I impersonated God in America

"A Roman centurion? If every common soldier in Rome had that rank, they would have conquered the whole world by now."

"Wait! A Roman centurion?! I know! It's Saint Longinus!!!"

The analyst suddenly realized something.

"He was the Roman soldier who stabbed the Holy Son with that spear!"

Everyone in the command room reacted immediately and instantly realized the identity of the figure.

After all, not many people are associated with that holy lance, and he was also identified as a Roman soldier.

Legend has it that Longinus was a Roman centurion suffering from an eye ailment, the very soldier who used a spear to confirm the death of the Holy Son after his crucifixion.

At the very moment the piercing was done to the Son, the blood and water flowing from the Son splashed onto his almost blind eyes, and his eye disease was instantly cured. This miracle deeply shocked him, and he immediately repented and converted to faith.

After repenting, Longinus renounced his status as a Roman soldier and, according to tradition, returned to his hometown of Cappadocia (in present-day Turkey) to preach.

Ultimately, he was arrested for publicly acknowledging his new faith. After suffering brutal torture (including tooth extraction and tongue cutting), he refused to renounce his faith and was eventually beheaded.

It was this act of sacrificing his life for his faith that ultimately led to his canonization by the church as a saint and a martyr.

"In the Church's canon system, Saint Longinus is recognized as a Blessed."

"If the ritual can bring out the remaining spirituality within the relic, it is not surprising that the Holy Lance appeared, considering that it was his own possession."

"So the Holy Lance that appeared must be his remaining power?"

"That makes a lot of sense."

General Cavalli slowly placed the pen on the corner of the table.

"My God, this one day has been more eventful than half my life; my heart can barely take it!"

"Hopefully, such a disaster will never happen in Italy again."

"But considering that such an extraordinary accident only happens once every few thousand years, the probability of me being able to retire peacefully afterward should not be a problem."

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Wenban's phone camera shifted from Giovanni's pale face to the coastline.

He tilted his head back, his mouth slightly open.

The enormous shadow of the stone serpent had enveloped all the remaining buildings along the entire highway in its expanding rock shell, and Wenban's viewfinder could no longer capture it.

He had to move the phone further and further out, until it was at the furthest point in the frame, before he could barely fit the enormous, sky-covering snake into the shot.

"It's too big...it's even bigger than before..."

The stone serpent began its charge.

Its massive body, nearly the size of an entire building, rolled over the asphalt road along the coastal highway, and every piece of gravel it crushed under its belly was re-embedded into its scales by being absorbed.

Its vertical pupils were fixed on the illusory figure on the sandy ground.

Wenban's phone was shaking.

"It's gone! It's gone!"

The illusory figure did not move, and the next moment everyone heard a sound that seemed to be made by the vibration of the air.

"Rest in peace, you sorrowful serpent created by taboo!"

He simply raised the light gun in his hand and made a throwing motion.

Then the gun disappeared.

The stone snake's head was less than a short distance away from him.

It stopped.

The light in the vertical pupils slowly slowed down.

Its mouth was open, but the entire giant rock body was frozen in place and could not move forward even an inch.

It stopped several dozen meters in front of the illusory figure.

next second.

Wenban saw through the viewfinder that the stone snake's brow was split open.

Then the purple light in its vertical pupils completely disappeared from its eye sockets.

"That gun?! Holy crap! The stone snake was completely destroyed in a single shot!!!"

Wenban's mouth was open.

You should know that the stone serpent was a monster that the entire Sardinian garrison couldn't deal with.

He was actually killed instantly by that illusory, invisible being with just one strike?!

It's as easy as throwing a match!

The giant snake in the viewfinder continues to collapse.

Layer by layer, the rocky crust peeled off the snake's body, crashing onto the coastal highway and spewing out continuous grayish-white dust.

The snake was silently, piece by piece, falling apart completely from its body to its tail.

The roar of the collapsing stone snake echoed across the Sardinian coast for several seconds.

All that remained on the battlefield was that towering figure.

The comments section stopped.

Everyone forgot that they could send comments.

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Hallelujah

On the other side, everyone at the Ministry of National Defense finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Cavalli slumped into his chair.

These past two days have been incredibly exciting for someone of his age.

God above.

Wait, God?!

Suddenly he realized what was happening and sprang up from the chair.

"Go immediately! Suggest that the President get up and arrange the visit to the Papal States!"

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Sacred Marks

Rumble

The sound of the stone snake collapsing echoed continuously along the coastline, as layers of stone shell peeled off the stone snake's body and were repeatedly smashed onto the road.

The air was already filled with dust.

Washington, D.C., White House Situation Room.

A large number of high-ranking officials in the United States are staring intently at the live broadcast on their screens.

In the corner of the screen, a theology professor, who had just been woken up, was frantically flipping through a book during a video call.

The professor's fingers searched through thick volumes of ancient books, muttering words that no one could understand.

The president sat at the head of the long table, feeling as if his worldview had completely collapsed.

Previously, the snake-man could be attributed to some kind of genetic modification.

The monster that has appeared now has completely blocked all his life experiences.

"The church can already invoke divine intervention, while we sent three sniper squads and a negotiation expert to deal with a snake-man from an Italian fishing village, and we still let him escape?!"

"fxxk!"

No one responded.

The entire command center was so quiet that you could hear the hum of the air conditioner vents.

The defense minister's expression remained unchanged.

He simply pushed the briefing about Hugo Moretti aside in silence.

"Mr. President, the arrests during the Snake Man incident were the NYPD's own doing. Handing them over to our Department of Defense now will certainly ensure success!"

"This is our Deputy Minister James. He will be transferred to a new department to oversee the overall situation."

The president looked at the square-faced man sitting next to him.

The other person stood up and spoke to him.

"Your Excellency, please rest assured, we have armed our soldiers to the teeth!"

The president looked up at the other person and asked, "If a monster like the stone serpent appeared on our soil, could you handle it?"

"If it's a stone snake, it might be a bit tricky."

Will we win?

"We will win."

Seeing the confident expression on Deputy Secretary of Defense James's face, the president felt relieved.

He raised his hand and pointed to the Roman centurion still standing on the screen, holding his gun.

"Did that person just say something?"

The CIA chief enlarged the intercepted audio clip.

The translation team's live captions scrolled slowly at the bottom of the screen.

"What a tragic serpent... that has become a victim of the desire for immortality."

Saint Longinus's translucent silhouette tilted his head slightly, gripping the light gun that had somehow returned to his hand.

At this point, the stone serpent's body had completely collapsed.

Morning has arrived.

The clouds in the sky suddenly parted.

As the sunlight shone down from the clouds.

It hit Giovanni in the face.

Saint Longinus then slammed the light spear into the sand. The light spear then began to gradually dissipate.

It seemed as if he had already completed his mission.

Giovanni looked at the saint above him and silently made the sign of the cross on his chest.

The next moment, he saw the other person looking at him.

"The day of beginning is drawing ever closer. The church must be prepared."

What is the day of beginning?

But Giovanni didn't have time to understand. He saw the saint's body begin to gradually dissipate.

To his surprise, the dissipating light spots actually traveled back towards the back of his hand.

"I'm entrusting my last bit of insignificant strength to you."

As soon as he finished speaking, Saint Longinus's body began to gradually transform into rays of light, which then drifted away and disappeared from the coastline of Sardinia in no time.

The light vanished into thin air, as if it had never happened.

Giovanni looked down at the faintly glowing cross-shaped mark on his palm.

God exists.

His face was completely exposed to the morning light after the holy light faded, and the tear stains at the corners of his eyes had been dried by the sea breeze.

He then slowly knelt down and made the sign of the cross on his chest.

The next moment, a large number of residents in the surrounding area also lay down and drew a cross.

Hallelujah.

The sound of prayers drifted across the beach.