Chapter 345 - 253: Zog’s Crystal-Clear Arrangement

Chapter 345: Chapter 253: Zog’s Crystal-Clear Arrangement

He picked up a rock from the ground, cast the Magic Weapon Technique on it to increase its power, and prepared to throw it to smash the Magic Vision Device in the display window.

It was one of the few spells he knew that could actually add a bit of damage.

However, the voice coming from the Magic Vision Device made him hesitate.

"O lost lambs, the Church is deceiving you. These believers of an Evil God, their bodies wracked with sin, are using the Steam Engine as a medium to bring you curses, disasters, diseases, and pain..."

The message was different from last time. Upon hearing it, he didn’t fly into a rage or lose his senses.

This time, it seemed they actually wanted to say something.

Out of curiosity, Lori turned his head to look at the Magic Vision Device.

Curiosity is an important quality for a Mage. A strong sense of curiosity fosters a thirst for knowledge, compelling them to tirelessly explore the mysteries of magic.

Curiosity kills the Mage!

They always end up doing things that other people can’t understand, all because of curiosity.

Lori wanted to hear what this Cult had to say.

But he didn’t put down the enchanted rock in his hand. If anything seemed off, he would smash the Magic Vision Device immediately.

Just then, his roommate, who had just been pushed to the ground, realized what was happening and scrambled to his feet.

"Lori! Why are you still watching it?! You’re not...?"

The roommate was worried Lori had fallen for an Illusion Technique again.

"Shhh..."

Lori made a hushing gesture.

"They’re spilling dirt on the Church."

"What?" After hearing this, his roommate quickly weighed the possibility of falling for an Illusion Technique against hearing dirt on the Church. The latter won out in a flash, and he leaned in closer too.

On the screen, a strange figure wearing a bird-beak mask and a black trench coat stood before a massive Mammon symbol, detailing the Church’s conspiracy to place curses on Steam Engines.

"A curse and a Divine Art are the same kind of magic, just different applications. Machines that haven’t received the Church’s blessing bring their users incurable illnesses. These believers of an Evil God don’t want to bring you salvation; they only want to monopolize your resources!"

Lori found himself somewhat admiring the speaker. Whatever his motives, he actually dared to call the Magic Goddess an Evil God.

He didn’t know if the man had something up his sleeve or was just a pure lunatic who knew no fear.

To be honest, even though he was a Magic User, he didn’t have a very high opinion of the Church that worshiped the Magic Goddess.

Plenty of scandals about the Church had circulated on the streets, and most Priests in the cathedrals weren’t as noble as their doctrines claimed. On the contrary, they were greedy and materialistic.

But he’d never heard of anything as serious as cursing people through Steam Engines—and on a massive scale, at that.

This went beyond mere greed.

Lori had seen the miserable state of the sick in the slums. They were in constant agony, choosing either to end their own lives or to wait for death amidst struggle and torment.

The Church had even organized fundraisers for these patients. If the patients’ illnesses were their own doing, then that was the height of hypocrisy.

’Besides, where did all those donations go? The Church never seemed to announce the exact destination of the funds.’

Doctor Bird-beak presented the evidence of the Church’s crimes.

First came what looked like footage of a Steam Engine inside a Factory, filmed from an unusual angle, clearly taken at great risk.

A group of people, bundled up so their faces couldn’t be seen, went from one machine to the next, casting curses.

But there was no way to confirm from their appearance that they were from the Church.

This was also reasonable. If the Church was really behind it, they wouldn’t be wearing their uniforms.

If they had been wearing the Church’s standard robes, Lori would have actually thought it was a setup.

’Who announces who they are before doing something bad?’

Other people on the street also noticed what was playing on the Magic Vision Device. A larger crowd gathered outside the display window to watch.

After the secret footage ended, Doctor Bird-beak displayed the structure of the curse.

It was a very rare magic structure, but Lori happened to know it. In the instructional books he wrote, he usually mixed in some interesting trivia alongside the main content.

As a result, he had studied many obscure forms of magic.

Including the Church’s Divine Arts.

The magic structure shown in the video was a standard Divine Art configuration. Only Church members could use such magic.

It was as if after swearing to serve the Magic Goddess, she would grant special approval to use this category of magic.

’So the Church really did it?’

After deconstructing the curse, Doctor Bird-beak didn’t jump to a conclusion. Instead, he threw the question to the audience.

"O lost lambs, Mammon now points the way for you! Go and discover the truth! Do not let the sinful Evil God and Her greedy lapdogs continue to bring disaster! We do not need salvation from such a deity! We do not need such a deity!"

As his tone grew more and more agitated, many other images were spliced in.

Patients writhing in agony in dilapidated houses, a Little White Mouse dying quickly after being cursed, the Church rendered in dark and dangerous colors.

The scenes cut and jumped rapidly, making the viewers tense up involuntarily.

Then, the symbol of Mammon appeared again. A brief black screen ended, and the broadcast returned to the still-ongoing awards ceremony for Feilin’s Best Songs.

The host was excitedly announcing the top three winners.

But the onlookers outside the window couldn’t care less about the top three rankings.

There was a more pressing issue now.

A difficult question to raise.

The crowd of onlookers on the street fell silent. This uncomfortable silence lasted for nearly five minutes before someone finally spoke up. "Is what that guy said all true?"

"How could it be true?" another person retorted. "That guy is from that Mammon Sect. They’re all crazy. They harmed us last time, so why would they be kind enough to warn us about danger?"

"But they hate the Church too, right? Maybe they managed to dig up some of the Church’s hidden secrets."

"It’s a setup, definitely a setup. The Church isn’t short on money, they have high status, and tons of believers. Why would they need to do something like this?"

"Have you ever thought about where the Church gets all its money? Yes, they have the Pope’s Country, but the cathedrals everywhere are a bit too wealthy. Can they really get that much money from believers’ donations alone?"

"The Church has never announced how much they get in donations, so how can you be sure they don’t have that much money?"

"Isn’t the fact they don’t announce the donation amounts even more suspicious?"

"Yeah! Not only do they not announce the amounts, they don’t even say what they use it for! Who does things like that? They’re probably using our money for gambling and whoring!"

The crowd immediately erupted into arguments.

Long-held dissatisfaction with the Church found an outlet at this moment, as detractors and supporters of the Church argued endlessly.

His roommate glanced at Lori. He knew Lori had studied all sorts of obscure magic, and his eyes were asking if the curse was truly a Divine Art.

Lori didn’t answer out loud, just gave a slight nod.

’If I say it out loud and someone with ill intentions hears me, what if it turns out the Church didn’t do it? I’d be targeted for payback.’

Still, he would bet his future teaching career that the curse was indeed a Divine Art structure.

Regardless of whether Church personnel did it, he could at least be certain that it was done by someone who had come from the Church and served the Magic Goddess.

Lori squeezed out of the crowd and pulled out his phone. He was sure a topic this huge would be blowing up online.

He opened Microblog, and sure enough, terms like "Church," "Steam Engine," "Mammon Sect," and "is the curse a Divine Art" already filled the trending list.

It had pushed all the content related to Feilin’s Best Songs down the list.

The Church was the one true top celebrity on the Feilin Continent.

Under the related search terms, some highly proactive people had already gone to verify the claims on Steam Engines that had caused illnesses but had not yet received the Church’s purifying blessing.

They posted a ton of pictures, confirming that the curses were real.

Mages with some knowledge of Divine Arts also began to analyze how likely it was that the curse was a Divine Art.

As for the Church in question.

The Church had yet to make a statement.

They were currently busy holding emergency meetings.