Chapter 18 The War Church

The Oya Continent.

The human Northern Empire and Southern Church occupied vast territories.

However, according to the continental map,

what humans occupied was the eastern continent of Oya.

The [Falling Feather Sacred Kis Mountains], stretching from south to north, were said to be a towering mountain range that even birds could not cross, blocking communication between the eastern and western continents.

In the southwest of the eastern continent of Oya,

lay the junction of the [Falling Feather Sacred Kis Mountains] and the southern [War Church].

Deep within a branch range called the "Blackrock Mountains," extending eastward from the Falling Feather Sacred Kis Mountains,

this place was a supernatural wilderness, teeming with supernatural beasts and rarely visited by humans.

Inside a dilapidated and decayed cave,

"Buzz..."

the teleportation array, covered with dead branches and rotten leaves, suddenly lit up.

Then, accompanied by milky white light and fluctuations of spatial essence,

a semi-illusory shadow, difficult to see clearly, suddenly emerged.

After looking around, this illusory figure quickly dissipated.

About ten seconds later,

"Buzz..." The light of the teleportation array lit up again.

Then, a "mechanical angel" appeared in the array, standing one meter ninety tall, radiating an extremely rich life aura from its silvery body, with mechanical wings composed of floating gears and mechanical feathers on its back.

Wearing mechanical angel armor, even though the head was encased in the mechanical armor, the metal on the head was particularly special.

From the outside, it appeared opaque, matching the overall luster.

But once the entire mechanical angel armor was nurtured and worn, one would find that the visor was completely transparent, not obstructing vision at all.

Moreover, when one's own life aura merged with the life metal of the mechanical angel armor,

it could completely transform one's life aura into a new one.

Thus, even if Gune fought others and exposed his life aura, no one could recognize his true identity.

His gaze swept over the decayed and abandoned ground.

"Finally found a teleportation array in a desolate ruin," Gune muttered to himself.

The phantom from the teleportation array earlier was a projection Gune had condensed using the Ancient Shadow Gate.

Gune used the projection to scout the specific situation of the teleportation array on the other side.

He had detected seven arrays, all inhabited by wilderness tribes.

This eighth one was an abandoned teleportation array.

Using a teleportation array located in a ruin as a foothold, Gune could safely and discreetly travel between the south and the Star Observation Tower.

Then Gune flew out along the narrow exit.

Normally, a newly promoted Grandmaster could hardly fly.

They could only rely on flying talents, spells, or other flying supernatural tools.

But that was only for one-mark Grandmasters.

With a six-mark Soul Core, Gune not only had the ability to fly easily but also flew quite fast. After all, Gune's speed was naturally very high.

Combined with the innate flight ability of the mechanical angel armor once activated,

Gune didn't need spells to fly.

Soon, Gune arrived outside the cave of the teleportation array.

What met his eyes was a completely abandoned basin and hills.

Ahead were large numbers of low broadleaf shrubs and half-shrub plants of the Artemisia type.

Among these shrubs, many white stone pillars lay fallen, and a few taller white ruins still stood after weathering, but they were covered with vines.

After flying lightly over this ruin and inspecting it a few times, Gune roughly guessed the situation.

"It should be some ancient ruins or an ancient human settlement."

In very ancient times, humans were not allowed to live on the plains. They could only survive in steep mountain forests, using the rugged terrain to block the invasion of dark creatures.

Thus, in many wilderness areas, traces of human ancestors surviving could still be seen.

After taking out a map to confirm his location,

Gune quickly rose higher.

As his视野 expanded, everything before him became vast and grand.

Although Gune had flown before, it was under the guidance of a Grandmaster.

That feeling was completely different from flying on his own.

The vast territory lay beneath his feet, soaring in the high sky—this feeling was quite wonderful.

With a flip of his hand, Gune took out the Cthulhu Compass.

The Cthulhu Compass pointed precisely southeast.

"This direction points accurately to a branch diocese of the War Church, which is quite convenient."

After a moment of thought, Gune cast a high-level invisibility spell on himself and then, in a concealed state, headed in the direction indicated by the Cthulhu Compass.

This time, heading to the Southern Church, Gune had prepared ample information.

Of course, for specific and detailed information, Gune still needed to capture some church clergy and extract it from their souls to act better.

Although Gune's current strength was not weak, he still needed a proper plan.

...

The War Church

was one of the two strongest churches in the Southern Church.

Other small churches and the already declined Light Church were basically not within the scope of confrontation.

As a powerful church,

the core layer of the War Church itself had the [Pope], who held supreme power and strength.

As well as cardinals, sacrificial bishops, war bishops, judgment bishops, and other powerful beings also at the Envoy level.

Within its ruling territory, there were fourteen huge church branch dioceses.

Each church branch diocese was as large as a province of the Northern Empire.

The [Branch Archbishop] of that church branch held supreme power in the region under his rule.

And to be the archbishop of a church branch, one's strength was at least Supernatural Rank Eight.

The archbishop of a powerful diocese often possessed the strength of Supernatural Rank Nine.

Below the branch archbishop were branch bishops.

Those Supernatural Rank Six knight commanders or senior deacons, if they could advance to Grandmaster, would immediately become "branch bishops," entering the core of the church.

Further down from the church branch were the churches in various regions, senior deacons, war knights, and other personnel.

However, these deacons and war knights could be of mid-rank or high-rank strength, sufficient for grassroots work.

But at the Grandmaster level, they were clearly not qualified.

For the entire War Church,

the fourteen church branches were the backbone of their control over the entire territory.

If any church branch experienced turmoil, it would harm the foundation and even shake the church's rule.

Therefore, even though the North-South War was exceptionally brutal, the archbishops of each branch strictly guarded their own branch territories and did not move easily.

The Nafbo Diocese.

This was one of the fourteen dioceses of the War Church.

And this was where Gune was about to go.

Even though the Nafbo Diocese was located in the border region, a marginal diocese, the strict hierarchical rule of the church still penetrated every corner in the borderlands.

Within the church's ruling area,

weekly prayer on prayer day was essential.

One could skip meals, but prayer to the gods must be done.

Besides that, offering harvested grain to the church during the harvest season was also of utmost importance.

Because, according to the church's propaganda, all food was a gift from the great gods.

Even if one went hungry, they had to pay enough grain; otherwise, after death, their soul would suffer the burning of hellfire.

But with sufficient faith in the gods and sincere devotion, after death, one would be summoned by the gods and allowed to enter the divine kingdom.

In addition, in the church's ruling areas, there were many doctrines that seemed sacred but actually satisfied personal filthy desires.

For example, young and beautiful maidens had to be sent to the church to serve the clergy.

Even in areas managed by clergy with special preferences, those clergy enjoyed the right of the first night.

In terms of power, the ruling clergy were also supreme; even if they openly killed people, they could still use the "indulgence certificates" given by the church for a verdict of innocence.

But ordinary people, if they accidentally offended a clergyman, could be sent to the stake.

Evil and ugliness, in absolute rule, unabashedly bared their greedy and ferocious fangs.

And exposed the darkness in the rulers' humanity, like demons, frightening and abhorrent.