Chapter 53 - The Truth of the Blessed
The truth of the Blessed
The Goddess Church continued to resist the ever changing world.
1, Those who hold a heretical document and those who touch its contents are to be executed.
2, Those who try to remove the second heart, those who have removed it, and those who helped the removal are to be executed.
3, Those who claim that the Blessed are malformations that do not possess a second heart by nature are to be executed.
4, Those who doubt the Goddess Church are sinners. If you find anyone suspicious of this crime, report it.
Such orders were issued to each country, and the crackdown was aided with the effort of their clergies.
But that failed rather miserably. People who were hesitant to remove their second hearts until then thought,
「The rumors must be true, why else would the Goddess Church be so aggressive」
Unfortunately for the Church, underground surgeons specializing in second heart excisions were active in various countries. People happily relied on these doctors for their excisions. Of course, there were some who informed the church, but that was far from enough to stop the moving world.
The world had begun to change, and the efforts of the Goddess Church were only in vain.
People happily excised their second hearts, traded internationally without permission, or abandoned their homeland to explore the new world. As a result, the power of the Goddess Church diminished day by day.
Until finally, a decisive event comes and ends the Church.
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On a certain day, a Blessed was driving a magical transport on the road. When suddenly, combat magic struck their vehicle.
When the Blessed escaped their transport, they found themselves surrounded by several men.
「What are you up to!? Are you aware that this seat is a Blessed!? Speak!!」
As the Blessed yelled with reddened cheeks, the men yell back,
「Blessed my ass!! Treating us like nothing but toys!!」
「You don’t remember!? My daughter was seized by you!! And-! Fuck!! At the end-!」
「My pregnant daughter was-! The baby-… ! Ah, this bastard!! I’ll kill you!!」
「The Goddess Cult doesn’t have sh*t on me now!! Because we too have bodies that aren’t attacked by monsters!!」
The Blessed glared at the men from the roof of the magical transport and yelled back with spit flying out of his mouth,
「You say your wedded daughter was made into a toy by me!? You should have rejoiced!! To be loved by me is to be loved by the Goddess!! Those women were lucky!!
You ignorant fools are what is driving this world to insanity!! You satanic worshipers!! It’s shameful to even call you a person!!」
Those were the final words. The Blessed was pierced by combat magic through his chest.
The intricate designed clothes on the Blessed were steadily dyed red with his blood. The Blessed lost his balance and fell off the transport. He was severely beaten by the surrounding men till his death, and was never seen alive again.
The men put the Blessed’s body into a bag and brought it back to the country.
The corpse was taken to a crowded operating room within the Magic Research Institution. Researchers and doctors have converged here, hidden from the eyes of the Goddess Church.
When the body of the Blessed was placed on the operating table, a verteran doctor approaches, and begins to dissect the tattered corpse.
Everyone in the operating room took a gulp of air and gazed at the doctor’s fingertips. After a short time, the doctor fished dissecting the body and told the audience the results after setting his wand aside.
And thus the people will know the truth of the world.
「It’s as predicted, but… There is no second heart in the Blessed’s body. Apparently, they were born without it.
Well… In other words… how should I put it…
They were nothing but abnormalities.」
This announcement marked the end for the reign of the Goddess Church.
「So the Blessed were just malformations born without a second heart.」
「I heard that they didn’t have the Goddess’s blessing from the beginning.」
「So the monsters weren’t created by the Demon King, but by magic.」
「Well, in the end it seems that everything the Goddess Church has said was a lie.」
Throughout the world, such rumors began to spread person to person. And so, as if to release their pent up frustrations, distrust towards the Church grew.
Despite the Church’s efforts of desperately tightening the crackdown and executing heretics daily, things steadily spiraled out of their control.
Merchants who have had their second hearts removed started trading without permission. Those who held grudges against the church ambushed the Blessed and killed them one after the other. People who are disgusted with their country leave it, now without the fear of demons.
Scholars no longer gathered at the seminary. The school buildings stood empty. People no longer came to the weekly church plays. The loading platform of the Blesseds’ magical transports were now loaded with only small amounts of luggage.
The Goddess Church, which stood at the pinnacle of civilization only a few years ago, had lost it all, their distribution network, their information network, and the people’s trust.
Slowly, the Goddess Church began to face oppression.
The bulky junior priests responsible for executing heretics in the temp could no longer walk around the city alone. They continued to execute the heretics, but they did so while frightened by the eyes of the people.
And finally, the Church’s worst fears came true. In a small remote city-state, a temple of the Goddess was buried.
The Blessed in charge of that country was infamous for his arrogance. No one could resist when the Goddess Church held power, but that power no longer existed.
And on a certain day-
It was when the Blessed was enjoying a luxurious meal in his mansion room as usual, drinking high quality liquor as if it were water. A junior priest changed their expression and charged into the room.
「Insolence!! To dare interrupt this seat while I am eating a meal!!」
The Blessed yelled and threw a bottle of liquor at the junior priest. The bottle hits their body, but the junior priest only apologizes before shouting,
「You must hurry and escape!!」
At that time, the road to the mansion was cluttered with an angry mob. People were moving forward towards the mansion with wands in their hands.
The Blessed ruling the country has done too much. Doing all sorts of inhumane acts to satisfy his insatiable desires.
Yet the people could only tolerate living under him.
Even if he killed a man for fun. Even if he took away someone’s family. Many suffered just to satisfy his vulgar desires.
People could only feign adoration and bow with their heads to the ground.
But they no longer feign adoration.
The Church was no longer needed.
The Blessed was no longer needed.
When people confirmed that the Blessed entered his mansion, they went home, equipped their wands, and gathered on the main street. In just a few hours, the boulevard was filled with people, and their combined voices dominated the area.
「Kill him!! Kill!! Kill!!」
「Dismember him!!」
「Goddess my ass!! Blessed my ass!!」
「I tear you apart!!」
「Beat him!!」
「Turn him into charcoal!!」
Chanting, the people move.
There is no command. The mob moves naturally, gradually increasing in speed.
A tidal wave of people passed through the shopping district, through the residential area, towards the mansion of the Blessed.
In front of such an oppressive force, the Blessed trying to get into his magical transport stopped moving. He was scared to the point of paralysis.
His lips moved as he tried to say something, but was killed before words left his mouth.
Upon his death, the clergy was killed, the church was burned, and those who still supported the Goddess were exiled from the country.
♦♦♦♦♦
The Church was violently wavering.
They no longer controlled information. This incident could not be suppressed, and would soon spread to the world. Once that happens, uprisings are certain to happen all over the world.
The junior priests who learned of the incident abandoned their faith and asked an underground doctor to remove their second hearts, and left their countries to escape. Those once supportive of the church now bare their fangs towards them. Blessed scattered around their countries were assassinated one after another, and their numbers were now less than half of their heyday.
The atmosphere that surrounded the Church’s headquarters was darker than a funeral.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is fre𝒆w(e)bn(o)vel