The sudden sound startled Ivana, and the girl quickly turned her head and looked over. A wizard who looked to be no more than twenty years old was leaning against the wall next to the stone bed.

"Magic Star...Lynn?" Ivana naturally recognized him at a glance.

Over the past few months, Ivana had heard a lot about the other party's legendary deeds in the Wizard Academy in the City of Fire Oil. In fact, investigating this magic star was one of the tasks assigned to her by Gustav.

It was just that due to Lynn's high status in the Wizard Council, she and Monroe had no chance to get close to each other at all. It could be said that it was not until last night that they officially met this magic star for the first time.

Not sure if it was an illusion, but Ivana vaguely felt that the wizard in front of her looked familiar, perhaps because his hair color was somewhat similar to that of her brother Lotte.

As the girl thought so, Lin En beside her nodded and spoke.

"Yes, it's me!"

"Speaking of which, I'm a little curious. You and Monroe should be undercover agents sent by the church to the City of Fire Oil, right? If so, why did you attack the church's Saint Cynthia last night?" Lynn continued to ask.

Although he had already learned some information from the girl's mind, he still wanted to hear what she was thinking.

Ivana did not respond, but took a deep breath, stared at Lin En, and asked back, "I want to know what a wizard is..."

"That's a good question." Lin En didn't care about the girl's deliberate change of subject, but smiled and said, "The parliament doesn't have an accurate definition of wizards yet, but if we have to give it some characteristics, it's someone who explores the laws of the world and uses magic to gain power from it."

"How the world works?" Ivana murmured to herself.

"For example, what is wind, what is water, why does an apple fall to the ground, why can an eagle soar in the sky, why does the sun and the moon move, we understand, study, summarize the laws of things, and use magic to reproduce them..." Lin En said word by word. "This is a wizard, this is magic!"

Every word of Lin En echoed in Ivana's mind. In fact, after entering the wizard academy, she had asked several professors similar questions and received many different answers - wizards are those who have excellent magical talents and can master magic...

Wizards are elites selected from thousands of people, and are gifted by God to transform the world with magic.

Only Philip, who teaches elemental science, said something similar to Lin's, that wizards are people who explore the truth and gain power from it.

"What about divine magic? What is divine magic?" Ivana thought for a long time before asking again.

"In a sense, divine magic is a more special kind of magic!" Lin En responded indifferently.

"Magic?" Ivana paused for a moment, then frowned again. "But you just said that magic is the summary and application of the laws governing the operation of the world, but from what I understand, the bishops and priests of the empire only need to pray and study the Bible every day..."

Like the Kingdom, the major cities in the Empire also have colleges, but they do not require students to learn chemistry, physics, elements, or potions. Instead, they learn the most basic literacy, arithmetic, and the most important prayer rituals and understanding of the Bible...

"That's what makes it special!" Lin En smiled, and without a long explanation, he took two steps forward, put his hand on Ivana's head, and whispered. "Don't resist!"

The girl shrank her neck, a little uncomfortable with Lin En's slightly intimate behavior, but she still forced herself to remain calm and sit on the stone bed without moving.

Ivana, who had seen Lin's strength, knew very well that if the other party wanted to do something, she would have no room for resistance.

About two or three seconds later, a slight pain surged into her heart, as if something was poured into her brain.

In a daze, Lynn removed her right hand from her head, and a gentle voice echoed in the confinement room.

“Now you can try it!”

What to try? Ivana looked at Lin En blankly, but fortunately she soon realized that there was a mysterious rune in her brain. With a thought, the mysterious rune lit up in her sea of ​​consciousness.

Then, a flashing ball of thunder appeared in front of him, making crackling sounds.

Ivana's face suddenly showed astonishment. She knew about the thunder magic, which was a very dangerous and powerful magic. The most important thing was that she had never learned it, but she was able to mobilize magic power to release it.

"For a legendary wizard, this is not a difficult thing to do. If you have read my thesis on magic [Analysis and Research Report on Divine Energy], you should know that the essence of divine magic is no different from magic power!" Lin En explained concisely.

In this different world, magic power is the root of all supernatural things!

To put it bluntly, the divine arts commonly used by the church are just a use of energy.

Of course, there are also some spells related to psychic powers.

For example, the divine spell "Hymn of Courage" used by the bishops to encourage the army can put tens of thousands of people in a state of extreme excitement and fanaticism, and even make them forget their pain and fear and fight to the death.

"So, the Moon Goddess, the creator of all things, is also... a wizard?" Ivina said with difficulty.

Last night, in the basement of the Duke's mansion, Harov and Aurora told her about this, but she didn't take it seriously at the time.

The moon goddess Ella created the continent and everything in it. This is the 'truth' she has heard since she was a child.

"Of course, [Ella] was once a wizard, the best and most powerful one among all the wizards at that time. She defeated the rest of her competitors with her unparalleled strength, and began to suppress and kill her former colleagues, dreaming of becoming a god who rules the entire continent..." Lin En said concisely, and then continued to complain.

"As for the evidence... there are simply too many errors and omissions in the Bible. Anyone who has some understanding of the world would not believe that she is the so-called creator."

As the creator of the world, he even got it wrong about how the stars move and whether the continents are flat or spherical. This can only be described as funny!

However, Lynn was also aware of the other party's difficulties. It was obvious that the Bible was written during the war of faith hundreds of years ago, and the church's understanding of the world at that time might have been like this.

Lin En believed that over the past few hundred years, Ella, whose strength had greatly improved, would also be able to detect the loopholes in it, but once the Bible was finalized, it could not be changed at will!

After all, in the setting that Ella gave herself, everything in this world exists because of her.

Soon more and more people will question the content of the Bible, and their faith will begin to waver.

This is the trouble of being too high-class...

Ivina naturally knew everything that Lin En said. On the first day of joining the wizard academy, they visited the magic showroom together.

There are all kinds of novel and ingenious experiments inside - the law of free fall of two balls, the calculation of gravitational constant by mirror reflection, the verification of Coriolis force by pendulum, etc.

Some of the experiments did not even require magic; with some simple tools, even an ordinary poor person could replicate them.

Just like the words written by Lynn himself in the exhibition room: the truth is there, allowing anyone to explore, question and practice...

It was because of this that Ivana began to question for the first time all the common sense she had known before.

Seeing the girl's shaken and somewhat unbelieving expression, Lin En spoke again and added.

"Your boss Gustav, one of the church's high-ranking officials, released the evil god in the north, causing tens of thousands of casualties. He has now been captured by Speaker Vittorio last night!"

"This is impossible!" Ivana's eyes widened and she subconsciously denied it. Gustav was the one who sent her to the City of Kerosene to carry out the mission. He was also her mentor and the commander-in-chief of the entire God's Punishment Army.

After she joined the God's Punishment Army, the most important thing she did was to hunt down the followers of the evil god and stop them from performing blood sacrifices in order to maintain the peace of the people of the empire.

"Nothing is impossible." Lin En said playfully. "I'm about to go meet him. Do you want to come and see him?"

Vittorio interrogated Gustav for a whole night, but he was just like Joshua, very stubborn and had no intention of speaking. However, he was said to be very weak.

According to Vittorio, the other party can speak within three days!

Lin En had deep doubts about this. Those who could be chosen as high-level church leaders were basically fanatics or even saints. It was unrealistic to expect them to betray him.

However, Vittorio was very confident. He slightly improved the magic of [Psychic Retrieval] and combined it with alchemy. He was able to read some superficial thoughts of the other party when their emotions were turbulent and their mental defenses were breached.

Ivina might be a good breakthrough point to stimulate Gustav.

He had discovered some noteworthy things in the girl's memory before, but the information Ivina knew was too little given her level. Perhaps only Gustav, the commander of the God's Punishment Army, could give him the answer he wanted.

…

Five minutes later, Lynn led Ivina into the secret room where Gustav was imprisoned.

This place was set up in the basement of an ordinary house, dug out by Vittorio alone. There was no decoration inside, only rune chains flashing fluorescently in the dark.

"Gustav, right? I'm Lin En, the messenger of doom as you call it. This should be the first time we meet." Lin En walked leisurely in the dim secret room, his slightly raised voice echoing inside.

The depressed Gustav slowly raised his head, but he did not look at Lin En. Instead, he fixed his gaze on the girl standing behind him. His eyes suddenly became extremely sharp, like two blades.

Ivana did not dodge or show fear, but walked past Lin En and stood in front of Gustav.

Their eyes met, and Gustav's face showed anger. He looked at the girl with disappointment and contempt.

"I misjudged you, Ivana. I wanted to promote you to be my deputy before this and have you baptized by the Great Lord, but you dared to betray the church and the Great Lord!"

Last night, when Vittorio was interrogating him, he used the defeat and murder of the new saint to stimulate and influence Gustav's emotions, and Gustav also learned some inside information from it.

If it weren't for Ivina's temporary rebellion, which allowed Lynn to be promoted successfully on the spot, perhaps the incarnation of the Lord would have dealt with these damn wizards long ago.

This is undoubtedly his fault!

It was my own misjudgment that caused a slight deviation, leading to the church's complete loss...

Gustav's heart was filled with endless regret, his spirit was also fluctuating violently, and the rune chains wrapped around his body faintly emitted a brighter fluorescence.

"It must be you who betrayed us, Lord Gustav!" Ivana took another step forward, staring into Gustav's eyes, and questioned. "Tell me, why did the church release the evil god in the northern border of the kingdom, and are the frequent evil god chaos in the empire related to the church?"

Gustav remained silent. Ivana's betrayal was already a fact, and it was obviously meaningless to make excuses. What's more, he was captured by Vittorio from the northern border of the kingdom.

This long silence completely destroyed the little trust Ivana had left in the church, and her faith in the Moon Goddess also collapsed instantly.

The girl bit her lips tightly. Could it be that, as Lin En said, the evil god's chaos could not be eradicated because of the church's deliberate connivance?

What is the reason for the God's Punishment Army's philosophy and persistence, and the countless colleagues who fought against evil and risked their lives for it? In Ella's eyes, the battles they risked their lives for were just a fun way to pass their leisure time? A tool to consolidate and catalyze faith?

Ivana spoke out all the questions in her mind, and the continuous questioning continued to echo in the secret room.

She wanted to know, as a member of the God's Punishment Army who knew all the truth, what kind of mood did Gustav have when he instructed the God's Punishment Army to perform such ridiculous dramas? "Of course it was worth it, and everyone's sacrifice was not in vain!" Gustav finally spoke, with a trace of compassion and enthusiasm on his face. "They will all be integrated into the Lord's Kingdom and become part of the Lord!"

"It will be soon. It won't be long before the kingdom of heaven comes to the earth. At that time, all suffering and sin will disappear!"

(End of this chapter)