Chapter 1175 — "Schizophrenia"?
Blade of Dawn · Page 1 of 4
In this world, what could possibly frighten gods like Amorn and Milmirna?
Not the wars of the Church, not the rebellious tides, not even their own downfall—but this: a god is about to be born.
Every birth of a god means the relationship between humanity and the pantheon becomes further locked in place, and the more such locked relationships there are, the further this era of human civilization tilts toward "divinity" over "humanity." When that tendency develops to a certain degree, even gods like them—who have already shed their divine stations—could at any moment be dragged back into the ranks of the pantheon by mortals consumed with religious fervor. For Amorn and Milmirna, who paid such a tremendous price to finally obtain a measure of limited freedom... this was, without question, a terrifying prospect.
For a time, the Courtyard of Defiance fell somewhat silent. Neither Gao Yang nor Milmirna spoke. Beside them, the hazy radiance around the silent Amorn swelled and shrank erratically, as if betraying the restless mood of this God of Nature. After a moment passed, Gao Yang spoke again: "Perhaps we are speculating too far ahead."
"Indeed, everything is speculation now. Without evidence, all of this is nothing more than an extension of conspiracy theory," Milmirna said with a soft sigh. "Only, judging by what the Violet Kingdom has done over six hundred years and the logic behind the workings of the gods, these black boxes do carry the latent danger of shaping 'artificial miracles'..."
"But in fact, magic has not become miraculous, has it?" Amorn's voice came from the side. "These black boxes have spread for six hundred years, and magic is still magic. Mages remain the least devout population in this world. Ordinary people hold magic and spellcasters in deep awe, but it is always the awe of mortals for mortals—no one truly regards magic as a miracle. Even the most unlearned country bumpkin knows that those lightning bolts and fireballs are man-made."
"So that is where our speculations fail to hold," Gao Yan nodded. "'Black boxes' are merely one possible factor that might lead ordinary people to regard magic as miraculous—but they are neither a necessary factor nor a sufficient one. To conclude from this that the Violet Kingdom is attempting to 'create a god' is indeed too arbitrary. And there is another fact that is quite puzzling... namely their 'isolationist' attitude toward the existing faith of the Magic Goddess."
"To be fair, that's true," Amorn agreed. "They go to every length to exclude the faith of the Magic Goddess from their kingdom, yet they export a black-box magical system that could well be regarded as 'miraculous.' If they were doing this to forge a faith in the domain of magic, the behavior would be far too contradictory... Of course, there is another possibility: they think the 'Magic Goddess' is an unreliable god, so they've decided to make a reliable one themselves..."
Before Amorn finished speaking, Milmirna was already glaring at him. "We're discussing a problem—keep it to the problem. Don't escalate to attacks on divine character..."
"I'm making inferences based on available conditions—or would you care to offer a more reasonable explanation?" Amorn said expressionlessly (he had always been expressionless). "Do you honestly believe you're a competent god?"
"All right, all right, the crux of the matter isn't there," Gao Yang said, seeing things going awry and hastily cutting off the two gods before their conversation drifted further off course. "Let's focus more on the Violet Kingdom. That country gives me an increasingly uneasy feeling..."
"We won't accomplish anything by discussing it here," Milmirna said, her tone growing serious as she lowered her gaze to Gao Dai. "That land is a darkness to me. What I know is likely not much more than you do. If you want to understand what those mysterious 'Violet mages' are actually doing, you'll still need to find a way to infiltrate their ranks."