Sword of Dawn

Page 205

The Cecilians have finally brought their weapons to bear on the holy city!

Whether it is the out-of-control heresy trial, or the doubts and confrontations spreading in the city, all these will become a thing of the past. When the Cecilians directly attack, all the mistakes made by the priests of the cathedral will become generous. The embellishment before martyrdom, and Fran Bereng... was already ready for martyrdom.

He is indeed pious, and the priests in the cathedral are also pious. They are not afraid of death from the beginning. Drenched in the bone marrow of these senior priests, even the most greedy and selfish priests will burst out with great courage when facing the matter of "sacrificing for the Lord".

"The time has come to sacrifice for the Lord!" Fran Bereng suddenly shouted, he raised the scepter in his hand high, and the brilliant holy light gushed out from behind him, "I will prove my piety with blood!"

The group of priests also shouted enthusiastically: "The time to sacrifice for the Lord has come!"

The whistling sound in the air came from far and near, and finally reached the sky above the city. Fran Bereng's eyes that belonged to the extraordinary had already seen the appearance of those magical weapons wrapped in light blue airflow flying in the air. He saw Those things flew from the southeast of the city, and they rushed towards the ground like a falcon. They couldn't help but narrow their eyes slightly, and opened their arms towards those devil's weapons, quietly waiting for death to come.

The great belief of sacrificing for the God of Holy Light encouraged him, making his body tremble slightly with excitement.

Then, those "sky fires" flying from afar exploded on their own over the city.

Accompanied by a much smaller sound than the explosion of ordinary magic crystal cannonballs, the cyan air masses flying over the city disintegrated and exploded one by one, and the metal structures wrapped in the air masses also fell apart. After the hollow shells exploded, , countless eloquent pieces of paper fluttered down from the sky.

Fran Bereng squinted his eyes, opened his hands, and waited for a long time but did not wait for death to come. He couldn't help but opened his eyes in confusion, but saw the civilians in the square stretching their necks and looking at the sky.

A piece of paper fell from the front of his eyes, and the temporary bishop immediately grabbed it. He looked at the thing that fell from the sky in confusion, but what caught his eyes was the familiar exquisite print:

"... Heresy is the greatest lie...

"...the willingness to sacrifice civilians and kidnap civilians, this behavior is no different from robbers...

"...The holy light should not be decided by the priests in the church, the holy light belongs to everyone...

"Give up unnecessary confrontation, Cecil will treat all friends equally..."

Accompanied by whistling and explosions one after another, more and more pieces of paper fell down. Fran Bereng looked up at the sky dully, and he felt that the pieces of paper were like snow falling, endlessly.

The leader of the discipline monks finally came to his senses. At this moment, the senior priest in black yelled out the only sentence he could think of that might save the situation a little:

"It's the evil magic of the Cecilians! The Cecilians interfered with the heresy trial ceremony with evil magic and the devil's contract! The ceremony was destroyed by them-this trial is void, void!"

The priests echoed loudly, and Fran Bereng recovered a little bit from these shouts. He encouraged the Holy Light for the last time and loudly announced the result of today's farce: "This heresy trial has been accepted. The influence of magic is temporarily suspended."

Then the tall interim bishop directly ignored everyone in the square. He completely ignored the reactions of the common people, and quickly passed the gate of the church area with the priests as if fleeing.

On the outer edge of the square, a pair of amber eyes watched indifferently through the window of a private house that the farce on the square ended in the most farce-like way.

Fran Bereng hid back in the church area, and the bishops and priests of Luan City were still alive.

But the Church of the Holy Light in the southern land finally died.

There is only one thing left to do now.

Chapter 0489 Seven Terry

Frank Berenger and his priests hid in the church area, and directly locked the door of the church area, and this subconscious evasion in the panic was perhaps the most stupid decision he made in his life.

He handed over the outer city and shattered the last cohesion of the Holy Light Church.

After that, three days passed.

The out-of-control and farce-like heresy trial three days ago ended with the complete blockade of the church district, and then the whole city was surrounded by a strange atmosphere.

At that time, the civilians gathered around the burning platform gathered for a long time after watching the gate of the church area close, but in the end, no one made any reckless actions such as storming the church or knocking down the priest. They retreated sparsely, but Hu Po knew very well that only the crowd dispersed, but the flame in people's hearts had already been ignited.

The next three days are the three days that make the flames burn hotter and hotter.

For three consecutive days, the "leaf bombardment" of the Cecilians has not been interrupted. In the morning, noon, and night of each day, a round of bombardment will arrive on time. The leaflets will come to the sky over Luan City accompanied by special cartridges, and then It was blown away by the magic power and scattered into the whole city.

These leaflets will not only fall in the outer city, but also in the church area of ​​the inner city, and this time, the priests in the church area finally completely gave up cleaning up these leaflets.

They let these leaflets float everywhere in the city, even covered the roofs and courtyards of churches, they let the outer city completely lose control, and seemed to have completely given up the idea of ​​​​restoring order.

People in the outer city began to openly collect the leaflets that fell into the city, and began to openly discuss the priests in the church. They gathered in the streets and alleys, and communicated with each other. During the day, waves of people came to the church area In the open square, staring at the closed gate, at night, there are countless dots of candles moving between the streets, and in the shadows of the candles, there are speeches that openly attack the church.

The curfew system has completely failed, and the outer city is falling into a strange situation where calmness and excitement are mixed, indifference and madness coexist. It seems that the sweet smell of blood has spread in the city of Luan, but in the church district in the center of the city, Everything was uncharacteristically quiet.

Ever since Frank Berenger entered the cathedral, none of the priests or knights of the Holy See saw the bishop come out of it...

Night fell on the fourth day. In the secret stronghold near the square, the officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau were gathering in the room. The flickering candles lit up the small room. The operator nicknamed "Skinny" stood at the table Next to him, he reported the information he had just collected:

"The gates of the cathedral area are still sealed, and the situation of the chapel area can be seen from the heights of the outer city, but the movement of the cathedral is completely unclear. Fran Bereng seems to have locked the cathedral inside... "

Another officer of the Military Intelligence Bureau also stood up: "There is no sign of escape from the priests in the church area..."

"Civilians spontaneously blocked all intersections. We spread the news that the priests of the cathedral were about to flee. Now it seems that the news has worked."

"Some church soldiers who were stranded in the outer city took the initiative to disarm. They came out of several garrison points in the outer city, tied each other, and came to the street to ask for food from civilians—we tried to guide the residents to share a little The food was given to those church soldiers, and now those soldiers are our own."

Amber was quietly fiddling with the dagger in her hand while listening to the reports from her subordinates. She seemed to be waiting for something, her long elf ears trembled slightly in the air, and she turned sharply to a certain direction from time to time, The face is absent-minded.

A subordinate finally noticed the situation of his boss, and couldn't help asking curiously: "Boss...are you listening?"

"I'm listening," Amber waved her hand casually, and then her ears trembled again, "But let's stop for a while, we have guests tonight."

The officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau looked at each other in astonishment, while Amber shook her wrist, and she quietly put away the poisoned dagger that she was playing with just a second ago, and then almost at the same time, there was a sudden knock on the door sounded.

"Go and open the door—without violence."

The officer of the Military Intelligence Bureau standing near the door was instructed by Amber, and immediately stepped forward to open the door—but even though Amber said not to use force, the operator still put his hand on his waist, where there was a dagger for protection.

The door opened, and a tall, thin, brown-haired middle-aged man with short curly brown hair was standing at the door, and there were two people standing behind him, also dressed in coarse cloth, dressed as civilians.

The tall and thin man glanced at the room, with a hint of alertness and nervousness on his face, and the officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau in the room also looked at the "guests" at the door with the same alertness, and almost at the same time, each of them They all subconsciously tightened the muscles of the whole body:

Although the three people standing at the door were all wearing rough linen clothes, they could never be civilians—these three people had plump and shiny skin, although their expressions were tense, their eyes were bright. They obviously hadn't been hungry recently, and A man with such characteristics... can only come from the church district!

Just when the atmosphere suddenly became tense, Amber's voice came from the deepest part of the room: "Let them in, I know they are coming."

The operator at the door stared at the three people in front of him, and took a step back to give way to the house. After the three people entered the house, he immediately poked his head out and took a quick look at the situation outside, after confirming that no one was ambushing or following them. He quickly stepped back and closed the door.

The three people who entered the room came to Amber under several pairs of staring eyes, and the latter looked up and down at the tall and thin man who was obviously the leader, and broke the silence after a moment: "I thought you wouldn't show up—then I can only take a backup plan."

The tall and thin man showed a wry smile: "...We have been looking for you for a long time, but we didn't expect you to be hidden so close to the church area, right under our noses."

"The more dangerous the place, the safer it is, just like the more pious the place, the less religious it is," Amber casually said, making the face of the tall and thin man in front of her tremble, and then she followed up without giving him a chance to refute, "Introduction Take a look at yourself, my subordinates are curious."

"...Severn Terry," the tall and thin man was silent for a moment, and then he said with some confusion, "the low-level pastor, the manager of the small church in the west. These two are my friends——Amael Ke Ritter and Coleman Rooney."

Amber nodded, and casually explained to the subordinates around him: "This man named Seven Terry was summoned by me. I secretly slipped a small note on him and agreed to let him come."

The officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau in the room were a little startled, but the people here were all trained by Amber, and they realized almost instantly what the three priests who ran out of the church area in front of them meant, and no one Instead of questioning, he quietly watched the development of things.

"To be honest, I thought you would be the only one here," Amber looked at the priest named Seven Terry, with a slightly playful tone, "When I heard three footsteps, I almost wanted to You are sentenced to death."

Seven Terry ignored Amber's vague threat, but asked curiously, "Why did you contact me?"

This tall and thin middle-aged priest was one of the priests who were punished wearing a sackcloth, walking barefoot, and guarded by discipline monks in the Heresy Judgment Square. However, he was not the only priest who was punished at that time. It made him feel extra curious.

Amber replied casually: "There was once a pastor who was preaching in the southern border passing by Luan City. His name was Wright."

"Wright...that big man?" Seven Terry was stunned for a moment, and then he realized, "Ah, then I understand...it seems that he is really with you. I remember him, since the magic reformation After that, I seldom saw a classical priest like him. How is he doing?"

"It's okay, the God of Holy Light dumped him, and then he dumped the God of Holy Light, and now he rubs his own Holy Light, and is leading a team to teach others how to rub Holy Light," Amber shrugged, "About His situation will not be clear for a while. I will only tell you one thing: Wright said that if there are still the last few people in Luan who hold a conscience, then Seven Terry must be one of them. You are like that Chosen."

"Holding conscience has become a rare quality for priests?" Seven Terry's tone was full of sarcasm, but his expression quickly returned to normal after the sarcasm. The elves, as well as the officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau in the room, had extremely complicated expressions on their faces, "What do you...or the Duke behind you want?"

Amber smiled slightly, and said politely and politely, "I want the Church of Holy Light to get out."

The skin on Seven Terry's face trembled again: "Aren't you afraid that I will report you to the cathedral immediately?"

"Don't say such a stupid thing, it will make me doubt Wright's vision. By now, you should not be unable to see the situation clearly - will we be worried about your denunciation? In addition...do you think that the Holy Light Can the church still gain a firm foothold in the southern border?"

Seven Terry's face was cloudy and uncertain, and he seemed to want to refute something, but before he could speak, Amber suddenly picked up a piece of paper from the table beside him and handed it to the priest: "Let's have a look. "

Seven Terry took the piece of paper curiously. At first he thought it was another leaflet printed by Cecil, but after seeing the content on it, his expression froze.

It was a newspaper, dated yesterday, and on the first page of the newspaper was written a line of headlines in huge letters:

"Evil is growing in Lu'an City, and millions of people in the southern border are looking forward to the lord's restoration of the order of the Holy Light"

Beneath this horrific headline, Priest Seven Terry saw a picture that made him dizzy: on the vivid black-and-white portrait, it was the Holy See knights and church soldiers from Luan City who were dragging the beaten and dying The scene where civilians go up to the stake.

This scene of a heresy trial, which has become very common in recent years, is particularly gruesome and terrifying due to the angle of the photographer and the atmosphere of the background of the square.

"Here's the newspaper - I don't know if you've heard of this when you're locked down, but I can tell you it's all over the South and it's published twice a week. You think it's spread into town these days Are there too many leaflets? In fact... those leaflets are simply leftovers from printing these newspapers."

Seven Terry let go of the newspaper dejectedly, all his persistence and luck were gone.

It turns out that... the terrible and overwhelming leaflets in Luan City are just the tip of the iceberg of all the actions of the Cecils.

Thinking of how long these people had been lurking in Luan City, and how much these people had spread the situation in Luan City through some kind of magical power, the priest felt shuddering.

And all of this... was planned by that terrible founding hero, Gawain Cecil, right?

"Exile the holy light... what can you get?"

The devout Holy Light priest finally spoke, his hoarse voice startled himself.

"You made a mistake. We didn't intend to exile the Holy Light from the very beginning," Amber immediately corrected the other party's statement. "The only thing we want to exile is the church. Only by exiling the church can the people get the Holy Light."

"Exile the church?" Seven Terry's heart, which was about to sink to the bottom, suddenly jumped, and he seemed to grasp the point, "You mean..."

"The New Order of Light... Ha, I never thought I'd be discussing this with a Priest of the Light, but it's my job - we're going to build a new Order of Light, and all of this, All it takes is a little cooperation from you.”

Chapter 0490 Shock

Seven Terry fell silent, and remained silent for a long time.

After reading the newspaper and hearing Amber's words, the priest instantly connected all the things that happened in Luan City in the past period of time, and connected the propaganda offensives carried out by the Cecil people in this period of time. Together, although all these things are beyond his experience, he can still analyze the means and ends of the Cecilians.

"You want to make the Church of the Holy Light lose the support of the people in the southern region, and you want to drive the church out by instigating the people. This is breaking the roots of the church——it seems that Duke Gawain Cecil doesn't like it in his own There are authority forces other than him in the territory."

"I didn't expect a priest to see such a 'common thing' so thoroughly," Amber looked at the priest in front of her with a little surprise, "but basically it does mean that."

"Are you so sure that I will help you do this kind of thing?" Seven Terry looked into Amber's eyes, "Don't forget, I am still a priest of the church."

"To be honest, I don't believe it, but our lord does," Amber replied frankly. "He once said a word - it is impossible for the entire Church of the Holy Light to have only one Wright with a conscience. As a huge organization, the Holy Light There must be various voices in the church, and some of them have the same interests as ours, and as long as the interests are the same, we can win over and fight for them.”

"You say you want to exile the church, and you say you want the people to get the Holy Light, what exactly are you going to do?"

"Why do you ask me—after reading those leaflets, you still can't guess?" Amber spread her hands, "I don't really understand the taboos of you gangsters, but in my opinion, releasing classics The right to interpretation, allowing the public to have direct access to theological knowledge, lowering the authority of the church, allowing freedom of belief...all these are good things, and I believe you and these two friends around you agree with this, otherwise you would not have come. "

"Maybe so...but can you really do it?" Seven Terry straightened his body and looked directly into Amber's eyes. He couldn't feel any strong power fluctuations from this half-elf girl, but he Knowing what a terrible force is behind this half-elf, his choice today may determine life and death, but he still wants to say everything, "Kill the Church of the Holy Light from this land and replace it with you—— Or the puppet Protestantism you fostered, you just changed from one authority to another, has there really been a fundamental change? You may promote a new batch of teachings, perhaps a little milder and more enlightened than the Church of the Holy Light A little bit, but does the Holy Light really come to everyone because of this? Authority will eventually emerge, as long as there is a group that holds more power to speak than others, holds more resources and better channels, Then authority is still authority, nothing more than whitewashed, beautified, and the means look glamorous."

Amber was really surprised this time. She looked up and down at the fearless Priest Shengguang in front of her, and nodded slightly: "Continue."

"...you judged the clergy in Luan City with your 'conscience', and selected me based on this, but with all due respect, I don't think you are more 'just' than the church-although you have successfully made the church a place for people You are the object of hatred, and you have shaped yourself into the image that the people want, but I don't think you are better than the church. You use those leaflets to guide people's emotions, and use partial truth to put masks on the priests of the cathedral , use money and power to build momentum, to make yourself appear stalwart and correct, but did you publicize it when the church gave out porridge during the famine years? Did you publicize it when the Holy See knights regularly went to the magic focus to destroy monsters? When you made mistakes, you Has it been advertised?

"You say you want to overthrow the authority of the church, but Cecil is just another authority—the difference is that the church may use belief to control the people, and your duke... he will use his power to control belief .”

The officers of the Military Intelligence Bureau present were enraged, and they immediately surrounded them with weapons in their hands: Although Seven Terry is a priest, he is a priest who is not good at fighting, and now he does not carry any magic weapon, At such a short distance, a military intelligence officer with a specially made extraordinary weapon could easily kill a priest who was too late to cast a spell—and the two companions beside him.

The two priests beside Seven Terry also became nervous, but their first reaction was to protect the former - and at the same time, they were ready to die.

Amber blinked, and at this moment when the situation was suddenly tense, she sighed from the bottom of her heart: "Oh my god, what you said makes sense!"

An officer of the Military Intelligence Bureau almost dropped the melting dagger in his hand: "Boss?! Wake up..."

Amber interrupted her subordinates with a wave of her hand, and looked seriously at Seven Terry, who was also showing astonishment: "Yes, I think what you said is very reasonable-in fact, except that you didn't conclude that the "divine right is granted by the king" 'Out of four words, you said almost exactly what Duke Cecil said to me.'

Mr. Priest, who was ready to die, finally couldn't control his tense expression: "...Huh? The Duke...he said this himself?"

"Not only did I say it, but I also explained the process to many of us in detail," Amber nodded calmly, meeting Seven Terry's shocked gaze, "Do you think we will call ourselves messengers of justice? We have never said that I represent justice—what we represent is just progress, or... what we represent is higher efficiency and value.”

As Amber spoke, she picked up the newspaper: "Did you see this newspaper? What did you see in it?"

Seven Terry frowned: "Your propaganda tool?"

"No, what you should see is that we can print hundreds of thousands or more newspapers in one day, and we can quickly spread this kind of newspapers all over the southern border. We can publicize new decrees in this way, and we can also do this Mission, why? Because we are more advanced.

"The civilians in Cecil City can't be frozen in winter, because we have built a very effective mana heat exchange station, and they don't have to starve all year round, because we use factories to produce alchemy potions that can increase food production , they can freely discuss the scriptures, receive holy light treatment, receive free holy water, learn the teachings regardless of their background, and become priests, because we have changed the organizational form of the church and fundamentally revised the teaching law, we have also found Invented a more effective way to use holy light, so that holy water and holy utensils can be produced in large quantities...

"So when you see these new laws, new teachings, and new things, don't be too busy asking whether these things are just. You have to ask the people of Cecil City, and ask them whether their current life is better or their previous life is better. ——

"A fool will tell you that a good day is when you have enough food and warm clothes!

"Priest—I have always called people like you god sticks, but I will call you priests—you don't think Cecil is more righteous, you even think that what we did in Luan City is dirty, means Despicable, I have only one comment on these ideas of yours - great! You're such a smart guy! And I like the company of smart people."

Amber stopped, and Seven Terry took half a step back at some point. This tall and thin middle-aged man seemed to be a little out of breath, and it was the first time in his life that he dealt with such a person—— So undisguised, no pretense, no avoidance, no hypocrisy.He is used to talking to all kinds of "high society" people, those people are best at talking about their own morality and glory, and the half-elf in front of him represents Cecil's power, and his status is definitely not low ...the style is really peculiar.

"That's right... I thought about it... In your leaflets, you really rarely emphasize words like justice and glory," the priest said with a wry smile, shaking his head, "What you said in the leaflets The most important thing is that everyone can eat and wear warm clothes, everyone can learn teachings, and free holy water can be received..."

"That's right, that's what us 'unjust' people want to do," Amber laughed, "I heard Wright say that you are also a priest who was promoted step by step from a commoner, and until now you are Keep sending your monthly donations to the countryside—so are you interested in Cecil, the 'unjust' authority? We will eliminate dissidents, we will control the southern border, and we will use all kinds of brilliance or To achieve his ends by dishonorable means, to use what Duke Gawain Cecil once told me - he will rule the land by any means, whatever the cost, by cunning, by cunning, by no aristocracy - so that this A piece of land can be prosperous and strong.

"Maybe we are not upright, maybe we are really just a new authority that will replace the Church of the Holy Light, but we can make all the people in the southern border live a better life, and the Holy Light can also become Live on in better land.

"Priest, such an unjust thing, do you join the gang?"

The room became silent, and Seven Terry's heart was pounding. After several deep breaths, he finally spoke: "... there are about 100 priests in the city who oppose Fran Bereng, most of them It's low-level, but we control the chapel area on the outer edge..."