Timeline

Older Sister told me about what had happened on Moblado. Since everyone had been busy these past two days with construction at Mist God Star Base and preparations to transfer more troops here from Shadow City, I did not know much about what had happened there. Only Mi Liya had contacted me yesterday afternoon; the topic had been how Uncle Zagu had burned the scrambled Gulu eggs again that evening. That simple-minded girl did not have a nervous bone in her body.

After Older Sister's explanation, I finally understood Moblado's current situation. I could not help feeling a little grim about the natives there. Honestly, it was regrettable.

When the Twelve Knights of the Azure Church and the Holy Pope appeared before the public together and jointly announced the existence of the "Rebel Army of God," along with the fact that this terrifying army's next target was the Moblado Star System, all three Colonial Stars—their more than nine billion citizens and rulers alike—fell into panic. Even though the church immediately began carrying out its planned reassurance measures, irrational chaos still erupted everywhere. The ordinary people had been scared out of their wits and resorted to every extreme method imaginable to pray to the "Sages": carving words into their faces, drinking scalding chili water, running naked across overpasses, and taking walks outside when grassland hurricanes struck. They hoped that this "spirit of sacrifice for religion" would earn them selection by the Sages as saints, so they could be sent to the safe heavens during the final battle—or simply have the Sages send down a couple of bodyguards to protect them. Such thinking was an irrational escape born from extreme fear and an unwillingness to bear pressure themselves. It was the aftereffect of the Azure Church's three centuries of rule: they had