Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 276 Does Everyone Have Their Own Will?
"A true believer?" Upon hearing this, Professor David's mouth curled up subtly, as if he was skeptical, disdainful, or even more serious about this statement: "You are still the same as before, believing in these outdated things, Rochelle. Is it because it is the last words left by Master Mumba that you are so obsessed with it?"

Master Monba is also a practitioner of the Fertile Soil Sect, but he has already completed his trials of touring the mountains and traveling the land, so he was given the title of "Master". At the same time, he is also Rochelle's teacher.

In the autumn of 1790, due to the refusal to obey the "Religious Decree", the holy place of the Wotu Sect, "High Rock City" Bishan, was attacked by the combined forces of the sect and suffered heavy losses. Master Mumba took the initiative to stay behind to protect his students from escaping from Bishan, and was eventually killed. Before his death, he left Rochelle with the last words: "Any true believer must first go through thousands of trials and tribulations, and then see the spirituality of the saints and shine in the world."

Since then, the introverted Rochelle has become even more silent, and has put his teacher's last wish into practice with practical actions. So far, the distance he has traveled on the earth is longer than the trial road of Master Mumba back then. In the fertile soil sect, which is now losing talents, he is the backbone. However, he did not accept the title of "master", but called himself a "true believer", perhaps to remember the teacher's enlightenment and sacrifice.

"Faith has never been outdated." Rochelle replied in a deep voice: "True believers step on every speck of dust on the earth, and experience the grandeur of life from the insignificance of the world. Their enlightenment will become the bond connecting the past and the future."

"Connecting the past and the future..." Professor David watched the young man's figure walking away in the noisy crowd, gradually disappearing at the other end of the long steps of Mount Seschel, his eyes deep and complex.

After they were both silent for a while, Rochelle took out a letter from his bosom, handed it to Professor David, and said, "This is a letter from His Majesty Keliul. He asked me to send his greetings to you and to the fellow monks of the Holy Spring who have stayed in the city all these years."

Kyriul Alexei, the current head of the Holy Spring Order, was also a visionary who led the "Great Retreat" at the end of the last century. He had long anticipated that the "Religious Decree" issue could not be resolved peacefully, and that the combined power of the Order was too large to resist, so he took the initiative to gradually evacuate the elite believers and core members of the Holy Spring Order from Nimsher, while still pretending to resist on the surface. This deceived the combined order, causing them to spend a lot of time mobilizing their troops. When they attacked the cathedrals in the city, they found that they were empty, and even the most important spiritual spring sanctuary, the Temple of Tiphis, had been abandoned.

But because of this, the Holy Spring Monastic Order was able to preserve its manpower, which was at least better than the Fertile Land Sect, which suffered heavy casualties after its holy land was breached. To this day, His Majesty Kailuer still leads some of the church members to protect the statue of the spring spirit enshrined in the former St. Tiphis Church, and seeks opportunities for counterattacks in secret places. It sounds good, but in fact, it is just a wandering church being chased by the Balance of Order. If it had not been lucky enough not to run into the main encirclement, it would have probably ushered in a miserable end.

It was fortunate that Rochelle was able to contact the Lord Headmaster. Even Professor David himself, as the representative of the remaining forces of the Holy Spring Order in the city of Nimsher, had not received any news from him for more than ten years.

He took the letter but did not open it immediately. Instead, he chuckled and said, "I'm afraid it's more than just a greeting, right? Let me guess. He should have made a request in the letter, hoping that I would fully cooperate with your activities in Nimsher City. It would be best if I could conceal it from the eyes and ears of the Night's Watch and the Balance of Order, and successfully hold the summoning ceremony to summon the arrival of the Spring Spirit Tifo or the Earth Spirit Titan. If it is feasible, it would be best if both of them descended at the same time. Am I right, Lord Rochelle?"

"I agree with you, David, but this is exactly why I am here: I will unveil the hypocritical veil of the Order and let everyone realize that they are not invincible. Only in this way can we awaken the courage in people's hearts and make them aware of the battle, like true believers, fighting for their beliefs."

Rochelle was silent for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Starting from January 1 next year, the United Churches will enforce the latest supplementary regulations of the Religious Decree, forcing the closure of all illegal churches and prohibiting public preaching. This move will undoubtedly push the entire religious community to the opposite side of itself, and will inevitably usher in a fierce backlash. Perhaps, believers like us who believe in the animism of all things can also take this opportunity to restore our past glory."

"Do you want to unite all these churches and form an alliance, like Solomon's Thirteen Hermits?" Professor David did not take his words seriously and shook his head. "But even the Thirteen Hermits had to survive under the threat of force from the united church. How can you be sure that those heretics have the strength and courage to fight? Not to mention the influence of the united church in the secular world, even if they only dispatched the Scarlet Night Gate of the Inquisition, would these people have the awareness to face the cannon of judgment? You think too simply, Rochelle."

Rochelle's reply was low and firm, full of unshakable determination.

but.

"Are you confident about this?" David glanced at him. "But don't forget, if the Refined Magic and Conception Gods really have the power to fight against the Constructed Mecha, then when the Cult attacked Nimsher City, why didn't His Majesty Kellur summon Lord Quan Lingtifu to turn the tide?"

"Because the time has not come, and His Majesty Kellul is unwilling to make unnecessary sacrifices. But this moment is different. The enforcement of the Religious Decree has brought us the most appropriate time. The arduous mission of animism is destined to come to the moment when it must be sacrificed." Rochelle unconsciously clenched his fists, his eyes heavy and powerful, with the weight of a mountain: "During the Steam Crusade, the Alpha Knights summoned the imaginary machine god Alexander, forcing the united religious orders to abandon the front battlefield and fight in a roundabout way. The power of the imaginary god can be seen from this."

"So in order to fight against the machine god Alexander, the cult united to create the construct mecha." Professor David sneered: "You want to use something that has been defeated to fight against the thing that defeated it. Isn't this a ridiculous and arrogant approach?"

"Mechanika is a completely fictional god, so it is natural that he was defeated. The spring spirits and earth spirits are actually the spirits of heaven and earth. They have held the power of natural elements since ancient times. Now that they have descended here with the power of human faith, they will surely show a more magnificent and shocking power than Mechanika."

Rochelle's tone was so certain, as if he really believed it.

Professor David knew that he was just convincing himself with lies.

The core of refining magic is the power of faith. The more power of faith one offers during the ceremony of inviting gods, the more powerful the gods that are conceived will be, regardless of other factors. The Steam Cult was so glorious back then that even the Alpha Knights, which split off from it, occupied half of the Sigiriya continent at its peak, with tens of millions of believers under their jurisdiction. The conceived machine god Alexander, born from their power of faith, even has the power to distort time and space and shape the kingdom of God. Otherwise, the Steam Crusade would not have lasted for two hundred years.

To this day, there are still pagans in Platinum City, the "City of Heavenly Lake", who believe in the god of steam and steel. The cult organization Spacetime Enigma has detailed records in its teaching book "The Secret Codex of Enigma" that this first imagined god in history even has three different forms. Whenever people think that He is going to fail, believers who long for the glory of steam will regenerate Him and move Him to a higher level.

And what is the relationship between the Holy Spring Monks and the Fertile Soil Sect?
A broken and withered faith, a shrouded holy place, a worthless spirituality...? How could these meager things alone rival the might of the Steam Cult or the Alpha Knights? Trying to use them to join forces with the Cult to fight against them would be a self-destructive move!
Anyone who knew Rochelle would say that he was a calm and deep guy. Only a few people knew that he was essentially the most rational madman. In order to respond to the wishes of his teacher before his death, he had reached a nearly morbid level. His body under his rough clothes was covered with scars, only a few of which were caused by the Arbitrator of the Scales of Order, and most of them were caused by the terrible earthquakes, landslides, mudslides and other natural disasters when he accepted the trial of mountains and mountains, soil and mudstone.

However, the final result was that he completed all the trials alive, and his body had already absorbed more than thirty kinds of spirits from mountains, fields, woodlands, and even swamps. To put it in a twisted way, he was tempering his soul from a mortal to a so-called "god", and the tempering process was even worse than the erosion and loss of control of those extraordinary people in ancient times.

When a person's will is so strong that it is frightening, he can be said to be a pathological being.

It is difficult to say anything to such a person. Ridicule is useless, and persuasion is meaningless. Therefore, after Professor David sneered, he gently grasped the top of the walnut cane and tapped it twice on the marble floor of the balcony, making a dull echo: "I understand. Since it is His Majesty Keluer's request, then I will naturally support your action."

"In fact, I never said I would stop you."

"Everyone has his own wishes. This is true for you and the followers of the Holy Spring Monastery."

"I will give you a list of people who are devout believers in the Quanling faith in the city. You can contact them yourself. As for how to persuade them, whether to use the name of faith or coercion or inducement, it is none of my business. After all, as I said, everyone has their own wishes."

"Isn't it, Rochelle?"

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)