Chapter 1761: The Will of God Is What It Is
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
The brightly lit lights within the cathedral, the latent mental powers of thousands of clergies and the holiness that the sacred sanctum had all interwoven and that allowed the cathedral to seemingly be separated clearly from the world outside. The world outside was enveloped by thick dark clouds as the brooding weather signaled the coming of trials and tribulations upon the world, and a wall apart, it was nothing but warmth and brightness.
However, even with the cathedral’s innate holiness, and the bright lights could not calm the unease of the clergy.
The pope had already locked himself in the prayer room for almost twelve hours now, and within this period at least a dozen powerful aftershocks from the divine arts had blasted out of the room. No one knew if this first ‘communion with God’ in one-thousand-odd years would be smooth sailing, and for the newly appointed pope Automos, this was the most challenging moment of his career as a clergy. For the entire Disciples of Glory, this was the moment of truth for the legacy of so many generations. If the pope manages to hear the goddess, and if a divine miracle was present, then the legacy of the Disciples of Glory would be sealed and be unshakable, but if the pope fails…
Then it is over for the Disciples of Glory, and every theological debate before and henceforth would be pointless, and as a church worshiping a true god, and if the god denounces them, the meaning of its existence would no longer exist.
The young brother came before the prayer room, and a few cardinals were already waiting outside. He bowed respectfully to them, before whispering to one of them. “Has His Holiness not come out yet?”
“His Holiness is still praying.” the cardinal asked replied in a deadpan manner.
“Marshal Ophra is already in the cathedral,” the young brother continued. “She carries with her a royal order.”
“No one may enter before the prayer is completed.” The cardinal shook his head, “Perhaps His Holiness’ communion with the goddess has reached its most important stage.”
The young brother nodded and waited with the cardinals by the door of the prayer room.
Within the prayer room, Pope Automos’ communion with the goddess had indeed reached its most important stage.
The goddess of creation was teaching him the special prayers capable of resisting the mental taint of the Mad Lord, and along with that, a large number of powerful divine arts and rituals that had been previously lost.
Automos had been baptized at birth and had been a servant body since five undergoing theological studies, but throughout his life, he had never felt so emotional before. The knowledge given by the gods are so invaluable, especially so for the ones that had been lost across the ages, generations upon generations of clergymen had strained all efforts to recover the lost arts from bits and pieces of ancient scrolls, and everyone thought that this ancient knowledge could not be fully recovered, and was convinced that the loss of this knowledge was a form of penance for the arrogance of men, and who would have thought that they would be recovered in such a manner someday?
Not only did the goddess not fault her devotee’s foolishness and arrogance, but she had also instead retaught everything personally.
Automos thought that he was probably the luckiest of all of the popes in the church.
As for the random smattering of “Easier than the module questions”, “One practice per lesson works”, “And there are actually four ways to do this” while she was teaching him, Automos considered that the manifestation of the goddess’ wisdom and deep thought, not that he understood what it meant anyway.
However, before he took down the divine art modules, he had copied down the prayers that could ward off the infestation of madness. Knowledge and whatnot are all fine and dandy, but that depended on them staying alive.
As the light of the divine arts faded away, Automos looked at the enchanted scrolls containing all sorts of spell modules and prayers as he faithfully reported, “Goddess, I have recorded all of it down.”
“Very good, next I will announce the order to all devotees in the world, and they will know what will be happening, but not everyone is capable of using high-level divine arts, so I entrust this original prayer text to you, you need to disseminate it to all bishops and every ranking clergy above them. You need to master the usage of these prayers within a month, and set up defenses all across the world.”
“Remember, once you have received this prayer, all of you will bear the burden of protecting everyone, and all of you will be directly facing the spiritual infestation of that beast of madness, the most terrifying side of the universe…”
“If anyone feels that his faith and willpower is wavering, they may step away, and I will not fault them. This withdrawal would instead prevent any gaps in the defensive line of the mortal worlds. But if you choose to receive it, then you need to persevere until the end, and I will always be by your side.”
“Remember, you are not fighting alone.”
Automos felt a sensation his soul had never felt before as he fell on all fours before the holy portrait. “Oh, Goddess, I have prepared a long time for this!”
“Then go, I still have two questions to answer…”
Automos nodded in reverence as he got up, but just before he left the room, the will of the goddess of creation swept through him again. “Wait up, Automos, there’s another thing.”
The pope immediately stopped and turned towards the portrait, “Goddess, please go ahead.”
“What’s that abstract-art like caricature before you?”
“…Eh?”
At that very moment, Automos felt that this was the biggest challenge that he had faced in his lifetime as a clergy!
“Oh, Goddess… that is you were are drawing…”
“Eh?”
Right then, Rheia, who was a few million light-years away also felt that this was the biggest challenge she had faced in her lifetime as a goddess!
After some awkwardness (alright, a massive awkwardness for Automos), the two had reached a mutual accord on the problem with the image of the holy portrait as a new portrait will replace the abstract art from the ‘chaotic age’, and to smooth over the rather awkward atmosphere, Automos had to look for a new topic, “Goddess, about the unusual weather today…”
“What about the weather?” The goddess sounded rather confused.
“Is it a foretelling of the coming chaos and instability? We need to explain this to the masses…”
The goddess’ reply came after a two-second delay, “Ah, my powers had swept across the world, and the reaction with the free energy particles in the atmosphere will probably cause some bizarre weather conditions, but it does not have any foretelling to it.”
“…Then what should we do?” Automos asked.
“Why, get everyone to keep the laundry, pronto! Why is this child so silly?!”
The door of the prayer room finally opened.
The young brother and the waiting cardinals quickly went forward to receive him, and they saw Pope Automos bore a tired look that they had never witness before.
The communion with the gods is probably a very heavy burden for mortals, and even the strongest popes would be worn out by it. And all of the cardinals came to the same conclusion as they saw Automos’ unstable footsteps.
“Your Holiness,” A cardinal came before the pope, “The divine will…”
“The goddess is upon us,” Automos spoke before the former could even finish his sentence as he pulled the scrolls, overflowing with divine power out from his sleeves. The pure divine powers exuded from the scroll were beyond the comprehension of the clergies, and in reverent awe, all of them bowed. “This is her gift of knowledge. She had commanded us to be united and to face the biggest challenge that is about to be upon this world. I will brief all of you on the details in the conclave later.”
The cardinals all bowed down as they prayed, their voice was filled with joy and assurance. “Praise be the goddess.”
Automos took a deep breath as he tried to calm his emotions. “She has also given us two other orders…”
“Please, Your Holiness, enlighten us.” the cardinals said in unison.
“First, we need to redraw the holy portrait. As we had discussed a few times earlier, the current portrait is a collective illusion caused by the mental influence of the First Born. As the First Born was corrupted by foul powers, that portrait too had been twisted. The goddess did not fault us for that, but we need to redraw a new portrait of the goddess.”
As he said, he pulled out another scroll. “As she had commanded, the new portrait will be based on this .”
A cardinal carefully took the scroll as if he was holding the key to the fate of the world, and opened it with utmost reverence. He saw a very beautiful little girl on the scroll, and with one hand on her waist, and another posing a V sign towards the viewer.
The cardinals were speechless.
So was Automos.
“The will of God is what it is,” Automos spoke assuredly after a moment, “Just do as we are told.”
Someone from the group of cardinals had also recovered. “And.. what of the second order?”
“She asks us to not go about guessing the weather, and get everyone to keep their laundry.”
Automos closed his eyes as he visibly looked like he had aged ten years. “The will of God is what is it.”
The cardinals had dispersed, and Automos could finally heave a sigh of relief. In those ten-odd minutes, he felt that there was a gulf between him and his predecessor. Even if their experience was about the same, he felt that he still had more to learn.
He noticed the young brother who was standing where he stood, and as the latter was walking toward him, he spoke, “Has Marshal Ophra been waiting?”
“She is waiting for you at the cathedral. She declined our invitation to rest in the lounge.”
“For the austere Disciples of Glory, the lounge is no more comfortable than the main hall itself.” The pope nodded as he headed out. “Let’s meet her now. War is upon us, and the goddess is upon her own battlefield, and us mortals should be on our way to our own battlefield.”