Volume 1 Chapter 41 - The Secrets of the Church

The Church of Light was created near the end of the battle 10,000 years ago, according to what Hadias knew. The five human empires who were on the verge of being completely defeated by the 12 demon kings had managed to cling on to what little they had left with the support of a group of high-leveled mages that used light magic. These light mages were the forerunners of what eventually became the Church of Light.

After the 12 demon kings mysteriously vanished into thin air, these mages hid from the masses the fact that the celestial world was no more. They then created the Church of Light and propagated that the God of Light still loved the people of the surface world, and the Church of Light’s believers would be blessed by the gods. This had happened during the sensitive period after the 12 demon kings’ invasion and the collapse of much of the surface world’s civilizations at that time, the humans needed something to devote their faith to, in order to reduce the shadow that the 12 demon kings had left. The Church of Light had filled that much-needed position, becoming a pillar of faith that raised morale among the human ranks during the perilous times.

So, the 5 emperors at the time came to an agreement with the Church of Light and worked together to promote the Church’s faith and further cement its power. In the future battles against the beastmen and demons, the Church of Light used the wars as an opportunity to further increase their power and expand their sphere of influence. In the present day, the Church of Light’s power and influence had already exceeded that of the five empires’ royal families, the Pope having more authority than even the empires’ emperors.

During the development of the Church of Light, the members gradually split into 4 big factions, with one such faction choosing to change their faith to the demon world’s demons because they saw no future worshipping gods that no longer existed. This faction was kicked out of the Church of Light for their heresy and later formed the Church of Darkness, both Churches seemed to have an unspoken agreement to keep this piece of information hidden, meaning that most people didn’t know that the despicable Church of Darkness shared the same roots as the respected Church of Awe.

After the expulsion of the demon-worshipping faction, the Church of Light’s 3 remaining factions relations were completely broken. The Alan faction was one that stuck more to the Church of Light’s roots, believing that the celestial world had not fallen to the demon kings and that the god of light was still protecting her believers in a place where no one knew. The Alan faction believed that the Church of Light should become the messengers of the god of light in the mortal world, spreading her will and blessings to the people.

Opposing the Alan faction was the Salo faction, they were deeply connected with the excommunicated Church of Darkness. The difference between the Salo faction and the Church of Darkness was that the Salo faction didn’t necessarily worship the demons lords of the demon world, rather, they believed that this world needed darkness, for, without darkness, there would be no meaning to the existence of the Church of Light. The Salo faction has been non-stop trying to find, learn, and then use various dark magics and rituals, wanting to use the power of darkness to maintain the Church of Light’s position, which was something that all of the popes of the Church of Light wanted to see, which was why the Salo faction was allowed to continue existing.

The difference between these to factions and the Miga faction was scary. The Miga faction was the Church of Light’s most ‘extreme’ faction, they believed that since the celestial world no longer existed, the Church of Light should step in and become the ‘new’ celestial world and that the Church’s believers could become gods themselves. Their radical thought of replacing the gods themselves should have gotten them expunged from the Church or even killed, however, the Miga faction has remained untouched for all these years, without much interference from the pope and the other two factions. The only possible explanation would be that the Miga faction had succeeded in their experiments?

The holy maiden who was currently in Bella’s embrace, Sophia, belonged to the Miga faction. While Sophia did have the aura unique to the celestial world, Hadias had used the power of the Master-Slave contract to inform Bella that Sophia wasn’t actually from the celestial world and that her aura was fake, Sophia was a ‘man-made’ god.

It was unexpected for humans to have been able to create gods themselves, it seems that the Miga factions had quite a few secrets. It was a shame that Bella wasn’t very interested in the Church of Light’s secrets, only these holy maidens. Following the traditions of the Church of Light, their holy maidens would remain unwed and dedicate their entire lives to the god of light. Bella didn’t know what gender the god of light was, or if the god had even survived the war 10,000 years ago, it would be a shame to let such beautiful girls waste their entire lives on someone that might already be dead.

“You are… Felia? Ah… I don’t mean any harm, those two over there are Irene and Lisha right? I know those two and you look very similar to them, and last time I heard, Luce was confined to bed by a sickness… so I made a guess.”

“Yeah, I guess. But, most of those that know this secret…”

“Then it was my mistake, I don’t know who you are, I didn’t see anyone strange here.”

Seeing the shifting expression on Bella’s face, Sophia quickly pretended to be dumb. Felia was previously a holy knight recognized by the Church, and most of the Church’s upper echelons already knew through magic that Felia had died in battle on the Alfred continent. Right now, however, an unscathed Felia stood right in front of Sophia; which meant that even if she was the real Felia, she was probably no longer human. Sophia hadn’t heard of any human able to return alive from the Alfred continent!

As there were too many girls around them right now, Bella couldn’t do what she wanted to this holy maiden, even though in her heart, Bella wanted to take Sophia back with her to the Dark Sanctuary and ‘interrogate’ the Church of Light’s 1st holy maiden and discover all of her secrets. However, it wasn’t like Bella to just give up in a time like this, she took advantage of Sophia putting all her attention on her and slowly moved her right hand along Sophia’s milky smooth backside.

After a while, without Sophia detecting anything, Felia had placed a simple tracking magic on Sophia’s back. This tracking magic didn’t use any element type, Bella had learned this from 【Magic Creator] Bethia, and because it was another dimension’s magic, the people of this dimension wouldn’t be able to recognize it. It wasn’t just Sophia, Bella planned to use this tracking magic on the other two holy maidens here, as well as Susan, the 3rd holy maiden, whom Bella had come all the way to save.

The ability that【Death Flower Empress]Heklis had just used, 《Blossoming Spring》, was a powerful ability directed towards women. Heklis had planned to quickly capture Sophia then go to the aid of its comrade, but the plan had been foiled by a party of girls that had arrived in the nick of time. Apart from hitting Sophia. 《Blossoming Spring》 didn’t have any effect on any of the other girl, due to a transparent wall of viscous fluid that appeared in front of the party and had blocked Heklis’ 《Blossoming Spring》.

That wall was one of the void monarch Skryme’s abilities, 《Transparent World》, it not only had great defensive power, it was also strong when used offensively. In the split-second that Heklis’ attention was distracted, Skryme pounced. The giant flower void monarch was quickly enveloped and restrained, no longer moving as if time had froze around it.

Taking advantage of Heklis’ inability to move, 【Blood King] Eleanor used the god-tier sword in her hand, ‘Celestial God’s Determination’, to rescue her former friend, the 2nd holy maiden. After saving Hayley, Eleanor also rescued the 4th holy maiden Daisy.

“Eleanor, why are you here?”

“Hayley, I’m just here to repay the favour that I owed you from back at the crypt.”

Hayley looked around and saw that Sophia had fallen into the embrace of a beautiful blonde knight that looked rather familiar, but Hayley couldn’t put her finger on exactly who she was or when she had seen the knight previously. Hayley tried to get to her feet but the paralyzing venom had not yet dissipated, meaning she was also in a state where she would be unable to resist anything that happens to her.

“We meet again, Hayley, it’s been a couple months since we parted ways at the graveyard, I’ve missed you, you know?”

Bella walked up and greeted Hayley, the current situation was different from the one several months ago. That time Hayley had the numbers advantage, but now that Bella held that advantage, these holy maidens probably be smart enough not to go against her.

“You… what do you want, we won’t betray the god of light!”

Hayley finally recognized the culprit behind Eleanor’s descent into darkness, but after observing the situation they were in, Hayley choose not to start any trouble, even the 1st holy maiden was remaining silent, Hayley wasn’t dumb enough to provoke Bella while the holy maidens’ fates were all held in her hands.

“What do you want! Coming so close, I really won’t betray the god of light, don’t even think about it!”

Seeing Bella come closer, Hayley instinctively felt scared, even though she didn’t know what Bella was going to do to her. From the Alan faction’s point-of-view, all demons were cold blooded and ruthless killing machines and Hayley feared that Bella would harm her. No matter how stubborn Hayley was, she was still human and would instinctively feel fear whenever their lives were threatened.

Bella put Sophia aside and picked up Hayley, placing the snow-white haired beauty in her embrace, all the while Hayley’s pale blue eyes were looking at Bella in terror. This didn’t deter Bella, however, as the more her prey struggled, the more Bella wanted to capture them. After Eleanor had joined the Dark Sanctuary, she had never truly forgotten this old friend of hers, Bella planned to do Eleanor a favour and make this stubborn 2nd holy maiden surrender herself, it would also be quite an accomplishment too.

“I won’t resist, don’t kill me please, I don’t walk the same path as them!” Right after Bella finished placing the tracking magic on Hayley’s back, she heard a skittish voice begging for mercy behind her, only know did she turn her attention to the Church of Light’s 4th holy maiden, Daisy. Daisy was the holy maiden of the Salo faction, her mentor was the head of the Salo faction who had given Bella the box of gold bars a few months ago, the Cardinal Salo.

So technically, Daisy had some relation to Bella, they could be considered as fellow members of the Salo faction. Daisy’s hair was a temptatious raven coloured and her eyes were a pure black, the aura and feel that she gave off were something completely different from what one would expect from one of the Church of Light’s holy maidens, rather, the feel that Daisy gave Bella was that of a seductive temptress.

Bella handed Hayley to the nearby Eleanor and then walked towards Daisy. Daisy didn’t resist and simply allowed Bella to pick her up. After Bella picked her up, Daisy then wrapped her arms around Bella’s shoulders, perhaps to allow Bella to hold her better?

“You’re fine? That giant flower’s attack had no effect on you?”

“I have something on me that negates paralysis, of course I’m fine. I was trying to look for an opening to rescue Hayley earlier. Even though she’s not the most agreeable person out there, her life is mine to take, and no one else’s!”

“Then why didn’t you resist me, you might have had a chance to escape.”

“Hayley and Sophia have already been captured by you, if I return unscathed their factions would probably suspect that I had killed them, I might as well surrender to you! You’re not a male anyways, there isn’t anything to lose by surrendering myself to you.”

“Are you really so confident? Aren’t you scared that I might sell you off?”

“Would you be willing to do so? Oh, strong existence of darkness, I trust that you wouldn’t mind gaining another worshipper!”

Daisy wasn’t only cunning, but also quite the temptress. That was Bella’s first impression of the 4th holy maiden, Daisy had evidently thought that Bella was a dark existence from another place. The Salo faction had always had connections with various different dark powers secretly and Daisy’s actions were staying true to the nature of the Salo faction, making deals with dark existences and borrowing their power for the Salo faction’s use.

“If I said that what I wanted was you, would you be willing?”

“Eh, what do you want me for, can’t you choose…”

“Non negotiable, I like such seductive girls like you. Aren’t you the Salo faction’s holy maiden? Shouldn’t you make a deal with me to obtain more power?”

“But you’re a girl! This…”

“Is there anything wrong with me being a girl? Is it that there is someone on your heart? Tell me, I’ll send my subordinates to kill… congratulate him.”

“What do you want to know, I can give you any intel that you want, what you’re asking is…”

Bella was secretly a little satisfied as she watched Daisy fall into panic, did this little temptress really think that Bella couldn’t do anything to her? If it wasn’t because the time wasn’t right, Bella would have hauled Daisy back to the Dark Sanctum and ‘eaten’ her already. Now, Bella had already seen the nude bodies of 4 of the Church of Light’s holy maidens, living the life of a light novel MC.

The Dark Sanctuary did, however, lacked a suitable cleric, although the Dark Sanctuary’s evil beings didn’t, Bella’s adventuring party did. Lisha’s party had a cleric, and even though it was a male, Bella was still rather envious of Lisha for having a cleric in her party.

Naturally, Bella would only choose a beauty to become her cleric and the Church of Light’s holy maidens were well suited candidates, it would a waste to let them spend the rest of their life worshipping the most likely long-dead god of light. Daisy had not yet noticed what what Bella was doing behind her back as she was trying to make Bella change her mind by telling her whatever valuable information that she had.

___

In the town of Sakerid, the once densely populated central area had been reduced to rubble, but not a single zombie dared to come near. At the center of all the rubble, a young woman was half kneeled on the ground. She was clad in a dark red armour and on her back were 6 pairs of dark coloured feathered wings manifested from dark energy. As the wings flowed behind her, the occasional shadowy feather would drop to the ground slowly.

In front of this beautiful girl was a humanoid being impaled through the chest by a pitch black longsword, evidently dead. While it looked like a human from a distance, it was quite terrifying up close due to how distorted it’s facial features were. Much scarier than most of the zombies that were wandering the streets of Sakerid.

“Where are those dumb subordinates of mine, what’s taking Malthus and Heklis so long to bring back some human sacrifices. This dimension sure is a hellhole, not even counting the unknown state of it’s Creator, this dimension simply has too many different forced here. I can understand there being Saviours and Troublemakers but why are there even Betrayed in this dimension!? Where is Samantha-nee, I had just felt her aura a while ago, but it’s gone now?!”

A dark trickle of blood flowed out of the corner of 【Tenebrous Demon God], Bloomfield Elise’s mouth, the numerous splatters of dark red blood scattered around probably belonged to her as well. In her fight against the humanoid monstrosity she had suffered quite a few wounds herself. She forced herself to her feet and slowly brought herself beside the fallen monstrosity.

The Betrayed were all once Saviours, who as transmigrated, were summoned by a dimension’s Creator to defeat whatever evil was plaguing their dimension. After doing so, the Saviour could choose to spend the rest of their life in the world that they had been summoned to, and then be reincarnated back in the world from which they had been summoned from.

Even if a Saviour was to die at the hand of a World breaker, their soul would be sent back to whatever world they came from to be reincarnated, and the dimension’s Creator would select a new Saviour from the transmigrators in their dimension. However, if a Saviour was to die at the hands of another Saviour, for whatever reason, their soul would no longer be able to return to their original world and be trapped instead. Becoming a terrifying monster known as a Betrayed after a sufficient period of time.

The thing in front of Elise right now was one of those monsters, Elise didn’t know what he was like before his death, but she did know that he had not died at the hands of the Worldbreakers nor the Troublemakers, but one of his Saviour peers. Seeing the Betrayed’s finger twitch slightly, Elise felt her headache returning, for this meant that the Betrayed was about to resurrect once more.

Worldbreakers weren’t normally able to kill Betrayeds, for there were too many similar powers and abilities between them, meaning that most Worldbreakers lacked the ability to instantly kill a Betrayed, which would keep resurrecting. The only Worldbreakers who could kill a Betrayed, their Chief, was currently stranded on the Alfred continent and unable to come to Elise’s help. Elise was quite displeased, this Betrayed was something created by the Saviours themselves, why was she, a Worldbreaker, the one that had to clean up this mess?!

Elise had initially not planned to intervene, but was forced to after obtaining a strange vial from the Betrayed, whatever the vial contained was probably the culprit behind the outbreak in Sakerid. There was also a couple drops of a dark green coloured blood on the vial, meaning that this particular Betrayed had probably attacked the vial’s original owner and had taken it from her.

Which meant that this Betrayed no longer cared about what faction its victims belonged to, and fallen to the state of attacking whoever was in sight. Most Betrayeds would only attack Saviours but something like this might happen if they were left undealt with for too long. Meaning that if Elise left this monstrosity alone, it would definitely pose a threat to her older sister, Samantha, forcing Elise’s hand. Elise had taken advantage of the fact that this Betrayed had just fought off a Troublemaker earlier, or else she would have been in much worse condition herself.