## Chapter 2224 Zealots
The next morning, Karina’s complexion had recovered well, and the other Glutton believers’ injuries and exhaustion had also largely healed.
I scanned the village with my God’s Eye and discovered that many homes displayed abstract statues of the King of Destruction. People were kneeling before these statues in worship, with some even offering fruits, vegetables, and bread. This included the old woman.
I had already known that eradicating a god’s faith was difficult, especially when the god still responded to prayers from the mortal world. Even if their church collapsed, it could still foster many wild believers.
However, most of these people lacked the correct prayer methods and ritual arrangements. Their understanding of the god’s image was even vague. Most of these statues did not possess divine power, indicating that their prayers were not being answered by the god.
I say “most” because one or two households were exceptions. This area was too close to the Demon God’s seal, allowing prayers to reach an avatar and receive some passive response. Indeed, a few statues held the King of Destruction’s magic power.
This had nothing to do with me. I walked to the old woman’s home to settle my accommodation and food expenses. Although the monster meat we gave her yesterday was worth more than these costs, it wasn’t as useful to a family as an entire cow.
Moreover, she didn’t know how valuable the delicious meat was; she just thought it tasted good. I still intended to pay the market price, as a small gift often carries great meaning.
When I knocked on her door and explained my intention, the old woman looked surprised that I had come to pay. She repeatedly stated that it was her duty to host guests and that no payment was necessary. She was truly simple and hospitable.
As I insisted on giving her money, a chaotic ringing of bells suddenly came from a distance. It sounded like a large bronze bell, very loud, usually used for alarms on city walls or watchtowers.
Strange, was there a monster attack? The alarm was too frequent. I looked towards the town gate in confusion, as did many other villagers who came out of their homes.
A team of people, dressed in tattered clothes, some even shirtless, walked towards us from afar. Upon closer inspection, their bodies were covered in scars: whip marks, gashes from sharp objects, and bruises. They looked as if they had whipped themselves.
The reason lay in the weapons they carried, or if one could call them weapons. They held spiked wooden clubs, morning stars, nine-tailed whips, and multi-flailed flails. Some even held copper bells with spikes. They were as unconventional as could be.
Some of them were clearly disabled. One had a wooden leg, another was blind in one or both eyes, covered with white cloth. Some had lost hands, with flails attached to chains welded onto the stumps.
Many tattered prayer scrolls were stuck to their bodies. These were strips of paper filled with writing, imbued with faint divine power, and directly attached with red wax. The wax had been stamped, suggesting it was still hot when applied to their bodies.
They stumbled towards the town, whipping their companions with their whips or flails, shaking their copper bells, walking step by step like a performance art troupe.
I had seen people like this before. In the villages near Cando City, I had encountered such a charlatan. These were zealots! Only, there were more of them here, and they appeared even more fanatical and insane.
“Hiss! It’s those lunatics from the Sigma Church, everyone retreat!” shouted a local Glutton believer. The other Glutton believers also showed expressions of disgust and avoidance, clearly indicating how bad the reputation of these zealots was.
The Sigma Church. I had inquired about them and checked their information on my way here. They were one of the state religions of the Holy Roman Empire. However, it wasn’t an independent church but an alliance formed by a pantheon and its various branch sects.
Because none of these churches individually could compete with other powerful churches like Christianity or the Mechanical Church, they had united to form a religious alliance. They were represented externally by the Archbishop of the most powerful Sigma Church, holding a seat as an Elector.
Internally, it was a loose alliance of gods from the same pantheon who didn’t reject each other, including the White Wolf God Ulrik, the Death God Morr, the Nature God Tharr, and the Sun Goddess Mirmitis, among others.
Mannan, the Sea God whom Older Brother Jayad and I had recently encountered, was also an affiliated member of the Sigma Church in the Holy Roman Empire, showing their considerable influence.
I had also heard some interesting rumors, such as the Death God Morr possibly being an avatar of the Egyptian Underworld God Osiris, and the Sun Goddess Mirmitis being an avatar of the War Goddess Athena.
Furthermore, the main god of another state religion in the Holy Roman Empire, Wotan, was said to be an avatar of the Nordic King of Gods Odin. It seemed these gods were constantly forming new identities and joining groups.
“Saintess, the Sigma Church is divided into several monastic orders, and coupled with disputes over internal authority, they completely neglect their zealots, allowing them to develop wildly. Be extremely careful, these people called Scourgers are all madmen,” another Glutton believer warned me.
Even cultists found these zealots to be madmen, which spoke volumes about how extreme and fanatical their actions were. But this was the very characteristic of zealots.
Zealots could be considered the last resort for some impoverished people. They banded together, following their misinterpretations of religious doctrines, and wandered about in austerity.
Like the Scourgers before me, many of them suffered from severe malnutrition, endured hunger, and carried numerous fatal diseases. Their self-inflicted wounds were infected, with no disinfection or bandaging, leading to tetanus for everyone.
In such a condition, any normal person would have died ten times over, yet these Scourgers remained standing. They could still vigorously swing their copper bells and loudly proclaim doomsday prophecies.
The reason was simple: they possessed divine power within them. A faint divine power sustained their bodies, preventing them from dying even while enduring intense pain.
Just as a few households received Baal’s response through their unorthodox methods of worshipping the King of Destruction, some of these zealots, through their haphazard sacrificial rituals, managed to hit the jackpot and receive divine favor.
As long as one zealot received divine power, they could congregate a large number of other zealots around them. They shared this meager divine power through whipping or other sordid methods like spiritual intercourse, and then used it to sustain their lives.
Even with terminal illnesses, starvation, or severe disabilities, as long as a trace of divine power kept them going, they would not die. This is why zealots are considered the final refuge for many poor people at the bottom of society.
