Chapter 324: The Power of Weakness (Part 1)

  "Your Majesty, is it still not possible now?" Walking out of the cell, Lancelot asked Pope.

  "Although we mainly borrowed the mental power accumulated by The Radiant Citadel over hundreds of years, summoning the angel still consumed too much of the ring's power. Now we temporarily don't have confidence in extracting his life force completely... However, as long as we're in The Radiant Citadel, the ring should recover soon enough."

  Pope shook his head, took a breath, and said lightly. "So he can live a little longer. Be careful, don't let him commit suicide, although he doesn't seem like the type to commit suicide..."

  "Knight Talise has already made a request to me, hoping that she can complete the final step of this plan... For her to take the extracted life force and the sword hilt to Oufu..."

  "So you told her our plan? No wonder..." Pope was surprised. "But this kind of matter... really shouldn't be known by anyone other than you and me. How could you..."

  "Your Majesty, please rest assured, she knows the importance of priorities. She has already made her own choice, which is why she made that request to me..." A hint of sorrow appeared on Lancelot's normally calm face.

  "Hmm, that's right. I can see it." After a moment of silence, Pope nodded, with a hint of relief on his face. "It's really hard on her, she's a good child... I know she must have made a great determination. A choice made for the stability of the entire continent, for the future of humanity, is a very strong, yet very weak child. After completing this mission, her pure soul will surely go to heaven..."

  "Simple, pure, yet strong child... Yes, her soul will definitely be qualified to go to heaven. More qualified than us old men who are used to scheming and playing tricks..."

  The two did not deliberately lower their voices. The surrounding guards were tens of meters away, and no one dared to eavesdrop here. Moreover, this is The Radiant Citadel, and the two of them are the top experts. Whether it's magic or any other technique, no matter how exquisite the spying method, it's impossible to escape their perception.

  However, no matter how sharp their senses were, they didn't seem to notice that in a corner of this steel cell, there was a thin metal sheet attached to the iron wall.

  It was just a very thin, small metal sheet, the same color as the outer wall. And it was just a very ordinary piece of metal, without any magic, so neither Lancelot nor Pope discovered it. If there was anything unusual about this metal sheet, it was that it was connected to a thin golden thread, which was buried in the ground.

  In a room in The Radiant Citadel in the distance, this golden thread emerged from the ground and extended to a small metal cylinder on the table. The metal cylinder was like a funnel-shaped cup, and two Cardinals looked at it with strange expressions. What came from it were all the sounds from the steel cell just now, including the dialogue between Lancelot and Pope.

  Indeed, no magical spying method could deceive Pope and Lancelot within The Radiant Citadel. Even the Necromancer Guild's unique Eagle's Eye would be impossible. But they didn't use any magic, but this very simple, primitive method without any magic. This is a small device used by the dwarves of Kalendor to transmit sound in underground mines. Sometimes these little things are far more useful than any profound spiritual magic.

  Bishop Adela's expression was like that of a country bumpkin who had just witnessed magic, full of horror and disbelief. "What... I never thought... Lord Archibald's prophecy was actually... I don't believe it..."

  Bishop Inham's face, on the other hand, had an inscrutable gloom, dark and heavy as if water could drip from it.

  "Thanks to you for anticipating this and preparing these things. I never thought His Majesty would even hide it from me... He and Lancelot want to extract the power from that kid's body... But what does it have to do with the sword hilt? What are they going to do in Oufu..."

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Why not just ask others."

  "Ask who?"

  "Of course, ask someone who can go to heaven... But I think we definitely need to use a more tactful approach..."

  Oufu.

  At dawn, Lord Bolgan received several reports from Celeste, and he immediately jumped out of bed after only three or four hours of sleep and rushed to Sedros.

  There had been no shortage of reports from Celeste all along. And each time, Sedros would treat them very carefully. To plant these leads in the heart of the church, the energy and cost spent were enormous, but it was worth it, as each report was extremely significant. And this time was undoubtedly the most significant, because these were the final reports.

  The wording of the reports was consistently strange, with a large amount of repentance mixed in with panicked words, and the handwriting was also messy, showing that the writers were not panicked but confused. Although there were numerous repentances and apologies, the main meaning could still be basically expressed. They all said that from now on, they would never help Oufu again. The money previously received from Sedros would be returned or donated to the church for atonement. They hoped that Lord Sedros would not contact them again from now on.

  For whatever reason, they no longer dared to betray the great Lord.

  These letters all had the same reason; they all said they had witnessed a miracle with their own eyes.

  No matter how great the temptation of benefits, no matter how great the threat, it's not worth mentioning under the power of faith, especially when it's visible and undeniable, making people instinctively feel the awe of faith. There were many spies in Celeste, but only a few reports, and the others didn't even dare to write reports.

  "Angels? Phoenixes? Do such things really exist? Have these guys experienced collective hallucinations?" Lord Bolgan stared with wide eyes, extremely confused.

  After reading the reports, Sedros closed his eyes, thought for a long time, then slowly exhaled and said: "The Ancient Elven Empire does have this summoning magic, it's just a magical lifeform created by mixing natural magic and elemental magic, it seems to be a gift from Moriel to them... The real phoenix doesn't exist on this continent..."

  "That angel thing... Could it be that there really are gods in this world?"

  "What gods? Gods are just created by humans. That so-called angel is probably just a thing condensed from mental power." Sedros sneered. "When this city of faith was built, the then Pope Gelasius I laid a huge magic array on the foundation, and even invited some strange people from the Far East to arrange the architectural layout, so The Radiant Citadel can absorb and store the slight mental power emitted by people's faith and worship. In these hundreds of years, it has received the worship of hundreds of millions of believers, and buried among them are various Popes and Cardinals, over a hundred people, each of whom is a grandmaster of white magic. The power accumulated over these hundreds of years should be enough to materialize an angel that can contend with the summoning magic of the ancient elves."

  "But... to support the condensation of such mental power, it's impossible for Magnus alone... Could it be that he got the Ring of Kings from Agrael... Only this thing that Dracon spent great effort to obtain back then could possibly..."

  "Lord City Master, although that angel is fake. But I see that the impact on us is not fake." Lord Bolgan brought the issue back to a more substantive direction. "This not only instantly converted all the spies we spent great effort on..."

  "Hmm, I understand what you mean." Sedros took a deep breath. "The battle between the phoenix and the angel, The Radiant Citadel's loss is certainly not small, but what was gained is people's hearts... All the religious countries in the Western Continent are now completely a solid piece. The church's cohesion, thanks to this miracle, may reach its peak in hundreds of years."

  "Hey... clearly it's something man-made, yet it can control people like this... Humans are really strange things." Lord Bolgan shook his big head, quite emotional, as if he wasn't human himself.

  Sedros snorted coldly and said: "Humans are inherently weak things. That's why they live in groups, and even imagine things like gods, faith, beliefs, persistence to entrust their sense of belonging, giving themselves a false sense of security. To maintain this illusion, the result is only being led by the nose by the illusions they imagined. This is the common fault of the vast majority of people who live mediocrely in this world. But even though it's very boring and weak, this is the weakness of the vast majority of people, and it has become a huge force enough to change the course of history."

  "As long as we make good use of this opportunity. Celeste can properly integrate all the forces of the entire Western Continent. This time, whether it's the army itself or the morale of the army, it's different from last time. It's a pity that the mineral deposits in the Sanderfirth Mountains have not been mined yet... You first go to the Tower of Fangs, discuss with Master Adelaide, bring enough teleportation scrolls, when necessary we can only ask them to come and directly participate in the battle..."

  Lord Bolgan scratched his head and replied: "Actually, I've already discussed this issue with Master Adelaide before, but they..."

  "I know they don't want to directly participate in our dispute with the church, but now this is the only way. As long as there is such a day, they can really come and help me. I can agree to any conditions."

  "Any conditions can be agreed to?" Lord Bolgan's eyes almost popped out.

  "Yes, even if I give them half of the mining area in the Sanderfirth Mountains to help them mine, I'm willing." Sedros tried to sound calm, but his anxious breath could no longer be concealed.

  "It seems unnecessary to tell them this first, the most basic element of negotiation is not to let the other party see our bottom line." Lord Bolgan carefully looked at Sedros and asked.

  "Isn't this what you taught me? What's wrong with you? Lord City Master."

  Sedros was stunned, he also noticed his own abnormality. He sighed and said: "I don't know if it's intuition, I always feel that something unexpected and beyond our prediction and control will happen..."

  "Intuition?" Lord Bolgan's eyes widened even more. He really couldn't believe that such a word would come from the mouth of Lord Sedros, who was so rational, so firm and opinionated, and at many times simply more like a rational machine.

  Such an ambiguous concept is clearly synonymous with weakness.