The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Although the continent of Soren has temporarily stabilized, it is not as peaceful as it appears on the surface.

The Pope of the Dark Night Holy Court was praying in a large underground cathedral, having just awakened from a dream.

This church was built during the persecution of the Church of the Morning Star. It can be said that it brought together all the manpower of the church at that time. In addition to its daily church functions, it could even be used as an underground fortress, capable of withstanding attacks from super-level magic.

Yes, while super-level magic is terrifying, the people of Sauron also have their own wisdom, such as the simple and unpretentious defensive method of hiding underground.

Of course, this method has many limitations, so few people use it. Only churches like the Church of the Lord of the Morning Star, which are on the verge of desperation, would consider it.

However, under the shadow of the Lord of the Morning Star, the Dark Night Holy Court has finally made some progress, not only occupying half of Castile, but also showing a trend of expanding to other regions.

In the Pope's view, the widespread but superficial faith in the Mother of Infinity could not compete with the great Lord of the Morning Star. After all, those shallow believers would not sacrifice themselves for the Mother of Infinity, while there were plenty of people in the Dark Night Holy Court who were willing to sacrifice themselves for the Lord.

The only opponent the Dark Night Holy Court may now be the faith that came from the continent of Mu. After all, the power and technology of the Rol Empire on the continent of Mu should not be underestimated. However, the old Pope was not in a hurry. Instead, he planned to take things slowly, especially after the empire stopped taking over the magic stone mine in the Albar Rock Land.

The Pope of the Dark Night Holy Court has always believed that time is on his side. After all, since recently, the Dark Night Holy Court's technology for manipulating dreams has seen one breakthrough after another. Apart from Levian, the other bishops have also begun to rise and bring many new technologies.

The Dark Night Holy Court is now teeming with life, and all things are flourishing.

Although the missionaries of the empire also brought so-called divine magic, in the eyes of this pope, no matter how magical the so-called divine magic was, it was far inferior to the ability to manipulate dreams. After all, purification and healing were things that other magic could also do, but manipulating dreams was a unique ability.

If it weren't for his advanced age, the Pope might even have wanted to spread his legs and stretch out his arms, loudly questioning, "Can other churches do this?"

In the past, the old pope might not have been so confident, but after experiencing the new Dark Night Temple built by the cardinals, the old pope is now full of confidence.

After Levian proposed a series of ideas to improve the rituals, the Dark Night Sanctuary now resembles a cathedral, with every brick and tile incredibly realistic, unlike before when it only had a long table with patterns that were just blurry textures.

The Pope reminisced about his previous dream. Besides the increasingly realistic church, he also noticed the growing number of people active in the Dark Night Temple. Back then, the long table in the Dark Night Temple could never be filled, because once it was full, the dream would start to lag and become unstable, requiring the deployment of more Morning Star Apostles.

Now, thanks to the improvements made by Levian and other cardinals, only a small number of Morning Star Apostles are needed to maintain the stability of the Dark Night Holy Court Dream compared to before. Currently, some bishops can permanently reside in the Dark Night Holy Court Dream to modify it.

This seems to involve some mathematical principles, as well as runes and magical transformations. Levian had taught the old pope about this, but to be honest, the pope was indeed quite old, and even though Levian explained it very clearly, the old pope couldn't understand it at all.

There's nothing we can do; if you don't know, you don't know. Besides, in the old Pope's view, there are many areas where more Morning Star Apostles could be invested in optimization instead of doing some messy calculations. After all, the least valuable thing on the continent of Soron is its people.

To this end, the old pope even had Garcia capture more people to become Morning Star Apostles dedicated to the Lord and the great cause, and then placed them all under Levian's command, allowing Levian's research to advance further.

In the old pope's view, Levian should not waste his time on meaningless numbers. The only important thing is to build the church in the Dark Night Temple's dream as soon as possible so that he can worship the great Lord in the dream.

Those Morning Star Apostles were nothing more than expendable resources.

Aside from this, the old pope was very satisfied with Levian, especially the fervor in Levian's eyes every time they met. The old pope even considered having Levian succeed him as the next leader of the Dark Night Holy Court.

Of course, if I had to say something, the style of church construction led by Levian is a bit strange. It doesn't resemble the church style commonly seen on the continent of Soren, nor does it resemble the church once built by the Lord of the Morning Star. If I had to say something, it would be somewhat similar to the Goddess Church spread by the Empire.

However, the old pope could understand. After all, due to the suppression by the Dragon Church, the Lord of the Morning Star basically no longer had a complete church. Even the old pope himself could not describe what the Lord of the Morning Star's church used to look like, let alone Levian.

Moreover, a trend of imitating the Empire has recently swept across the continent. Most of the more powerful countries are imitating the Empire by building concrete avenues, installing magical lamps on both sides of the avenues, and matching them with green vegetation. Even the old Pope had to admit that when night falls, the streetlights in the darkness, combined with the fragrant vegetation, do indeed appear warm and tranquil, with a unique charm.

However, such planning usually only occurs in the wealthy areas of the kingdom, or inside the royal city, for the amusement of the nobles and princes.

There are many such examples, and many kingdoms even take pride in how they are most similar to the Empire. The Empire's influence has permeated every aspect of the continent of Solon, including the aesthetics of churches. There's no way around it; the Dragon Church's helipad church is indeed not very beautiful, while the Empire's churches are much more aesthetically pleasing. Therefore, Levian's aesthetic sense has been somewhat influenced by the Empire, which the old Pope finds understandable.

Leveran has been surrounded by more and more people lately, from bishops to low-ranking priests, all of whom have dealings with him. The old pope understands that this is Leveran building up his own power base, but it is precisely because of this that the old pope can confidently entrust the reins to Leveran.

Yes, everything is normal. The Dark Night Holy Court is developing in the best possible direction, like a flawless dream.

In a daze, the pope seemed to see a lantern that appeared faintly, but after rubbing his eyes carefully, he realized that it was a torch lit inside the underground church.

I'm really getting old; I can't believe I misread something so obvious.