When Ye Chui and his group crossed the Warm Water River years ago, they encountered criminals being escorted on the same boat. That boat had been sunk when Ye Chui’s Titanic BGM collided with it, and all the criminals on board unfortunately perished. Those criminals, after trial, were originally to be sent to the dwarf mines beneath the Doomsday Mountains to become tomb keepers, a punishment many considered more terrifying than death.
The dwarf mines were left behind by the now-extinct dwarf race, who possessed extremely powerful mining abilities. They had nearly hollowed out the vast region beneath the Doomsday Mountains, creating interconnected tunnels like an anthill. The place had another name: the Haunted Mines, where countless undead ghosts wandered.
It was said that somewhere deep in the dwarf mines lay a connection to the terrifying underworld hell. The tomb keepers’ duty was to prevent those evil spirits from entering the outside world, a horrifying job. Every year, countless people lost themselves in those dreadful mines, going completely mad. Beneath the mines accumulated innumerable white bones and corpses.
From Celty and Jarvis, Ye Chui learned that over ten thousand years ago, the God of Gods, to counter the powerful Magic Emperor, attempted to build the underworld and create reincarnation, appointing the Destruction Goddess Dakins to rule it. Dakins was also known as the Queen of the Underworld.
After that sacred battle ended, the underworld was transformed by the God of Gods into the Spirit Realm, and Dakins continued guarding the dwarf mines beneath the Doomsday Mountains.
In the age of the gods, the dwarf mines were a holy site for human adventurers. There was a Path of the Brave, and passing its trials allowed entry into the divine realm to become one of the god race.
For ordinary mortal lives, the Path of the Brave was the only passage into the divine realm.
After the gods fell, the divine realm collapsed. As a fragment of it, the Divine Sin Continent meant the Path of the Brave was very likely the sole entrance to that place.
Hearing Ye Chui mention the dwarf mines beneath the Doomsday Mountains, Boris seemed momentarily stunned. He then laughed. “So the Path of the Brave recorded in the ancient texts truly exists? Well then, I bless Mr Ye Chui in finding that place.”
Ye Chui stared at Boris’s expression, judging whether his words were genuine.
At that moment, somewhat chaotic footsteps suddenly echoed “boom, boom” from afar. Ye Chui and the others, along with Boris in the sky, looked over in surprise. They then watched in astonishment as a group of people bathed in holy radiance marched in unison towards them. Ferocious spirits were being pursued and, upon contact with the sacred light on their bodies, instantly dissipated, purified into bliss.
Leading the group at the front was none other than Akuya, hands on hips, her face full of indescribable smugness. Behind her, Ye Chui spotted several familiar figures, such as the current master believer of the Akusis Cult, Eliza.
“Eliza!?” Ye Chui’s expression changed.
Before entering the Tidal Empire, they had parted ways with Eliza and her Akuya believers in Mountain Town, sending Eliza to preach in the Morning Wind Empire. Yet why had they suddenly appeared here?
Though this was within Morning Wind Empire territory, it was still quite far from the central region.
“It was Akuya who notified them…” Resha realised something. “Earlier on the flying magical vehicle, I saw Akuya quietly praying, seemingly communicating with her believers. I did not pay attention then, but now it seems… she must have secretly informed these believers to come fetch her. Has her dream of conquering the world not died yet?”
Thinking carefully, these past few days Akuya had been obedient to an excessive degree, perfectly handling tasks like scrubbing floors and cleaning toilets, making them almost feel sorry for her. But actually, this idiot was deliberately misleading them, secretly contacting her believers for pickup, planning to control them against Ye Chui’s group once they docked.
This idiot goddess actually had such scheming!?
And just now, when Guni threw Akuya flying, it conveniently let her meet the arriving believers. These believers numbered at least ten thousand, led by Eliza. The ferocious spirits were no match for them, purified one after another.
Now, with Akuya leading her believers in this manner, she looked exactly like a mafia boss bringing her gang to a fight…
Debbie thought of something, her small face tense as she leaned close to Ye Chui. “Eliza is, after all, a former Cardinal Archbishop. Letting him meet the Pope like this, might it be improper? What if his faith is shaken…”
Ye Chui had also considered this issue. He had gone to great trouble to lure Eliza to their side. If the Pope summoned him back to become a Cardinal Archbishop again, the loss would outweigh the gain.
“Kill Tix!” Ye Chui decided instantly. The Pope could appear now because he was using Tix as a medium. Killing Tix would make the Pope’s figure vanish.
Ye Chui immediately cast [Golden Super Railgun], scattering a pile of gold coins that turned into a golden sword beam blasting towards Tix. Debbie also summoned Gilga to assist the attack. But just as they considered the Eliza problem, Boris naturally had too. High in the sky, Boris casually waved his hand, and a holy radiance descended upon Tix.
Tix now appeared as an old woman in her eighties or nineties, her life force on the verge of exhaustion. To let Tix hold out a bit longer, Boris finally blessed her.
With the power replenished, Tix’s hair began turning black, her aged and weary face regained some lustre. Her strength surged, a layer of spatial cracks appearing around her body, powerfully blocking Ye Chui and the others’ attacks.
chapter_content();
“Buy time!” Boris coldly commanded Tix. Under the influence of the restraining array in her body, Tix now had no way to resist any of Boris’s orders.
Boris’s enormous illusory figure rapidly shrank to life size, descending to the ground. He remained an illusion but much more solid. He had used great divine power to project a clone of himself here.
Barefoot and in pyjamas, though his appearance was somewhat dissolute, he possessed boundless majesty as he strode quickly towards Eliza.
A Cardinal Archbishop was the most powerful believer, each one extremely precious. Boris clearly intended to bring Eliza back into the Church’s embrace.
“Eliza, have you forgotten your faith?” Boris shouted. A golden-covered holy bible appeared floating beside him, and he began reciting scriptures from it.
Akuya understood what Boris was doing and grew furious. “You dare steal my believer! Purification Spell…”
“Get lost!”
Boris coldly shouted, and Akuya spun wildly as she was flung away.
Though a goddess, compared to this world’s Pope, she was outclassed by more than one level. Even if only a clone had descended here, it was enough to overwhelm Akuya…
The other Akusis Cult believers instantly knelt under that terrifying pressure.
Eliza, the strongest in the cult, remained standing in place, his pupils rapidly contracting, body trembling constantly, an indecisive expression on his aged face.
Conflict raged in his heart of faith.
Boris’s recitation of the bible seemed to brand impressions into Eliza’s heart, constantly awakening his inner faith in the Church’s gods. This was faith summoning.
Thud. Eliza knelt on the ground, then tremblingly pulled out the Akusis Cult’s holy relic, Akuya’s notebook, raising it high above his head, muttering, “The goddess I believe in is the great Akuya. My faith in the goddess will never change. Goddess, please protect my faith. Goddess…”
Boris displayed his formidable posture, reciting the bible while approaching Eliza.
This was a battle of faith.
Boris was crushing Akuya’s faith.
Ye Chui and the others attacked Tix with all their might. As long as they killed Tix, they could stop the Pope’s summoning of Eliza. Facing their attacks, Tix’s blackened hair turned white again, wrinkles reappearing on her face. Boris’s blessing was rapidly depleting. She gasped for breath, on the brink of death.
Whoosh. Under the clash of powerful auras, the holy relic raised high by Eliza began flipping pages rapidly.
Boris’s indifferent eyes glanced casually at it.
Just one glance. Yet his heart of faith, connected to the gods, suddenly suffered countless shocks. The images on that holy relic…
“Faith in the gods is the world’s greatest gift. We should loyally believe in the gods. We should…” Boris’s recitation faltered momentarily. His mind seemed captured by the relic. Finally, when it flipped to a certain page, his recitation was completely interrupted. “…oh, there’s even this position?”
Eliza’s figure instantly retreated dozens of metres, panting heavily, having escaped the Pope’s faith summoning.
Boris had successfully been distracted. That brief shift in attention caused his contest for Eliza’s faith to loosen at the critical moment.
And at that instant, Tix reached her absolute limit. Her body collapsed with a whoosh into a pile of withered bones. As the medium of power, Tix died completely, and Boris’s figure dissipated accordingly.
The Pope… had been forced to retreat by them?
Ye Chui’s eyes turned to the holy relic in Eliza’s distant hands, thinking of how Boris had failed at the hair’s-breadth moment, and that exclamation full of a pure young boy’s first encounter with certain adult material. Ye Chui’s eyes could not help twitching. In a certain sense… Akuya’s faith had defeated this world’s Pope.
