Ed wants to bring the world back into order, and many lives will inevitably be lost in the process.
Every life lost makes the enemy lurking in the shadows stronger.
One uses death as a means, the other uses death as an end.
Ed knew he needed to put himself in a tough spot with "that one," not only for the sake of the world, but also for the sake of Luxiusi before him.
Ed, who controls "life," can certainly resurrect the person before him, but Luxiusi is not Soul Returner after all; he can only resurrect the body now, making him nothing more than a walking corpse.
To be precise, Luxiusi's soul might still be bound by "that which controls death." To resurrect Luxiusi, one must defeat "that" being, restore one's own Authority, and only then can one share control of life and death, allowing Luxiusi to truly be "reborn."
He glanced at Luxiusi, who was smiling, and silently sighed in his heart:
"Thank you for helping me again."
Ed glanced at Luxiusi's body, then looked at the fat cardinal, and suddenly asked:
What do you think of Luxiusi?
Geliwusi thought for a moment and said:
"Impeccable."
"Um."
Ed nodded:
"Well, since he doesn't want you to know, then you don't need to know for now."
He pondered for a long time what he should have Geliwusi do, and the first thought that came to mind was to slightly strengthen him and then have this one of the three cardinals lead a team to search the world for the " Passing " controller.
But he quickly rejected his idea.
Since the enemy has already fled, they will surely hide their tracks.
Besides, the opponent gains power through death. If we kill Geliwusi as well, wouldn't that be handing them another huge advantage?
Furthermore, at least 100,000 people witnessed Geliwusi's surrender. Since Ed had already accepted his surrender, he couldn't simply turn around and send him to his death; otherwise, it would inevitably lead to some degree of unrest among the troops...
After much deliberation, Ed decided that there was no need to tell Geliwusi the whole truth.
And at that moment, he finally had the answer in his heart:
" Geliwusi, now inform me of the arrangements for your future."
"This sinner listens respectfully."
The fat cardinal immediately knelt down, something Ed was used to and didn't bother to help him up.
"Since the Second Holy See rose up, we have captured a large number of Stained Ones."
Based on the severity of their crimes, these people can be roughly divided into two groups:
Those whose crimes were less serious were sent to the " High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant," a constantly operating facility that was required to utilize their Plant Compatibility to produce a specific number of Aberration plant plugs and parts as needed.
" The Stained Ones there have become less efficient recently, and as we capture more and more Stained Ones, some of them have learned to take advantage of the chaos. It is in dire need of rectification."
"Those who have committed heinous crimes need to join the Wild Hunt, another army under my command. All its members are Stained Ones and have been blessed with immortality by me. As long as they are within the territory of the Second Holy See, they will not die immediately even if they suffer fatal wounds. After recovering, they will rise again to fight."
"When there is no war, the Wild Hunt are assigned to serve as sparring partners for the Soul Returner in various church Dungeon. However, when a war breaks out involving their homeland, the Wild Hunt are required to be deployed in full force and use their immortality to fight the enemy to the bitter end."
"What I need you to do is manage all the Stained Ones, bring back the good performers from Wild Hunt to the factory, and send the poor performers from the factory to Wild Hunt. You need to draw up a set of rules for me regarding evaluation, performance, and periodic adjustments."
"This shouldn't be difficult for someone from a Records Office like you. In short, I need to see an increase in factory efficiency within two months, and I need to ensure that the Theocracy's homeland is not invaded while a large number of Soul Returner are fighting abroad."
Geliwusi carefully tried to understand the meaning of His Son of God's words, but soon realized that the other party seemed to mean literally that he wanted to use himself to manage the Stained Ones.
Although I've never heard of terms like "performance evaluation" before, I can still quickly grasp their meaning.
It seems the Son of God truly intends to give him an important position!
Although his status and power were certainly not as great as when Theocracy, his fate was far better than that of Sailesi and Luxiusi.
"That's all I can think of for now. You don't need to leave the Holy City. I think that vacant lot in the northern suburbs is quite nice. Let's renovate it and build the first branch of the High-Quality Charcoal Processing Plant there."
"As for manpower, we can use these Stained Ones who have been captured. First, convict them, and then clearly define the division between the factory and the Wild Hunt."
"Try to handle this first. If you have any problems, you can ask me for help. Do you understand?"
"The sinner understands."
Geliwusi responded sincerely, and then asked:
"Your Highness, that criminal will be sent immediately..."
"Etc."
Ed called out to Geliwusi:
"There's one last thing."
He asked slowly:
"Besides Sailesi, are there any other high-ranking officials in the Holy City who have mysteriously disappeared?"
Ed was merely asking a routine question at this moment.
According to his deduction, since the "one" hidden in the shadows was born from the remnants of the World Tree, it must have been born within the Theocracy.
Such a special being, if it had even a shred of ambition, would certainly try to infiltrate the power structure of the Theocracy.
So at this moment, he was just asking Geliwusi casually.
Even if the old man is incredibly capable, he can't possibly remember everyone, can he?
Unexpectedly, Geliwusi actually sensed something and informed Ed:
"Your Highness, if my memory serves me correctly, there is indeed one person who is not within the Holy City."
"Um?"
Ed looked doubtful and surprised, and Geliwusi quickly explained:
"Your Highness, I am a criminal from the Records Office. Although I am useless, my memory is much better than that of ordinary people."
"I used the root system Luxiusi left me to produce a large number of puppets to control the Stained Ones. Now that I think about it, many of the guys I usually see have already been captured. And after comparing them with the list in my mind, there is indeed one person who has not shown up."
Who is it?
Ed felt he was very lucky today, as he actually hit the date on his first try.
"If the sinner remembers correctly, this man should be Samuer, Luxiusi's personal attendant and a graduate of the Holy City Theological Seminary."
Ed raised an eyebrow, feeling that this was the guy he was looking for.
Graduates of the Holy City Theological Seminary must be familiar with the logic of the Holy See's operations, and Luxiusi's position as a close aide is a classic example of a position of low rank but high power, perfectly suited to the choice of someone who wants to remain in hiding but also wants to gather a large amount of intelligence.
Thinking of this, Ed nodded and gave the order:
"Go and retrieve this person's information."