Millennium Witch

Book 3: Chapter 251: Threat

In the inner city of Adelock, inside the grand cathedral of the Solar Flame Church, in a bright, sunlit office hung with banners bearing abstract sun symbols, the Radiant Bishop of the Adelock diocese, Eckev Gibran, was reading through an intelligence dossier submitted by a subordinate priest about the Lightning Apostle and the Silver Witch Church.Within the Solar Flame Church, beneath the Pontiff and the Council of Seven High Priests, the next rank down was the Radiant Bishops stationed in each city-state of the Free Alliance. Typically, someone in this position would at least be a high-level mage—or a God-favored who had received a divine Benediction strong enough to rival a high-level mage.

However, since Adelock was an adventurer city with an extremely high turnover of people, proselytizing here brought lower returns. As a result, the Radiant Bishop assigned to this region was on the weaker side—Eckev was barely a mid-tier mage with just over 3,000 mana.

After finishing the dossier, Eckev’s brows furrowed of their own accord. For the first time, he sensed a hint of threat.

On the Eastern Continent, the birth and death of new sects was nothing unusual. Only churches truly protected by a deity could develop over the long term—after all, if you wanted a believer’s devout faith, you needed miracles to show for it.

So under normal circumstances, Eckev, as a Radiant Bishop of the Solar Flame Church, would never concern himself with a fledgling sect that had only just started up.

But if that new sect claimed to have a God-favored and a Benediction bestowed by a deity, things were very different. Whether true or false, as long as the common folk believed it, that sect would inevitably siphon away believers who by rights should have belonged to the Solar Flame Church.

And most importantly, according to their investigation, the power on that Lightning Apostle really was highly likely to come from an actual divine Benediction.

That was where things became strange. The Silver Witch had existed for centuries, yet had never displayed a single miracle. Within the churches, almost no one believed she truly existed; most thought she was a fictional entity made up by the Legendary Mage. On top of that, the major churches had unanimously folded her into their own mythologies as a supporting figure—admitting she existed would be no different from slapping themselves in the face.

If Ezra truly bore a Benediction from some deity, then who exactly was that god? A righteous god or an eldritch one? And why wear the mask of the Silver Witch? What did he gain from that?

Layer upon layer of doubt piled up in Eckev’s mind until he could no longer see a clear path forward. Because the Academy of Truth was far too distant from Adelock, and the spread of information was too slow, he still had no idea that, in the City of Truth, both the Silver Witch and the Legendary Mage had already manifested together.

In the end, he chose to report the matter to the Council of Seven High Priests to see what guidance the seven Solar Flame high priests would give.

Making the same decision as Eckev was another church in Adelock, the Cloudcrest Church, which worshiped the Lord of Sky and Air.

It could only be said that, in the eyes of different churches, the severity of this matter was judged very differently.

The three True God churches, for example, barely reacted at all. On the one hand, True God churches had their pride and wouldn’t bother with such a thing. On the other, their headquarters were extremely far from Adelock, and the resources they’d invested here were almost nonexistent. Compared to evangelizing, their main role in this city was simply to maintain influence and serve existing believers—nothing more.

With no real stake, they naturally felt no anxiety. If anything, even the Cult of Omniscience was more worth paying attention to than the Silver Witch Church.

Another major factor that made this issue extremely serious for the Solar Flame Church and the Cloudcrest Church was that Adelock, as an adventurer metropolis, had one organization whose influence surpassed both local churches combined—

The Adventurers’ Guild.

And whose statue stood in front of the Adventurers’ Guild?

The God of Serendipity, of course—the Silver Witch.

So if someone really did establish a church under the banner of the Silver Witch—true or false, it didn’t matter—the threat to those two churches would be incomparable—

Because when trying to sell others on their Sun God or the Lord of Sky and Air, they had to spend a great deal of effort preaching doctrine and introducing “Our Lord” this and “Our Lord” that. But the Silver Witch was different. She was the God of Serendipity that adventurers constantly mentioned in passing. If someone could prove she truly existed, then within minutes, ninety percent of Adelock’s population could be converted into devout believers.

Forget righteous gods and eldritch gods—

Even True Gods would have to step aside.

Sure enough, after receiving the information from Adelock, the central cathedrals of the Solar Flame and Cloudcrest churches quickly issued decrees to the local bishops there within just a couple of days, ordering them to cooperate with the neighboring church and form a joint task force between the Solar Flame Church and the Cloudcrest Church for one purpose: to capture that “Lightning Apostle” who claimed to have received the Goddess’s Benediction.

Both sides also provided a thoroughly convincing justification for the joint operation.

After both Pontiffs had prayed to their respective deities, it was “confirmed” that the so-called Lightning Apostle was actually an eldritch cultist in disguise. His true aim was to borrow the holy name of the Silver Witch to build a false church, then—after gaining the people’s trust—spread corruption at the right moment and steal believers’ souls.

So, during this joint operation, places like Lute Village, where people believed in the Silver Witch, would not be interfered with. Only that “false Apostle” named Ezra needed to be captured immediately to set the record straight.

Furthermore, the joint action notice specifically emphasized that the operation was to be carried out in secret. Under no circumstances could word of it leak, so as to avoid misunderstandings among the populace.

While the Solar Flame Church and the Cloudcrest Church were waking up to the terrifying potential threat of the Silver Witch Church, over at the Old Oak Inn, Yvette—who was currently tearing her hair out over how to write doctrine—was suddenly struck by inspiration amid the agony of creation and gained clarity about a certain point.

She suddenly realized something—

A fact that set her apart from almost all righteous gods.

—

And that was—

As the Silver Witch, she had a broad-based, casual following. She had many casual believers. But righteous gods like the Sun God and the Lord of Sky and Air had no such thing. Outside the Free Alliance, few people even knew these gods’ names.

At the same time, she didn’t need to control politics or command armies. All she needed from believers was the faith elements they offered. That alone distinguished her greatly from the three True Gods.

So—

The Silver Witch Church could be a completely decentralized church.

With her level of fame, she didn’t need evangelism at all—and she certainly didn’t need doctrine. Just like the Legendary Mage, she was already a household name.

What she needed wasn’t to make believers aware of her existence, but to turn casual believers into devout believers—and all that required was miracles.

And what counted as a miracle?

Naturally, “serendipity”—just like Ezra’s experience.

All she had to do was keep creating Apostles and send them across the continent to act, letting them display the fruits of “serendipity.” Ordinary people would naturally flow in droves from casual belief into devout faith. Then she could quietly set up various holy idols to collect that faith and harvest the faith elements.

This entire process didn’t require a church in the traditional sense at all.