After Becoming The Tyrant CH 173 Under The Throne
"No, it's not necessarily His resurrection."
Lightning split the night, causing the sky and the earth to turn white, and the King's face was as cold as a plaster statue in the light of thunder. He placed the holy book on the table, and there was an inexplicable chill in his tone.
"Those who betray once will never hesitate to betray a second time. Since they have tasted the sweetness of possessing extraordinary abilities, and are therefore majestic and unique on this land, then... why wouldn't they think of replacing their god with themselves?"
The easiest thing to forget was awe, and the easiest thing to breed was ambition.
"The original Holy See did not have the concept of the pope having universal political power." The King touched his fingertips against each other. His memory has always been amazing. The several times Earl Wally talked with the King, he was surprised to find that the King's familiarity with history was not inferior than any outstanding historian, "Bishop Anil once mentioned that the missionary slogan when the Holy See was first founded was 'to build the city of the Holy Lord on the ground', and this city on the ground is the prototype of the Kingdom of God. At that time, all rights in the doctrine of the Holy See were vested in Saint Peter and the Holy Lord.”
"The rise of papal power was a gradual process."
Earl Wally spent most of his life studying the history of the Holy Court, and he reacted quickly when the King mentioned this.
"At the beginning, Holy See doctrine emphasized more on the worship of the dignity and power of the Holy Lord, as well as the end of the world and the universal view. However, in the sixth century, the importance of the pope and the power he held began to rise. Like with the theologians, they also carefully trained a group of eloquent jurists, and by the seventh century, when the first Lucado Edicts were promulgated, they began to preach that secular monarchy is already subordinate to the pope."
"And before that, the secular kings were the incarnations of the Holy Lord in the human world, the same agents as them."
The King said.
"In the early days, only the jurists of the church advocated and supported the universal supreme power of the pope. But soon, the theological circles also began to try to confirm this. Based on the contract between God and man in the holy book, they claimed that according to the line 'the Creator who was and would be hereafter’ the monarch must obey the church, and the order of excommunication began to be born at this time. However, the order of excommunication itself poses logical problems——as both the incarnation of the Holy Lord, how does the pope have the power to punish the monarch?" Earl Wally spoke quickly, "Since the Lucado Edicts, the subsequent collection of decrees increasingly strengthened the universal supreme power of the pope. How did they manage that?"
"The concept of Purgatory and the Intermediary."
The concept of purgatory required people to believe in the Holy See, and the intermediary role played by the clergy in the right to salvation and the guide role to the gate of the Kingdom of God allowed them to skillfully transfer this part of the power to themselves in the name of God. With the development of the internal order of the Holy See, the prototype of a divine kingdom system emerged with the episcopal system, which inevitably concentrated power at the top of the system——the pope.
"He personally taught His followers how to steal His authority."
The King said softly.
This was truly a great irony.
The Holy Lord stole power from history and wanted to use it to resurrect Himself. The Pope and the Holy See stole power from the Holy Lord to rise to the top of the secular throne.
The cycle of fate was like an ancient curse, and those who betrayed would be betrayed themselves.
If the conversation between the King and Earl Wally tonight were known to the world, then countless people would lose their spiritual sustenance overnight and live in panic without knowing where they were going. The god of salvation was false, history had been tampered with, and faith had been exploited... The solid spiritual empire had collapsed in a single conversation, leaving only the cold and cruel truth.
"Although the Holy Empire has been established, the Holy Lord may not awaken——there is one person in this world who is more unwilling than us to allow the gods to truly revive."
Earl Wally's clothes were already drenched with cold sweat again during this conversation.
The King's pale fingertips rubbed the bone ring on his hand.
He was thinking about other things, about the “Law".
The incompleteness of the Law allowed mysterious forces to still hide in the darkness and interfere with human history before the Millennium Kingdom began. Half of the incomplete parts of the Law were in the hands of the World Serpent. It betrayed him during the "Twilight War" and intercepted part of the fruits of victory in the war. Thus this half of the incomplete parts of the Law allowed it to hide in the Tomb of the Gods and absorb power.
Then, there should still be another half of the incomplete parts left. Who had this other half of the incomplete parts of the Law?
"Theolde."
The King whispered, as if he was responding to Earl Wally's words, or talking to himself.
………………
Theolde was walking in the city of Collin.
These days, the atmosphere in Collin City has become very tense. Even though Theolde restrained the Knights Templar and did not let the massacre of Koszoya happen here, the relationship between knights and citizens was still full of gunpowder, and conflicts may break out at any time.
"I know that within the Holy Court, there have been many different voices regarding this Holy Army movement. Some people think that I am too aggressive, and some people think that the time has not come yet."
Theolde stood in front of Morse University in Collin City, slightly raising his head to look at the college's arched stone pillars carved with roses.
“Your Majesty's far-sighted vision is beyond our comprehension."
Accompanying Theolde on his walk was a Holy See bishop who had crossed the Abyss Strait. He was also a messenger, carrying a secret message from Holy Spirit Bay. However, after Pope Theolde learned of his arrival, he was not anxious to get the secret message from him. Instead, he invited him to walk around the city of Collin.
Since the establishment of the Holy Empire, a subtle relationship between the Holy Court and the Empire had developed.
Nominally, the Holy Court and the Holy Empire were equivalent. But in fact, the twelve sanctuaries of the Holy Court and the original institutions have not been fully integrated into the Holy Empire. Although the relationship between the two was still very close, as long as the Holy City of Holy Spirit Bay still exists, there would naturally be a separation point of interest between the Holy City system and the Holy Empire system.
Even some elders in the Holy Court’s Council of Elders believed that the entire Holy Court had been fooled by Theolde.
Theolde took away the elite backbones of the Holy Court and created a new shell called the "Holy Empire" on the land of Bressi. Between the new shell and the old body, he was the only one who benefited, not the Holy Court. It was just that Theolde's personal prestige within the Holy Court was too high, and this voice had been suppressed before this.
However, when Theolde led the elite of the Holy Court to attack Legrand, while Holy Spirit Bay was struggling to cope with the attack of the Nujin Empire led by Hermóðr', these different voices surfaced again.
The Holy See bishop appearing here as a messenger was a representative of this voice.
The Bishopric b of the Holy See was aware of the role he played, but he was not a fool. Theolde's battle record that he heard along the way through Legrand was enough for him to understand that he was facing a pope with an unprecedented power peak in the history of the Holy See——and at the same time also an emperor.
Facing Theolde, he could only carefully form his words.
Theolde smiled slightly: "On your way here, when you look at these towns, at these colleges that have arisen in the land of Legrand, what do you see?"
"I see heresy and disrespect for God."
The Holy See bishop replied.
These words came from the bottom of his heart and were not a lie.
In his opinion, Legrand was simply a land of sludge that deserved to go to hell. Business was booming here, and the monarchs of Legrand encouraged this. What was taught in the colleges was not theology, but science. The heliocentric theory, which had been defined as a fallacy and heresy in the "Hall of Truth", was widely spread here. What was hung in the art galleries was not depictions of the Holy Spirit and angels, but ordinary mortals…
Evil bred here, and the believers here do not even recognize the teachings of the Holy See. They were indeed a group of heretics who call themselves "believers."
"But I see life and vitality. This is a country that is clearly so old, but yet so young.”
Theolde looked at the arch of the university and spoke slowly while facing the rose reliefs.
"The War of Divine Punishment tore her apart. This is the greatest victory and the greatest failure of the Holy Court——she should have been completely destroyed long ago. Bressi's expedition after expedition could not defeat her, our missionaries could not convert her but were converted by her. When we finally paid attention to her, she became stronger once again."
"Strong enough to confront the 200,000 Holy Army head-on."
Theolde's voice suddenly became stern.
His demeanor had always been very gentle, but when the fatherly gentleness receded from him, what was revealed was the cold majesty of an emperor.
The Holy See bishop felt as if he was falling into an abyss under his gaze.
"Legrand only has this kind of castle and this mere number of soldiers yet it can withstand an army of 200,000. And our Holy Palace has twelve sanctuaries that took thousands of years to build, and each of them is an indestructible military fortress. But such a Holy Court cannot withstand the attack of a group of herdsmen?" Theolde's voice was soft, "I am very disappointed."
The back of the Holy See bishop was soaked with sweat.
He handed the letter to the Pope and left in a daze before even saying a word of what represents the meaning of the Council of Elders.
Sisian stepped out of the shadows on the side, came to Theolde's side, and asked the Pope in a low voice whether he wanted this visitor from the Holy Court to die on the battlefield while on the way back.
Theolde shook his head and opened the letter.
As expected from the letter, it was the corrupt elders of Holy Spirit Bay who wanted him to send the Knights Templar back as reinforcements.
Theolde tore the letter into pieces and let the wind blow it away.
"Allowing them to stay during the purge campaign was simply a mistake." Sisian couldn't help but say.
"A bunch of useless rotten insects cannot be considered useful, nor can they be considered a mistake." Theolde said. He raised his head and looked at Collin City under the morning light, and watched as the Knights Templar had no choice but to patrol the city in full force, "I finally understand one thing over these days. The year William III died, I made the most fatal mistake."
Sisian looked at Theolde in astonishment.
In his mind, Theolde was a figure almost on par with God. He once thought that he would never see the day when this man made a mistake. No matter what happens, he could always take advantage of everything. However, today Theolde personally said that he had made a fatal mistake.
"William III and the Duke of Buckingham are the craziest gamblers in the world."
Theolde said.
They carefully crafted the most audacious lie and deceived everyone in its deception.
Pureland, Purland.
There was actually no such person as King Pureland I of the Legrand Empire in this world.