protect like he did was like using a photolithography machine as a shelter.
In fact, in the main storyline of the magic caster profession, the protagonist should have returned the ring after sealing the seven largest moon rifts.
After all, it was a holy object that the Holy Spirit Church kept as a treasure.
However, William adhered to the principle that since I bought the game, the things in the game belong to me, and he did not return them until the game was closed.
"Let's continue, Mr. Unknown Magic Chanter."
After putting on the ring, the man said this with a confident smile on his face.
In an instant, the entire hall, which seemed to be deep in the internal organs and full of wriggling flesh walls, was covered with thorny yellow vines.
As soon as William saw him, he was tied up like a dumpling.
This is the strength of the "Living Saints". They are not casting spells, and do not need to go through the complete steps of communication, construction, and chanting. As long as they practice the path of the Holy Spirit, then as long as they are within the authority of the Holy Spirit, their wishes will directly become reality.
Opponents of the same level can only resist their attacks but cannot evade them.
The thorny vines kept tightening, looking like a slowly running meat grinder. What the other party said before, that he would give William a death as peaceful as sleep, now seemed to be pure nonsense.
William thought so as he looked outside through the gaps between the vines.
Then he noticed that the other forest elves in the entire hall remained unmoved even though the place was turned upside down.
It was as if they didn't notice the withered yellow vines growing wildly around them. Occasionally, the thorns on the vines scratched their arms and ankles, but they were completely unmoved.
Recalling the man's strange reaction when he used [Declaration] to pin him next to the Forest Druyin, William's previous guess once again surfaced in his mind.
So he decided to verify it.
【Calamity Fire】
The bright red flames lingering around William instantly ignited the withered vines. Then, like a lit fuse, they rushed out along the vines, weaving a dense fire net throughout the hall.
This time, the forest elves reacted.
They either screamed or wailed as they dodged the flames that suddenly burst out . Some people cursed William, and some even rushed over with weapons ready to fight him.
Of course, those few scattered people were instantly pinned down by the gargoyles.
As expected...
William exclaimed.
As Zhuamala said, the two timelines intersected under the resonance of the Moon Source, but not in the way William had imagined before.
Just as he had learned before, two different timelines were not two different parallel worlds. Because the nature of the present world determined that there would only ever be one true history that was fixed and became the only timeline - after all, the concept of "present world" originally meant that the overflowing creative essence of the Realm of Light was transformed into a stable reality.
What ultimately determines which timeline is fixed is the "right of discipline" that the Void Kings have repeatedly mentioned.
According to William's inference, more than a thousand years ago, the "right to discipline" was largely the embodiment of the power of "players".
It's similar to the fact that even if a player can have countless save files, and there are more possibilities that are abandoned due to failures, the present world will only continue in the possibility that the player is in.
Now, William suddenly recalled many meta elements that game developers designed into the game:
For example, after a player fails to conquer a certain Void King's incarnation several times, the system will thoughtfully pop up a reminder that seems to be mocking no matter how you look at it - "You are dead, do you want to lower the difficulty to play the game?" If the player chooses "yes", there is a chance that the Void Kings will say lines that break the fourth wall, such as "I feel like I have become weaker", "Another useless attempt?", "How many more times do you want to fail?"
For example, if a player is stuck at a level for a long time, they can choose to turn on the "hint mode", where they will be able to see a shadow prompting them to pass the level, as well as a bloodstain warning where big data calculates the number of deaths of the player.
Before, William ignored these things as insignificant details, but what if these details that seemed to be the developer's bad taste were actually part of the world's order?
And what kind of truth about the world can be inferred from those terrifying places when we think about them carefully?
William felt a little numb as he looked at the forest elves who were out of control.
His previous idea was completely wrong - after he came to this timeline created by Ms. Hungry, he subconsciously still regarded it as a parallel world with different development.
That's why he felt that what Juamala said about breaking the barrier between the two timelines through the resonance of the Source of the Moon would at best only allow him to temporarily return to the original timeline.
Only now did he realize that the result of the two timelines interweaving was that he was actually in two different timelines at the same time. All his actions would have an impact in both timelines at the same time.
However, due to the limitations of mortal observation perspective, he and the living saint of the Holy Spirit Church could only see the scene on one side.
In this way, William also knew how to communicate with Remedios and the others across the timeline.
…………
"Burn it, burn it. I want to see how long your magic can last."
Sigmund used the "Guardian of the Holy Spirit" in his hand as a medium, constantly calling on the mother's authority and mobilizing the laws to suppress the wizard of the divine realm.
All the vines were burned clean, and had no effect on him at all.
The divinely inspired ones are different from other extraordinary people. They do not need to consume any "mental power" or "magic power" to gain the power to change reality; nor do they have to worry about the ancient gods swallowing up their will and being reborn in their own bodies.
As long as he is carrying out the will of the Holy Spirit, there will be no limit to their power.
At this moment, he has risen to become a "living saint" because of his merits. Wearing the protection of the pseudo-holy spirit and gaining the care of the "mother", he can call upon almost unlimited power.
Unless in this space, there is a soul or creature that is closer to the Holy Spirit "Mother" than him.
But this is absolutely impossible. At this moment and in this place, even the Patriarch of the Second Order cannot be closer to the "Mother" in spirit than him.
After resisting several waves of his attacks, the magic caster from the divine realm finally seemed to be running out of energy.
"Hey, can we discuss something?"
The man seemed to be tired and withdrew his technique, and asked this.
"Do you want to discuss how you will die?"
Sigmund asked with a sneer.
"Of course not. I hope you can help pass the message between me and Remedios."
The man replied.
The smile on Sigmund's lips became even more intense.
"Why don't you wait until she goes to hell and tell her yourself."
The mage sighed, then reached into his storage space, groping for something and saying:
"For a divinely inspired being, even one who has reached the level of a living saint, the biggest drawback of their power system is that they must carry out the will of the Holy Spirit, otherwise their power will be greatly weakened or even ineffective."
He pulled his hand back and took out something.
"But the will of the Holy Spirit is complex in itself. After all, the Holy Spirit itself has never spoken. Generally speaking, it is relayed by those who claim to have received oracles. Some are completely incomprehensible dreams, some are true words mixed with lies that benefit themselves, and some are simply made up. However, what they have in common is that they will form groups, create an image of authority, and try to monopolize the right to interpret the scriptures."
"Therefore, the will of the Holy Spirit is often misinterpreted as the will of the Holy Spirit Church. And the will of the Holy Spirit Church is essentially a kind of false authority. Do you want to guess what those false authorities love to do the most?"
The man said calmly.
"What?"
Sigmund couldn't help but ask.
For some reason, the man's words made him feel very uneasy. He stared at the other person's movements - at this moment, the man covered his left hand and put something on it.
"They like to place their authority on dead objects. This way, they can pass on authority and power to those who are not qualified to possess them in the first place. For example, you, and those church leaders who later merged with the Riel Empire."
"What do you want to say?"
Sigmund asked loudly.
The man smiled and showed him the thing he had just put on his finger.
Sigmund felt his breathing and heartbeat stop the moment he saw the thing clearly.
"I would say that for people like you, this symbol of authority is more influential than preaching and violence."
On the index finger of the man's left hand, he wore a cracked Holy Spirit Guardian ring.
And the moment the ring appeared, the shadow of the Holy Spirit behind Sigmund dimmed into a vague dotted line.
