Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 1130 Are we still mortals after all?
The tragedy in the gray hill city of Suare is by no means an isolated case, but a microcosm of the countless victims caught up in this chaotic and complex vortex. The war destroyed many things, including freedom and peace; at the same time, it also brought many new things, such as the will and belief to resist. But if you ask Carson Borg whether he really wants this change, his answer must be no.

As an outsider who had rashly plunged into the vortex, Linger had neither the position to make arbitrary judgments nor the ability to help them escape the quagmire of war. If he said a few words of comfort, it would be in line with the identity and humanistic care of a pastor, but what practical use would that be? A complicated sigh was the greatest comfort that the young man could convey.

Carson Borg knew this himself, so he didn't dwell on his sorrow for too long. He opened his mouth but didn't know what to say, so he could only change the subject abruptly: "Do you have anything else to ask, Pastor Ling?"

"Well." Ling Ge paused for a moment before continuing, "This question may be a little offensive. If you don't want to answer, you might as well answer with silence. That's enough for me."

offend?

Carson Borg was slightly startled. Through the brief contact just now, he had roughly understood the character of Pastor Linger. Just like the devout believers who serve God in the hearts of most people, he has a gentle and peaceful power. When he speaks, his tone is neither hurried nor slow, and he speaks slowly, which always makes people calm down and listen to his stories quietly. Perhaps because he serves a noble god, he also exudes a supernatural divinity. To be disrespectful, most of the gods that Carson Borg has come into contact with cannot reach this level. They are more like powerful and twisted human nature than divinity.

However, such feelings can only be thought of in the heart and must not be expressed in words, otherwise, I am afraid that I will be regarded as a member of the Supreme Human Race Committee, or at least a supporter. Those extremists who advocate racism and say that they want to pull all gods down from heaven, extract the excellent factors from the blood of all mortals, and artificially create a perfect human race are extremely arrogant and crazy, and never hesitate to use terrorist attacks to achieve their political goals. It is said that there are big hands from the Axis powers behind them. They can be called a combination of liars, paranoia and ambition. Even if I am a non-believer, I don't want to be in the same boat with those lunatics. Compared with them, the teachings of the True Spirit School seem so mild.

If even Pastor Lingge finds this question offensive, how would it feel to me? At least it wouldn't be more painful than opening the scars and recalling the tragic situation when my hometown fell in the past, right? Grayhill Eagle felt that his willpower was strong enough and would not be easily defeated by anything, so he smiled nonchalantly: "Excuse me, Pastor Lingge, after all, I have nothing to offend."

Is it true?
Ling stared deeply at Carson Borg's smiling face, convinced that the carefree look on his face was not a disguise, but this did not mean anything, because people always find it difficult to recognize themselves. Their eyes are blinded by too lofty ideals and too humble realities, so that they regard everything else as dust and can be easily thrown away.

"Are you a believer?"

Ling Ge suddenly asked, "Just now you offered a prayer to the statue of the goddess. I have never seen the gestures and movements of that prayer. Your body took action before thinking, which is enough to prove that this is a reaction engraved in your instinct. I think you must have been a very devout believer in the past. But I have never heard you mention the name of that god. May I ask you?"

Carson Borg's smile froze on his face.

So, they are not pretending to be free and easy, they just stubbornly believe in their own wishful thinking before the truth is pointed out to them.

The young man repeated his words word for word: "If you don't want to answer, just keep silent. That's enough for me."

The same sentence now has a different meaning.

Carson Borg slowly lowered his head, and where Linge couldn't see, his lips moved uncontrollably, as if he wanted to answer, but he couldn't utter a single syllable in his throat. His face gradually lost color, and as the young pastor said, he could only answer this question with silence.

Linger was not disappointed. He shook his head and was about to move on to the next question. At this time, Carson Borg raised his head and slowly acknowledged the young man's guess in a hoarse voice like the roar of an old bellows: "Yes."

"I am indeed a believer in God—or rather, I used to be."

"In the past?" Ling Ge raised his eyebrows, a little surprised: "So, what about now?"

"Now." Carson Borg smiled bitterly: "The god has abandoned us, and we have also abandoned him."

……

Do you remember the legend we mentioned when we were discussing the origin of the Evernight Woods? It was about the old god who fell in the depths of the Black Forest, whose corpse and legacy attracted countless adventurers and ambitious people. His name is no longer traceable, but everyone believes that the power he holds is darkness and coldness, and the Cursed Deathwood is a new species that was gradually alienated under the influence of this power. In addition, another argument supporting the legend is that when the Count of Gray Hill came here and personally ordered the establishment of the Gray Hill City Suare, and planned to leave a large open space in the center of the city to build his own mansion, a god suddenly walked out from the depths of the Black Forest.

He called himself "the God of Darkness and Eternal Night", a new god who was reincarnated from the corpse of the old god and inherited its power and authority. However, more people secretly speculated that he was just a lucky adventurer who rashly broke into the depths of the Black Forest and was not killed by the darkness, cold, and the terrifying guardian beast. Instead, he found the corpse of the old god by accident and became powerful by swallowing the magic power remaining in its blood, bones, and flesh. He was also extremely lucky not to be attacked by the spiritual backlash of the old god in the corpse, and survived the erosion caused by the surge in magic power. He leaped to the sky and called himself a god. It is not difficult to see that in the version circulated among the people, the whole process reveals the meaning of "luck", which can be regarded as people's jealousy, or a beautiful wish: if even an unknown adventurer can "luck" become a god, why can't he be lucky?

But whether it was a fluke or not, the power of a god was still not something that Count Gray Hill could resist, so after some secret political games and interest exchanges, a new church was born in the Ansus region, that is, the Church of the Original Night, which believed in the "God of Original Darkness and Eternal Night". The Earl's Mansion in the city center failed to be completed smoothly, and was replaced by the Temple of the God of Original Night. Since then, the influence of the Church of the Original Night in the Ansus region has continued to expand, and a "holy war" broke out with the kingdom's native church, the Holy Monk Society, 156 years ago. From the results, the Church of the Original Night was defeated, but if the Holy Monk Society wanted to completely remove this nail, it would inevitably pay a painful price.

So the two sides reached an agreement - or a tacit understanding without explicit written words, the Church of the God of Night was officially recognized by the kingdom, but its missionary scope was limited to the City of Gray Hill and the areas further north, and it could not touch the traditional parish of the Holy Order. The two sides lived in peace from then on, and the Church of the God of Night took root and became the most deeply rooted religious force in the Ansers region.

Carson Borg is a believer of the Original Night God, but his origin is not simple. The Borg family was the first local force to express support for the Original Night God's entry into the Gray Hill City of Suare. In the holy war that broke out later, they completely sided with the Original Night Church and played a crucial role in the tug-of-war and negotiations between the two churches. After the holy war, the Original Night God recognized the contribution of the Borg family and personally awarded the old patriarch the title of "Defender of the Church". Since then, Borg the Defender of the Church has become the most devout follower and the most loyal defender of the Original Night Church. Anyone with Borg blood flowing in their veins is proud to inherit the identity of the Defender of the Church, and Carson Borg was one of them.

He was even just one step away from surpassing his ancestors, crossing the threshold of Sequence 5 and becoming a demigod. If a Sequence 5 transcendent was able to serve as the backbone of a small church like the Church of the Original Night or the Holy Order, then a demigod could be among the top leaders even in a church with influence covering the entire Eastern Continent, such as the Prayer Society of the Spirit, the Undead Order, or the Dawn of Disaster. If Carson Borg could take this step, not only would the status of the Guardian family rise, but the power and influence of the Church of the Original Night would also grow. Everyone was looking forward to that moment, and believed it would not be too far away.

However, it was at this time that the war broke out.

The Kingdom of Noah had been losing ground since the beginning of the war, and it was almost impossible to form an effective resistance force. As the two major churches in the kingdom, the Church of the Night and the Order of the Holy Monks also sent their believers to form an army to defend this land of faith. However, the war situation did not improve with the participation of the two major churches. Instead, it became more and more corrupt and almost defeated. In the face of heavy losses on the front battlefield, the Noah royal family issued eleven orders to the two major churches, requiring them to form an army again and rush to the front line.

Carson Borg was not afraid to step onto the battlefield, and he had even prepared for the battle. However, as a secret message came from the front, the god he served had some strange thoughts: It was said that the initiator of this battle was not the 17th Legion of the Axis Powers, which was fighting against the Kingdom Army on the front battlefield, but the Crimson Sword Knights of the Crusaders, and the person who formulated the strategy was the commander-in-chief of the Crusaders, the Saint Fei Er of the Crimson Church. She was driving the terrifying construct mecha, cruising around the periphery of the Broken Sea, looking at the battlefield situation from afar. Once the god-level combat power appeared on the front battlefield, it would not hesitate to launch a long-range attack to wipe it out - as everyone knows, this saint of the Crimson Church is notorious, and his favorite thing to do is to kill his gods in front of the believers with cruel and brutal means and destroy their faith.

In addition, in the more secretive dark world, there is a rumor whose authenticity cannot be verified, claiming that the saint of the Crimson Church is actually a witch - a witch who killed countless gods during the Two Hundred Years War. Even Mecanthus, who was once a disciple of the saint, died at her hands. In addition, there are countless false gods, evil gods, demigods, and true gods. Before she appeared on the historical stage with a new identity, it is conservatively estimated that she killed more than half of the gods in the Eastern Continent alone!

Facing such an enemy, it would be absolutely difficult for people like Helmer, the "Speaker of Heaven" of the Spiritual Prayer Society, Abraham, the "God of Disaster" of the Disaster Dawn, or Solomon, the "Father of Magic" of the Thirteen Hermits Society to contend with it. However, would such great men easily give up their own safety for a small Kingdom of Noah? The "God of Darkness and Eternal Night", who was born only two hundred years ago, does not have enough strength and courage to face the Crimson Saint holding the God-killing Sword.

After much deliberation, he made a shameful but effective decision.

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"The gods betrayed their followers."

Carson Borg clenched his hands tightly together, his joints turned white, and his blood vessels were faintly visible. His heavy and hateful tone froze the atmosphere in the church. "On the surface, he accepted the royal order and began to gather believers to form an army, pretending to defend this land to the death. In fact, he pushed those believers who were not pious enough or had no talent to the battlefield to die. He took the most loyal and talented believers, as well as the wealth and treasures accumulated by the church in the past two hundred years, and planned to take advantage of the front battlefield to force his way out of the Axis encirclement and escape from this bottomless quagmire."

Before making this decision, he did not leak a single word of it, nor did he discuss it with his believers. Perhaps he felt that as a god, his believers should obey his authority and power. Whether pushing them to the front lines to die or abandoning their hometowns and fleeing far away, these were all trials and blessings he gave to his believers. There was no need to think, just accept them.

However, when the gods betray their believers, the believers also have the qualifications to betray the gods.

This betrayal even came from the person he thought was least likely to betray him - the apologist Carson Borg.

No one knows how he did it, but Suare's god ultimately failed to take anything away from this land, just as he had never brought anything to this land. In June of the same year, the seriously wounded Carson Borg retired from the frontline battlefield. In August, the Treaty of Burvera was signed. This man who betrayed his faith for his hometown seemed to get nothing in the end, just like his god.

The only difference is that, to this day, he still hasn't given up.

"To be honest, when I was still a believer, I never believed the rumors in the market and the countryside. I always thought that they were just the speculations of mortals who were jealous of the power of God. It was not until today that I realized that I was the naive one."

At this point, Grayhill Eagle laughed at himself, his tone half disgusted and half relieved: "After all, I am just a mortal. Even if I steal powerful power and deify myself, I can't change the humbleness and selfishness in my bones."

Give me some meow