Holy City of Reims, Great Hall of Light.
By the time Philippe arrived, the rest of the cardinals who could get out had already arrived, with Pope Benedict III standing on the steps with a platinum scepter behind him, with a huge, holy cross behind him.
"I am calling you here today because I have a secret task for you, which concerns the glory of the Lord, the survival of the church, and your respective futures." Benedict III said solemnly and seriously, his slightly cloudy eyes were deep and uneventful at this time.
"Holy Avenger" Melmos took a step forward and said: "Your Majesty, I don't know what task it is, it takes most of the cardinal order to complete?"
He had not yet healed from the injuries he sustained when Douglas was promoted to god-like god, so he was more cautious about his mission.
Benedict III did not answer directly, but set his sights on the glass window near the dome of the Great Light Hall, where the dazzling sunlight at noon shone through the colorful glass, casting colorful dreams on the ground.
"Douglas' promotion to god-like events not only gave the magicians confidence and allowed them to see the bright future of arcane and magic, as long as this path is not desperate, it will be difficult to be seduced again, but it has greatly changed the situation of the entire world, changed the balance of power, and changed our estimates of the future." Benedict III repeated the current situation in a low voice, "Whether we want to admit it or not, a god-like god, four legendary peaks, and a number of legendary powerhouses that are not much less than us all clearly exist there, and the Magic Council already has the strength to compete with us head-on without falling behind."
"At the same time, we also have to face the heresy in the north, the invasion of the great devil Maldimos in the endless ocean, and the oppression of the evil god 'Silver Moon' in the dark mountains, the situation is very difficult."
Although the "Lord of Hell" Mardimos and the Northern Heretics are also the targets of the Magic Council, at least the Dark Council and the Elven Court are now their allies, and their side is almost isolated.
This seems to be an inevitable process for every ruling force to turn from prosperity to decline, because their previous strength left a deep impression on other organizations, and they formed personal feuds with each other that were difficult to resolve.
Benedict III's old and heavy voice echoed in the Great Light Hall: "Although I have told you the mystery of how to transform the initial immortal state and how to use the power of faith given by the Lord to condense divinity, you should have gained something and improved your strength over the years, but the development of arcane techniques in the past twenty years and the resulting expansion of the power of the Magic Council have forced us to face up to a problem."
At this point, he paused, his eyes looking at all the members of the cardinal conference present without emotion.
Cardinals such as Santa Maria, St. Cati, Filipel, and Estilla bowed their heads slightly, as if avoiding the Pope's gaze, and their "credit" to the emergence of cults in the areas controlled by the Church in recent years.
Benedict III withdrew his gaze and continued: "If this trend continues, before your strength is fundamentally improved, before the number of new legendary peaks catches up with the current Magic Council, and before the birth of new god-like saints, the overall strength of the Magic Council will definitely completely overwhelm us, and divide and defeat us step by step, just like the original Magic Empire was destroyed by us."
"This is not to scare everyone with the worst possibility, you should know very well that the vast majority of mages in the Magic Council have not really digested the results of arcane development in the past twenty years, after all, the expansion of strength will lag behind the development of theory for about ten years, and after ten years, you yourself know very well how strong you can become."
After listening to Benedict III, Cardinal Estella asked suspiciously: "Your Majesty, the strength you describe is very far-sighted compared to the rise and fall, and you have analyzed our predicament very clearly, but the situation we are facing now is the most significant and fundamental difference from the ancient magical empire, that is, we have you, the earthly spokesperson of the Lord, the most powerful god-like god, and the strongest ancient magical empire back then was only the peak of legends."
"The existence of gods is a kind of deterrent, a kind of balance, as long as the gods are not destroyed, then it will be difficult for the forces to which he belongs to be completely eliminated, because that will make the gods no longer have scruples and destroy the foundation of the enemy, so the gods who can destroy each other's forces are just a guarantee of peace, just like our blow to vampires, I think the Magic Council will definitely take this into account, maybe the current situation of confrontation across the Storm Strait will be maintained forever, It's just that everyone will gradually encroach on other god-like forces."
Saint Kati also stood up and said: "Estella is right, a god-like who cannot be killed will keep the current situation going, and most importantly, you are the strongest god-like under the Pope's crown, and you can use 'divine descent magic', whether it is 'Silver Moon', 'Lord of Hell', or Douglas, you cannot resist, which can ensure the status of the church to the greatest extent and prevent them from attacking at will."
"When our strength is improved, we can awaken the 'Lord', and under the light of the true God, all evil will be completely dissolved."
He talked about his expectations, and whether he could awaken the "God of truth" and how to awaken it was another matter.
Benedict III sighed softly: "God-like is not truly immortal, at least I myself have a lot of hidden dangers, if I can grasp these hidden dangers, even if I can't completely kill me, you can imprison me like I imprisoned that monster, and I have the 'Divine Descent Technique' I must be the primary target of Douglas, Silver Moon and Maldimos, and I cannot rule out the possibility of them jointly attacking me, when the time comes, how will we face it?"
Although the danger is still far away, listening to the Pope's analysis, it seems that the worst may appear sooner or later.
"Your Majesty, what is the task you want to give us?" Melmos suddenly broke the silence, "Is it related to the future predicament?"
Benedict III slowly raised his platinum scepter, his expression becoming solemn.
Seeing this, the members of the College of Cardinals immediately knelt down, drew crosses on their chests, and prayed devoutly: "Only the truth endures."
This is the gesture of announcing the "oracle" of the Lord!
"The Lord sent down an oracle and told me how to solve hidden dangers." Benedict III's tone was full of "sincere gratitude", "The reason why negative emotions cannot be controlled and separated after using the 'container' is because the power of negative emotions and the power of faith are not equal when the final impact on the god-like step."
Saint Mary subconsciously frowned and said, "Not equal? They are all non-'real' spiritual powers, how can they be unequal?"
She suddenly woke up: "Your Majesty, I am not questioning the Lord, but I hope you can satisfy my ignorance."
"Because behind the power of faith is the 'Heaven Mountain', when it hits the gods, there will be a projection of 'Heaven Mountain', and the power of negative emotions will only condense the seven ancient demons, how can they be equal to the 'Heaven Mountain'? So it loses its balance and leaves hidden dangers." Benedict III explained expressionlessly.
"Then how can we be equal?" Philippe Bell asked, this was their main concern, because they thought they would get to this point sooner or later.
Benedict III put down his platinum scepter, nodded lightly and said: "We need more 'ancient devils', we need them to 'condense' into the 'ancient hell', and this requires your cooperation, I can't do it on my own, in fact, this is completely consistent with the core of our god-like method, gathering the power of the masses to become weak and strong."
For some reason, when they heard Benedict III's words, Philippe Bell and other members of the cardinal conference thought of Lucian's thesis and the prediction in it - the evolution of weak observers to strong observers!
"Your Majesty, what should we do?" Saint Kati asked, this kind of thing must be asked every step clearly, after all, it involves itself, what if the attempt fails, and the "ancient devil" gets out of control?
"According to my guess, such 'cohesion' will cause corresponding changes in the 'ancient hell', and then ......" Benedict III told his arrangements one by one without concealment.
After carefully identifying the keys, the members of the College of Cardinals agreed with their own thoughts and left the Great Hall of Light to prepare.
When they all disappeared into the Great Hall of Light, Pope Benedict III was still standing there, looking at the door with gloomy eyes.
…………
"'Jealousy' devil?" As soon as Lucian spoke, "Natasha" and "Sylvia" who were entangled on the bed stood up, one stood in front of him with his chest high regardless of his whole body, and the other snuggled up to each other shyly.
"I'm sorry, although you are very good, I still love her." "Natasha" looked directly at Lucian fearlessly.
The corners of Lucian's mouth twitched, just because of the familiar lines, and then smiled: "It's useless, if I don't even have this bit of confidence, how can I be worthy of love? Please change your tricks, jealous of the devil."
When he spoke, Lucian was already prepared, because there was probably a lustful devil hidden in the shadows, and it was more dangerous if the two attacked together.
"Haha." "Natasha" and "Sylvia" laughed like silver bells at the same time, which was completely different from their own voices, "What a boring man."
In the midst of laughter, their bodies collapsed and seemed to turn into dust.
Lucian originally thought that the two ancient devils would take action, but he didn't expect to leave so directly.
In the blink of an eye, Lucian saw the dressing mirror on the side of the big bed, which reflected his figure, wearing a black double-breasted long dress, a top hat and black leather shoes, but what hung on that familiar handsome face was not a smile, but a disdainful expression.
"Lucian" in the mirror suddenly spoke and sneered: "Do you know that you are now called arrogant? Because of the power of the legendary peak and so many powerful and eerie magic, you look down on the Seven Ancient Devils, thinking that they cannot cause danger, and you are laughing at their every move that tries to affect your emotions."
"Your thinking is the purest arrogance, arrogance is never an emotion, so I was born in your heart to make you face yourself, you can never kill me and defeat me, because I am you!"
Step by step, it came out of the mirror, its black leather shoes stepping on the brownish-yellow carpet.
(End of this chapter)