141: ceremony

The capital star system of the Angel Theocracy Empire has a highly religious name: Celestial Throne.

This was once the most longed-for holy land in the entire Perseus Arm, with trillions of believers considering it the ultimate destination for their souls.

At the core of the star system, the mother planet, Cradle, shrouded in dense psionic mist, was even hailed as the true god's backyard in the mortal realm.

But today, this backyard is withering.

If you could stand in synchronous orbit and look down at this planet, you would witness a horrifying sight: the city lights on the planet's surface, once as brilliant as a starlit river, are extinguishing in vast swathes.

This is not due to the ravages of war, nor the depletion of energy, but rather to a frantic plunder.

The entire planet's energy network has had its original supply lines severed, and all energy flows have been forcibly rerouted, converging on a single destination.

That destination is the Supreme Cathedral, a towering structure located at the planet's North Pole, built entirely of pure white holy stone and golden crystal.

Currently, this cathedral emits an eerie and heart-stopping purple glow, so intense that it overshadows the light of the star, dyeing the entire Arctic Circle a bizarre violet.

Inside the central ritual grounds of the cathedral, the air is so thick it could almost drip water.

Because it's not water; it's a physical phenomenon caused by highly concentrated psionic particles under extreme compression.

Piles of deep purple crystalline powder, as high as small mountains, are stacked at the edges of the ritual grounds.

That is zheluo, which the Angel people consider the rarest, most precious, and most dangerous resource in the entire universe.

It is said to be the ashes of fallen gods from ancient divine wars, the ultimate catalyst connecting the material world to the divine realm.

Even during the Angel Empire's prosperous era, the annual zheluo extraction amounted to only a few hundred kilograms, usually supplied only to the royal family and highest clergy for deep meditation.

But now, the solid zheluo piled here is more than just tons?

This is the Empire's entire inventory from tens of thousands of years, the accumulated wealth meticulously gathered by successive emperors and popes.

And now, it is about to be squandered in a single act.

Beside this mountain of purple wealth, twelve figures in red robes stand in a circle; they are the pinnacle of the Holy See's power—the Twelve Cardinal Archbishops.

Standing at the forefront is Archbishop Luoshanda, the mastermind behind the silent coup who now controls the Empire's central government.

He doesn't appear as ferocious or deranged as people might imagine.

On the contrary, he has a kind and gentle old man's face, with a snow-white beard cascading down his chest, and golden pupils shimmering with a calm light that seems to encompass everything.

Before him sits a young man, firmly bound by special black metal shackles.

That is the Empire's First Prince, the first in line to the throne, Mika Radiance.

At this moment, Mika had long lost his former heroism and nobility; his once brilliant golden hair was now disheveled and stained with grime, and the three pairs of wings symbolizing royal blood were pierced by anti-magic chains, blood dripping from the pure white feathers onto the floor.

What tormented him most were the anti-psionic handcuffs on his wrists and ankles, glowing with a dark purple light.

These shackles continuously stimulate the psionicist's nerve center, blocking the operation of psionic circuits, a sensation akin to countless red-hot needles stirring in one's brain.

"Luoshanda! You lunatic! You traitor!"

Mika endured the intense pain in his head, raised his head, and stared with bloodshot eyes at the smiling old man before him, letting out a hoarse roar.

"You've cut off the power to the entire planet, and Cradle has long since drifted out of the habitable zone. Without energy supply, the planetary climate regulators will stop working! You're letting tens of billions of civilians freeze and die in the dark! You've imprisoned the Emperor, and even murdered His Holiness the Pope! What exactly do you want to do?"

"Kill me! If you dare, kill me! When Akulei returns with the King's army, they'll skin you alive and hang your hide from the tallest tower!"

Facing the First Prince's curses, Luoshanda did not get angry.

He even bent down slightly, gently adjusting Mika's disheveled collar with his well-maintained hands, his movements as tender as if he were tending to his most beloved grandson.

"Your Highness Mika, you are too agitated."

Luoshanda's voice, as gentle as jade, echoed through the empty ritual grounds, "Anger will blind your eyes, preventing you from seeing the light of truth."

"Traitor? No, I am the sole savior of this Empire."

Luoshanda straightened up, spreading his arms as if embracing the entire void.

"Look at our Empire, Your Highness. Once, we were the lighthouse of the Perseus Arm, the chosen people of the true god. Our fleets were invincible, and our psionic power illuminated the galaxy."

"But what about now?"

A look of profound distress appeared on Luoshanda's face.

"We are retreating step by step before those Iof People devils who only know how to tinker with scrap metal! Our star systems are burning, our people are wailing! Why? Your Highness, have you ever thought about why?"

"Because your royal family betrayed the faith!"

Luoshanda's voice suddenly rose, becoming severe.

"You've been misled by those materialistic heresies! You actually tried to introduce soulless mechanical technology! You tried to defile sacred psionics with that filthy material technology!"

"This is blasphemy against the true god! It is because of your impiety that the true god withdrew His protection and sent down this boundless war as punishment!"

"Nonsense!" Mika spat fiercely, spittle flying onto Luoshanda's expensive red robe.

"We lost because the Iof People's technology advanced while we stood still! The Emperor's reforms were to save the nation! And you... you charlatan, you're just after power!"

Luoshanda didn't mind the stains on his robe; he merely flicked his finger, and an invisible barrier separated Mika.

"Power? No, Your Highness, you still don't understand."

Luoshanda shook his head, a fanatical light gleaming in his eyes.

"Material technology has its limits, and mortal wisdom has its end. No matter how much we imitate the Iof People, we cannot surpass them in a short time."

"To save the Empire, to restore the glory of a thousand years ago, we have only one path."

He turned and pointed to the massive, slowly rotating purple vortex behind him, a sign that the ritual was about to begin.

"That is to directly implore the great divine for power."

"This ritual is the greatest spell ever," Luoshanda's voice was filled with obsession, "It will break through the last barrier between the material world and the divine realm, it will build a bridge, allowing the true god's very being to descend directly into this world!"

"True god?"

Mika looked at the nauseating purple vortex, feeling an instinctive tremor from the depths of his soul.

"That's not a true god at all!"

Mika cried out in horror, "His Holiness the Pope secretly summoned me before he disappeared! He told me that he had glimpsed the true face of that entity in the depths of the divine realm!"

"That is not the benevolent Lord we believe in! That is an evil entity lurking in the depths of the divine realm, feeding on the rise and fall of civilizations and the despair of souls! It is the embodiment of destruction! The terminator of cycles!"

"His Holiness the Pope stopped you because he knew that once that thing descends, not only the Iof People, but even we Angel people, and indeed the entire Milky Way, will become its sacrifice!"

"Luoshanda! You are inviting a wolf into your house! You are destroying everything!"

Hearing the words "Pope," a trace of disdain flashed in Luoshanda's eyes.

"Gregory... that coward."

Luoshanda sneered, "He's old, his psionic power has waned, and his courage has vanished with it. He stood before the gate of truth, but out of fear, he dared not push it open."

"He misinterpreted divine majesty as evil, and divine hunger as greed."

"The true deity is right before him, yet he cannot recognize it."

Luoshanda walked to the edge of the ritual grounds, grabbed a handful of zheluo powder glowing with a hazy light, and let it slip through his fingers.

"I have dedicated my body and soul to the divine."

"I heard His whispers; it was not a prophecy of destruction, but a promise of eternity."

"He promised that as long as we offer enough faith and sacrifices, He will grant us as much power as we desire, He will make the Angel Empire His sole divine realm in the material world, and I will become His only chosen one."

"In that divine realm, there is no pain, no death, no war. Everyone can achieve the greatest happiness under the glory of God, which is... to merge with God."

At this point, Luoshanda's expression had become almost crazed.

It was utter religious fanaticism, a distortion of reason after being eroded by some unspeakable will.

"As for the Iof People?"

Luoshanda dismissed them with disdain, "The moment the true god descends, those so-called Interstellar Fleets, those ridiculous material technologies, will melt away like snow in the sun."

"We will rule the Milky Way until the end of time."

"Madman... you utter madman..." Mika collapsed to the ground in despair.

He knew that nothing he said could awaken this old man who had completely fallen into delusion.

Luoshanda no longer paid attention to the First Prince's curses.

He turned and looked at the other eleven Cardinal Archbishops.

These usually high-and-mighty figures now stood like puppets at the nodes of the magic array, their hoods pulled low, obscuring their faces, but the psionic fluctuations emanating from them resonated eerily with the central purple vortex.

"The time has come."

Luoshanda raised his arms, his crimson robes fluttering without a breeze.

"For the revival of the Empire!"

"For the descent of the true god!"

"Let the ritual begin!"

With his command, the massive, already poised energy instantly surged into the center of the ritual.

It was a terrifying energy flow gathered from all power stations, all stored energy, and even the geothermal energy of the planet's core.

At the same time, tons of zheluo piled around instantly sublimated under the excitation of psionic energy.

Purple smoke shot skyward, transforming into monstrous psionic serpents, swirling and intertwining in the air, finally plunging into the vortex.

Rumble—

A colossal roar, not from the material plane but directly echoing in the souls of all Angel people, erupted.

The dome of the Supreme Cathedral shattered instantly.

A purple light pillar, several kilometers in diameter, shot straight into the sky, piercing the atmosphere, visible even from space—this purple light connecting the earth and the void.

The veil of reality was torn.

An ancient and grand will, following this light pillar, cast Its gaze upon this fresh and juicy material universe.

The sky turned an eerie purple, with countless strange visions flickering in and out of the clouds.

At this moment, every living creature on the planet Cradle, whether praying believers or crying infants, had a name surface in the depths of their consciousness.

the instrument of desire

He is the Whisperer of Desire and Possession, one of the supreme great beings in the Void.

"He has come..." Luoshanda fell to his knees, tears streaming down his face, his expression twisted with extreme ecstasy.

"The pact is made."