I, Who Came From the Abyss, Will Save Humanity Again Today - Volume 2 Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Chaos and Faith

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“In short, the followers of demons burn their own blood to obtain not the power of fire order, but the more terrifying fire of sin. For them, the more blood they spill means the stronger their power becomes. What you saw today was merely entry-level small fry. I once fought against the higher-ups of the Gate of Truth, that blood temperature… once ignited, it could easily melt steel, making it difficult to even get close. If you encounter them again, remember not to use sharp weapons. Use your frost order to end the fight quickly.”

“Mm.”

I nodded obediently, but in my heart I thought, I don’t want to fight these lunatics, that’s the Holy Church’s business, what’s it got to do with me?

I’m an atheist after all.

“Tonight’s events are suspicious. We still can’t figure out why these heretics would get involved in trafficking guguo grass. Well, interrogation is better left to the folks in the underground prison. We can’t show mercy to these Gate of Truth people.”

“The underground prison, is it scary?”

I remember Carlos used this to frighten me before.

“Yes. For enemies, it’s a place that strikes terror into their hearts. You don’t need to know more about it, just understand that it can be used to intimidate people.”

Actually, I understood without him saying, I had heard about various medieval torture devices from my original world, and imagined the ones here couldn’t be much different.

Indeed, although the Holy Church maintained a public image of helping and saving people, they couldn’t avoid using these dark methods behind the scenes.

Thinking of this, another question suddenly popped into my mind.

“Do you… believe in gods?”

“Me?” Carlos lay back comfortably in his chair, giving a big yawn and speaking drowsily, “I only believe in myself.”

I widened my eyes at his words.

This guy went on and on lecturing me, putting on an appearance of utterly despising heretics, but turns out he’s an atheist too?

“What, you find it surprising?”

I nodded blankly.

“What’s there to be surprised about? Have you ever seen me use faith power?” Carlos looked at me somewhat exasperatedly, “You think everyone believes the Church’s rhetoric? That’s impossible. Let me tell you, actually most Pontifical Knights don’t have faith power, because they all have their own beliefs.”

Carlos paused, then continued.

“Although we don’t believe in gods, this doesn’t mean we think gods don’t exist in this world. Gods do exist, there’s no doubt about that, and their blessings to humans are very real too. However… this doesn’t mean they are necessarily true ‘gods’. Do you understand what I mean?”

I shook my head slightly.

What does that mean? If not true gods, then what are they?

As far as I know, in the Church, the closer followers are to god, the more powerful the faith power bestowed upon them becomes. Some high-ranking followers, like the four Cardinals who are second only to the Pope, and certain Archbishops, can rival Pontifical Knights with faith power alone.

Like that golden bell that could restrict my movement, that was quite a powerful divine miracle. Carlos told me that old man in robes was a highly respected Archbishop in Sylgaria, and his control over faith power was among the top even among Archbishops. If not for his advanced age, I probably would have lost even faster.

Moreover, unlike order power, divine miracles aren’t just for fighting. They can also provide protection, healing, blessings and other support and buff effects.

All these powers are borrowed from the gods, but if the gods aren’t “gods”… then what’s the deal with the “divine miracles” created by faith power?

“Faith power, divine miracles, what are they?”

“Blessings bestowed upon humans by the gods.”

I rolled my eyes at this, that explanation was as good as no explanation at all.

I don’t get it. I don’t even fully understand order power.

“If you don’t understand, then leave it.” Carlos had already closed his eyes, seemingly not wanting to explain to me at all, apparently quite content to let it be, “There are many things I don’t fully understand either, so don’t get hung up on these things. When it’s time for you to understand, you’ll naturally understand… enough talk, I’m sleepy.”

…What the heck.

I pouted unhappily.

I hate it most when someone piques your interest but doesn’t satisfy your curiosity.

Looking at Carlos who seemed to have already fallen asleep lying there, I suddenly felt a surge of annoyance, so I raised my small palm and gave his face a “pa” slap.

“Katrina, you owe me a pie.”

Carlos jerked in surprise, looking at me with utter bewilderment.

“…You know, I actually quite admire you, you’ve called me so many different names and not once have you repeated yourself. Now you’re even coming up with women’s names. You’re truly a genius at naming.” He rubbed his forehead quite headachingly, “That pie was given to you by me, and you accidentally dropped it on the ground yourself, yet you have the nerve to ask me to compensate you?”

“I don’t care.”

I tilted my head back and said to him obstinately.

I was originally planning to cook you in soup, but now I’ve changed my mind, as long as you have more delicious food, I’ll let you off. You should be thanking me.

“Ah ah, really.” Carlos scratched his somewhat messy white hair in frustration, “I remember teaching you properly, how did things go wrong along the way… tch, children are really hard to manage.”

“You’re the child,” I glared at him angrily.

“How long have you been alive? Aren’t you just a child? Alright alright, don’t hit me, here’s this for you.”

Carlos put on an expression of not wanting to argue with me, yet his hand seemed to perform magic, actually pulling out a flat small package from his clothes.

I immediately took it happily and opened it eagerly, sure enough, it was pastries.

Is this guy Doraemon? A bag of holding?

“You’ve been moving around earlier, so they might be a bit crushed. Just make do with eating them, still better than dry bread.”

“Why do you…”

“Why do I carry these things, right?” Carlos interrupted before I could finish speaking. He turned over to face away from me and said somewhat lazily, “What do you think is the reason?”

“Don’t know.”

“If you don’t know then don’t know.”

After saying this he spoke no more, and soon steady breathing sounds could be heard.

The snow outside had stopped, and pleasant insect chirping occasionally reached my ears.

The nights in the Valen Empire are bright.

The silvery moonlight spilling onto the ground illuminates the whole world clearly.

I quietly ate my midnight snack in the carriage.

Although somewhat crushed, the pastries still tasted sweet.

…………

The rest of the journey was unexpectedly smooth.

The merchants, whom we originally thought would surely cause more problems, whether because they had noticed Carlos’s identity or because there really were no more heretics mixed among them, behaved so properly along the way that it raised suspicions.

Even when the Knight Commander deliberately relaxed vigilance and exposed vulnerabilities to find hidden heretics, no one took the opportunity to cause trouble.

This made Carlos feel strange too, though he didn’t probe further.

As he said, it’s better to let the underground prison people deal with these folks.

In the days approaching Winter City, we deliberately bypassed a patch of barren scorched earth.

That scorched earth was only about 10 kilometers from Winter City. There were no mountains, no trees, just like a canvas painted with black ink. As far as the eye could see was thousands of kilometers of bare ground, complete emptiness. It’s said that even birds won’t fly over it.

“This is the Abyssal battlefield from what was called the Valen Disaster two years ago.”

When saying these words, Carlos’s expression was complex, with colors in his eyes I couldn’t understand.

“Five Pontifical Knights, in the end only three survived. Little Syl, did you know I was one of them?”

I was somewhat startled, this was the first time I’d heard him mention this.

“At that time… we really put our lives on the line. Among the three survivors, Lord Scalliger lost an arm, and another was severely injured and could never wield weapons again. As for the outcome, I was the luckiest one.”

It’s hard to imagine someone as strong as Carlos would use the word “survivor”. After all, when fighting with me, just him plus one Archbishop was already more than I could handle.

Five Pontifical Knights reduced to that state… just what kind of powerful being did Carlos and the others face two years ago?

However, I won’t back down.

“We were careless in Sylgaria. At that time, to capture you, the Church deployed all defense lines dozens of kilometers away in major towns. No one expected the Abyss would appear in the same place again. So, do you now understand what your actions in that small village meant for all of Sylgaria?”

I nodded to him.

If I hadn’t killed the Endless Abyss then, what followed would probably have been the Sylgaria Disaster.

I gained new understanding of the Abyss’s chaos power in my heart. The black smoke’s power was truly terrifying, but… what if I could put it to good use?

There’s something I haven’t told Carlos.

When I killed the Endless Abyss, in that moment before losing consciousness, a crimson heat flow surged into my body. Since then my control over the black smoke has become increasingly effortless. I’ve been secretly verifying something during this time, and finally figured out the general idea two days ago.

Abyss can devour Abyss.

Just by killing the other, you can claim their abilities as your own. In other words, I now have the ability to make the black smoke mimic forms, creating units that can move autonomously.

The reason the Endless Abyss made those bizarre twisted human forms back then was simply because it knew nothing about this world yet, and was merely imitating the villagers it saw.

But I’m different, if I can master this power skillfully, then theoretically I will be able to create any life form I can imagine.

Of course, exactly how to do this still needs further exploration.

Given the current situation, these powers can’t be revealed to outsiders yet.

They can only exist as my little secret.

…………

Several days later, we arrived at Winter City.