On the border of the Ameli Kingdom, less than fifty li from the neighboring Kanna Kingdom, stood a town called Holy Silver.
The town had once been a key border stronghold of the Ameli Kingdom. For years, the kingdom had stationed heavy troops there to guard against a possible attack from Kanna. Kanna was not particularly powerful, but it had once launched a surprise campaign straight toward the Ameli capital, breached the city, and set the royal palace ablaze.
Then the Calamity erupted, the Ameli Kingdom fell, and great numbers of refugees fled to the border stronghold. Rich in resources and untouched by the Calamity, it soon became the foremost city in the entire Ameli Kingdom—if that could still be called a country.
Like other Shelters, Holy Silver Town was centered on a vast Prayer Hall. As the hall's highest authority, Archbishop Spencer was naturally the town's undisputed leader.
For twenty years, the Holy Servant had kept to himself and rarely appeared before the public. Supposedly, he prayed for more than ten hours each day, striving to drive back the Calamity and protect the largest Shelter in the Ameli Kingdom.
But "supposedly" was often a far cry from reality.
Archbishop Spencer, for instance, prayed for no more than ten minutes a day. In fact, he hardly ever prayed at all.
Because he did not believe in God.
Most of the bishops who ran the Shelters did not believe in God either.
They believed only in themselves and in their own technology.
Apart from tending to his health, Spencer's chief occupation was research. He spent most of his time in the basement, thinking, mixing medicines, and conducting experiments.
As a scientist, he was highly skilled. The screams, pleas, and curses of his test subjects never disturbed his thoughts. He could always