Cthulhu Gonfalon

For someone who changed sides at the very last minute, it was only right to show some sincerity. Otherwise, who would know whether the same situation would happen all over again?

This was like a funny online article titled, “The Biography of an Early-Slow Bear” that Sui Xiong recalled reading some time back. The biography was about a man termed as an Early-Slow Bear, who, from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, had changed sides countless times. He had no moral integrity to speak of, and seriously speaking, he had no base limit to how despicable he could be, even as a human being himself. Back then, out of curiosity, he once asked, “Was the situation really that chaotic back during the end of the Ming Dynasty? Should I just surrender and change sides?”

One of the veteran patrons on the online forum replied, “The situation might have been chaotic towards the end of the Ming Dynasty, but to say that you will just surrender and change sides so casually, all this might be a joke to you. You really take everyone for fools? If there weren’t any restrictions imposed, or you were not forced into doing something before you changed your allegiance, who would really accept your surrender?”

However, a story was after all, just a story.

Although Olian was seriously injured and her combat power was basically nothing, her authoritativeness still came with her status. Just one word from her was enough to rip that dignified and elegant Space Mage of all ability to think. So all that the Space Mage could do was to abide orders.

What exactly was “sincerity?” Of course, she understood.

Helplessly, she let out a short, bitter laugh. Then with both hands adjoined, she formed the print of a rune, and a Space Crack resembling a gigantic, long sword extended out from her hands. She directed this Space Crack to the position of the Church of the God of Aristocracy and struck at it head-on.

Although this strike was blocked, many stone slabs engraved with magic arrays that were laid all over the ground were shattered by the after effects of the forceful strike. The collapsed Space Crack was also transformed into countless tiny pieces of debris that flew all over the place as though there had been an explosion in the air… well, it was not as exaggerated as a nuclear bomb, but if this were to happen on Earth instead, it could almost qualify as an event that ought to be subjected to the criticism of human rights organizations.

What would happen if something like this were to blow up over a group of people?

Although the three Legendary Masters had tried their best to protect as many people as possible, when the after effects of the explosion had completely dissipated, the number of survivors from the Church of the God of Aristocracy who could still stand independently was less than 30. That meant that on the average, each Legendary Master protected less than ten people.

When a Legendary Master put aside their own dignity to attack a group of clergymen who at best had just stepped into the category of high-level clergymen, the outcome was cruel and savage.

There were two reasons why this handful of survivors was able to escape unscathed. One, they had a certain degree of power, and two, they were under the protection of the Legendary Masters. If there was no one to provide protection and if they were ordinary human beings instead, then once that spell had been cast, even a crowd as massive as a few hundred people could forget about finding a single survivor.

Olian did not know this spell, but she could see numerous souls leaving their bodies to be guided over to their God’s Kingdom. So she smiled with satisfaction.

“You did well,” she said. “It’s better than I expected, really. I did not expect you to go to such an extent.

“Anyway, there is no other road I can turn to, I can only walk down this road, all the way towards the darkness at the end,” said the Space Mage. Her face was almost as pale as Olian’s, but on top of it, she gave off a gloomy and somber vibe. She sighed deeply and said, “Just now, my spell was broken by them, so within the next 20 minutes or so, I will temporarily lose my ability to cast such a high-powered spell.”

“You’ve done enough.” Olian was not bothered about the Space Mage’s temporary loss of ability to cast powerful spells. She said, “Now, you should go get some rest. If you want to, we have the doctrines of my god here, perhaps you can take a look, and maybe you will find them to your liking.”

As an elector with a vein of divinity in her, she saw no lines of faith in the other party. This meant that the other party was a nonbeliever, or the greater possibility was that the other party, the Space Mage, probably placed her belief in the God of Spellcasters. However, that god had fallen, and so she had been reduced to a state of having no belief.

For such a talent like the Space Mage, of course, Olian had to try her best to get her onto their side. Regardless of whether she succeeded or not, there was no harm in trying.

The Space Mage kept silent for a moment. She did not reject the brochure of the God of Knowledge handed over to her by Bishop Montero.

This old, white-haired bishop was Olian’s best aide. Back when she had just become a lord, he had assumed the position of an Assistant Officer. Then he had followed her into becoming part of the first batch to pledge their beliefs in the God of Knowledge. In the church, he was mostly in charge of jobs like preaching, and he had personally compiled that brochure.

The Space Mage flipped open the brochure and browsed through it. Then she gave a slight smile, but there was apparently no “scintillating” reaction from her.

“By the way, how should I address you?” asked Olian. “Would you prefer to be called Shelly, the ‘Sky-Shattering Blade,’ or Ms. Mary Sting?”

The Space Mage froze, and she turned even paler. It took her a few seconds to recover, then in a somewhat husky voice, she replied, “I like the former.”

“Alright, Ms. Shelly. I look forward to a pleasant cooperation with you.”

The story behind these two names was a long one to tell, and recounting this story would somehow be quite offensive as it would be intruding on someone else’s privacy. In fact, it was because Olian Geerteng was an elector of the God of Knowledge, so to a certain degree, she could tap into the special rights of a god to seek information. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for her to learn about the name “Mary Sting.”

Those who knew of this name should have died long ago.

This was why when Shelly heard that name, she was so surprised that she was unable to stay calm.

In fact, Olian herself was not really clear what that name really meant. She was intuitively looking up information about this person, Shelly, the “Sky-Shattering Blade,” and had found some vague and disorderly words. Among these words, she had found this line “Original name, Mary Sting.”

If she wanted to, she could have specially conducted a ceremony just to trace Shelly’s past in detail, as the rights of the God of Knowledge were more than enough to achieve such a task. So long as she was willing to fork out enough Divine Power as payment, this would be possible.

But of course, she would not do something so pointless. The past held no significance at all. So long as everyone was able to work together with sincere hearts, then there would not be any problem at all.

Or it could also be due to the fact that these clergymen were already so used to having a whimsical, flying jellyfish as their master god that nothing in this world could ever qualify as a “problem.”

“We have a big problem, and a very troublesome one at that,” said the elderly man who was the leader of the trio. The middle-aged man, who was usually with a steady disposition, was now showing signs of distress as he said, “We are now at a disadvantageous position.”

“If you all had been more cautious back then, or braver, maybe you would not be troubled over the situation you are in now,” said a comely maiden with delicate features and who exuded a seductive vibe.

The middle-aged man made no retort. He merely sighed softly.

This maiden was a Holy Daughter of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. Next to her, the other maiden who exuded a similar aura as she did was also a Holy Daughter of the church. The other maiden merely focused on reading her book silently.

Unlike the Church of the God of Knowledge, all the descending gods from the Church of the God of Aristocracy were young maidens. Because it was a massive church with a rich history of more than 300 years, it was able to gather enough young maidens to serve as the medium for Descending Gods. After all, the god that these maidens believed in, when still in the mortal stage, was already a woman.

If conditions permitted, Wall would unquestionably be inclined towards choosing a man as the medium for his own descending god, but the history of the Church of the God of Knowledge was too short. It did not have enough followers, so there were not enough options to find a suitable one for the job.

On the contrary, even the appearances and aura of these women bore resemblances to the God of Aristocracy. These were women chosen after thorough consideration.

For this battle, the Church of the God of Aristocracy had brought along two Holy Daughters. By right, this number was more than enough. In fact, the Archbishop originally felt that there was no need to bring any at all. Wouldn’t the nine Legendary Masters be more than enough?

In the end, because of some inexplicably amazing premonition, she decided to bring along these two Holy Daughters.

The Archbishop’s hunch was indeed accurate. Though she had not been able to save herself, nor was she able to obtain victory—given the present situation, even if the God of Aristocracy were to descend immediately, it would still be almost impossible to salvage the battle situation.

At first glance, it seemed that they had already lost the battle.