Douglas patted the sofa and said, “Ever since the Congress of Magic was founded, because the heart of faith has to be constructed on the devotion to and the faith in the God of Truth, sorcerers have been secretly worshiping the God of Truth or compromised by the Church with money and materials, and the bishop-level clerics have never become the spies of the Congress before. Finally, we do not need to take the hit passively all the time in terms of intelligence. Viken would never believe that some of the red robes are secretly serving the Congress.”
He had a lot of mixed feelings. In the past hundreds of years, the Congress of Magic had been infiltrated by many spies of the Saint Truth. In many cases, the Highest Council knew that certain people were conspiring with the Church, but they did not arrest or punish them just so that those spies could deliver the wrong intelligence that would offset the influence of the undiscovered spies. Although the Lord of the Undead was an authority to invade the brain and check the memories, there were too many people in the Congress and most sorcerers had their own secrets. It was impossible to scrutinize them one by one.
Of course, the disruptive theories that challenged the Cannon and the Doctrines had also partly purged the spies who believed in the God of Truth. However, it was not until after the battle of Rentato and the exodus of the South Church that the spies within the Congress were finally no longer influential.
Correspondingly, no matter how many clerics lived a corrupt life, and no matter how they hated their “superiors” or “colleagues”, they would be betraying the God of Truth whenever they cooperated with the sorcerers. Their heart of faith would inevitably shake, and they would be swallowed by the holy light. Therefore, the Congress of Magic could only set up spies that were in the level of reverends. Those spies could not be promoted to bishops because of their impure faith. In most of the cases, they had to collect intelligence through brain infiltration and other spells.
“I was very curious before why Sard and the pontiff and saints of the North Church could cooperate with us without being affected, and why they liked to swear with the heart of faith.” Lucien had vaguely guessed it when he knew that the power of faith could be stolen, and he completely understood it after he acquired the real method. The connection between the heart of faith and Mountain Paradise was partly under their own control thanks to the help of “godhood”, which allowed them to change the rules partly. When they believed that they did not break their faith, they would not be breaking their faith!
Douglas nodded. “We have to set up certain cardinal-level spies in the North Church too.”
Pondering for a moment, he said, “Our control over them will be reduced if we offer the way to steal and make use of the power of faith to them without asking for equivalent things in return, but they certainly wouldn’t believe us if we do not do that. Only when they obtain substantial benefits from it will they be mired deeper and deeper on this path, never to return. That’s exactly what we hope.
“As for our control of them, the first method is a threat. At the very least, until they become legends, they are not qualified to steal and make use of the power of faith. Once they are exposed, they will certainly be burnt by the Grand Cardinals for corruption. Although those Grand Cardinals have the big picture in their mind, this is something that concerns their own strength. They certainly do not want more people to share the power of faith.”
For the people who had become saint cardinals or divine knights honestly step by step, the Grand Cardinals would not give them a hard time but share the methods with them. After all, they were quite alarmed about the rapid rise of the Congress of Magic, and they knew that they had to increase the strength of legends and restore their number.
As he spoke, Douglas looked at Lucien. “The second way of control is allurement. We have controlled the four countries on this side of the strait and the north coastline. A huge number of believers live in our territory. As long as they are willing to work with us, we can help them steal the power of faith of the Holmish Church and other religions. That is a safe and copious resource that will certainly tempt them. After all, when they steal from their own people, they have to be very prudent in case they are discovered by the Grand Cardinals.”
The Holmish Church was closely dependent on the Kingdom of Holm. Therefore, Douglas asked Lucien’s opinion when he proposed the suggestion without using an affirmative tone.
“That’s not a problem. The Holmish Church is only a tool for us to stabilize the believers. It will not be in our favor or the favor of Holm if it grows too strong. One or two saint cardinals and divine knights should be enough. Also, I fear that Viken has secretly told the archbishops of such branched churches the ways to become a demigod,” Lucien nodded and said. There were only two legendary knights in Holm right now. It certainly wouldn’t be a good thing if the Holmish Church outnumbered the state in terms of legends.
Douglas agreed with Lucien’s judgment. “Viken fears that the North Church will surpass him, but he is certainly not scared of the branched churches like the Holmish Church that do not even have a legend. As a matter of fact, the power of faith in your steam church can also be transformed and provided to those red robes. Hehe. Your ‘research project’ does have a lot of purposes. You didn’t plan it beforehand, did you?”
He suddenly mentioned the steam church, as if he had understood another purpose of Lucien’s research.
“I had a rough idea about that, but I could only explore on my own due to the lack of files. It was actually Viken’s operation that inspired me.” Lucien chuckled. He was not entirely so visionary. Otherwise, he would have exchanged the files with the North Church a long time ago.
Suddenly, Lucien was stunned. He brought out a green non-legendary puppet that he built, only to discover that a hue of redness had been dyed on it.
“A red robe is contacting me? Already?” Lucien was surprised.
Douglas reacted rather normally. “Perhaps it’s important intelligence.”
“Maybe. I’ll project myself over and take a look,” Lucien said to Douglas. This was his demiplane, and he had to ask for permission in order to project himself to somewhere near the Holy City.
…
A wagon moved on the broad road at the suburb of the Holy City stably and did not stop until it reached a manor at the edge of the forest.
“Bishop Myers, thank you for hosting our baptism ritual in our house.” The owner of the manor, a viscount, bowed at the red robe who was getting off the wagon with respect and apparent excitement.
His late father was very close to the red robe, but he knew that the position between him and the red robe was too huge. He did not expect that Myers would really come to baptize his little son. However, his invitation was accepted!
“Your father and I were good friends who grew up together. There’s no need to thank me. I’ll clean myself in the church first and perform the ritual tomorrow.” Myers was a gray-haired old man, gentle but fearsome.
After entering the little church, Myers kneeled before the cross and began his prayer.
Late at night, he raised his head and looked at the cross as well as the Saint Badge embedded on it with complicated feelings. Then, he brought out a delicate puppet and activated it.
The puppet suddenly glowed in redness and waved its arms as if it were alive, before it leaped forward and looked at Myers with a hilarious face. “Did you summon me?”
Myers was deeply disgusted by the puppet, which was only the size of his thumb. He took a deep breath and said, “We’ve already obtained the secrets of artificial planets. This is the file you need.”
While the duplication of artificial planets was supervised by the saint cardinals, it could not be achieved without the participation of red robes. However, they were not like the grand arcanists who equaled to a whole team of researchers and who could do everything on their own. Therefore, the targets that Lucien allured with the power of faith included Myers, who was from the Highest School of Theology.
“Okay. Job well done. I think very highly of you.” The red glow from the puppet swallowed the file that Myers presented.
Gloomily, Myers said, “I’ve fulfilled your request. You can stop bothering me in the future.”
“Is that so? Then, should I bother Philip, Astira, Maria, or Vaharall?” The puppet chuckled. The first three names were the Grand Cardinals who were responsible for theology, and the last was the giant of the Inquisition.
Myers shouted angrily, “Devil, didn’t you say that you would not threaten me?”
“And you believed everything I said? I know that you are well aware that I will never be able to threaten you if you do not use the method, but if you do, it will be your connivance that I can threaten you.” The puppet’s face was even more hilarious as it continued, “Don’t blame me for the choice you made yourself.”
“Devil, goddamn devil.” Myers gnashed his teeth, but he did not put up any resistance. After he tried the method and succeeded, he already realized the price that he was willing to pay. “I warn you, don’t propose requests that are too outrageous, or I would rather confess everything to His Holiness!”
After he became a saint cardinal, he would be able to get rid of the devil. By then, everything he did would be forgiven by the Church!
“That’s right. I like to cooperate with the people who know exactly what they want best. Rest assured. Threatening is the last thing that I would like to do. I have always been a friendly man who believes in reciprocity,” the puppet chattered on. “If the intelligence that you provide in the future satisfies me, I will consider offering you additional power of faith.”
“What?” Myers’ breath turned heavy. Then, he saw the spots of divine hair around the puppet that seemed to be different from the holy light.
“Do you need to ask me what this is?” The puppet chuckled.
Myers fell silent. He finally understood why the allurement of devils could even corrupt the angels according to the Cannon!
…
“The files of artificial planets that the Church has acquired do not have the special parts that I added later, which means that the traitor exchanged the information beforehand. Of course, it is also possible that he has constructed the information on his own according to the mechanism. After all, the style of the magic circles on the artificial planet in the file is highly different from what we are used to,” Lucien said to Douglas and Fernando with the files in his hand.
