Chapter 433: The Change and The Plan

In the Radiance Church in Holm.

Awoken from their prayers, Philibell, Vaharall, and Stone were staring at the night sky, which was dominated by the holy light and the projection of Mountain Paradise, with a blank expression.

"God's Arrival... The pope used God's Arrival!"

"The new star was made by the heresies? ... No, it was made by the vicious sorcerers!"

"But the made star could move around this world like a real one... No wonder the pope had to use God's Arrival..."

The looks on their face were complicated. There was awe, admiration, joy, confusion, and anger.

Ever since the scarlet moon incident, the focus of the South Church shifted again. Now, they were focused on exploring the unknown dimension and the solidified shadows of black, white, and grey. Therefore, Varantine, the leader of the Ascetics, had returned to Lance, and soon Vaharall would be back as well. Only Stone would be left to lead the Knights of Grail in Rentato to help Philibell and the four parishes in Brianne, the Duchy of Calais, Colette, and the North Coast to guard against the Congress of Magic.

The great war plan against the Congress of Magic that they had been preparing for almost two years was thus halted. Now the Church was taking a strategic defence position.

To the Saint Truth Church, nothing was more important than finding the fallen Alterna and the mysterious existence.

Besides, they believed that the Congress of Magic had shifted their focus as well and would not have much time to work against them either.

"The glory of God is everywhere. Please show mercy to the mundane, and save them." prayed Philibell in low voice.

Vaharall drew a cross in front of his chest and said sincerely, "The pope is the true spokesman of God. He is beyond decisive. If it had been me, I would have spent hours hesitating. In that case, more people would have seen the vicious symbol in the sky, and their faith would have been affected."

Although the pope could not use God's Arrival anymore within five years, he was still the most powerful man in this world, surpassing all the legendaries, and his presence was threatening enough for all the enemies. However, the fact that the most powerful divine spell could no longer be used again in five years would definitely be a temptation for many, which would have a very negative impact on their search of Alterna. Therefore, in Vaharall's eyes, this was a tough decision.

However, now, under the frightening holy power, the vicious symbol had turned into ashes. Even if the Congress tried to show off their achievement, it would only become a joke. Any attempt into the realm of God would face the fury from God. Only the Gold of Truth could create this world and the other planets, and even if others could make similar things, they would not exist for long.

"That thing's dangerous. The sooner it is destroyed, the better it is." Stone, the divine knight, nodded. He felt extremely uncomfortable when he thought of the fact that an artificial planet made by sorcerers was looking down upon them from the sky.

Although, there was no such concept called air supremacy in this world yet, anyone who could fly understood how important this ability was to a fight. Except when fighting indoors, based on the ability to fly, a radiant knight could easily attrit more than ten grand knights to death even if he was seriously injured, as the grand knights had no methods to strike long-range.

Therefore, a planet made by sorcerers would be a nightmare to the Church if it had been equipped with all the methods for surveillance and striking.

After the prayers, Philibell looked as if he had aged a bit. With a slightly exhausted blank expression, he said, "the Congress of Magic chose to reveal the artificial planet on purpose, or we wouldn't be able to find it out this soon. If the artificial planets become more advanced in the future... say, if they will be equipped with Invisibility, Deflect, or even Space Jump magic circles, we would be in great trouble.

"We have to improve some of the divine spells. Besides God's Arrival, we have to have other powerful spells for extra long distance attack.

"... Also, we have to have new divine spells and items that can detect artificial planets, so we can turn on the defense divine circles in time.

"If possible, we need to steal the information from the Congress of Magic to see what are their plans for the artificial planets, so that we can make similar products. An artificial planet will be the best self-defense weapon against other artificial planet... That's for sure.

"We have to set up space jump circles near-orbit, through which the saint cardinals and divine knights can reach the target in the shortest period of time without extra preparation.

"... Find the leading sorcerer of the artificial planet plan. If we can, we cleanse them. I don't think it's very possible though... Only a legendary sorcerer could carry out such a plan."

Philibell's many suggestions made Stone slightly frown. Obviously, the strategies they were taking now were completely different from those adopted before.

......

Under the pure divine light, Duke Paphos' villa was as bright as a crystal palace. Inside it behind the big windows stood James and Russel, the Duke of Wolfburg.

"The power of God is so broad and vast that it's impossible to resist." The bareheaded James released a long sigh as he watched the holy sea of light slowly retreating.

Holding a glass of wine, Russel slightly lowered his head and gazed at the red liquid inside, as if he dared not to directly look at the projection of Mountain Paradise,

"Since the establishment of the Church, God's Arrival have been used for only eight times. Among the eight times, six witnessed the falling of one of the most powerful existences in this world:

"The Light of Stars - the last consul of the Magic Empire; the Lord of Death; Abel - the vampire prince; Aflora - the ancient dragon of Time; the fiend of the Church of Sun; and the "goddess" Mother Earth. Only Alterna and Maltimus, the Lord of Hell, survived so far.

"It's hard to believe that the pope just used it, facing this new star..."

"Maybe it's not a real star..." As the leader of the Liberals, James knew more about the Congress of Magic than Russel. Although he was not certain about it, he was told that Douglas was working on something big.

Ross was very surprised, "What do you mean?"

"Maybe... Just maybe... It is an artificial planet made by Douglas. I hope he was not killed by God's Arrival..." said James, slightly excited and worried at the same time.

If the president had fallen, it would have been a fatal strike to the Congress of Magic. Although the many powerful grand arcanists would not let the Congress collapse, the inner conflicts between the grand arcanists and legendary sorcerers would be very hard for the Lord of Storm and the Hand of Annihilation to control. Thus, the Congress would start falling into decay day by day without a doubt, which was, of course, no good news to the Liberals.

"Ar-Artificial planet?" Russel was startled. Unlike building a demiplane, making a planet meant a new world had been built! — According to Douglas, the main material world was just a larger planet.

The shades on James's face fluctuated under the candlelight. "That's true. The Congress of Magic is even more powerful than we expected, and also more dangerous. Maybe in the future we'll be collaborating with a 'God'..."

"Only Truth lives forever..." Russel, who still had a small amount of faith remaining, drew a cross in front of his chest.

......

On the thirty-third floor of the Allyn magic tower.

"Sir... the pope used ... God's Arrival?!" Luciana exclaimed unbelievably. Every sorcerer knew how horrible the power of God's Arrival was. Luciana wondered if her teacher Douglas had reached the level of Alterna, the God of Silver Moon?

Douglas grinned and waved his hand. "The pope's target was Antiffler No. 1. He had no idea that it was me who launched it and brought the initial velocity, so I was out of the range and only experienced it from nearby, or I would not be able to come back."

Mentioning this, Douglas did not feel depressed or scared at all. Now he knew the power of God's Arrival and saw how it worked by observing it from a close distance, it would benefit him a lot in the future.

"I'll write to you all to share this experience when I've finished digesting it," said Douglas to Fernando, Lucien, Artil, and the others.

Except for teaching and sharing his experience, he also planned to write the letters to express his appreciation — Without the help of the Lord of Storm and the Prophet, Douglas would not have been able to make the artificial planet within such a short period of time; without Lucien, the plan would have never even existed.

Lucien thanked Douglas, while feeling a bit melancholy in his mind. Was this the end of the first artificial planet project? It started so fast and ended so fast. Several hours earlier, Lucien, who was very excited and in the spirit of acting, was about to name this project the Star Wars Project.

"Sir, the project is a success! Your theory has been proved! No one can doubt you anymore!" said Artil very excitedly, his lips slightly trembling.

Although Douglas's theoretical system had been planted into every arcanist's heart, there was still criticism. The criticism had become particularly loud when Douglas' experiments based on this system proved that the velocity of light did not change in different directions, that ether did not exist, and that the wave theory of light was rather problematic.

Norman and Luciana were the same excited. The artificial planet had strongly backed Douglas's theoretical system.

"It's just the first step. Antiffler No. 1 was destroyed by God's Arrival before it could finish a complete revolution around the world. Next, we'll have Antiffler No. 2... Of course, it's gonna be done in a very secretive way." Douglas answered smiling. Although he was being very humble, his tone now contained more confidence.

Mentioning this, he became a bit emotional. "My theoretical system has been proved, but this has brought me more questions and make me feel even more in awe of the unknown truth: How did the gravity system come into shape at the very beginning? Why did it happen?"

Here he goes again... Fernando's mouth twitched a bit.

Seizing the chance, Lucien hurriedly said to the grand arcanists, "Mr. President, teacher, Mr. Prophet, I've tested the signal from Antiffler No. 1, and it was very clear! If we put a magic circle for transmitting signals in an artificial planet, we could significantly enlarge the coverage range of Electromagnetic Message. After all, signal transmission is much easier in the sky than on the ground. If that's the case, we will be talk to the Dark Mountain Range when we are still in Allyn. That's even more convenient than Space Jump!

"Also, we have to consider the functions of surveillance, locating, and attacking. We need different kinds of artificial planets!"

Douglas smiled and nodded. "Very interesting suggestion. Better communication will for sure bring a great revolution to society. However, the cost is still too high. The alchemical products needed should be of at least the fifth circle. Only senior-rank sorcerers could possibly be able to use them. I'm afraid that we cannot popularize it so far."

Under the influence of Jinkela, the word, popularization, was being mentioned more and more often by sorcerers.

"I do have a package plan for this!" Lucien was already prepared.

Lucien was not able to launch a satellite himself, so he had to try his best to cooperate with the president and Fernando.

Fernando chuckled briefly. He knew that his student was already preparing for this when he proposed the artificial planet project.