638 Humility's Brainwashing
And thus, The Holy Sun Church quickly exploded in popularity. The world was ruled by magic and strength. Lawrend was very powerful, so it wasn’t even a challenge.
As for the story about how Otor became so obedient.
Humility called Otor into a secluded room in the castle. When he arrived, he was clueless as to what was about to happen to him.
Nao created a hallucination potion with the help of Aleshia’s Darkness Magic. It was spread inside the room as mist. Humility entered the room at that time.
Elena and Ember were hiding in secret rooms beside the room. They cast their Divine Lightning and Phoenix Fire magic. Because of the hallucination, Otor saw something that wasn’t supposed to be there.
His greatest fear was reignited with the combination of the two magics. He saw the same image that shook his soul the first time he saw it.
Lawrend stood in front of him with a rotating sun. It emitted heat and sparks of electricity. It wasn’t a perfect copy, but it was enough to fool Otor in the hallucination.
“My Master is a god. As his servant, what will you do?” Humility asked.
When she spoke, the Lawrend in front of Otor shattered. It was still the same scene, except it was Humility holding the sun in her hand.
“Y-You can cast that magic too!?” Otor screamed with fear.
He tried to stand up from his chair, but he felt powerless. His soul was weak, and he had no idea how to defend himself from magic that directly attacks the soul.
As an Earth-Earth Mage, his physical defense was high but not his soul defense.
“Yes. With the glory of my Master, you will be able to cast the same magic as long as you follow him,” Humility replied.
“What…”
Otor was flabbergasted at her words. She just told him something that should be impossible.
Each Mage got their own elements. For her to claim that meant she was confident that it was possible.
“My Master is a god. If you serve him, you will be able to imitate a fraction of his power. With that, you can live a longer life and become more powerful compared to others,” Humility continued.
She deliberately made her voice sound soothing and charming. It was really hard for Otor to resist.
All of his life, Otor had aimed to become a Heaven Mage. He had tried many ways to surpass his current power level, but all of them had ended in failure.
It was very discouraging, especially when he sometimes unknowingly compared himself to Lawrend. He was the firefly and his light can’t overcome the moon.
“That’s a lie… You’re a dual-element mage aren’t you?” Otor asked and refused to believe it.
“Would I be able to use Master’s magic so easily even if I was? Hehehe.” Humility grinned at him.
She took a step forward and that caused Otor to feel fear. He was too familiar with the Supernova Spell.
He hadn’t personally experienced it, but he had watched it destroy a whole Imperial City and kill an unstoppable Earth-Earth Mage.
Being so close to it was like placing his head inside a guillotine with his body shackled. Even if he tried to resist, he would die.
“What do you want me to do?” Otor bitterly asked.
He was scared and tempted by her offer. He was confident at his strength. The moment he saw that she wasn’t keeping her promise, he would run away.
He wouldn’t be able to fight back head on but running away was still possible. With that in mind, he grew braver.
“Hehehe. Just become the first Cardinal and spread Master’s word to the world. If you do a good enough job, Master will bestow you with his power and a chance to become a Heaven Mage.”
Naturally, Humility had never confirmed these things with Lawrend. She was mostly speculating. But she believed her Master could do anything.
As long as she told him about it, he would make it happen. At least, that’s what she imagined him to be.
…
“What if I can’t do that?” Lawrend asked Humility with a frown.
Listening to her narrate her story made Lawrend realize how broken in the head this woman was. She really thought he could defy magic and give an Earth-Earth Mage the power to create suns.
“Hehehehe. Since it’s you Master, anything is possible,” Humility chuckled daintily with her hand covering her mouth.
“Ugh. I will mark the points I want modified in the Solar Path Book. I want it done before next week,” Lawrend said.
He found that he had been giving up trying to correct his maids’ behavior lately. He had become soft for them.
Lawrend opened the Solar Path Book and started encircling phrases with a red pencil. In a dozen minutes, he finished.
“Here. I want to become a decent god, at least. I can predict what will happen if some believers take this book literally and start handing out punishments indiscriminately,” Lawrend explained to her.
In his previous world, he had heard a lot about these groups that interpreted their religious books seriously. It ended up in dangerous acts that harmed a lot of human life.
In the future, he didn’t want his religion to become like that.
“But why, Master? Shouldn’t this be normal? You’re very powerful!” Humility complained.
She glared at him in dissatisfaction.
“I’m powerful in terms of magic, but the most powerful thing in the world is Will. I realized that as long as I want something to happen, I will make it happen. No matter how hard it was. The only determining factor was my will.”
Lawrend stared at the ceiling. He looked like a wise sage giving a profound lesson. He remembered each time he failed.
He would always try again. That was his Will. He only made sense of it after connecting all of the elements.
It seemed truly impossible for him to succeed at that time, but he persisted and persisted no matter the dead ends he had hit.