The Great Arcanist Who Traveled Through the World of American Variety Shows.

Chapter 653 God War
After Richard dealt with all the saints, it was a disaster for Monotheism.

Especially after the assassin of Richard turned out to be a Monotheist, the people of Rome were in an uproar. Many people even thought it was a rumor.

But soon, the empire officially issued an order banning monotheistic missions. All monotheistic churches had to be demolished or converted into buildings with other functions. All monotheistic believers had to change their beliefs, otherwise they would be directly expelled from the country.

At the same time, all religious books on monotheism within the empire were to be examined, and those that failed to meet the standards were to be destroyed. All pastors, priests, and bishops were to be arrested.

After being examined, they will be released only if there are no problems. However, if they still believe in monotheism, they will also be directly deported.

All the church property of the Monotheistic Church was confiscated, and the land and houses were sold after accounting, and the money was added to the imperial treasury. Although the number of Monotheistic Church believers has decreased a lot in recent years, and it seems to have declined, its church property has not decreased.

Monotheism had a large number of churches in cities across Rome, and some even had a lot of industry, but now all of these things have been taken back by the empire.

In addition to these, the monotheists in the Roman Empire also had to make a choice.

After facing the mandatory orders of the empire, not many people are willing to hold on to monotheistic beliefs and leave the empire. After all, for the grassroots people, they are more concerned about survival and life.

After Richard re-established the empire, he reduced the burden on the grassroots people, and the policies over the years have significantly improved the living standards of the grassroots people compared to before.

Naturally, these grassroots people are more willing to believe Richard. After all, Richard really makes their lives good, and monotheism cannot do this.

If Richard had issued this order when the empire was just established, there might have been many grassroots people who opposed it. But now, more than 99% of the grassroots people are more willing to support Richard.

For the lower class people, faith is indeed important, but it is still not as important as having a full stomach or as important as their own life.

So, as Richard's order was issued, monotheistic believers in various parts of the Roman Empire changed their beliefs one after another. Some of these believers chose to believe in polytheism, but some chose to believe in the emperor Richard.

Worshiping the emperor was very common in the early Roman Empire. The emperor at that time even built an altar specifically for worshiping the emperor, promoted it in various places, and even stipulated some sacrificial festivals.

It is said that this was done because some emperors wanted to deify themselves. Of course, in the end, without exception, all failed. After all, the emperors at that time were just humans, without any godhood or descendants of gods.

To rely on this kind of sacrifice to obtain divine power, godhood, and become a god requires a lot of faith and time, which the emperors of the empire cannot do.

But now some believers of monotheism have begun to reform Richard.

Richard did not say anything about this. It would take at least several hundred years to rely on these beliefs to condense divinity.

Of course, there are monotheists who are willing to convert, and there are also monotheists who are unwilling to convert. Most of them have a good status in monotheism.

After Richard declared monotheism illegal, it was a severe blow to these people. It almost deprived them of everything. Naturally, they were unwilling to accept it.

As the saying goes, cutting off someone's financial resources is like killing their parents. These middle-level monotheistic people naturally hated Richard very much, and some of them even wanted to deceive the lower-level believers, deceiving them that Richard wanted to kill all the believers of the monotheistic religion, and use this method to coerce those people into rebellion.

However, Richard had already taken precautions against these people's actions, and with the help of polytheistic priests, these rebellions were often easily resolved before they caused any trouble.

The Empire's various efforts over the years have successfully accumulated a lot of credibility among the grassroots people. The people are also willing to listen to the grassroots government of the Empire.

Monotheism cannot possibly cause any rebellion.

On the other hand, Richard directly ordered the capture of the high-ranking officials of the Monotheistic Church. When these cardinals, archbishops, and popes were taking action, some of them had already begun to move.

When the monotheism took action, it had already made the worst-case plan, that is, if the action failed, at least some people would escape, the monotheism would be turned into a secret religion, and then the remaining monotheists would be led into hiding and wait for the opportunity.

There were quite a few of them, and most of them were captured by the soldiers sent by the empire. Only a very small number of them hid. Among them, the Pope was also captured.

As the Pope, he basically couldn't escape. After all, as the person with the highest status in the Monotheistic Church, the Empire would definitely not let him go. So the Pope of the Monotheistic Church did not think about escaping, but took the initiative to act as bait to attract the attention of the Empire.

Richard had been prepared for this day. As long as the Monotheism took action, he would uproot it as quickly as possible.

He knew very well that once the monotheism made a decision, it would mean that the Creator was going to war with him. He had to cut off all the monotheism's beliefs in the world in the shortest possible time.

Without faith, the kingdom of God will no longer have an endless supply of power of faith, which will only be consumed but not replenished.

No matter how large the number of angel legions is, they will eventually be completely wiped out.

Of course, Richard also has to have a decisive battle with the Creator.

As Richard's order was issued, monotheistic churches across the empire were quickly demolished, and a large number of believers converted. Of course, among these converted believers, there were also some who converted on the surface but still believed in monotheism secretly.

For these, Richard asked people to supervise each other. He used the Qin law system of joint responsibility.

These former monotheists were organized into groups of five. If there was anyone in a family who still believed in monotheism, all five families in the group would be punished, their land and property would be confiscated, and they would be directly exiled to Spain to mine.

If someone reports it, the reporter's family will be exempted from punishment.

This system of collective responsibility will immediately make it difficult for those who pretend to convert to Christianity to be punished. Even if they pretend to convert, the neighbors around them are watching over each other, so who knows if they will be exposed?
Moreover, these people cannot be sure whether their neighbors are just pretending to convert.

As a result, those monotheists who pretended to convert were quickly reported by others, and at one time, thousands of people were directly exiled to Spain.

These people were exiled to the mines in Spain and basically could never get out.

The mines in Spain are not a good place to go. The mining technology of this era was not advanced, and mining accidents were common. In addition, the environment in the mines was harsh and the labor intensity was very high.

Not many people can survive here for five years.

As for normal mining conditions, they are much better, food is adequately prepared, and miners will not have to stay in the mines all day long.

But the situation was different for the prisoners exiled here. The food was insufficient and the workload was high. Less than a quarter of the miners were able to leave alive.

Richard used various means to directly eradicate monotheism from the empire. Of course, some small countries and tribes outside the empire also believed in monotheism. Richard directly ordered the legion to launch a military strike against these countries and tribes that believed in monotheism, forcing them to convert. If they did not convert, the army would attack.

The small countries that were already trembling with fear of the Roman Empire did not dare to go against it at all. They declared monotheism illegal and converted to polytheism.

Of course, there were also stubborn small countries or tribes that were unwilling to convert, and Richard would not be polite to these stubborn people. Richard did not directly send a large army to attack, but instead recruited the surrounding small countries to form a coalition to attack them.

Richard also promised that after victory, the Empire would only take 20% of the spoils from this country, and the rest would be given to other countries.

So the empire did not send out many people at all, but successfully raised an army of tens of thousands, and then used these troops to deal with the monotheistic countries and tribes.

Under Richard's promise, those small countries were like chicken blood, and followed the imperial army to attack the small countries and tribes that believed in monotheism.

These stubborn small countries were no match for the army, and they were soon conquered by the army. Then the small countries that had been waiting to eat meat rushed forward and divided up these tribes and small countries completely.

Not only did the empire suffer no losses, it even gained a lot of benefits.

As for the believers of monotheistic religions, they were either killed or turned into slaves.

Under Richard's various means, monotheism declined and died out at an extremely fast speed.

In just three months, the number of people who believed in monotheism in the entire empire was less than one percent of what it was three months ago, and the number was still decreasing rapidly.

On the other hand, following the military strikes, after seeing those countries that insisted on believing in monotheism suffer devastating disasters, other countries also announced a ban on the spread of monotheism, fearing that it would be too late to announce it and they would be attacked by the empire.

The monotheistic faith is declining rapidly.

After the reduction of faith, the most direct manifestation is the monotheistic kingdom of God above the sky.

The monotheistic faith disappeared precipitously from the sky, and the monotheistic kingdom of God was also shrinking. The power of the kingdom of God began to shrink, and the originally bright kingdom of God began to dim.

The divine power shrouding it is also weakening.

Although there are petitioners in the Kingdom of God, the power of faith that they can provide is only one-tenth of that of believers, and the larger the Kingdom of God is, the more divine power is needed to maintain it.

After the power of faith dropped drastically, the monotheistic kingdoms of God began to shrink their sphere of influence, while in contrast, the polytheistic kingdoms of God began to expand.

However, even if Richard completely cut off the belief in monotheism, the kingdom of monotheism could only last for hundreds of years relying on the petitioners in the kingdom of monotheism and the divine power stored in them.

But Richard didn't have time to waste hundreds of years here, and the Creator wouldn't sit still and wait for death.

If the monotheistic religion wants to continue now, the best way is for the gods to take action directly. Launch an attack when His strength has not yet begun to decline significantly and when He is at His strongest.

As long as Richard can be killed, with the Creator around, monotheism will be revived and develop rapidly in the world.

The creator of monotheism did not start a war immediately because He needed to face the suppression of the world's rules. He had to use divine power to suppress the world's will before he could forcibly descend and fight Richard.

It is not easy for gods to enter the material world. Even in the multiverse, it is very difficult for gods to descend to the main plane.

The power of its original body is too strong, so it cannot enter the main plane directly, and can only enter by incarnation or possession.

Even so, it still requires a huge price to pay and complex religious rituals.

Richard would naturally not let Him come easily, so he pursued the remnants of Monotheism relentlessly, making it impossible for them to arrange the coming ceremony.

Of course this method can only delay His coming.

In this case, the creator can only consume more divine power to come.

Richard has been waiting for the coming of the Creator, and at the same time he is accelerating the development of polytheism. In the next real war of gods, polytheism will have to face the large number of angels of monotheism.

There are also several archangels under the Creator.

As for the creator, Richard would have to step in personally.

Even though polytheism has undergone reforms and the main god has been changed from Zeus to Athena, its strength is still not as good as that of monotheism.

Even during the heyday of polytheism, it still failed to eliminate monotheism, and later it was defeated by the rise of monotheism.

In the end, it was almost completely destroyed by monotheism.

The gods of polytheism were beaten and closed their kingdoms, fell into a deep sleep, and pretended to defend their kingdoms to the death. They survived in this way.

If it weren't for Richard, most of the gods of polytheism would eventually run out of power, fall into a deep sleep, and eventually die in their sleep.

The appearance of Richard changed all this. Athena devoured Zeus's power and godhood, and with the addition of a large amount of faith and divine power, her power became stronger than before, but she was still no match for monotheism.

This war between gods is their last chance. If they win, polytheism will develop rapidly and return to its peak, and the glory of polytheism will continue for thousands of years or even longer.

If you fail, then everything is over and there is basically no chance of recovery.

For the polytheists, this battle is a battle of life and death.

In order to deal with this war, several gods of polytheism have already started a war with the kingdom of monotheism. In the kingdom of God in the sky, invisible to mortals, the gods of polytheism are fighting with countless armies of angels.

(End of this chapter)