I, the wizard, the foolish Buddha.

Roland looked up at the sky in confusion.

Today is a cloudy day. The clouds cover the entire holy city, but they are very thin and do not block the light.

Suddenly, Roland realized something was wrong.

It's afternoon now, almost dusk. Yet the clouds in the sky are radiating light.

Upon closer inspection, Roland suddenly noticed that the cloud's altitude was unusual—it seemed to be in the stratosphere, or even higher. Such clouds shouldn't exist at that altitude.

At such a height, this cloud could probably fit many Kings of a Thousand Eyes without any problem.

Suddenly, a small corner of the clouds was blown away by the wind high in the sky.

It revealed a small, mirror-smooth area. That tiny area reflected the entire holy city, and with Roland's eyesight, he could even see himself on the street in that reflected holy city.

Roland's pupils suddenly contracted, and he suddenly understood what that thing was.

Prince Regent Charles laughed and said, “The height of the Holy Throne is getting lower and lower. It is said that 70,000 years ago it was on par with the Milky Way in the sky, bearing the glory of the gods.”

Roland nodded, muttering to himself, "It really is something like a starport in orbit."

Roland suddenly thought of a possibility and asked, "Did the Holy See fall during the war seventy thousand years ago? Did part of it fall to the ground?"

Charles: "Huh?"

Roland suddenly asked, "During this massive crash, did it cause the Earth's crust to tear apart, sending many things flying into the sky?"

Prince Regent Charles: "Huh??"

Roland asked again, "Wait, something's not right. At this height, why are we still experiencing gravity? Is it due to divine magic?"
By the way, the Holy City was actually built on a plateau? I mean, was the Holy City a plain 70,000 years ago? And over time, the land here gradually rose up, forming a huge plateau?

Prince Regent Charles: "Huh???"

Seeing that Roland was about to ask more questions, Brianna quickly gave him a look—don't fucking ask, I'm curious about these questions too! That thing seems to have no 'mass' at all, and it doesn't generate gravitational tides!

From Brianna's eyes, Roland could tell that the Vatican was also completely unaware of these matters. He shut his mouth and asked no more questions.

He thought to himself, 'This so-called holy throne is no exaggeration to call itself a miniature moon. Yet it has no mass and does not generate gravity.'
The gods' technological level 70,000 years ago already surpassed that of the Trisolarans.
Damn it, I should have known better. The ancient gods were incredibly advanced. After they left, they left behind many creations in this world.
The Well of Faith in Malrod is a technological relic left by the gods 70,000 years ago.

That thing alone is enough for us to study for many, many years.

The closer Roland got to the gods' 'old abode,' the more convinced he became of one thing—they had reached the pinnacle on a certain track. Even if they had begun to stagnate, the wizards didn't know when they would be able to catch up with them.

If the connection between the two worlds is not severed, the wizards will have absolutely no hope of winning.

Roland suddenly understood why, despite the numerous technological breakthroughs within the church and the advanced level of the reformists, the church remained utterly subservient to the gods and never entertained any thought of resistance.

Because they are gods!

The higher the level of technological development among mortals, the more they will find that the distance between themselves and the gods is incredibly vast.

At this moment, Roland couldn't help but have a thought—if we really have no chance of winning, then would choosing to surrender grant us the right to survive?
The answer is yes.

As Heracles said, the Garden of Eden of the gods is always open to mankind. Just bow your head, and you can enter.

Perhaps they must abandon wisdom and truth, but as Herakla said in another way—wisdom and truth are meaningless to mortals; survival is the only necessity for the development of the species, because they are ants.

In that withered oasis in the desert, ants try to extinguish the sun.

But these ants have already tasted the sweetness of truth and grown wings of wisdom. Would they be willing not to go up to the sky and take a look?

If these ants have already begun to think like humans, would they be willing to give up everything and refrain from developing their own civilization for the next hundreds of millions of years?
"Can I go up to the sky and take a look?"

Roland said, "I mean, the Holy See."

“Of course,” Brianna said. “The baptism ceremony will be held in the Holy See, and before that, you will reside here with many of the servants of God.”

Prince Charles smiled and said, “Your Excellency Roland, you must prepare well these days. On the day of your baptism, the doors of the Holy See will be open to the whole world, and everyone in the world will witness this sacred ceremony.”

Roland looked at the sky with a strange expression, wondering to himself: 'Just how big is that thing, and what kind of technology does it use?'

What does this open door mean? Is it a projection, or does it mean it can hold the entire world?

Roland had read many of the Old Testaments, but he had never seen any description of the Holy See in any of them.

This is very unreasonable and illogical.

After all, the Old Scriptures contain a great many metaphors, and the secrets they imply are all more confidential than the last.

The gods never cared what mortals knew, and they never concealed anything from the Old Testament. Therefore, there is no reason why the Old Testament should not mention the history of the Holy See.

Roland speculated that something like the 'Holy Throne' must have been written about in the Old Testament.

However, it has a different name in the Old Scriptures, which is why I couldn't match the two together.

'It might be described as some kind of 'god' or something.'

To reach the Holy See, one needs to teleport through specific plazas within the Holy City. These areas are mostly located in the innermost part of the city, several tens of kilometers away from Roland and his group's location.

Fortunately, the church's teleportation technology was relatively advanced, and they connected the entire city through a series of churches.

Roland had assumed these portals were open to all residents of the Holy City, but after entering a church, he discovered that the portal was located in the church's annex. It was about the size of a small hall, and was usually used by priests and high-ranking nobles.

Therefore, the daily traffic here is very low. When Roland and his group arrived, there was no one queuing.

Brianna said, "Teleportation consumes divine grace or 'holy stones (magic stones).' You know, the Church has a great need for divine grace. And the Church's alchemy technology is far inferior to that of the Eastern Realm. It's impossible for them to place a 'sage stone (philosopher's stone)' at every one of the hundreds of teleportation nodes in the city."

Ordinary holy stones are becoming increasingly rare, so although some teleportation arrays are open to the public, a fee is required. Therefore, only wealthy nobles can use them occasionally.” These words sounded utterly absurd to Roland. The entire holy city spanned over two hundred kilometers; such a large area could be divided into many towns, and several lords could be appointed to establish their own manors and castles.

The residents usually travel from east to west, which is equivalent to crossing several territories across the vast plains. The distance that Roland and his senior traveled from the back mountains of Valeria to the 'distant' brown fern forest was only about forty kilometers, and it took them almost a whole morning to travel by carriage!
Does the holy city have a subway, buses, or cars? It spans such a large area of ​​200 kilometers, and you're not allowed to ride horses wildly within the city; you can only lead your horse or ride in a slow horse-drawn carriage.

How are residents supposed to go out of town to run errands?

Communication is a major problem for the entire city!

If a resident lives in the East Side and works in the West Side, what should they do when commuting to work?
The reality is that employees typically live near their workplaces and don't cross districts. Furthermore, there's little interaction between different districts. So why cram so many districts into one city?

Wouldn't it be better to divide it into multiple cities and towns? Food could be grown in between to supply the daily needs of each city.

The church was completely unable to solve the transportation problem and was forced to rely on divine magic to barely maintain it. In order to maintain this huge city, the annual financial expenditure and management costs were astronomical.

Roland once again felt deeply how irrational the existence of this city was.

He couldn't help but recall once again the enormous 'Holy Throne' in the sky—Roland strongly suspected that the city beneath his feet was originally part of the Holy Throne in the sky.

A piece of that enormous throne shattered during the war and fell to the earth.

In order to repair the Holy See and return the fragments to heaven, the ancient church built a city here—and those unusually tall 'watchtowers' in that city were probably for that purpose.

However, over millions of years, civilizations have experienced a break in continuity, and later civilizations have forgotten the significance of this city's existence.

Yet they still adhere to the doctrines of the Bible in order to maintain the existence of this city.

Historically, the Church must have discovered the secret of the Holy See's existence and must have attempted to repair it. However, the civilization of this world has been constantly erased and broken down, so to this day, the fragments of the Holy See, known as the 'Holy City,' have never returned to heaven.

Roland strongly suspected that the Grey Falcon base on the riverbank, Project Angel, and so on, were all related to the Church's research on the Holy See.

The answers to all these questions can surely be found in the Holy See's archives.

The group entered three teleportation points in succession, and finally teleported to a small hall in a building in the inner city.

Brianna told everyone that they did not need to use a teleportation array to get to the Holy See, but rather they had to stand in certain 'specific squares' and wait for the Holy See's 'summoning'.

Soon, the group walked out of the small hall, and Roland was shocked to find that this was actually the 'Inquisition'.

Roland's expression stiffened slightly as he looked at the Judgment Knights coming and going in the corridor, all casting scrutinizing glances at him.

Roland asked, "Brianna, what are we doing here?"

"Oh, we're just passing through, since this place is closer."

Brianna smiled and pointed to the square outside the corridor window, saying, "We're going there."

Upon seeing the area Brianna was pointing to, Diana was so frightened she almost fainted, and Roland, Helena, Joan, and the others also felt their vision go black.

The square was packed with people, all quietly praying and waiting towards a high platform in the center of the square.

On that high platform stood a gallows—an execution platform.

The priests on the execution platform were announcing today's trial, their voices amplified by divine magic and reaching Roland and the others.

Judging from the content, the church is going to conduct a trial here today, and this execution platform is specifically used to execute evil gods.

He came from the 'riverside'.

With a slap, Brianna gave Roland a hard slap on the back: "Hurry up, everyone's been waiting for ages."

"Ahem, Brianna!"

Charles suddenly coughed and said sternly, "Enough, your joke is not funny—Sir Roland, she was just joking with you. We did not know that a trial would be held here today."

Brianna covered her mouth and giggled for a long time, looking like a fox who had just stolen a hen.

She'd been wanting to teach this brat a lesson for a long time, and now she'd finally gotten her revenge—Catherine wasn't here, and you still dared to be so arrogant? Just wait and see how I deal with you in the coming days!
Seeing Roland's extremely grim expression, as if he were taking it seriously, Brianna was speechless.

She patted Roland on the shoulder and said, “Let’s go, the people at the Holy See are waiting to summon us. That square is the closest—if you’re willing to walk a few more kilometers to another square, I don’t mind.”

Brianna tried to pull Roland away, but Roland stood still.

Roland asked, "What evil god is the church going to judge here today? The evil god from the riverbank?"

"of course."

Brianna winked at Roland and said, "The Crusaders have won a great victory this time. The culprit who caused the misunderstanding between the two churches has naturally been brought back as well."

Roland looked enlightened, somewhat understanding what Brianna meant. He said, "You mean, the Church pulled off the whole charade?"

Charles, standing to the side, sighed and said rather awkwardly, "I apologize for making you laugh. However, Your Excellency Roland, you know that the residents of both the North and the South harbor considerable prejudice against each other."

This war further fueled the anger of the people on both sides.

There always needs to be a scapegoat to appease public anger. So, while I personally have reservations about this matter, I can understand the decision of the Royal Court and the Papacy. Cough, to reiterate, I truly did not know that a trial was to be held today, as it was originally scheduled for a few days later.

Perhaps seeing the strong public outcry, they moved the date forward.

Brianna and Charles had not participated fully in the Crusaders' welcoming ceremony; they had come out early to find Roland.

If Charles had known he would be tried here today, he certainly wouldn't have dragged Rowland through this area. After all, it seemed a bit shameful.

Looking out the window, Roland couldn't help but become curious.

'There certainly aren't any evil gods along the riverbank, so this evil god must have been brought in by the Vatican. It seems they've suppressed many evil gods here? The Church's power is indeed not to be underestimated.' (End of Chapter)