Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 668 - 667: The Defier’s Long-Term Plan

The study fell silent for a few seconds as Ophelia seemed to be organizing her thoughts, while Gawain processed the information she had provided. After a moment, he spoke, breaking the silence: "Did you initiate the defied plan just because of those two sentences?"

Without waiting for Ophelia’s reply, he added: "I’ve thought of a possibility—could it be that the knowledge and essence of the gods are far beyond human perception and the processing ability of the human brain, so any act of approaching the gods would lead to madness, regardless of whether the gods themselves truly harbor malice? Could what those deceased explorers and half-crazed returnees saw have been merely knowledge that drives humans mad, rather than the gods themselves?"

These words seemed to offer an excuse for the gods, but Gawain knew Ophelia would understand his meaning—he was not a follower of the gods and harbored no innate goodwill towards them. He was simply considering all possibilities with due diligence, and as a scholar of the ancient Empire, Ophelia was expected to embody such conscientious spirit in her professional ethics.

Sure enough, Ophelia’s reaction was exactly what Gawain anticipated: "It’s a possibility we did consider back then—thus we conducted a series of verifications and further investigations. However, the deeper we delved into the knowledge of the gods, the more unsettling that elusive truth became.

"During the excavation of ancient ruins, we uncovered fragments left behind by civilizations that had fortunately survived the chaotic wave. Their extinction was sudden, unforeseen, occurring at a time when they were flourishing and society was extremely stable, which led us to exclude almost all possibilities except for ’gods’ apocalypse’.

"We contacted some ancient races, including the sea demons and Dragonkin you know, as well as some ancient leaders of the elemental world—the ancient Empire had close relations with the residents of the elemental world, whose powerful beings are unaffected by the chaotic wave. From the snippets of words from these ancient races, we discovered that the destruction of ancient civilizations usually occurred during significant shifts in their faith systems.

"In some rare archaeological discoveries, we even excavated some written records from the eve of ancient civilizations’ downfall, where there were occasional references to terms like ’God does not allow’, ’humans have crossed the boundary’, ’God has descended, and the apocalypse is at hand’. These seemed to be left by the few among those ancient civilizations who had foresight regarding the disturbances of the gods, but even those ’Prophets’ couldn’t rescue the situation."

Listening to Ophelia’s narration, Gawain nodded slightly.

The Defiers initiated that grand plan indeed not out of mere impulse—they were gradually uncovering those increasingly despairing truths throughout their deep investigations. The dark future left these rebels no choice but to secretly launch a plan to resist the gods.

"Perhaps we still cannot fully ascertain the truth of ’gods’ apocalypse’, yet with the chaotic wave looming and the shadow of the gods nearing, even if the apocalypse has only a one percent chance, we must prepare one hundred percent for it—perhaps all our efforts will eventually prove to be a joke, but should it really occur, we must have some means of resistance," Ophelia said in a deep voice, "People living in peaceful and stable environments probably cannot understand such extreme actions, but as a pioneer, you should understand."

"Human beings are a suspicious and timid species," Gawain sighed, "that’s why we always need to arm ourselves."

"This suspicion and timidity ensure our species’ survival."

Gawain adjusted his posture, looking into Ophelia’s eyes, "Earlier you mentioned your discovery that the destruction of ancient civilizations usually occurred during significant shifts in their faith systems. What exactly does that mean?"

"Simply put, their temples rapidly dwindled in number, and the scale of all religions contracted sharply almost simultaneously."

"Abandoning faith, thus angering the gods?" Gawain furrowed his brow, suddenly having a thought, "Then the ongoing Holy Light church reform..."

"That’s precisely what I’m about to say," Ophelia replied, her face, typically wearing a gentle smile like a mask, showing a rare hint of genuine passion, "The reforms we undertook in Holy Light church did not elicit ’activation’ of the Holy Light."

Activation—Gawain noticed the term Ophelia used.

He then asked, "You mean that the contents propagated in southern doctrine, like ’Holy Light originates from one’s heart’, ’morality and righteousness take precedence over dogma’, ’everyone has freedom of faith’, would not trigger any adverse reaction from the Holy Light?"

Ophelia smiled, "People still pursue the Holy Light, adhering to its several core tenets, following precepts of protection, exorcism, righteousness, brightness. Our temples have not decreased, the scale of the church hasn’t shrunk. We’ve replaced many aspects, but... Holy Light church remains Holy Light church, doesn’t it?"

Looking at the smiling Ophelia, Gawain suddenly connected the dots between Holy Light church’s obvious actions over the past few years and the role of the Saint Princess, Veronica Moen, in the church. Many things initially appearing unrelated now started aligning—

Holy Light church’s policy of rejecting heterodoxies accelerated the church’s rapid development but also led to the emergence of numerous low-quality, poorly behaved grassroots priests; the divine arts reform lowered the threshold for using theurgy of the Holy Light, expanded the scale of the priest Clergy, yet also allowed clergymen of varying quality to use the same divine arts, shaking the faith of many initially devoted ascetic monks; disputes over the interpretation of classics and moral arguments caused splits among lower-level priests in the church, generating progressive clergy like Wright and Sevin under such a backdrop...

These seem like natural changes wrought by the church’s decline and corruption following its peak, internal power splits leading to natural changes, but... what if behind these ’natural changes’ lay the scrutinizing eyes of researchers?

What if all this was to test certain things, like... testing the ’operation rules’ of the gods, testing the ’personality boundaries’ of the gods?

It was no wonder Ophelia was so keen to cooperate with Wright’s reforms and supported Cecil Clan’s new policies—without sufficient experimental data, how could a researcher easily make a decision?!

Ophelia merely smiled serenely, looking at Gawain: "What are you thinking?"

"These are your ’research results’ obtained within Holy Light church, aren’t they?"

"If there were no gains, why would a Defier lurk in the church of the enemy for so long?"

Gawain’s gaze inadvertently fell upon the platinum scepter in Ophelia’s hand—not since the previous Pope’s demise had the scepter left her hand, even when Wright took over the Northern Church as the Great Shepherd. She hadn’t transferred the scepter.

This scepter, originally belonging to the Pope, was said to have the function of communicating with the kingdom, listening to divine oracles, and representing the bridge between God and humans. However, due to the church restructuring, all upper-level priests were reorganized, and the issue regarding the scepter had been intentionally or unintentionally set aside, yet looking at it now, recalling Ophelia’s assertion that the Holy Light hadn’t ’activated’, Gawain vaguely suspected something.

"Are you monitoring the status of the Holy Light through this scepter?"

"Every experimental project requires rigorous monitoring and documentation," Ophelia slightly raised the scepter in her hand, "This is the attitude a researcher must possess."

Looking at the platinum scepter in the other’s hand, Gawain suddenly couldn’t help but entertain a thought – should he try it himself?

This thing seems to establish a certain connection with the kingdom, and if used properly, it could even be used to monitor the gods. If ordinary people touch it, they’d probably be brainwashed into devout believers immediately, but he himself is a satellite spirit refined over hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, with significant resistance to such brainwashing – his experience touching the Eternal Stone Slate proved that. So, touching the platinum scepter now... it should be fine, right?

Would it be like touching the Eternal Stone Slate, where others hear divine oracles, but what he hears is another message from a super fleet or perhaps something even more unexpected?

At that moment, Gawain’s curiosity was suddenly ignited, burning uncontrollably.

He even mentally prepared himself for the possibility of dying on the spot due to improper operation.

But at the last moment, he forcibly reined in his curiosity because he realized a huge hidden danger – the Eternal Stone Slate is dead, but the current Holy Light is alive...

Although that god seemed to have been killed once in the Ancient Era, it has mostly revived by now.

Would touching the scepter rashly stimulate the Holy Light? What Ophelia and Wright are doing now can be described as "stealing theocracy," and the most important thing is not to stimulate that god. What if his one slap wakes up the Holy Light, and once it opens its eyes to look at the mortal world – where is my church? Where is that huge church of mine?

The thousand years of effort by the Defier and his achievements so far would be over.

After forcibly controlling his impulses, Gawain coughed twice to cover his embarrassment and looked at Ophelia, saying, "Suppose the reform of the Holy Light is successful, and we successfully shield the ’Mortal Bridge’ without attracting the gods’ attention. What do you plan to do next?"

Ophelia met Gawain’s gaze frankly: "Use this as experience to transform the world’s faiths."

As an ancient soul who has lived for a thousand years, she seems to have plenty of patience and time.

"Will the gods really sit idly by as we block them? Even though our current reform of the Holy Light has not caused the Holy Light to activate, when the day comes that all ties between gods and the mortal world are severed, won’t the gods react?"

Ophelia nodded slightly: "The operation of gods follows certain patterns, and although the ’Responder’ conjecture proposed by a few scholars during the Gondor era is not entirely correct, it does come close to some aspects of the truth. Therefore, as long as we grasp these patterns, we can bypass the gods’ sight in a relatively safe manner and complete the replacement and transformation of faith.

"Secondly, based on our research, although the power of gods does not solely come from mortal faith, the transfer of human belief greatly weakens them. Moreover, if they lose the ’faith standard’ of the mortal world, the gods will face huge obstacles and losses in trying to descend to the mortal realm again. On the other hand, humans will become stronger by regaining the power of divine magic. As one increases and the other decreases, by that day, the gods will not be insurmountable to us..."

She did not say the rest of her words, but the underlying meaning was already obvious:

By that day, gods descending to the world... will be evil demons and strange beasts invading the mortal realm from another world.

The churches of the world will fight back bravely, in the name of faith, to exorcise demons and defend the path.

This is the Defier’s plan, but it is still not their entire plan, just a part of it.

Even this small part is already shocking.

However, Gawain still believes that there are flaws in this plan, with too many uncontrollable variables, and even if everything is implemented smoothly, it will not bring about the best result.

At least for now, this plan must still be executed— the reform of the Holy Light is inevitable, whether for social stability or the development of the new Empire, he must ensure that the religion with the greatest domestic influence and the widest followers complies with the laws and regulations of "god-given theocracy."

After discussing some details about the defied Plan and church reform, Gawain slowly exhaled a breath.

"Let’s leave it at that for today; the topic of the defied Plan ends here," he leaned back in his chair, "I need to organize this information well, and if I think of any issues, or if you find anything else necessary to tell me, we’ll continue the conversation."

"As you wish," Ophelia smiled faintly, "but before leaving, I have one more thing."

"Oh? Do tell."

"It’s about the previous topic, the church reform," Ophelia said, "The current situation of female clergy in the church is rather... awkward."