Regardless of the form of religious system, when faith has developed to a certain extent, it is easy to develop a strong tendency to worship the personality of a certain or certain religious idols within the religion.

In the Cult of Solan, the Pope and the Holy Maiden are undoubtedly the two most influential religious icons, and in addition to these two, the most authoritative in the hearts of ordinary believers are probably the four archbishops.

From the point of view of the amount of real power in the church, the status of the four archbishops, the head of the Knights of the Templar, and the chief judge of the Inquisition of the Faith should be comparable, or the latter two are more sophisticated because they are in charge of their respective physical forces. But don't forget, the Solan Cult is not just a simple sect, but also holds a religious state in the southern part of the continent that is as large as the two countries on the western plains.

Solan Holy State is one political and religious one, and the responsibilities of the four archbishops are still slightly vague in the church, but in the Holy State political system, the four of them are equivalent to the first and auxiliary ministers in the royal court of those royal countries, and they dominate the entire country's political and military realms under the Pope, and even control the Solan Wizard Advisory Group, which is independent of the religious system of Solan's Divine Religion but is subordinate to the country of Solan's Holy State.

With such a division of labor, it is natural that the position of archbishop cannot be filled by faith and piety alone. In fact, among the four archbishops of the Solan Divine Sect today, except for Ella, who is still young, the strength of the other three is a six-star arcane mage, and even Archbishop Eric has not even reached the strength of a six-star peak. Perhaps among some small and medium-sized forces, such strength is still top-notch. But in the midst of such a behemoth as the Cult of Solan. The strength of a six-star midstream magician may only barely be in the top 100 or even outside the 100.

However, anyone who knows anything about the high-level circles of the Solan Cult will find that among the four archbishops, Ella, who has the highest personal strength, is the one with the smallest scope of management practice and the least voice in decision-making within the church. Of course, there are reasons why she has only been an archbishop for a few years and is still less qualified than the other three, but the most important thing is the question of her ability to deal with the political affairs of the big and small churches.

In fact, at first, neither Ella herself thought that she would become an archbishop.

The talents of the powerhouses who can break through that layer of law barriers and advance to that level are naturally beyond doubt. But if there is no perseverance in personal cultivation, it is impossible to have an amazing breakthrough in accumulation. After all, people's energy is limited, and dealing with government affairs and settling down with people's feelings and sophistication are not easier than cultivating magic and fighting spirit, and it also takes a lot of time to ponder and comprehend. The law powerhouses spend most of their energy on comprehending the mysteries of the law and refining their personal strength and skills, even if they are not cultivation idiots with negative emotional intelligence, and suddenly let them rectify the affairs of one religion and one country, it is really not an exaggeration to describe it as blind.

Therefore, just like those kingdoms often conventionally give them an empty title such as "Court Magic Advisor" or "Royal Martial Arts Advisor" when recruiting law powerhouses, the Solan Divine Cult treats these law powerhouses who have grown up by relying on the resources of the Divine Cult. It is also customary to give them a title such as "so-and-so Sage" and offer them up, as the top combat power exclusive to the Divine Sect.

But Ella is a special case. Of course, like most law powerhouses, she has carefully cultivated light magic for a long time, and finally realized the true meaning of the law and advanced to the next level. In the decades during this period, although he has traveled around as a high-ranking saint in the sect and presided over some events of expelling curses and dealing with dark believers, he has basically solved problems by strength. However, as early as when Ella was young, she had the experience of being a saint of light of the Cult of God.

The Holy Maiden is not a position of real power, but as the internal and external image ambassador of the Church, the necessary means of dealing with human relations and communication are necessary, and in this sense, each Holy Maiden can be regarded as sharing a large part of the work of the Church's diplomatic and propaganda affairs.

Although Ella hadn't been exposed to any of these things since, at least her experience as a saint proved that she had some ability and experience in dealing with similar matters.

Although the position of archbishop does not have such a high requirement for personal strength, considering that because of the existence of fighting spirit and magic on the continent of Ares, the influence of a person's personal strength on his authority has been amplified a lot, and sometimes some special occasions also require such a high-level person who can handle various affairs with strength and ability, so after hearing about Ella's affairs, the Pope and the other three archbishops did not give her the name of the last XX Sage at the first time, but called Ella to the main hall of the Holy City Solan Shrine, and tested Ella's potential in administration from all aspects。

The results were satisfactory, and although Ella had not been involved in this area for decades, and some of the administrative plans and insights were a bit flawed, at least she was able to understand where the key problems were and was able to come up with solutions on her own, which proved that she still had the potential to cultivate in this area.

Dealing with administrative affairs, although there is also a talent to say, but after all, it is not as important as the cultivation strength. As long as we conscientiously understand the information on all aspects of the sum, accumulate some experience, and follow those typical precedents step by step, we will not be able to say that there is anything brilliant, at least not that will go wrong. It is much easier to train a qualified administrative officer than to train a strong lawyer.

In this way, a fourth archbishop was born, and Ella lived up to her expectations, although she would not be as effective administratively as the other three veteran archbishops, but she also had a clear idea of her role in the upper echelons of power. On behalf of the Solan Divine Cult, she has carried out official intimidation against some restless small forces, sent other big forces, and personally sat in a foreign country to deal with the remnants of Nolan, which has been in charge of these tasks that require both administrative and personnel means and tough power in the past few years, and in terms of results, even if the three old qualifications personally handle these things, the results will not be much better than her.

After all, except for religious believers. For the average person. This absolute authority in strength is a hard persuasion that can be felt without speaking.

And for now. Once again, with the advantage of personal strength, he successfully completed the task assigned by the Pope himself, and Archbishop Ella, who returned to the Holy City from the southwest desert with the Virgin Raphael and her personal guard, was in the main hall of the Holy City, explaining the harvest of this event to Pope Solan face to face.

“...... That's basically what happened. ”

On the way, after integrating the events heard from Raphael, Shuai Ke and the old thieves, after returning to the Holy City, Ella immediately came to the inner sanctum of the Solan Shrine and told the Pope Solan the ins and outs of the desert curse incident that she had sorted out.

"I see......"

The old pope, who was sitting on the white jade chair on the central steps of the inner sanctum, nodded, and a grim look appeared on his old face. There is even a rare hint of apprehension.

“...... I didn't expect that in addition to Prude, even there was such a remnant of Nolan's power in the port of Liberty. ”

Raphael knew the origin of the wanderer mercenary group of Xingxi and others, and when Shuai Ke told Ella the news that Xingxi and the others were Nolan, he was naturally taken aback and couldn't help but tell Ella this important news.

As a young mercenary group that has risen in the port of Ziyu in recent years, there may not be a market for the name of the wanderer in the interior, but there is a lot of news about this union in the trade corridor between the port of Ziyou and the main city of Lothar, and in the end, even Ella and Shuai Ke couldn't help but be secretly frightened, but they didn't expect that in the past few years, Nolan Yu has created a mercenary group that is likely to become the next A-level mercenary group to be promoted to the S level with so many people in the place where the strength of the port is completely based on strength.

So in the report. Ella also highlighted the identity of the three of Xingxi's wanderer mercenary group and the things about this mercenary group.

After all, although she didn't know what happened between the Solan Cult and the Nolan clan back then, Ella knew very well that the hostility of the demon descendants of the Nolan clan towards the Solan Cult had almost come to the fore in the past few years. Not only are there the shadows of the Nolan clan behind the rebellion of many small dark forces, but even during the assassination incident in the Warcraft Forest and the Kells Rebellion two years ago, the Solan Divine Cult noticed that the Nolan clan even reached out to the upper echelons of those kingdoms to support allies, obviously to use the power of those big countries to deal with the Holy Kingdom of Solan.

And now, not only Loris and Prude, but even the permanent neutral forces of Freedom and Harbor have the hidden power of the Nolans, which makes Ella shudder.

Sure enough, the decision of the Pope and the bishops back then was correct, not to mention whether the Nolan clan was really descended from demons, their ability to establish hidden forces in various places in just a few years was comparable to the ability of the demons to bewitch sentient beings and drive fallen humans and beasts to fight for them thousands of years ago.

By the way, speaking of demons......

"Your Majesty, in addition to the Nolans and the Wanderer Mercenary Regiment, the curse that has spread across the desert this time is also noteworthy. ”

"Oh, Archbishop Ella, please elaborate. ”

"I suspect it's not a curse. ”

Ella's expression grimened.

"Although the symptoms of the cursed are similar to those of receiving a spiritual curse, in their bodies, I do not feel the magic form of cursed magic working, but instead, it seems that some connection between them and the world is disturbed by the unknown aura that invades their bodies, causing them to gradually lose their connection with the original laws of the world, and take on the characteristics of obvious law foreign bodies......"

Ella hesitated slightly, but continued to speak.

"I think this is very similar to what is recorded in the scriptures of the sect, the performance of the beings in the Mythical Era Continent when they are corrupted by the demonic aura. ”

Demons, especially for a long-established sect like Solan, which inherited the will of the gods of the Mythological Age, are both eternal enemies and eternal taboos.

However, Ella didn't see too much shock on the old Pope's face, although his face was melancholy, but looking at the old Pope's expression, it was more like he had a feeling that he was not surprised.

"Sure enough, everything is going in the direction of that prophecy back then......"

The Pope whispered softly, but Ella didn't hear what he was saying because he was too far away.

"Your Excellency?"

Ella's voice seemed to make the Pope suddenly sober up from his state of distraction, and pressed his temple with his hand, and the Pope smiled slightly wryly.

"I really don't know if we've done the right thing or wrong all these years......"

Ella didn't know what His Majesty the Pope was talking about, but it must have something to do with the reason why Nolan was exterminated that year, and this matter seemed to have become one of the most hidden taboos in the Cult over the years, even for her, the new archbishop, these colleagues, including the other three archbishops, never revealed a little bit about this matter, and every time she asked from the side, others would use "Nolan is a descendant of demons, so he is the enemy of me and other light believers" and so on, and over time, she was no longer obsessed with this issue.

"Your Majesty, ...... about the handling of this evil curse of the Wanderer Mercenary Regiment?"

"Hmm...... There are some tricks on the Hong Kong side, and although we can negotiate with us, I am afraid that the other side will not cooperate with us very actively. ”

The Pope said, and Ella nodded in agreement. The Liberty Council, which is in power in the permanent neutral city of Hong Kong, is actually the head of a group of mercenary groups and chambers of commerce, for whom there are no partners they cannot cooperate with, only negotiable terms of interest, and it is absolutely difficult to expect them to accept the full involvement of the investigation team of the Cult of Solan, like Emperor Prudjos I, who had to compromise two years ago due to civil unrest.

What's more, they don't have any definite evidence to prove the relationship between the Wanderer Mercenary Group and the Nolan Clan, and even whether the ordinary members of the Wanderer Mercenary Group know that the minds who established this mercenary group in the first place are Nolan people are debatable, and it is really difficult to investigate this mercenary group.

"In this way, Ella, you have stayed in the Holy City during this time, you are the only one among us who has been directly exposed to that curse, and you have stayed and conveyed the characteristics of this curse and how to deal with it to the middle and high saints in the sect. Archbishop Eric will take over the affairs on Pruod's side, and then you will go to Eric and give him a rough account of the progress of the matter at hand. From the port side...... Let Archbishop Thudis take full responsibility, and if necessary, it may be necessary to call the Knights Templar, and then I will call Shuddis and Captain Red to discuss it in detail. ”

After making the initial preparations, the Pope's face seemed to soften a little, and then he seemed to think of something again.

“...... By the way, Raphael, kid, are you alright?" )