Annan had spent the past few days trying to spend money. Even Making the Pantheon Real was a way to spend money. It was a little cheap, but he could get an Arcane Core for free.
Rounded up, that meant he had bypassed the rules and bought an Arcane Core with the Wealth Church's money.
Unfortunately, moving every church in at once would cause trouble. He could only work on Winning Over the churches gradually and let the money flow out bit by bit.
Yesterday had been the best time to steal the churches' standing. Today was the next best.
Looking back through history, he could hardly find a better opportunity. Call Annan a heretic? How was he a heretic?
The churches defined a heretic as an enemy of the gods and the churches.
But Annan was one of their own! He had built a church with his own hands during the Year of Turmoil. How could anyone call him a heretic? At most, he practiced Universal Love, gathering all the gods into his arms and shouting, "You're all my wings!"
And if treating them all equally was some terrible heresy, Annan could always bring out the Heroic Spirits...
Even the Order Church's Heroic Spirits approve of what I'm doing. Who do you think you are?
All Annan had to do was give orders. Each light, effortless command landed like a mountain on the people who had to carry it out.
Eli Gravel had not even finished the plans for the Wealth Church when two more churches landed on his shoulders. He had to start taking Potions to skip sleep, spending all day buried in his plans.
Eli Gravel had always lived up to his name: he had an elf's beauty, fastidiousness, and pointed ears, along with a dwarf's