NOVEL SIMPLE Chapter 89: Eclipse of Faith
CG Chapter 89: Eclipse of Faith
After meeting with the noble households under Flameheart, Tom received news that the seven churches had announced that he was a demon from hell and that he came to this world to blaspheme the gods.
Additionally, they decreed that he was the common enemy of all faithful followers of the seven gods.
This proclamation caused Tom's shining reputation in Sollaria to plummet from its peak.
When he received this news, Tom was not surprised. He had already expected them to spread even filthier lies about him. Instead of getting angry, he smiled and continued issuing orders.
In the days following the gathering, the hidden agents who had lain dormant in the seven kingdoms received instructions from Alamut.
These agents were placed near the most important parts of the seven kingdoms. They were spies with the sole purpose of acting only under order from the highest-ranking authority.
Some of these assassins even went as far as building loving families to hide their identities. Despite that, their loyalty to Alamut remained just as strong as the day they were chosen.
Now these assassins would finally get a chance to act after so long. Each cell was tasked with killing the popes of their respective churches. However, the death of the popes alone wouldn't be enough to affect the faith of the people. But what if their deaths were planned by the devil himself?
In Daybreak, specifically within the closest capital to the sun, Fotia, the pope, and his family were imprisoned in four iron maidens. But these weren't ordinary iron maidens; instead of spikes, they were lined with magnifying glasses that would concentrate even the slightest hint of light into a blazing heat of divine punishment, burning anyone under it.
At first, the citizens didn't think much of the maidens in the middle of the town square. Their initial thought was that the city had placed a new art piece. But only when the sun rose, and the sedated pope and his family awoke due to the burning heat and with their muffled screams and wails of pain spread, did the people realize that something was wrong.
By the time they managed to open the now scalding maidens, the people were horrified by the sight before them.
In the middle of the capital of the sun, the beloved pope, along with his two young children and wife, were all rescued--but this rescue was more of a curse than a blessing.
The twin boy and girl of the pope, the darlings of Fotia, were now unrecognizable. Their beautiful golden hair was gone, and their once pearly skin--seen as a blessing from Solarus--had turned ashen, with cracks filling it.
Tears fell from the eyes of a few, but the majority simply began to puke at the sight.
For a few minutes, the large crowd stayed silent. They listened to the final wailing of pain from the pope and his children. Yet, they didn't even dare to interfere and spare them from their suffering fearing that they might be implicated.
Like an orchestrated master plan, the death of the pope of Daybreak was just the start of a long series of deaths that followed. These deaths shocked the seven kingdoms and sank the world into a new age of darkness.
One after another, within their own home grounds, the popes died--each in a worse way than the one before them.
The consequences of the popes' deaths caused massive damage to the cohesion of the people.
When a couple of fishermen discovered the corpse of the pope of Aeolantis, drowned and showing signs of having been eaten alive by fish, many sailors refused to step foot on their boats.
Who could blame them? The goddess of the sea, to whom they offered most of their earnings, couldn't even protect her closest servant on her land. If she couldn't save the pope, what hope did they have? What if they, too, were to die alone in the middle of the sea, with no one left to care for their families?
The royal families and churches, of course, didn't stand watching without doing anything.
A holy message spread, declaring that anyone who ceased their duties at this critical time would be punished and marked as heretics. And if there was one thing the churches were good at, it was hunting heretics.
On the surface, the decision seemed wise; once the enemy was found and brought to justice, the fear of the masses would quickly disappear, and everything would return to normal. Unfortunately, they were not dealing with an ordinary foe.
Soon after, a new faith emerged seemingly out of nowhere. Edward Von Flameheart, previously declared as a demon, announced to the world that the churches had been lying all along. He proclaimed himself as the first apostle of the Eternal Flames, sent to liberate them from the tyranny of the gods.
He declared that the deaths of the popes were divine punishment from the Eternal Flame for those who dared to worship false deities.
With that, rumors of the churches' dark history spread throughout the seven kingdoms.
Tales of how the churches spread disease to sell holy water, stories of how they used peasants as sacrifices, and even claiming that famine was caused by the churches to spread fear, thus increasing the tributes they would receive in the following year.
Some of these rumors were true, and others were fabricated by Tom. But he didn't care if they were true or not, as long as they caused people to lose faith.
When he first heard that he was now branded as a demon in the eyes of the world, he did not refute it. He knew that simply trying to gain the favor of the masses would not lead him anywhere; he needed something more--something that would shake the very foundations of the people's belief in the gods.
He needed something so influential, something that would muddy the waters even more, redirecting the people's hatred toward the gods and royal families.
Only a greater enemy can take the place of a lesser one.
From within Alamut, Tom grinned with a devilish smile after reading the reports.
"The holy is fiendish, and the fiendish is holy."