Chapter 266: Turning Point

“Ha…”

Now, let’s take all the information gathered so far and try to get a comprehensive view of the entire situation from a macro perspective.

From what we know about the ancient legends passed down through the Summerfield Family, the original beginning dates back to the end of the mythological era a thousand years ago, when the world fell into chaos, leading to war. The lower races, led by humanity, suffered the cruel exploitation of the higher races, resulting in a time of great turmoil.

In such an environment, the Church of Light, which is the predecessor of the current Church of the Goddess, emerged. This organization spread among the oppressed commoners and gradually took root, similar to the Church of the Light today.

However, at that time, they did not possess the power to overthrow the rule of the higher races… which means that the faith-based magic likely hadn’t appeared yet, at least not as widespread as it is now.

So, about a thousand years ago, in what is now called Mingguang City, three young girls of the Church of Light encountered a mysterious “tree” during an indescribable adventure, which granted them three items and corresponding miraculous powers.

These became the three holy artifacts of light, the founding treasures of the three divine families.

With this bestowed power, they united the oppressed races and, after a long struggle, the Holy Empire was born, centered around the three saints and the three artifacts.

Vilyric could tell that although Yuna had hidden some things from her, she had never truly lied; the Saint of Bright Light was indeed a genuinely devout believer who wouldn’t deceive… at most, she just wouldn’t say everything.

So, the authenticity of the previous information could be assured.

Up until this point, everything seems fine.

However, a question naturally arises.

When did the Church of Light become the Church of the Goddess?

…Ah, I see.

This transformative moment is likely the root of everything now.

Vilyric had previously looked through the official history of the Holy Empire in detail, as well as most of the unofficial histories she could get her hands on. Although the name “Church of Light” isn’t taboo, there was no detailed description of the process and reasons behind the change of these two titles in any of them.

Most of them only briefly mentioned it, and those that gave occasional explanations didn’t specify exact dates. This implies that the writers themselves were not well-informed about this aspect either.

The current mainstream view seems to be that after the establishment of the Holy Empire, the Church of Light naturally transformed into the more orthodox Church of the Goddess.

At this point, we cannot avoid mentioning the three Demon Wars.

According to historical records, the three Demon Wars occurred at the beginning of the Holy Empire, five hundred years after its establishment, and three hundred years ago.

The reasons for these wars were different each time, with the first one occurring alongside the sudden end of the mythological era when many enemies from other worlds began to pour into this world that had lost the protection of the gods.

The Eastern Empire, which occupies the area now known as the Holy Kingdom’s eastern region, was essentially a colonial state established through demonic invasion.

The resistance movement launched by the Church of Light sparked fierce conflict with the demon empire that was exploiting and oppressing the local inhabitants, leading to what is known as the founding war of the Holy Empire, referred to as the First Demon War.

As a result of the war, the Church of Light, under the leadership of the three saints, ultimately achieved victory, driving the demons, who had occupied this world for nearly a century, back to their original realm and establishing a new nation on the old site.

After that, roughly five hundred years passed. Perhaps dissatisfied with relinquishing this fertile land, or maybe it was mere coincidence or hidden circumstances, a cult known as the Demon Sect secretly wreaked havoc in the Holy Kingdom, and the portal connected to the demon world was reopened.

The demons seized this opportunity to invade, once again unleashing fierce conflict with the Holy Empire.

However, the scale of this war was actually much smaller than that of the First Demon War and was more akin to a localized conflict. The troops actually committed to this war by the demon world were quite limited.

Even the various demon lords were fighting among themselves, delivering little pressure to the Holy Empire.

According to analyses by later scholars, it was likely because the Holy Kingdom quickly identified and located the largest demon portal early in the war, leading to the three saints working together to forcibly destroy it. This resulted in a lack of subsequent reinforcements and disorganization on the enemy’s side, which caused them to fight among themselves and swiftly suffer defeat.

This war is considered the shortest and least impactful of the three Demon Wars.

But the Third Demon War was entirely different.

Not only did it bring a historic turning point for the Holy Empire, but it is also the most mysterious large-scale war recorded.

Firstly, the cause of this war has still not been definitively established.

The emergence of the embodiment of Corruption came quite suddenly; it seemed to be searching for something rather than directly targeting the Holy Empire. Yet, as a powerful being comparable to a god, even if it didn’t intentionally cause destruction, its actions still brought about terrible consequences locally, causing countless beings to lose their minds and become puppets.

As a result, the current Saint of Bright Light didn’t even have time to gather the other two saints, who were far away, and had no choice but to confront it alone.

The outcome was that the Saint of Bright Light and that embodiment perished together, throwing the Holy Empire into chaos when they suddenly lost their highest leader. The demons took this opportunity to launch an invasion war, forcing the former to retreat, until the Holy Church appeared and managed to reorganize the power of the Holy Kingdom, stabilizing the situation.

It’s strange… there are too many points of suspicion, and the問題恐怕就出在这里。

The reason for the arrival of the embodiment of Corruption aside, from Yuna’s insider information, we know that after the previous Saint of Bright Light perished in that battle, the supreme artifact of light she wielded, the Crown of the Uncrowned, was lost in the demon realm.

This was the fundamental reason why the next Saint of Bright Light struggled to succeed and failed to lead the Holy Kingdom in resisting the invasion.

However, if it was just needing a name for a leader, all they had to do was appoint a successor saint. They could even fake a “Crown of the Uncrowned” like Yuna to put on a show. With the deeply rooted legacy of the Bright Light for hundreds of years, as long as the successor wasn’t too foolish, they could probably unite the situation and lead public sentiment better than the hastily formed Holy Church.

Just like when the Church of Light established the Holy Empire a thousand years ago, fundamentally, the Holy Kingdom wasn’t lacking a leader. The early setbacks of the Third Demon War were merely due to the loss of their strongest national artifact, the death of their mightiest saint, and the resultant weakening of their fundamental power, making it difficult to fully contend with the demons.

It was a very realistic “unable to win.”

So… why, with the establishment of the Holy Church, did it suddenly transform from “unable to win” to “able to win”?

   

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