At the western edge of the empire lies a continent separated by fifty miles of sea. On this continent's northeast edge lies a massive coastal city under construction. A million people are rushing around, performing their duties in constructing this soon to be a grand city.
Although only a week has passed since most of the crowd escaped here, progress was visible. Hundreds of medium-sized medieval houses have been built, alongside a large shrine of stone and the basic facilities such as lumber mills, mines, farmlands, granaries and dirt roads.
A bare minimum of what could be considered a harbor was built. It contained two dozen docks for a few dozen pairs of small fishing boats and a pier to accommodate the few galleons that are present. Currently, half the ships in the city are being docked, the rest being used for fishing.
Several thousand men worked on its construction and at the current rate, it would be classified as a medium city harbor in two weeks. In two months' time, the harbor might just rival the empire's largest harbor in terms of size and capacity. Thanks to the aid of the Goddess' followers and wood blessed by Wareharun, the harbor was built quite easily.
To lighten the load, he elves of destruction used their light weapons and transformed them into constructs that carried the massive logs of wood from the chopping grounds and undertook the steps of construction that are impossible even for the powerful demi-humans.
Food was not an issue thanks to Wareharun blessing the farmlands to be harvest-ready every two hours. Everybody worked hard on building the city, and no signs of exhaustion can be seen from these content but busy people.
If one were to look closely, most of the city's inhabitants are the oppressed demi-humans who followed the crowd of Lunaryur's followers or were liberated by the goddess of destruction's followers. Due to this, over half of the population here has been converted to the faith of destruction since they realized in their suffering that their gods have abandoned them, so, a God who reached out to save them is an offer they cannot refuse.
All their life, they have been told that the mortals are only the servants of the gods, worthless and expendable. Although some of this is directed at them because of racism, these words have echoed in their minds for decades and a slow hatred of gods seeded itself in their hearts. Luckily, before they view all gods as evil, the Goddess of Destruction came to save them and bring them to a city where they can begin anew.
A city where racism is gone because of the goddess's followers. So, they abdicate themselves to the Goddess and listened to her every word. When she descended and brought many things for the foundation of her church, they felt honored that they were a part of this since the goddess let everyone gaze upon her.
Usually, gods would stare at peasants with contempt, but the goddess did not.
When a demi-human child with antlers and wearing rags approached her, she did not glare or complained. She simply smiled and touched him, cleaning him and restoring his clothes before patting him softly on his head and telling him to be a good boy.
To see a God, especially whose domain is destruction, be so nice to a child is enough to make jaws drop. Some did not and instead cheered, shouting that they finally have a goddess who cares. The crowd quickly erupted in applause before she silenced them with a simple hand gesture.
Then, it was all the goddess talking about the church and her plans for it. Even the city's layout and design were taken care of in the form of a blueprint. She said that this is its general appearance and that they can change it if they think it will look better.
Many did not show this but inside their hearts, they gasped at hearing her humility. The gods of Falmart were all arrogant to the point where if a single mistake was made on their statue, the sculptor would be beaten by the god's followers or even outright executed. They were just brutal and vain.
However, their new lady was not so and for that, they would gladly serve her. Before she left a week ago, she instructed them to get materials from a nearby location. For them, the resources are unlimited but if anyone manages to steal any of it, it will no longer work so they have to protect it with their life.
As mentioned, while planning the whole judgment of Falmart thing, the creator did not slack off in managing her own church. She appeared to give blessings, scriptures and established many rites, litanies, and even a complete church structure a week before the judgment day. The main scriptures of the church are the Testament of Days, Testament of the Messiah and the Testament of Falmart.
The Testament of Days and the Testament of the Messiah are the old and new testaments respectively. They tell the stories of prophets from another world who spoke about a God who stands above their goddess. A God whom the goddess devotes to and follows as much as she can.
The Testament of Falmart is a collection of 7 chapters, also known as intercessions. Each intercession contains 48 verses and is told from a third-person perspective. Intercession 1 to 4 speaks about Falmart before the Goddess' arrival and about how the evil gods toyed with the mortal realm as they pleased.
Intercession 5 speaks of her arrival with the demons she unleashed in order to vanquish the empire and its false and indifferent gods. Intercession 6 speaks of her chosen apostles and their allies as they call as many beings to join them before the goddess' wrath obliterates the world. Intercession 7 is the empire's fall and the fate of Falmart's false gods.
She already gave the Testament of Days and Messiah a week ago during the arrival of most refugees. As for the Testament of Falmart, the Goddess was almost finished writing it, only a few verses remain unwritten. The goddess was planning one last miracle before departing with the zerg.
But before so, she established the church's core rites, rites that cannot be removed nor edited. First is the church's version of Sunday service, but it only occurs on Fridays and Sundays. Each service lasts at least two hours and has specific processions that must happen.
There must be the praise and worship session which must last for at least 35 minutes and must be either the first or last in the order of processions. This session is where hymns and performances to worship the Lord almighty is done in. The hymns and performances can be anything but are urged to be related to the weekly topic that will be brought up during the sermon session.
The sermon session is basically the time where a priest or any volunteer appointed by the church to preach will talk about a certain topic for at least an hour. There is no limit on who should preach but a democratic decision must be made within the local clergy at least a day before the sermon. Then, there are the announcements, which is when the money donated to the church is collected, things are announced before doing a final prayer, final song and ending the service.
The second rite she introduced is the rite of love, which is a rite containing four levels of love that one can give back to God. Each believer must at least complete two levels in order to be considered faithful from an outsider's perspective and three levels to join the clergy. The four levels are hope, right, family and companion.
The first level is hope, which is learned and taught through the rite known as the guidance. This site aims to teach believers that there is only one God and that only through him we are forgiven and saved, that those who do not believe are to be pitied and convinced to believe non violently. If they do not believe no matter what, the believers are allowed to give up because if one does not want to believe, not even the dead can convince them.
This stage will focus on reading the Testament of Days and the Testament of the Messiah to gain insight into the nature of the God who stands above the goddess of destruction. The doctrines of the faith are deeply rooted in this stage and since this stage is usually for children, they will grow up as extremely devout adults or at least be faithful until death. The main purpose of this stage is to plant a very deep and durable seed of faith in the believer, the first stage of the church of destruction.
Next is the rite of right, which is commonly passed before adulthood as this requires strong parental bonds to be effective. Despite the teenager stage being the rebellious age, medieval teenagers are usually less ambitious and are much tamer than their modern counterparts due to suffering and understanding hardships in this primitive age.
So, the creator added a filial piety doctrine that commands the parents and the children to love each other as an act of faith.
The doctrine states, "There is no greater love than the love of God to mortals. For if one humbles before the earthly father, one humbles before the Heavenly Father. If one loves the earthly mother, one loves the Spirit of God. If one appreciates one's own flesh and blood, one is grateful for the Son's sacrifice. Is there any greater way to declare your love for God?"
Assuming that most of the population stays true to this doctrine, the rite of right would be received much better.
The rite of right is where the clergy will teach the second level of love to God. Love of God because of His position, His right to rule all the realms both seen and unseen.
This rite will elevate the faith of believers from viewing God as their ticket to salvation into seeing God as the wise and benevolent king of kings who has the divine right to rule, therefore love him as one would love their king or nation.
In turn, the rite will also be used to instill nationalism and mortal pride. To tell them that they have the right to live and be who they are, and no one but God is allowed to mess with them for they are the sons and daughters of God and the multiverse is their heritage. This should make them stronger against insults but would probably get a little cocky later on so in this rite, they must repeat this phrase again and again, "He who exalts himself will find himself humbled while those who humble themselves will be exalted by God."
With the second level taken care of, the third level is up next. The third level, family.
To join the clergy, one must at least pass this level and undergo three months of discipleship. This level is executed as follows.
Each year, a level 3 faith counsel will be held by the clergy after the Easter celebration and a month before Christmas. Those who are willing to join must apply at least a week before since registration would be opened in every town a month before the council.
The clergy will teach the candidates in groups of seven where they would be separated from their parents for a whole week to learn to appreciate their love and in turn to appreciate God's love for He declares all mortals as his children, the only difference lies in whether one believes in this or rejects.
A good family would make that bond with God much easier since they know how it feels like. Thus, the seed of faith will begin to germinate in their hearts and they will come closer to God.
As for the last level, companion, this level can only be attempted in the soon to be capital. The creator gave the object of the last level, a clay chalice, to Anastasia, who will use this to allow people to gain the highest level of faith. The procedures of this level are the simplest, water will be collected using the cup and the initiate must drink at least a gulp of it.
Then, they will enter a realm for a millennium to test their faith. If they endure it, then they are gifted with immortality and a guardian angel that can manifest in real space and aid them. Since the test is so intense, anyone who passes it would never become evil because such temptations like money, lust or power will no longer hold any sway towards them.
They will attain peace after a long, arduous trial. In real-time, the trial will happen only in a second. If they collapse, then they have failed but if they stand for the next minute in silence, they succeeded.
Those who reached level 4 would be canonized as a saint and would gain the highest authorities in the church.
The creator divided the church's hierarchy into ten levels starting with acolytes. Acolytes have the duty of helping the church's basic functions such as choir duty, sweeping, service and helping their superiors. Acolytes can be a part-time job within the church, so anyone can become an acolyte.
The second levels are brothers and nuns, they have a duty of staying in the church to perform their duties every Friday and Sunday. Being a brother or nun can be a part-time job but it's optional. To become one, one cannot have sexual intercourse for at least two years unless married and all intercourses during marriage must be reported to the church to make sure that you are doing it to have a child not because prostitution's out of the game.
As creepy as it sounds, it's less weird because the wife or husband has to monitor for the church and if they have a relative in the church, they simply report it to them. If caught lying, they will be banned from serving any higher than an acolyte for a year.
The priest, manager of the church. A church is only established when there is at least one priest in the vicinity willing to serve in a new church. No more than three priests are allowed to live in one church unless they ask permission to the church.
Priests are bestowed divine power to heal minor wounds by praying.
All those who hear a priest's prayer will find their wounds gradually patch up and their bodies gradually cleaned of dust and grime. Bacteria caused diseases can be healed by priests via letting the priest pray while touching the afflicted.
Being a priest also gives one an extended lifespan by a decade and immunity to neurodegenerative diseases.
With all the benefits, the only drawback is that a priest will develop very powerful guilt that is based on the bible. If they disobey, they will feel great guilt for five times the previous duration.
Luckily, that makes all priests goody-two-shoes and I won't have to worry about corruption too much.
Above priests are evangelists, the missionaries of the church. Their duty is to spread and maintain faith by providing counsel, aid, and advice to all in need. For one to be promoted into an evangelist, they have to embark on a year-long quest of helping people in remote or faraway regions where they need aid.
At the end of their one year, they can monitor the church they established or move on to a different region to spread the faith. Evangelists have the enhanced version of the priests' divine power.
Evangelists can sense people's emotions, project their emotion and possess the strength of ten men. They have thrice the stamina they had before and their age is extended to 130 years. On their olden days, they will not physically deteriorate and be immune to receptor-related diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
To promote themselves, Evangelists have to establish faith in at least ten regions or maintain the faith of a region for a decade or establish a strong church root in at least three regions.
Once they do so, they can be promoted to Bishops or High Priests. Both have the same abilities but different roles, with High Priests taking a much more missionary like role and Bishops taking a more managerial role in the church.
Their lifespans are extended to 200 years, possess five times the physical abilities of Evangelists, can cure severe wounds via prayers, can cure viral diseases by touching and praying and have two spells. Both can cast lightning and protection barriers.
Lightning Bolt summons a bolt of standard lightning to strike a place after two seconds of summoning. The lightning will generally possess enough power to atomize a full-grown man in one hit, allowing Bishops and High Priests to defend their church.
To add more attack power, a consecutive lightning bolt will summon two lightning strikes instead of one and the attack is instant.
The gap between consecutive lightning strikes is made one second so it doesn't become too strong.
Protection barrier summons a powerful shield to protect a five-meter radius area. The barrier can withstand 10 tons of TNT before collapsing and is able to be reinforced every 10 seconds by the summoner, adding a meter radius and extra ton of durability with no limit to reinforcements.
The barrier will last until it's energy is depleted, and that is a long process. Not to mention that every reinforcement will restore it's durability to full. However, the durability restoration will be at a rate of 1 ton of TNT per second but will stop when a force of at least 1 ton of TNT strikes an area of the barrier.
If reinforced enough times, it might even survive a nuclear bomb. However, each consecutive reinforcement will add an additional 1 second to accomplish. A balancing mechanism.
Above the High Priests and Bishops are the Senior Priests and Archbishops, Senior Pastor and Cardinal, Patriarch and Matriarch, Saint and Saintess and the tenth level, Saint Lord and Saint Goddess.
Each level has its lifespans increased to 200 years, 300 years, 500 years and immortal respectively. Their powers and skill set are also accordingly increased with the average Saint being powerful enough to fight the stronger Warhammer 40K Greater Daemons.
As for Saint Lords and Saint Goddesses, their power rivals that of a Daemon Prince. The current Saint Goddesses Wareharun and Lunaryur are slightly stronger than a Daemon Prince.
Other parts of the church such as litanies are basically altered versions of Catholic and Imperium litanies.
As for Hymns, a few of them are the classics while the rest comes from my gospel music list that I snatched from Earth. Since all of them require the typical piano, guitar, electric guitar, bass guitar, drum set of charismatic churches, I taught them all how to play and make these by giving Lunaryur an information transfer.
With my church's foundation complete, I can leave Falmart and move on back home.
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Creep, the purplish-gray substance that births and nourishes the Swarm. An alien conglomerate of microbes and viruses that processes nutrients from the ground and surrounding life with utmost efficiency, forming a mutual symbiosis with all plant and fungi life around it. Half of Falmart's ground has been enveloped by this fifty teraton carpet of alien moss.
After the Gods of Falmart are captured, the creep carpet has stopped its rapid expansion, a genetic command to halt has been received. A few hours later, the sea of purple was rocked with turbulence. Its edges began shrinking at a rapid pace as the vast carpet of creep recedes like the ocean during low tide.
The creep all slithered backward towards the gate, forming a large amorphous puddle. All zerg lifeforms except for queens and their variants are swallowed by the waves of creep rising from the active sea.
The queens and their variants have all retreated into the gate and emerged in Kashrya, where they took a convoy of overlords protected by a few squadrons of mutalisks to establish hives in the neighboring planets within the kashuryan system.
The creep formed a massive, pulsating organ easily 800 meters tall around the gate. Spikes the size of skyscrapers grew erratically on its fleshy and sac ridden surface. Several orifices grew on it, vaguely resembling the human facial arrangement.
The organ continued to grow at a rapid pace, miles, and miles of creep drained just to increase its diameter by dozens of meters. Only fifteen minutes after and the organ has attained a larval shape, measuring a kilometer tall and four kilometers long. Stubs appeared in its undersection, sucking it creeps with the massive orifices that gaped as it drained creep like a vacuum cleaner.
Soon, a psychic call cried out to all zerg organisms in Falmart, causing them to enter nydus worms that head towards the growing creature. Half an hour later, nydus worms began erupting from the ground and leaped towards the orifices to be absorbed into the growing behemoth. With zerg breeds being assimilated into it, the larval shape begins to twist and morph into esoteric shapes.
Drones had their anti-gravity organs absorbed and combined, negating the adverse effects of gravity on the budding supermassive organism. The lack of suppressive gravity causes the creature to grow much more rapidly and spare no more effort in reinforcing its muscles to support its biologically impossible mass. Biological structures both defensive and offensive began to grow on it like a tumor, DNA strands being shuffled and tailored to the creature's needs.
Shortly, the beast has drained ninety percent of the creep and zerg lifeforms on Falmart. Its body now vaguely resembles a monitor lizard with many zerg armaments growing out of its body.
The developing titan now measures 50 km long and about 8 km tall. The remaining creep is now used to perfect its features.
As the remaining zerg biomass is assimilated into its system, the anti-gravity organs began working their magic, slowly accelerating the creature up in the air.
Upon reaching 100 m above the ground via anti-gravity organs, another call beckoned all the air strains to be consumed by it.
Overlords landed on its back and melded with it, forming wide bubbly sacs containing cranial fluid and a psychic brain. Several seconds later, the psychic brains are linked to the creature, now using psionics to support its own structure and allow the anti-gravity organs to accelerate it faster through the upper atmosphere.
Swarms of mutalisks crashed on its vulnerable membrane and flesh sections, merging themselves to form a hard plate of starship grade zerg carapace.
Once the beast's form has levitated above the sea of white clouds, its features have finally formed.
The titanic beast appears like a cross between Subnautica's Sea Dragon Leviathan, a Zerg Leviathan, and a space whale.
Its reptilian body was covered in scales on one part and carapace on others. Between each scale is a hole from which a hydralisk spine is shot out at hypersonic speeds. These spines are designed to be a massive and complex point defense system that makes it virtually impossible to approach its surface.
Massive spikes jut out from its carapace armored back, containing massive nerve cords within them. These nerve cords serve to amplify the already massive psionic abilities possessed by the living starship, allowing it to open wormholes with ease and cloak its massive form.
It possesses four lizard feet covered it scales and possesses five gigantic black claws on each foot with one acting as a thumb.
Its head was like a komodo dragon's but with two pairs of purple eyes glowing with immense psionic power. Seven horns protrude from the top of its head, one on the snout and three pairs of smaller ones lining up behind it.
Sprouting from its jaw is a bundle of a hundred 1 km long tentacles made from powerful but elastic flesh and nerve cords to form a hypersensitive psionic appendage designed to manage offensive psionic armaments. These tentacles disturb all psionic activity in lightyears, causing great suppression is strong psionic users and outright possession to weak or newly awakened psionic users.
Inside its dragon-like maw are three rows of serrated teeth made of the toughest and sharpest zerg biomatter. Ravager acid is secreted by its teeth, making its maw a corrosive death trap to all foolish enough to attempt infiltration.
The beast's long serpentine tail measured 35% of the zerg super organism's length. It was covered in scales and carapace armor on its top, with some spikes protruding. Many bulging sacs and orifices large enough for a mutalisk to exit are centered in this section. It's the main purpose of being a production center for the kamikaze zerg strain.
With its form completely morphed, its bio-psychic propulsion system begins its activation and the zerg starship begins its rapid ascent to the void beyond.
Several seconds have passed and they have reached low planetary orbit before the creature abruptly stopped, its eyes glowing brighter.
A visible ripple in space appeared before the starship, followed by a pinhole in reality. Then, purple sparks of cosmic lightning crackle around the growing pinhole. A few seconds later, a stable tear in space has fully emerged and the living starship propels itself through it, vanishing from Falmart.
With the Goddess and her demons' disappearance, the rebuilding of Falmart can begin and the Church of Destruction's crusade will soon face it's a most difficult mission, uniting the world.