The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Just as Leo cleaned up the cultists of the Son of the Virgin and was on his way back to the camp, the aftermath effect of the light of divine punishment he cast through the mark of punishment was gradually evaporating.

At the moment when the light of divine punishment appeared, the holy emblems of justice in all the churches of justice in the whole world emitted dazzling light. These lights not only alarmed the clergy of each church, but even the pope in the main church I was also alarmed, because when the holy emblem was shining, the Pope was presiding over the ascension ceremony of a dozen clergymen in the main hall of the main church.

Different from the ascension ceremonies of diocesan bishops in other churches, the ceremonies of the Church of Justice will be held at night, which means that these diocesan bishops will serve as the walls of the church to resist the darkness and keep the darkness outside the civilized world.

Because this ascension ceremony was presided over by the Pope, the ceremony was very grand. Many countries attached to the protection of the Justice Church also sent representatives to participate in the ceremony. Some Churches of True God who have a good relationship with the Justice Church, such as the Church of the Holy Heart They also sent their own envoys.

When the Pope of the Justice Church held the ceremony halfway and began to put on the bishop's crown for the clergy who participated in the promotion ceremony, the powerful light emitted by the holy emblem instantly illuminated the entire hall, even penetrated the hall, and irradiated the entire hall. Outside, the Hall of Justice on the top of the mountain turned into a lighthouse. Not only the people in Justice City below the mountain could clearly see this ray of light, but even the few cities on the edge could also see this dazzling ray of light.

On the contrary, it was because the light of the Justice Hall was too eye-catching, which directly led to the light emitted by the badges of the Justice Temples in other cities around the main church, only a few priests of the Justice Church noticed.

Miracles, all those who witnessed and heard about these things believed that this was a miracle performed by the Justice Church, a display of the divine power of justice, and a large number of devout believers of the Justice Church began to flock to the churches in their respective cities, Participating in the religious ceremonies held by the church with great enthusiasm, the drowsy religious ceremonies in the past seemed to become extremely interesting at this time.

Compared with the fanaticism of the believers, the top leaders of the Justice Church were puzzled, puzzled, and more worried about the sudden radiance of the holy emblem.

The Pope presiding over the ceremony knew very well that the radiance of the holy emblem had nothing to do with him, or even justice, because he could not feel any divine will of justice in that ray of light, but he was very contradictory and sure that that ray of light had nothing to do with justice. God's Wrath of Justice is exactly the same.

Therefore, after presiding over the ascension ceremony, he summoned all the archbishops, paladin mentors, and ascetic masters of the main church to come to the temple where the artifact of justice is stored, pray to justice, and expect to receive the enlightenment of justice, telling them The reason for the light.

However, what disappointed them was that justice did not give them any response, as if justice had disappeared. This also made the pope of justice even more disturbed and worried, so orders to investigate the reason for the appearance of the holy emblem light were sent as quickly as possible. In the hands of every bishop of the church in the world, this matter has become the top priority of the Justice Church.

What the Church of Justice didn't know was that almost at the same time as the Holy Emblem of Justice was shining, the statues of the Supreme Madonna on the altars of the Son of the Virgin hidden all over the world were shedding blood and tears, as if they were mourning the loss of a certain life.

Just like the reflection of the Justice Church, the senior leaders of the Church of the Son of Mary in various regions were also disturbed by the abnormality of the statue of the Virgin Mary, but because of the loose structure of the Church of the Son of Mary and their own affairs, they did not know that the statue of the Virgin Mary in other dioceses also happened. same situation.

However, their uneasiness soon turned into joy, because they discovered that the blood and tears shed by the statue of the Supreme Virgin contained mysterious and powerful power. By diluting the blood and tears, they could obtain a potion that could improve their divine power compatibility, so Almost no one thinks that the blood and tears of the Supreme Virgin is a terrible thing, and they also regard this incident as a gift from the Supreme Virgin to them.

Later, when they learned that similar things had happened to other altars of the Son of the Virgin, their first thought was not to investigate the cause of the incident, but to feel that the gifts of the Supreme Virgin should not fall into the hands of others, so a The infighting among the churches of the Son of Mary unfolded silently.

Naturally, the struggle among the cultists cannot be peaceful and rational. In addition, this is an internal struggle within the Son of the Virgin. They all know their respective abilities very well, so that they will all choose the most destructive means to deal with their own religion. Friends, this also doubles the large-scale sabotage incidents of cult members in various cities.

At this time, the Justice Church, which was supposed to be the main force suppressing the heretics, failed to immediately respond to the series of incidents caused by the internal struggle between the Sons of the Virgin because they were all focused on investigating the luminescence of the Holy Emblem. Some bishops of the Justice Church believed that the church's energy should be focused on dealing with the heretics, and temporarily put aside the investigation of the holy emblem's luminescence, and participated in the encirclement and suppression of the Son of Mary believers, but their numbers were still limited and could not form the main force.

It is also for this reason that the Church of the Holy Heart, which has always served as a foil to the Church of Justice, has become the core and leader of this campaign against the believers of the Son of Mary, and other Churches of True God also took this opportunity to show their churches Do not lose to the armed forces of the Justice Church.

Although the absence of an operation to wipe out the cultists will not cause too much damage to the reputation of the Justice Church, other Churches of True God who participated in the suppression of the cultists have some ideas, especially the Holy Heart Church, the host of this campaign .

Compared with other countries and cities caused by the internal struggle of the Church of the Son of the Virgin, the loss of various towns in the Kingdom of Teresa is almost negligible, because the unique household registration system in the Kingdom of Teresa, As well as the warrior ethos of the kingdom as a whole, the Son of the Virgin could not infiltrate the town at all, and could only wander in the mountains outside the city. Even if the supplementary personnel were mostly recruited from outside the Kingdom of Teresa, while the people in the Kingdom of Teresa Not only is it difficult for cultists to replenish their manpower, even the Church of the True God cannot recruit enough believers.

Although the infighting of the Son of the Virgin did not cause much damage to the city, some of the evil forces they used in the battle would pollute the plants and animals in the mountains and create some uncontrollable monsters. Under the leadership of members of the Investigation Bureau who specialize in hunting heresies, the corps will go deep into the mountains and take the initiative to eliminate these Sons of the Virgin who have been entrenched for many years.

Omran is an important city in the Kingdom of Teresa located in the southern High Wall Mountains. It happens to be the starting point of a shortcut to climb the mountain. Most of the chambers of commerce that take this shortcut will unload their goods here. After the Chamber of Commerce handover, the goods will be transported from the Torrent River passing through the city of Omran to various parts of Teresa.

Because of the importance of this city, the Kingdom of Teresa specially arranged for two corps to station here. These two corps are the 17th Corps called Black Wall and the 3rd Corps called Coyote.

Just like the name of their corps, the 17th Corps is mainly responsible for the defense of the city and the security of Omran, while the 3rd Corps often enters the city into the mountains, hunting down the cultists hiding in the mountains, and sometimes even Secretly accepted the employment of a certain country, directly climbed over the high wall and mountains, entered the battlefield of other country, and participated in a war on the land of other country.

Like the Third Corps, the entire regiment accepts employment, and other legions in the Kingdom of Teresa are similar, as long as they do not have a mission assigned by the kingdom before they hire, and they report to the kingdom and hand over one-third of the mercenary money to the treasury , you can directly transform from a kingdom legion to a mercenary legion.

This kind of system may have a backlash in other countries, but it will not happen in the Kingdom of Teresa, because someone once thought of directly hiring the legions of the Kingdom of Theresa to attack the Kingdom of Theresa. As a result, the ten legions he hired Immediately after he entered the Kingdom of Teresa with his own army confidently, he encircled and suppressed her, and his own head was presented as a trophy to the king, and the country where this person was located eventually became the king of Teresa. A vassal state of the Kingdom of Theresa, all the armed forces in the country are controlled by the Kingdom of Theresa's corps.

This feast of siege against the Son of the Virgin, the 3rd Corps, a hunter corps that specifically targets heretics, will naturally not be absent. Before the Church of True God actively contacted the 3rd Corps and wanted to cooperate with it, the 3rd Corps had already set off into the mountains In the process, several strongholds of cultists have been encircled and suppressed, including the stronghold of the Son of the Virgin and other strongholds of cultists.

When the exchange team of the Academy City passed through the High Wall Mountains and arrived at Omran, the cultists around Omran had been cleared by the Third Corps, and a large amount of property looted from the cultist stronghold was transported back by the Corps logistics team. In Omran, except for some strange items containing evil power, which will be handed over to the Kingdom Investigation Bureau and the Church of True God, all other spoils will be sent to the Corps' own trophy auction house for auction.

After the school city team entered the city, the caravan in the team bid farewell to the scholars and left, and the team changed back to the original school city team.

The head instructor of the team also feels that it is safe now. In addition, everyone is very nervous recently, and they are always worried that there will be cultists attacking them. Everyone is very tired, so they stayed in the special apartment in Omran After that, it was announced that they would be disbanded, and each of them could play in the city, so that everyone could relax.

At this time, Delkan invited Leo and Silvia to participate in the spoils auction of the Third Corps, and helped Leo and the others to apply for a temporary identity certificate.

If foreigners do not want to join the kingdom and plan to live in the kingdom for a long time, they must apply for a time-sensitive identity certificate, which needs to be reapplied every once in a while, while the identity certificates of Leo and Silvia are only temporary. After they join the academy, they can automatically obtain the status of honorary nationals of the Kingdom of Teresa, with rights similar to those of full-fledged nationals.

After hearing about the household registration system and foreigner policy of the Kingdom of Teresa, Leo and Silvia felt that this system and policy must not have been produced normally, because other countries in the world, even Europe, which is regarded as a beacon of civilization The Teresa Federation does not have such a system, nor does it have the soil to develop such a system, so there is no need to think about this system. It must come from some knowledge of the Earth Federation mastered by the Kingdom of Teresa or the Academy City.

In the past few days on the road, Leo deliberately deepened the communication with the scholars of the Academy City, and constantly used the tense atmosphere in the team to get a lot of secret things during the communication. These things belonged to the Academy City and the Kingdom Yes, among these secret information, the Kingdom of Teresa has mastered more than one mysterious relic of a great civilization, and the Academy has also participated in the research of the knowledge of the relic with permission. Mystery item.

Although there are a lot of secret information that has been discovered, none of the information is what Leo wants to know the most. Until now, he still has not figured out why those cultists would not hesitate to use taboo rituals before attacking the school team. , summoning the demigod, the Son of the Virgin, and transforming into a blasphemy priest, he doesn't think that those cultists are crazy to do such a thing that the loss far outweighs the gain. Obviously, there are absolutely hidden people in the team of the school city who can make these cultists do whatever it takes Or things.

Leo also told Sylvia what he saw in the cultist stronghold and his conjectures, and Sylvia thought that perhaps the target of the cultists was not the school team, but those who mixed into the school city. Teams of caravans.

At that time, Leo thought it was possible, and carefully checked the situation of those caravans, including the goods transported by the caravans, and checked everything carefully, but the result was still nothing.

Afterwards, he imprisoned those cultists who pretended to be the heretic hunting team of the Holy Heart, interrogated each other through various methods, and even searched the brain memory of the other party directly through psionic skills, but the result was still nothing. And those few cultists also triggered the power of the evil god in their bodies due to excessive force, mutated into monsters, and were wiped out by the kingdom knights who came later.

At the same time, because of the appearance of these mutated cultists, the scholars in the team were more and more sure that there would be cultists attacking them, and the atmosphere in the team became more tense. The team did not let the tense atmosphere in the team ease down.

Although Leo knew that the attack by the cultists was impossible, he couldn't say it. He could only watch the people around him be nervous all day long and be suspicious of any movement around them. Fortunately, the time for this shortcut was not long. Not very long.

After arriving in Omran, Leo heard the miracles of the Justice Church and the internal struggle of the Son of the Virgin from the conversations of the people around him.

Although these two events seemed completely irrelevant to others, Leo vaguely felt from the time when the two events occurred that it might have something to do with the punishment mark he used to destroy the cultist team.