After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

A long time passed.

He snapped his fingers:

"...Why not just let the parish people spread rumors? It's perfectly normal for the parish, as real information inadvertently revealed by the enemy, to be taken seriously..."

I need to go to the parish myself and arrest a few people for experiments. As for what that necrophiliac will do then? Hmph...

A piece of trash who stealthily steals faith, an unworthy person, would be demoted among us demons.

He leaped off the roof and then took flight. Under the cover of night, no one noticed the demon servant's shadow as he flew through the sky.

The demon servants set off for their chosen destination, while in St. Petersburg, a parish, the God of Light merely smiled dismissively at the United Nations' amassed military forces on the border.

For ordinary nations, the large number of Golems and troops garrisoned by the United Nations along the borders of their dioceses are undoubtedly a formidable enemy.

But to the gods, these constructs are nothing more than inferior creations that would crumble at the slightest touch—not to mention, these junk things have no chance of harming them at all.

As long as one's body is healthy and one's physical body remains unexposed, one will be invincible on the battlefield...

By forging his own power through war, and then gaining more faith through that power, he creates countless corpses in a positive cycle, and then uses these as a basis to ascend to a higher level of godhood—this is the latest plan of the God of Light, and also his summary of his next actions.

But before embarking on this plan, the God of Light, Constantine, had two things to do...

Firstly, it involves seizing the saintess's faith and body. This matter is of paramount importance, directly related to the God of Light's "ascension," and must not be neglected.

Secondly, there is the major event of the reunification of the Church of Light—a unified religion can bring many benefits to itself, and the God of Light has no reason to continue to let the old and new religions continue to fight each other.

With Cecilia no longer useful and no longer needing the power of [Light] in the future, all the Protestant scriptures can be directly discarded—at that time, his new scriptures only need to encourage the creation of more fools.

The more ignorant the populace, the more food they provide; and the less risk and cost there is in controlling a more ignorant populace.

However, while that's the idea... in practice... there are still many variables that need to be addressed.

One of them is the current leader of the Old Church, the Church Master Peter.

Peter the Elder has been making unusual moves lately, but the God of Light has not paid much attention to it.

After all, in the future, there will be no place for Peter the leader in the new Church of Light.

He will die with the saint. He will die on the battlefield ahead.

"At that time... earthly religions, heavenly kingdoms, the power of concepts will all be concentrated in my hands..."

"Hehehe... This is truly unparalleled beauty."

Constantine, the God of Light, was filled with emotion in his heavenly kingdom. He seemed to see the day when he would become the most powerful conceptual god in the world—every time he thought about the power and status he would eventually gain, his mood would become very good.

When you're in a good mood, you can't help but want to eat something. But gods don't need to eat.

As gods who have lost most of their desires, if a god is obsessed with eating or sex, it can only be said that this is their nature and desires—but for Constantine, his desire is to reach something higher. Naturally, his good appetite means eating more things that can enhance his power.

...

Although I wanted to wait until the 23rd to eat it, given the unexpected events, it's only natural to enjoy the saint's faith ahead of time, right?

With this thought in mind, the God of Light leisurely drew out the Saintess's faith and then put the power that shimmered with silver light into his mouth.

The process of absorbing faith continued as usual—but just then, the God of Light noticed something was wrong.

Why is this wave of faith... so [intense]?

Before he could realize anything...

Intense pain immediately rose from my abdomen.

Chapter 10: 2/5 Desecrating a Corpse - 8K

pain.

A sharp, intense pain, like an ice pick piercing through the rectum and churning the stomach, came from the God of Light's abdomen—but the problem was, the God of Light's body wasn't there.

Even in heaven, his physical body and his avatar are completely separated—yet under these circumstances, he can still feel the pain he could only feel when he was a mortal thousands of years ago?!

What on earth is going on?!

Constantine, the god of light, whimpered in pain. He clutched his abdomen, using his other hand to brace himself against the wall to barely stop his body from sliding unconsciously downwards.

It hurts, it hurts so much.

Cold and pain intertwined. He could feel his body getting colder and colder... Moreover, this pain seemed impossible to be relieved by the power of faith or divine power.

The God of Light tried to suppress the pain with his own power—but as soon as his divine power entered the painful area, the pain became even more intense.

What troubled Constantine even more was that, accompanied by the pain, the faith he had channeled seemed to be "transferred"...

"What's going on?! No—no! My faith, my divine power! What on earth is happening?!?"

Constantine was like a thug who had been brutally beaten, only able to utter powerless roars and wails.

He could feel his divine power leaking out, just as a person with diarrhea could feel the filth gushing out of their intestines. Constantine's faith and divine power, accumulated over hundreds of years, were beginning to dissipate at the speed of the moon.

In less than a minute, he had lost nearly twenty months' worth of faith power! If Constantine hadn't endured the excruciating pain to do everything he could to repair the leaking channels, his faith power might have been completely depleted in less than a day...

Who? Who on earth did such a vile and despicable thing to me?! The God of Light's heart shattered, and just as he endured the pain and looked in the direction where his faith power had been "transferred," he discovered that the one who had transferred his faith power was none other than the saintess Cecilia, whose faith he had stolen!

That bastard! That idiot! That shameless, ungrateful jackal!

After Constantine roared and summoned a scepter into his hand, he suddenly felt his faith power draining away even faster with each movement...

"No... I can't use my power! I must invoke divine decree to have the old church attack the new church immediately and execute that ungrateful bastard on the spot!"

The God of Light gritted his teeth. The loss of divine power not only gradually weakened him, but also made his strength gradually diminish day by day.

The fatal flaw is that believers can clearly perceive God's weakness or strength.

Just like the person to whom he issued the divine oracle—the Old Church's leader, Peter. As the "leader," and as the being closest to God besides the saint, Peter felt almost instantly the gradual depletion and loss of divine power...

Feeling the divine message bestowed upon him by the God of Light, and seeing that the golden light on the message was not even as dazzling as before... Master Peter knew that his opportunity had come.

"Although I don't know exactly what that bitch did... one thing is certain... this is an opportunity."

Peter the Elder respectfully accepted the divine decree and immediately ordered his few remaining confidants to gather all the warriors and believers in the old Christian region—their God could not wait for the day when the living dead would be completely wiped out, and naturally, as believers, they should also give their all.

But... this only applies to ordinary believers.

This was an opportunity for Peter the Great.

Because the power of the God of Light is gradually weakening... When it weakens to a certain extent, even to the point that believers can feel his weakness, the only thing the God of Light can do is to reveal his Holy Body, and then, after the Holy Body descends to earth, personally fight from the rear to supervise the believers in launching a fierce attack, while boosting the morale of his own side and dealing a severe blow to the morale of the enemy.

But Peter the Elder did not care about the morale of his side.

He only knows one thing.

"The God of Light... as long as the Protestant Church persists long enough, he must descend upon this world to personally oversee the battle... He must possess a physical form to demonstrate his authority before the fleeing believers. In other words... that is my best opportunity."

The patriarch Peter licked his lips. He reached up and stroked the unassuming scabbard at his waist. That dagger, capable of slaying gods, now needed the body of a deity.

In other words, as long as Peter's army is unable to advance quickly due to unavoidable circumstances, and as long as the Protestants put up a desperate resistance... the God of Light will definitely come to reality.

The problem is, how can you make your army unable to advance due to unavoidable circumstances?

Peter rose from his throne and walked to the balcony, looking at the bustling base, where an inconspicuous grain warehouse stood.

Before going to war, you need to eat first so that you have the strength to fight. So here's the problem: what if the food given to ordinary believers is contaminated with a non-lethal poison, and you find an excuse to send the small number of the Christian army to the rear to supervise the battle?

Sending weakened soldiers to conquer cities and territories is tantamount to suicide—but what Peter the Elder needs now is for them to commit suicide!

"...Hehehe."

He smiled.

What does it matter if thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people die if one can become a god? There are plenty of powerful people in this world who rise to power by stepping on corpses, so why can't one of them be one of them?

"Let's use poison. Yes, let's use poison... Although a laxative seems better, it's too obvious... So, let's just use regular spider venom."

Leader Peter rubbed his hands together. This time, he had to do the poisoning himself.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the saint Cecilia, who was being targeted by both the God of Light and the cult leader Peter, was completely unaware of what was about to happen.

Not long ago, a portion of her faith power was suddenly and violently drained away—although this portion of faith power began to flow back within minutes, and it seemed that more and more of it was flowing back... in any case, Cecilia was still prepared to be punished by the gods.

As a saintess, her duty is to store and relinquish faith for her deity—but now, not only has the faith failed to be relinquished, it has even begun to flow back...

No matter which god it is, they will no longer welcome this believer.

Although Cecilia no longer cared about the doctrines and principles of the God of Light, the fact that her path to faith in others had also been cut off still saddened and frustrated her.

The witch Priscilla was curious about what had happened to Cecilia. After examining Cecilia's strange condition for a while, she pointed out something serious:

“If Cecilia, your faith power was previously given to the God of Light, then this time, not only has your faith power failed to be given to the God of Light, but it has even begun to shift in another direction... Moreover, Cecilia... I don’t know if this is just my imagination.”

Do you feel like you're channeling an excessive amount of faith power? Do you feel it? The divine power you're transferring now... seems to be more than your faith over the past ten years. More than all the believers around you combined.

Where does this power of faith come from? To whom has it been transmitted? We know nothing about it, but at least one thing is certain...

The God of Light's dissatisfaction with you is probably reaching its peak.

Although Priscilla himself was unsure where Cecilia's divine power would be transferred to... or who was in charge of all these changes, Priscilla was certain of one thing: the God of Light's anger towards Cecilia would reach its peak.

After all, to put it bluntly, Cecilia has already expended an excessive amount of faith power, which definitely does not belong to Cecilia and may even have been taken from the God of Light's private coffers.

To use a simple analogy, it's like a small glass bottle constantly scooping water from one water tank to another—if Cecilia were simply entrusting her faith to another being, then the God of Light would at most be "dissatisfied."

But now, without Cecilia's own knowledge, she has become the culprit who stole the power of the God of Light, and even in the eyes of outsiders, she is "actively" handing over divine power to another unknown being...

It's only natural that the God of Light would be angry. In fact, if this were to be discovered by his subordinates, aside from the ascetic nuns, the rest of the believers would likely mutini in shock.

The people of this place are believers in the God of Light. Although they have witnessed the existence of the living dead and the golden mist, and the ascetic nuns who knocked down the skeletal angels from the sky, they are essentially still believers in the God of Light.

They were simply trying to numb themselves by treating everything that was happening as a "test from God." Whether this idea actually holds true is another matter entirely.

Priscilla believed they had to maintain secrecy, and even immediately strengthen their defenses against the Old Cult to prevent them from launching a frenzied attack after receiving the oracle from the God of Light. She even suspected that the God of Light might personally descend to eliminate Cecilia... But then again?

Why doesn't the God of Light descend immediately? If the God of Light truly possesses that power, wouldn't he be able to kill Cecilia directly?

Or perhaps, with this leakage of divine power, the God of Light has lost most of his power and is no longer able to punish Cecilia personally.

Or is it the least likely thing: that the God of Light actually still has hope for Cecilia?

...

The witch fell into deep thought.

But at that moment, Cecilia covered her head and said that she might be able to find the place where this winding divine power led...

That was the Monster Forest, bordering the northern border of the diocese. West of the Monster Forest, it stretched towards the border of the Elf Kingdom, then through the gradually thinning edge of the forest, finally reaching the territory of a certain country...