Cthulhu Gonfalon

The effect of the ability of "God's Power" was extremely powerful. It could allow a Sacred Warrior to transform into a giant that was almost four times its original height in about half a minute's time. At the same time, the weapons and armor on its body would also become large.

As the size of his body enlarged, this Sacred Warrior's strength would also experience an explosive boost, and this was likewise for the powers of his weapon and armor. In Sui Xiong's experiment, a follower who used this ability could repel six followers combined, and the powers of these six were already equally matched to his in the first place. His combat ability could be said to have skyrocketed.

But this ability also had flaws. It could be dispersed by the "Magic of Removal" spell or any powerful negative energy. The Sacred Warrior, who had become a giant, would not gain any enhancements in intelligence, willpower or agility; spells like Confusion and Deceleration would still be effective on him. If he was faced with a team that consisted of a reasonable combination of mid-ranked adventurers who were all very experienced in combat, then even if the Sacred Warrior had this ability, he could only gain a temporary advantage.

But when it came to tackling magic beasts, these problems would no longer exist. For example, if in that day's battle, a certain Sacred Warrior exhibited this ability, then he would gain powerful strength. Within a short period of time, he could confront the King of Wild Boars. With his enlarged size, he could even directly knock down the King of Wild Boars and then stab a hole through its heart.

Upon receiving this ability, the Sacred Warriors studied it a little, then smiled with joy.

They were happy that they had become stronger, and even happier because His Majesty, the Void Mask, had affirmed their ability.

For the clergymen, the latter was far more delightful than the former.

After Sui Xiong helped the clergymen to recover from all their injuries and restore their vitality, he left—or rather, he made it seem as though he was leaving. And this news soon reached Baron Dahl's ears.

"His Majesty, the Void Mask, has just sent an avatar down and bestowed the Sacred Warriors with the ability to temporarily become giants?" he muttered to himself for a short while. He did not associate this matter with the gnome tribal chief. Instead, he considered the issue of getting along with the Church of the Void Mask in the future.

According to his original plan, he would make good use of the clean-up operation this winter to weaken the power of the Church of the Void Mask. It was best if he could kill one or two of them. And after the clean-up operation had ended, he could launch an attack on the night of the celebration to wipe them all out once and for all.

But now it seemed like this plan was not appropriate.

That jellyfish god appeared to be more inclined to shield his clergymen's shortcomings than he seemed to be. When he knew that his clergymen were forced to yield, with great impatience, he sent his avatar down immediately and bestowed them with an ability that allowed them to handle the giant beast. A god like him, not saying whether anyone had seen one before, even hearing of one like him seemed unprecedented.

Could it be that… among those clergymen, there is a so-called "elector" or "Holy Son?"

Baron Dahl pondered in silence and felt that what he speculated might perhaps contain a certain degree of truth.

If that was the case, his plan would need some adjustments.

Killing a few ordinary clergymen was not a big deal, but killing a Holy Son or an elector was brazenly teasing a god by tugging on his beard. It would be offending the god and subjecting oneself to risk. It was an act that could well be seen as the ultimate way of courting one's doom.

Without saying how Baron Dahl did not have any strong and powerful gods to back him up, even if he did have someone's backing, he would never make a joke out of his own life.

No matter how strong a support he had, at the most important moments, it might not necessarily be reliable. Was there not such a proverb of, "Relying on mountains, the mountains will fall; relying on waters, the waters dry up. One should rely only on one's ability, that's the most dependable!"

The idea of "relying on oneself" was to change his course of plan. He must not go against the Church of the Void Mask any further, or at least, he should not do anything too drastic.

He could pressure them or find ways to make trouble for them. He could even make use of the winter clean-up operation to kill one or two of them. But he must never directly lay a finger on them. This was the bottom line that he must never, ever cross!

In fact, Baron Dahl had already given up his intention to kill a few clergymen. Since he had no intention of wiping out all the clergymen from the Church of the Void Mask who were in Dahl Hill, then killing a handful of them was meaningless. It was nothing more than giving the other side a clear reason to deploy more men over to Dahl Hill.

As a descendant of a businessman, Baron Dahl took delight in doing evil. Yet, if he had done something evil and reaped no returns, he was willing to put on a disguise to look as though nobody or nothing had come to harm, or he would pretend to put on a look that said, "I'm still abiding by the rules."

Businessmen could sell anything, including their conscience and morality. So long as the price was right, nothing else mattered. In other words, without a suitable price, why would they sell their moral conscience or their glorious image?

To depreciate themselves?

After deciding on a new action plan, Baron Dahl began to express friendliness to members of the Church of the Void Mask discreetly. He did not expect to go from foes to friends with the other party—judging from one another's moral orientation, he knew this was absolutely impossible. He only wished to strengthen communication with each other so that some form of cooperation could be established in times of need.

Of course, in the future, there was bound to be contradictions among them. But contradictions and cooperation were two different matters, and the two should not hold up one another.

First, he got his men to send some fresh vegetables and meat to the clergymen, who had been nibbling on dry food for days, and he had even used tree leaves to make soup. And this made the clergymen wonder. Then, the baron sent his second son to visit Bishop Kabbalah and express longing for the ingenious methods of the Church of the Void Mask, as well as to ask if he could follow along and learn something.

Bishop Kabbalah was even more confused. He came from a family of merchants who served the noble aristocrats, so he had some understanding of the etiquette and rules of aristocracy. He knew that this meant Baron Dahl had acknowledged the official legal status of the Church of the Void Mask and even had the intention of cozying up to them. But… why would Baron Dahl do that?

So he did not rashly rush into saying yes. Instead, he put off the matter for the time being. Then back at camp that night, he took the chance to hold a meeting with the other church members.

"What exactly does Baron Dahl mean?" he voiced his doubt, and then, doubtfully, he looked at the crowd and said, "Previously, didn't he try to find ways to crush us? So why is he changing his approach and trying to get friendly with us now?"

"Probably because he realized that we are very strong," said a burly and bearlike Sacred Warrior. It was the one who had been bestowed a sword from Sui Xiong earlier on obtained a special ability called "God's Power." At that moment, he was filled with confidence as he smiled and said, "For a lord to secure his rule, he certainly needs to foster good relationships with the powerful forces within his territory."

"What you say is right, but we were quite strong before now too," said Bishop Kabbalah. He shook his head and said, "After we fought the first battle, he should have known that we were very strong, but why did he wait till now to express something?"

"Could it be because His Majesty sent his avatar down and this stirred up some emotions in him?" guessed the elderly priest. "His Majesty's profound and extensive power has influenced him and made him yearn for kindness and betterment. This is also very likely."

This was a standard priest-like style of thinking, but still, it was not enough to convince Bishop Kabbalah.

Of course, he knew His Majesty was kind and progressive, but he did not feel that this was enough to affect Baron Dahl.

In the earlier days when he had just arrived at Dahl City, he had quietly cast the Detecting Camp spell. Through eyes that had been purified by Divine Power, he could clearly see that Baron Dahl was a downright scoundrel. Would such a person turn over a new leaf just because he felt the greatness of His Majesty?

Hey, let's not joke about this, alright!

After some discussion, everyone was still unable to reach a decent conclusion. The final intention was to maintain the status quo. No matter what Baron Dahl did, they just had to play their own parts well.

The clergymen were not politicians. What was the point in pondering so much!