Secret: The undead do not die in the fire

Among the seven major orthodox churches in the past, almost all of them focused on cultivating extraordinary people who followed the same path as the gods.

For example, most of the extraordinary people of the Church of Night are on the 'Sleepless' path, most of the extraordinary people of the Church of Storm are on the 'Sailor' path, and most of the extraordinary people of the Church of Steam are on the 'Generalist' path, and so on.

The reason for this phenomenon is that the church has a complete grasp of the corresponding methods. Not only does it have a complete set of potion formulas, it even has a monopoly on the corresponding extraordinary materials and ritual conditions.

For example, when a Beyonder of the Sailor Path is promoted to Sequence 5, the required ritual is to take a potion in the stomach of an Obnis. Because after taking the potion, the Beyonder will hear the sounds of all creatures in the entire sea area, which is enough to explode the brain of a Sequence 5 Beyonder!

Obnis's stomach can block these sounds, and only relatively vague sounds can be transmitted to his ears. This can prevent the Extraordinary People from losing control due to promotion to the greatest extent.

Furthermore, during the promotion, the body of the Extraordinary will be transformed by the magic potion, and invisible sound waves will be generated during the process, which are enough to burst the Extraordinary alive. This will make the Extraordinary want to vent these extra sound waves involuntarily to avoid their bodies being really burst.

But when the sound is made, the spirit body will be torn apart, and the sound waves will spread outward.And these torn spiritual bodies will make the extraordinary person extremely weak and even leave irreversible sequelae.

The mucus in Obnis's stomach will bounce the spirit fragments back into the body of the Extraordinary, and while the sound waves are released, the spirit can also be preserved. In this process, the Extraordinary's body is like the material in a furnace, which is polished and formed bit by bit.

Therefore, for the Sailor Path, if you want to advance to Sequence 5, you must find an Obnis and take the potion with the cooperation of the ritual, otherwise the probability of losing control is as high as 99%!

However, almost all Obnis are kept in captivity by the Storm Church, and the few wild Obnis are also outside the safe routes where few people go. This situation is enough to ensure that the Storm Church has a monopoly on the "sailor" channel.

The reason why Alger was able to be promoted smoothly without the Storm Church was because he had the help of the Fool. But for most Beyonders, they obviously don't have such an opportunity.

The same is true for other churches. They will monopolize the extraordinary materials and ritual conditions of the corresponding paths, and even extend their hands to other paths.

For example, the Church of Evernight not only monopolized the 'Sleeping One' path, but also interfered with the 'Fortune Teller' path, raising the mermaids needed to advance to Sequence 5 'Master of Secret Puppetry' in the Church of Tranquility and the Church of Sleep.

Even in the eyes of Arrodes's magic mirror, there were only wild mermaids in the area east of the Gargas Islands. For this reason, Klein had to go deep into the ruins of the God War and finally found the mermaid after going through many hardships and dangers.

The internal system of the Church of the Mother Goddess of the Earth appears to be somewhat 'different'.

On the one hand, the Earth Mother Church, like other churches, monopolized the Earth Path, that is, the 'cultivator' path, and cultivated a large number of extraordinary people based on this. For example, Roland, the Pope of the Earth Mother, is an angel of the 'cultivator' path, and most of the dozen archbishops of the Earth Mother Church are also from the cultivator path. In the Earth Mother Church, they are all 'divine grace'.

It can be said that these people are the people with the highest status in the Church of Mother Earth. But in addition to this, the Church of Mother Earth also has a special system of "God's Favored Ones" - the strength of "God's Favored Ones" is generally not high, but every clergyman is basically equipped with a God's Favored One.

For example, Pope Roland has a demigod-level favored one by his side. Any order issued by Roland needs to be confirmed by this favored one in person. Only with the permission of this favored one can the order issued by Roland be effectively conveyed.

The same is true for the archbishops. Most of them have a God-favored One at the Sequence 5 or Sequence 6 level by their side. And like Pope Roland, every order they give must be confirmed by these God-favored Ones before it can be successfully conveyed.

If not, the archbishop can refuse to carry out the Apostolic order, and the bishops and deacons below can also refuse to carry out the archbishop's order.

If someone doesn't know the inside story, they might think that Mother Earth is using those favored by God to check and balance those blessed by God, so as to achieve a certain balance so that Mother Earth can better control the church.

But any Extraordinary person with a slightly higher level knows that the so-called 'checks and balances' are nothing but nonsense.

Because Mother Earth is a god, the purpose of the church's existence is to serve her. Even if Mother Earth suddenly ordered the disbandment of the Church of Mother Earth, believers might be puzzled, confused, and feel abandoned by the gods and despair, but they would never disobey.

Excluding this possibility, the only thing that they feel might be related to the answer is the composition of those who are favored by God and those who are favored by God - those who are favored by God are extraordinary people from the 'Earth' path and the 'Moon' path, while those who are favored by God can be any path other than these two.

As long as you understand this point, you will know why the system of the Church of Mother Earth is divided into those favored by God and those blessed by God.

“I may know the answer to this.”

While others were still making various guesses, 'Justice' Audrey raised her hand slightly.

This immediately attracted the attention of others, and Audrey asked:
"Where do you think the source of the twenty-two extraordinary paths comes from?"

This is one of the three most central questions in mysticism, and there is no universally accepted answer.

Each school of thought has its own theory, and no one can convince anyone else.

Without waiting for others to answer, Audrey continued to explain:
"The most widely accepted theory is that Beyonder characteristics originate from the First Fire of Creation. The First Fire created the world and incarnated into all things, including gods, humans, the sea, the land, and Beyonder characteristics. This is recorded in the scriptures of all major churches."

Audrey said, winking quietly.

Others would also understand, because it was indeed the case - even a few months ago, the content recorded in the scriptures was still "Creator", but now, all major churches have unanimously changed "Creator" to "First Fire".

Emlyn the Moon remained noncommittal and added:

"As one of the rulers of the Second Age, we, the Blood Clan, believe that extraordinary characteristics do originate from the 'First Fire'. Then, different characteristics accumulated and gave birth to the Ancient Gods, who in turn created different races."

Audrey nodded slightly, confirming his statement, and then continued:
"But Carula once told me that not all paths originate from the First Fire."

"Carla?"

Upon hearing this name, The Hanged Man and others suddenly became solemn.

Although they had never seen Carla, they knew that she was an angel from the Visionary Path, and that she had a close connection with the First Flame. For example, the dream world was Carla’s masterpiece, and Mr. Fool had a good understanding of the dream world, and had never shown hostility towards Carla. At the same time, this Carla was not an angel under the Fool. All of this showed that behind Carla stood a god of the same level as Mr. Fool.

And this god... 'The Hanged Man' and 'The Hermit' looked at the embers at the same time.

In their hearts, they seem to have determined that the 'lover' is the god behind Karula. Only in this way can there be a reasonable explanation.

'Moon' didn't think too much and asked impatiently: "So the two paths of 'Earth' and 'Moon' did not originate from the First Fire? Then where did they come from?"

Audrey said very seriously:

"Starry sky."

Starry Sky 'Moon' Emlyn was shocked to hear this, and realized that the situation might be more serious than he thought. The Tarot Club had already shared the underground pollution and the dangers of the starry sky, and all members knew that just understanding these two concepts would cause erosion.

So they were only warned not to touch the underground and the starry sky, but they didn't know what the specific dangers were, what concepts they were, and how they were presented, because only by being ignorant enough could they avoid being polluted.

“So, it’s these two pathways themselves that have problems.”

Emlyn the Moon was silent for a moment, then he sorted out his thoughts and said:
"Other paths will be more or less affected by the spiritual imprints of past owners left in the Beyonder characteristics, while the 'Earth' and 'Moon' paths come from the starry sky, so they are more susceptible to 'contamination' from the starry sky?"

"Yes." Audrey 'Justice' nodded slightly.

This is a test for me... Emlyn the Moon sighed and said:
"I have mastered the names of the high-sequence potions of the 'cultivator' and 'moon' pathways, but I am a little confused about two of them."

After becoming the Count of the Vampire Clan and a senior deacon of the Church of the Earth, he obtained the corresponding authority and could access a lot of information that he had not been able to access in the past.

Seeing the other members of the Tarot Club looking over, Emlyn said thoughtfully:

"The Sequence 3 of the 'Moon' pathway is called 'Master Summoner', the Sequence 2 is called 'Creator', and the Sequence 1 is called 'Goddess of Beauty'; the Sequence 3 of the 'Tillage' pathway is called 'Coffin Bearer', the Sequence 2 is called 'Mistress of Desolation', and the Sequence 1 is called 'Nature Walker'.

What I am confused about is that the names of these two potions, 'Goddess of Beauty' and 'Mistress of Desolation', both have certain gender references. What do you think?"

"..." For a moment, none of the other members of the Tarot Club spoke. Everyone looked at each other in silence.

After a few seconds, Audrey controlled her gaze and said carefully:
"I remember that Sequence 7 of the 'Assassin' pathway is called 'Witch'. The assassins who took this potion eventually became witches."

...This is a test for me... Emlyn's lips moved slightly, but he couldn't utter a word.

When he saw the name of the potion, he actually had a certain premonition, but he was not willing to accept it and hoped to get another explanation at the Tarot Club.

The Hanged Man considered and said:

"Actually, you don't have to worry too much, because you probably won't become an angel."

Emlyn's breathing stagnated. Are you trying to comfort me? But why do I feel like you're being sarcastic?

Audrey 'Justice' helped explain:
"Mr. Hanged Man probably means a Sequence 1 angel."

“任何一条途径序列1的天使最多只能有三位，并且序列0和序列1无法共存。所以无论是大地母神希望将‘月亮’途径的序列1非凡特性赐给大地母神教会的天使，还是‘美神’希望借此晋升序列0，都不会有多余的序列1流出。”

"So for ordinary Beyonders, the limit of the Moon Path is Sequence 2 Angels."

Emlyn's expression improved a lot. A Sequence 2 angel is not bad after all.

Unlike the Sequence 2 'Mistress of the Wasteland' of the 'Earth' path, the Sequence 2 'Creator' of the Moon path does not have a clear gender indication, but isn't Duke Olmer also at this level?

As for the 'Goddess of Beauty', Emlyn neither expected nor wished for it - although he liked dolls, he would rather forget about sex change.

As the discussion was drawing to a close, World Gehrman Sparrow looked around and whispered:
"Everyone, I need to remind you of something."

When the Tarot Club members looked over at the same time, Klein manipulated the dummy 'World' and spoke in a low voice:

"The end of the world is only a few years away, and everyone may be destroyed, including the gods."

"several years?"

The hearts of the Tarot Club members suddenly sank. At their current level, they had all come across rumors about the end of the world to some extent. However, most of them regarded them as rumors that had been spread by word of mouth and did not take them seriously at all.

But now that the World has said it himself, these are two completely different concepts. You have to know that this happened at the Tarot Club, in front of two gods, Mr. Fool and Mr. Lover, the World actually said bluntly that "even the gods will be destroyed." What does this mean?
Leonard was the first to come to his senses and asked:
"Why would the end of the world come so suddenly? There is no sign of it now..."

The World laughed softly:

"It's just that you didn't find any signs. Do you think the war between gods will break out for no reason?"

They shouldn't have known these things. After all, what would they do even if they knew? As demigods, they couldn't change anything.

What's more, as long as the embers are there, doomsday may not happen.

But it is always better to be safe than sorry - there are more than a dozen Old Ones outside the starry sky, eyeing them covetously. Even if the Embers can save this world, they are destined to not be able to protect everyone, just like Lordran in the past. As for the lucky few, they can enter the refuge of the 'Painting World'.

And in the coming doomsday, there will always be people who die in this disaster.

Therefore, Klein decided to tell them part of the truth in the voice of the "world". This would at least allow them to prepare early. Although they were doomed to be powerless to influence the final outcome, they could at least avoid some disasters that would have otherwise occurred.

This is not a bad thing. (End of this chapter)