247 Chapter 58: The Treasury_2
"The new Sacred Fire is different from the original; it's not a flame primarily for Guardianship, so it only intimidates those creatures with great powers who are sensitive to their surroundings, but that's enough."
"We are not just priests who communicate with the deity; more than that, we are Guards, commanded by the creator before he left, to protect the Sacred Fire. Aside from us, no one knows that the Sacred Fire will never extinguish, nor can it be moved. Because of our existence, humans can live in peace. Isn't that enough?"
The assembly fell silent as the priests pondered in quiet reflection and then nodded in agreement. Watching this, Momon smiled contentedly.
What he had actually avoided mentioning was the most critical point: if a real god were to come forth, their lies would at any time be exposed, just as their small tricks during sacrificial rituals had been before. However, not long ago, after drinking that bottle of blood stored for many years, Momon had seen that mysterious figure again.
From him, Momon learned many things, such as the creator would not return, the gods would not let humans go either, and the conditions that the mysterious person promised him.
If it had been decades earlier, he would have flatly refused; if it were before Ossen's death and Prometheus's departure, he would have hesitated. But now, with no way out, Momon readily agreed.
Whether what the mysterious person said was true or not, there was one thing Momon firmly believed: the Divine King would not let humans off easily.
If he had killed all the priests before to vent his rage, it might have ended there. But since all these accomplices were alive and well, how could the Divine King possibly quell his fury?
The only possibility was that he was waiting for a once-and-for-all opportunity.
Seeing himself as an 'important figure' among humans, Momon understood this mindset very well. Without jeopardizing their core interests, making everything appear 'justified' was what they liked to do best.
So now, since the gods were unreliable, Momon simply gave up on them. Following the mysterious person's instructions, he would ensure the tribes of humans continued to live in tranquility until the day the gods decided to cause their destruction. After all, if humans died too prematurely in large numbers, it would also affect that mysterious person's 'profits.'
"The fate of Bronze Humanity is in our hands."
With a gleam in his eyes, Momon felt better than he ever had.
...
From that day on, a tremendous change occurred within Bronze Humanity.
The Sacred Fire was brought to various towns, and the exotic beasts that had drawn close to human settlements due to the dissipation of divine aura now receded. Bearers of the Sacred Fire proclaimed the changes in Aurora, and then those priests, with craftsmen who were closely associated and had passed on skills at their forefront, established a new ruling system.
From then on, in the human society without the creator, class distinctions were no longer only spiritual but also material.
There were those who voiced their dissatisfaction, but soon enough, one of them died at the jaws of a wild animal during an outing. Without weapons forged by skilled craftsmen, humans could not overpower wild beasts with bare hands, and quickly, peace was restored.
But peace was only superficial, for as humans lost divine blessings, it might not seem apparent now with past accumulations, but soon, due to decreased grain production and the casualty of livestock during grazing, the overall harvest for humans would significantly decline, and an era where no one worried about living materials would become a thing of the past.
By then, even food would become one of the many challenging issues to resolve.
Interestingly enough, as the narrative of 'Divine retribution against humans' spread rapidly, certain beings who started paying attention to humans because of their Deceit towards the deity suddenly realized that while some people's Faith had weakened, many others had become more devout.
This epiphany made them acknowledge their previous understanding of Faith had been too shallow. Gods and humans differ; gods typically face threats from other gods, but to humans, the world itself is dangerous. In this context, they began to harbor different thoughts.