Sword of Dawnbreaker

Chapter 1039: Chapter 1038: The Power of Symbols and Rituals?

The impact of the humans’ god-slaying feat in the Battle of Winterhold perhaps extends further than we imagined.

Gawain gazed deeply at the War God’s remnant placed on the nearby platform. The sample from a god’s remains was gleaming with an iron-gray sheen under the laboratory lights, looking like nothing more than a broken and twisted piece of metal. Yet, it was encased in a lingering aura that seemed alive.

What appeared to be "armor fragments" was, in fact, the "physiological structure" of the War God.

Gods are entities vastly different from material creatures as perceived by humans. Depending on the tendencies in thought during their formation, they manifest in various forms. The God of Nature, Amon, appeared as a Holy Giant Stag with flesh and blood. The Goddess of Magic is a phantom lady formed from clouds and arcane energy. The War God is an armor composed of steel and unknown substances. According to Veronica’s description, the Holy Light’s form is a massive crystal with indeterminate reflective surfaces that change its optical properties at will. These bizarre images reflect the early mortals’ depictions of the gods, with such "depictions" becoming the sources of divine power, seamlessly integrating with their "mythical images." Even after their death, this power lingers in their remains, potentially for thousands of years.

The flesh samples of Amon, once sealed within the Defied Fortress, endured a three-thousand-year-long decomposition, retaining lethal mental contamination tendencies upon discovery.

However, these fragments from the War God... are now completely "harmless," even allowing the testers to handle them without protection and without suffering any harm.

In contemplation, Gawain slowly asked, "Besides the changes observed here, what other progress has been made?"

"There is," Veronica nodded, "According to another research team’s confirmation, after the War God’s fall, the original divine arts have transformed. Prayer rituals no longer receive responses, yet the lingering theurgy runes still function and are now manipulable and investigable by ordinary people. Actions once considered ’taboo,’ risking divine-arts loss of control or backlash, are no longer dangerous. We’ve also received word from the tribal country of Augari that scattered War God sects there experienced similar phenomena, proving this change is worldwide, consistent with our initial expectations."

"Indeed... Unrestricted divine arts, ineffective divine punishment, non-responsive prayer rituals... these were anticipated, but the gods’ leftover remains no longer contaminating mortals was unexpected," Gawain slowly said, "So this means truly breaking free from divine shackles..."

He couldn’t help but ponder the other two "fallen" gods, muttering as if to himself, "Amon, the God of Nature, and Milmina, the Goddess of Magic, have also ’fallen’—or at least, their divine positions have disappeared, yet some ’relics’ they left still possess strong mental contamination. What do you think is the reason behind this?"

"Perhaps, the cause lies in the ’symbolical process,’" Veronica, who had apparently thought of this before Gawain arrived, quickly shared her idea, "The War God was killed by mortals, while the Goddess of Magic and the God of Nature self-detached. In this detachment, their followers maintained unbroken faith, which might be the crucial factor."

After her words, Kamel added from the side, "On the Winterhold battlefield, the soldiers who fought didn’t just defeat the mad gods; they also overcame mortals’ inherent reverence. Now it’s clear this is a very significant ’factor.’ Of course, most who fought weren’t believers in the War God themselves—mages or magic soldiers—but perhaps their identity as ’mortals’ rather than their specific faith was key."

"A ’faith-opposing’ element is needed, then," Gawain furrowed his brow deeply, realizing what Kamel was pointing towards, though he hadn’t thoroughly considered it before, "If indeed what you say, then we might really explain why what happened to the God of Nature and the Goddess of Magic was completely different from the War God—when they detached from their divine positions, mortal thoughts and actions were utterly uninvolved, naturally precluding any faith-opposing, reverence-conquering process."

Amber eyes widened, having listened for a long time and not understanding the professional aspects, but this last part clicked, surprising her greatly: "Hey, do we have to bring out Amon and Milmina to kill them again? That doesn’t seem right—they already willingly left their divine positions, and Milmina hid somewhere nobody can find..."

"We certainly won’t do that," Gawain immediately dismissed the notion with a gesture, "They’ve already detached from their divine positions, and the binds on mortals have vanished. The power of natural theurgy or magical rituals no longer suffers divine constraints, meeting our expectations. As for any residual contamination from their relics or remains, that’s a secondary concern, akin to handling hazardous toxic materials with caution—we can’t act against them solely for this reason."

Veronica nodded in agreement with Gawain: "Indeed. We’re merely deducing the connection between mortal faith and mental contamination based on changes in divine artifact pollution, but this mental contamination isn’t related to the gods’ sanity. Amon and Milmina won’t become ’Mad Gods’ because of it, so we don’t need to worry in that regard."

"Moreover, from another perspective, the contamination carried by Amon and Milmina’s ’divine artifacts’ is indeed fading, albeit more slowly than these War God remnants," Kamel thoughtfully said, "The pollution carried by Amon’s flesh samples has faded significantly compared to my memory of a thousand years ago, particularly evident recently. While Milmina left no ’fragments,’ Nariteer removed many ’ashes’ from her, which are also reducing in contamination. Overall, this pollution can evidently fade on its own, merely requiring more time."

"Even without a ’faith-opposing’ process, as the divine positions of the God of Nature and the Goddess of Magic disappear, and their respective religions gradually decline, the mental pollution they caused on mortals will also diminish over time..." Gawain mused, his thoughts gradually clarifying, "So essentially, it’s a process of faith decline, and the Battle of Winterhold is the most dramatic, extreme form of that decline..."

Amber blinked and suddenly said, "As far as I know, Emperor Rosetta Augustus executed tens of thousands of War God’s clergy that day—he clearly had prior knowledge from the ’Eye of the God.’

Her expression was complicated as she spoke, revealing that even someone frequently dealing with dark matters felt a chill when speaking of Emperor Rosetta Augustus’s bloody methods.

Gawain was aware of what transpired on the Typhon Defense Line during that great decisive battle of Winterhold—even if he didn’t know at the time, Amber later uncovered the grim truths. As one of the battle’s witnesses, Gawain admitted to being shocked by Emperor Rosetta Augustus’s iron-fisted execution capability, yet he also knew such measures couldn’t become standard practice: "What Rosetta did can’t be repeated... We ultimately need to find a more reliable, reasonable method to control this ’faith decline’ process..."

Speaking of this, he couldn’t help but look up at Veronica, and said thoughtfully, "The gradual reform carried out by the Holy Light should be able to provide great reference."

"But merely using our technical reference is not enough," Veronica said gently, "It still requires larger population cooperation and reliable data from other churches, from different gods - there are indeed too many deities in our world, and Holy Light’s faith is just one of them."

Listening to Veronica speak unhurriedly, Amber subconsciously glanced at Gawain. Somehow, the words she had glimpsed on his desk came to mind, those words she still couldn’t comprehend——

Theocracy Authority Council.

Vaguely, she felt that this "pioneer," who always thinks one or several steps ahead, seemed to be considering these issues already.

Gawain didn’t know what Amber was thinking. His thoughts shifted quickly, and he had already moved on to another issue: "Speaking of your testing - the testers shouldn’t have participated in the Battle of Bitter Winter Castle, right?"

"Of course not, he was a back-end technician," Kamel immediately replied, somewhat puzzled by Gawain’s inquiry, "Why did you ask this?"

"On the frontline at Bitter Winter Castle, warriors destroyed the out-of-control War God through direct combat, leading to the largest-scale faith decline, while a technician far behind was thus no longer subjected to the War God’s mental pollution. Simultaneously, far away in the tribal country of Augari, in a small Sect of the God of War, priests and believers who still worshiped the War God also escaped the influence of the mental Steel Stamp - they might not even know what happened on the frontline of Bitter Winter Castle. Don’t you think this reveals something?"

The ventilation system in the room hummed, and fresh air from the surface wafted gently through the laboratory. Gawain’s voice had already fallen, leaving Kamel and Veronica each lost in thought.

"Indeed, we also discussed this issue," Kamel broke the silence first, the light on this ancient Mage fluctuating slightly, showing he was contemplating, "As you said, the battle against gods at Bitter Winter Castle was an extraordinary feat, but ultimately, only a small number of mortals participated in the fight. In most places in this world, most people might not even know the War God has fallen, they still maintain an instinctive reverence for the War God, never having thought about, nor dared to imagine, relying on mortal power to kill gods, such ’heresy’...

"These people obviously haven’t battled against faith, the power of faith hasn’t waned on them, but after the end of the Bitter Winter Castle battle, a technician far in the rear, who had never been on the battlefield, can ’immunize’ against the War God’s mental pollution..."

"Perhaps you are interested in certain religious concepts," Veronica suddenly spoke, "such as ’symbol’ and ’ritual’."

"Symbol and ritual?" Gawain pondered over the Saint Princess’s words, suddenly understanding, "You mean the Battle at Bitter Winter Castle had a ritualistic effect—during the battle against the divine, symbolic ritual acts can have a tremendous influence?"

"Symbol and ritual are essential components of religion, and gods are born from the ’symbols’ imagined by mortals and repeated ’rituals,’ so conversely, ritualistic behavior can also have a significant effect on them," Veronica explained seriously, "We might even boldly hypothesize—perhaps on a battlefield against gods, if two or three people successfully defy the gods, it could lead the entire mortal group to break free from divine restraint. This hypothesis sounds quite fantastical, but from the principles of symbol and ritual, it is theoretically possible..."

Listening to Veronica’s examples, Gawain initially frowned, but quickly figured out the key points, shaking his head with a sigh, "If such a day ever comes, the success of those two or three people would depend on many others—in the end, the power of gods far transcends mortals, and our world is not yet benevolent enough to be saved merely by a few heroic breakthroughs on the battlefield."

Gawain’s poignant observation touched off Kamel’s thoughts, and the Master Mage inside let out a tremor-laden sigh. At the same time, Veronica returned to her usual calm and tranquil demeanor. She glanced at the War God samples on the platform and spoke up, "No matter what, we need more tests."

"Indeed, more tests—no matter how logical our discussion looks, it ultimately lacks key evidence," Gawain nodded, "Expand the testing scope, first confirm whether testers from various regions and identities are no longer influenced by the War God’s mental pollution, and then...expand the races, summon testers from other races to see if they are also unaffected by the War God’s mental influence."

"Other races?" Kamel asked somewhat surprised; clearly, he hadn’t considered this direction before, "You mean other races like elves or dwarves?"

"Don’t forget, they are mortals too—and among them are believers of the War God, though independent from human Sect of the God of War, yet they all worship the same deity," Gawain nodded and stated, "What we need to confirm now is a very important concept...whether mortal souls are interconnected at the baseline level of this world, and..."

"And?" Kamel asked curiously.

"And scientifically certify one thing: mortals are indeed a community of shared destiny."