I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 484 (Patreon)

Chapter 484: We Are But Playthings of the Gods, Ivina's Crumbling Faith

The sudden voice startled Ivina. The girl quickly turned her head to see a wizard, who looked to be in his twenties, leaning against the wall next to the stone bed.

"Star of Magic... Lynn?" Ivina recognized him at a glance.

Over the past few months, within the Wizard Academy in the City of Fire Oil, Ivina had heard much about the legendary deeds of the other party. In fact, investigating this Star of Magic was one of the tasks assigned to her by Gustav.

However, because Lynn held a high position within the Wizard Council, she and Monroe had no chance to approach him. It was not until last night that they officially met this Star of Magic for the first time.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but Ivina felt a sense of familiarity with the male wizard in front of her, maybe because his hair color was somewhat similar to that of her brother, Lott.

With this thought, Lynn next to her nodded and spoke.

"Yes, it's me!"

"Speaking of which, I'm a bit curious. You and Monroe are supposed to be undercover agents sent by the Holy Church to the City of Fire Oil, right? Then why did you attack the Holy Church's Saintess Cynthia last night?" Lynn continued to inquire.

Although he had already learned a part of the information from the girl's mind, he still wanted to hear what she thought.

Ivina did not respond but took a deep breath, her gaze fixed on Lynn, and counter-questioned, "I want to know, what is a wizard..."

"That's a good question." Lynn did not mind the girl's deliberate change of topic and smiled as he spoke. "The council doesn't have a precise definition for a wizard yet, but if we were to characterize it, it would be someone who explores the laws of how the world works and uses magic to draw power from it."

"The laws of how the world works?" Ivina murmured to herself.

"For example, what is wind, what is water, why do apples fall to the ground, why can eagles soar in the sky, and how do the sun and moon move. We understand, study, and summarize the laws of things, and use magic to replicate them..." Lynn explained each word clearly. "That is what a wizard is; that is what magic is!"

The words of Lynn echoed in Ivina's mind. In fact, after joining the Wizard Academy, she had asked several professors similar questions and received many different answers—wizards are those with exceptional magical talent, capable of mastering magic...

Wizards are elites selected from thousands, those who use magic to transform the world.

Only Philip, the professor of Elemental Studies, had said something similar to Lynn, that wizards are those who seek truth and gain power from it.

"What about divine magic then? What is divine magic?" Ivina pondered for a while before asking again.

"In a sense, divine magic is a special kind of magic!" Lynn responded lightly.

"Magic?" Ivina paused noticeably, then frowned. "But you just said, magic is the summary and application of the world's operating laws, but as far as I know, the empire's bishops and priests only need to pray and study the holy scriptures daily..."

Like the kingdom, the empire's major cities also have academies, but they do not require the study of chemistry, physics, elements, or magical potions. Instead, the most basic literacy, arithmetic, and most importantly, prayer rituals and understanding of the holy scriptures are taught...

"That's what makes it special!" Lynn smiled and did not elaborate further. Instead, he stepped forward, placed his hand on Ivina's head, and whispered, "Don't resist!"

The girl shrank her neck, not quite accustomed to Lynn's somewhat intimate gesture, but still forced herself to sit still on the stone bed.

Having witnessed Lynn's power, Ivina knew very well that if he wanted to do something, she had no chance to resist.

After about two or three seconds, a slight pain surged in her heart, as if something was being poured into her brain.

In a daze, Lynn removed his hand from her head, and his gentle voice echoed in the cell.

"Now you can try it!"

Try what? Ivina looked at Lynn blankly, but soon noticed an arcane rune that had appeared in her mind. With a thought, the mysterious rune lit up in her sea of consciousness.

Then, a flickering ball of lightning appeared in front of her, crackling with electricity.

Ivina's face immediately showed a look of astonishment. She knew about thunder magic, a very dangerous and powerful form of magic. Most importantly, she had never learned it, yet she was able to summon magic to release it.

"For a legendary wizard, this is not something difficult to achieve. If you have read my magical thesis, 'Analysis and Research Report on the Energy of Divine Magic,' you would know that the essence of divine magic is no different from magical power," Lynn explained succinctly.

In this otherworld, magical power is the source of all supernatural phenomena.

The divine magic commonly used by the church is, frankly, just another application of energy.

Of course, some spells and spiritual powers are involved.

For example, the divine magic "Hymn of Courage" used by bishops to inspire armies can make tens of thousands of people extremely excited and fervent, even forgetting their pain and fear, and fighting to the death.

"So, the Moon Goddess, the creator of all things... was also a wizard?" Ivina asked with difficulty.

Last night, in the dungeons of the duke's mansion, Harof and Aurora had mentioned this to her, but she had not taken it seriously at the time.

The Moon Goddess Aila created the continent and everything on it, which Ivina had been taught as the 'truth' from a young age.

"Of course, Aila was once a wizard, and even among all wizards at that time, she was the most outstanding and powerful. With unmatched power, she defeated her competitors and began to suppress and kill her former colleagues, foolishly aspiring to become the god who rules over the entire continent..." Lynn stated concisely, continuing to critique.

"As for the evidence... the contradictions and errors in the holy scriptures are too numerous to count. Anyone with some understanding of the world would not believe she is the so-called creator."

Being the creator of the world but making mistakes about how stars move, whether the continent is flat or spherical, can only be described as laughable!

However, Lynn also understood her predicament. Clearly, the holy scriptures were written during the religious wars hundreds of years ago, when the church's understanding of the world was as such.

Lynn believed that over these hundreds of years, Aila, whose power had greatly increased, could also perceive these flaws, but once the holy scriptures were established, they could not be easily changed!

After all, in Aila's self-set narrative, everything in the world exists because of her.

And the supreme god cannot make mistakes; the divine words and creation stories in the holy scriptures, regardless of their accuracy, must be the truth of the world. To change them would be like slapping oneself in the face, revealing to all believers and bishops that she is not as omniscient and grand as they imagined...

Then more and more people would begin to doubt the contents of the holy scriptures, and faith would start to waver.

This is the trouble of having too high a stature...

Everything Lynn said, Ivina was also clear about. On their first day at the wizard academies, they visited the magic exhibition room together.

Inside, various novel and intricate experiments were displayed—laws of free fall of dual spheres, reflection measurements to calculate gravitational constants, pendulums to verify the Coriolis effect, and so on...

Some experiments didn't even require magic; with some simple tools, even an ordinary poor person could replicate them.

Just like the words inscribed in the exhibition room, written by Lynn himself: The truth lies there, allowing anyone to explore, question, and practice...

This is why Ivina began to doubt all the common knowledge she had known before.

Seeing the girl's shaken and somewhat incredulous expression, Lynn once again spoke to reinforce his point.

"One of the high-ranking members of the church, your superior Gustav, released a demon god in the north, causing tens of thousands of casualties. He was captured by Councilor Victorio just last night!"

"This is impossible!" Ivina's eyes widened in disbelief, instinctively denying it. Gustav was the one who sent her on a mission to the City of Fire Oil and was also her mentor, the commander of the Divine Punishment Army.

After joining the Divine Punishment Army, her most frequent task was to hunt down followers of the demon gods, to stop them from performing blood sacrifices to maintain the peace of the empire's citizens.

"Nothing is impossible," Lynn said with a hint of amusement. "I'm about to go see him. Do you want to come along and see for yourself?"

Victorio had interrogated Gustav all night, but like Judge Joshua, he was very stubborn and refused to speak. However, it was said that his spirit was already very weak.

According to Victorio, it would only take three days to make him speak.

Lynn was skeptical about this. Those chosen as high-ranking members of the church are usually fanatics or even saints, expecting them to betray seemed unrealistic.

However, Victorio was very confident. He had slightly modified the "Spiritual Retrieval" magic, combining it with alchemy, to read some surface thoughts under the condition of severe emotional fluctuations and a broken mental defense.

Ivina might be a good breakthrough to stimulate Gustav effectively.

Previously, Lynn had discovered some noteworthy things in the girl's memories, but with Ivina's level, the information she knew was too limited. Perhaps only Gustav, the leader of the Divine Punishment Army, could provide the answers he sought.

---

Five minutes later, Lynn led Ivina into the chamber where Gustav was detained.

This place was established in the basement of an ordinary house, dug out by Victorio himself. There were no decorations inside, only the glowing runes on the chains that shimmered in the darkness.

"Gustav, right? I'm Lynn, also known as the Apocalypse Messenger in your terms. I suppose this is our first meeting," Lynn casually strolled in the dim chamber, his voice slightly raised and echoing inside.

Gustav, who was spiritually depleted, slowly lifted his head, but he did not look at Lynn. Instead, he fixed his gaze on the girl standing behind, his eyes suddenly sharp as blades.

Ivina did not dodge or show fear. Instead, she stepped forward, standing in front of Gustav.

Their eyes met, and Gustav's expression turned to one of angry disappointment, looking at the girl with a disdainful gaze.

"I was wrong about you, Ivina. I had intended to promote you as my deputy before this, to receive the baptism of the great lord, but you dared to betray the church, betray our great lord!"

The night before, during the interrogation, Victorio used the defeat and death of the new saintess to provoke and affect Gustav's emotions. Gustav had learned some of the details from this.

If it weren't for Ivina's sudden betrayal, allowing Lynn to advance on the spot, perhaps the avatar of the lord would have already dealt with these accursed wizards.

This was undoubtedly his mistake!

His misjudgment led to a slight deviation, causing the church to lose everything...

Gustav was filled with endless regret, and his spirit showed severe fluctuations, with the runes binding him emitting a brighter glow.

"It was you who betrayed us, Lord Gustav!" Ivina took another step forward, staring into Gustav's eyes, and questioned, "Tell me, why did the church release a demon god in the northern kingdom? Are the frequent outbreaks of demon god chaos within the empire also related to the church?"

Gustav remained silent. Ivina's betrayal was a fact, and any defense seemed pointless, especially since he was captured by Victorio from the northern kingdom.

This prolonged silence eroded the last bit of trust Ivina had in the church, and her faith in the Moon Goddess crumbled in an instant.

Biting her lip, she wondered if, as Lynn said, the inexhaustible demon god chaos was a result of the church's deliberate tolerance.

What was the point of the Divine Punishment Army's ideology and persistence, the countless comrades who fought valiantly against evil, risking their lives? Were their sacrifices merely entertainment for Aila, tools to solidify and catalyze faith?

Ivina voiced all her doubts, her questions echoing continuously in the chamber.

She wanted to know, with Gustav knowing the entire truth and directing the Divine Punishment Army, what was his mindset in orchestrating this ludicrous drama?

"Of course, it was worth it. Every sacrifice was not in vain!" Gustav finally spoke, his face showing a mix of pity and fanaticism. "They will all merge into the lord's kingdom, becoming part of the lord!"

"Soon, the kingdom of heaven will descend upon the earth. At that time, all suffering and sin will vanish!"

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