Chapter 1462: Sun King: You Cannot Love Your Country Only in Times of Victory_2

Clearly, it’s a fallen angel!

Besides, there seems to be a subtle and inexplicable connection between him and the Divine Position of [Betrayal] from [Pride Morning Star·Lucifer].

Upon noticing this, the Decryption Rate of [Hidden: The Pope and the Council of the Divine Presence’s Fall, Historical Influence 69] immediately jumped from 28% to 35%.

Byron suddenly realized:

“So the fall is not an adjective, but a literal true fall. The seven Saints of the Council of the Divine Presence, does one of them, a Pope, want to partake in the fallen angel [Lucifer] that the creator split off? No, the other Saints aren’t at a high enough level; only the Pope, whose Order is equivalent to a Demigod, would have the qualifications to covet the Immortal Divinity of an Old God. He must be secretly pushing the Church towards corruption! I always felt that the widespread dissemination of the ‘Gospel of Heaven,’ which would create many ‘Protestants,’ was suspicious from the start. Now all the clues are connecting; it’s all to corrupt the Church! To achieve the strongest darkening tenfold! The Pope probably, like me, has to some extent gained control over the angel in the Pantheon. Fortunately, I used the Sword in the Stone to attack first, otherwise, my specific intelligence might have already been leaked.”

Since Saint Matthew converted to the fallen angel controlled by the Pope, his soul was also secretly held in thrall.

Perhaps even this Saint himself wasn’t aware of this.

With the Sword in the Stone severing all anchoring upon him, even if there were another rational Old God, they wouldn’t be able to steal information through distant mystical connections at this time.

Byron’s “Millennium Kill” might be used once again.

While Saint Matthew was nurturing the world, he also snatched a small portion of this Saint’s memory with his [Netherworld] Divine Position.

He quickly skimmed through the most important and timely memories and his expression suddenly changed:

“So ruthless!”

Byron initially thought the massacre in the Iris Flower Royal Capital was merely collateral damage from a change in royal power, a spur-of-the-moment decision by Orthodox supporters.

However, Saint Matthew’s memory revealed to him that this was the latest decree issued by the Pope to all major Orthodox Vassals and Kings — the “Protestant Slaughter Order.”

Starting tonight, similar massacres would erupt within the spheres of influence of church-affiliated countries just like in the Iris Kingdom!

This means that the religious war is already spreading outwards, from the previous chaos among the Vassals to each and every believer.

It is bound to cause unimaginable destruction to all countries on the Silver Continent.

“As for what the spark was that united the entire Orthodox Alliance in agreement with this massacre decree…”

When he saw the answer, he couldn’t help but be shocked:

“Is it because of my sugarcane papermaking technique and printing revolution?

The decree states that any private transaction, printing, reading, or interpretation of the “Gospel of Creation” is a capital crime, and the entire family of any Protestant must be killed!

The reason being, if everyone can obtain the scriptures, everyone can comment on the doctrine, which means the Church can no longer continue to monopolize the authority to interpret the classics.

The loss of speech rights shakes the foundation of orthodoxy to its core, and even if the lower-level legal authority is retained, it’s as if it doesn’t exist?”

Byron had not thought of this before.

He only felt that the proliferation of paper could significantly increase the number of Sequence Extraordinary individuals.

Just after the end of the Dark Millennium, the conditions of various countries on the Silver Continent were similar; illiteracy rates were frighteningly high, with the majority of knowledge monopolized by the Church.

At its most expensive, a hand-copied set of scriptures could be traded for a considerable estate.

For city families across the continent, the utmost ambition was merely to scrape together enough money to allow one of their sons to become an apprentice with a trade.

As for reading and writing, much less becoming a Transcendent, it was beyond their dreams.

A typical continental family would spend about 3 years’ worth of savings to pay the tuition for an ordinary apprentice.

The tuition for literacy?

Would require at least 10 years of savings, living off nothing in the meantime.

This was just for the most basic tuition and did not include the price of books and pens.

Knowledge has always been expensive!

Much like the monopolistic control of noble clans in the Eastern Great Country before the invention of papermaking, the grassroots had no chance to rise.

Even if they had money, if they lacked connections and social circles, those learned teachers wouldn’t even look at them.

Extraordinary Power and knowledge were easily monopolized by the elite.

Otherwise, Byron’s Captain 721 Fission Mode wouldn’t have been such a massive success.

Thus, Byron, who always focused on providing everyone with a path and ladder for advancement, entirely overlooked the fact that the swift progress of the religious war was also owed to sugar cane paper.

The Protestant reformers believed their main task was to spread the “Book of Creation” to the public, naturally promoting the separation of church and state, letting the spirit of the creator and human nature accompany each other.

After fermenting over such a long time, the wings of the little butterfly of sugar cane paper were enough to stir up a storm on the Silver Continent.

The Orthodox Church’s response was simple and direct; if they couldn’t solve the problem of paper, then they would directly solve the Protestants.

Byron could already envision the dreadful scenes:

“Protestants being smashed skulls, drawn and quartered, skinned alive, baked alive, buried alive, forced to watch their children being killed… Rivers filled with stench, polluted water sources with no one daring to eat the fish within. Streets and alleys consumed by slaughter, the moans and cries of the slain, the twisted cheers of the butchers. Every street on the Silver Continent damp as if it had rained, soaked with blood-stained soil, the air thick with the smell of blood…”