Chapter 537 - 32: The Fusion of Faith Begins
Chapter 537: Chapter 32: The Fusion of Faith Begins
Lynch stood on the cold white stone balcony, the morning wind carrying a chill from the heights, blowing the hem of his gray cloak. His outstretched palm was like an invisible altar, and the warm, gentle, yet information-rich golden light cluster quietly floated upon it, emitting a radiance invisible to mortals.
His gaze, those deep eyes seemingly capable of holding the starry sky, was completely focused on the light cluster in his palm. Deep within his pupils, complex runes flowed silently, invisible to mortal sight. This was the manifestation of his unique “Eye of Death God,” capable of discerning the soul’s most fundamental form and the scars of its experiences.
The light cluster was not static. It was like a miniature, living universe, with countless extremely fine points of light circulating, colliding, flickering. Each of these points carried fragments of Messiah’s long life:
The cooking smoke in Gray Stone Town, Lady Bonne’s gentle gestures during teaching, the rough sensation of Farrias’s fingers polishing a wooden cup, the burning tear in Kuma’s single eye, the warmth of winter sunlight through a dusty window, the clear tranquility piercing through at the end of life… and the ultimate moment of realization about the meaning of life—
The pure, relieved value of simply “being alive.”
This energy light cluster was naturally Messiah, the artificial soul he created, suited to the Power of Faith of the Light Goddess.
The time scale or life energy of these artificial souls differed from ordinary souls, with each artificial soul beginning with an initial life energy of five hundred years, which could be further enhanced through strength and modifications.
Logically, Messiah’s soul energy should be abundant during this period, not waning due to age. The reason for this state was mainly because Lynch had set her initial training period to only a few decades.
After all, all he needed was for Messiah to experience a complete cycle of a normal human’s birth, aging, illness, and death, which only required a few decades.
“It seems the training effect is quite good.”
Touching his chin, Lynch’s gaze was fixed on the energy light cluster in front of him.
His fingertips did not actually touch the light cluster, but moved extremely slowly at a hair’s breadth away from its surface, as if caressing the texture of a rare treasure.
Following the trajectory of his fingertips, the light flows within the cluster resonated and changed subtly.
Sometimes, his fingertips would pause slightly, corresponding to a light point within the cluster that suddenly brightened or became exceptionally intense—moments of strong emotional bursts in Messiah’s life.
Emotion!
Before this training, the energy light cluster in front of him was entirely blank. As an artificial soul, Messiah did not know where she came from or where she was going, nor the meaning of her existence.
But now, the energy light cluster had completely transformed into gold, and under this golden glow, evident emotional fluctuations could be seen. It’s clear that she had developed emotions unique to humans.
Or rather, she already possessed emotions.
As a divine being overlooking the world, theoretically, a god shouldn’t possess emotions and feelings, but that premise is that the Divine understands its believers enough, already knowing the significance of the human existence.
Yet Messiah, as an artificially created soul, lacked sufficient understanding of humans, which was certainly inadequate for a divine entity, hence Lynch’s need to find a way for her to possess feelings and integrate emotions, thus engaging in harmony with humans.
Perhaps in the long years to come, she may once again obliterate her emotions toward humans, but by then, her soul would already bear the mark of humanity, fully understanding the meaning of this form of life.
It is only then that she could be considered a true divine being.
“The next step is integration…”
Finally reaching this point, Lynch was filled with anticipation.
He stepped forward with the light cluster, and the space around him twisted, in the blink of an eye arriving at the Light Cathedral, thousands of miles away.
The Light Cathedral, Praying Temple, Blessing Day.
Today was the Blessing Day held at the Light Cathedral every year, during which most of the cathedral’s areas would open to the public, including the central core, the Praying Temple, which houses the Light’s Holy Daughter’s retreat.
On this day, the Holy Daughter of Light would also receive believers from various dioceses in the Praying Temple and personally perform mass with divine power to grant them blessings.
At this moment, believers gathered from all over were packed into the Praying Temple, filling the vast space to capacity.
Julia, in a pure white gauze dress, stood at the forefront of the believers performing the mass, holding a silver Holy Grail in her hands, the cup’s mouth exuding a gentle white light.
The tall Statue of Light Goddess stood behind her, sunlight passing through the colorful stained glass windows, casting a rainbow halo over the statue, making it look extremely sacred, as if it were not a statue but a real goddess.
“Merciful Goddess, please bless this year’s wheat harvest and keep the livestock from getting sick…” An old farmer woman in the front row knelt on the ground, her wrinkled forehead pressed tightly against the cold stone bricks, her voice carrying a heavy accent, mumbling softly.
Beside her, a well-dressed merchant appeared more anxious, his hands clasped together, yet his eyes couldn’t help but glance at the Holy Grail in Julia’s hand: “May the goddess’s radiance guide smooth trade routes and bless the successful signing of my contract with the Royal Capital guild…”
In the distance, a mother cradling a sickly child, her voice choked and trembling: “Holy Daughter, please, look at my little Tom… he’s been coughing the entire winter… Goddess, have mercy, grant us your grace…” Her voice was drowned out by more low murmurs of prayer:
“Forgive my sins, O Goddess…”
“Grant me the strength to overcome the challenges ahead…”
“Praise the Light! May Your kingdom come!”
Just as this ocean of whispers, prayers, sobs, and suddenly rising hopes reached its climax—
Space beside the tall Statue of Light Goddess behind Julia suddenly twisted without warning.
A figure cloaked in gray, as if condensed from shadows, appeared silently by the base of the statue. In his hand, an invisible, warm, and gentle golden light orb quietly floated.
The entire Praying Temple’s clamor, as if choked by an invisible giant hand, instantly fell into dead silence. All eyes, including Julia’s stunned backward glance, were focused on the abruptly appeared gray figure.
“Who goes there!”
“Protect the Holy Daughter!”
The people inside the Praying Temple were taken aback, and the Light Knights guarding around Julia reacted immediately. Tens of Cross Swords shimmering with golden light were unsheathed, rushing towards the gray figure with boundless killing intent.
Yet at that moment—
“Snap!” A crisp snapping sound echoed.
A ripple of invisibility suddenly expanded outward from around the gray figure. Wherever this ripple touched, everything came to a standstill.
The knights charging towards Lynch maintained their charging posture, muscles taut, faces twisted in anger, the Cross Sword emblazoned with Fighting Spirit’s golden glow just a step away from the gray figure, yet frozen as if embedded in the hardest amber, completely motionless. The fluttering Cloak hems, the dust particles raised by the rapid pace, all frozen in mid-air.
Julia’s shocked backward glance froze on her face, along with her action of tilting the Holy Grail, all frozen in place.
The crystalline line of Holy Water, containing a stellar glow, created a perfect arc in the multicolored light beam, then suddenly paused, forming a string of suspended, dreamy glowing water droplets in mid-air, like the broken pearl necklace of the Time Goddess.
The old farmer woman kneeling in prayer with her forehead pressed to the ground had her deeply wrinkled face etched with a rigid expression of devotion intertwined with worry.
The merchant with clasped hands, his gaze full of calculation and longing locked onto the Holy Water, was also immortalized in eternity.
The mother with a sickly child, the hot tear about to fall was halted on her sorrow-etched and pleading face, the child in her arms slightly opened his mouth as if the next second he would cough out loud, yet forever frozen in a silent moment.
All the believers, whether bowing, looking up, clasping hands, or reaching out, transformed into varied postured mannequins. The noisy prayers, the low sobs, the urgent calls, all voices were completely erased, leaving only an air of suffocating absolute silence.
The aromatic incense smoke in the air no longer swirled upwards, solidifying into a straight gray-white jade sculpture. From the stained-glass windows’ kaleidoscope of light beams, the formerly dancing dust particles were clearly visible as if nailed in the light curtain. Even the faint sounds of wind and birdsong from outside the windows disappeared completely, the world stripped of all dynamics and sound.
In an instant, clamor became silence, motions turned into sculpture.
Only Lynch, and the warm, vibrant golden light orb in his hand, remained the sole living existence in this frozen time-space.
His gray Cloak hem gently wavered in the still air, like a deity walking outside of Time.
He ignored the almost nose-piercing sharp sword tips, ignored Julia’s frozen expression of surprise, his eyes calmly sweeping across this magnificent still frame composed of people, light, and dust, finally settling on the Statue of Light Goddess, bathed in the multicolored halo, appearing thus more “alive.”