“Holy Spirit, how could you give him a negative score?” Elder Sid frowned, his face full of doubt.
How could a chosen one, so favored by the god of death and bestowed with a token, possibly receive such a dismal negative score, even if his understanding of death is not profound?
“I think I may have inadvertently offended the Holy Spirit. My recent vision of death seems to have given the Holy Spirit a bad experience,” Phil Gray sighed, answering on behalf of the Holy Spirit.
"Oh?" The archbishop's curiosity was piqued, and he looked at the Holy Spirit. "What kind of feeling could make the Holy Spirit of the Mirror of Life and Death have a bad experience? It shouldn't be like this."
"fear."
Elder Sid said, as if he knew everything.
The jelly-like Holy Spirit nodded, his face contorted in a grimace more painful than tears: "I... I didn't give him a negative score out of selfishness. We are all children of the God of Death, and naturally we shouldn't fear death. However, his emotion was an extraordinary, transcendent fear of death, so intense that even now, thinking about it makes me tremble uncontrollably. Although I don't know what he experienced in the illusion of death, it undoubtedly runs counter to our piety towards death."
It glanced hastily at Phil Gray with lingering fear and said, "The highest score is ten, so giving him a negative ten isn't unreasonable."
Fear of death?
Some of the people present were puzzled. How could they have such emotions when facing death? They seemed to want to sing and dance, welcoming death with boundless joy and elation.
Where does such an unfamiliar emotion arise?
How can someone who fears and is afraid of death become a believer in the god of death?
Phil Gray shook his head after hearing his explanation: "No, you're wrong. What I fear isn't death itself, but the manner and the consequences of it. We devoutly believe in death because it allows us to return to the abyss, to the embrace of the gods. But you should be able to sense that the object of my death is very unusual. So what I'm facing isn't ordinary death, but annihilation. I will vanish into nothingness, not only unable to see the gods again, but also permanently departing from death. So I'm afraid, I'm running away. That's normal, isn't it?"
Phil Gray rationalized this fear in just a few words.
Everyone looked as if they suddenly understood, realizing how it was done.
The jelly-like Holy Spirit was stunned. So that's how it is.
Although it can pull people into a death illusion, it cannot actually see what happens in the illusion; it can only transfer people's feelings and emotions onto itself at crucial moments.
“So, you shouldn’t give me a negative score for that reason, right? You should judge it based on the value of the death itself and the depth of the feelings it evoked, just like you judged the previous Holy Sons, shouldn’t you?” Phil Gray blinked, looking at it with some disappointment.
“What he said seems to be correct, Holy Spirit, give him another score,” Elder Sid said.
“Then there’s nothing more to say, a perfect score,” the Holy Spirit said decisively.
"Still a negative ten?" Bishop Marshall couldn't help but ask.
No, exactly ten.
Holy Spirit looked at Phil Gray with a resentful expression and said, "This death was truly memorable and unique. I think it will not only be the most memorable death you've ever experienced, but it has also become mine. I'm really curious how you survived?"
Phil Gray smiled faintly: "Of course it's because of my reverence for death. If I were to succumb to fear, wouldn't I no longer be qualified to experience death and meet the gods?"
That makes perfect sense. All the believers nodded in agreement, looking at the newly arrived Holy Son with admiration.
Only Eli knew that his boss seemed to be lying to people again.
Bishop Marshall was utterly disheartened; his score of seven points still placed him at the bottom.
Sid returned the Holy Spirit to the Mirror of Life and Death and put the mirror away.
He looked at the candidates with satisfaction and said, "Through the first round of selection, I have seen your excellence. I now announce the results of the first round: first place, Milu, with a score of 10 points; second place, Yilai Zhe, with a score of 9 points; Rodney, Eli, and Jaslin are tied for third place with a score of 8 points; and fourth place, Marshall, with a score of 7 points."
"Don't be discouraged if you scored lower. We still have two more rounds of selection. Your total score will be the key to determining who will be the Pope. Today's selection ceremony ends here. Tomorrow we will begin the second round of selection, which will be presided over by the Archbishop. The rules are a bit special, so he needs to inform you in advance."
Elder Sid glanced at the Archbishop, who smiled and faced the believers in the church.
"As the Pope of the Church of the Dead, besides having a profound understanding of death, one must also be able to deal with the spirits of the dead. After all, they are my most powerful force, my most friendly friends, and our final form. Therefore, the second round of selection will be about summoning spirits of the dead. This selection will last for three days. Every day, candidates must summon spirits of the dead on the altar we have prepared. We will judge each spirit you summon. At the end of the third day, the one who has summoned the most powerful and the most numerous spirits will get the highest score. I will be in charge of the scoring this time."
It's summoning the dead?
Phil Gray was relieved. This should be considered one of his strengths. Others might summon undead randomly, but he could specify them. The only drawback was that he could only summon one per day, which might put him at a disadvantage in terms of quantity.
“Summon the undead? Ah, after becoming a follower of death, my second skill became ‘Visitors from the Abyss,’ which can summon a group of guests from the abyss. But I’ve tried it a few times, and each time there are only some short skeletons that I can crush with a lift of my foot. They’re probably the undead that some animals turned into after they died. How can this compare to them…” Eli muttered to himself.
Upon hearing the rules announced by the Archbishop, no candidate expressed any objection. It seemed that these holy sons and daughters all possessed the ability to summon the undead? Phil Gray pondered, thinking that all those favored by the dead must have similar abilities, since undead creatures were an important source of their combat power.
As the bell rang, today's selection ceremony officially came to a close.
The believers gradually dispersed, but some still gazed at a certain saint with adoration, reluctant to leave, until the church pastors, their faces grim, drove them out.
Saint Jasmine and her two sons who were bishops seemed to have other matters to attend to and left first.
The elders and the archbishop were very curious about the two holy sons, and they all gathered around, asking Phil Gray and Eli all sorts of questions.
Elder Sid remained silent, his gaze deep, lost in thought.
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