The study was quiet for a few seconds, Ophelia seemed to be sorting out her thoughts, and Gawain was digesting the information provided by the other party. After a while, he broke the silence: "You guys started the disobedience plan just because of these two sentences. talk?"
Without waiting for Ophelia to answer, he added: "I thought of a possibility—is it possible that because the knowledge and essence of the gods are beyond human perception and the processing capacity of the human brain, so anyone who is close to the gods The act itself leads to madness, regardless of whether the gods themselves are actually malicious. Could it be that what the dead explorers and half-mad returnees see is the knowledge that drives humans mad, not the gods themselves?"
These few words sounded like they were trying to excuse the gods, but Gawain knew that Ophelia would understand what he meant—he was not a believer in the gods, and he didn't have any innate liking for the gods, but out of strict considerations, He had to speak out all the possibilities he thought of, and Ophelia, as a researcher of the ancient empire, should also be her professional ethics.
Ophelia's reaction was as expected by Gao Wen: "This is a possibility, we also thought about it at the beginning - so we did a series of verifications and more investigations, but the more we study the knowledge of the gods , the looming truth is even more disturbing.
"In the process of excavating the ancient ruins, we found some fragments left by the civilization that was lucky enough to survive the evil tide. Their demise was sudden and without warning, and they ushered in the most prosperous and stable society. Extinction is excluded, which allows us to rule out almost all possibilities other than 'the gods destroy the world'.
"We have come into contact with some ancient races, including the sea monsters and dragons you know, as well as some ancient lords of the elemental world - the ancient empires are closely related to the residents of the elemental world, and the powerful creatures of the elemental world will not be affected by the magic tide. Influenced. In the fragments of those ancient races, we find that the destruction of ancient civilizations usually occurs at the stage of major changes in their belief systems.
"Among some of the rarest archaeological harvests, we have also unearthed some written records on the eve of the destruction of ancient civilizations, which occasionally mentioned 'God does not allow', 'mortals have crossed the line', 'God has come, the end is coming ' and other words, these seem to be the words left by the few people in the ancient civilization who noticed the changes of the gods in advance, but those 'prophets' could not save the situation."
Listening to Ophelia's narration, Gawain nodded slightly.
The disobedients did not start the huge plan because of impulsiveness—they discovered the increasingly desperate truths little by little in the process of continuous in-depth investigation. The dark future left these "deviants" with no choice. Had to secretly start the plan against the gods.
"Perhaps we are still unable to fully determine the truth of the 'death of the gods', but the tide of magic is approaching, and the shadow of the gods is approaching day by day. Even if there is only a 1% possibility of that doomsday, we must make 100% preparations—maybe All our efforts will prove to be a joke in the end, but if it really happens, we must be able to come up with some means of resistance," Ophelia said in a deep voice, "living in a peaceful and stable environment Some people probably can't understand such extreme behavior, but you, as a pioneer, should understand."
"Humans are suspicious and timid creatures," Gawain sighed, "that's why we always have to arm ourselves."
"This paranoia and timidity ensure the survival of our group."
Gawain adjusted his sitting posture and looked into Ophelia's eyes: "You just mentioned that you found that the destruction of those ancient civilizations usually occurred when their belief system undergoes major changes. What exactly does this mean? ?”
"In short, their temples are shrinking rapidly, and the size of all churches is shrinking sharply at about the same time."
"Abandoning the faith, so God is angered?" Gao Wen frowned, and suddenly his heart moved, "Then the reform of the Holy Light Church that is going on now..."
"That's exactly what I'm going to say," Ophelia said. On her mask-like face, which was always calm and gentle, Gawain saw a trace of rare enthusiasm, which was a burst of enthusiasm. From a sincere expression, "The reforms we carried out in the Holy Light Church did not cause the 'activation' of the God of Holy Light."
Activation—Gao Wen noticed the words Ophelia used at the moment.
Then he asked: "You mean, preaching in southern teachings such as 'the holy light is in the heart', 'morality and justice take precedence over dogma', 'everyone has freedom of belief' and the like will not lead to holy What bad reaction did the God of Light have?"
Ophelia smiled: "People are still pursuing the Holy Light, and with the core elements of the Holy Light, namely, protection, exorcism, justice, and light as their creed, our temples have not decreased, and the size of the church has not shrunk, even though we Replaced a lot of it, but... the Church of the Light is still the Church of the Light, isn't it?"
Gawain looked at the smiling Ophelia, but he suddenly thought of the many obvious actions of the Church of the Holy Light in the past few years, as well as the role of the saint princess "Veronica Moen" in the church. Things that couldn't be seen to be related at first, but now they are connected little by little—
The Church of the Holy Light's rejection of heresy has promoted the rapid development of the church, but it has also led to the emergence of a large number of low-quality and bad-behavior priests at the grassroots level; Allowing those good and bad priests to use the same magic has shaken the faith of a large number of pious ascetic monks; the right to interpret classics and moral disputes have led to a split between the middle and lower priests of the church, such as Wright and Seven Such a progressive priest was born under this background...
These seem to be natural changes caused by the church's degeneration and internal power division after its development to its peak. However... what if there is a pair of researchers' eyes full of scrutiny behind these "natural changes"
What if it's all about testing something, like... testing the "laws of operation" of the gods, testing the "personality boundaries" of the gods
No wonder Ophelia would actively cooperate with Wright's reforms and support Cecil's New Deal—how could a researcher easily make a decision without enough experimental data? !
Ophelia just smiled calmly and looked at Gao Wen: "What are you thinking?"
"These are all the 'research results' you obtained in the Church of the Holy Light, right?"
"If there is no gain, why would a rebel lurk in the enemy's church for so long?"
Gawain's eyes turned around, and he involuntarily landed on the platinum scepter in Ophelia's hand - this platinum scepter has been in her hand since the fall of the previous Pope, even if the Patriarch Wright After taking over the Northern Church, she did not hand over the scepter.
This scepter was originally held by the pope. It is said that it has the function of communicating with the kingdom of God and listening to the oracle, and it represents the bridge between God and man. It was left behind intentionally or unintentionally by people, but looking at it now, thinking of Ophelia's words that the God of Holy Light did not "activate", Gawain vaguely guessed something.
"Are you monitoring the state of the God of Light? Through this scepter?"
"Any experimental project requires strict monitoring and recording," Ofelia slightly raised the scepter in his hand, "This is the attitude that researchers must have."
Looking at the platinum scepter in the opponent's hand, Gao Wen suddenly couldn't help but had an idea - do you want to try it too
This thing seems to be able to establish a certain connection with the Kingdom of God, and it can even be used to monitor the gods if used properly. If ordinary people touch it, they will probably be directly brainwashed into a devout believer, but he himself is a man who has been cultivated for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Satellite spirits are very resistant to similar brainwashing—the experience of touching the Eternal Slate at the beginning proved this point, so now touching the platinum scepter... it should be fine, right
Will it be the same as touching the Eternal Slate, what others hear is an oracle, but what I hear is another message from the super fleet, or even... something more unexpected
At this moment, Gao Wen's curiosity was suddenly ignited, and the burning was uncontrollable.
He was even mentally prepared to die suddenly on the spot due to improper operation.
But at the last moment, he stopped his curiosity abruptly, because he realized a huge hidden danger—the Eternal Slate is dead, but the current God of Holy Light is alive...
Although that god seemed to have been killed once in ancient times, but now he is probably resurrected.
If I rashly touch the platinum scepter, will it irritate the God of Holy Light? What Ophelia and Wright are doing now can be said to be "stealing divine power". The most important thing is not to irritate that god. If I slap the God of Holy Light awake, the other party will open his eyes Take a look at the world—what about my church? What about a church as big as mine
The thousand years of hard work of the disobedient and his achievements so far are over.
After forcibly controlling his impulse, Gawain coughed twice to hide his embarrassment, looked at Ophelia and said, "If the reform in the Church of the Holy Light succeeds, we can successfully block the 'Bridge of Earth' without attracting the attention of the gods. , what are you going to do next?"
Ophelia met Gao Wen's gaze calmly: "Use this as experience to transform all beliefs in the world."
As an ancient soul who has lived for a thousand years, she seems to have patience and time.
"Will the gods really wait to be blocked by us obediently? Although our current transformation of the Holy Light Church has not yet activated the God of Holy Light, but the day has really come to cut off the connection between all the gods and the mortal world. Can't you still react?"
Ophelia nodded slightly: "The operation of the gods has rules to follow. Although the 'transponder' conjecture proposed by a few scholars in the Gondor era is not completely correct, it is indeed close to a part of the truth, so as long as you grasp it well With this rule, we can bypass the sight of the gods in a relatively safe situation and complete the replacement and transformation of beliefs.
"Secondly, according to our research results, although the power of the gods does not come entirely from mortal beliefs, the transfer of mortal beliefs will indeed greatly weaken them, and if the 'faith benchmark' of the mortal world is lost, the gods will no longer want to When we come to the world, we will face huge obstacles and attrition, but on the other hand, mortals will become stronger because of regaining the power of divine magic, one will ebb and flow, and on that day, the gods will not be irresistible to us... "
She didn't say what she said later, but the subtext was already obvious:
When that day really comes, the gods descending into the world... will be demons and beasts that invade the mortal world from another world.
The world church will fight back bravely, in the name of faith, to eliminate demons and defend the way.
This is the plan of the rebels, but still not all of their plan, but only a part of it.
Just this corner is already shocking.
However, Gao Wen still believed that there was something wrong with this plan, and there were too many uncontrollable variables. Even if everything was implemented smoothly, it would not usher in the best results.
It's just that at least at this stage, it is still necessary to carry out this plan - the transformation of the Holy Light Church is inevitable, whether it is for social stability or for the development of the new empire, he must ensure that the most influential in the country, believers The most widespread denominations obey the laws and regulations of "theocratic monarchy".
After talking about some details about the rebellious plan and the reformation of the church, Gao Wen slowly breathed out.
"That's it for today, that's all for the topic of rebelling against the plan," he leaned back in his chair, "I'm going to sort out this information, if I think of any problems, or if you think there is anything else that needs to be told to me Yes, let's continue talking."
"As you wish," Ophelia smiled, "but before I leave, I have something else to do."
"Oh? Say it."
"It's the previous topic, about the reform of the church," Ophelia said. "The current situation of the female priests in the church is... embarrassing."