469 The sTheology Debate” (2/2)

”The earth carries everything, including the underworld. Earth carries life, as well as death. Anyone who offends the Mother shall suffer from starvation, earthquake, and landslide.” The priest of the Mother God of Earth threatened the crowd.

Now the afterworld sounded too illusionary and far from the listeners. Compared to the long sleep after death, they knew much better how it felt having an empty stomach, not to mention the horrible power of an earthquake. They no longer dared to deviate from the Mother God of Earth.

”My Lord controls lightning — Lightning powerful enough to punish gods, not to mention the mundane. Anyone who disobeys shall be struck by lightning and thunder.” The priest of the God of Thunder and Lightning followed.

The priest of the God of Storm would not miss the chance either. ”If any of you betray the God of Storm, He would send forty-nine days of storm. Ocean will gush into the cities and towns. Land will be overwhelmed with flood. No creature will survive.”

Gradually, most of the priests started to threaten the listeners, controlling them with fear as they always did. However, the priest of the God of Wisdom and the priest of the God of Love and Breed could not use the same strategy. They quitted the debate rather helplessly.

They never had much hope to begin with. Their words about love and wisdom were too pale.

Facing such a chaotic debate where the braggest one was the strongest, Francis felt quite uncomfortable. He sent a secret message to Lucien by controlling the wind in the air. ”When it's your turn, try your very best to exaggerate the power of great Ell. You know, using the cycle theory — create, control, destroy, and resurrect.”

”The silver moon witnessed the birth of this world. The moon is immortal, and has the power to drive away darkness but also absorb the power from darkness. It brings peacefulness to our mind,” said Nob with fine sweat beads on his forehead. Compared to the other gods, Asin the God of Moon had no advantage when it came to threatening others. The god who was best at this was the God of Fire and Destruction.

Finally, after one round, it was Lucien's turn. All the priests turned to look at him, waiting to listen to his words speaking for the so-called God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption.

Sitting straight on the silver chair, Lucien said slowly, ”seasons come and go; the sun rises and sets. In this world, when there's birth, there's death. But there's also resurrection after death. And my Lord is the God of Resurrection.”

The priest of the God of Sun froze. He knew the meaning of the words — The representative of the God of Revival, Fertility, and Redemption was saying that the sun was solely a phenomenon, while resurrection was the underlying essence.

”Death isn't the final end; different souls belong to different ends. According to what a person did when he was alive, a fair judgment is given. Those who are kind will jump out of the cycle of life and death and enter the paradise of my Lord, and thus enjoy eternal happiness. Those who are neutral will come to this world again as infants and keep going through the joy and pain of life. While, the vicious and the contemptible will be punished in the underworld, enduring endless suffering…

”However, the followers of my Lord, anyone who's willing to make a heartfelt confession, will be saved by the Lord, and become the one's enjoying the forever happiness as I just mentioned.”

The listeners had never heard of anything like this before. They'd rather believe in this young priest's words than the horrible images described by the rest of the priests, because they could now see hope in their tough life, the hope for starting all over again and being saved!

Francis was very impressed by Leviathan's talent, for Leviathan was able to construct a rather comprehensive theoretical theology system based on his simple cycle theory. He didn't expect to find someone this talented in such a primitive otherworld.

The face of the priest representing the Lord of Underworld darkened. Such a theory had instantly degraded his Lord.

Seeing this, Nob made his decision. If he lost this debate, he'd lose everything anyway, so why not use the heretic myth to turn the tide.

”Your gods are all in charge of some specific functions in operating this world, but my Lord is the one who created this world as well as all of the creatures. My lord is the God of Brightness and Creation. In the primordial darkness, my lord brought brightness to the forever silence; he shaped the earth and the lives!” Nob cited one version of the creation myth, completely ignoring Nena's expression.

The rest of the priests were all taken back — Now that the God of Moon claimed to be the god who created the world, how could their god overpower Him? They thought hard, trying to find similar myths of their god to use.

At this time, the priest of the God of Thunder and Lightning burst out laughing. ”Alright, the God of Moon created this world and the lives, but my Lord is capable of ruining all of these. When everything sinks back into darkness, only my lord's followers will be saved.”

He partially borrowed the theory of redemption from Lucien.

The priest of the God of Sun and Justice was unwilling to fall behind. ”My lord is the god maintaining the functioning of the world and delaying the day of destruction…”

”My lord is the pristine darkness and peacefulness.” Sneered the priest of the Lord of Underworld.

”This isn't a theology debate… They're simply bragging.” Francis rubbed his forehead and complained to Lucien in a low voice. ”I'm not good at this at all. It's up to you now.”

Seeing that the other priests were gaining support, Lucien did not feel any pressure at all. ”Our world is just a small world. The creation, development, and destruction of such a small world are of nothing special. Three thousand of small worlds like this are needed to form a middle world, and three thousand of middle worlds are needed to form a big world. However, there are countless big worlds as many as the grains of sand at the bottom of the Solna river.

”However, the boundless world that contains the countless big worlds is created by my Lord.

”My Lord said, 'Let there be the boundless world', and there was the boundless world.

”My Lord said, 'Let there be light', and there was light.

”When my Lord said, 'Let all be destroyed', and then everything annihilates.”

When it came to bragging, Lucien feared nobody.