Alyssa just looked calm, her eyes looking into the distance.
The reason for this phenomenon, of course, is the resurrection that night.
In full view of everyone, Alyssa was dismembered by the black-clad cult members, and even her head was hung on the coffin. This was witnessed by hundreds of people, and it could not be false.
But on the next day, he mysteriously came back to life, and received sincere praise from the black-clad followers... Anyway, no matter what the real reason was, they praised him sincerely.
The residents of the slums could not see the truth of the matter. They only saw the miracle before their eyes, so they regarded Alisa as a saint from God, and even the devils of hell did not dare to take her life.
Therefore, Alyssa took advantage of the situation and, in the guise of a saint, became the real controller of the Church of Light on behalf of the original leader Felix.
In addition, before Alyssa fell into the slums, she was indeed a nun. She was well-versed in the classics and was able to gather believers with just a few words. This was much more clever than the method used by Felix and others before, which relied on intimidation and inducement.
After all, people with relevant expertise are much better than those who are unskilled.
Before long, the number of believers grew from the initial 200 or so, who were all scavengers with little food and clothing, to thousands of believers, and even people from slums 20 or 30 kilometers away came to make the pilgrimage.
Even the originally dilapidated chapel was renovated with donations raised by some people.
However, Alyssa herself declined all donations and did not even change her residence. She still lives in the same small house. This makes people more convinced that she is the real saint and the angel sent by God to save the world.
These changes were very difficult for Stasha to get used to. The only thing she was used to was that her sister was still the same sister as before, and every morning when she woke up, she could see her sister's familiar sleeping face.
I don't have to worry like I did in the past, fearing that there would be something missing from my sister's body the next time I see her.
As long as it's not a day like this, it's enough.
"But, sister, why are we coming to the church at this time?" Stasha asked curiously, "Aren't mass in the church only held on Sundays?"
During the period when Felix controlled the church, this kind of worship ceremony was mandatory every day, and people had to be bribed with things like bread, and sometimes even forced by force. Only in this way could the faith of believers be barely maintained and contact be kept.
Soon after Alyssa came to power, it became clear that this kind of faith no longer needed bread and sticks to maintain, and even required voluntary donations, so naturally it did not need to be done every day.
In fact, Alyssa did not do anything. She just knew very well that in the darkest place, a beam of light, even if it was false, would attract moths to fly into the flame.
For most people, this is a sustenance, a sustenance of hope.
"...waiting for a few guests to arrive."
Alyssa stretched out her hand, and after groping for a while, she finally found Stasha's hair and gently rubbed it.
Chapter 19: Victims and Perpetrators (5k)
“It’s only ten kilometers away.”
As the team walked through the slums, the atmosphere became somewhat stagnant.
Eve just walked in front of the crowd without saying a word. It was not the first time she had seen this, or rather, she had seen it so many times that she was almost numb.
The other people were also silent about the scenes before their eyes. Lu Manqing even put down his camera, which was rare for him. He lowered his eyes slightly, as if he was recalling something.
Everything around was in stark contrast to the urban area ten kilometers away. There was only one thing that could be seen everywhere... suffering.
Even using the words hell and heaven would be difficult to describe this gap.
It was not until then that everyone realized what kind of era they were living in.
Even in the most prosperous city, there are still places where light cannot be seen.
Even though they had been able to change into some ordinary coarse cloth clothes before coming here, they were still considered upper-class people with gorgeous clothes to the people here.
The refugees nearby were cowering in the corners, secretly observing the group of people. Even though their eyes were filled with various emotions, no one dared to step forward and offend them.
No one found this strange, but Luo Ling had Alisa's memory, and she knew that this was because...
The "respectable people" who appeared in the slums for no reason were mostly patrol teams, whom they could not afford to offend.
If it weren't for this, this wouldn't be a good place.
However, just as Luo Ling and others approached the church, they found that there were obviously more refugees around, and even their eyes became more aggressive.
Eve was the first to notice these anomalies, but she just frowned.
But just as she was about to move forward, she found that these ragged refugees were slowly surrounding her.
Most of them were dying old men, with gray and mottled hair and beards full of dirt, and their inconvenient legs and feet were trembling slightly, but they still held tightly onto things like gravel or broken wood and approached Eve and the others.
“Get out of the way!”
Eve let out a low growl and reached for her waist, pretending to draw her sword.
She didn't want to do anything to these poor people, she wanted to scare everyone away.
At the same time, she also had some doubts in her mind. According to the records in the files, there should not be too many believers in this cult site, only about one or two hundred.
But now, there are more than just this number of refugees surrounding them, eyeing them covetously.
Could it be that in just half a month, the number of believers has increased so much
Even Luo Ling couldn't help but be surprised. After she dealt with the religious people's affairs, she completely hung up and left the rest of the matters to Alyssa.
Luo Ling doesn't pay attention to her creation all the time, nor can she keep paying attention to it all the time. Although she won't be assimilated by the memory of the creation, it still feels strange to keep using other people's memories and emotions.
Especially when she became Alyssa, Luo Ling had complicated feelings because Stasha always called her "sister" every time they met.
Luo Ling knew that Alyssa was a nun before she fell into the slums, but she never expected that she could gather so many believers in such a short time.
At this time, the refugees who had gathered around gradually became agitated.
Perhaps it was Eve's words and her actions that finally confirmed her identity: she was the patrol team that intended to destroy the "Church of Light".
These refugees are well-informed. In recent times, many cult dens have been destroyed by "company" employees, and all kinds of rumors have been spreading.
Although believers believe that the "Church of Light" is fundamentally different from other so-called churches, they are not sure whether the inspection team will completely destroy and kill all the priests in the church as they did to other churches.
Therefore, when Eve and her group appeared, some believers had already begun to tip off.
All the secretly observing eyes along the way were keeping a close eye on their sentry post.
Until they approached the church, the believers who were summoned, even though they were afraid and knew that they would most likely be liquidated by the patrol team later, still took various objects that could hardly be called weapons to defend their church.
Although these believers were surrounding Eve and the others, they were still trembling with fear. But when the words "Protect the Saint" were uttered, they seemed to be supported by some kind of power. There was only fanaticism in their eyes. They instantly put aside all their concerns and pressed closer to the crowd, looking even a little crazy.
"Defend the Holy Church! Defend the Holy Maiden!"
The hysterical roars came one after another, frightening everyone, even Luo Ling was no exception.
"Is this... something I did?"
An inexplicable feeling of guilt came over me.
"Ms. Eve, what should we do first?"
Cen Xiangyun moved slightly closer to Eve and spoke in a low voice.
She had already taken out a pistol for self-defense, but there were too many people surrounding her, and her small pistol might not be of much use.
Unless it is absolutely necessary, the awakened person cannot use their abilities on ordinary people, especially her ability that can be seen at a glance. If discovered by the "company", she will be punished.
The "Judgment" path can still be used to argue that one is born with supernatural powers...
"calm."
Eve said in a deep voice, and then began to put on her boxing gloves.
Another office might have handled the emergency more appropriately, but she was from Wellington.
If it really doesn't work, we can only fight our way out and then let Lu Manqing go for treatment.
The reason for wearing boxing gloves is to reduce the injuries caused by fists, or at least make them less painful.
Just when Eve was reluctantly about to take action, the restless fanatical believers suddenly quieted down.
Just as Eve and the others were puzzled, the believers put down their weapons, slowly knelt down, and prostrated themselves before an inconspicuous thin figure.
“May God forgive your sins.”
She spoke softly. Her voice, which was not pleasant to the ears, had a miraculous effect of soothing people's hearts. It seemed that just by listening, one could feel his soul being cleansed.
Eve looked up and her expression suddenly became strange.
The person who came was a woman in a wheelchair, pushed by a thin little girl.
Her eyes were completely covered with a gray cloth, her legs were completely hanging down, and she must have lost all consciousness.
Although he was dressed neatly and cleanly, which was rare in the slums, a closer look revealed that he was not much different from the believers around him.
The woman in the wheelchair does not have a remarkable appearance and a striking figure, but she has a magical temperament. As long as she sits there, everyone's eyes cannot be taken away from her.
As one of the two people specially marked in the file, Eve certainly couldn't have failed to recognize him, but the problem was...
"Shouldn't Saint Alisa be the victim?"
The cult dens discovered recently are all similar, basically consisting of one or several saints and a group of half-baked priests.
The reason why they are called half-baked is that these priests cannot even come up with a few doctrines, and they rely entirely on coercion and inducement to build these cults.
If that were all, it would at best be just a name made up by some people to organize an illegal assembly, and the "company" would not bother to care, and at most would report it to the Victorian authorities through some unofficial channels.
It is even less likely that the authorities will intervene, and they will come here to deal with such trivial matters. The men in the patrol team don't want to come into contact with these "dirty and inferior people" in their eyes.
However, these cults did come into contact with strange powers in some way, so the "company" sent people to clear them out.
Among them, the Sons of God and the Holy Daughters basically played the role of the objects to be sacrificed. In the records of the previous operations, less than 20% of the Sons of God and the Holy Daughters were found alive, and among these 20%, most of them were disabled for life and could not take care of themselves.
Saint Alisa seems to be in the same situation, but... why has she become the target of worship for believers
At the same time, several black-robed priests finally arrived and knelt directly at the feet of Saint Alyssa, saying in unison,
"Please forgive me, Saint!"
Eve showed it to me directly and said no.
The previous explanation can be that this church might be special, but... what about these black-robed priests
This situation never occurred in previous cases!
Eve even saw the leader Felix inside. Even when he looked at Saint Alyssa, his face was full of fear and trepidation, as if he was really worried that the saint would punish him.
"Dear guests, why are you here?"
Saint Alisa looked at Eve with a smile, her eyes, which had already lost their sight, seemed to hold a burning gaze.
Eve was speechless for a moment. To be honest, she felt that she was not good at speaking. The other party was so polite, she couldn't just say, "I'm here to kill you."
In addition, the saint was not among the targets to be eliminated and was to be rescued.
Perhaps through these sacrificed saints, we can deduce how these cults obtained their strange powers.
In this situation, let alone saving him, the other party is obviously the boss!
"We received a report that there was a cult here, so we were ordered to come here and destroy it."
At the critical moment, it was the reliable Cen Xiangyun who stood up.
When they heard the word "cult", the believers below became agitated again. Many of them reached for their weapons again and looked at Cen Xiangyun with angry eyes.
Cen Xiangyun's scalp felt numb, but she still persisted.
"Cult?" Alyssa just smiled softly, "If our church is a cult... Victoria's state religion should be one too."
She took out a booklet and threw it at Eve.
Eve raised her hand and took it, flipping it open and looking at it for a while, her expression became even weirder.
"Damn..."
"What's wrong?"
"At least from the perspective of this doctrine, it is indeed quite decent." Eve exhaled and said.
She was a native of Victoria and of course believed in the Anglican religion. Although she was not very knowledgeable about it, she had read some of the classics of the Anglican religion.
It must be said that this doctrine was much higher than her understanding, and it was written in a very simple and easy-to-understand way, obviously from the hands of a priest with a deep understanding of the classics.
Judging from this doctrine, the Church of Light can be considered a small branch of the state religion.
“Is it amazing?”
Luo Ling leaned over and asked.
"In this place... it's a dimensionality reduction attack."
Eve put the booklet away. It was one of the key pieces of evidence and she had to bring it back to the "company" no matter what the outcome of this trip was.
Almost all churches require secular money to operate, and even if all expenses are left aside, the clergy still need to eat.