"These clergymen of the Church are even more greedy than I imagined."
Ryan was astonished by the results those Wandering Nobles had provided him.
From the fact that the Empire was able to triumph over Royal Authority and divine power, Ryan gradually realized that the Empire's strength was half the reason, and the other half was due to the corruption within the Church.
He just hadn't expected that the clergy of the Church would fall so directly and quickly into depravity.
Money, maids, and other random things—they weren't even acting anymore.
In this light, Archbishop Adriana is an extremely rare individual within the Church, a national treasure.
"In this way, the Church will also abide by the shifting interests; they will not care how much the Church can gain, but how much they themselves can gain."
"It's done."
Ryan took a deep breath and finally relaxed. The plan he had told the King was finally brought to a close more than a month after the King issued the order.
Once those territories gradually stabilize, Ryan's influence in the Sera Kingdom will become terrifyingly large.
Because he will represent many people, his power in this land does not even come from the local Monarch, but from the nobility who depend on him for their existence, and from the authority of the empire.
He will influence the future of the Sera Kingdom, and through his plans with King MacReynolds, which are unique to both of them, Ryan also comes to understand the saying that a kingdom is not just about the King, but also about the nobility.
The Sera Kingdom belongs to the MacReynolds Royal House, but just as the Empire belongs to the Emperor, the Four Grand Dukes, and the great nobles, the Sera Kingdom has also taken this step, and Ryan's name has been engraved on the list of the land's owners.
As for what comes next, whether Ryan or the King has more power will be tested on whether Ryan can gain more nobles-soldiers like Connie Dean in this land.
He can finally return to the Frozen Earth Territory. Leaving at this time will not change his influence here.
I never expected to encounter an uninvited guest before leaving.
" Archbishop Adriana, what brings you here?"
Strictly speaking, Ryan's manor is now an enemy of the Church, and the hundreds of thousands of fanatical believers in Unicorn Fortress are gritting their teeth at him.
"I have come for the glory of the Lord."
Adriana raised her head and looked at the Sun overhead with boundless piety and awe.
"I am Baron of the empire, and it is impossible for me to believe in the Dawn. On the contrary, my heart is filled with piety toward the light."
Ryan said this, but Adriana was not angry.
" Baron Ryan's faith is the same: the Dawn and the light are both our great Lord, and those who serve Him will receive His glorious gaze."
Adriana said that her answer surprised Ryan, as she did not reject the difference between light and Dawn at all.
"However, my Lord has not unleashed His power in this world for far too long."
After the end of the War of the Deities Across Planes, the Lord of Dawn, or the God of Light, never truly descended with his power. Those Miracle only proved that he still existed, but they could not prove that he was still watching over the Norris Continent.
This is why the imperial Royal Authority and the divine authority of the Church could clash; the Deities no longer granted the Church unparalleled authority.
"Everywhere I looked, there was only boundless darkness; the Lord's light could not illuminate any part of this world."
Archbishop Adriana said sharply that if word got out, the first person to target her would probably be His Pope of the Holy Mountain.
"I received Divine Oracle to use fire to Dispel the darkness, so that the Lord's glory, in the form of flames, would burn away the darkness and bring Eternity radiance."
A wisp of golden flame slowly appeared in Adriana's palm. Ryan subconsciously stepped back, feeling an incredibly terrifying threat. At the same time, his Spirituality Panel was vibrating.
"Fire will Dispel the darkness."
"The existence of the Northlands has chilled my faith in my Lord. I will lead my Lord's true believers to Dispel the Northlands away."
Adriana is known for her outrageous statements; she wants to revitalize the two-thirds of the land covered by the Northlands, bringing back the seasons to the northern world, and ultimately ending the Northlands.
Is this possible?
Is this really Divine Oracle? Is this why Adriana has been unwilling to intervene in the internal strife within the Sera Kingdom for so long?
She didn't care about the Sera Kingdom; what she desperately needed to do was fight the Northlands. Compared to the latter, the former was as insignificant as a mayfly.
The Northlands...
"Fighting the Northlands is a challenge I've longed for. I wonder how I can help the Archbishop?"
Ryan inquired, "Adriana definitely didn't come to see me just to talk."
"I need Baron Ryan's help to establish a settlement in the Northlands."
"The fire will Dispel the cold, and the Lord's followers will survive in the Northlands."
Adriana said she wanted to create habitable environments in the Northlands, anchoring them like ground in the icy wilderness.
But building these things requires stones, wood, food, tools, and so on...
Everything necessary for human survival.
Moreover, there are not just one or two such settlements, but... countless ones.
Maybe there will be one this year, ten next year, and a hundred the year after.
" The Archbishop can present this Divine Oracle to His Holiness the Pope of Dawn; he should not refuse the Divine Oracle of the Lord of Dawn."
"He will."
Archbishop Adriana stated with certainty:
" The Church's wealth cannot support such a huge expenditure, which he considers excessive."
"But if the Church can't afford it, how can I?"
Ryan is currently struggling to survive in his own Frozen Earth Territory, so where would he find the extra resources to support Adriana's plans?
"Do your best to dedicate yourself to the Lord. If one day you give up your dedication to the Lord, the Lord will not blame you for your withdrawal."
"Adriana said, and then gave the terms."
"If you agree, I will give you the Divine Blessing of the Lord."
Golden flames ignited once more in her palm, but Ryan only noticed what she called Divine Blessing.
The Divine Blessing doesn't just mean Divine Blessing; Ryan thought about much more. If it really was Divine Blessing from the Lord of Dawn, the God of Light, then he could control far more than that.
For example, the most direct example is the two wars he waged against the Church's followers that took place on the land of the Sera Kingdom.
With Divine Blessing, he became the Lord of Dawn's representative on earth. He could say that all the believers were heretics, and then everyone would know that the believers who attacked his army were heretics.
In other words, he was able to stand firm in over 99% of the wars between him and the Church.
The reason it can't be perfect is because of the existence of the Pope and people like Adriana, who are themselves representatives of Divine Blessing, not mortals who received Divine Blessing.
But the benefits it brings are already terrifying enough, and Ryan can imagine that he is destined to stand on the side of the Empire in the future, not only because of his position, but also because of his own purpose.
Therefore, there will be many disputes between them and the Church.
Of course, the most crucial thing is that this thing is a get-out-of-jail-free card, Divine Blessing existence, and even the Pope cannot issue an order to kill Ryan.
In addition, within the empire, Ryan, who possesses the Divine Blessing of the God of Light, is also able to manipulate many things. The Church of Light in the empire is rising to oppose the Faith of Dawn. If the emperor wants to proclaim the immortality and greatness of light, then he must respect the Divine Blessing of light.
Ryan will be invincible in the chaotic struggle of faith.
He promised Adriana that he would provide unimaginable resources, and he could not cut corners, for these were materials needed to establish a foothold in the icy wilderness of the Northlands.
He will also reap unparalleled benefits.
At this moment, he felt as if he had become one of those Wandering Nobles in the Sera Kingdom who had become pawns in his political struggles, and the price and benefits they paid would be mixed together and displayed on both sides of the scale, gesturing and beckoning to him.
He didn't want to refuse.
"I promise you, I will support you in establishing a settlement in the Northlands to the best of my ability, and I will cease any further assistance when I am unable to do so."
"I can only do my best, not give everything."
Adriana sent the golden flame into Ryan's palm.
"When you suffer defeat, this Divine Blessing will be taken away."
She said that, but Ryan raised an eyebrow.
Take it back?
He looked at the Spirituality Panel that only he could see. It had settled down, and in the section on divinity, in front of the entry for the Giant Mammoth, the golden Taisu had a name different from the one he had seen at Twilight.
[Divinity: Eternity, Giant Mammoth ]
The divinity of a Taisu unit is called Eternity.
Yet it surpassed the hundreds Taisu units of Twilight Divinity that Ryan had previously possessed.
Raising his head, Ryan's eyes shone with golden light, like the Sun in the sky, sacred and majestic, inviolable and indecent. Submission and awe were instinctive in the face of this color, and his expression became solemn in that instant, devoid of human emotion, as majestic as Deities.
Undoubtedly, this is Divine Blessing.
" Lord of Dawn, God of Light, Great and Immortal Deities, He is the end of all knowledge, the absolute Creator."
His eyes regained their focus, and Ryan was deeply shocked, truly feeling the terrifying power of this Divine Blessing.
"As you wish, Your Excellency Archbishop."
Ryan's aristocratic manners were not a sign of conversion, but rather a manifestation of reverence for the great power that Adriana represented.
Having calmed down again, Ryan smiled and said:
"It's quite a coincidence that I recently mined a batch of stones from the Forest Otherworld, intending to use them to repair my castle, but clearly the Divine Oracle of fire Dispel the darkness is more important."
Ryan showed his sincerity and roughly guessed why Adriana had sought him out.
Is there any place in the entire history of human civilization that is closer to the Northlands than Lord Ryan's Frozen Earth Territory?
Following Divine Oracle also requires being grounded in reality, right? If the distance is too far, the transportation and consumption alone would be unbearable.
Only the Frozen Earth Territory can directly transport supplies to the Northlands.
This is why Adriana said that if the Church supported it, the Church would go bankrupt. Just transporting supplies from the Holy Mountain in the South to the Northlands, could one pound of grain out of a hundred pounds be delivered to the Northlands?
But when both of these numbers become question marks, then it's impossible.
Ryan may not be Adriana's only option, but barring any unforeseen circumstances, Ryan will be the only nobleman who would agree.
Would the Sera Kingdom agree? Impossible. The Andara Kingdom? That kingdom is now aligned with the Empire. And what about the several noble territories further east? They can barely protect themselves. And further east, towards the Northlands border? That's into the Woodlands, the territory of the Elves.
They have their own Deities to serve them, and they're not familiar with the Lord of Dawn, so don't misunderstand.
It's even less likely to happen in the Empire. If Adriana were to go to Emperor Flor today, she would be beheaded tomorrow.
"Does Your Excellency the Archbishop need manpower? I can send some people to help with your construction, but it's impossible for them to become your followers. They can only be temporary assistants, for example, when transporting supplies to their destination."
"Then thank you for your piety, Baron Ryan."
Adriana smiled and said that she did not reject any power that could help her.
For her, following the Divine Oracle and using fire to Dispel the Northlands was the most important thing.
"Praise the light, praise the Dawn."
Ryan said that.
"Praise be to my Lord."
Adriana turned and left. She held unparalleled authority in the Sera Kingdom, but she did not hesitate for a moment. If she truly made the Church a united front, Ryan did not know when his plans in the Sera Kingdom would succeed.
Ryan may be able to sway King MacReynolds ' heart, but this kingdom is one in which the King and the Church each hold half the power.
However, the other half of the country offered no resistance whatsoever.
Is this good fortune or misfortune?
Ryan solved the problem of the Sera Kingdom, but stepped into a deeper vortex. Looking at the Eternity Divinity on the Spirituality Panel, it was just like its name. No matter how many times Ryan used it, the Eternity Divinity of this Taisu unit would not disappear even a little bit.
Just like the Sun in the sky, its sunlight is endless, and the Dawn arrives on time every day, with no sign of its depletion.
Eternity and unfailing, that is the Sun.
Will he one day face such power? Or will he die on the way, hoping to be like the Foolish Old Man who moved mountains, watching his own bloodline try to touch such power?
Ryan didn't know, so he simply stopped thinking about it; he hadn't even learned about the mortal world yet.
Of the five great nets that had shrouded him, only half of one of them had been untied.
" The Sera Kingdom will be safe, Your Majesty King MacReynolds has become my ally, but the Andara Kingdom..."
On the surface, it seems easier for the Andara Kingdom, which has already pledged allegiance to the Empire, to control the discourse between the two eastern kingdoms. In reality, this is because there is no external pressure—namely, from the Church.
Pure political struggles among nobles are far more troublesome.
Faith is black and white, but in the politics of the nobility, today they can take whatever they want from Ryan for their own benefit, and tomorrow they can exclude all of Ryan for their own benefit.
Ryan already wields considerable influence over the Andara Kingdom, but taking it a step further won't be easy.
He wants more, Andara Kingdom won't give it to him.
However, what Ryan currently possesses is not enough to give him absolute power over the Andara Kingdom.
In the Sera Kingdom, Ryan can use the different factions among the nobles, as well as the royal family's distrust of the Church and the Empire, as a starting point to gain entry into the noble and clergy.
This cannot be copied and pasted in the Andara Kingdom.
The Andara Kingdom was so corrupt that it seemed almost impregnable to Ryan.
How should he take control of that land?
Wealth and interests? Ryan has already used Extraordinary Crops to influence a large number of nobles to his side.
But he couldn't expect nobles to Ryan over him because of those Extraordinary Crops. They could become richer, but they could also remain landowners and keep their wealth. Wealth is important, but at times, it's as useless as a blank sheet of paper.
Political prestige? This path is unlikely to work. Ryan participated in the founding war of the Sera Kingdom, but to the Andara Kingdom, Ryan is an outsider no matter what, and his political prestige is inherently untenable.
Military strength? He is Baron of the empire. If Ryan were to launch a military campaign against the Andara Kingdom without the emperor's order, it would become a diplomatic incident. Ryan is not powerful enough to ignore all the nobles in the entire South land.
Therefore, despite their proximity, the military threat posed by Ryan is nonexistent for the Andara Kingdom.
The threat from the Empire is the real threat; the threat from Baron Ryan of the Empire is not a threat at all.
But if none of these three paths work, how can one control the future direction of the Andara Kingdom?
With his bedside nearby, Ryan was unwilling to hand over the power of the Andara Kingdom to anyone else.
Especially His Majesty Emperor Flor.
Ryan felt that the other side's recent actions had become somewhat extreme, and their eagerness to demonstrate the majesty of their Empire Emperor through war against the Church would backfire.
Moreover, the more severe the suppression, the more painful the Church's counterattack will be for the Emperor of the Florian Empire.
Back in the Frozen Earth Territory, Ryan couldn't come up with a solution, but at that moment, news suddenly arrived from the Andara Kingdom.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, members of the Andara Royal Family were transformed into ghouls.
What has it turned into?
???