Master the Abyss, starting from an apprentice priest.

Chapter 691 [The Twisted Gospel], Settlement! (First Update)
Before Luo Xiu, the quest panel for [Divine Revelation - Twisted Gospel] suddenly brightened, and the color of the "Quest Completed" frame changed from an unselectable dark gray to a dazzling gold.

The countdown to the "manifestation of calamity" has truly ended—if he, Frania, and Monine had not come to the city of Agus, the sacrificial ritual planned by Accipiles and "Fenlake" would have been completed at this moment, sacrificing the entire city of Agus.

But this scene never actually happened.

At this moment, Luo Xiu couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment, and he let out a long sigh of relief.

"……call."

With Agus City safe, he had fulfilled his promise to Franya to help her resolve the crisis in Agus City, and now he could truly say he had done so.

Now that he was resting, Luo Xiu stared at the panel in front of him, ready to settle the results of this "Divine Revelation" mission.

"—Mission accomplished."

Luo Xiu provided the panel with clear instructions on how to complete the task!
【…】

He was pleased to see that His devout apostles had carried out the prophecy.

[Outside the city of Agus—the primordial demon and the ignorant saint have been prevented from committing blasphemous acts through sublime divine judgment.]

[There is no more calamity outside the city of Agus—]

The blasphemous, corrupt vessel is broken; no more incarnations of calamity may be born from it.

The primordial evil has been banished—the once devout saint will finally awaken to his true nature. He will repent, repenting for the blasphemous defilement of divinity tainted by ignorance, repenting for the dark past of plotting to usurp divine glory.

The blasphemous is dead, the sublime will return—though the 'City of Pilgrimage' is destroyed, a new sublimity and holiness will be reborn from the cracks of wood and earth, from the dust of ashes and ash.

The twisted demigods are no more.

The dark tide has receded, and the gates of calamity have fallen—the distorted gospel thus proclaims its end.

As the 'Lord of the Wings of Light,' you fulfilled your oath, purging that distorted gospel.

[In a moment, divine gifts commensurate with one's achievements will descend.]

【…】

[Completed the Divinely Granted Quest: Twisted Gospel (Difficulty: ?)]

[A divine gift received in an instant!]

Your "Divinity" attribute has increased by 1282 points; your maximum health and mana have increased by an additional 30%; you have gained 543 free attribute points.

[The "Divine Revelation" was successfully completed]

[Specialty: "The Gifted (Legend, Milestone)" - Specialty Upgrade]

[The one who receives the gifts of God (legend, milestone): You are a true recipient of the gifts of God, and the pillar of your destiny has shown you close attention—you have been blessed with His "radiance".]

Original effect—Your "Health", "Mana", "Physical Attack", "Spell Attack", and "Defense Reduction" attributes are all increased by an additional 30%.

The upgrade grants an additional 45% to all of your attributes: Health, Mana, Physical Attack, Magical Attack, and Defense Reduction.

This upgrade is tied to "Divine Revelation: Fleeting Divine Gift." As the number of "Divine Revelations" completed increases, this perk has a chance to be upgraded to the "Divine Birth" quality.

【…】

"..."

"……call."

When Luo Xiu saw the result of completing the "Divine Revelation - Twisted Gospel" quest gradually appear on the panel, he breathed a long sigh of relief.

It was indeed a "perfectly completed" divine revelation mission.

The rewards for completing the "Divine Prophecy" divine mission this time are unprecedentedly plentiful—the "Divinity" stat alone is three times higher than the previous Divine Prophecy mission, "The Devourer Reborn from the Dead," and the free attribute points gained from it are also three times higher!
Back then, the target of the [Devouring One Who Died and Was Reborn] was Fafnir, the "Dragon Who Devours," who was the progenitor demon. Now, however, "Acipius" is the primordial demon, and the rewards for completing the Divine Revelation quest have increased, which Luo Xiu had anticipated.

Furthermore, this time, the standard feat for the "Divine Revelation" divinely granted quest—the legendary quality [Divinely Granted]—has been upgraded once again. This is the second time that this feat has been upgraded at the "Legendary" quality level.

Luo Xiu predicted that after another "perfect completion" of the divine revelation, the [Blessed by God] would be upgraded to the "God's Birth" quality.

Luo Xiu thought to himself that after completing the task of "Divine Revelation - Twisted Gospel", he closed the task panel and began to feel the changes he had experienced by completing "Divine Revelation" and receiving divine blessings.

He felt his body warming up in a few breaths, and then he felt the spirituality within him slowly filling up and then slowly becoming active.

Just a few minutes ago, the exhaustion and weakness he felt were gradually swept away, and Luo Xiu felt that he had regained his vitality and spirit.

This strange feeling was as if he had caught up on ten hours of sleep in just a few breaths—Luo Xiu felt that if he could go back to the previous night, he could fight Acciples again!
My spirit is even better now than it was the night before when I was full of spirituality!
Luo Xiu felt the changes in his body. He then stood up and moved his body. He felt a surge of power throughout his body, and the feeling of weakness and fatigue had truly disappeared.

Perhaps... in the future, similar settlements can be made when the battle is over and I am still weak?
Using mission rewards to restore one's condition is also a viable option... Luo Xiu thought to himself.

As he pondered this, he walked back towards the center of the church, where a new batch of seriously wounded clergy had been brought in. Now that their rest was over, Luo Xiu prepared to continue treating the injured. Soon, he returned to the temporary treatment area in the church center. The two clergy who had brought the wounded saw Luo Xiu and respectfully bowed and greeted him—

"Your Majesty, Her Highness the Holy Maiden has found thirteen seriously wounded comrades in the western part of the church. Her Highness has asked us to bring them here so that you may treat them."

A clergyman respectfully said:
"We entrust everything to you, Your Majesty. Now that the calamity has been averted, we can resume our search for our missing comrades. May the sun shine upon us for a moment, and may no further sacrifices be made..."

"..."

Luo Xiu looked at the clergy in front of him and nodded slightly in response. The clergy then bowed to Luo Xiu with a final salute before bidding farewell and leaving to search for any remaining missing clergy.

Luo Xiu, as before, began healing the new wounded. This continued until nearly noon, until all the wounded had received effective treatment.

……

noon.

After a night and a morning of search and rescue and treatment, the situation at the Church of Agus has now basically stabilized.

An hour has passed, and no new dead or injured have been found. According to the Church's register of clergy, only six missing clergy members remain unaccounted for and have not yet been contacted.

Despite searching every part of the church and all the collapsed ruins, they were not found, which meant that the hope of finding them again was very slim.

The clergy of the church will not give up searching for them, but they also know that the all-out search and rescue efforts can only go so far.

After that, the main focus should be placed on the rebuilding of the church, and the number of clergy who died or were injured in the previous night's calamity has now been determined.

A total of 1,013 clergymen perished, while the number of those seriously wounded ultimately reached 1,800. Thanks to the treatment of Rosh, Bishop Donovan, and clergymen skilled in "healing" magic, the seriously wounded clergymen are mostly out of danger, and the death toll of the clergy should not rise further.

The Church of Agnes was a super-large church with tens of thousands of members, but it was severely weakened by this battle.

Among the clergy who sacrificed their lives were many high-ranking clergy above the "fourfold path." It usually takes a great deal of resources to train such a clergyman, and their deaths are a huge loss to the Church of Agnes.

Even more tragically, all the saints of the sixfold destiny in the church were killed by Finlake himself. To fill this void, saints of the fivefold destiny had to be promoted or transferred from the Holy See or from other churches.

Rothschild saw Bishop Donovan several times afterward, and he always saw a look of pain on his face.

He was the most tormented. After this night of calamity, Donovan lost all the saints of the "Sixfold Destiny." They were all people he had nurtured for decades, and in just one night, they had all turned to dust.

"..."

Luo Xiu knew that Bishop Donovan still harbored resentment towards him. He felt that the fact that the Church of Agnes was still in existence was already a good outcome, but Bishop Donovan might not think so.

Therefore, Luo Xiu did not say anything more to Bishop Donovan throughout the entire process, and also tried to avoid contact with him.

And so it went until noon, until Franja and Monigne arrived at the center of the church to join Roshchius and the Lord Donovan—

……

"almost……"

Franya said wearily, "The Church of Agus... the situation has almost stabilized by now."

“I have done everything I can. I have been to every ruin and every corner of the church... I have treated all the comrades I could find who were buried under the rubble, and brought them here as soon as possible…”

“Bishop Donovan, please accept my condolences. The souls of our comrades who perished in this night of calamity will surely be guided by the sun for a moment and will surely ascend to the eternal kingdom of heaven.”

"..."

As she spoke, Franya looked at Bishop Donovan and nodded slightly to him. Bishop Donovan remained silent, his gaze shifting to the side, to the more than a thousand corpses of martyred clergy laid out on a large open space, and a slight murmur appeared at the corner of his mouth.

The somewhat obese old bishop seemed to have aged ten years overnight. The wrinkles on his face were deeper, and tears welled up in his eyes, but he held them back.

Then, he looked at Franya, nodded somewhat heavily, and said:
"Thank you... Your Highness. However, please allow me some sorrow. Even now... I still don't want to believe that what I'm seeing is real, I still don't want to believe that my brother... my brother Finlake could do such... such a heinous thing."

“I’d rather believe this… was all a dream. And that I never woke up… How I wish that when I awoke from this hellish dream, I would see the Church of Agnes as before, that the calamity had never happened, that nothing… nothing had ever happened…”

"..."

“This is already a reality, Bishop Donovan.”

Beside Luo Xiu, "The Holy Sword" Monine sighed, looked at Bishop Donovan, and said:

"In any case... what's done is done. Perhaps you can go and ask your brother, who did all this."

Monigne paused, her expression then turning serious—

"Cardinal Finlake, he has awakened."

……

(End of this chapter)