The study was quiet for a few seconds, Ophelia seemed to be sorting out his thoughts, and Gawain was digesting the information provided by the other party, and after a while, he broke the silence: "Is it just because of these two sentences that you started the disobedience plan?" ”

Without waiting for Ophelia to answer, he added, "I thought of a possibility - is it possible that because the knowledge and essence of the gods are too beyond human perception and beyond the processing power of the human brain, any action close to the gods itself will lead to madness, and it has nothing to do with whether the gods themselves are really malicious or not. Could the dead explorers and half-insane returnees see only knowledge that led to human madness, rather than the gods themselves? ”

These words may sound like a justification for the gods, but Gawain knows that Ophelia will understand what he means - he is not a believer in God, and he does not have any innate affection for God, but out of rigorous consideration, he must say all the possibilities that come to his mind, and Ophelia, as a researcher of ancient empires, this rigorous spirit should also be her professional ethics.

Ophelia's reaction was not what Gawain expected: "It's a possibility, and we thought about it at the beginning—so we did a series of verifications and more investigations, but the more we delved into the knowledge of the gods, the more disturbing the looming truth became.

"In the process of excavating ancient ruins, we found some fragments of civilizations that had been lucky enough to carry the tide of demons, and their demise was sudden, without warning, and ushered in extinction in the most prosperous and socially stable conditions, which allowed us to rule out almost all possibilities except the 'destruction of the gods'.

"We've come into contact with some ancient races, including the Krakens and Dragons you know, as well as some of the Ancient Lords of the Elemental World—the Ancient Empire and the inhabitants of the Elemental World are closely related, and the powerful creatures of the Elemental World are not affected by the Demon Tide. In the words of those ancient races, we find that the destruction of ancient civilizations usually occurred during a period of major changes in their belief systems.

"Among some of the rarest archaeological harvests, we have also excavated some written records on the eve of the fall of ancient civilizations, which occasionally mention words such as 'God does not allow', 'Mortals have crossed the line', 'God has come, and the end is coming', which seems to be the words left by a few people in ancient civilizations who were aware of the changes of the gods in advance, but those 'prophets' could not save the situation."

Listening to Ophelia's narration one by one, Gawain nodded slightly.

The rebels did not start that huge plan out of impulse - they discovered the increasingly desperate truth in the process of further investigation, and the dark future left these "apostates" with no choice but to secretly start their plans against the gods.

"Maybe we still can't be completely sure of the truth of the 'Destruction of the Gods', but the tide of magic is coming, the shadow of the gods is approaching, even if there is only a 1% chance of the end of the world, we must be 100% prepared - maybe all our efforts will prove to be a joke in the end, but if it does happen, we must always come up with some means of resistance," Ophelia said in a deep voice, "People who live in a peaceful and stable environment may not understand such extreme behavior, but you, as a pioneer, It should be understood. ”

"Humans are suspicious and timid creatures," Gawain sighed, "that's why we always have to arm ourselves." ”

"This suspicion and timidity ensure the survival of our race."

Gawain adjusted his sitting posture and looked into Ophelia's eyes: "You just mentioned that you found that the destruction of those ancient civilizations usually occurred at a stage of major changes in their belief systems, what exactly does this mean?" ”

"In short, their temples were rapidly dwindling, and all the churches were shrinking dramatically at almost the same time."

"Apothesized the faith, so it angered God?" Gawain frowned, and suddenly his heart moved, "Then the current reform of the Holy Light Church ......"

"That's exactly what I'm going to say," Ophelia began, and in her always breezy and gentle smile, mask-like face, Gawain saw a rare zeal, a sincere expression, "The reforms we have made in the Church of Light have not caused the 'revitalization' of the God of Light. ”

Activation—Gawain noticed Ophelia's words at the moment.

Then he asked, "Do you mean that the Southern teachings that preach things like 'the light of the light is in the heart,' 'morality and justice take precedence over dogma,' and 'freedom of belief for all' do not cause any bad reactions from the god of light?" ”

Ophelia smiled: "People are still chasing the Light, and with the Creed of the core elements of the Light, namely protection, exorcism, justice, and light, our temple has not decreased, and the size of the church has not shrunk, although we have replaced many of its things, but ...... The Church of Light is still the Church of Light, isn't it? ”

Gawain looked at Ophelia, who was smiling, but suddenly thought of the many obvious actions of the Holy Light Church in the past few years, as well as "Veronica? Moen's role in the church, the role of the Holy Princess, is a lot of things that were not related to each other at the beginning, but now they are connected little by little—

The Holy Light Church's rejection of heresy has promoted the rapid development of the church, but it has also led to the emergence of a large number of low-quality and badly behaved grassroots clergy. The reform of divine arts lowered the threshold for the use of holy light divine arts, expanded the scale of the priesthood, but also allowed those clergy of mixed quality to use the same divine arts, shaking the faith of a large number of originally devout ascetic monks; Classical interpretations and moral struggles led to a split in the lower and middle classes of the church, and progressive clerics like Wright and Severn arose in this context......

These seem to be natural changes in the degeneration and decay of the church after its heyday, and the division of power within it, but ...... What if there was a pair of scrutinizing eyes from researchers behind these "natural changes"?

Suppose it's all about testing something, like ...... What about testing the "laws of operation" of the gods and the "personality boundaries" of the gods?

No wonder Ophelia would be so active in cooperating with Wright's reforms and supporting Cecil's New Deal – how could a researcher make a decision so easily without enough experimental data?!

Ophelia just smiled quietly and looked at Gawain, "What are you thinking?" ”

"These are the 'research results' you got in the Church of Light, right?"

"If there is no harvest, why should a disobedient stay dormant in the enemy's church for so long?"

Gawain's gaze spun around, and involuntarily fell on the platinum scepter in Ophelia's hand—the platinum scepter had been in her hand since the fall of the previous pope, and she didn't hand it over even when Wright, the archpatriarch, took over the Northern Church.

This scepter was originally held by the Pope, and it is said to have the function of communicating the kingdom of God and listening to oracles, representing a bridge between God and man, but due to the restructuring of the church and the reorganization of all the upper priests, the issue of this scepter has been put behind people's minds intentionally or unintentionally, but looking at it at the moment, thinking of Ophelia's words that the God of Light was not "activated" just now, Gawain vaguely guessed one thing.

"Are you monitoring the state of the God of Light? Through this scepter? ”

"Any experimental project needs to be closely monitored and recorded," Ophelia raised the scepter in her hand slightly, "This is the attitude that researchers must have. ”

Looking at the platinum scepter in the other party's hand, Gawain suddenly couldn't help but have an idea - should he try it himself?

This thing seems to be able to establish a certain connection with the kingdom of God, and if used properly, it can even be used to monitor the gods, and most ordinary people will be directly brainwashed into devout believers if they touch it, but he himself is a satellite spirit who has grown into essence for hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, and he has a great resistance to similar brainwashing - the experience of touching the Eternal Stone Tablet at the beginning proves this, so now touch the platinum scepter...... It should be all right, right?

Could it be the same as touching the Eternal Slate, where others hear an oracle, but they hear another message from the Superfleet, or even ...... Something more unexpected?

At this moment, Gawain's curiosity was suddenly ignited, and it burned uncontrollably.

He was even mentally prepared to die on the spot if he did not operate properly.

But at the last moment, he still stopped his curiosity, because he realized a huge hidden danger - the eternal tablet is dead, but the current god of light is alive......

Although the god may have been killed once in antiquity, he is now most likely resurrected.

Touching the platinum scepter by yourself will not stimulate the god of light? What Ophelia and Wright are doing now can be said to be "stealing divine power", and the most important thing is not to stimulate that god, if their own slap wakes up the god of holy light, the other party opens his eyes and looks at the world - what about my church? What about my big church?

The disobedient man's thousand years of hard work and his own achievements so far are finished.

After forcibly controlling his impulse, Gawain coughed twice to hide his embarrassment, looked at Ophelia and said, "If the reform of the Holy Light Church is successful, and we successfully block the 'Earthly Bridge' without attracting the attention of the gods, what are you going to do next?" ”

Ophelia calmly met Gawain's gaze: "Take this as an experience to transform all the faiths in the world." ”

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

"Will the gods really wait to be blocked by us? Although our current transformation of the Church of Light has not yet led to the activation of the God of Light, when the day comes to sever the connection between all the gods and the mortal world, will the gods still not be able to react? ”

Ophelia nodded slightly: "There are rules to follow in the operation of the gods, although the conjecture of the 'answering machine' put forward by a few scholars in the Gondor era is not entirely correct, but it is indeed close to part of the truth, so as long as we grasp this law, we can bypass the sight of the gods in relative safety and complete the replacement and transformation of faith."

"Secondly, according to our research results, although the power of the gods does not come entirely from mortal beliefs, the transfer of mortal beliefs will indeed greatly weaken them, and if the 'faith benchmark' of the mortal world is lost, the gods will face great obstacles and losses if they want to come to the world, while on the other hand, mortals will become powerful due to the recapture of the power of divine magic, and the gods will not be impossible for us to fight against at that time......"

The words she said later were not spoken, but the subtext was already obvious:

When the day came, the gods who came to the world...... It's an evil beast that has invaded the mortal world from another world.

The Church of the World will fight back and defend the demons in the name of faith.

This is the plan of the disobedients, but it is still not the whole of their plan, but only the tip of it.

This corner alone is already terrifying.

But Gawain still thinks that there is something wrong with this plan, there are too many variables beyond control, and even if everything goes smoothly, it will not usher in the best results.

It's just that at least at this stage, it is still necessary to carry out this plan - the transformation of the Holy Light Church is inevitable, whether it is for the sake of social stability or the development of the new empire, he must ensure that this sect with the largest influence in the country and the most widespread believers abides by the laws and regulations of the "theocratic monarchy".

After talking a little more about the details of the disobedience plan and the church reform, Gawain exhaled slowly.

"That's it for today, that's all for the disobedience plan," he leaned back in his chair, "I'm going to put this information through and if there's anything else that comes to mind, or if there's anything else you think needs to be told to me, we'll move on." ”

"As you wish," Ophelia chuckled, "but before I leave, I have one more thing. ”

"Oh? You said. ”

"It's a previous topic, about church reform," Ophelia said, "and the women clergy in the church are in a ...... situation right now Embarrassed. ”