At that time, Augustus felt nothing for the position of Pope; his heart belonged only to Luo Sifeili.
Embracing beautiful fantasies about the future, they entered the temple for the last time to serve the divine.
Neither Augustus nor Luo Sifeili knew that this step marked the beginning of their nightmare.
As the temple doors closed behind them, they, as before, cleaned the divine statues and then kneeled devoutly before them, praying for divine protection.
Everything was the same as it had always been.
Then, in the dead of night, the most terrifying scene unfolded.
A faint light suddenly flickered upon the divine statue. Augustus and Luo Sifeili even excitedly thought it a sign of the descend of an oracle.
They pressed their foreheads to the ground and chanted praises loudly.
But soon, the situation grew weird.
The light from the statue morphed into strange, twisted limbs. Long tentacles, like pythons, writhed and coiled around Luo Sifeili's body.
Augustus was pinned down by a mysterious force, unable to move; he could only stare with bloodshot eyes and emit pained, animal-like cries.
Seven distorted beings purposefully tortured Luo Sifeili in front of Augustus all night long.
It seemed they relished the desperate wails of humanity.
Their worshipped deities were more horrific than demons.
Until then, Augustus had always believed that the divine were pure, great, merciful, untainted, invisible, unreachable, and that they doted on the believers like children.
But at that moment, he understood that the so-called divine beings were nothing but dirty-desire-filled beasts wielding great power.
The next day, Luo Sifeili was pregnant.
Three years later, Luo Sifeili gave birth to a baby, Rose Vesper.
Augustus always harbored strange feelings towards Rose Vesper; on one hand, she was the only bloodline of the woman he loved most, and on the other, she carried the filthy blood of the deity that brought him unforgettable despair and agony.
Although Augustus didn't know which of the seven divine beings Rose Vesper descended from.
Upon seeing Rose Vesper, mingled feelings of love, repulsion, and hatred stirred within Augustus—a profoundly conflicting emotion.
Luo Sifeili had completely broken down, the once pure and beautiful girl driven insane by the brutal torture she endured throughout the night.
The innocent Holy Daughter, incessantly craving the opposite sex, had eyes that turned vacant, losing their original luster.
Augustus knew that wasn't Luo Sifeili's true nature; she was a strong woman who he believed could rise again even after enduring hellish cruelty.
But the power of the divine was truly immense.
Augustus merely witnessed and felt his soul subject to a powerful assault, his eyes bleeding profusely, his consciousness nearly collapsing.
Luo Sifeili, played with by the deities, directly faced the onslaught of the divine's aura, and her body had been implanted with the seeds of the divine; powers too unbearable for Luo Sifeili to sustain.
The will of the Holy Daughter was crushed to fragments in that instant.
From that day forward, the faith deep within Augustus's heart had completely collapsed.
The most devoutly worshipped deities had only regarded them as pitiable toys, trampling and playing with them at will...
His devout faith transformed into the flames of vengeance; he pursued power and strength madly, climbing to the position of Pope by any despicable means necessary.
He would raise the flag of rebellion against the divine.
He wished to slay the gods!
But, the more he understood about the divine, the more Augustus felt his own insignificance.
He learned the truth about this world.
Man cannot defeat the divine.
Only forces from beyond this world can challenge the gods.
When he realized this, Augustus nearly fell into despair, until the appearance of the Hero.
The hero from a Different World, possessed the power from beyond the Sky Dome Continent, which was his only hope.
However, after that incident, Augustus's will had become extremely paranoid and insane. If even the divine would treat their devout believer in such a manner, let alone a hero hailing from a Different World, he trusted no one. Only by having complete control over this power could he truly be at ease.
He wanted to control the Hero, to use him as his puppet, to fight against those lofty divine beings.
Perhaps, it would take many years, but it didn't matter, he was willing to wait.
Meanwhile, Rose Vesper stared at the departing figure of Augustus, her expression dark and ominous.
The previous conversation between Augustus and Angelica had been overheard by Rose Vesper in its entirety.
To make Angelica the next Holy Daughter?
What a joke. Only she was the Holy Daughter, and no one could snatch that title from her hands. No one at all.
Rose Vesper felt a threat like never before, and all because of that damned Qin Chu.
A look of deep affection emerged on her face. Indeed, only Lord Jie Luo was the true Hero. Qin Chu was not worthy in the slightest.
After a long while, Rose Vesper suddenly took out a scroll from her bosom, which a mysterious and powerful entity had given her three days ago.
On the scroll, there was a weird magic spelled out clearly, a magic never seen before on the Sky Dome Continent.
Resurrection Technique!
The blood of the successor could unlock the gateway to the resurrection of a Hero.
As long as she could gather all of Lord Jie Luo's Soul Fragments, she would be able to use Qin Chu's blood and life as a sacrifice to resurrect Lord Jie Luo.
Rose Vesper's gaze flickered wildly between madness and sanity, knowing this was not something she could accomplish alone.
"Message Magic!"
Rose Vesper cast Message Magic.
"Hey, Catherine, it's me. Come back right away, I've found the magic to resurrect Lord Jie Luo."
She began contacting her companions from the Hero Team, ensconced at the ends of the earth, summoning them to the Imperial City.
...
In the Oville Empire, Imperial City, Civilian District.
Qin Chu still sat in front of the counter, his fingers tapping lightly on the table.
The aura of demons was drawing closer.
On the back of his hand, a diamond-shaped mark was flickering with a faint light.
That was the mark of the Illusion Demon on his body, a marker guiding the Monster Slayer lurking in the Imperial City to assassinate the Hero.
Under the silver moonlight, a long, stiff, puppet-like shadow stretched out.
His figure resembled that of a human, with a head, body, and limbs.
If one only viewed the silhouette, no one would think this was a demon, but once they saw that face, they would be assaulted by an indescribable distortion.
What kind of face was that? One half had rough skin and a bushy beard, while the other half had delicately smooth and tender skin. The two halves of the face, completely mismatched, merged grotesquely on its body.
One side was fiercely glaring; the other side was extremely bashful.
And it wasn't just the face but also the chest, arms, and legs.
There was a clear dividing line in the middle of its entire being, as if a male and a female corpse had been stitched together.
The Yin Yang Demon, also called... the Corpse Demon!
One eye crimson, the other azure, it fixed its gaze on the Hero's silhouette.
It slowly stretched its ugly mouth into a clown-like smile.
The Hero's life was as good as taken!
This glory would belong to the great Matras!