Lu Chen stood straight in the center of the rostrum, silently watching the noisy crowd in the prayer hall. His demeanor was so calm, as if this enthusiastic scene had nothing to do with him.

Cromwell was alone, and he felt like he saw the changing light in the eyes of the Divine Envoy.

The applause of the crowd lasted for more than a minute, and then slowly stopped. Without waiting for the echoes in the minaret to dissipate, Lu Chen spoke again and continued:

"I know that you have doubts about what I say, and I know that His Majesty the Pope must be having the same problem now......"

He lowered his head slightly, smiled at the dead-faced Pope, and then looked back at the audience:

"Your question is, on what basis do we need to achieve what I call 'victory'?

The people looked at the Divine Envoy earnestly, and there was a glint of doubt in their eyes.

"Admittedly, the state of the church today is not promising. Lu Chen said lightly, "If the religious decrees issued by the parliament over the past few decades are just the shackles that the politicians have tried to put on our heads, then the step-by-step coercion of the Wehrmacht after the introduction of the "June Act" is completely a sharp guillotine hanging over our heads. However, my dear brothers, I must remind you of an important fact, and that is that the Parliament and the Wehrmacht, the Restraint Orders and the Besiegers, all of which are but the most insignificant of all our enemies.

"Then you will ask me, who is our real enemy, and what is it that has brought the church into this embarrassing situation? Now, I will give you an answer: there has always been only one of our real enemies, and that is the fear in our own hearts!"

Lu Chen paused for five seconds, swept his gaze over the people on the rostrum, and then raised his head again:

"The church is in the quagmire of today because we were so weak in the past that the intense fear of the future has clouded our minds. It is under the domination of our fear of industrial progress, of the renewal of institutions, of the coming era of change, that we retreat in the face of the provocations of Parliament, and little by little relinquish the sacred rights inherent in us from time immemorial, and finally make the formerly mighty Church vulnerable. This stupid and ridiculous act, from the dissolution of the Crusaders to the renunciation of missionary rights, is a literal self-castration that has been driven by fear for nearly thirty years!

"Brothers, it is unfortunate that no one in the last few decades has been aware of the absurdity and danger of this fear, and it is even more unfortunate that this fear has deepened day by day, and finally led us to witness its peak just now—I can hardly imagine how the leader of a church, driven by such a strong fear, and under what a strange state of mind, could make the cowardly proposition of surrendering the crowd when the overall situation is still uncertain and there is still life!"

As soon as these words came out, almost everyone's eyes were on His Holiness the Pope.

In the history of the Church, the actual status of the oracle has been lower than that of the Pope, but today, as the oracle, Lord Eliot Savile openly accuses the Pope of his mistakes in his speech, and the words are still so harsh!

- This is a strange story that has never been seen before!

Pope Gregory XV's face had turned pale. Bearing everyone's perhaps unkind gaze, his lips trembled a little. He looked up at the Divine Envoy as if asking for help, but only got Lu Chen's cold and stern gaze.

Lu Chen soon stopped paying attention to the Pope's expression. For him, the old man in the grave was useless at the moment, and the most important thing now was to complete his speech, so that he could give back to all the members of the church the courage that they had lost for so many years—

"Yes, I can assure everyone here," Lu Chen pressed his hands on the table and said calmly, "Our battle is not over yet, and there is still bright hope for our future." Most of the people sitting in this prayer hall have been blinded by fear, so that you cannot see the great advantage that the Church still holds in its hands.

"Yes, contrary to what you are used to, our church actually has an advantage. The Central Cathedral has been besieged by the Wehrmacht for four months, but that doesn't mean our end has come, much less that you can embrace despair. First of all, the customary law of the empire clearly stipulated that no secular army should invade religious places, which completely deprived the Wehrmacht of the initiative to storm churches – we can assume that we are in a position of absolute security until the long and cumbersome legislative process is finally completed and the customary law is amended.

Outside the central cathedral, outside the imperial capital, the organization of the Holy Church in the various imperial dioceses remained intact - although also restricted by decree, the branch churches in the major autonomous territories were still able to circumvent the repression of the parliament to a certain extent, and even to maintain their respective religious armies. Brothers, the branch churches across the empire will be our formidable reinforcements, and although we have temporarily lost contact with our brothers in these branch churches, I know that they are still ready and ready to come to the rescue of our central hub of the Holy Church!

"Let's see what's in this central cathedral. We have endured a difficult siege of four months, but it is not as His Holiness the Pope has deliberately rendered, that our underground warehouses still contain enough supplies to support the next four months of daily life, and in the underground arsenals there are still countless legendary treasures from antiquity, the quality of which far exceeds the standard equipment of the Wehrmacht, and we still maintain two strong armies, the Guards and the Paladins, who I believe have proven their superior strength in the morning jousting and can be ten in the face of the Wehrmacht！”

The guards sitting in the minaret responded with a bang. They waved their fists, tapped their plates with knives and forks, and shouted "One for ten!" and "One for ten!", warmly repaying the trust placed in them by the Divine Envoy.

As for the paladins, they maintained a calm posture and did not make any special moves, but Lu Chen believed that he saw the burning flame of revenge in the eyes of this group of professional martial artists.

"The most important thing," Lu Chen said loudly, leaning forward slightly with excitement, "there are still hundreds of faithful clergy and believers in this central cathedral, willing to sacrifice their lives for the glory of the Holy Spirit at all times! My dear clergy brothers, you are the most precious treasure in this church, the strongest army in the empire, and the greatest reliance on our victory! Even though history has forgotten the glorious past of the church, I still remember the old saying, "Where the priests are, there is the glory of the Holy Spirit!"

Countless black-clad priests, panting for air, rose from their seats. The constraints of religious rituals did not allow them to express their emotions too violently, so the clergy silently raised their right hands to show their support to the oracle.

A whole piece of arms raised high, like a spear battle array made of flesh and blood, murderous, like gold and iron.

"So, the battle that belongs to us is far from over!" Lu Chen formed a fist with his right hand, slammed the rostrum, and roared loudly, "We will fight in the church, we will fight in the council, we will fight in the city, we will fight in the fields, we will fight with holy arts, we will fight with swords, but we will definitely not surrender!"

"Our battle will continue—perhaps one day, this central cathedral will fall, and perhaps one day, the major branches of the empire will be dissolved, but even until that moment, we will still have a full thirty million devout congregations among the people, ready to defeat the enemy under the guidance of the Holy Spirit! The Holy Church will never surrender: she may be divided, she may collapse, she may be completely shattered, but she will not surrender alone— Because even if the worst happens, one day, she will return like lightning with the blessing of the Holy Spirit!"