Chapter 667 — The Beginning of the Defiance Plan
Blade of Dawn · Page 4 of 4
"By wiping out more than seventy percent of the population, to increase the number of their believers? After the demon tide, the congregations of every church shrank by more than half, and not a few faiths were extinguished outright—and in ancient times there were civilizations destroyed utterly by the demon tide. From that, I judge your conjecture does not hold."
"All right, that does seem overly conspiratorial," Gao Yang admitted, realizing his guess had been poorly considered. "In that case, what is your reason for opposing the gods?"
Ophelia drew a deep breath, then said gravely: "In ancient times more than one civilization survived the demon tide. But those civilizations that survived—where are they now?"
In the brief two or three seconds of silence, a concept Mei Hengponia had once told Gao Yang surfaced in his mind.
The Black Pit.
"It was the gods who ultimately destroyed those survivors?"
Ophelia nodded slowly. "I fear so."
Gao Yang was stunned for a moment, then suddenly spread his hands with a strange expression. "...Are all the gods split personalities?"
"We do not know the reason, and at first we found no thread or evidence whatsoever to support 'the gods destroyed the world.' We found only records of the gods protecting humanity during the demon tide, and the fact that every civilization which endured the demon tide was ultimately exterminated.
"At first we did not know what had destroyed those survivors—until, while adjusting the flow of magic in the Deep Blue Well, we accidentally opened a flawed rift that connected to the 'Boundary of the Divine Realm.' Within that warped and resplendent rift, we glimpsed for the first time a sliver of the phantom of the realm of the gods...
"The Gondor royal house of that time organized a secret expedition, composed of the mightiest priests and scholars. Its purpose was in fact quite simple: to look across the rift, and if possible to pay their respects to the gods in person and thank them for their protection of the mortal world. The expedition would neither truly enter the divine realm nor commit any act of offense.
"Yet the instant the act of 'crossing the boundary' occurred, the situation spun out of control. From the rift poured an utterly chaotic and frenzied malice; the glorious vision of heaven in an instant became the most terrifying nightmare, and hidden beneath that radiant veil were twisted 'knowledge' that shattered the mind and 'truths' the human mind could not comprehend. The expedition beyond the rift was all but annihilated in an instant; only two half-mad legendary powerhouses returned to the mortal world clinging to their last breath, and before they died they left only two sentences:
"They mean to destroy us.
"It is a countdown."
Ophelia stopped and regarded Gao Yang quietly. After more than ten seconds of silence, she softly broke it:
"Those two sentences were the beginning of the Defiance Plan."