While the Northern Empire was still mired in chaos from the loss of its Emperor, turmoil of a different kind had broken out in the south — the Goddess's Order had split apart.
More than ten years had passed since the Demon King's defeat.
It was ten years ago that Schwenk — the envoy sent south by the Northern branch of the Goddess's Order — had delivered to the Order's southern headquarters a Scripture unlike any other.
Heiter, now elevated to the rank of Grand Archbishop, had spent years studying the Genesis Chapter, which bore only a title and nothing else, and had gotten precisely nowhere.
Under normal circumstances, even a pig, given sufficient divine blessing from the Goddess, could parse and interpret at least some of the magic contained within the Scripture.
Yet Heiter — the individual currently holding more of the Goddess's blessing than anyone else in the Order — had received not a single new revelation, not a single step forward in magic. It made no sense whatsoever.
In the end, Heiter delegated the task of deciphering the Genesis Chapter to the other priests of the Order, with a promise: whoever unlocked its secrets would become a candidate for the next Grand Archbishop.
"Ha ha ha! I can see it! I can see new content inside the Scripture! I've been chosen by a god!"
The first person to glimpse the contents of the Genesis Chapter was an elderly priest — one who had received only a meager portion of the Goddess's blessing and had long since resigned himself to never rising through the ranks of the Order.
Upon seeing the contents of the Genesis Chapter, he was shaken to his core. Compared to the fragmented passages he had previously managed to glimpse through his feeble blessing, this was nothing short of a revelation. The omnipotent deity depicted within the Genesis Chapter filled him with awe and longing.
And then, unbidden, a question surfaced in his heart.
Was this truly a new revelation from the Goddess?
To him, it looked less like a message from the Goddess and more like a proclamation from an entirely new god — an advertisement of divine power.
The more the thought took hold, the more certain he became: this was not the Goddess speaking. Another deity had arisen, and was using this Scripture to spread word of its might and call for belief.
As if responding to that very feeling, when he opened his own Scripture, the Genesis Chapter appeared on its pages.
The old priest trembled with excitement.
"It is a new god! The God of Creation! He has chosen me! Praise be to God!"
Faced with a choice between the Goddess and this imagined new deity, the old priest chose the new god — for the new god had given him far more.
In a small dwelling near the headquarters of the Goddess's Order, Schwenk looked like a wild man. His face was overgrown with stubble, long tangled hair fell over his neck, and his frame had grown thin and gaunt.
"The Scripture… my Scripture…"
He sat slumped in his chair, eyes vacant and unfocused.
The Northern branch of the Goddess's Order had agreed to allow the southern headquarters to study Schwenk's Scripture. This meant that until the Order managed to produce any results, his Scripture would continue to pass from priest to priest, never returning to him.
Occasionally, Schwenk could not help but go to the Order's hall to check on his Scripture — but every time he saw a cluster of people gathered around it, poring over its pages, something he couldn't quite name would rise up inside him, and eventually he stopped going altogether.
For the past several years, the Order had provided him with free lodging and three meals a day, and he had not been happy for a single moment of it. The longing he carried for his Scripture and for the Goddess had grown numb.
Bang bang bang.
Someone rapped urgently at the wooden door. Schwenk lifted his head and glanced at it, then sank back into his chair and ignored it.
"Is Lord Schwenk in?"
"May we come in?"
"..."
"Step aside. Let me break it down."
"?"
With a thunderous crash, the door was kicked open by a powerfully built man in white ceremonial robes. The wooden planks struck the floor and sent up two small clouds of dust.
When he laid eyes on Schwenk — sprawled in his chair like a corpse — he lurched back in shock.
Behind the burly man, a white-haired old priest shouldered his way past and stepped inside, carrying a Scripture in his hands.
When the old priest raised the Scripture and held it out for Schwenk to see, the light slowly returned to those previously unfocused eyes.
"The Scripture! That's my Scripture!"
Every Scripture looked almost identical, yet Schwenk knew without a doubt — the one before him was his long-lost Scripture.
First came a surge of excitement, and then a creeping sense that something was wrong.
Beyond the old priest and the burly man, a whole crowd of Goddess's Order priests and devotees had piled up outside his doorway.
"What are all of you doing at my home?!"
He snatched the Scripture from the old priest's outstretched hands and clutched it to his chest, glaring at the uninvited mob with a look that said he would not lose it again — not ever.
"Priest Schwenk — no, Grand Archbishop! Child of God! You are the first person chosen by that deity. It is you who must lead the new faith!"
The old priest explained with deep reverence.
Hearing those words, Schwenk's mind went completely blank. Me? Grand Archbishop? Child of God? New faith?
"After being chosen and reading the revelations of the new deity, I have resolved to give my faith to Him!"
"..."
Schwenk's thoughts were a storm. A new god had appeared alongside the greatest Goddess? The Goddess's Order's own priests wanted to break away and found a new faith for a new god? And he was somehow the one who had started all of this?
"We implore you — lead us, and carry His gospel to the world!"
The old priest spoke in complete earnest. Behind him, the assembled priests — men and women, young and old — murmured their agreement.
"I…"
Schwenk was at a loss. This was a schism — a fracture in the Goddess's Order. He was glad to have his Scripture back, but he was a faithful servant of the Goddess. To go and preach on behalf of some unknown new deity? Had everyone lost their minds, himself included?
"Wait — please, allow me to look at my Scripture first."
Schwenk opened the Scripture. In the Genesis Chapter — once completely blank — words had now appeared:
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, darkness was over the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light.
Beneath the curtain of his tangled hair, Schwenk's eyes went wide.
What was this?
"Light…"
As Schwenk murmured the word softly, the Scripture suddenly blazed with a brilliant, blinding radiance.
A silhouette — arms outstretched upon a cross — was projected into the empty air. It took a human form, its face indiscernible, and from it radiated a light of absolute, ineffable holiness. Every person in the room was transfixed.
When Schwenk beheld that silhouette, he felt as though the faith he had built up inside him was collapsing. He clapped his hands over his head in agony, and a voice rang out within his mind.
[The Lord shall come with His disciples, and change this world.]
"Grand Archbishop — something has happened!"
"Hm? What is it? Slow down."
Heiter set down the Scripture he had been studying and looked at the breathless male priest who had come running in, his expression warm and unhurried.
The priest, soothed by Heiter's calm, caught his breath and gathered his words.
"A new religious sect has appeared recently. Many of our own Goddess's Order priests, after coming into contact with them, have abandoned their faith and gone to worship this new deity. They say that those chosen by this new god can see different content within the Scripture!"
"Oh? Is that so."
Heiter's brow furrowed slightly. He had a dim feeling that this was not going to be good.
____
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