Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 651: Is the future not optimistic?
If there is a city in the world that is most desirable, it must be Lenwitting; and if there is a city in the world that Lingge is most reluctant to go to, at least not now, it can only be Lenwitting.

Because that city is not only the political, economic, cultural and scientific center of the Kingdom of Brittany, but also the area where the religious order is most powerful.

The church associations have implemented the "parish committee system" within the scope of their faith, dividing the area into several parishes for management and education according to the size of the area, the faith groups, and the customs and culture. There are five levels of parishes, from the patriarchate at the street or town level, to the joint parish at the city level, to the archdiocese at the regional level and the general parish at the national level. Finally, there is the Holy Diocese with the largest coverage, which is composed of all the secondary parishes and its level is: continental level.

The only holy diocese in the world today is the continent under their feet, the Westland Diocese, whose full name is "The Holy Diocese of Siglia Continent". The headquarters of the Westland Diocese, the "Cathedral of the Holy Glory of God", is located in the capital of the Kingdom of Great Britta, Lunwitin. It does not belong to any of the seven major orthodox churches. To be more precise, it should be a holy place shared by all the church groups.

The "saints" of the seven major orthodox churches formed the United Evangelical Council to manage all religious matters in the Western Continent. It is said that the original version of the "Religious Decree" came from a meeting of the United Evangelical Council. The seven saints arbitrarily passed this resolution without consulting any monarch or prime minister in advance. Later, when it was voted on at an international conference in the city of Nimsher, it was passed unanimously, which once again indirectly confirmed the terrifying power and deterrence of the united religious groups.

Since the promulgation of the "Religious Decree", the believers of the Spiritual Prayer Society were forced to evacuate Lenwitin, and the St. Annville Cross Church, which they regarded as a holy site, was also forced to close. Since then, the entire Lenwitin area has completely fallen into the control of the religious alliance. Their influence in religion is unmatched, and based on this, they have extended their tentacles to the political, economic, cultural and scientific fields of the kingdom's capital.

You can imagine it as a dark spider, silently weaving its own giant web in the invisible shadows. To this day, every thread in this web has the ability to completely pull a person into the abyss, no matter if that person is a domineering aristocrat in Westminster, a homeless person in the slums who sees no hope for the future, or some outsider who rashly breaks into this giant web.

Of course, if the colonial war in the East Continent goes smoothly, there may soon be a "Holy Diocese of the East Difant Continent", which is enough to compete with the Diocese of the West Continent. But this will take at least half a century, so now, the Holy Huimi Catholic Gospel Cathedral still symbolizes the supreme authority of the church union in Lunweiting, and the Gospel United Council composed of seven saints also has a wider influence than the upper and lower houses of the kingdom.

The Witch of Dread, Fei'er, was one of the seven saints. Of course, it was still a mystery how deeply the Witch Society had infiltrated the Cult Union, and how many of the seven saints were their pawns. But even if there was only one saint, Fei'er, it was a terrifying thing, because it meant that the Witch Society could mobilize at least one-seventh of the power of the entire Cult Union in the Lunweiting area, and in order to protect the safety of the Holy Glory Cathedral, the military force deployed by the Cult Union in the capital of the kingdom was even enough to conquer some weak countries.

If you rush into this huge net without any preparation, you might not even know how you died in the end?
But if we were to prepare in advance, what could we prepare for? Would we prepare to fight the church in alliance? At the headquarters of the Westland Church?

Are you kidding me?
The more you understand the union of cults, the more you can appreciate its horror; and the stronger the union of cults is, the stronger the witch association hiding in its shadow and absorbing its nutrients to grow itself will be. In the past, they did not attach importance to the existence of Lingge and his group. Therefore, when they were in Linwell City, they targeted the leader of [Blood Red Banquet], the Heavenly Feaster; when they arrived in Nimsheer City, they targeted Rochelle and the conceptual spirit god he summoned with the invitation ceremony - the Great Venerable Yuanrang; on the Shiqilia Peninsula, they targeted Gundaruf and other aliens in the Virtual Root Swamp.

None of their actions were directed against Lingge and others, so these weak travelers were able to survive repeatedly in the cracks of the fight, and gradually recovered the girl Wang Quan who was lost in the world, getting closer and closer to the original goal.

But after the fire of the Hollow Root Swamp burned everything, the situation changed. The witches knew that their sisters were returning and trying to stop their great cause like hundreds and thousands of years ago. In this case, they don't mind repeating the past methods so that these sisters can continue to sleep until the day when the new world comes. They will never be merciful, because in the face of ideals and beliefs, talking about emotions is useless and ridiculous.

There are seven witches.

The "Witch of Fear" Fei'er who has already appeared is enough to put Lingge and his men in a difficult situation. If the remaining six witches also take action, it may not be just a difficult situation, but a desperate situation.

Not to mention that the Witch Society is not just about witches, but also about the mysterious leader and countless philosophers named after great men on Earth. Not all philosophers have the strength to fight, and some may be pure civilians like Dickens and Christian, the left and right arms of the Sanctuary of Judgment, but that leader is definitely not possible.

Ling Ge once thought about a question: After the Heaven Change Era, the fourteen young girls were exiled to the mortal world. After they woke up again, they fought against each other due to differences in their ideologies. In the end, the witch defeated the girls and won. But the power of the kings should be equal, so why did the witch defeat the girls instead of the other way around?

In this regard, Fei Er explained that the holy weapon that symbolized part of the authority of the girl's royal power was broken and dissipated in the disaster of the heavenly change, causing their power to never recover to its heyday. Only one of the witches, Favrona, whose holy weapon, the Crimson Sword, was taken away by Mecanthus, was not involved in the disaster. Later, Favrona killed Saint Mecanthus, took back her holy weapon, and restored her full power, thus breaking the balance and helping the witches suppress the girl.

The question is, is this suppression really that obvious? The girls were almost completely defeated, and even their souls could not escape, being cursed. Ling Ge felt that this should not be the case. Apart from the others, if Yieta's free kingship had not been weakened, she could have taken the others away from the battlefield when the battle was lost, and not end up with no one surviving.

In this way, Fei'er at least concealed part of the truth. For example, the final weight that tipped the scales was not the Witch of Discord holding the Crimson Sword, but the leader.

His (?) strength even surpasses that of the young girl's royal power.

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)