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Chapter 431: Waves

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

Some believed crows to be the harbingers of disaster, but everyone could agree that disastrous news would appear like them, swiftly and unexpectedly.

In just a short two days, news of Estrada’s death reached every major human country’s spy agency. At almost the exact same time, news that the Holy Church had declared Estrada to be a heretic also arrived.

The whole world was astonished, and then... the whole world mourned.

It was easy for a person to do a good deed, but it would be very, very difficult for that person to only perform good deeds throughout their entire life. Holy Knights were popular in every country, yet Holy Light priests and Cardinals received much worse treatment. This was because one of the requirements for being a Holy Knight was to do good deeds for one’s entire life. It could even be said that Holy Knights would specially pick to do good deeds that wouldn’t give them payment in return. That was why Holy Knights were renowned for being able to visit any country without attracting suspicion. And Estrada was doubtlessly the greatest representative of the Holy Knights.

Humans had long since forgotten when it was that Estrada first became famous. But he had always been viewed as the living representative of the Holy Light. Estrada had led the way in defending against countless calamities. Whenever other species invaded, Estrada would be always be there at the lead of the allied armies. Whenever there was a plague calamity, Estrada would be at the forefront of coming to the aid of others. His wondrous nickname, “Miracle Hand,” referred to how he was always able to create miracles even in the most despairing of situations.

The rulers of major countries would perhaps have objections to the forceful ways of the Holy Church, but not a single person didn’t respect this famous elderly Holy Knight. After all, it was likely that Estrada had saved their grandfather in the past, or that some other ancestors of theirs owed him their lives. And thanks to countless myths and legends spread about Estrada, the Strongest Holy Knight had an excellent reputation among the ordinary populace.

The rarest part of all was how Estrada was uninterested in authority and status. Not only that, he didn’t care for politics. Everyone who was familiar with him knew that—no—it should be said that everyone knew that Estrada was a truly kind and easygoing old man with no ambitions whatsoever.

This elderly Holy Knight who was renowned as the living representation of Holy Light was actually declared as a heretic? Everyone could tell that something was wrong. A problem must have arisen.

“The God of Holy Light personally descended in an incarnation to kill Estrada?”

Secret channels as well as the Holy Church’s official notification simultaneously confirmed this unfortunate piece of news. Head priests and roaming Holy Knights everywhere sent message after message to the Holy Church’s headquarters, asking about the situation. In the end, all of them received the same reply.

“Estrada, a heretic? Someone like him would actually betray the Holy Light?”

Almost all the countless messages had the same tone of disbelief. Pope Caloma and the Holy Church’s higher-ups had huge headaches over this situation. Unfortunately for them, they were unable to lie and make up a response so they could only tell everyone that Estrada was a heretic who betrayed the Holy Light. They couldn’t lie because declaring Estrada to be a heretic was a direct command from the God of Holy Light himself. None of them dared to disobey the God of Holy Light’s divine will.

And so this naturally brewed into a huge incident.

“Why did the God of Holy Light personally descend in an incarnation to kill Estrada? Just what could he have possibly done?”

From a certain standpoint, it was reasonable that the Holy Church’s higher-ups had always been on guard against Estrada. He had remained alive due to his power level and accumulated so much good reputation over the centuries. Estrada was far too brilliant of an existence within the Holy Church. Even if he didn’t have any interest in authority, just his existence alone was a problem for the organization.

“Estrada desecrated the Holy Light so the God of Holy Light’s incarnation descended to kill him.” This was the overly simple explanation given to everyone. But the simpler an explanation was, the more people would read into it. And the information contained within this explanation was indeed worth analyzing.

And it just so happened that Estrada had taught countless disciples, and over the years these disciples had their disciples and descendants. There were innumerable Holy Knights who had joined the Holy Church for the sole reason of idolizing Estrada. None of them were satisfied with such a simple answer. Countless Holy Knights, Holy Light priests and other Holy Church-related personnel began rushing to the Holy Church headquarters.

And at this exact time, the Southern Sect, which had suffered great losses together with Bardi’s recent losses, jumped out into the public eye. The Southern Sect loudly started teaching their concept of the Pure Holy Light, calling out the so-called God of Holy Light for being nothing more than a False God who was stealing the grandness of the Pure Holy Light. The true Holy Light wouldn’t require worshipping the False God of Holy Light. And Estrada had proved this fact, which was why the God of Holy Light killed him to try and keep this a secret. The Southern Sect’s Pope Atadia even swore that everything he stated was nothing but the truth in front of everyone with the powers of Holy Light. Well, some interpreted it as what he believed to be the truth.

In other situations, the Holy Church would have been at least able to counter the statements. But it just happened to be that the entire former Holy Light army vanguard witnessed everything that happened. This former Holy Light army which consisted of more than one hundred thousand people directly dispersed everywhere. Some people directly joined the Southern Sect and the Bardi Empire. Some went to their family or friends. Some returned to their home countries. And some even returned to the Holy Church.

The God of Holy Light had gone insane and intended to slaughter a tremendous number of humans. Estrada’s decision, resolution and how he had managed to reobtain the Holy Light after having it stripped from him became the best evidence for the Southern Sect’s teachings.

Naturally, the Holy Church would try to minimize the effects of this incident. However, it was impossible for Holy Light job class members to lie when swearing under oath in the name of the Holy Light—and this became troublesome. Since this incident was impossible to deny, its effects continued spreading as things worsened for the Holy Church. Every day, people left the Holy Church. Many even lost their powers of Holy Light after losing their belief. And a rare few among them managed to rediscover the Holy Light, which confirmed the fact that the “Pure Holy Light” existed without the God of Holy Light.

And it just happened to be that at this time, the fairies, who had forever remained neutral, suddenly stabbed the Holy Church while it was down.

Nobody knew the fairies’ true method of existence. They were actually one of the few species that didn’t fear the God of Holy Light and used objective reporting to detail the entire incident. They brought out countless witnesses’ firsthand accounts to prove the most critical part: that Estrada had been stripped of his Holy Light powers by the angels and the God of Holy Light himself but then managed to reobtain the Holy Light through his own efforts alone. Of course, the fairies also reported in detail on the God of Holy Light’s attempts to kill everyone present to keep this a secret.

The most unbelievable part was how the fairies even reported on the secrets of the Source of Order and the True Gods themselves. The fairies told everyone about the connections between Divine Concepts, divine power, Holy Light, the Source of Order and so on. Although they didn’t directly state that the God of Holy Light wasn’t the only source of Holy Light, everyone would be able to conclude this from what they’d said. And so the Southern Sect’s teachings about the “Pure Holy Light” received confirmation and support from this third party.

As for why the fairies were willing to suddenly antagonize the God of Holy Light?

“The God of Holy Light must have gone insane. He intends to slaughter a tremendous number of people in order to suck up to the Source of Order. Not only that, the God of Holy Light just happens to be the biggest faction and strongest Main God in the Order Faction. If the God of Holy Light continues his rule, no matter who wins the Holy War in the end, the end result will be even worse for the mortal plane than the aftermath of the previous Holy War. All of us fairies will starve to death!”

The fairies had excellent observational skills as a species which had suffered so much during the last Holy War. They’d even watched many previous Holy Wars, and while the fairies didn’t care who won, they knew that the Chaos Faction was filled with insane people impossible to reason with. The Chaos Faction forever lived by the law of the jungle where only the strong survived and the weak would be preyed upon. If they won, the first thing they’d do would be to “eliminate” a weak species like the fairies. That was why the fairies usually favored the Order Faction. However, if the God of Holy Light continued being the big boss of the Order Faction, then the fairies would be one of the biggest losers in the end no matter who won.

The situation was becoming ever more chaotic. Pope Caloma anxiously prayed to the God of Holy Light for answers but received only a rather vague divine message.

“We are enforcing the will of Order. Glorious days will soon be upon us.”

At this moment, low-ranked angels descended at the Holy Church’s seven largest mega-churches, including its headquarters. True Gods’ incarnations even descended to three of the mega-churches.

However, the Holy Church members at each location didn’t view these angels and True God incarnations with idolization like they would have in the past. Instead, the they viewed them with enmity, suspicion and coldness. Doubts were brewing in the Holy Church members’ minds, bringing about plenty of internal conflict and trouble for the Holy Church. However, the even icier angels and True God incarnations only went about their own business without caring one bit about what the mortals thought of them.

“...As expected, the God of Holy Light hasn’t given up on his plan. He intends to use forceful means now and personally send souls into the Cycle of Reincarnation.”

“Isn’t he worried about losing believers? Right now, a majority of Holy Knights refuse to listen to the Holy Church’s orders. The Holy Church has already lost more than one-third of their combat strength—at least.”

“The God of Holy Light plans to send a tremendous amount of souls into the Cycle of Reincarnation, which will help him earn the Source of Order’s recognition. He considers it extremely profitable to sacrifice mortals in order to obtain a promotion. Why would he care about losing belief—all those mortals were destined to die anyways. He would prefer for them to die earlier, enter his Divine Kingdom and become his nutrition. As long as he remains as the strongest Main God of Order and maintains the Source of Order’s favor, he’ll forever be the most powerful and unstoppable existence.”

I knew exactly what the God of Holy Light wanted. I also understood that under the current situation, he was an undefeatable existence. If he forcefully started his “soul harvest” plan, it would be impossible for us to stop him.

The God of Holy Light had been accumulating more than half of all belief in the mortal plane for almost two thousand years. He had far surpassed any ordinary Main God’s power level. In fact, I doubted that a single Chaos Faction Demon Lord would be stronger than the God of Holy Light.

But judging from how he was just as dense and mechanical as always, the God of Holy Light was also likely to be the stupidest Main God. If he managed to completely combine with and become a part of the Source of Order, he would strive even harder to force more souls into the Cycle of Reincarnation without regards to cost. In that case, the fairies’ analysis was absolutely correct. The God of Holy Light would become an even more dangerous enemy than the entire Chaos Faction.

“How am I even supposed to play this game? Forget about having garbage teammates and garbage leaders. Our faction’s biggest boss wants all of us to die. And it just happens to be impossible to fire or change this boss. How are we supposed to have fun playing!? Are we all just supposed to go die as he wants?”

And as the Holy War continued, the God of Holy Light would only become stronger and stronger, thus giving him more and more direct influence over the mortal plane. Not only would the Source of Order’s favor and the unending conflicts help expand the Concept of Holy Light, the constant increase in the Elemental Tide meant that powerful existences’ incarnations would also become stronger in the mortal plane. With fewer dimensional limitations restraining them, the most powerful existences would be able to use the full might of their true powers.

And so I was stuck in a dead end.

If I didn’t do anything to stop the God of Holy Light’s large-scale sacrifice of souls, a tremendous number of people would die and the Goddess of Order would be revived. That would be game over.

If I gathered all my power and tried to stop the God of Holy Light’s large-scale sacrifice of souls, he would crush me to death like a measly worm. And then he would simply complete his soul harvest through the Holy War and revive the Goddess of Order. Once again, it would be game over.

Just like that damned terrible game I played, all paths lead to dead ends. Which was why I decided not to choose any of these paths.

“It’s impossible to stop the God of Holy Light with direct means. However, there’s an excellent saying. “When a door closes, a window always opens.”

“So have you found this window?”

“Nope. This damned world isn’t a game, after all, and it’s completely imbalanced. There were never any windows to begin with. That’s why I intend on smashing the wall down.”

That’s right. If I tried to directly interfere with the God of Holy Light and the Source of Order’s plans, I would only be wasting my time and energy. Only by leaping completely out of the bounds of their logic and rules with my attacks would I possibly have a chance of victory. That was why I spent much effort on preparing my “grand scheme,” which would be used to “smash the walls.” Even Estrada became a sacrifice for all this.

“...I won’t allow any sacrifice to be wasted. As long as the last piece of the puzzle arrives, I’ll be able to activate my ‘grand scheme.’”