SWNOVELXO Chapter 91: Epic Blessing
An Su and Luojia ascended to the second floor, pushed open the heavy door, and as they gazed down from the balcony, they could see the dense crowd below.
The conferring of knighthood by the Celestial Church was unlike the secular notion of knighthood.
As the molders of the Nether World, one has the right to pioneer the fragments of that world for a year, along with the responsibility and obligation to establish new churches there. To some extent, it's like being a temporary appointed district bishop.
Though there were no believers, no church, and no resources, everything had to be built from scratch—it was, after all, a glorious privilege, hence the ceremony.
Such bishops, unlike the real bishops, were uniformly known as 'Nether Bishops.'
Their rank was actually not that high.
Not even as high as a real-world priest.
A real-world bishop could even serve as a Nether Bishop for a dozen or more fragmented worlds.
However, for a novice not yet formally inducted into the Church, to become a Nether Bishop was astonishing and scandalous.
Luojia sprinkled water from the Holy Grail onto An Su's head and then rested the sword symbolizing the Holy Light on An Su's shoulders, tapping it three times. She went on tiptoes to place the holy emblem on the left chest of the youth.
The cheers of the populace grew even more enthusiastic.
"Alright, go outside," Luojia said.
An Su went up to the balcony.
Apart from the onlooking believers, there were also quite a few reporters. As soon as An Su appeared, the flashes from the magic cameras were aimed at him.
For the public, completely clearing a second-order world fragment was not novel; what was novel was that this victor was not yet fifteen years old.
And he was quite handsome.
That was a very marketable quality.
"He's coming out, he's coming out!"
"Mr. An Su, what do you think about this victory?"
"What are your feelings right now?"
Everyone eagerly fixed their eyes on An Su above the balcony, each face beaming with joyous smiles; Luojia stood beside An Su, her face also wearing a smile, but her eyes were filled with worry as they looked at An Su.
After all, such a large event was rather daunting to handle.
As planned, An Su was to give an inaugural speech next, and then receive the blessings of the deities.
For her as the Holy Maiden, such occasions were the most troublesome; it was An Su's first visit to the Imperial Capital, so perhaps stage fright would take hold of him?
He had once told Luojia that he was quite introverted by nature...
Looking at the profile of An Su's face, Luojia saw a faint smile on his lips.
An Su's smile was subtle, merely a flash across the corner of his mouth. Had Luojia not observed carefully, she would not have noticed it at all.
Having spent a month with him in the border city, she understood his behavioral tendencies quite well. Every time he smiled like this—he was about to cause trouble.
"Did we triumph?"
"Did we truly triumph?" An Su's voice was deep, filled with profound pity.
Once An Su spoke, the entire venue fell silent in an instant.
You're going to act up again... Priest Paxi watched him from below, feeling his face twitching involly.
"One hundred and twenty-one saints, in this war, I lost no less than one hundred and twenty-one brothers, as close as my own limbs," An Su's eyes shimmered with sorrow, each word utterly sincere,
"If this were a real battlefield, all my dear brothers would have died, and I could not call it a 'victory.'
What a bunch of beastly brothers...
Looking down from the stars, the Celestial Messenger stared at his abstract speech: You've served your brothers as dishes on the Mother Goddess's table.
"They've contracted severe aftermath symptoms, some weeping profusely, some shouting their parents' names, some even crawled out of the Church, their honor gradually slipping away beneath them..." An Su's voice grew deeper.
Just shut up already!
It was so hard to suppress this!
Priest Paxi wanted to cut off An Su's magic microphone.
"Alice, Shana, and Rosen..." As if calling roll for the underworld, An Su read out one name after another, and every saint he called felt an unbearable shame.
Is this guy a demon?
The reporters hastily jotted down names in their notebooks. Yeah, let's write that these people all peed their pants and cried for their mothers.
"I will not forget their sacrifice,"
An Su spoke with solemn gravity, "But I cannot tolerate that all these sacrifices only led to such an outcome; it can hardly be counted as a victory."
So many churchgoers were offered, yet the rewards were scant; An Su was greatly dissatisfied.
"I shall continue to advance,"
The tone of An Su's voice steadily rose to an energetic pitch, his arms waving about, his movements filled with vigor, "Have you ever understood how much a churchgoer's life is worth in the Church of the Mother Goddess in terms of life points?"
"Three life points."
That was knowledge from the church textbook, but ordinary folks had never been exposed to such information, and upon hearing this harsh number, many were bewildered and disconcerted.
It was a shocking revelation.
The veil was brutally pierced by An Su, leaving the masses shocked and stunned.
So many... no wonder the Esoteric Religion hunts down Orthodox believers, many citizens secretly thought.
So few... no wonder the Esoteric Religion fares so poorly, An Su thought to himself.
"You might say, Mr. Chenxing, I need a blessing from the goddess. Yes, you're right, blessings are indeed too important. But I have to tell you, there is something in this world that's even more important than life, and that is freedom! That is dignity!"
The churchgoers need to train well, so they can fetch a good price when offered; just three life points really is downright shameful!
No dignity at all.
"As long as the banner of the Painful Esoteric Sect still flutters over the Nether World, our dignity is nonexistent! As long as those Chaos Followers, those followers of the life creed, rampage across our lands, our dignity is nonexistent!"
Esoteric believers could offer a good price; An Su wanted to offer all the esoteric believers in Nether World.
"What we need is not just a blessing from the goddess! We need a radiant future! An ordered world!"
Not just the goddess's blessings, An Su would also take those from the Mother Goddess.
"It's not achieved through begging or protest, but through iron and blood!"
An Su's words seemed to possess magic, filled with the passion that stirs hearts. Each sentence he emphasized swelled with rhythm, and every shout that reached to the marrow seeped deep into the minds of the common believers.
Their infectivity continued to spread among the crowd.
"We shall pioneer, in unknown territories, in uninhabited regions, throughout the vast world."
"I, An Su Moningsta, have become the Nether Bishop of Seden Town,"
"I hope some of you will walk this path with me,"
"My fellow kin,"
The previous lines were all a buildup; his last sentence was An Su's ultimate goal.
After the world stabilized, even ordinary believers could enter the world fragments,
but, ultimately, world fragments were far from reality, and few civilians wished to go there.
Seden Town's church construction needed oxen and horses to build!
Even more, it lacked believers to preach.
He intended to trick people into going there.
You're not working for An Su, but for a radiant future!
Of course, An Su would still pay double the wages, as money was the least of his concerns.
The public gazed at An Su on the stage, the splendid celestial light pouring over him, making the young man appear so divine.
Many youths became impassioned, An Su's speech was so compelling,
they began to shout together, "Morning star! Morning star! Morning star!"
"We don't fight for sacrifice, we fight for radiance! We are not machines, not oxen, not horses, we are people! The undying children of God!"
An Su spouted utter nonsense through his speech, placing his left hand gently against his chest, his right index finger drawing a cross, then opening his palm to extend outward—this was the benediction ritual of the Radiant Holy See.
"My fellow kin, glory to the light, forevermore!"
Moved by the speech, the attending believers joined in the chanting,
"Glory to the light, forevermore!"
"Glory to the light, forevermore!"
Watching the fervent An Su beside her, Luojia silently facepalmed,
What happened to being introverted…?
After the speech concluded, it was time for the divine blessing.
An Su stepped forward, maintaining the pose of the Holy Light, as Celestial Priests also activated the terminal to communicate with the divine, converging their sacred gazes on this spot.
Behind him, Lister and Arthur followed suit.
One second, two seconds... they waited a full half-minute.
Why is there a delay this time... the Celestial Priests wondered, has it gotten lost?
Finally, after another dozen seconds, the blessing descended.
Due to a perfect score, An Su received an epic blessing from the Radiant Goddess, while Lister and Arthur got faith points and a usual blessing.
The blessings were unique magics, also known as epic magics.
They were designed according to the performance in the Nether World, automatically adapting to the recipient's personality.
Rather than saying it was given by the goddess, it would be more accurate to say it was crafted by An Su himself.
The Radiant Goddess's blessing was: [Holy Light Praise]
[Holy Light Praise]
[Blessing Domain Magic]
[Unique Magic (Epic Magic)]
[Consumes three magic power points (originally three, epic magic, unaffected by Child of the Curse's negative effects)]
[Effect: In the domain range, for every Cultist who dies, five magic power points are restored, lasting for ten minutes]
[Note: Mr. An Su Moningsta is a devout believer of the Holy Light. After many years of research, he has found that Holy Light comes in many forms, among which the killing light is a rare branch of the Holy Light]
It feels like this could team up with [Life Sacrifice] to become an eternal sacrifice engine... An Su mused internally.
At the same time, the rewards for hunting Cultists were granted to An Su.
All told, there were a whopping one hundred and twenty faith points.
Later, when he visited the church to exchange them,
it would be enough to raise An Su's Rank to the Third Order,
"From the beginning to the end."
An Su prepared to make his closing statements. He looked at the zealous crowd around him and said with conviction, "I, An Su Moningsta, am the most loyal believer of the Radiant Goddess."
.
Meanwhile, in a place even more distant than the borderlands.
In the Northern Continent, The Avad Empire, the land of esoteric religion.
In the third church of the Painful Esoteric Sect, fourth district.
A similar ceremony was taking place.
Although almost all of the infiltrated companions had perished, the Painful Priests were indifferent.
Because the saints had been annihilated, too.
However, they were now somewhat perplexed,
gazing at the top name on the leaderboard,
the Painful Cultist with the highest number of converts.
They fell into deep thought.
Now, they were searching for a mysterious man known as the Painful Confidant.