Dark Wizard: Rise! My undead army!

Cliff's little temple was the last to be incorporated.

Augustus went to see him in person.

Two elderly people sat at the entrance of the temple, watching the few pedestrians on the street.

"Mr. Cliff, your church should be incorporated into the Vatican."

Cliff remained silent for a long time.

"Archbishop, it's not that I don't want to, I just can't understand—why can't my church retain its members?"

Augustus looked at the stall selling idols across the street. "Because what people need is not reason."

Cliff was stunned.

"You're right. God is God, and man is man. Faith isn't a business, but for ordinary people, they don't care about these things."

Augustus's voice was very soft.

"They just want to know who will save them five years from now. You tell them they have to rely on themselves, but they don't believe you. You tell them God is in their hearts, but they don't understand."

"What they want is something they can grasp—an idol, holy water, donation coupons, anything will do."

Cliff opened his mouth, but couldn't say a word.

Augustus stood up.

"Your church will be merged into the Papacy, and you will become a scholar of the Papacy, specializing in the study of doctrine. You cannot abandon your doctrines, but..."

He paused, then said, "We can't just talk about principles."

Cliff remained silent for a long time before finally nodding.

Three months later, the faith conflict in the goblin world came to an end.

The Supreme Divine Church of the Empire unified all churches and established churches in every city.

The doctrines were compiled, the rules were established, and the clergy were trained.

Standing on the steps of the Imperial Cathedral, facing the sea of ​​believers below, Augustus read the first proclamation of the Papacy.

"From this day forward, there will be only one voice in the faith in the Supreme God."

No one objected.

The emperor stood on the palace balcony, gazing into the distance towards the cathedral.

The Minister of Industry beside him whispered, "Your Majesty, the Church has been unified. What's next?"

The emperor remained silent.

He turned around, walked back to his study, and crossed out another page on the calendar.

Almost a year has passed since the miracle occurred.

Four more years.

Outside the window, the cathedral bells rang.

The sound traveled far and wide, reaching the Imperial City, the Steel City, Gear Town, the Forge City, and every city with a church, reaching the ears of every believer.

Some people kneel down to pray as the bells ring, some continue working in factories, some bury themselves in data calculations in research institutes, and some swing pickaxes in mines.

The faith was unified, but the fear did not disappear.

Four years from now, who will be alive?

Nobody knows.

But at least for now, the goblin world is quiet.

...

Lynn sat atop a deserted mountain peak, closing his eyes to sense his surroundings.

This mountain is three hundred miles north of the imperial city, a place rarely visited by people, with not even a road.

He sat there for a long time, so long that dust settled on his body and grass grew at his feet.

The power of faith, like countless fine threads, drifted from every corner of the goblin world and wrapped around him.

The threads were very fine and light, but there were so many of them that they were impossible to count.

Each thread represents a believer's prayer, a goblin's fear, or a life's despair.

He could sense that the world's will was gradually weakening its rejection of him.

Those rule-based light bands that had originally avoided and resisted him began to slowly approach him and slowly test him.

Lynn opened his eyes and raised his right hand.

A wisp of golden thread floated in his palm; it was the power of faith, pure and intense, carrying the restlessness and fanaticism unique to goblins.

He stared at that thin thread for a long time, his mind churning with the records about "gods" in the ossuary.

The wizarding world has conquered far too many worlds where "faith leads to godhood".

The so-called gods in those worlds are nothing more than pitiful creatures who have grasped fragments of the rules and have been elevated to high positions by their believers.

Within their small world, they can command wind and rain, unleash divine punishment, answer prayers, and bestow power upon believers.

However, their strength is greatly reduced once they leave their own world.

Those so-called "God Kings" fell from the Holy Mark to the third ring, and those so-called "Main Gods" fell from the third ring to the first ring, some even collapsing completely.

The reason is simple: the foundation of gods is faith and rules, and both of these are bound to the world.

Wizards have captured many such "deities" for research, dissecting, interrogating, and searching their souls, and the conclusions they have reached are consistent—their faith is poisonous.

It can grant an ordinary soul power comparable to a holy mark in a short period of time, but at the cost of turning oneself into a vassal of the world.

The deeper the faith, the tighter the bond, until finally, the divine and the world can no longer be distinguished.

The world is destroyed, and the gods die with it. When the gods die, the world is crippled.

Lynn withdrew the wisp of golden thread and closed his eyes to look inward.

He could feel the power of faith drifting from all over the goblin world trying to penetrate the depths of his soul.

They are looking for an "anchor point," a place where they can take root.

If left unchecked, these forces of faith will coalesce into a "divinity" within his soul.

Then he will be able to respond to prayers, perform miracles, and bestow power, just like those gods.

It can even condense a "divine kingdom" to collect the souls of those dead believers, allowing them to "live forever" in another form.

In their own little world, they can command the wind and rain, and are omnipotent.

But what is the price?

He will be bound to this world.

The farther you go, the weaker you become.

He went to other worlds, but the rules of those worlds wouldn't recognize him.

He will fall from the Third Ring Road to the Second Ring Road, and from the Second Ring Road to the First Ring Road, becoming a useless person who can't even protect himself.

Moreover, once a divine essence is formed, it is difficult to separate it—that would be equivalent to tearing a piece of one's own soul off.

Lynn gave a cold laugh.

Only a fool would take this road!

He stood up and summoned a berserker from the undead realm.

He caught this in the Rotten Abyss; it's at level 4 peak, just one step away from promotion.

The berserker knelt on one knee, head bowed, his body exuding the distinctive sulfurous smell of the abyss.

Lynn raised his hand, and a wisp of golden faith power floated out from his palm, hovering above the Berserker Demon's head.

Open your mouth.

The Berserker opened his mouth.

The wisp of golden thread drifted in, down the throat, sank into the chest, and settled beside the soul fire.

The Berserker's body stiffened abruptly, and the eerie light in his eye sockets flickered violently.

Lynn didn't stop.

He continued to draw upon the power of faith, one strand after another, and poured it into the Berserker Demon's body.

The golden threads wrapped, intertwined, and compressed around the Berserker Demon's chest, slowly condensing into a golden crystal the size of a grain of rice.

The berserker began to tremble.

Its body was expanding, its muscles were bulging, its bones were thickening, and golden patterns were appearing on its skin.

The lines spread from the chest to the limbs, from the limbs to the torso, and finally climbed up to the head.

A quarter of an hour later, the Berserker Demon stopped trembling. It knelt on the ground, its body radiating a golden glow, and its aura was completely different.

lv5!

In a short period of time, it was pushed from its peak level 4 to level 5!