Chapter 354

Dai Sen listened to the voice from the teleportation array and replied meekly: "Yes, yes, yes, my lord, I will obey all your orders."

Gulianni's tone grew suspicious: "You've been acting strange these past few days. What happened?"

Dai Sen made his voice sound as despondent as possible: "I failed…"

Gulianni naturally thought of the recent operation and forced himself to comfort: "It's not your fault. Who could have known when Anthony made friends with the Dwarf King? This is a betrayal by the dwarves against their ally."

He offered verbal reassurance, but in his heart he had already marked Dai Sen with a big red X—yet who else could he use for now? First, soothe Dai Sen, then deal with him later.

He was utterly incompetent. Since the retreat from the Abyss, Dai Sen had failed at every single task; no excuse could hide his incompetence.

The position of Grand Archbishop is not a routine post with fixed rules and patterns—it must constantly adapt to changing circumstances. There are only two standards to judge whether a Grand Archbishop is qualified: Faith Power and tax revenue.

Even "obedience" isn't the most critical factor. Making the Grand Archbishop obey the Papacy's orders is the Pope's job. Even if he disobeys the Papacy, as long as the gods approve, no one will question him.

That's why Anthony's secession from the Holy Church didn't trigger a Holy War—Anthony can use divine power, meaning he hasn't betrayed the gods; the gods haven't cast divine punishment, meaning they still recognize him.

So this is merely a power struggle under the gods' approval.

Setting that aside, comparing Faith Power and tax revenue, Anthony is undoubtedly outstanding; by contrast, Dai Sen is shit—useless except for obeying orders.

If he weren't afraid of Anthony stepping on his head, Gulianni would gladly hand over the entire Western Diocese to Anthony.

He had to feign comfort for such an incompetent fool, and Gulianni felt like he'd swallowed a giant toad.

By his standards, incompetent people were sent to mine coal. The Papacy's former Holy Light Ball team lost every match—even couldn't beat the small principality of Gangbes—and he sent them all to mine coal; they've never come out since.

Dai Sen replied meekly: "Yes, yes, yes, my lord, I will obey all your orders."

After ending the communication, Dai Sen exhaled softly in relief—he'd barely fooled his way through. Lately, he'd repeatedly made excuses to avoid going to the Papacy, and Gulianni had grown suspicious. If he didn't look more despondent, how could he explain it?

But this couldn't go on. He couldn't avoid Gulianni forever. Next time they met, if Gulianni checked his Divine Flame, he'd be exposed.

What should he do? Flee?

The thought had barely surfaced when Dai Sen shook his head violently. He hadn't even finished using all the things left by his predecessor—running away now? He couldn't bear it.

If he didn't want to flee and didn't want to be exposed, there was only one option left—but he had to discuss it with Lord Anthony.

He couldn't do it alone. Even just the hidden agents Gulianni had placed beside him could bind him and turn him in for a reward.

…

After severing the connection, Gulianni's face darkened as he dialed another identifier. After a series of inquiries, he cut the call in confusion.

No matter how many brains Gulianni had, he'd never imagine that Dai Sen's decoy was more real than his true self—because often, what appeared before others was merely the decoy.

Even Gulianni had met the decoy and noticed no difference. Unless he tested the Divine Flame, he couldn't tell them apart.

…

Anthony ended his communication with Dai Sen, his expression a mix of amusement and exasperation: "This is going to be fun—if the Papacy loses all its dioceses and keeps only one city, what should it be renamed?"

He'd barely muttered this when another communication request came through the teleportation array.

"I've never been to such a busy meeting," Anthony said with a smile as he answered.

In the past, the Dimension Security Meetings involved everyone receiving a notice, scheduling a time, logging in together, discussing, and voting.

Now, before the meeting even started, private coordination never stopped—Anthony had already privately communicated with the Elf Queen, Brucek, and the Dwarf King. He'd just ended his call with Dai Sen—who was calling now?

Only Gulianni and Diruni hadn't been contacted privately. If this call came from Gulianni, things would get interesting.

Fortunately, it wasn't that amusing—when he answered, Diruni's voice came through the array: "Uh, Lord Anthony, why did you call this meeting? What information are you announcing? What do you need me to do?"

"Oh, it's Lord Blue Star! Hello, hello, you're too kind—I've been greatly cared for by Lady Auberni, we're practically family…"

After all the private coordination, the Dimension Security Meeting finally began.

Behind Anthony, Ange, Negrilis, Du Luo, and Feiti stood in a line, joining the meeting through this method.

Anthony first recounted the situation of the "New Storm," and unsurprisingly, it sparked uproar—including from Gulianni.

"How did he know about the New Storm? Lord Light and Darkness, did you inform him?" Gulianni turned to ask.

Behind Gulianni stood an ordinary middle-aged man. If Ange were present, he'd recognize it—the very body the mysterious figure had once asked him to revive.

The light surface projected onto the divine body shook its head and spoke emotionlessly: "No."

The shadow cast by the Light Surface God also grinned: "No."

"Then how did he learn of the New Storm? 'The stars grow dim, the red star glows, Thunder shall return'—which Thunder?" Gulianni asked.

"Titan Thunder," the Light Surface God replied.

While they spoke, the communication channel erupted into chaos. The Dwarf King Copper Hammer exclaimed excitedly: "Titan Thunder? The Thunder God? Is the Thunder God returning?"

"The stars grow dim? That matches what I observed in the Starwatch Tower! Over the years, the stars' brightness has steadily declined—is 'the stars grow dim' referring to this?" Diruni said.

"What about the red star? If the proverb corresponds to the star chart, where's the red star? Have you seen it?" Anthony asked.

"No, I haven't seen the red star. And what is this 'New Storm'? Can't be a meteor shower, right?" Diruni asked.

"Now I'll speak about the Storm. Everyone, swear an oath not to leak today's meeting content," Anthony said solemnly.

Gulianni's face changed: "Are you going to speak of the gods? Anthony, you cannot!"

Anthony naturally ignored him and quickly summarized the matter of the gods.

Everyone had suspected or guessed this—after all, the gods hadn't appeared for over a thousand years.

But no one dared confirm it, because nine hundred years ago, the Arbiter God had still descended, and the Goddess of Life had always protected the elves.

They couldn't distinguish between the Goddess of Life and the other gods, so they treated them all the same.

After hearing Anthony's account, Diruni summarized: "So, a faith storm over a thousand years ago destroyed most of the gods—and now, a new faith storm is coming?"

"Yes," Anthony replied.

"Does the faith storm affect ordinary people? Like me—a Truth Mage?" Diruni asked.

Truth Mages were called "Truth Gods"—would the storm affect him?

Geralde asked urgently: "What about the Goddess of Life? Will the storm affect her? Has the storm already begun? Lately, the Goddess of Life has been silent—could that be the storm's effect?"

Anthony smirked inwardly: Is that the storm's effect? That's your Goddess of Life running away.

He thought this, but didn't say it aloud: "No. The faith storm affects only beings with divine essence and divine flame."

Hearing this, Gulianni's heart lurched—he turned and asked urgently: "Lord Light Surface, will divine flame be affected?"

The Light Surface looked bewildered and shook his head…

Gulianni had just sighed in relief when the Light Surface added: "I don't know."

Gulianni nearly spat blood—so "shaking his head" meant "I don't know"?

The Dark Surface emerged from the shadow: "Why are you in such a hurry? You don't have a divine flame."

Gulianni smiled bitterly and summoned his own divine flame: "Ignited it two days ago."

"Impossible! Igniting a divine flame creates massive ripples—why didn't anyone sense it? Which dimension did you ignite it in?" the Dark Surface asked, puzzled.

When Ange ignited his divine flame, even the Redemption deep in the ocean cavern of the same dimension felt it. Generally, anyone in the same dimension could sense the disturbance.

Gulianni ignited his divine flame two days ago, yet no one sensed anything—he clearly wasn't in this dimension, nor in the hidden world where the Light and Darkness God resided.

"I was… wait, I'll explain later," Gulianni abruptly changed the subject, pointing to the teleportation array where Diruni was speaking.

Diruni said: "So the situation is this: a thousand years ago, the faith storm destroyed all the gods, but it didn't affect ordinary people—so why should we care?"

The Light and Darkness God ignored Gulianni's attempt to shift focus—he didn't even care about Gulianni anymore, shouting urgently: "No!"

"But I think Diruni makes sense," Copper Hammer's voice rose. "If the gods already perished a thousand years ago, why care about the faith storm? Shouldn't we wait for the red star to glow and welcome the Thunder God's return?"

The dwarves' War God and Forge God were both gone—why worry about the faith storm? He wanted to see the red star glow and Thunder return.

"I…" Gulianni tried to speak, but Copper Hammer cut him off: "What? Do you want to block Thunder's return? The dwarf race will fight to the death!"

Wait—hadn't the meeting even started? Were humans and dwarves already on the verge of civil war?

Diruni frowned, ready to restore order, when Anthony spoke: "Enough. Don't get too carried away. The returning Thunder isn't necessarily your Thunder God. What if it isn't? If it were your Thunder God, why didn't he notify you directly?"

Copper Hammer froze. He'd been excited about Thunder's return and hadn't thought this far—now, reminded, he realized: "That makes sense… but what if it really is the Thunder God?"

"If it's truly the Thunder God, I guarantee his safe return—but I'll intercept the one who brings him. Then he'll need you dwarves again. Otherwise, if he brings a horde of Titans, who will you obey? You can have faith—but you must control the initiative," Anthony said.

Several sharp intakes of breath echoed through the teleportation array. Diruni was awestruck—this was true incitement, sowing discord between the dwarves and the Thunder God.

Compared to Anthony, Gulianni's earlier attempts at manipulation were crude.

This was the best strategy for the dwarf race: if it wasn't the Thunder God, block him; if it was, block the one who brought him—otherwise, why should the dwarf race continue to receive the Thunder God's protection?

Aside from slight disrespect toward the gods, everyone knew how Copper Hammer would choose. As expected, the teleportation array fell silent—this silence was tacit approval.

After calming Copper Hammer, Anthony continued: "Not all gods perished. As far as I know, the Arbiter God, the Light and Darkness God, the Shadow God, the Cultivation God, the Beauty God, the Goddess of Redemption, the Scale God, and the Harvest Goddess are still alive."

"What? Really?!"

Gulianni turned in shock to the Light Surface God. The Dark Surface emerged from the shadow, astonished: "Redemption and Scale are still alive? Why didn't you tell us?"

Gulianni was dumbfounded: "I didn't know!"

"Then how does Anthony know? Who's the Pope? Your information is less reliable than a Grand Archbishop's! What kind of Pope are you?" the Dark Surface snapped.

Gulianni had no reply, weakly defending: "He might just be lying."

The Dark Surface made sense—how could the Pope have less information than a Grand Archbishop? Who was really the Pope?

But the problem was, among the three dioceses, he now controlled only the Western Diocese—his power didn't exceed Anthony's, and Dai Sen was incompetent. After so long, he hadn't even managed his own diocese properly—information blackout was natural.

Anthony's voice continued: "The most urgent issue now is to respond to this faith storm—to find ways to protect our gods and keep them unharmed during the storm. For Your Majesty Geralde and Lord Brucek, the most important question is: who will the Thunder return with?"

"If the Thunder returns alone, there's absolutely no need to trigger a faith storm first. We must unite all our strength to face this crisis—but everyone has seen what's happened recently."

Here, Anthony's voice turned stern: "Gulianni has no ability to unite the Church's power—a single famine nearly starved millions in the Western Diocese."

"He's incompetent. Now, I formally propose a vote to depose Gulianni as Pope of the Guangming Church, and appoint me as the new Pope."

Gulianni's fury nearly burst through the teleportation array: "Anthony, are you trying to rebel?!"