No surprises there.
Shen Sui was no longer surprised by Alice's various miraculous antics.
He clearly remembered that the original plan he had described to Alice was for her to lie low somewhere high up after the items were delivered and quietly wait for Sok Fatis's descent, then use the doll to steal the Evil God's power. Why had she gone straight to knock on the door? He had obviously been prepared to cast a cognitive interference spell on her. They would never suspect the suddenly appearing Evil God's Eye and contract.
Shen Sui rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
At that moment, a gathering was being held in the church.
It was a grand gathering. Everyone moving through it wore magnificent, noble attire, and every gesture they made seemed to carry a trace of elegance.
Drawing on her experience as a poor farmer, Alice immediately caught the scent of nobility on them.
So the nobles who had vanished from Anlud City were all here?
No. At most, only the nobles themselves were here. Their families and subordinates had likely already been moved somewhere safe to avoid being sacrificed in the Evil God's ritual.
Alice analyzed the situation inwardly.
The old man led Alice into a secret chamber within the church, where she saw a gloomy middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man's name was Tim Kadan, the Church of the Lord of Thunder's priest stationed in Anlud, a Tier 7 Mage.
He had been a Tier 7 Mage for ten years, yet he had never found a way to improve his strength. At the same time, with no connections whatsoever within the church, he had no chance of promotion.
If he did not do something, he could see the end of his future at a glance.
Tim was unwilling to remain trapped in Anlud City forever.
So he constantly consulted all kinds of ancient texts and eventually found information about the Evil God Sok Fatis in the notes of a Twilight Bishop.
Wait?! That damn notebook couldn't be the guide I wrote in the National Library, could it?
Shen Sui looked at the words on the Duel Instrument, somewhat speechless.
To increase player interaction and make the game more entertaining, Dawn Link had specifically borrowed the invasion and message systems from the Dark Souls series. Once the game had gained more players, everyone began using the message system to leave behind various guides so newcomers could progress smoothly.
Messages elsewhere might be joke posts like "skeleton ahead," but the messages in the Rollin National Library were absolutely genuine. It was the place veteran players had tacitly designated for newcomers to look up guides. They left all sorts of walkthroughs in the National Library through messages, and under the game's setting, those messages were converted into notes.
Then you really deserved to die.
Shen Sui frowned, because his guide to the Evil God had explicitly mentioned using a Sacrificial Doll as a substitute to prevent an entire city from being sacrificed.
Clearly, in Tim's eyes, the lives of an entire city were insignificant. There was no need to go through the trouble of making some Sacrificial Doll—though that might also have been because doll magic was extremely difficult to obtain.
It was doll magic, after all.
The developers might have been shameless copycats and greedy cash-grabbers, but they understood what players wanted.
Who could refuse a wife whose face they had designed themselves? Especially when mods were involved.
Following the notes' records, Tim found the Evil God's Eye and Sok Fatis's Contract.
He decided to sacrifice Anlud City, welcome the Evil God's descent, establish a new church, and become that church's first Pope!
Tim's plan successfully persuaded Anlud City's nobles. No one could refuse the opportunity to invest in a new church.
History had proven that as long as one had a god at one's back, one could become one of the continent's foremost powers in the shortest possible time.
Tonight was when the descent ritual would begin.
The nobles held a grand banquet here. With wineglasses in hand, they would stand atop Anlud Mountain and look down upon Anlud City's destruction while witnessing the god's descent. It would be a breathtaking sight rarely seen.
Tim looked at the young girl before him. The vast difference in their ranks allowed him to see through Alice's strength with ease.
A Tier 3 Mage actually dared to stand before me.
Tim's thoughts churned.
No! That was her disguise! A Tier 3 Mage could never have wiped out an entire squad of Thunder Knights! Even I can't see through her true strength? This person is unfathomable.
Uh. You were overthinking it, buddy.
At a time like this, you should have just blasted her with a Fireball Spell, and everything would have been exposed.
Tim knew Hozeville. She was the madwoman who had destroyed the City of Sin and personally killed the god she worshipped.
Tim began to believe Alice's words, because he felt that he finally understood why Hozeville had destroyed the City of Sin. This Rebellious Witch was not a follower of the God of Sin at all—she was Sok Fatis's follower!
No! Wasn't that imagination of yours a little too thorough? Alice hadn't said anything, yet you had already made up the entire chain of cause and effect behind her actions?
Shen Sui felt that there was something wrong with Tim's brain.
I finally understood why so many people in my previous life had believed scams like "I am Qin Shi Huang." There really were people this stupid in the world.
Alice gained Tim's trust. With Tim's introduction, she appeared before the nobles as Sok Fatis's devout follower.
The deeds of Hozeville, the Rebellious Saintess, had already spread across the continent through newspapers and communication magic. Naturally, the nobles had heard her name.
Their trust in Alice increased greatly.
Well, this...
Seeing this, Shen Sui began to feel somewhat puzzled by Alice's objective.
The Duel Instrument had not switched the view to Alice's inner thoughts, so Shen Sui did not know what Alice was thinking at that moment.
Could Alice be planning to punish these nobles who intended to sacrifice an entire city?
Given her hatred of evil, it was indeed possible. However, the advantages Shen Sui had given her did not involve her personal strength. And because Anna risked contamination from the Holy Grail, Alice would not allow her to act. So with only the strength of a Tier 3 Mage, what did Alice intend to rely on to punish these people?
Alice moved among the nobles, chatting and laughing with every one of them.
She imitated the noble tax collectors she had seen in the village before, always wearing a gentle smile.
During this time, she promoted a grand plan to Anlud's nobles.
The great Sok Fatis possessed power surpassing every god in the world.
As His followers, we had a duty to spread His strength and mercy throughout the world.
Alice intended to establish a church. Tim Kadan would become its Pope, while she would become its Saintess.
This newly founded church needed a great deal of sponsorship. Alice needed the nobles' help, providing knights, money, and provisions.
Tim arrived and vouched for Alice's plan.
The nobles hesitated, since they had not yet witnessed the great god.
Alice stepped onto the altar. She raised the Evil God's Eye above her head and invoked the power of Sok Fatis's Contract.
In that instant, the power of the Great Evil God Sok passed through the Evil God's Eye and enveloped all of Anlud City.
Sok Fatis's descent ritual had begun.
As for Forbidden Cards, the Time Regulator, and Extraordinary Power, I put the explanations in the pinned comment.
Whenever I wrote Tim, I kept writing Tifa instead. No idea why.jpg
Before you continue