The Path to Lordship Begins in the North

Perhaps to enhance her imposing presence, Bernice gently shook the lantern in her hand, transforming the conversation area into a solemn, dignified, and enormous church enveloped in light.

The enormous goddess statue looked down upon all living beings with a compassionate expression, inspiring an urge to kneel in worship.

Bernice held up her lantern and said:

"The goddess's authority is absolute; all other gods in the world are false gods, only the goddess is the one true god!"

This is the so-called doctrine of the Lantern Dream: madness and extremism, which directly triggered a war of faith.

"Descendants of the Empire, this is the final warning. If you do not wish to perish in your dreams like Augustine III, then demonstrate the technology of the old Empire that you know. Perhaps our bishop will be kind enough to spare your life."

Linde tried it out and found that his control over his dreams was not affected, so he asked in return, "Are you sure?"

"Of course, we now need the technology of the old empire to help us unravel some mysteries."

Bernice saw that Lind seemed ready to cooperate, so she lowered her hands, and the surging black mist around her gradually disappeared into nothingness.

"You seem to be very interested in the sky."

Linde wasn't in a hurry, and continued chatting with the other person.

Bernice nodded and said, "Every professional knows that the closer you are to the sky, the closer you are to mysteries and knowledge. That's why mages build towers like crazy, trying to get closer to the heavens."

"But the farther you are from the ground, the thinner the magic becomes, and the more difficult it is to use magic. So currently, apart from dragons, no other race can fly freely in the sky like the technology you saw in your dream."

"Oh I got it."

After listening to Bernice's explanation, Lind nodded and said with a smile, "Then let me show you our technology for reaching the high heavens."

Upon hearing Lind's words, Bernice's face lit up with ecstasy, and she asked, "Is it the same technique as before?"

"What previous technology? It's even more exciting than the previous technology, and it can even teach you to reach the real sky!"

"The real heavens?"

Just as Bernice was pondering the meaning of the word, her surroundings suddenly changed, and she found herself standing in a small, strange room.

The room was filled with strange metal equipment and was dimly lit, but the view outside could be seen from the window.

Furthermore, Lind added several more windows to the room, making it easier for Bernice to observe her surroundings.

There were many strangely dressed people busily working outside.

"Is this what the old imperial era was like?"

Bernice turned to ask Lind, only to find that Lind had disappeared. Bernice grinned, surprised that this descendant of the old empire was quite immersed in the story.

At that moment, a completely emotionless announcement rang out.

"Launch countdown begins."

"The pedestrian bridge has been removed."

"The warehouse doors are closed."

"Connecting to the electromagnetic catapult."

"Electromagnetic catapult system is connected."

"Five, four, three, two, one."

Bernice suddenly had a bad feeling.

"emission."

With the roar of ignition, Bernice suddenly felt a tremendous propulsion from the soles of her feet, while the weight on her body kept increasing and getting heavier, as if several versions of herself were pressing down on every part of her body at the same time.

A wave of dizziness and nausea washed over her immediately; if she weren't in a dream, Bernice felt she would have fainted instantly.

Struggling to reach the window, Bernice discovered that the scenery below was rapidly shrinking, the endless city turning into a blurry pattern, and there was no doubt that she was being lifted into the sky at an extremely fast speed.

Seeing the strange rooms going up and down around her, Bernice realized what kind of building she was in.

The room was larger than Bernice had imagined, and it was soaring straight into the sky along the tracks. The seemingly endless vertical tracks that led to the sky outside were like a gateway to the void, filling Bernice with immense fear.

And then there's the city outside the window, stretching endlessly into the sky—this is completely beyond the technological sphere of the old empire.

Under Linde's control, the space elevator quickly surpassed the stratosphere and stretched towards the higher reaches of the sky.

If the previous scenery evoked both fear and curiosity in Bernice, now it only evoked fear.

This exceeds the legendary height of dragon flight; going any higher would take us to the realm of the gods described in religious texts.

For Bernice, the future was a completely unknown world.

The Tower of Babel suddenly popped into Bernice's mind.

A legendary tower that connects the realm of gods and the human world, with no end in sight.

Did that empire's descendant actually see, no, reach the Tower of Babel?

But wasn't the Tower of Babel a product of the Golden Age? It should have been completely a legend during the Old Empire period.

As Bernice's room continued to pass through the ring of the space elevator in the sky, Bernice saw the vast blue world below her, and a feeling of weightlessness was slowly creeping over her.

The boundless black space around her made Bernice feel an unprecedented sense of oppression, fear, and madness.

Is this the world high in the sky? Impossible. Not to mention that Linde is a descendant of the old empire, even the bards who lived during the old empire's era probably never saw such a sight.

But isn't there a goddess's divine kingdom high in the heavens, according to legend? Bernice looked up, just as the cold announcement rang out again.

"Identity verified, passage through the supplies transit area permitted."

"Welcome to the A7 docking area of ​​the Ark International Space Station."

Have a pleasant day at work.

Bernice saw it: the circular goddess's kingdom.

There were even many white angels working around the Kingdom of God, although those angels had no wings.

In an instant, Bernice felt her own insignificance. Compared to the real divine kingdom, the kingdom she had imagined in her prayers was like a firefly compared to the bright moon, a complete joke.

This drove Bernice to a near-madness as she knelt and prayed in the weightless environment. The intense shock made Bernice completely forget that she was in someone else's dream.

In an instant, the scene changed to the space station. From the window of this space station, one could see the huge circular International Space Station. Linde slightly altered the gravity, causing Bernice to fall directly from mid-air.

"How did it go? Did you learn anything?"

Lind reappeared with a smile, looking at Bernice, whose expression had become distorted.

Although it was impossible to recreate the details perfectly, Linde still did his best to simulate the space elevator.

"You are not a descendant of the empire at all!"

Bernice lay on the ground, screaming hysterically at Lind.

“I’ve said it before, I’m not.”

Lind rolled his eyes speechlessly. He had been talking for so long, and only Lena believed that he really wasn't.

"You are an old human from the Golden Age!"

"what?"

What is this strange thing? Lind wondered if Bernice had some strange misunderstanding about space elevators.

"That's for sure. Only humans from the Golden Age could use the Tower of Babel to reach the Kingdom of God!"

Bernice thought about it more and more and it made more sense. Even the dream she had on the airplane was far more advanced than the old imperial era. The space elevator was beyond Bernice's imagination. Apart from the golden age of ancient history, no other era could possibly have such a level of technology.

"It must be, it must be like this. Only humans in the Golden Age have seen such a thing. Only humans in the Golden Age could depict the goddess's divine kingdom."

Bernice clutched her hair, her pupils bloodshot, and knelt respectfully towards the International Space Station outside the window.

Linde hadn't expected it to work so well. Was the space elevator really too exciting for people of this era?

However, now is not the time to talk about this. Lind still has many questions to ask the other party about dreams.

But in an instant, Bernice, somewhat frantic, clutched the lantern in her arms and left the dream, enveloped in black mist.

Around the camp in Fassen Town, Bernice, dressed in a slit nun's habit, was running frantically, unable to calm herself down even with the gentle light emanating from the lantern in her hand.

At this moment, Lucanus, dressed in theatrical costume, blocked Bernice's path.

"How was it, my king? Was his dream wonderful?"

But Lucanus soon realized something was wrong. Bernice in front of him had a blank expression, disheveled hair, and eyes filled with madness and terror.

Upon seeing Lucanus, Bernice burst into loud laughter: "Hahahaha, your king is not a descendant of the old empire at all!"

Lucanus wasn't annoyed and retorted, "Does it matter? I haven't even investigated it myself, but as long as I say my king is, then he is."

"It's very important, very important!"

Bernice laughed loudly at Lucanus's reaction: "You bards are nothing special, it's hilarious! A thousand years is nothing in the eyes of the gods. It's not too late for you to follow us and worship the goddess."

"madman!"

Although Lucanus was very curious about what the other party had seen in the king's dream, it was clear that the other party had seen something important, but would never say it.

Meanwhile, Linde, who had just woken up from his dream, was thinking about what had happened in the dream. The other person had mentioned that he was the true orthodox cult of the Goddess of Light, so he had to find Isa and Flora to ask them properly. But he still had a lot of things to deal with, and judging from the other person's appearance, he probably wouldn't dare to make a move again in the short term. He could only take it one step at a time.

After washing up, the sky began to lighten, and Linde, who had just stepped out of the tent, ran into Lena, who was getting ready to go out for her morning exercise.

"What's up, bro? Why are you up so early today?"

Lena looked at Lind, who had just gotten up, with a curious expression.

"What did you just call me?"

Linde instinctively grabbed Lena's hand and asked.

"Brother, brother? Don't you like it?"

Lena immediately blushed and withdrew her hand.

"That feels so good," Linde sighed, taking a greedy breath of the morning air.