The Church"s influence on culture was at its peak. Over the past ten years, the Church had made many new plans and constructed many buildings in the beautiful and rich St. Sarl on the foundations of the old city Rus. Now, St. Sarl City was one of the wealthiest cities in the human world. Churches were everywhere in the city, and every single resident was a pure believer.
In the city, the streets were filled with clergy members in robes of black and white. On the back of each of their robes was the sigil of the sun, and they also had an accessory with the same sigil in front of their chests. Statues of Lady Maria and her archangels and angels filled the streets. There were always believers gathered together, praying under these statues.
When the city was initially being constructed, one of the most famous human architects, Faragrant, was commissioned to do the city planning. Faragrant made sure that the city"s layout was as efficient and aesthetically pleasing as possible. It had wide streets, many parks and small churches, and a complete drainage system. The buildings all had very iconic statues on them. In addition, outside the St. Sarl Clock Tower and the St. Maria"s Square was the most distinguished building in the city, the Temple of Light.
The Temple of Light was the central inst.i.tution of the Church of Light. It was where the two messengers of the G.o.ds, the Pope and the Saintess, resided. It was guarded heavily by the best of the Knights of Light. Moreover, it was where the Church ruled over half of the human kingdoms and one of the focal points of power within the human world.
Deep inside the temple was the white chamber of the Saintess which looked like where only G.o.ds could live. Inside the room, there was a huge white bed. Delicate silk curtains hung from the windows, and a white bearskin rug was on the ground. Apart from these, the room was quite empty.
The most eye-catching object in the room was a mural on the wall. Legend had it that the mural was taken from the palace of the Golden Dynasty by people of the Silver Dynasty. The Golden King Ahenaten had asked someone to carve it according to his own memory. The mural was called Revelation, and it depicted the archangel Faross giving King Ahenaten the divine revelation. The Saintess was very fond of the mural, and thus it had been hanging in her room for a long time.
"Lord? Lord!"
"Lord!"
Wearing her silk nightgown, Saintess Kelly sat up, out of her velvet duvet. Her voice startled the four female knights standing guard outside. All four of them hurried inside at once and knelt down beside her bed.
"Is something wrong, my lady?"
All four knights were very respectful towards her. Kelly was the Saintess, a descendant of G.o.d who had divine blood in her veins. She was the one that had led the Church to glory and gave the Church its power. After growing up indoctrinated by the Church, these knights all idolized her, not to mention that they had been following the Saintess for so many years. Even if Kelly asked them to slit their own throats, they would not hesitate.
Covering her face with her hands, Kelly glanced at them and jumped out of bed. She walked around her bedchamber, searching for something with her feet bare.
"Are you there, Lord Faross?" she called, wandering around her bedroom.
"Lord."
The knights glanced at each other in shock and fear. Kelly was the closest thing to divinity among the living, and no one dared to doubt her words. If she said so, it must be true. Did G.o.d really just visit her chamber?
The knights lowered their heads and did not dare to move a bit. The entire bedchamber seemed to have turned into a holy church. Even the air seemed to be somewhat divine because of the G.o.d"s visit.
Kelly called for a while, but did not receive any response. Then, she sat down on her bed, disappointed. "Was that a dream?" she whispered, looking at the mural.
"No," she said, shaking her head. "It couldn"t have been. I never dream. Furthermore, dreams can"t be that realistic." She stood up and saw something falling to the ground. It fell right in front of one of the knights, and she was just about to pick it up to give to Kelly.
"Don"t!" Kelly called loudly, as if someone had just touched something which only belonged to her. "Don"t touch it!" The knight hurried back away anxiously.
Kelly knelt down and picked the object up carefully. She realized that it was a white mask with a red sun sigil on it. It was not made from gold or iron, but it felt like a metal. In her hands, it glowed faintly, and it was clearly extraordinary.
This was a mask Lu Zhiyu made using dream elements. In order to make it, he had used a large amount of dream elements. The mask contained some of his powers, and only someone with his deified cells could activate and use it. At the same time, it was also embedded with the channelling array for the dimensional door, so anyone who used it could contact him through it.
Kelly put the mask onto her face. She could immediately feel the ichor inside her flowing, and her power grew significantly. Not only that, she felt that she had gained several more powers as well.
The first power was dream chains. Through this mask, she could observe anyone"s consciousness and lock their minds with the dream chains. She could even destroy their consciousnesses if she so wished. Even wizards and magical beasts could not block this attack easily with their mind powers. The other power was Disintegration.
With the mask on, the slender Kelly extended her hand and pointed at the side of the room. After a flash of white and a loud boom, the wall and the air exploded at once, and a large hole over ten meters wide appeared in that place.
She walked out through the hole and found herself in the yard outside. The knights who were kneeling stared at the scene and the mask Kelly was wearing with wide eyes.
"Wha, what"s that power?"
Kelly was powerful enough before, but this mask had granted her more power and made her terrifyingly strong.
"The mask?"
They suddenly turned their heads and looked at the mural on the wall. Realizing that G.o.d in the picture was wearing an identical mask, everyone was astonished.
"It"s a mask of G.o.d!"
"It"s a divine artifact!"
More guards were coming this way due to the noise. Many guards and clergy members hurried over to the Saintess"s chamber, when they saw Saintess Kelly standing in the yard with a white mask which had the sigil of the sun.
It was still early in the morning. The Pope had just woken up and hurried to Kelly"s bedroom as well. The Saintess was the most important figure in the Church, and even though there was a lot of infighting within the Church for power, no one had ever dared to touch the Saintess.
Firstly, she was a deity so she was sitting firm in her position. Secondly, she was powerful enough that no one could touch her. In addition, it was because of her power that the Church had gained control over half of the human kingdoms. The two parties depended on each other for survival. The Church would never allow any harm to come her way.
The current Pope, Hodap, had become the Pope because he was the one that found the Saintess, which was another reason why he cared so much about her and came immediately after hearing about the commotion in her chamber. When he arrived, he saw Kelly standing in the yard. Noticing that she was unharmed, he heaved a sigh of relief.
"What"s going on?"
Everyone looked to the ten-meter wide hole in the wall, and the large patch of soil in the yard which had been overturned. All the people present were intimidated by such a power, and they turned to look at Kelly.