Chapter 40: Investiture of the Gods 3
2015-08-01
Author: Floating Tower
“High Priest!”
The priests and believers on both sides of the road humbly lowered their heads, parting to create a path. The Mind Sorcerer appeared, wearing a black priest robe trimmed with gold and silver edges, with mysterious runes at the cuffs and a complex nine-pointed star formation etched on her full chest. At this moment, she had removed her veil, revealing a beautiful yet slightly otherworldly face, indicating that she was not a pure human but possessed other bloodlines.
The expression of the Mind Sorcerer was grave and solemn. She glanced at the others in front of her and slowly said, “Everyone else, step back.”
“Priests, follow me into the temple to pray.”
The grand temple looked unified as a whole. As the High Priest of the Church, she oversaw the entire process from design to completion of the temple. The temple was located on the side of the central square, built in the most central and prominent area of Leaffall City. Due to a large use of the spell “Mud to Stone,” the entire structure of the temple was quite solid, comparable to half of a Wizard Tower. As Soren’s power grew, Gloria’s status in the Northern Witch Council also rose sharply, and the Witch Council was clearly keen to befriend a new deity, so the layout of the entire temple reached the construction standards of a Wizard Tower.
A temple is an unbreakable fortress!
As the most crucial venue for the deity’s activities in the mortal realm, any temple still operational must have the ability to withstand legendary powerful beings.
Otherwise!
In the event of a future conflict, the temple, as the core of activities, would be pulled out one after another by enemies and could not provide protection for the priests and believers of the Church.
This temple, the first and most important grand temple of Soren, could require the investment of over a million Gind upon its complete completion, making it potentially more expensive than many Wizard Towers. However, it has merely completed an outline, with the building aspect finished, while other aspects related to divine spell guidance, rune engraving, formation arrangement, etc., have yet to commence. When it is truly finished, the energy field of the grand temple can cover the entire Modo Island and might even directly affect the climate of this island.
This is a monumental project!
Just like the temple of the City of Wealth, it may ultimately need the Holy Spirit Priest to guard it.
The walls surrounding the temple are adorned with exquisite reliefs, depicting Soren’s great achievements, engraved by half-elf craftsmen. Only part of it is complete, and ample space has been reserved. In the near future, they will continue to engrave other deeds of Soren on the temple walls, and it may even depict the wars among deities. Of course, it is not solely about Soren himself; if any heroic figures from the Church perform legendary epic events, those will also be left as reliefs.
Seventy-two pure white marble columns support the structure of the temple. Currently, nothing has been engraved on them, but they seem to hold special significance.
The interior of the temple is quite spacious.
At its center stands a magnificent, lifelike statue, with Soren enveloped in a cloak, holding a curved blade, calmly gazing into the distance. As if watching the future or guarding something.
The statue is currently an ordinary object.
It glows with a weak divine power, but it has not been fully activated; only when the Investiture of the Gods begins will Soren’s divine consciousness descend upon this statue.
At that time, it will be truly complete!
This statue will serve as an important tool for Soren to receive faith and prayers, significantly enhancing the connection between the believers and Soren.
Ultimately.
Soren can observe everything through the statue’s eyes.
The silhouette of the High Priest approached the statue. As she slowly knelt down, the many priests behind her also knelt to the ground. Before the Investiture of the Gods, this statue needed to gather more divine power; it is difficult for ordinary mortals to provide sufficiently powerful divine power of faith. However, these priests are different. They are at least devout believers and possess a firmer conviction. Although believers constitute the vast majority of the Church’s faith, the truly pure and strong faith is always provided by these priests.
If devout believers are streams, then the priests are rivers!
“My Lord Soren!”
“You are the master of the half-elves!… You are the lord of Modo!… You are the king of pirates!…”
“My Lord Soren!”
“You are the protector of the half-elves!… You are the forerunner in the shadows!… You are the maintainer of order!…”
“My Lord Soren!”
“Your name will become sacred among the half-elves!… You led us through crises!… You grant us a stable and orderly life!… You are the wise ruler!… Slaughter will make you even stronger!… The d*ath of enemies spreads your glory!… Your kingdom will shelter our souls!… When d*ath descends, your servants will gain new life in your kingdom!…”
“My Lord Soren!”
“You will rise and belong to your kingdom!… Transform into the stars in the sky!…”
………………
Accompanied by the organized sounds of prayer, a faint divine glow appeared on the statue.
This prayer will also resound at Soren’s investiture, telling the world the domains Soren possesses after his investiture. The first line represents the most important part, referring to the half-elves, Modo, and pirates. The second line is secondary, representing the half-elves, Wanderers, and order. The third part is the core of the investiture, representing the half-elves, protection, order, rule, slaughter, d*ath, and so on.
Finally, there is the conclusion of the investiture.
Throughout the entire prayer, only one part appears in the first line of all three sections, which is “half-elf”!
This represents the core divine office of Soren.
Modo and pirates are the foundation of his power, shadows represent the extension of Wanderers, and order signifies his faction. Slaughter refers to his identity as the “Son of Slaughter,” and rule represents his influence over Modo, while d*ath is the extension of slaughter. All of these represent the domains Soren has engaged with, but his true core is only the “half-elf” at the beginning of each section.
Deities have many domains.
Order tells the world about his faction; from now on, the divine beings of the order faction, regardless of good or evil, will accept him and acknowledge him as one of their own.
In the future, if he has sufficient power, he may grasp the domain of “Order” and even possibly possess the divine office of “Order.”
Order is an enormous power.
Almost all deities of the lawful faction possess the power of order, and there are quite a few who hold the domain of “Order,” but those who can incorporate “Order” into their divine office are mainly beings of strong divine power. For example, the Spider Queen – Rose possesses the “Evil” divine office opposing the good faction and also wields a very powerful domain of “Chaos.”
This signifies that the deities master the power of the law from their origins!
The core of Soren’s entire investiture prayer is solely “half-elf”; everything else is an extension. As long as there is no direct conflict in divine offices, other deities will not regard him with excessive hostility due to the collisions of extended domains. Because most deities possess various extended domains, just as deities who hold the divine office of war have basically all dabbled in the domain of d*ath. Such extensions among deities are quite common, equivalent to private competitors, but if a direct conflict in divine offices occurs, it can lead to a struggle between two deities.
………………
Nightfall.
The Mind Sorcerer, now officially a “High Priest,” arrived at Modo Harbor, as everything in the temple had already begun to run smoothly, and the Investiture of the Gods was being prepared intensively. Soren was to be invested directly as a “True God,” not a “False God” like the Vampire Son. The investiture of the Vampire Son was akin to a “grass head king,” but Soren absolutely could not be so hasty in his investiture. Even if he acted low-key, it must still reach a level of solemnity akin to a founding ceremony.
Thus, there were indeed many things to prepare!
The Vampire Son had sneaked around everywhere, discovering that believers were setting up altars, eventually lacking even a decent temple, before hastily concluding his investiture.
Such a thing had become a laughingstock among deities.
Soren absolutely cannot do this; as Soren’s representative, the High Priest cannot allow it either.
So she has been quite busy recently.
And now there is another important matter awaiting her: the Holy Emblem of the Church, representing the Half-Elf Church, representing Soren himself and the emblem of the divine office he possesses, needs to be completed before the Investiture of the Gods takes place.
The High Priest is waiting for Soren’s return.
………………
(PS: Help! I actually forgot to think of the Church’s Holy Emblem in advance! Anyone with good ideas, please bring them forth quickly! Waiting online!!!) (To be continued ~^~)
