What exactly is a God?
Lind, while waiting in the process of absorbing the Holy Light in his hand, fell into deep contemplation.
Before this, Lind had always believed that a God was indeed a God, just as described in the game settings; this world truly has a God in the secular sense.
The power granted to believers by the God is divine art, and the God is equal to everyone; as long as your faith is more devout, the divine art becomes more powerful.
However, although God is equal to everyone, each person’s talent is not equal; even if your faith is devout, if you cannot use magic or activate magic power, you still cannot wield divine art.
But it has now been proven in the territory that divine art, at least the Holy Light divine art of the Goddess, can be deconstructed, and can be replicated like ordinary magic and made into arcane arrays.
Lind has actually been testing how ordinary people would react if they knew this secret, but most of them do not believe it unless they see it with their own eyes, and at most, they treat Lind’s probing as a joke.
At this moment, Bernice hurried into the reception room, led by a maid.
“I’m late, but I’m so pleased to see you again, Lord Governor.”
“It’s fine; it’s just that I rescheduled your appointment earlier.”
Hearing Lind say this, Bernice quickly waved her hands, saying, “No, we are very glad that you advanced our appointment.”
Bernice still wore the nun’s attire of Lantern Dream to meet Lind, although the design of the Lantern Dream nun’s attire is bolder, it somewhat aligns with the current trends of the Northern Border Church, and Bernice is as dignified and elegant as an ordinary nun, resembling someone summoned by a governor to gather church people, making it feel completely fitting, neither like a cultist nor a fanatic.
However, compared to before, Bernice’s eyes appear even more fervent; although she knows that Lind could never legitimize Lantern Dream as an official church, being summoned by a human lord about to unify the Northern Border from the Golden Age is undoubtedly good news. Lantern Dream has always wanted to explore further cooperation with Lind and even plan to slowly transform, aiming to bring Lantern Dream back into the sunlight.
Although Lind feels that they, who only worship the Goddess’s doctrines, have no chance unless this group can overturn the other churches.
And the reason this group is so fervent about Lind, even planning to transform, is probably because they believe they have the ability to overturn the other churches.
“You invented the Magic Powered Train; although it may only be a drop in the ocean of the Golden Age, it has significant meaning for us now.”
“With this, humanity will no longer be divided into various territories, but can connect into a whole. At that time, the faith of this world will be more unified and more closely knit.”
Bernice held deep respect towards Lind, while Lind helplessly stated, “This was invented by my wife.”
Lind mainly provided the ideas; the specific technical research is done by Lena and Lysha.
But Bernice displayed an expression of “I understand” in response.
“Alright.”
Lind then had no choice but to let go of that topic and brought the conversation back.
“The reason for calling you here is that I mainly wanted to ask what you know about the Demon God from the Demon Clan.”
Upon hearing this question, Bernice smirked a bit mischievously, speaking to the shadow behind Lind, “Have your entertainers, I mean the bards, not investigated it? Or did they find nothing?”
The shadow behind Lind stirred a bit but quickly settled down again.
Lind then pulled out a stack of documents, saying, “Yes, we investigated but didn’t find anything useful; it’s all some doctrines and teachings, and most of these doctrines and teachings are borrowed from other religions. Oh, they even borrowed your doctrines, claiming that their Demon God is the only true God; other deities, including the Goddess, are merely false gods.”
“What!”
Bernice immediately slammed the table, her eyes shifting from fervor to anger, and the originally dignified nun quickly turned into a fanatic: “This is outrageous! We truly heard the voice of the Goddess; how dare they, an evil god without even a doctrine, question the honor of the Goddess?”
While pacing back and forth in the conference room, Bernice muttered words like holy war and purification, but upon realizing she was conversing with Lind, she quickly calmed down: “I’m sorry, Lord Governor, I truly lost my composure.”
Facing Bernice, who had settled down again, Lind comforted, “It’s fine, so can you share any information about the Demon God from your side?”
“In exchange, our investigation report will be made public to you.”
“No need.”
Bernice declined, saying, “We will provide you with this information free of charge; as for the bards’ information….”
Mid-sentence, Bernice glanced at the shadow behind Lind: “We will figure it out ourselves.”
Lind could feel that Lantern Dream seems to have a strong disdain for the bards, but it’s not quite hostility; it’s more of a contempt stemming from a fundamental disagreement in ideology.
“Before you introduce this so-called Demon God, Lord Governor, may I first ask if you have ever had faith? How much do you understand about religious stories?”
Lind shook his head and replied, “I do not believe in any deities; at most, I currently consider myself a shallow believer of the Goddess, and I do not know much about the current religions.”
The so-called shallow belief is merely believing that not believing will not cost anything, and moreover, Lind can truly channel Holy Light now and has created a lot of Holy Water; believing in that much is enough to account for what the Goddess provided him, if that Holy Water indeed comes from the Goddess.
Bernice was not surprised by Lind’s lack of belief in any deities but still took out a notebook to take notes; after all, this is essential research material regarding the deities and beliefs of the Golden Age.
However, halfway through writing, Bernice keenly sensed something and asked, “You do not believe in any deities, meaning that you once believed in something else that is not a deity?”
Lind was momentarily stunned, as if caught up in memories, and then replied, “I don’t know if it counts as belief; it’s different from what is called belief now.”
Bernice wanted to ask something more, but seeing that Lind was unwilling to continue, she reluctantly set down her pen and paper and went on to explain about the so-called Demon God of the Demon Clan.
“We still need to remind you that the so-called Demon God of the Demon Clan is likely just an evil god whose believers have all died in the Eternal Frozen Land, but since you asked, we still searched some ancient texts.”
“In fact, the earliest texts of our church did record similar deities, but at that time, not even the Old Empire had been established, so it’s no wonder your bards did not record them. The most unique aspect of such a deity is that they have no doctrines or teachings; just as your bards investigated, all their precepts and teachings are derived from other religions that their followers took.”
At this point, Bernice couldn’t help but slam the table again.
“Who would have thought the Demon Clan would even take from our doctrines?”
But Bernice quickly calmed down, starting to explain to Lind, whom they view as an ancient figure: “All deities, even those that only cultists would worship, represent void and laziness, have a complete set of doctrines and teachings.”
Lind nodded; the deities of this world have obvious symbolic meanings and do not include obscure, amorphous deities with unclear duties that are worshiped in isolation.
“As for why a deity has neither a doctrine nor teachings, this is also stated in the earliest doctrines of the Goddess’s church, because this deity does not belong to this world, and there are no so-called doctrines of theirs in this world.”
Bernice, in her most plain tone, spoke the most explosive words that left Lind startled.
