354 Living Saint and Authority (2)
Of course, a few of them were instantly pinned down by the gargoyles.
As expected… William sighed.
Just as Zamara had said, the two timelines converged under the resonance of the Origin of the Moon. However, it wasn’t in the way William had imagined.
Just as he had previously understood, two different timelines weren’t two different parallel worlds. This was because the nature of Creatons dictated that only one true history would forever be fixed and become the only timeline. After all, the concept of Currere originally meant the transformation of Creatons flowing in the Realm of Light into a manifestation of stable reality.
The final decision on which timeline was chosen was the Precept that the Void Sovereigns had repeatedly mentioned.
According to William’s deduction, more than a thousand years ago, Precept was largely a manifestation of the power of players.
It was similar to how even if players could have countless saves and had more chances of being abandoned because of a failure, Currere would always continue in the possibility that players were in.
William suddenly recalled the many meta elements that the game developers had designed into the game.
For example, after players failed many times in fighting a Void Sovereign’s incarnation, the system would considerately pop up a mocking notification—”You died. Would you like to change the difficulty to something easier?” If players chose Yes, there was a chance of triggering fourth-wall breaking lines with the Void Sovereigns saying: “I feel weaker,” “Are you here again to make your futile attempts,” and “How many failures do you want to experience.”
For instance, if one was stuck for too long, players could opt to activate Hint mode. Upon doing so, players would be able to see phantoms that hinted at how to clear the level, as well as bloodstain warnings of areas with frequent player deaths determined from big data analytics.
Previously, William had disregarded these details as if they were insignificant. But what if these details that appeared to be the developers’ quirks in poor taste were actually part of the world’s logic?
And from those details that made one think deeply with fear, what kind of truth about this world could be inferred?
William looked at the Forest Elves and felt his scalp tingle.
His previous thoughts were completely wrong—after coming to this timeline created by the Lady of Starvation, he subconsciously treated it as a parallel world with different developments.
Therefore, he felt that what Zamara said about breaking through the obstacles of the two timelines through the resonance of the Origins of the Moon, it only allowed him to temporarily return to the original timeline.
Only then did he understand that the result of the intersection of the two timelines was that he was in two different timelines at the same time. All his actions would affect both places.
However, limited by the observation perspective of mortals, he and the Living Saint of the Holy Spirits Church could only see one side.
As such, William knew how to communicate with Remides and the rest across timelines.
…
“Burn, burn. Let’s see how long your mana can last.”
Sigmond used the Holy Spirit Protection in his hand as a medium and constantly summoned Mother’s authority, mobilizing the laws to suppress the Divine Realm mage.
The vines from before were burned clean, but it didn’t affect him at all.
Prophets were different from other superhumans. They didn’t need to consume Spirit or Mana to obtain the power to change reality. They didn’t have to worry about the ancient gods devouring their will and using their bodies for rebirth.
As long as he was fulfilling the will of the Holy Spirit, there was no restriction to the strength bestowed.
At this moment, he, who had risen to become a Living Saint because of his merits, had obtained the favor of Mother while wearing the Pseudo Holy Spirit Protection. The power he could mobilize was almost infinite.
Unless there was a soul or creation closer to the Mother Holy Spirit than him in this space.
However, that was impossible. Even the Patriarch of the Second Order couldn’t be closer to Mother in soul than him.
After fending off a few rounds of his assaults, the Divine Realm magic chanter finally appeared somewhat weakened.
“Hey, can we discuss something?” the person asked as he retracted his spell tiredly.
“Do you want to discuss how you shall die?” Sigmond sneered and asked.
“Of course not. I hope you can help me pass a message to Remides,” the person replied.
The smile on Sigmond’s lips deepened. “Then why don’t you tell her yourself after she joins you in hell?”
The mage sighed and reached into his inventory. As he groped for something, he said, “Even for existences at the level of Living Saints, the greatest weakness of the power system for Prophets is that they have to fulfill the will of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, their strength will weaken on a large scale or even fail.”
As he spoke, he retracted his hand and took out something.
“However, the will of the Holy Spirits is very complicated to begin with. After all, the Holy Spirits have never spoken. Typically, it’s recounted by those who claim to have obtained oracles. Some are incomprehensible sleep talk, some are lies mixed with the truth that are self-beneficial, and some are simply made up. However, what they have in common is that they will form groups and create an image of authority. They will also try to monopolize the interpretation of canon.”
“Therefore, the will of the Holy Spirits is often misinterpreted as the will of the Holy Spirits Church. The will of the Holy Spirits Church is essentially a fake authority. Do you want to guess what those fake authorities love to do the most?” the person said unhurriedly.
“What?” Sigmond could not help but ask.
For some reason, this person’s words made him very uneasy. He stared at the other party’s actions—the person was covering his left hand and putting something on it.
“They like to vest authority in inanimate objects so that they can transfer authority and power to those who originally have no right to possess them by transferring those inanimate objects. Like you, like the senior officials of the Church who later were in cahoots with the Riel Empire.”
“What are you getting at?” Sigmond asked loudly.
The person smiled and showed him the thing he had just worn on his finger.
Sigmond felt his breathing and heart stop the moment he saw the thing clearly.
“I want to say that to someone like you, this symbol of authority is more influential than preaching and violence.”
On the index finger of the person’s left hand was a cracked Holy Spirit Protection ring.
The moment the ring appeared, the Holy Spirit phantom behind Sigmond dimmed to a faint outline.
