Chapter 8-241: The Blame Game’s Winner (2/2)
They all began to blanch as thirty thousand meters of radius remained. With Nine Casters, that was over three thousand Castings of Hallow!
“The Ritual Form of Hallow takes twenty-four hours to Cast.” They sucked in breaths in disbelief. “Perhaps you will take Rapid Ritual, and get the time down to an hour. You will need to take Divine Metamagic to break the metacap to do so. Perhaps you will take Widen Spell to double the amount of area you affect, and accelerate your work. Perhaps you will have a 20 Wisdom, so that you get two spells a day.
“Perhaps you will be at Ten, so that you can get three.”
I paused to look at all these powerful Priests and Casters, the best of them mere Faux Sevens, actually Sixes. None of them could do anything, now.
I turned my eyes on the Imprusar Priest, staring at the grey circle behind me, his face pale. I grabbed his eyes and held them.
“I don’t think I have to tell you what Imprus will think of any Priests of His who are such horrible stewards of His lands and servants. What He does to failed servants is His business, not mine.
“Your superiors, and much of your church, has taken a very short term look at things, and subordinated Imprus’ desires and ambitions to their own.
“They have failed the Imperial God, and I do not imagine their endings are going to be good.
“But, they have given you one great example that you can take to heart.”
He looked like he was begging me for anything he could do. He was a fanatic at heart, and I had burned Truth into his soul. He couldn’t not believe me at this point.
“They have shown you that mortal souls have the power to affect the divine mandate.” He blinked in shock, as did everyone else. “There are wise and just emperors. There are calculating and efficient emperors. And... there are tyrannical and ruthless emperors, although that lot normally goes to Huul. I would not be surprised, in the end, that if we were to trace back the sources of your Humanist, Elitist, rabid powermongering, we will find devils whispering into ears eager for power.”
I pointed at him with one finger. “You, a mortal soul, have the power to determine the impetus of Imprus on this world. Will He be a just, righteous, and a beloved Emperor, ruling rightly and properly, a true godly king?
“Or, equally acceptable to Him, will He be cold, callous, pragmatic, and efficient, disposing of all obstacles on the way to His rulership?
“You and yours, NO OTHERS, have the ability to define Imprus’ reach on this world. He does not care, He wishes only to rule. Your Church exists to serve!... but it is you who determine HOW you serve!
“From Duty comes Loyalty! Take responsibility for your deeds! You are a mortal soul, free will is yours! How the Imperial God interacts with the Mother Land every atom of your body comes from is yours to determine!
“To one, your life, your body, your flesh and blood! To the other, your soul! You are the mortal soul standing between them, and to you comes the great responsibility and power of making that relationship work, or tearing it down to shreds, and dooming yourself and all that Mother and Emperor would accomplish!”
Flames roared outside loudly, and fuel tanks lit out with roars, fiery light coming in through the windows as the trucks his men had come here in were set ablaze, shadows of their destruction dancing across the wall behind me.
I waved my hand at two of the Harsites nearby. “Remove this supplicant from my sight.”
The grim Justices got up, grabbed him under the arms, and impolitely dragged him out of there. The roar of the flames got much louder for a moment as the doors opened, then quieted as they closed.
I gave my attention to the rest of them, especially Master Dorrian. “The Imprusar are the most powerful Church in these lands, and the Druids are possibly their equals at best. But they are not enough, and they are not united.
“Only the Churches of Heaven, united in common cause, can actually make this happen, as I’m sure you have realized. You will need the help of other Churches; you cannot do it alone, even with all of you.
“You have to get Drained, you have to re-Level. You need Vivic Weapons now, now, now, and if that means turning your treasuries inside out and making beggars of yourselves, that is what you need to do.
“You will need to Mediate between the Imprusar and the Druids, and show them there IS a better way, and the Land simply does not give a shit about the conflict between the mites. They are all in the same boat, and if they aren’t going to fight to save themselves, then by the Ivory Throne, they had better run very far, and very fast, because Justice for them abandoning what they set in motion is going to be coming!”
Every single servant of Mithar, Valus, Harse, Nuava, Flora, Aru, Sylune, Scriba, Tiirith, and Rampart, even peaceful Amana, nodded. If those people thought they could abandon what their hate had made worse, and make other people pay the price for it, there were indeed souls who follow them to the ends of Creation to settle that debt!
“I have tools for you to use that can aid you in this process. The first of these is my Allegiance, and the second of these is the Blessings I can give you towards your cause.” I surveyed them all, as the things that had brought them here from their associates in other Churches was finally on the table. “Let me tell you how these will work...”