Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Augustus put down his right hand and covered his eyes and said solemnly, “The Lord has heard our prayer and granted us divine powers, so that we can disseminate his glory and preach his doctrines.”
“This is the best compliment for our devotion!”
As he spoke aloud, the ivory brilliance around him surged into gold sunlight and surged towards all directions, drowning Harold, Myrna and the other dwarfs.
Harold immediately sensed another improvement of his strength. He became excited and filled with desire for battle, fearless of desperation or pain!
That was the feeling of the real warriors!
That was ‘Warrior Tide’, a level-five divine power, and the best that Augustus could achieve so far!
At this moment, the concerns and sense of crisis in Augustus’ heart were gone. It was not true that the great God of Steam could not grant divine powers, He simply preferred steam and machinery. Therefore, the senior elder smiled solemnly. “I listened to the lecture of the Lord and understood that the greatest secrets of the world lie in steam and machinery. If we grasp them, we will boast the strength that is beyond divine power, such as weapons which can produce Eternal Blaze.”
“The Lord told us that divine power is just a temporary weapon that we can protect ourselves in a certain phase of our journey but not the thing that we should depend on and preach His doctrines with. After we live through the phase, we will naturally drop the divine power and devote ourselves to steam and machinery, so that we can dig out their mysteries and possess the real power of ourselves with our own work. Only in such a way will we be able to establish Atlantis on earth.
Harold, Myrna and the other dwarfs all prayed, “Great God of Steam, you look after us and master the supreme power. May we reestablish a glorious steam civilization under your protection!”
Augustus hesitated for a moment, but when he thought of the hallowed air and the marvelous divine power, he still said solemnly, “You will pray before the divine item in turns. The Lord will grant divine power to those who are pious.”
What?
Really?
Harold, Myrna and the other dwarfs were hit by wild joy again. After witnessing what happened just now, they thought that it was a special favor from the Lord to their senior elder, and that the believers who more or less wavered in their heart like themselves had to wait longer before they received divine power with their actions.
It never occurred to them that the great God of Steam would grant them divine power without holding any grudge!
“You are the embodiment of virtues, and you teach us the truth of benevolence.”
Harold and the other dwarfs covered their eyes with their right hand again and prayed sincerely. They felt that their mind was empty and their faith was even purer. Tears of joy were even flowing out of their eyes.
Then, Harold reached before the silver ‘nuclear bomb’ and recited the content of ‘Mechanical Apocalypse’.
The noise was suddenly gone. Myrna and the other dwarfs looked at Harold attentively and hopefully. Would the Lord show favor?
Suddenly, another pure and brilliant light shot out of the silver sacred item. It illuminated Harold as if it covered him with a holy overcoat, making him look like an ‘angel’ in the Saint Truth.
A divine power had truly been granted!
Myrna and the other dwarfs were thrilled. They had witnessed a miracle and the Lord’s favor over the dwarfs in person!
Harold’s vibe grew exponentially and did not stop until he reached the level of bishop.
Augustus was more or less relieved after that. According to the standard of divine power, he was a level-five bishop, and Harold was a level-three one. He was still the leader of the night dwarfs and the archbishop of the Steam Church!
After that, the dwarfs prayed before the divine item in order, but not all of them got the seed of faith and grew the heart of faith. Only ten or so dwarfs, including Myrna, were given divine power. Correspondingly, only Myrna and Aquinas became level-three bishops like Harold.
However, the other dwarfs did not complain, because those who were given divine powers were the most pious believers and who became leaders for their ‘devotion’. After they became leaders, they had to pretend to be pious even if they were not so, or they wouldn’t be able to command their subordinates at all.
After the ritual was over, Archbishop Augustus stood before the divine item and said solemnly, “The divine power contradicts our purpose to construct Atlantis on earth. Therefore, the Lord asks us not to brag about it, or we may be lost in power. He reminds us to keep it a secret and only show it in front of the believers. Whoever tells it to outsiders or performs divine power before outsiders without necessity will be deprived of the power and punished!”
As a matter of fact, he didn’t quite understand why the great God of Steam gave such an oracle, but after experiencing the miracle, he dared not suspect it at all.
Even less courageous to question it were Harold, Myrna, Aquinas and the other dwarfs, who covered their eyes with their right hand:
“Your instruction will be obeyed. You are the Lord of Life and Death, the King of the kings, the God above the gods.”
The ivory brilliance inside the silver ‘divine item’ became dim. If an archmage or a legend were here, they would see a vast universe inside the brilliance, in which the stars were releasing light of different colors.
Inside the Atomic Universe…
Lucien was floating above a relatively stable planet of silicon. Before him was an altar of complicated magic patterns, and on the altar was the effigy of a bad dwarf.
The effigy was made of manually-polished metal parts and emitted a cold, mysterious vibe. The dark green tattoo engraved on the head seemed to be releasing metal electromagnetic waves nonstop.
Sacred and solemn light was gathered on the statue from the void, flying in and out, until they were gradually melted, presenting the feeling of vastness and transcendence.
The unmelted spots of light danced like little angels. If one were to listen attentively, they would hear different prayers and compliments, which turned the space pure and holy.
Divine power flowed from the effigy into the altar and absorbed the power of magic from the altar. They were never more harmonious in such a situation!
“It’s a pity that the heart of faith contradicts the cognitive world, or we will be able to perform divine power without the assistance of items.” Four other people floated next to Lucien. They were Douglas, Fernando, Hathaway and Natasha. It was exactly Douglas who made the remark.
Although sorcerers could partly construct their cognitive world with faith, like Artil did, who did not have a brain explosion but was swallowed by the holy light when his cognitive world collapsed, it did not mean that he could perform divine power, unless he completely modified his cognitive world into the heart of faith. By the same logic, no clerics except for demigods in the superposition state could construct their cognitive world and perform magic with the heart of faith.
Lucien nodded. “The two of them are based on different things. One of them is founded on the nature and secrets of the world with one’s own knowledge, and the other is obtained by changing one’s ideas into the god he believes. In this experiment, I would like to find out the details of the secrets of the demigods.”
This was a path to gods that Thanos and Viken improved. It was different from the primitive ways that the fake gods like Dark Dragon Lord used for their advancement.
“Existence justifies itself. Whether or not we admit it or walk on it, the very existence of ‘gods’ suggest another facet of the nature of the world. Therefore, we must study them instead of running away. Lucien, your studies on them are very valuable.” Douglas was rather open-minded about that.
Lucien smiled. “I hope Mr. President, master and Granny Hathaway can keep it a secret for me. Since we concealed the way to become demigods earlier, I fear that this thing will make the other members of the Highest Council suspicious of me. Let’s keep silent until we have some results.”
He was merely notifying the few grand arcanists of his new work.
“Acting so mysterious. I don’t know what you are up to at all.” Fernando glared at Lucien. In his eyes, such a reason was too far-fetched, but he did not point it out and decided to see what his student was really planning to do.
Taking out her notebook, Hathaway studied the previous questions with the altar and the special divine item. “You can only grant ten dwarfs divine power?”
“A lot of the power of faith that the effigy gathered in the past is gone due to the lack of dependence. The power left is not enough to grant five people at all. Thankfully, I exchanged a few advanced divine items of the Saint Truth, which gave the power a high divine power. I can’t do any better than that right now.” Lucien explained in great detail.
After Douglas, Fernando and Hathaway left with the firsthand data, Natasha looked at the effigy of dwarf with great interest. “I never knew that you had such a queer taste. You like tattooed baldies…”
As for it being a dwarf, she found it more or less understandable. After all, it was a God of Steam designed for dwarfs.
Lucien chuckled. “This effigy of dwarf is named ‘Yuri’.”
“Yuri… What’s the connection?” Asked Natasha in confusion.
…
In the Tower…
Sitting inside her unique library, Samantha looked at the air before her. She seemed to be hearing low or loud voices echoing in the room.
“Now, what I want to say is that something may be wrong with determinism, because certain processes are probabilistic and irreversible…”
“Determinism must die…”
For a long time, those words had been haunting her like a nightmare, making her lost, overwhelmed and frustrated. What was most horrifying was that the experiments completed so far all indicated the uncertainties and probabilities of microscopic particles.
Pressing her forehead, she said in a low voice, “Arcana needs to live, so determinism must die?”
Her voice was full of bitterness and resistance.
Dum, dum, dum. She heard rapid footsteps outside, and they did not seem to come from one person. She opened the door, only to discover that the Tower sorcerers were gathering in a certain room.
“What happened?” Samantha saw her good friend, Rachel.
Rachel looked lost and painful. “Havin killed himself…”
“He did?” Asked Samantha in surprise. Suicide? Not died of a brain explosion but killed himself?
No important experiments could confirm uncertainties and probabilities yet, and the only problem was that the thought experiments could not deny them. Therefore, even though Havin was a hardcore supporter of determinism, the stability of his cognitive world shouldn’t have been affected.
It also left enough buffer for the rest of them.
“Perhaps, he was devastated by the development of arcana…” Said Rachel in a low voice.
