Chapter 768: Resentment
The northern part of the main continent, Fresland.
While in the Ancestral Valley of the New World, all kinds of fierce disputes surrounding the Great Wilderness Festival are continuing, and if we go back a little bit in time, when the confrontation in the New World is initially unfolding, the drama on the main continent is also quietly kicking off.
Late at night, high in the sky above Arnstel, under the pitch-black night, at this moment, there are two huge steel battleships floating, equipped with countless types of firepower. The glowing suspended cathedral is facing each other at a height that is invisible to the naked eye. All kinds of weapons of both sides are ready, the alert value is almost full, and a fierce conflict seems to be imminent.
Wearing a luxurious cardinal robe, Amanda, the Savior of the Church of Radiance, was standing on the bow of the "Sister of Extinction" at this moment, her eyes fixedly looking forward. Over there, on the deck of the "Holy Law Judgment", the Judge Kramar was staring at Amanda with the same gaze.
"All ships on alert... humph... I knew nothing good would happen when you came here, sinner Olivia..." Kramar stared at Amanda who was several meters away on another ship in front of him and spoke in soul language, while Amanda responded to Kramar with extraordinary means and in a similar tone.
"Sinner? Haha... It seems that you not only deprived me of my holy title, but also directly convicted me. Are you completely prepared to ignore the Council of Cardinals and the authority of the Holy See? Vanbas..."
"Holy See? You are so shameless in harboring and tolerating heretics and allowing the top leaders of the Holy See to be corrupted by cults, and you still have the nerve to mention the Holy See to me?! Don't be ridiculous! Today, the Council of Cardinals is filled with idiots like you, and it has reached the point of dysfunction. If I still agree with this incompetent organization, how can I fulfill the sacred duty given to me by the Holy See!" Facing Amanda, Kramer waved the scepter in his hand and spoke loudly. He seemed to be extremely excited, and listening to Kramer's words, Amanda also spoke bluntly.
"Ignoring the lives of tens of millions of people, you insist on carrying out a large-scale purge, carrying out such a tragic extermination of the Lord's innocent followers. Is this what you call your sacred duty? Van Bass?"
"Shut up, Olivia! You, a mediocre person who always likes to put yourself on a moral high ground to win people's hearts, have no right to blame me! You... and many other saints like you are incompetent people who can only talk big! What other ways are there to deal with the current situation in Freslan besides purifying it? Do you have to wait until the crisis spreads to the entire continent before you wake up?"
Kramer said this, then he pointed the cane in his hand straight at Amanda, and continued to speak after raising his tone to almost the level of cursing.
"Or is it... you! The Salvation Center has been completely corrupted by the evil cult, and now the so-called flag of great love that you are holding high is actually waved by the evil god? You have become a heretic who has committed heinous crimes like Yunina? If this is the case, then come! Use force to stop this purification that must be brought down no matter what! I will judge you with my life... Olivia..."
Kramar announced to Amanda in a declarative tone. Amanda did not respond immediately to Kramar's words. Instead, she remained calm for a while, then looked at Amanda silently and said lightly.
"Wake up, Vanbas, even if you successfully launch the purification, it will not stop the conspiracy of the Order of the Underworld. Your purification is a part of what these guys can predict. It will promote the further development of their plan." Amanda said to Kramar. After listening to Amanda's words, Kramar paused, and then continued to speak firmly.
"Do you think I will believe you? Don't even think about playing any tricks in front of me."
"No, this is not nonsense..." After adjusting her eyes and staring at Kramer, Amanda continued to speak.
"Think carefully, Van Bass, what is... Where are all the vengeful spirits produced by religious injustice cases in Frisian over the years?"
"Ghosts from religious injustices in Frisian? Why are you asking? Of course they are... eh?"
Just when Kramar was about to say something, he suddenly seemed to realize something, and his expression immediately became frozen. This freezing phenomenon had just occurred, and suddenly a look of confusion emerged in his solemn eyes. Then, the words he was about to say were interrupted directly, and then Kramar's expression returned to excitement and fanaticism.
"For a long time, the vengeful spirits of religious injustices in Freslan have been quietly dealt with by those corrupt Inquisitor Lords! They are a group of deceiving superiors and subordinates, and their crimes are unforgivable! They are a stain on the Inquisition! Fortunately, I personally wiped them out!"
Facing Amanda's question just now, Kramar responded directly with an attitude as if it was a matter of course. Seeing Kramar's reply, Amanda was slightly stunned, then she sighed and said.
"Is your perception... still the same?"
While Amanda was speaking, a little bird on the side of the ship on the deck of the Sister of Extinction was watching everything in front of it silently.
And below the position where the two Holy Steel ships were confronting each other, on the ground, somewhere in the city at night, Dorothy, who was sitting on the balcony of the hotel, could not help but frowned after witnessing the scene in the sky.
"This forgotten divinity, the consciousness is overwritten really quickly... I'm in a bit of a pickle..."
Dorothy spoke these words thoughtfully, and then her thoughts drifted back a moment.
…
Deep in the underworld, in the River Styx.
Just when Capac successfully escaped, but the souls of Neveu and Kramar's half-soul were still being recalled to the real world by the new one, Dorothy was explaining the follow-up plan to Kramar through Neveu, and Kramar nodded after listening.
"You're trying to trick the cult members into sending us out through spiritualism by fraudulent means... so you asked me to use the 'Holy Law' to get them out... what a fantastic idea. 'Qi' symbolizes wisdom. You are indeed a cult that inherited the 'Qi' from ancient times... I hope you can succeed.
"I don't know if I can rely on the contract with you to be emancipated at once... But since the divine curse on me is very powerful, I'm afraid that if you are emancipated in the end, I will still be left in the underworld."
In the River Styx, after listening to Nefernis's explanation, "Kramer" couldn't help but speak with some emotion, and Nefernis immediately responded.
"You can rest assured about this. Even if you cannot be summoned this time, we will find other ways to release you back to the real world later."
"Oh... there are other ways. You decision makers are really resourceful... I hope you can find a way. At this moment, I must return to the real world... otherwise, a terrible disaster will befall! I must stop this!"
After listening to Neveu's words, "Kramer" responded with a serious expression, and Neveu raised his eyebrows slightly after hearing "Kramer's" words, and then followed Dorothy's prompt in his heart and asked again.
"The disaster you're talking about... is it the half of you that you left in Frislan in the present world? The half that seems to be in a serious mental state?"
"Yes... but not entirely."
"Kramer" responded bluntly, and then after a slight pause, he continued to speak with a confused expression on his face.
"The whole thing needs to be told from the very beginning... You... or the one behind you, are you aware of the past of Frislan, especially the religious terror period after the Turbidity War, the Inquisitor Lord, and the history of how I ended them?"
"Kramer" asked Neveu as he looked at her. Although Neveu was confused about the history that "Kramer" told her, with Dorothy's reminder in her heart, she nodded in confusion. After seeing this, "Kramer" continued his story.
"Decades ago, when I was still in the position of judge, I was sent to Frisia to investigate the severe religious persecution there, and almost destroyed the Inquisitor Lords who had ruled Frisia for decades. At the beginning, almost all the Inquisitor Lords were convicted, and the process of collecting evidence and hearing all the cases went very smoothly. Those Inquisitor Lords carried out cruel persecution in the name of their master, and the evidence was conclusive. There was only one doubt.
"This is the problem of vengeful spirits. Although those judges and lords have sentenced a large number of unjust, false and wrong cases, resulting in the death of countless innocent people in prison. According to past experience, the resentment of people who were tortured and died unjustly in the end is extremely strong. With so many people dying unjustly, the vengeful spirits generated after their death should resonate with each other and cause spiritual disasters. This phenomenon has often occurred in Ivig in the past.
"However, in the history of religious terror in Freslan over the past few years, there has never been any record of such spiritual disasters, as if those who died unjustly at the hands of the Inquisitor Lords did not give birth to vengeful spirits. This is also the reason why I still found it difficult to make a final judgment on those Inquisitor Lords when all the evidence was conclusive, because they insisted on this point, thinking that since there were no vengeful spirits, it meant that their judgment was correct."
In the River Styx, "Kramar" was talking while recalling the past, while Neveu beside him asked curiously.
"So how did you convict them in the first place?"
"Of course it is the last resort of the trial... the trial of souls..." Still maintaining a solemn expression, "Kramer" continued to speak to Neveu.
"Directly extract the prisoner's soul and directly judge the soul. Without the assistance of other special 'silence' and extraordinary abilities, this is equivalent to sentencing the prisoner to death first and then conducting a trial. Under normal circumstances, it will not be used easily, but when the trial situation tended to stagnate, we still used this method and soul-trialed several typical Inquisitor Lords.
“And the final conclusion is that those inquisitor lords in the spirit state confessed to their private handling of the vengeful spirits of the innocent dead. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the religious terror in Frisian over the past few years was not without vengeful spirits, but they were all privately handled by these inquisitor lords, and their crimes were further aggravated. In the end, almost all of the inquisitor lords were sentenced to death.
"After sentencing all the Inquisitor Lords one by one and ending the entire Age of Religious Terror in Frisian, I thought that the situation in Frisian was settled, but I didn't expect..."
"Kramer" said, his expression and tone became more serious, and at this time Neve also spoke curiously.
"What are you thinking? Could it be that those judges and lords were wrongly accused?"
"No, they have not been wronged, their crimes are established, and I did nothing wrong in judging them. It's just that the whole thing is not that simple, and there are deeper factors hidden in it." Coming back to his senses, "Kramar" responded to Neveu, and then he looked into the distance, looking at the deep darkness in the underworld beyond the Styx, and continued to mutter.
“At the beginning of this year, I led the organization of the tribunal’s files and personally participated in reviewing some files. Then one of the files attracted me at that time.
"This is a case file submitted by the local court. Two years ago, the secret police hunter in Putt, Divian, cracked a cult case. This group of cultists was trading souls in a place not far from the Security Bureau. When something went wrong, they were directly arrested by local hunters. After interrogation, they were found to belong to a society called the Dead Sleeping Society, which is a subordinate organization of the Coffin Order. They are responsible for helping the Coffin Order capture valuable souls in the New World. Because of various reasons, they were arrested because of being robbed by the black. "
"Kramer" spoke like this, and listening to what "Kramer" said, Neveu beside him seemed to have thought of something, and the corners of her mouth twitched slightly.
"According to the confession of the leader of the Death Sleeping Society, they mainly use New Jacques as their base and operate in the New World. When they served the Coffin Order in New Jacques, they once received help from a mysterious official from the church. Soon, the Security Bureau notified the Holy Church of this news, and the local church in Tivian quickly passed the news to the patrol investigators in the New World.
"The New World Circuit Investigators have already been searching for some clues of heresy. The intelligence from the Security Bureau has greatly accelerated their progress and allowed them to quickly lock on to their target. They soon captured the suspect, the director of the local church tribunal in New Jacques, Coat Dino."
"Kramer" continued his story, and after listening to what "Kramer" said, Neve couldn't help but ask curiously.
"So... is there anything special about this Coyate Dino?"
"He used to work for me, and participated in the Frisian Redress Trial with me. Moreover, he was in charge of the arrangement of the ceremony site and the construction of the magic array for the soul-judgment ceremony!" Retracting his gaze, "Kramer" looked at Neveu and spoke bluntly in a very serious tone. Listening to "Kramer's" words, Neveu was stunned, and then he realized something and spoke bluntly.
"He... he was the one who arranged the soul-judgment ceremony? In other words, the soul-judgment array used to judge those judge lords was drawn by someone who was related to the Nether Coffin. If he was already a person related to the Nether Coffin during the Great Judgment..."
"Then there might be something wrong with the soul-judgment ritual... The conclusion might not be accurate..."
"Kramer" continued Neveu's words with a stern look, and then he continued to speak seriously.
"When I reviewed the case files on Coyat, I immediately realized this problem, and then I sent a secret confidant to Frisian to cooperate with local agencies to conduct a new investigation into the matter. However, my confidant disappeared from Frisian soon after.
"At this point, I realized the seriousness of the matter, so I decided to go to Frisland to investigate the case myself. In order not to alert the enemy, I set out from Mount Saint-Lin in the name of investigating the court in the northern part of the continent. I first went to Farajo, and then gradually approached Frisland, heading to the place I wanted to go, which was where my confidant disappeared, Steenham.
"Finally, I, Steenham, found the investigation report left by my confidant, and found out the whole story. I also found out what exactly the coffin was planning."
"Kramar" spoke quickly, and Neveu listened carefully to the answer revealed by "Kramar".
“The vengeful spirits… this is the key to the plan of the Dark Coffin… Over the past few years, those innocent people in Freslan who died unjustly at the hands of the Inquisitor Lord have not turned into vengeful spirits, but have been secretly sealed by the people of the Dark Coffin.
"For several decades, the people of the Hades have been secretly monitoring every trial of the Inquisitor Lords, using their own power to secretly carry out the "aftermath" for them, sealing all the vengeful spirits of the unjustly dead who had just died under the earth, thus creating the illusion that the trials of the Inquisitor Lords did not create any vengeful spirits. Then they used this in conjunction with a variety of other means to intensify the cruelty of the Inquisitor Lords, prompting them to make their own cruel trials more and more severe in the illusion, spreading the unjust crimes to the entire Frisian, and letting the darkness of religious terror shroud Frisian for several years.
"The purpose of the Nether Coffin is to make these Judge Lords continuously produce a large number of various vengeful spirits with deep resentment for them. They sealed these vengeful spirits into the earth, and used thousands of years and tens of thousands of vengeful spirits as materials to construct a shocking ceremony.
“And those foolish Inquisitor Lords have been used by the Coffin of Hell over the past few decades without knowing it, causing the sins in their hands to become increasingly serious until the Frisian Judgment several decades ago.
“I had a chance to uncover the conspiracy of the Coffin in this great trial, but unfortunately, the Inquisition had already been infiltrated. Although the infiltrator was just a small fry like Coyate, his position at the time was extremely important. He secretly tampered with the soul-judgment array, allowing the Coffin to interfere with the soul-judgment ceremony from a distance, and interfere with the souls of the judge lords on trial, influencing them to admit that the disappearance of the vengeful spirits was indeed their fault. There were no other factors affecting it, which dispelled my doubts at the time.
"When it comes to research on the soul, Ming Guan can be said to be the strongest in the world. Even the Holy Church lags behind Ming Guan in terms of soul technology... Therefore, even I was unable to see Ming Guan's tricks and did not discover the abnormalities of those souls... This is my dereliction of duty... If I had been more cautious at the beginning, there would not be these crises today..."
"Kramer" said this with a hint of regret and self-blame, and after hearing what "Kramer" said, Neveu couldn't help but nodded in understanding, and then continued to speak.
"So... the coffin took so long to make, and so many vengeful spirits were used as materials, and the shocking ceremony was prepared... what was the purpose?"
Neveu asked this, and after hearing what Neveu said, Kramar paused for a moment to gather his thoughts, then answered in a deep voice after thinking for a while.
"I am not clear about the specific effect of this ritual, but what is clear is that once it succeeds, it will have a huge impact. According to the investigation of my confidant, those countless resentful souls were sealed in the coffin and cultivated underground in Freslan for several years. Each resentful spirit has a strength far exceeding that of an ordinary soul by several times. They are gradually becoming a whole and integrating with the territory of Freslan, forming a large-scale collective of local resentment.
"The vengeful spirit disaster that has occurred is the result of countless spiritual disasters that were supposed to befall Freslan that were continuously postponed and merged, and then continuously strengthened by the underworld coffin. It is like a huge barrel of explosives buried underground in Freslan. It only needs a suitable medium as a fuse to completely detonate, forming a spiritual disaster of an extremely large scale.
"I don't know what those cultists want to do with this scale of spiritual disaster, but we must stop them!"
"Fuse...the fuse you mentioned is..." Listening to "Kramar's" words, Neveu murmured as if she had thought of something, and "Kramar" nodded in response.
"Yes... The 'fuse' designed by the underworld coffin is exactly what my half body is about to perform the purification. When tens of thousands of innocent people in Arnstell die because of the purification of the Holy Church, the resentment of their souls who died for no reason will be able to collectively resonate violently with the resentful spirits who also died unjustly and are buried underground in Frisland. This resonance will serve as a fuse to start the ceremony, bringing disaster to the entire Frisland and even the entire continent with huge hatred!
"When I was in Steenham, I investigated the truth of this ritual and found out that the Coffin of Hell was going to use Steenham as a fuse to attract the Holy Church to come for purification in the future to trigger the ritual. But fortunately, I discovered their plan one step ahead of time. When I came to Steenham, the construction of the entire Land Grudge Ritual was still completely completed. It was the best time for me! So I immediately prepared to destroy Steenham's fuse node first to destroy the entire ritual, but the Coffin of Hell also took corresponding measures. They used other preset rituals to connect the citizens of Steenham with the nodes and used the citizens of a city as hostages to stop me.
"But... I won't be stopped by such a trick. While the entire country's land resentment ritual has not been completed, I immediately purified Steenham and ignored all the hostages. Because the land resentment ritual has not been completed, the purification this time will not attract the underground resentful spirits... I need to eliminate them before they can serve as a fuse.
"However, some accidents happened at this time, causing some problems in my purification. When my purification was completely completed... the two golds in the coffin died. They interrupted my purification, and I had no choice but to evacuate. You know what happened next. The coffin brought down the divine curse, and I was forced to cut off my soul. Then, as a half-soul, I and the entire Steenham were forgotten until now. A turning point has only appeared."
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