A King's Spokesman, and Thoughts on Splitting the Dawn Faith

Ryan was utterly shocked when he saw the contents of the letter.

The supreme ruler of the Church of Dawn, the incomparably revered Pope, the Lord of Dawn's most devoted servant, His representative in the mortal world, was actually a blasphemer.

This Pope of Dawn, Solarian, was more powerful than any of the previous Popes. Many clergy members followed him fanatically because they regarded Pope Solarian as the First Pope.

Only the very first Pope had possessed unmatched power, leading humanity to expand its vast territories, occupy the world's most fertile lands, and allow human civilization to flourish beneath the oppression of other races.

Pope Solarian's immense power made the clergy see the First Pope in him. To them, this represented the Lord of Dawn's highest degree of approval for this Pope.

This was the Lord's approval. Naturally, all Dawn Believers had to strictly obey the Lord's will.

But who could have imagined that the reason the Pope of Dawn was so powerful was because he had done something much like the Empire's nobles—he had blasphemed.

The Church of Dawn possessed a divine spell called Devour.

During the war in the Andara Kingdom, Pastor Soto had used this divine spell against Hernan Andara, the Crown Prince of the Andara Kingdom at the time. Hernan had already become the vessel for Dusk's Surtr to descend.

The divine spell Devour was a taboo of the Church of Dawn. It had originally been meant to help the Lord of Dawn restore Divine Essence.

The Divine Essence of other Great Beings consumed through Devour would be sent to the Eternal Kingdom, becoming nourishment for the Lord of Dawn and reducing the time He needed to sleep.

No believer was permitted to use another god's Divine Essence upon themselves.

This Pope had done it. Through