Cthulhu Gonfalon

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The Jewel of the Heaven's Wrath was truly deserving to be known as the hidden trump card of the Church of the God of Aristocracy. The moment it was utilized, the Church of the God of Knowledge was dealt a devastating blow.

To block the Punishing Fist of Heaven that this jewel had dealt, the leader of the Church of the God of Knowledge, Elector Olian Geerteng, was severely injured. She was lucky enough to survive this ordeal because she had a body bestowed upon her by the gods. Yet to recover to the point where she could fight against the enemies was absolutely not achievable within one to two days.

Of course, she could rapidly speed up the recovery of her combat power through certain means, but the price to pay was conceivable. In short, Olian had to give up on this thought after some consideration. At present, there were no talents at the advanced legendary peak level, least to mention, any talents who had hopes of stepping into the Legendary Realm. For the next 10 to 20 years, she would still have to be the pillar of support for her church and its people.

"What the hell did I just see! How could they have such a powerful spell?" said Olian's most powerful aide, Bishop Montero, who was the oldest among all the higher-ups of the Church of the God of Knowledge. He was looking up in the air with some trepidation—that was where the Punishing Fist of Heaven had just dissipated. When it utilized its final bit of power, it could still reach a distance no more than ten steps away from the clergymen on the ground.

"Who knows? But there is no doubt that there is a huge price to pay for this spell," said Bishop Garett. "If it could be used as they pleased, they would have used it already."

This was something obvious. Also, it was precisely because they could figure it out that they could maintain a certain level of morale among themselves and not be easily frightened away even when the army's morale went south.

Honestly speaking, if their opponent could indeed easily throw out the Punishing Fist of Heaven to smash them all, then even if her underlings were reluctant to take flight, Olian would have taken them away with her and make a quick escape.

To stand up to the Punishing Fist of Heaven and preserve through a battle with it—there would be no one valiant enough to do so, at least not on the Main Plane.

Oh… with the exception of the Void Mask.

The fortunate thing was that the opponent obviously did not have the ability to launch this strategic spell successively. This comforted and eased an uptight Olian up to some extent, allowing some peace of mind. She had allowed herself to accept treatment and thus had been ingesting precious potions. At present, she barely recovered some energy and vitality, but she was still struggling with speech and could only make incoherent utterances.

Even if that was the case, this battle still had to be fought.

If she could see the situation over at the other side's formation, perhaps she might change her perspective. Because over at the other side, the Archbishop of the Church of the God of Aristocracy was looking at her palm with a gloomy expression.

Within her palm, there was a broken, precious stone. Though it was crushed beyond the point of salvaging, the shattered pieces were still exuding bright rays. Not only that, as the outer shell that made up the divine magic array had shattered, the powerful force that was hidden within now radiated out. The fragments of the broken precious stone, when met with the hidden force that was now spreading outwards, emitted a powerful oppressive force so frightening that with the exception of a few Legendary Masters, no one else dared to look it straight in the eye.

"How could it be that even my Jewel of the Heaven's Wrath could be shattered…" said the Archbishop with a heavy expression. Then she whispered, "The capital put into this battle is really too high!"

Yes, too high.

The loss of dozens of mid to high-level clergymen was, honestly, not a big deal—other than a few of the high-level ones, the remaining mid-level clergymen did not even qualify for a second glance from her. If they were dead, then so be it. That was totally unworthy of her concern.

But to lose the Jewel of Heaven's Wrath—this price was much too hefty!

She could not help feeling frustrated as she pondered about how she could give an acceptable explanation to the elders when she got back.

Although she was the highest-standing Archbishop in the entire church, there were still the elders who had very high qualifications and many years of experience that she had to answer to. These elders might not be very powerful, but they had very high prestige. Although they were usually respectful towards her and would obey her orders, a grave matter such as damaging the Jewel of Heaven's Wrath was something that would definitely incur their wrath. It was obviously unrealistic to think that they would let the matter pass without a few words of accountability.

There was something else that got her wondering. Over the years, the Jewel of Heaven's Wrath had been used several times. Each time it was used, its attack power would not be any weaker than this time, and yet, the jewel remained intact all this while. Why did it completely shatter this time around?

This did not make sense at all!

Yet it had never occurred to her that, over all these years, the Jewel of Heaven's Wrath had been used repeatedly. Time after time, it launched powerful attacks, but whenever it had done so, when was it able to remain unscathed? The increasingly bright glow it exuded that day was in fact, merely a refraction of the countless tiny fragments of the shattered jewel.

Accumulating impact from the numerous repeated attacks, the jewel finally reached its limit. Of course, it would eventually shatter.

It was said that back then, if the God of Aristocracy had used some rare and sturdy materials to make this treasure, it would have been sturdy and durable. But to tell the truth, this matter was a slight violation of taboo, and thus the God of Aristocracy dared not to invite trouble. So with a mindset of "able to use once, I make no loss; able to use twice, I have earned," he had casually picked a random gem as his chosen material, since something was better than nothing.

Over the years, also counting this time, the jewel had been used five times. He had already earned more than enough.

At this moment, the clone of the God of Aristocracy was staying out of sight up in the air. He had seen everything clearly from where he was, but he did not say anything at all, much less give his followers a little hint or some comfort.

To him, with the exception of a few legendary followers, the rest were all dispensable. As for those treasures that the Archbishop had placed so much significance on, to him, they were nothing more than consumables. Even if this were a major battle, he did not attach a particular importance to it.

No doubt, winning was good, but it did not matter if they did not win. So long as enough had been accumulated, then he would have met all the requirements for him to successfully advance. No one would be able to stop him.

On the other side of the sky, Wall, the God of Knowledge, was unable to stay as composed and levelheaded. He frowned deeply as his gaze was fixated on Olian, who was still coughing from time to time. He saw how every cough would be accompanied by the spewing of blood and felt extremely worried.

Although he could see that Olian's injuries had basically stabilized, and so long as she did not fight against anyone, she would be able to recover, he was still worried.

Olian was his only disciple. Since she was young, she had led a lonely life. Although she was a collateral relative of the Geerteng family, she did not receive any actual benefits by having the same family name. Both her parents passed away when she was seven, and she was sent to the library when she was only eight years old. At that time, she was short and thin, so even if she wore the smallest robe in the entire Church of the God of Classics, she would still be dragging more than half the piece of clothing on the ground. She looked as pathetic as a homeless little puppy.

Wall's heart melted at the sight of young Olian. He was reminded of his own child who was burned to death on the fire rack with his mother, deprived of the chance to be born. Therefore, he ignored the fact that he had to keep his identity a secret and began taking care of this little girl. Later, he simply took her under his wing as his disciple and taught her all the skills he knew in his lifetime…

That was almost 50 years ago, and that timid little one was now a lord who held command over a piece of territory and an entire church. Not to mention, this little fellow had already stepped into the Legendary Realm. On the Main Plane, this little fellow was considered to be quite a big shot who could cause the entire place to shake with the stomping of her feet.

But in his heart, he still felt that Olian was weak and delicate and still needed to be taken care of. He was always worried about her.

So not long after he was sealed with the position of a god, he had impatiently made Olian an elector. At that time, without having much to spare, he had given her some of his divinity. As a result, he had been haggard for a few months before he fully recovered.

When Sui Xiong learned about this, he had advised Wall, the God of Knowledge, on more than one occasion against such attached feelings. But Wall simply could not let go.

This must be the heart of all parents in the world. Even though they knew that their children had matured into adults and could live their lives independently, but in truth, how many could truly and completely let go of their children?

Looking at his injured and fragile disciple, the God of Knowledge was filled with worries. After a while, he turned around to look towards the Church of the God of Aristocracy, and his eyes were filled with murderous intent.

Within the Sanctuary of his God's Kingdom, Wall's original body returned to his seat on his own altar.

"What are you going to do?" Sui Xiong had already observed this situation through his cloned body. From the way Wall was behaving, he could vaguely guess what Wall intended to do. He was just asking for the obvious.

"Create a clone and descend upon Earth," Wall said ferociously. "How dare he bully my disciple, this is unacceptable! I want them to regret this for the rest of their lives!"