After choosing to leave, they regretted it.

Chapter 1 Judgment Day

As one of the most influential human forces on this continent, the Church, or the Church of the Supreme God, is a rather special existence compared to the Kingdom Empire.

The territory it directly owns is only the city of Holy City and its surrounding areas, which is so small that it can be almost ignored.

But after hundreds of years of development, it has extended its tentacles to almost every corner of the human world.

With churches spread across towns, cities, and even villages across the country, it possesses astonishing wealth and influence that rivals that of large countries.

And with the full-scale outbreak of the human-demon war five years ago, the church received direct support from the supreme divine realm in which they believed.

There are a total of twenty... to be precise, nineteen heroes whose combat power is comparable to that of the demon leader. Needless to say, there are also various black-tech-level technologies, including enchanted armor and purified holy water, which crush the original system.

Through the monopoly of these technologies, the Crusader Army and the Crusade Knights established by the Church have become the ceiling of human military power in this world.

In addition to these practical factors, facing the terrifying demon army, desperate people will be more likely to turn to religion than in peacetime.

Therefore, the development at the level of faith is also extremely rapid.

Although at present, the priests and bishops of the church are unable to shake the influence of traditional nobles in various places.

But many people believe that it is only a matter of time before it eventually unifies the entire human world.

All in all, these five years were an unmitigated disaster for most civilians and some nobles who were directly affected.

For the church, it was an undoubted golden age of rapid development.

However, the church, which had been making great progress in the past five years, has recently suffered huge losses that it has never experienced in hundreds of years.

The Holy City was under martial law and fell into unprecedented chaos and panic.

A large number of Crusaders and Crusader Knights were also recalled from the battle fronts in various places, including two teams of brave warriors with a total of eight chosen heroes.

Even so, until the real perpetrators of the riots were arrested, they circumvented numerous security measures and caused the deaths of dozens of church officials.

Generally speaking, the matter ends here and comes to an end.

But for this riot, the arrests are just the beginning.

Because the murderer's name was Leah Alfred.

when! ! !

"Defendant, raise your head."

The crisp sound of the gavel falling echoed in the extremely vast space of the cathedral, lifting the spirits of everyone present.

"..."

Leah Alfred sat in the middle of the hall, fastened to the chair by more than a dozen straps imbued with strengthening spells, and an iron cage was added on the outside.

Around her, fully armed holy war knights formed a semicircular defense line, with two chosen heroes from the Wind Shadow team standing on her left and right.

Everyone opened their eyes wide and pressed their hands firmly on the hilt of their sword.

As long as Leia makes the slightest movement, they will attack without hesitation, ensuring that she loses her ability to move, or even kill her on the spot.

This kind of treatment is unprecedented in the entire church and even in human history.

In fact, Leia's current condition is far from worthy of such high vigilance.

While being pursued by the members of Team Silver Star, she was directly hit by Nain's magical volley, and almost half of her body was burned to charcoal by the flames.

Even now, nearly a month later, her left forearm is still missing and is far from being fully recovered.

Even worse is the mental state.

His originally fair skin became as rough and dry as paper due to long-term detention and high mental stress, and it seemed that it would break if poked.

The head was burned so much that the blonde hair that was originally waist-length turned almost completely into charcoal. After being roughly cut off, only a short hair that looked a little funny was left.

The mood was extremely depressed.

With narrowed eyes and thick dark circles under his eyes, he remained motionless and unresponsive to the judge's words.

This made almost everyone present look at each other subconsciously, feeling helpless.

As mentioned before, the status of the hero in the church is actually undetermined.

The Pope is the spokesperson of the Supreme God on earth.

The brave man is the messenger sent by the gods to save the believers.

Who should listen to whom?

Judging from the literal meaning of closeness, it seems that the Pope's status is even lower.

However, as a local force, the church obviously would not admit the fact that it was inferior to the heroes, so it deliberately blurred this position, and then used the resources and influence in its hands to indirectly make the heroes submit.

To put it bluntly, put aside the dispute and fight the demons first.

This approach is fine when everyone is in harmony.

But now that the situation has come to this, we are in big trouble.

She holds in her hands the blood debts of dozens of high-ranking officials at all levels of the church. For an ordinary person, it is enough for her to suffer a full range of tortures such as burning at the stake, beheading, and the Iron Maiden.

But the other party is a brave man, a messenger of God.

The question of whether the church is qualified to judge her is a big one.

Not to mention that once she is tried, she may need to be sentenced to death.

The church's leaders cursed Uriel and Nain with resentment at one point - why didn't they just grind the bastard to dust during the capture process? That would have been better for everyone.

In short, the first step of the matter, whether to hold a trial, was debated for more than twenty days.

As a result, Leah was arrested during the Royal Capital Incident, but the first trial was not held until nearly a week after the incident.

This court hearing was held to an unusually high standard, while strictly preventing the possibility of his escaping from prison.

Except for the archbishop who presided over the trial, almost all the high-ranking church officials were present, and even the old Pope himself sat in the gallery.

However, the start was not smooth.

when! ! !

The sound of the gavel rang out again, louder and more forceful than before.

"Leah Alfred! This is the Great Cathedral! This is where you heroes landed, and it's also the place closest to the Supreme God Realm! Even if you are a chosen hero, you have no right to refuse to answer questions here!"

The Cathedral is the core building of the Church of the Supreme God.

From the outside, it is a church of astonishing scale, adorned with a large amount of pure gold decorations and exquisite paintings.

If you are inside and look up, you can see a tall dome as big as a building and a giant crystal-like object embedded on it.

During major events, such as the arrival of a hero, the holy light flowing from the crystal will fill the entire space. It is said that this is the entrance to the higher realm of the gods.

In any case, the archbishop's statement was not a bluff, but was true.

Therefore, this statement finally made the dead-like Leah raise her head.

Finally, we can officially start.

"Cough-cough-"

The respected archbishop coughed twice, picked up the documents on the table in front of him, raised his eyes and glanced at Leah with his signature unfriendly glance.

Then he changed his tone and said:

"Chosen Hero Leah Alfred, you are suspected of numerous violent crimes against the Church during the riots in the capital last month, including thirty-seven murders, one attempted murder, twenty-four acts of property destruction, a violent jailbreak, and the intent to commit heretical acts against the Church. Do you admit to the charges?"

"..."

Leah exhaled heavily, and looked at the archbishop weakly with her cloudy eyes.

Still no word.

The Archbishop adjusted his monocle and was about to say something else when someone sitting at the side of the meeting room suddenly stood up.

"Mr. Inquisitor, please allow me to speak on behalf of the Inquisition."

The person who spoke was a rather young Inquisitor who looked to be only around thirty years old. He was the current acting leader of the Inquisition.

In a church that places great emphasis on seniority, the fact that he was able to take on a high position at such a young age was not because of his outstanding abilities, but simply because there was no one left in the Inquisition.

As the biggest victim of Leia's crazy assassination, the top leaders of the Inquisition had lost more than a dozen leaders in succession in the previous riots, with one leader dying as soon as he took office.

Not only are 70% to 80% of the senior people finished, but the remaining old guys are also scared out of their wits and dare not sit in this fatal position again no matter what.

Even though Leah has been arrested, they are still frightened.

They could only push out a middle-level manager without much qualifications, who was the unlucky guy who had to take the blame.

As the top of the food chain in the internal struggle of the church, the Inquisition has always been extremely arrogant and will punish anyone it wants - unless you are a high-ranking official.

When have I ever been insulted and humiliated like this? When have I ever felt so humiliated?

Therefore, this time they were determined to tear Leah to pieces at all costs.

The Archbishop nodded:

"Well, you are allowed to speak."

"Mr. Inquisitor, I would like to correct one point. It's not just thirty-seven murders. The victims of six of these cases suffered extremely cruel and heretical torture and abuse before their death."

The agent used an artificial tone like reciting poetry, accompanied by exaggerated dance movements, and slowly turned around to show the audience his fabricated expression of grief.

"As loyal servants of the divine realm, they should have devoted themselves to the sacred cause and died for it. Instead, they ended their lives in such a blasphemous manner. Such behavior is absolutely unforgivable! Therefore, we recommend that the criminals be immediately sentenced to death for heresy and their titles of heroes be stripped away to prove the majesty of the Church and the divine realm!"

"Ah--"

After hearing this, Leia's face finally showed some fluctuation, and she revealed a very disdainful smile.

"Removing the title of hero... that was bestowed by the goddess, are you... worthy enough!?"

"How dare you——"

"quiet!!!"

The archbishop banged his gavel hard, interrupting the other party's speech in a hurry.

"If you have new evidence to submit, then you can speak. We haven't reached the stage yet for conviction or trial!"

After that, he turned to Leah:

"Let me ask you again, Brave Leah, do you admit all of the above charges?"

I originally planned to rot away forever and die.

But it’s one thing for these bastards to kill people, but they insisted on labeling Leah a heretic, which is absolutely intolerable.

Leah's spirits lifted considerably, and she replied with a mocking and smug smile:

"I did kill them, but that was the will of the Goddess. She told me to punish the heretics! As for those who were tortured, well, that only proves their crimes were more serious than the others!"

"Listen, listen! Listen, everyone! This sinner is actually calling a holy church member a heretic! Is there anything more ridiculous than this? Isn't it obvious whether she is a heretic or not?"

The agent took the opportunity to say this with a beaming expression.

This behavior of infinite nesting dolls covering each other's hats is essentially no different from the "bounce back and forth" of children quarreling, and it is really not decent.

The two mad charlatans were biting each other. If Aize was there, he might even laugh out loud.

The Inquisitor, who also frowned, immediately glared at the agent, forcing him back to his seat, and then continued to question Leah:

"You said it was the will of the goddess, and that those killed were guilty. Then how did the goddess give you the will? What were those people guilty of?"

"What crime?! Is that even necessary? I'm the God's Chosen Hero, chosen directly by the Goddess! These bastards can call me a heretic. If they're not sinners, then who is?!"

Anyway, it's just the same meaningless repetitive talk over and over again.

This is the case when being tried after being arrested, and it is also the case when the formal trial begins.

Even the devout believers of the church couldn't help but look disgusted at this moment.

The agent of the Inquisition was even more smiling, and he stood up again, thinking of taking advantage of the opportunity to add insult to injury.

Then he was glared back by the archbishop.

"Brave Leah, let me ask you, with the entire city under martial law and all high-ranking officials under tight protection, how did you manage to circumvent all security measures and commit so many crimes?"

As soon as this question was asked, the whole audience fell silent.

Because this is the most critical part.

Leah is a lunatic, and a lunatic with a not very good brain. This is a fact recognized by the entire church even before the incident.