Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Without the blockage of air, it was even easier for a sorcerer to spread out their spiritual power. Therefore, the range of the force field of their spiritual power was dozens of times wider than on the ground. However, in such a huge range, Lucien and the other sorcerers couldn’t feel anything except for a lone artificial planet that was operating in a fixed pattern. The whole environment was bleak and gloomy. That was exactly the feeling of the real universe beyond the atmosphere.
On such an orbit, Lucien, Douglas, Fernando, and Hellen were so small compared to the artificial planets, but they were filled with such intimidating air that they looked like small suns. They were the natural land, the hell of thunder, the universe inside the atom, and the illusion built with snow.
When a legendary sorcerer fully spread out their spiritual power, their half-solidified cognitive world would interfere with the reality together with their demiplane!
In such a quiet and gloomy environment, Lucien replied to Hellen’s question with a smile, “Because I prefer the Church to imitate us, chase us, and compete with us in the domain that we are good at, than to focus their attention on their theological studies, in which case they might find a way to fully apply ‘Mountain Paradise’ at some point.”
Hellen nodded her head. She was deep in thought. “Therefore, you demonstrated the importance of artificial planets in order to distract the Church from their strong suit, so that they would compete with us in a domain that they know nothing at all but we are very good at?”
“That’s right. Although they might be unable to unravel the mysteries of Mountain Paradise, we’d better avoid accidents as best as we can until we have overwhelming advantages.” Lucien nodded.
“Are you not worried that the situation would escalate quickly after the Church grasps the secrets of artificial planets? They play an important role. As strategic weapons, they have turned the common commanding heights into a planetary-level orbit control,” asked Douglas with a gentle smile.
“Commanding height” was not a difficult term for the Congress of Magic to understand. The City in the Sky was a product to command the height, except that nobody summarized it in such a way before.
Lucien said unhurriedly, “It’s true that artificial planets are very important, but we have only developed part of their possible usages. Until the power problem is addressed, they can only help with signal transmission, surveillance, and prospecting. They are not the key to victory. The most important of their usages is the signal transmission.
“For the Church, since image transmission circles have been widely established, the middle-level clerics can already achieve the effect that is similar to what artificial planets can present in the territory on the opposite side of the Storm Strait. In the places that are occupied by us and the North Church, they could in the past but not now. As for the live stream and other media, how could they let ordinary people enjoy that? For them, the less the people know, the better.
“What they value is the potential value behind the signal transmission of artificial planets. However, the parts that are currently usable can help them recover to the status before the battle of Rentato at best. For us, that is not too bad a change. Also, knowing the mechanisms and details of artificial planets so well, do we not have ways to restrain the artificial planets of the Church? Can we not hack them and steal the secret communications? That is the domain that we are familiar with and good at!”
Talking about that, Lucien suddenly remembered something. He smiled and said, “To put it simply, we are dragging the enemy into the field that we are familiar with before we beat them with our abundant experience and profound studies.”
“Divine power is based on the power of Thanos and more convenient on the orbit. If they successfully duplicate artificial planets, their attack and defense will be much better than ours. Are you not afraid that they will surpass us?” Fernando had been looking awful ever since Lucien made fun of his “uncontrollable reactor”.
Lucien chuckled. “If the Church were another Congress that has its own arcana system, its own arcana credits, arcana points, etc. to encourage studies, its own hundreds of years of knowledge, its own profound studies in the macroscopic and microscopic domains, I wouldn’t have proposed the suggestion at all.”
Of course, that was not absolute. If they had similar arcana foundations, such a “planetary war” could also transform their battle into a competition of the overall economics. The bottom line was that they should compete with the enemy in whichever aspect they were better at, and not the opposite.
“As for right now, considering the foundations I said, I’m not worried at all that the Church will surpass us regarding artificial planets, not in ten years, not in a hundred years, and not in a thousand years,” Lucien added. “Unless the Church starts to build its own arcana system. But in that case, there will be no irreconcilable conflicts between them and us when they stop relying on belief entirely. We can be combined.
“Their artificial planets may be more aggressive, but until ‘Mountain Paradise’ can really play a role, those planets cannot serve as orbit cannons to bombard the ground. Our nuclear reactors, on the other hand, will probably succeed in a year or two. After they are minimized, they will be as good as the artificial planets.”
“You are talking as if the Church can do nothing but wait for its death, and our future is nothing but bright.” Douglas chuckled.
Lucien replied, “Our future is bright, but the road ahead of us is difficult. As a matter of fact, I’m sure you must have similar ideas, Mr. President, except that you have never proposed them specifically. For example, all the papers on arcana studies are publicly published, and the Church and the other countries can read them as long as they want to. As for magic, there are only principles and guidelines, and the specific structures can only be read and exchanged with enough permissions. As a result, they feel that they know arcana and can catch up with us, but they will never be able to do so.”
“I didn’t think as much at that time and simply made the system under the impression that they wouldn’t understand it at all,” Douglas admitted frankly with a self-mocking smile. “In my eyes, without their own research and exploration, and without a long-time accumulation, it was pointless to directly read the papers, so most of the clerics and experts in other countries couldn’t have obtained much from our public arcana papers. I didn’t know that the pope was Viken, and he maintained a vigorous attitude in learning.”
Hellen suddenly interjected, “Evans, you’ve set up ‘uncontrollable reactors’ on every artificial planet at enormous costs, just so that the Church cannot acquire them easily?”
“Yes. You will cherish the things that you can’t get easily. They would’ve suspected our real purpose if it were too easy. Therefore, we have to put them through difficulties and force them to pay a high price. Only in such a way will they spend more time on imitation and modification.” Lucien shook his head as if he were greatly disappointed. “I did not know that they had no spirits to fight at all. I was hoping that they would exchange the life of a saint cardinal for the secrets of artificial planets.”
Douglas also sighed. “It seems that we have to figure out a way to give such an ‘opportunity’ to the Church again…”
It seemed that he agreed with Lucien’s idea.
“How can we ensure that the Church is willing to obtain the artificial planets despite the risks and that they will dedicate themselves to imitating and modifying it?” asked Fernando cautiously.
“If they do not capture the artificial planets and study their secrets, there will be nothing they can do when we carry out all the usages of the artificial planets and control the orbit and the planet. Then, they will be eliminated by time. However, such a process will take longer and may have unexpected changes. If they choose such an option, everything will be exactly the same as before,” said Lucien solemnly.
Douglas smiled again. “Our future is indeed bright. Whatever the Church chooses, its failure is inevitable. That is the choice of our era. However…”
He suddenly sighed, and so did Lucien. They exhaled a mouthful of nonexistent air in the airless space and said almost at the same time with mixed feelings, “Demigods.”
Yes. If the demigods who were in possession of the mysteries of the undead were no more, the Congress wouldn’t need to plot against the Church at all. It could develop as fast as possible to eliminate the Church!
“That is why the road ahead of us is difficult. Chances are that the Congress may be destroyed by a few demigods when they collaborate. Chances are that some of us will be killed by the demigods before we can see the final victory,” Lucien said gravely but without fear.
Looking at the stars, Douglas remarked, “Although it is important for us to have our own demigods, the development of the Congress of Magic has to be focused on arcana studies and magic applications, because our path of demigod must and can only be built on them.”
Agreeing with Douglas’ point of view, Fernando and Hellen nodded at the same time.
“Alright, what’s the next plan then?” Douglas looked at Lucien and asked for his opinion.
Thinking for a moment, Lucien said, “Perhaps, we can troll for the insidious problems within the Congress in our plan. Before the South Church retreated from the four countries on this side of the strait and the north coastline, there were plenty of spies of the Church in the Congress. Later, the situation was better, and a few new spies came. However, after Viken secretly released the secrets to becoming a demigod, I suspect that somebody within the Congress is working tacitly with the Church.”
Some of the phrases were “invented” by Lucien in Arcana Voice before. It was not difficult for Fernando and the other sorcerers to understand him. Furthermore, Hellen and Brook had been included in Douglas, Fernando, Hathaway, and Lucien’s studies on the path of a demigod and the secrets of immortality.
“That’s great.” Fernando hated spies more than anything else. He only hated that he could not bathe them with his storms.
