manynovel 0018 I really want to go to Slaanesh's palace for some light fun.
0018 I really want to go to Slaanesh's palace for some light fun.
You've isolated all the other temples... It's you who's been isolated by the other temples, isn't it?
This dilapidated church is not only on the very edge of the temple district, but it's on the very edge of Macurag. Within a radius of several meters, there is no other temple to be found besides this church.
Just by looking at Zhou Yun's expression, Agrippa understood what Zhou Yun was thinking.
"Oh dear, it's because we don't have the money. The land prices in the core area of the temple district are outrageously high. Even if we sold our entire church, it would only be enough to build a toilet—but my Lord isn't a toilet god."
It can be, it can be...
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yun couldn't help but smile slightly, but the smile quickly froze.
Because he suddenly remembered that he was the one sitting on that broken toilet.
Agrippa didn't notice Zhou Yun's expression; he just kept tapping his iron mechanical prosthetic leg as he spoke:
"But let me tell you, we are the veterans. What seniority do those temples outside have?"
"Our church was founded before humanity even left Terra, and we already had over a billion believers back then. Do you know who was in our church back then? Let me tell you, it was Jesus, the Son of God, you know?"
"But later our church found that people were starting to stop believing in religion, so we stopped preaching as much. As a result, these junior members started preaching on their own again."
"So how did you end up like this?" Zhou Yun glanced at the mosaic on the wall. The eyes of the golden knight were empty. They used to be inlaid with some kind of gemstone, but now they had most likely been removed and sold for money.
Agrippa waved his hand helplessly: "That's just how the Macuraq people are. They always like to believe in many religions at the same time and offer their faith to many gods at the same time, as if this will allow them to receive the protection of many gods at the same time."
"But our church does not believe in any other God, but only in one God, and rejects other polytheistic denominations, so naturally it is not liked by the Makulaks."
"Honestly, brother, I think you should either not believe at all, or if you absolutely must, believe in just one... The chances of encountering an evil god are relatively low if you believe in too many. It's more dangerous if there's some evil god mixed in with them?"
Zhou Yun nodded in deep agreement.
In a purely material world, or where most gods are benevolent, since it's free, there's no big problem in believing in this kind of thinking. You can believe for fun, and who knows, it might actually work!
But in this galaxy, in this world with a subspace, to suddenly embrace so many religions...
In other words, Macurag has a thicker veil of darkness. In other more active parts of the warp, believing so much at once would have meant joining the warp demons' crazy Thursday feast long ago.
"Is your faith a little lacking?" Zhou Yun had already sensed that this bishop didn't seem to be the very devout type.
His faith in his Lord was more of a choice than a fanatical belief.
“No.” Agrippa’s expression turned serious. “I still have faith in my Lord, but not because of false myths.”
As he spoke, Agrippa looked at the mosaic of the silver dragon and the golden knight, recalling the teachings of his former bishop.
The words that the bishop, who seemed to know a great deal about history, once spoke came from his mouth:
"Religion is born from mythology, mythology originates from legends, legends come from stories, stories are based on history, and history is a retelling of reality."
"Reality itself is often ordinary; it's just that this kind of ordinary reality has been exaggerated."
After recounting the former bishop's words, Agrippa paused, then pointed to the mosaic painting.
"Like this mosaic, perhaps the Golden Knight was just an ordinary soldier who simply killed a vicious crocodile or lizard."
"But isn't killing a crocodile noble?"
"A silver dragon is dangerous to a god, but a crocodile is just as dangerous to an ordinary soldier."
"He must have had immense courage to challenge that beast, and after his success, people were able to fetch water freely, children could play freely among the reeds, and parents no longer had to worry about crocodiles devouring their lives."
"Such practical virtues are equally worthy of admiration and respect."
Zhou Yun couldn't help but scratch his head.
Well said.
The only problem is that this mural doesn't exaggerate reality.
The golden knight in this mural is the human emperor.
That roaring silver dragon was an ancient star god born from the vast sea of energy at the beginning of creation, the ruler of the material realm who could arbitrarily distort the laws of physics, a star-devourer that fed on stars, the creator of the Black Stone Obelisk Matrix, the embodiment of destruction and annihilation in the mouths of the Eldar, and also the prototype of the Om Messiah in the mouths of the Martian Mechanicus, a fragment of the Void Dragon Magladros.
In the third century AD, the Emperor fought against the fragments of the Void Dragon, ultimately defeating them and sealing them on Mars.
In the memories Zhou Yun had just witnessed, the clash between the Emperor and the Void Dragon had completely exceeded the limits of human cognition. Fragments of the Void Dragon repeatedly unfolded within the microscopic dimension, and the Emperor repeatedly dragged the Void Dragon into the warp.
Even Zhou Yun, who had witnessed the memory of that battle, could not accurately describe the process of the battle, because the cause-and-effect relationship between the two was chaotic.
To be honest, this painting completely downplays the reality of the situation.
A knight fighting a crocodile—to say that mountains collapse and the earth splits apart is an exaggeration.
If a subdimensional deity fights a material universe deity, then describing it as an earthquake or a cataclysmic event is an understatement.
"What do you think of the Temple of Simeneta?" Zhou Yun shook his head and turned to Agrippa to ask.
"Simoneta, the goddess of beauty, I know their history. In the days before the old night ended, there was a beautiful woman named Simoneta. She was born into a wealthy family, but she was kind-hearted. She used her influence to establish the first poor people's relief station in Macurag."
"After her death, the poor people she helped believed that Simonetta had ascended to godhood and become the goddess of beauty in heaven, and this is how the Simonetta faith came about."
Agrippa tapped his prosthetic leg and said:
"But I still advise you not to have too much contact with the Church of Simeneta, except to pay off your debts."
"Why?" Zhou Yun frowned slightly, hoping to get more information.
"In their own records, there is a moment called 'The First Cry,' and the Church of Simeneta has changed somewhat since then," Agrippa said, looking at Zhou Yun. "You should ask your teacher, Lucretius, who has studied this history and made an interesting discovery."
"What?"
"The first cry and the decline of the sorcerer king's rule occurred almost simultaneously; one could even say that the first cry and the end of the old night happened at the same time."
"...Okay, I think I understand." Zhou Yun breathed a sigh of relief.
What? It's the time of its first cry!
He thought that it was the Eldar's indulgence that led to the birth of Slaanesh, the fourth Chaos God who ruled over indulgence, who uttered his first cry in the Warp, destroyed the Eldar Empire, tore reality apart to create the Eye of Terror, dispersed the Warp Storm, and disrupted the balance among the gods, leaving them no time to attend to the mortal realm, thus ending the Old Night.
Zhou Yun silently mourned for the beautiful Simonetta for thirteen seconds.
If she truly existed and was worshipped by her followers as some kind of subdimensional entity, she would probably already be impersonated by Slaanesh and listed on the stock exchange, and she herself might already be enjoying herself in Slaanesh's palace... Hopefully, Ms. Simeneta enjoys working as a human harpist.
Thinking about this, Zhou Yun suddenly felt less sad for Simonetta.
Simeneta was not as miserable as him; he also wanted to step down from the Golden Throne and go to Slaanesh's chambers for some light entertainment.
After sighing, Zhou Yun turned his head to look at Agrippa:
"I want to buy something from you."
Agrippa blinked, then couldn't help but smile: "Our church's bread and fish sauce are top-notch. You can go to Diana to pay; I'll give you a special discount: six aces a jar of fish sauce and five aces a jar of bread—"
"Wait, I didn't mean fish sauce and bread," Zhou Yun interrupted Agrippa.
"And you?" Agrippa looked puzzled.
"Do you sell sacred artifacts here?" Zhou Yun asked, glancing at the candlesticks, incense burner, and ritual objects on the altar below the mosaic painting.
Those sacred artifacts were made of ordinary copper and iron, and their designs were even somewhat rudimentary, and they looked like they had been used for many years.
"...This is our faith. If I sell it, will God forgive me...? You understand what I mean, right?"
"I'll pay more."
"Now that things have come to this, let's make do with this for now."