Chapter 167: For a Grander Plan
When he heard the cell door locked and only darkness and corruption filled the air, Julius finally realized what was happening and his impending fate.

His teacher failed, and so did the chosen one of the Goddess of Life.

He witnessed the sword of judgment falling, and the long night that followed.

He also witnessed the sun rising again, as if the world had gone through a process of destruction and rebirth.

However, this time, the Righteous God stood against them.

Julius looked down at the hole in his chest. The wound pierced by the other side had not healed. The pain from the tearing was destroying his consciousness all the time, but some power he could not understand prevented him from dying. Even if his magic power was not exhausted in the battle, he could not heal the wound left by the holy sword.

This is the power of the gods, and he became a sinner waiting to be judged.

“Damn it, damn it!”

Julius finally roared. He was only one step away from realizing his plan! When he thought about the punishment from the gods, he could no longer remain calm.

The goddess of life is dead, and now is their era.

This was all told to him by his teacher… no, Turzan, and yet that bastard is now dead, leaving him alone to face the wrath of God!

Since the right God really exists, what about the hell described in the scriptures? Where will his soul go? According to the description of the scriptures, the soul of the sinner will be imprisoned in hell and suffer countless tortures every day. According to the crimes he has committed, this torture will never end.

Julius slammed his head against the wall.

Death is a relief for him now, he would rather his soul be destroyed.

Blood splattered everywhere.

But the strong smell of blood and the pain made Julius more sober. The incomprehensible magic once again saved him from death, but it could not eliminate his fear and pain.

Julius rolled on the ground in pain. As a Pope, as a being who stood out from countless believers, he had never been treated like this. This was the first time in his life that he truly felt the taste of pain.

He had sent countless people to this dark cell, leaving those “evil god believers” to wait for trial in fear.

He reached for the wound on his forehead with trembling hands. The wet and sticky blood almost instantly covered his palms. He couldn’t see the severity of the wound. This feeling of unknown deepened his panic.

How badly was he injured?
Will even the skull be exposed?
Then why is he still alive?

“Want to see it? I can help you.”

Julius heard a sound coming from outside the cell, and then he actually saw it.

It was a face distorted by pain, with blood flowing from a wound on the forehead that was deep enough to see the bone. The reason why he could see all this clearly was because of the crack that suddenly appeared on the palm of his hand and the eye that was opened, which did not belong to him at all.

His whole face was stained with blood.

This reminded Julius of Abaddon and the knight’s armor infected by eyes and tentacles. He shouted, “Devil, you devil! You are not a god at all!”

You have been deceived, everyone has been deceived!

This person is not a righteous god at all, but an evil god in the guise of a righteous god!

“You’re right.”

Ethan didn’t expect that the only sober person was Julius. “This is a simple application of the upgraded ice element. It is transforming your body so that even if you are tied to the stake, it will take a long time for you to die. The good news is that you can see with your own eyes the process of being burned to only bones.”

“Ah! Don’t come over here, stay away from me!”

Julius covered his head with his hands and backed away in fear until his back was against the wall and he could no longer move. He was convinced of Ethan’s identity as the evil god, because only an evil god could think of such a vicious method and possess such terrible power.

“But before that, you have something to explain.”

“Don’t even think about it! Don’t even think about knowing anything from me!”

Julius was shaking all over. He saw the door of the cell opened and the evil god walked in. He also saw Higan standing behind Ethan. Her high red ponytail was particularly conspicuous in the dim environment. The former Knight Commander of the Empire opened the cell for him personally.

“Bi’an, haven’t you figured it out yet? He is an evil god. As a follower of the Knight Lord, why don’t you stop Him?” His legs kept shaking and he swung backwards in vain. “Stop Him quickly! Don’t let Him get any closer!”

Hearing this, Bi’an took a step aside. She chewed the dried beef that Ethan brought with relish and said, “Your Holiness, I will let you witness the dark side of the empire. I have been bribed by the ‘Evil God’ with beef jerky. No matter what the ‘Evil God’ wants to do to you next, I will not stop him.”

In front of Julius, she played the role of a corrupt warden and solemnly told Ethan, “It’s best not to kill anyone. After all, he will be burned at the stake. Don’t make it difficult for me.”

Julius paused, and Ethan had already arrived in front of him, looking down at him condescendingly.

Naturally, he was no stranger to such scenes.

In the past, he would walk into the cells of those “evil god believers” in this way and admire their dying struggles, but no matter how he cursed or prayed, he could not escape the fate of being tied to the stake and burned to death. Now, he has switched places with those “evil god believers.”

He lost his voice and said, “I can confess, I can tell you everything, and then you can kill me!”

“No.”

The answer without a moment’s hesitation crushed Julius’s last hope. He had no bargaining chips against the evil god. As for those “evil god believers”, he would only use truth serum to open their brains.

Ethan pulled Julius’ body up from the ground, and then showed a look of disgust.

This high and mighty Pope actually became incontinent.

This was actually his inconsiderateness. If he had known that the Pope’s psychological quality was so poor, he should have reformed some more parts to prevent Julius from continuing to emit a bad smell during the subsequent interrogation.

This is going to be a long night.

Winter prepared thirty bottles of truth serum and a dozen rolls of parchment for him.

Julius was dragged out of the cell. This place was built by him personally. There were many interrogation rooms, each of which was equipped with torture instruments. Although truth serum can make interrogation simple and efficient, some “old-school” interrogators still like to adopt some “academic” methods.

Like Winter, who was curiously putting a branding iron into the forge when she came in.

This scene instantly frightened Julius to death. Ethan placed him on the interrogation chair, and his hands, which were resting on the armrests, grew together with the chair at a speed visible to the naked eye.

“Come, Your Holiness, I’ll buy you a drink.”

Ethan picked up a bottle of freshly brewed truth serum and walked in front of Julius.

His Holiness will need these potions.

……

When dawn arrived, only the empty bottles of the thirty potions were left, and the parchment was covered with densely written words. Hearing the call, the bribed warden Bi’an walked into the interrogation room and dragged Julius out like a dead fish.

Before leaving, Ethan did not forget to praise the other party, “Your Holiness has a good alcohol tolerance.”

After that, his eyes stayed on the description of the “Temple of Time” on the parchment.

Even though they used potions to open the Pope’s brain and enter his heart, they were unable to obtain much information about this mysterious organization. However, they could confirm that Turzan was a member of this organization, and another saint that Winter had met before was likely also affiliated with the Temple of Time.

In Julius’ eyes, the Temple of Time is an ancient organization founded by saints and only recruits saints.

They were scattered across the continent, searching for and studying the remains of the right and middle gods. The knowledge they discovered in the remains included how to eliminate the effects of breaking an oath and the descent ritual that Julius used in the vestibule.

In order to obtain more intelligence, Julius also cooperated with organizations such as Dream Eclipse at the instruction of Turzan.

He provided shelter for many large-scale sacrificial ceremonies of the evil god believers, ensuring that all sacrifices were completed before the Internment Bureau and the Kingdom Army came to his door. In exchange, these evil god believer organizations would reveal some intelligence about the ruins outside the empire to him, and occasionally help him deal with some stumbling blocks that would be difficult for the Church to label as “evil god believers.”

“Teacher, have you heard of this organization?”

“No.”

Lin Dong shook her head. When she was in Meng Eclipse, she had never heard of such an organization that only recruited saints.

Of course, this also has a lot to do with the fact that she doesn’t like dealing with strangers.

Her life was very simple at that time. Apart from hunting people on the “Must-Kill List”, she liked to stay in the hotel and not go out.

“But when I was a teacher in the academy, I did hear the dean mention some news. He said that starting from the Fourth Epoch, most of the saints he knew would leave their countries and disappear.” The dean guessed that sooner or later she would fade out of people’s sight like other saints.

This phenomenon has not been improved in the Sixth Century. Even as powerful as the Empire, there is only one saint in power, Henry VI, and this is because he inherited the bloodline of Henry’s royal family.

…………………………

At the same time, in a parliament hall.

Thirteen puppets were sitting at a round table. The puppet at one of the seats was torn into pieces, with its arms and legs sliding to the ground, leaving only a bare torso.

“I’m sure you all know the reason why you’ve been summoned this time.”

One of the puppets spoke in a human voice, “Turzan died in the capital of the empire, and some unusual events seem to be occurring there.”

“I warned him not to indulge in power, because if he was killed in such a thing, no one would avenge him.”

As another puppet spoke, the conference room fell into discussion.

“Now that Henry VI is dead, it will be more helpful for our research if we take power into our own hands. After all, the knowledge passed down by the Margaret family is the key to ‘Advent’. Only they can create the purest skin.”

“I heard that the two generations of Margaret’s successors seem to be a little uneasy.”

“Her name is Ivy Margaret, and she is of mixed race.”

“The problem is that Turzan is dead, and we need to find another agent for the Empire.”

For a moment, the conference hall fell into silence.

They did not have many choices. In the past hundred years, very few saints had been born in the empire, and one of them was Henry VI, who was of royal blood.

The dragon slayer valued his family and kingdom too much to agree with their ideas.

“I heard a rumor from the Imperial Capital that a knight commander who had returned from the dead was born there. She was a follower of the Knight Lord. She obtained the holy sword named the Sword of Oath and Victory from the ruins in the North.”

All the puppets looked towards the seats at the end of the round table.

“Her character is too rigid. I don’t recommend having any contact with her.”

“Then it seems there is only one choice left.”

They all had the answer in their hearts – there was another saint in the empire who was believed to be dead two years ago and later had close contacts with Dream Eclipse. But that was still not the best candidate in their minds. Before that, they had never extended an olive branch to any elemental shaper because they were a group of unbelievers.

Elemental Shapers are one of the few extraordinary people who have no faith, but they believe that after two years of twists and turns and being named a witch, her understanding of the empire and this world should have changed greatly.

It is not necessary to have complete trust and approval. What is important is whether she can handle the affairs of the empire well.

Whether using coercion, bribery, or forcing people to submit through fear, they never care about the means, only the results.

“It seems she has returned to the Empire. I will try to make contact with her.”

The puppet at the end of the seat spoke.

“Besides that, there is one more thing. The Lofik Consortium has contacted me through some channel, hoping to establish business dealings with us.”

“When did you start your business?”

“We are not some trade organization.”

“However, the price they offered was very high. It was for clues to the four ruins and the whereabouts of the forbidden book on Doomsday.”

………………………………

For the people of the imperial capital, what happened in the next few days was really overwhelming.

At first, it was a series of news released by the “Gryph Daily”. An organization called the Violet Commune appeared in their field of vision, including the names of dozens of people who were identified as believers of evil gods, including the Winter Witch. Chief Judge Gunness explained the process of their framing of the commune members, including the containment failure that directly led to the death of the former director of the Containment Bureau.

This was an assassination plotted against the Director by Pope Julius and the followers of Bazatos.

These newspapers were quickly sent to various cities in the empire. Everyone was shocked by the explosive news. Although they had long been dissatisfied with the corrupt empire, they did not expect that the Pope would degenerate to the point of collaborating with the believers of the evil god. This became the most unacceptable truth since the founding of the empire.

Then, the people of the empire witnessed the execution of Julius, Gunness, and Prince Freeman.

In the black and white images, they were tied to the stake, some were terrified, some were screaming, and they looked no different from the previous “believers of the evil god”.

The flames ignited their bodies and consumed them.

Their crimes were so numerous that it took Queen Margaret, who was in charge of supervising the execution, nearly an hour to read out the crimes of the three men.

The Imperial Square was packed with people.

A few days ago, the person tied to the stake was still Collins Margaret. A sudden rainstorm interrupted the execution. Now thinking back, it was the gods…

No, that was the work of a powerful elemental shaper.

From today on, they must be more cautious in dealing with the gods, so as not to give birth to another Julius.

The Knights of the Kingdom posted notices on the streets, seemingly using the theory of elemental magic to explain to people why the fallen Sword of Judgment did not destroy the city, why the sky above their heads fell into darkness, and why the fire element could gather into a new sun.

It looks very convincing and full of complex knowledge.

They seemed to understand, but when they thought about it carefully, they had no idea what these notices were saying.

However, they do not need to fully understand the details. Everyone knows what is happening. The only thing that has changed is the name of God and Proverbs. Things from the old era have been eliminated, and everything that happens in the future will be “part of the grand plan”, and each of them is part of the plan.

In order to fight against the gradually resurrecting evil god and prepare for the inevitable doomsday.

They are not fighting alone, the sun above their heads will always illuminate the way forward for them. It is probably a greater existence than the right God!
Ethan and Winter were at the end of the crowd and witnessed the execution of the three most heinous criminals. For the empire and the royal family, the next period would be the most prosperous time. The old forces were broken and the cells were filled with accomplices who needed to be tried, but before that, the royal family had to rebuild the entire tribunal.

Ivy was so busy these days that she didn’t even have time to eat. She sent letters to the eldest prince and the third princess who were far away in the Enlightenment Academy and the Temple of Netheril, summoning them back here.

At the same time, she also actively taught the nobles how to look at what happened on the day of the rebellion with a “rational and objective” perspective. They must learn to use the objective world as a criterion, because this will be the way to help them survive the day of destruction.

Until that grand plan is realized, everyone must stick to their position.

Winter looked at the bodies burned by flames in the square. The top three on her “must-kill” list turned into ashes under the baptism of flames.

Ethan fulfilled his promise at the time, and they were dragged into the streets and publicly executed in the way they were most familiar with amid people’s condemnation.

However, at this moment, she did not feel the joy of revenge, but instead her heart was filled with a subtle feeling of loss.

She subconsciously held Ethan’s arms in her arms, and this small action had some effect.

Winter remembered Ethan’s past questions, and now it seemed to be her turn.

She seemed to have lost her future goals.

Where will the future of the witch go?
So, let’s start with repentance.

“Ethan.”

“Ok?”

“I want to confess. I admit that I suspected you were deceiving me with sweet words.”

Let someone like the Pope receive a fair trial?

This seemed to her like an impossible future.

“It’s ok.”

“No, it does matter.” She looked at Ethan deeply, “My faith is not firm, please punish me!”

(End of this chapter)