Chapter 125: The Machine That Converts Faith into Power
Having obtained the information he needed, Sunan wasted no time in eliminating the remaining Spark Church followers.
Leaving the Shadow Dragon and Twin-Blade Spider to guard outside against any surprise attacks from the gray-robed man, Sunan proceeded inside the building.
At the end of the silent corridor stood a tightly shut metal door.
As the Spark Church follower had mentioned, the door and walls were cast from refined steel, harder than black iron.
Not even a second-circle legendary knight could break through quickly.
However, it was no challenge for Sunan.
He approached the metal door, glanced at the intricate lock, and cast a Lock Opening spell. With a click, the lock opened.
Despite being a zero-circle spell, Lock Opening was highly practical.
No matter how complex the lock, unless it was an arcane or magical lock, a single spell could unlock it.
The Spark Church had designed this chamber to deter knights and ordinary people, but it was useless against a wizard's apprentice with a Lock Opening spell.
Pushing open the heavy metal door, the scene inside quickly unfolded before Sunan.
The chamber was empty, devoid of any furniture, featuring only cold metal floors, walls, and ceilings.
In the center of the room lay a solitary figure.
It was a man in his forties, dressed in a luxurious starry robe, lying motionless on the ground, with a gem-encrusted crown and a golden staff beside him.
This man was the pope of the Spark Church?
Sunan observed from the doorway for a while, a peculiar expression forming on his face.
Through his spiritual sense, Sunan detected that the man's soul had completely dissipated, with no trace of spiritual energy.
Yet, strangely, he hadn't died, his body still showing signs of life.
It was like a corpse that was still alive!
This bizarre situation puzzled Sunan.
He cast a Ray of Enfeeblement on the man, but the spell was neutralized by a mysterious force.
This force felt very familiar to him.
"Divine grace!"
Sunan's eyes narrowed as he cautiously approached the man, remaining vigilant.
Even as he drew near, the man showed no response.
Seeing this, Sunan began to examine him directly.
After a moment, he confirmed that the pope of the Spark Church had indeed lost his soul completely.
The remaining shell of a body was sustained solely by the divine grace within, preventing it from dying or decaying.
What surprised Sunan was that, although extremely slight, so slight it was almost undetectable, the divine grace within the man's body was indeed slowly increasing.
"I see."
After a brief consideration, Sunan quickly understood.
The pope of the Spark Church had become a "machine" that could receive faith and convert it into divine grace.
He had no consciousness or ability to act, relying on divine grace to sustain life, lying day after day in the chamber, converting faith.
This explained why the Spark Church rarely saw their pope; he was, in essence, already dead, leaving only a physical shell.
The true controller behind the Spark Church was Archbishop Oveich.
This also explained how Oveich had access to so much divine grace.
It seemed the entire church's divine grace was monopolized by him.
But the question remained: humans couldn't convert faith into divine grace. For the pope to accomplish this, there must be another reason.
Recalling the gray-robed man's mention of divine remains, Sunan developed a hypothesis.
He carefully examined the pope's body and soon noticed something unusual.
The pope's right ring finger differed from the rest of his body, containing more divine grace.
With a closer spiritual examination, Sunan confirmed that the ring finger didn't belong to the pope and had been surgically attached.
The strength of this finger was astonishing.
Even with a blade formed from the Magic Rune Core, Sunan couldn't leave a scratch on it.
Even considering the divine grace's protective effect, this strength far exceeded that of a first-circle legendary knight.
This was no ordinary human body part.
Clearly, this ring finger was the so-called divine remains.
"To graft divine remains onto oneself—should I call you brave or foolish?"
Sunan couldn't help but remark.
Divine beings were far superior to humans, their essence overwhelming ordinary people.
Even a fragment of a deity's remains posed a formidable "pollution" to humans.
Even formal wizards wouldn't dare to fuse divine remains onto themselves. For a mere legendary knight to do so was suicidal.
The pope's soul was likely obliterated by the divine remains, erasing his consciousness and transforming his body into a tool for absorbing faith and converting it into divine grace.
Every moment, the body was being altered by divine grace, gradually transforming into a form closer to the divine remains.
Given time, if the Spark Church expanded and faith multiplied tenfold over millennia, this body might fully transform into a divine body.
At that point, the true Star God might resurrect from the divine body!
Such is the terror of deities!
Even if most of a divine body is destroyed, leaving only a fragment, with enough faith and time, it can still be reborn.
Moreover, deities can gradually twist the will and cognition of those who come into contact with divine remains, turning them into self-motivated believers striving for the deity's resurrection.
In this sense, all deities could be considered malevolent.
"Such sinister things."
"I wonder what the Immortal Society's wizard apprentices want with this?"
"Do they have a way to purify divine energy?"
After pondering with no answer, Sunan shook his head, refocusing on the body before him.
He grasped the divine remains finger and gently pulled, feeling the divine grace within the pope rapidly surge, seemingly alive, gathering into the ring finger.
Seizing the opportunity, Sunan formed a silver knife with his magic, decisively severing the connection between the divine remains and the pope, successfully separating the two.
He had obtained the divine remains finger!
Sunan checked the ring finger; it contained only a small amount of divine grace, possibly because Oveich had extracted a portion.
Even so, it held ten times the divine grace of the Star Book, likely enough to increase his mental strength by two or three points.
Overjoyed, Sunan stored the finger in the cube.
Though it possessed life force, it lacked consciousness, allowing the cube to contain it.
With the divine remains removed, the pope's body rapidly decayed, bones exposed, eventually disintegrating completely.
In moments, only a shallow pile of ash remained.
"It's over," Sunan murmured.
Without the tool to convert faith, even if some Spark Church members survived, they couldn't produce more sacred artifacts or divine blood.
Lacking a means to quickly increase strength, the church would soon collapse, ceasing to threaten anyone.
After today, the Spark Church would become history.
Having completed his task, Sunan left the chamber and headed to the storeroom and Oveich's residence.
These locations were revealed by interrogated church members.
If there were any treasures in the headquarters, they were likely in these places.
As expected, Sunan found a hoard of gold and jewels in the storeroom, initially estimating their value at over fifty thousand gold coins.
Though not a vast sum, it was impressive for a church still in its growth phase to have such cash flow.
"Enough to produce two or three second-circle legendary Twin-Blade Spiders."
Unfortunately, Oveich's residence yielded no such rewards, only some documents and secret records.
Sunan had hoped to find at least one or two more sacred artifacts.
With everything done, Sunan left Giant Nan City without delay.
Having dismantled the Spark Church, his mission was essentially accomplished.
Next, he would return to deal with the divine remains properly.
Redleaf Province, Starlight City.
Deep within the palace, the Grand Duke of Starlight walked through the empty corridor, weariness etched on his face, his graying silver hair adding to his aged, haggard appearance.
The news from the front lines grew increasingly dire.
The royal army couldn't defeat Marquis White Tower's forces, bogged down in a stalemate.
Meanwhile, the rebels surged through Purple Bamboo Province, advancing unimpeded.
The pleas for help from Marquis Purple Bamboo came one after another, yet the royal family had no troops to spare.
At this rate, Purple Bamboo Province might not last a month before falling to the rebels.
The situation had deteriorated to an alarming degree!
"How did it come to this?"
The Grand Duke of Starlight sighed wearily, recalling the Spark Church's mention of a wizard named Sunan.
He understood wizards better than most.
After all, the royal family had once housed a wizard.
Though powerful, that wizard wasn't skilled in creating golem puppets, let alone forming elite forces like the Golem Army and Blackrock Cavalry.
He had never heard of a wizard capable of single-handedly influencing the course of large-scale warfare!
This misjudgment had led to the current predicament.
Deep in thought, the Grand Duke reached the door to the chamber at the corridor's end.
He paused, straightening his attire, and gently knocked, speaking respectfully:
"Great Granduncle."
Silence.
After a long pause, a deep voice responded from behind the door.
"Enter."
The Grand Duke exhaled slightly and entered.
The chamber was simply furnished, with only a bed, a table, and a chair.
There were no decorations, not even a painting.
A plain-looking man, appearing around forty, sat in the chair, his gaze calm as he looked over.
Seeing that familiar face, unchanged for decades, a surge of jealousy rose within the Grand Duke's heart.
Looking at the Grand Duke, the man sighed with a complex expression, saying, "You shouldn't have allied with the Spark Church."
"There is no such thing as a free lunch. So-called deities aren't benevolent, and gaining immortality through their gifts comes with great cost. Even if you extend your life, you might become their puppets."
"This time, you made a mistake."
The Grand Duke smiled bitterly, saying in a pained voice:
"Great Granduncle, it's all my fault. I let greed cloud my judgment."
"But now the Spark Church is gone, the rebels are approaching, and I'm out of options. I can only turn to you."
The man asked calmly, "What do you want me to do?"
The Grand Duke hastily replied, "Please, Great Granduncle, kill Sunan. If Sunan dies, I still have a chance to defeat the rebels!"
The man was silent for a long time before asking, "If Sunan dies, are you certain you can suppress the rebellion?"
The Grand Duke hesitated, then gritted his teeth, "Even if I can't win, I'll fight to the death. I won't let the Kessler family be shamed!"
This time, the man remained silent even longer.
Finally, as the Grand Duke waited anxiously, the man spoke.
"Very well, I will seek out Sunan."
"Thank you, Great Granduncle!"
The Grand Duke was overjoyed.
Fifty years ago, his Great Granduncle was already a third-circle legendary knight. With him involved, the hope of defeating Sunan was high.
Had it not been for the cursed Spark Church luring him with promises of immortality, with Great Granduncle around, he wouldn't have feared their threat or cooperated with them.
Who could have guessed the Spark Church was so useless, acting high and mighty, yet crumbling so easily?
He hadn't even reached his limit, and the Spark Church had already fallen to Sunan!
What a disgrace!
Regardless, with Great Granduncle's help, there was hope of resolving this crisis.
Seeing his Great Granduncle gesture, the Grand Duke wisely took his leave.
As he turned away, he didn't see the meaningful look in his Great Granduncle's eyes.
Starlight Calendar 1254, Month of Autumn's End (October).
The Shimmer army conquered Purple Bamboo Province, fully annexing it.
They then marched north, joining forces with Baron Stali's troops, capturing all of Lake Blue Province in just a month.
Thus, four of the seven provinces of the Starlight Duchy fell to Shimmer Territory.
Another, White Tower Province, was allied with Shimmer Territory.
Only Redleaf Province and Frost Province remained under royal control.
Frost Province was still recovering, its military strength negligible.
Only Redleaf Province had a fighting chance.
With the war at this stage, even the most optimistic no longer believed the royal family could turn the tide.
Starlight Calendar 1254, Month of Frostfall (November).
The Shimmer and White Tower armies gathered on the Redleaf Province border, poised for battle.
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