Goddess Kaleidoscope

The High Priest of the Cult of War was visibly embarrassed, while Pope Saint Leonid remained all smiles throughout, signing his name as a witness and casually affixing a gleaming holy seal to the document.

The Holy Seal itself does not possess the same binding force as a blood pact, but violating an agreement witnessed by the Holy Seal is tantamount to slapping the face of the Holy Church of Light, allowing the Pope to openly send people to intervene.

This is not Earth, and the City of Light is not the Vatican.

Pope St. Leonid truly had many divisions under his command!

After the agreement was signed, both delegations immediately returned home. The Empire was busy cleaning up the mess. Although the Duran Expeditionary Force that had invaded the capital had withdrawn in accordance with the agreement, there were still noble forces that had been instigated to cause trouble, as well as invading southern barbarians.

In addition, Canary III had some "private matters" that he needed to discuss with Chancellor Goethe. It is likely that the once harmonious relationship between the monarch and his minister will never be as close as it once was.

After Canary III and his entourage left, the High Priest of the Church of Mars also hurriedly left the scene, busy returning to deal with a series of trivial matters concerning his recent ascension to the throne. The Pope, on the other hand, took the initiative to find Rudd and invited him to have a chat with him.

"I have longed to visit your holy capital for a long time, but now..."

"No, no, no, it's not that far from the Holy Capital. It's not far at all. Come sit at my sect's temporary camp. An esteemed person wishes to see you."

The Pope's voice wasn't loud, but when he mentioned "Sir," Ludwig instantly understood what he was talking about and felt uneasy.

"Is it...that sir?"

"Yes, it is that sir."

"..."

After glancing at the distance between himself and the temporary camp, Lud hesitated for less than three seconds before silently nodding. He then turned and told Shanis and Romian to go back first, while he followed the Pope toward the tent.

The group quickly arrived at the tent entrance. The Pope and the others stepped aside and gestured for them to enter, seemingly having no intention of following them in. Ludwig, however, was extremely nervous. Even with his strong mental fortitude, he was now panicking.

Damn it, there's no escaping it anyway, might as well give it my all!

With a "what's the worst that could happen?" attitude, Rudd entered the tent, only to be stunned when he looked up. Before him stood not only a strange blond young man engrossed in a book, but also a familiar face—the goddess of wisdom, Kumirad, whom he hadn't seen or missed in so long.

Seeing Lud's surprised expression, Kumirad said with a smile.

"You're already here, why are you still avoiding me?"

"???"

No sooner had Kumirard finished speaking than Hume emerged from the shadows behind Ludwig, followed by Aina, Shanes, and the three sisters. Ludwig was utterly astonished to see so many people emerge from his shadow.

"What...what are you doing?"

"I was worried about you!"

"Are you sure your presence will be of any use?"

"Uh……"

Hume glanced at the blond man not far away, then awkwardly scratched his cheek, looking quite guilty.

At this moment, the blond man who had been reading stood up, and Ludwig realized that the book the other man was reading looked familiar—it was the textbook being used at his school. The cover bore the large characters "Ideological and Moral Education."

The man approached Lud with the book, glanced at Lud and the group of goddesses behind him, and except for a slight frown when he looked at Shanis, his expression was quite friendly.

"You are Lud, aren't you?"

"Yes, it is I."

"Hello, my name is Karius."

Nearly eight years have passed since he transmigrated, and Lude has single-handedly created the Pantheon from scratch, commanding twelve goddesses who are now unrivaled in the mortal realm. However, when facing Carius, the Lord of Light, one of the three great gods, his heart is far from as calm as it appears on the surface.

While his own pantheon was developing rapidly, with the twelve goddesses concentrating all their divine power on him, giving him strength almost equivalent to the peak of the sixth tier, he was still no match for the Holy Lord of Light, Karius, who was almost universally recognized as the strongest among the three gods.

This is an eighth-tier high god, terrifying indeed!

Fortunately, Karius didn't seem to be there to cause trouble. He looked Lud up and down a few times in a friendly manner, his gaze finally settling on Lud's chest, before speaking with interest.

"I heard Kumirard mention you before, saying that a very interesting little fellow has appeared in the human world. He is able to merge with the primordial fire, has no reverence for the gods but is exceptionally intelligent, created a completely new religion, and even gave birth to many new gods."

"Uh... this is all what Ku... the goddess of wisdom said?"

"Yes, she has actually been observing you all along, and she will share these observations with me."

"Really? That must have been tough on her!"

Lud glanced at the grinning Kumirad beside him, his mind swirling with countless curses, yet he couldn't utter them aloud in this setting, nearly causing him internal injury. Karius's next words nearly caused Lud and the goddesses behind him to have their hearts and lungs stop.

"To be honest, I didn't like you much at first. Besides disagreeing with some of your actions, I was also worried about your constant creation of gods, even going so far as to call it the 'Pantheon.' This worried me a lot because the war of the gods more than three hundred years ago was caused by too many gods fighting over faith, and that war almost destroyed the entire world. So I once thought of nipping this potential threat in the bud."

"Then, what about now?"

"Now? Since you're still standing here unharmed, it's naturally because I've changed my opinion of you."

"..."

Lude breathed a sigh of relief; his emotions had just been as thrilling as riding a rollercoaster. Meanwhile, Karius, holding the book "Moral Education," continued speaking.

"Putting aside some minor flaws in your lifestyle, you are an excellent person with a relatively pure and upright character. Under your guidance, these new gods have not gone astray, which is much better than many old gods who think they are superior to mortals and like to do whatever they want."

Karius's rather positive evaluation can be seen as recognition of Rudd and the Pantheon, which also put Rudd and the goddesses behind him at ease, and the atmosphere in the tent immediately relaxed a lot.

Karius told Rudd that after this war between the two nations, the Pantheon had become infamous throughout the world for directly confronting the Cult of War and introducing a new goddess, "Victory," who was clearly intended to rival the God of War for the throne. Not only was the mortal realm a well-known place, but even many of the old gods who had previously ignored the lower realms had begun to pay attention to them. The days of secretly amassing wealth in seclusion were over.

The old gods were not friendly towards these new gods who suddenly appeared and made such a splash.

It's important to understand that most deities and their affiliated sects haven't actually conducted in-depth research into the origins of faith, just as someone who eats bread every day might not know how to grow wheat.

In their old understanding, the amount of faith that mortals can produce is limited; the more you gain, the more others will lose.

These ancient gods, who have lived for hundreds or thousands of years, are mostly stubborn old relics. Even if Lud takes the initiative to explain the principles of the origin of faith to them, they may not believe it.

Fortunately, among the Old Gods, there were still gods like Karius who adhered to "goodness and order," and he was powerful enough that when the gods and various sects learned that the Pantheon had allied with the Church of Light, and that Karius had even personally gone to the gates of the God of War to lend a hand, many of the Old Gods who had originally been ready to engage in "religious bullying" turned around and went back to their own nests to behave themselves.

If you can't beat them, then forget it.jpg

However, these lower-ranking gods, fearing the power of the Holy Lord of Light, dared not openly attack the Pantheon, but that did not mean they would not resort to underhanded tactics. Furthermore, powerful gods like the God of War and the Earth Mother would not sit idly by and watch the Pantheon covet their divine positions.

In the foreseeable future, the Pantheon is very likely to face joint suppression from other religious sects outside the Kingdom of Duran. Rudd must prepare in advance, otherwise he will be in a very passive position.

After hearing Karius's well-intentioned reminder, Lud nodded and expressed his gratitude. But he vaguely guessed that Karius's special trip down to the mortal realm to find him, accompanied by Kumirard, was definitely not just a simple reminder.

As expected! Karius changed the subject, saying that he had something to ask Ludwig, and that besides him, there was probably no one else in the world who was suitable for this task.

"Is it because I have the primordial fire within me?"

"That's right. You should know where the Primal Flame comes from, right?"

Lude nodded and pointed to the ground. He had read about the origin of the Primordial Fire when he was reading the old astrologer's research notes. The Primordial Fire came from the "Land of the Fire Seed" deep within the earth's core, a place that neither gods nor mortals who believed in gods could enter.

Only those who, like Luther and the old astrologers, recognize the true nature of the gods and do not regard them as "heretics" can enter into this realm.

Interestingly, the very place where the primordial fire originated is precisely the fundamental reason why this world was able to give birth to such inconceivable beings as deities from cognition and faith.

"You want me to go to that place?"

"I need you to go to the Land of Fireseed and take a look, then tell me what you see there."

Can you tell me why?

"Of course, but that's up to Professor Kumirard to decide."

Karius made a gesture of invitation, and Ludwig could vaguely tell that Karius seemed to have great respect for Kumirad, even addressing her as "teacher," and it wasn't just a simple polite remark.

Kumirad then took an oil lamp and placed it in front of Lud, then pointed to the flickering flame and said...

"If I told you that this world is like this lamp, and the primordial fire is the flame burning on the wick, would you like to guess what the lamp oil and the wick are respectively?"

Rude didn't actually know much about the land of the fire in the Earth's core, because the information left behind by the old astrologers was quite disorganized.

Back when this old pervert returned from the Earth's core with the Primal Flame, he threw himself into the experiment of creating gods. Until his accident, he never had time to properly organize his adventure log from exploring the Land of the Fire Seed, nor did he have any communication with Little Lud.

In addition, he has a habit of using the "keyword memorization method" to take notes, and many of his notes are just a few disjointed fragments, so no one but himself can understand what he has written.

Ironically, it was Hume who instructed the old astrologer to explore the land of fire, and Hume's intelligence was given to her by Kumirard, who was in contact with the Holy Lord of Light, Karius. In the end, it was the Sun Knights, a subordinate of the Holy Church of Light, who destroyed the old astrologer.

According to Kumirad, the Land of Fire is the core that maintains the normal functioning of this world, like the heart of this world.

But just like an oil lamp on a table, the burning of a candle requires a continuous consumption of "lamp oil," so too does the land where the fire originated.

The problem is that the land of fire rejects gods and mortals who believe in them, so whenever it is necessary to verify its internal situation, it is inevitable that "unbelievers" like Rudd will have to step in.

Lud roughly understood what Kumirad meant, so the question returned to its original point.

What is a lamp wick? What is lamp oil?

"Is this going to burn the spirit?"

"Yes, but not entirely. The reason we want you to go to the Land of Fire is also to find out about these things."

"Wait! So you didn't actually know?"

"I am the goddess of wisdom, not an omniscient and omnipotent goddess. Isn't it normal that there are things I don't know?"

"Has the wick never been changed or the oil replenished before?"

"It has changed hands, and more than once, but it was all done by the previous generation of old gods who lost in the competition with us new gods. Perhaps to take revenge on us, they deliberately perished along with the secrets of the Land of Fire."

Kumirad told Rudd that the gods of this world had changed at least four times. This was mainly because, as civilization developed, mortals' understanding and perception of all things in the world also changed. Sometimes new objects of faith were born, and sometimes old objects of faith were understood in ways completely different from the past.

Kumirad readily admitted that he and Karius were both second-generation successors to their respective principal divine positions. Both were associated with "light," but the previous god of light was simply light, while Karius's light represented justice capable of dispelling evil, and also symbolized hope.

The first generation of ancient gods perished naturally, while the second generation lost out to the third generation in the competition and were replaced by the more advanced third-generation gods. As for the fourth generation, they were new gods born after the war of the gods, and most of their divine positions were relatively obscure, so their strength was inferior to that of the third generation.

According to this generational classification, Aina and the others should actually be considered as fourth-generation gods, but Kumirard believes that they are fundamentally different from the fourth generation and can be completely classified as fifth generation!

This was mainly due to Ludwig's intelligence. After carefully studying the principles of the origin of faith, he constructed a complete pantheon that effectively avoided competition between new gods and could achieve win-win and mutually beneficial outcomes through a "co-operation" model.

These fifth-generation gods may never be as strong as Karius individually, but the Pantheon has a large number of gods and they form their own faction and follow a team-based cooperative model, which is far superior to these older generation gods who fight alone!

Therefore, Kumirard believes that Rudd is creating a new mythological era, and if these old gods do not want to perish due to being outdated, they must actively integrate into this new system and find their own place.

But before that, their top priority is to ensure that the "end of the world" does not happen.

No one knows what will happen if the fire in the Land of Fire goes out, but it is precisely because we don't know that it is so concerning. Kumirad doesn't know what's going on inside either; it's possible that everything is normal, and the wick and oil are enough to burn for thousands more years, by which time the sixth or seventh generation of gods might have emerged.

But it's also possible that the oil is about to run out and the flame will go out, and everyone will hold hands and welcome Ragnarok together.

Therefore, someone must be sent down to take a look, and Ludwig is currently the only qualified candidate.

Knowing the gravity of the matter, Lud thought it was indeed beyond speculation, and frankly, he was also very interested in the Land of the Fireseed. If the old astrologer could go, there was no reason why he couldn't.

However, Ludlow noticed that Karius always seemed to want to say something but hesitated, so Ludlow tentatively asked him.