Chapter 62#

His Holiness the Pope, Who Scatters Holy Light#

Como County sits in the picturesque Darak Valley. This small town had few inhabitants and an undeveloped trade, yet it was a famous tourist destination. In Como County stood a magnificent temple, and every year on the Day of Sacred Praise, a large number of believers from other provinces would come here on pilgrimage.

The Darak Temple, built three thousand years ago, was said to be the site of the last divine descent of the God of Light — a miracle that had occurred in this remote, humble temple. After that miracle, the Southern Province spent five years’ worth of tax revenue to completely renovate the Darak Temple. The entire temple was constructed from white stone quarried in the Raven Mountains. Its base was crafted by the most masterful architectural artisan among the dwarves, and high elves had been invited to carve bas-reliefs on every pillar and paint portraits of the God of Light and his divine envoys upon the temple’s vaulted ceiling.

The proudest thing about Bishop Bernie’s tenure overseeing the Darak Temple was that His Holiness the Pope, whenever he came to the Southern Province to preach, always made a deliberate detour to the remote town of Como.

“This is God’s blessing,” His Holiness had said the first time he laid eyes upon the Darak Temple.

Although that was decades ago, Bishop Bernie still remembered His Holiness’s praise of the Darak Temple.

The weather is still so fine today — blue sky, white clouds. God has once again bestowed His light upon us. Bishop Bernie lay on his soft bed, and the moment he opened his eyes, he saw a clear sky above. He thought this was truly a wonderful day for morning prayers.

Wait — I went to sleep in my bedroom last night. Why can I see the sky?! Bishop Bernie shot upright in alarm, only to discover that he had been sleeping on the main street in front of the temple. Beside his soft four-poster bed, a whole crowd of people lay sprawled across the ground — all of them apprentice priests and priests from the temple.

Where the Darak Temple should have been standing before him, there was nothing — only emptiness.

Should I be glad I woke up lying on a bed? The thought surfaced in Bishop Bernie’s mind.

No! The Darak Temple has vanished! Vanished! Good God above, this must be a miracle! Has a miracle finally descended upon us again? The Darak Temple, blessed by the God of Light, has been carried away by the God Himself to the Divine Realm to serve as His palace. Bishop Bernie prostrated himself upon the ground and prayed with the utmost devotion.

The Darak Temple, now like a work of art, sat right before Lu Heng.

“This… is the Darak Temple?” Lu Heng asked hesitantly.

After Lu Heng had mentioned wanting to cultivate in a temple that day, Aionas had been gone for two days. Although the giant dragon had departed, Dragon Island was simply too far above the continent’s surface, and even levitation magic was of little help.

At dawn that day, Aionas returned. Lu Heng followed behind him — the dragon wore an expression of unfathomable profundity, but his eyes couldn’t hide their glint of smug satisfaction. Lu Heng almost suspected that, were he in dragon form, he would be swishing that enormous tail back and forth by now.

Stepping out of the cave, Lu Heng froze in stunned shock for a moment, then uttered the very sentence we heard just now.

“Lechicas. Oh, he’s an unimportant green dragon — you don’t need to remember his name. His bard told me that His Holiness the Pope of the Church of Light once praised the Darak Temple,” Aionas said. “But don’t misunderstand — I didn’t go out of my way to seek Lechicas for this. I’d been sleeping for too long and my body felt a bit stiff, so I found him for a quick bout to loosen up. After the fight we just chatted a bit, that’s all.”

“Aio… you moved the entire Darak Temple here?” Lu Heng still couldn’t quite believe his own eyes.

“Besides, Esmond is dead anyway — who’s going to come bother me?” Aionas mused for a moment, then felt this remark might slightly undermine the dignity of the Lord of Dragons. “Of course, even if Esmond weren’t dead, I wouldn’t be afraid to fight him.”

Esmond was the name of the God of Light. Aionas truly knew about the fall of the gods. The Lord of Dragons — would he rather remain in a half-god’s body forever than ascend to the Divine Realm? Had he known something all along? This Aionas was perhaps not as simple as he appeared.

“I was merely a little surprised by your abilities.” Lu Heng’s thoughts never once showed on his face.

“Naturally! There is nothing the great Lord of Dragons cannot accomplish. I’m the one who made this entire Dragon Island float — what’s a little temple compared to that?” Aionas was quite pleased with himself. “Although I don’t know how you plan to cultivate through prayer now that Esmond is dead… as long as you’re happy, that’s what matters.”

“Many thanks to the great Lord of Dragons for his help.” Lu Heng bowed slightly. This half-god — knowing full well that all the gods had fallen — refused to ask a single question about it.

“Shouldn’t you express your gratitude with a kiss? That would be the most sincere way.” Aionas felt Lu Heng’s thanks were far too perfunctory.

Lu Heng was rendered simultaneously amused and exasperated by this bolt from the blue. His train of thought, already in full momentum, ground to a halt. “Who told you that?”

“The bard from Lechicas’s court.” Aionas recalled carefully. “In the long epic he sings, a beautiful maiden receives the gift she’s long awaited and bestows her soft lips upon a handsome warrior, and the two of them tumble together into a mountainside carpet of flowers, composing a hymn to life. Don’t you humans worship the God of Light? Why sing a hymn to the Goddess of Life? The Goddess of Life is the elven race’s chief deity — don’t tell me that maiden was an elf?”

“…Aio, maybe you should go see that bard less often from now on.” Lu Heng finished speaking, nodded to Aionas in farewell, and turned to enter the temple.

Truly the treasure of the Lord of Dragons — as possessive as a dragon himself. Aionas watched Lu Heng’s retreating figure and thought to himself, quite pleased. Although he was merely a half-god and Esmond had already fallen, courtesy still dictated that he could not enter the interior of a temple sacred to the God of Light. Aionas had no choice but to shift into dragon form and sprawl at the temple’s entrance, preparing to catch a brief doze while waiting for Lu Heng to emerge.

At this moment, Lu Heng stood behind the statue of the God of Light, holding a small figurine he had extracted from within the statue itself. He pressed the figurine to his forehead and closed his eyes.

Vision of the Soul.

Lu Heng saw the power of faith that filled the entire temple — emanating from believers all across the continent who were engaged in prayer — pouring into the statue of God. But these were not the faithful whose faith Lu Heng sought. His target was the power of faith converging upon the figurine in his hand — that is, the power of faith directed at the Pope himself.

The two cardinals closest to the Pope knew everything concerning the collapse of the Divine Realm. Their faith was not in the already-fallen God of Light, but in His Holiness the Pope. Lu Heng wished to contact these two most reliable allies.

After a moment, among the myriad threads of light, a single strand dove straight into the figurine in Lu Heng’s hand. However, this power of faith was far too faint — it hardly seemed consistent with two cardinals of such formidable power. Still, since it was a sincere and devout power of faith, the person was certainly trustworthy.

Divine Descent.

The surrounding scenery twisted and shimmered. Before Lu Heng appeared Princess Windsor, kneeling on the ground with her hands clasped together over her heart in prayer. Strangely, Princess Windsor was dressed in battle-priest attire. She wore light armor, a war hammer hung at her waist, and her golden hair was neatly tied back in a ponytail. This was generally how a priest within an adventuring party dressed.

“Windsor.”

Hearing Lu Heng’s voice, Princess Windsor opened her eyes in disbelief. When she saw that it truly was Lu Heng, her eyes lit up. “Holiness! Holy Father!”

After completing the disciple’s salute, Princess Windsor hastily rose to her feet. When she stepped before Lu Heng, she realized it was merely an apparition.

“Divine Descent!” Princess Windsor covered her mouth in a soft gasp. “You can already cast Divine Descent!”

Seeing the unconcealed reverence shining in this young woman’s eyes, Lu Heng smiled gently at her. “Windsor, do you have somewhere urgent to go?”

“Ah—” Princess Windsor’s face flushed crimson in an instant. “I thought you had been imprisoned by an evil dragon. I gathered the most elite adventuring party to rescue you — it seems I was overthinking things. You are truly so powerful!”

Lu Heng’s mood was somewhat complicated. In his mind, bizarre images flickered unbidden. To prevent his imagination from galloping off to who-knows-where like a wild horse, Lu Heng quickly steered the conversation to business.

“Windsor, I need you to do something for me.”

“At your command.” Princess Windsor didn’t even ask what it was before placing her right hand over her chest, saluting and accepting without hesitation.

The task Lu Heng entrusted to Princess Windsor was difficult in one sense and easy in another. He asked her to impersonate the Pope, with the two cardinals assisting her on the finer details. After making a few appearances, she could simply remain within the papal court under the pretext of a period of ascetic seclusion — the Pope had done similar things many times before. Therefore, so long as Princess Windsor had enough nerve and was willing to undertake this, there would be no major mishaps.

The fact that Lu Heng had been carried off by a dragon had already caused enormous upheaval. If he didn’t appear before the faithful for any extended period, who knew how widespread the panic would become. This time, Lu Heng estimated that he would not be able to shake off this golden dragon anytime soon, and had no choice but to seek Princess Windsor’s help. Moreover, Lu Heng had other plans and didn’t intend to let the identity of the Pope constrain his actions in the short term.

After hearing this plan — which, to any other member of the faithful, might have sounded earth-shattering — Princess Windsor showed no hesitation and remained willing to follow all of Lu Heng’s instructions. After their discussion, Windsor decided to brush off her brother with the excuse of entering the papal court for further study. Whether Sully agreed or not was no longer within Windsor’s consideration — after all, her brother had never once been able to outstubborn her.

Having settled matters with the papal court, Lu Heng returned to the Darak Temple. He took a black square box from his storage ring — one he had found among Aionas’s treasure hoard. Back then, Lu Heng had merely glanced at it a couple of extra times, and Aionas had shoved the entire pile of treasure in front of him.

Lu Heng opened the box. Inside lay a small figurine. It was only half a palm-sized, and it was merely a skeleton forged entirely of steel — an iron steel skeleton, at that. It looked rather frightening.

On the inner lid of the box that stored it, there was a crest printed upon the surface.

This was a goblin-made product.