novelraw #283 - Section 283
#283 - Section 283
Every one of them is a great mage who can advance the progress bar of new arcane arts. Losing any of them would be the Empire's greatest loss, so of course, they must be protected.
All of this led to an increasing number of personnel surrounding the Second Fleet, and various detection and analysis methods were initiated.
For Tyberia, it was like more and more people were coming to watch her public execution...
"Empire, you will pay the price for your arrogance sooner or later!"
The three avatars roared in anger, but other than roaring, she couldn't resist in any way.
Lydia was still recording and analyzing: "The target's brainwaves remain continuously excited. The willpower of a god is evident, and the thought activity is high, with logical coherence. The probability of a normal fall is less than 0.0082347%..."
Although Tyberia was bound by chains and unable to move, her perception was still at the level of a god. She could see everything everyone was doing.
There were many, many similar "arcane analyses." She was supposed to be a mysterious and supreme god, but now she was like a lab rat, being analyzed into pieces of information to enrich the Empire's database.
To a god, this was a more hateful blasphemy than throwing them into the opposing camp!
These mortals not only had no respect for her but even treated her as experimental material, conducting cruel live experiments!
"Lydia, aren't you going too far? Aren't you afraid some committee will come after you afterward?"
Frankenstein also questioned Lydia's increasingly bold experimental analysis.
"They protect humans and magical creatures, but are gods creatures?"
Lydia retorted forcefully.
Frankenstein was stunned. Indeed, when the laws were initially drafted, the articles had many restrictions on races, striving to protect the dignity of intelligent life as much as possible.
However, no matter which regulation, beings like Tyberia were not within the scope of protection.
Gods were so powerful, how could they be summarized by the vulgar definition of magical life?
"I understand!"
Frankenstein immediately became excited, his inspiration bursting forth, and ordered his subordinates to start operating.
It wasn't just Lydia who had many experiments; he also had a lot of operations he wanted to verify on Tyberia!
When the other mages saw that the top leaders of the two major warlord factions had begun to act, who wouldn't understand that because it was the first time a god had been captured, there were many loopholes in research management laws that allowed them to unleash their full potential on Tyberia, so they immediately seized the time to act.
Opportunity knocks but once. Who knew if they missed this time, and the next time a god was captured, those legal loopholes would have been filled, and they wouldn't be able to experiment on the next god so unscrupulously.
In this light, Tyberia's experience after being captured would be the tragic upper limit for gods. In the future, the development, containment, and other work would definitely be more organized and logical until a fixed procedure was formed, no longer allowing these mages to run wild.
Unfortunately, those beautiful futures were all built on Tyberia's suffering!
At this moment, Tyberia's three avatars had to endure the mages' various curiosities about gods and use her to conduct all kinds of bizarre experiments physically.
Psychologically, they had to endure the Twilight of the Gods, the judgment of the believers, which had never stopped.
That was based on the power of faith. The lambs who had contributed the power of faith in the past had mastered more advanced technology. They were no longer just tools to be squeezed at will, and they also had the opportunity to question whether their dedication could get the reward they deserved.
The believers gave everything they had to the gods, working hard to build the glory and prosperity of the divine kingdom. Shouldn't they have at least the most basic respect?
Such questions kept ringing out. As Tyberia's power declined, those questions became clearer and clearer. She heard them more and more clearly and was more and more deeply affected.
Even the will of a god was not infinitely strong; otherwise, there would be no gods who became addicted to faith, lost in prayer, and then fell.
The Seven Gods' camp had means to resist the residual poison of faith. This was an important reason why they were getting stronger and stronger and could wage war against other gods to get to where they were today.
However, that was only against scattered, aimless, and heavily filtered power of faith.
Now, along with the power of faith, there were countless believers' direct mental interrogations, directly pointing to Tyberia's past actions, directly pointing to the sins committed by those powerful believers and nobles she had allowed, tearing off her pride and glorious coat little by little, revealing her selfish, cowardly, and greedy nature.
Especially the control centers of those eleven God-Devouring Ships, they were all from the War Goddess's diocese. Being able to control the body of a God-Devourer without getting lost, their willpower must have reached the level of a god, even far stronger than ordinary gods.
They had also suffered under Tyberia's rule and were also questioning, using their anger and sorrow to affect Tyberia's long-held heart.
Those were her believers. What supported them through the miscellaneous thoughts in the God-Devourer's mind was not something else, but the hatred for her, the War Goddess, which had turned them into such a steel army that could face the gods directly and be invincible.
In contrast, she, the god, reading their experiences, gradually became less firm, rethinking the nobility and lowliness that seemed to be destined from birth in this universe...
Chapter 261: The Real Twilight, Accusations of Blood and Tears
My name is Sanya, an untouchable, a little girl born with sin.
But I work hard, complete all the tasks assigned by my master, do what I can for my parents and grandma, and pray devoutly to the War Goddess we believe in. I can't figure out what the sin I bear is.
Shouldn't sin be a word used to judge murderers, robbers, cheaters, and those who occupy other people's property?
Sanya doesn't understand and can only ask her mother. Her mother immediately cries, saying it's all her fault, she shouldn't have given birth to me.
My mother cries so sadly that I don't dare to ask again.
Life is hard, but the family is united, and we can still eat the candy my father buys me, saving every penny!
Although it's very rough, it's so sweet that Sanya feels happiness, the kind of happiness described in the doctrines and scriptures.
But later, the master heard that the seeds he bought were problematic, which led to a great reduction in income that year, and everyone was going hungry.
Of course, the master won't go hungry. As long as those fierce servants come to snatch the food from us untouchables, they can still live very happily.
That was a very terrible winter.
My father went into the mountains to hunt and never came back. My grandma was sick in bed, and my mother was struggling to support the family when she fell into the well.
After burying my mother, my brother and I went to a neighboring village to beg for some food. When we came back, my grandma was smoked to death in the room by the stove fire.
My brother said it was an accident, but I knew that my grandma was the most careful person in the world, and she could never have made such a stupid mistake.
She, an old woman, didn't want to burden my brother and me and wanted to leave the last food for us, so she deliberately made a mistake.
For the first time, I realized that just wanting to live was such a difficult thing.
But even if my grandma gave up her life, the family's food was not enough to get through the winter.
My brother sneaked out at night and entered the farm of the neighboring manor, returning covered in blood at night.
He wanted to steal food but was afraid of being caught, and several of his bones were broken.
Just for a few potatoes that were not even the size of a baby's fist, he suffered the most vicious beating. He pushed the bloody food to me and passed out, never waking up again.
Sanya is left alone, all alone.
I ate the potatoes mixed with my brother's blood. They didn't taste good, but I still swallowed them.
My brother brought them back with his life, hoping I would live on.
I must live on, even if I don't know what will happen if I go on like this, what the end of an untouchable's life will see.
Grow up, marry, have children, starve like me, live on with the expectations of my family, and then keep repeating?
The pastor said that this is a beautiful world protected by the War Goddess, and we live under her grace and should be grateful.
But I don't know what to be grateful for?
Grateful for her giving me suffering, grateful for her giving me hunger, grateful for her taking away my relatives, grateful for her allowing those superiors to deprive me of my dignity, grateful for her letting the potatoes be stained with blood?
But I should live on.
Live for my parents, grandma, and brother, and see what this world has to offer.
If I have the opportunity to see the high and mighty War Goddess, I want to ask her face to face:
Do you really deserve to be high and mighty, do you really accept our offerings for doing these things?
I don't want a beautiful afterlife, I just want my parents back.
Please, omnipotent god, you said in the hymns we must sing that you are omnipotent, right? Then you must be able to fulfill Sanya's small wish, right?
...
...
My name is Tiger. My mother hoped I would be as strong as a tiger, so she gave me this name.
Because she was weak since she was a child, thinner than children of the same age, and always sick, she was only raised because she was a girl and could always get married.
But that kind of growth was ultimately difficult, not bright, and very dark.
So she hoped that I would have a strong physique so that I would not be bullied, be able to do more labor, and become a reliable labor force for the family.
That way, even if I am a child born to a concubine, I will not be ignored and will receive more care, right?
The beautiful name and my mother's wish did not bring me good luck. I seemed to have inherited her problems and was also thin and small.
I would be bullied outside, and the family didn't like me, a sickly child, and my mother and I lived like invisible people.
Knowing that my mother was sick, lying in bed, unable to do even the simplest cooking and washing clothes.
Grandma took my mother to the temple and then told everyone that the pastor said my mother was about to die.
Grandpa nodded, father nodded, aunt nodded, brother nodded...
Everyone knew that my mother was about to die.
Their expressions were calm. When the old ox in the family was sick last year, they would at least be sad for a while.
So on the third day, it was the day of my mother's burial.
I walked at the end of the line, crying, thinking that the pastor was so powerful, saying that my mother was sick and died, and she really died.
In front of the burning fire, I suddenly saw the straw mat covering my mother move.
I rushed over in surprise, holding her hand, although it was a little cold, it still had warmth.
"Mom is not dead!" I shouted loudly, and my grandma picked me up.
My father said, "Your mother is dead, don't you believe her?"
The straw mat was pulled open, my mother's face was pale, and she said softly, "Yes, I'm already dead..."
I was stunned. At that time, I couldn't tell whether my mother was dead or not.
If she was dead, why was she still warm; if she was alive, why did she say she was already dead.
My father covered the straw mat, and there was no crying from the burning flames.
At that time, I thought that my mother might really be dead.
When I grew up, I thought that my mother was afraid that I would worry, afraid that I would be excited and make my father and grandma dislike me even more, so she endured the pain of being burned alive and accepted the ending they gave her.
When I joined the Tianming Army, I learned that my grandma went to the temple because the pastor demanded ten times the consultation fee, so she went home and announced that my mother was going to die.
If it was her daughter who was sick, would she do this, burning her alive while she was still alive?
My mother was sick, and there was also a child who was equally thin and short, unable to resist the arrangements of this family.
They are well-known devout believers in this parish, generally recognized as a good family, decent and polite, but they can burn a living person to death.
I go to night school every day, but I still can't figure out what faith has given us.
In the name of God, under the tolerance of God, under the grace of God, can believers burn a sick woman to death?
I can't think about it anymore. I can only hold the gun, wear armor, return to the land where I lived, and ask those who still firmly believe in God:
That woman, who never had mercy on those who really needed help, why should she be a god?
...
...
A choirboy who was abused by the priest, led the Tianming Army, and finally jumped from the top of the church while singing.
A woman who was falsely accused of cheating because her husband wanted to marry a new wife, and then stoned to death and buried alive by all the men in the village.
A scholar who studied for ten years, always ranked first, but his position would always be taken away by the family closer to God.
A serf who worked ordinary jobs, saved money ordinarily, and died ordinarily from overwork during overtime.
The most valiant effort, the fiercest battle to survive, earning a lot of wealth for the master, and gradually aging, being arranged to play a fixed match, squeezing out the last value...
One life after another, one despair after another.
This is not a collection of selected episodes that need to be selected, but things that the church and nobles will sit back and watch happen every day under the rule of God.
Of course, the gods know this, but she doesn't think there is anything wrong with it, as long as she is provided with faith most efficiently.
The lambs only need to complete the task, whether they are happy or not is irrelevant to her, and whether it is fair or not is also irrelevant to her.
She was a god, a high and mighty god, already so powerful that these mortals could only look up to her, their imaginations falling short. She would continue to grow stronger on the path of eternity, never moved by their joys and sorrows.
Therefore, Tebella had never truly listened to the prayers of these mortals.
She only needed to grant them power when a performance was required, fulfilling their small desires, and she would have a thriving parish, then freely reap the faith power produced each year.