Xyrin Empire
Chapter 363 - Chapter 363 Chapter 363 Uh... Heaven

Chapter 363: Chapter 363 Uh… Heaven Chapter 363: Chapter 363 Uh… Heaven “I’m terribly sorry to be meeting the messenger of the Lord in such a place.”

A golden-haired girl approached me, then performed a gesture of Cross religious etiquette with textbook precision before me, saying so in a respectful tone.

If any uninformed Cross believer witnessed this scene and recognized the girl’s identity, they’d likely choose to convert to Allah immediately, wouldn’t they? Archbishop Lola, the highest spiritual leader of the British Puritans, had just shown such a deferential attitude towards a power user in Academy City, which was even more unacceptable than the idea that Jesus Christ might actually be a woman.

However, I had something else on my mind at the moment.

“Um, if it’s possible, could you speak English?”

Despite the array of language translation mechanisms and a vast memory library to filter through, I had barely understood what Lola said. But this situation of speaking a sentence that seemed more difficult than relearning a foreign language–should I say this surprisingly off-kilter Archbishop indeed possessed various hidden strengths?

Well, strengths in various respects.

I observed the girl in front of me without a change in expression, quickly compiling data in my mind before uploading it to a conveniently free Xyrin Host.

Her real age is probably several cycles ahead of mine, and while it might seem impolite to say, the “young girl” who appears to be only seventeen or eighteen is indeed an “old woman,” as I had suspected. I don’t know how she managed to erase that part of her age, but she even extended her own lifespan to ten times that of a normal human, with nearly every physiological aging process coming to a near halt… I dare not think she could achieve immortality, but I am certain that she could continue her youth well into the coming millennium. Why then do various subtle feelings suddenly arise in my heart? Aresta is an old monster who has used science and technology to extend his life theoretically for thousands of years, and Lola here is not inferior in any way. Are all the rulers of this world transmigrations of Emperor Qin Shi Huang?

However, Lola didn’t care about my gaze; she was concerned about something else: “Ah, Lord Angel, I do not quite understand what you mean.”

Though she said so, the sudden blush on her face and her slightly flustered behavior suggested that the Archbishop known as the Fox Woman might not be entirely clueless.

Stier’s expression tightened subtly as if he was desperately holding something back, then coughed before saying, “Your Eminence Archbishop, I think what Lord Angel means is that it would be better for you to switch to a language that both parties can understand, at least not to use this… something that resembles Japanese.”

“Eh?!” Lola exclaimed softly, then covered her mouth with an embarrassed face, and said in a fluster, “My Japanese… My Japanese should be perfect! There must be a different meaning to what Lord Angel is saying!”

“Lola, right,” I finally addressed the girl in front of me, feeling helpless about her unintentional antics, “There’s something that might be hard for you to accept, but it’s a message from Heaven…”

“Yes!”

No matter what sort of panic she was in, upon hearing the words “a message from Heaven,” Lola immediately became serious, clasped her hands in front of her chest, then gently closed her eyes, waiting with a solemn expression for the “reprimand” that was to come; even the ruffian Stier immediately put out his cigarette and mimicked her gesture.

“Actually… Lola, the problem with your Japanese… has become so humiliating it’s reached Heaven, and even God knows about it…”

This was true; according to Bubbles, even Dingdang had started watching Magic Prohibition recently.

“So let’s speak in English.”

“Pfft!!”

A world-shaking gasp almost sent Stier spurting out a mouthful of old blood, while Lola’s eyes suddenly widened in shock, and then her face filled with despair, “Is this true?”

Yup, they finally switched to English.

“Speaking of which,” I said, turning the conversation to hide my discomfort at the “maiden”-like creature before me who was utterly lost due to the language barrier, “as a high-ranking leader of the Cross Sect, personally venturing deep into a bastion of science like Academy City really took me by surprise. What brings you here? Or is it just a pilgrimage?”

No matter how scheming she could be, Lola was an extremely devout believer of the Cross Sect. Learning of God’s “side” gracing the Academy City with their presence, it was possible she’d make a special trip just for a pilgrimage, and it was quite normal for fervent devotees to do such illogical things.

“As the Lord’s servant, upon hearing of the Angel’s descent onto Earth, no matter how perilous the place, it’s only natural for me to come and heed the summons, isn’t it?”

Lola said this with such a serious expression, but the authenticity was doubtful. Relying solely on the words of Stier and the others, how much she would truly believe in our “Divine Envoy” identities was anyone’s guess, especially considering we’re part of an “Angel Travel Group” that could be described as smearing Heaven’s reputation, completely out of touch with the legends. Could such a Pope-level devoted believer really fall for such a ludicrous tale?

But… seems like, in this complex world of entwined powers, it would be rather easy to handle many situations if you find a bunch of agreeable and somewhat obedient subordinates. At least, I’m quite interested in that “angel” predicted by Lin Xue to precipitate a world-scale disaster.

Compared to Aresta, who is cunning and thinking abnormally, I still think I prefer this similarly sly but at least tameable through faith Fox Woman before me.

“You must have heard from Old Smoke,” I touched my chin and slowly stated, “Although we’re on good terms with God, the real deity and the God you believers have invented are not the same concept. We don’t really care about your faith, and the God and angels you worship are not us.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Lola said with a smile, “Faith lies within our hearts. Believing in God, worshiping angels, spreading the Lord’s glory, all these are our heartfelt wishes even if our Lord–ah, may God forgive my sins–doesn’t exist. What difference does it make?”

“Coming from an Archbishop, that’s a rather peculiar view…” I listened agape as she spoke, truly astounded, “You can’t be an undercover agent, can you?”

What I’m more curious about is, how did Lola with such unorthodox views make her way up within the Cross Sect through deception and fraud?

“God does exist because we believe it so, and he resides within our hearts,” Lola explained, “Therefore, as long as you are the Lord’s Envoy, you are a person of great respect to me. But before that, may I have the privilege of experiencing the Lord’s glory?”

As expected… does she need a reference letter signed by God?

This woman doesn’t seem simple, in a sense, she is the “rational fanatic” type–unconditional faith, unquestioned worship, even knowing her God is but an idol created by man, she would offer her utmost piety; even aware that prayers are left unheard, she’d tirelessly preach. Her belief isn’t in the Yahweh of the Holy Scriptures, but in her own envisioned God–in psychology, we refer to this as… well, it’s a very peculiar mental phenomenon.

Lola looked at me curiously, a hint of desire in her eyes. It seemed she didn’t completely doubt the news Stier brought back; after all, there is some trust in her own confident. Now, she’s more interested in witnessing firsthand this so-called “Lord’s glory.”

“Alaya, prepare a Shadow Space.”

The Xyrin Apostle’s proprietary technology, Shadow Space, is a world-creating magic that, though illusory, has reached the point of creating something out of nothing at the material level. It seems its principle relies on the cunning method of copying existing information from the current world to create matter in a Parallel Space. It’s a miracle beyond Earthlings for thousands of years, yet for Xyrin People, it’s a necessary “tent” for home travel. Pandora’s Shadow Space replicated an entire K City, Alaya’s Shadow Space some part of her Residence on the Mother Star–should be good enough for duping this Archbishop, right?

“Don’t move around and damage public property later. If you do, you’ll be fined double the original price,” I said, then extended both hands levelly and properly.

“Eh?” Lola and Stier both expressed their surprise at the same time. They probably just wanted the Angel to appear for a bit of “pilgrimage,” without ever anticipating my plan.

As far as I was concerned, despite not doubting Lola’s magical expertise, Aresta was certainly no fool. It was hard to ensure he didn’t have some other means to monitor the movements here. Rather than take such a risk, it would be better to switch to a safer location.

At that moment, the space around us finally began to change.

Objects near and far wobbled like a disturbed surface of water. Except for the few of us standing here, everything seemed to become an imprecise projection. The information from the Main Material Plane reluctantly retreated under the erosion of Alaya’s consciousness, and our connection with the world around us quickly weakened.

“What–is–happening?”

Stier started to speak in surprise, but due to the delay caused by the spatial turbulence, or rather a delay caused by the World Law not processing quickly enough, his voice sounded comically stretched out like a tape recorder running out of batteries.

Then, everything around us shattered like glass, and a sudden burst of bright white light enveloped everything.

When the halo of light faded, we found ourselves in a dim garden.

Dim, please allow me to use such a word to describe the garden, for there seemed to be no sky above us. Over our heads loomed a grey and dreary Chaotic Space, devoid of any light source, yet the space didn’t seem to need light for us to see the surroundings. Beneath our feet was a ground made of white jade stones, and beside us a semicircular flowerbed filled with nameless fauna that likely were unique to the Xyrin Mother Star. A little further away, Roman-style white stone pillars formed three arcs enclosing this garden, about a hundred meters in diameter. Beyond the walls of these columns surged large swathes of boundless Chaotic Cloud Mist, seemingly blocking something from the other side from coming over. According to Alaya, that area was still bordering the lawless Void, and as this Parallel Space was formed in an instant, this quick-and-dirty version of the Shadow Space was quite limited in size. Plus, it seemed that the dimwit didn’t manage to generate a more reasonable sky for it in time.

Golden light began to emerge from the surrounding air and gradually converged into the figure of a young girl. Alaya made her typically grand entrance, her three-meter-wide wings fluttering slightly and immediately filling the dim courtyard with sacred white light. The white jade stones clearly had a strong affinity for the Holy Light. Driven by Alaya’s power, they all emitted a milky halo of light, finally giving this grey space a semblance of Heaven.

Using herself as a light source, huh… Alaya, you really know how to make do.

“This… where is this…”

Stier was no fool. Being deeply knowledgeable about magic, he quickly realized that he had entered an entirely unfamiliar space, with the air even filled with an energy form different from that of Earth. Correspondingly, the Holy Light, with its super-strong affinity, caused the part of spiritual power within him and Lola that stemmed from faith to stir unprecedentedly, even more active than receiving a baptism in the Great Cathedral–no matter the form of their magic, as long as their idolized figure was in the form of an Angel, they were doomed to be affected by the stimulus of the Holy Light Power. This was a universal law forcefully injected into every world due to the “existence” of the Star Domain Gods, and my admiration for those beings who could simply “exist” and define the attributes of a world is really… leisurely and profound, isn’t it…

“Welcome to Heaven, well, even if it’s just a small garden next to the transmission room–know this, mortals can barely withstand any sliver of Heaven’s light, and only this place can temporarily accommodate humans like you.”

Since no one was going to refute it, might as well fabricate it.

“If possible, I would even sacrifice my life to receive that light…”

Lola finally lost her initial impassive composure, now clasping her hands in front of her chest, with an extremely obvious fanaticism in her eyes. As a devout believer, being able to have an experience of entering “Heaven” clearly made her adrenaline surge.

“Even if you sacrifice your life, you won’t be able to withstand it,” I certainly didn’t have any Heaven’s light to offer her, though abundant doses of Void radiation were readily available, “It’s the truth of the world, something you can’t understand nor need to understand. Also, that guy over there, the Old Smoke–didn’t you know the Bible states that smoking is strictly forbidden within a hundred meters to the left and right of the Holy Hall?”

“Cough, cough…” Stier coughed violently a few times, then frantically threw his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. “Does the Bible mention anything about this?”

“From now on, it does,” Lola said, furrowing her brows in dissatisfaction. The seriousness in her tone left me no doubt that the Archbishop would indeed add this prohibition to the Bible.

Suddenly, it seemed quite amusing… Why not have a little more fun?

“I say,” I shook my head at Stier, who appeared somewhat helpless, and pointed at the ground with my chin. “You better pick that up before the city management comes along.”

Stier was stunned. “There’s city management in Heaven?”

And Lola was almost freaking out as she yelled at Stier, “You idiot! Pick up that cigarette butt!!!”

Managing to get the usually composed Archbishop Lola to freak out, it looks like the trick was successful.

“That’s enough, let’s talk business.”

I sat down on a stone bench nearby, and Alaya immediately came over to place her wings on my lap. Just before I took out the comb, a sudden thought struck me: What would this foolish angel’s reaction be if I spread a tablecloth over those wings and had tea?

“First off, let’s discuss the purpose of your visit. Well, even though the arrival of an angel is quite a significant event for the Cross Sect, I don’t believe you’ve become so fanatical that you’d set aside even the archbishop’s caution.”

After confirming our “identities,” Lola became noticeably more respectful. While the Archbishop is indeed a spokesperson for Yahweh, she still ranked lower than the angels who serve beside God. Therefore, she immediately bowed her head and replied, “The primary issue is to verify the authenticity of your arrival. Moreover, Stier mentioned that you would like the British Puritan to assist in searching for the missing angel. As the Archbishop of the British Puritan, I thought it best to hear this command personally.”

Nicely put–by doing so, she elevated a casual command from me directly to the status of a divine decree from Heaven. Subsequently, this would essentially authenticate the British Puritan as the legitimate sect, implying clear significance: Roman Orthodox had failed to receive God’s approval, and therefore, God had communicated His will to the British Puritan instead. This fox woman indeed knew how to scheme.

So, mutual exploitation it is, at least as far as I can see.

“We are also clear about the course of events. An angel has gone missing from the group. Let me make it clear beforehand that I can’t tell you anything about this angel’s rank, name, or abilities, as those are not words that should come from my mouth,” I made up things on the spot, and disappointment immediately registered on Lola’s face. “Your task is to find her as quickly as possible. Due to her particular nature, do not attempt to contact her prematurely upon locating her but instead inform me immediately. You understand this part, right?”

Lola nodded. “Although I don’t fully understand, if it’s Heaven’s command, I will certainly comply.”

There we go, never straying from Heaven’s command, perfectly positioning the British Puritan as God’s trusted ones!

“Yes, that would be best. In that case, there should be no need to involve the people from the Roman Orthodox.”

I nodded solemnly, and Lola immediately showed a look of regret. “Ah, it is a pity, indeed. The Roman Orthodox have thus missed out on the glory of serving the Lord.”

Do you believe I could change my mind at this very moment!?

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