"Second Commandment: Do not misuse My name."
"Third Commandment: Have no other gods."
"Fourth Commandment: Love your parents, husband, wife, and children as you love Me."
"Fifth Commandment: Do not commit adultery."
"Sixth Commandment: Do not kill the innocent."
"Seventh Commandment: Do not bear false witness, do not slander, do not break promises."
"Eighth Commandment: Serve Me with your heart, not with offerings."
"Ninth Commandment: Those who commit minor evils must first atone before obtaining forgiveness."
"Tenth Commandment: Helping your compatriots and companions is to praise My name."
The sacred covenants echoed in the ears of Karat, a member of the bald resistance, causing him to prostrate completely, burying his head in the ground, trembling slightly uncontrollably, feeling awe, fear, and excitement.
As a mid-sequence Beyonder, a resistance member who had been educated in the Frosac Empire, he had enough knowledge to understand that the worship of the "Sea God" was based more on fear—fear of powerful strength, fear of unavoidable natural risks—and many rituals still retained primal bloodshed, belonging to an inhumane and uncivilized backward belief that would eventually be eliminated.
But the faith cultivated from childhood prevented him from defying the divine oracle; he could only bury the idea of reforming the ritual process deep in his heart and avoid as much as possible the steps that conflicted with his own thoughts.
Now, the sudden change of the "Sea God" made him extremely delighted, as if he saw a primitive totem spoken of by outsiders evolving into a true god.
We are blessed, the resistance is blessed, the true believers are blessed... Karat raised his head slightly with blurred vision, sincerely spread his hands, and brought them to his mouth: "I will surely follow Your path, just as I praise Your name."
The blurred figure before his eyes disappeared, the grand voice in his ears vanished, and the scene inside the cave returned to its original state.
But Karat knew that everything was no longer the same as before.
He moved his elbows, quickly crawled back to his wheelchair, sat back in it, and moved to the other side of the cave.
Karat soon encountered Edmundton, the resistance member with a blue-green sea serpent tattoo standing in front of the bizarrely bleeding statue, his forehead a mix of red and black, dirty and hideous.
However, Edmundton's expression was joyful, uplifted, and satisfied. He looked at Karat and blurted out: "Did you receive the oracle?"
"Yes, it was the breath of the god, the same as before," Karat nodded excitedly. "The god has not only reappeared on earth but has also reforged His sacred covenant."
Edmundton sighed in relief and said: "I just suspected I was hallucinating."
"It seems that as long as an outsider touches the holy sword, the god can reappear on earth without needing to fully raise it."
Karat agreed: "Indeed it is. The statue is broken and bleeding because the god has changed its form. We must build new ones! According to the images we just saw!"
"The god also showed His holy emblem: a lightning-shaped scepter inserted above a wave symbol, surrounded by raging winds," Edmundton said as he recalled.
Karat immediately patted the armrest of the wheelchair: "Let's go find the high priest now; he should have received the oracle too."
"We will usher in a new world!"
............
Above the gray fog, Klein put down the "
He had just noticed a problem. The "Sea God Scepter" could respond to ritual magic, meaning it provided a certain amount of power to help the pray-er complete the ritual and achieve the goal, but this was limited to its own domain and could not exceed its capacity; the things it could do were quite limited.
For example, the Goddess of Night could influence fate so that a believer would naturally obtain the needed money to pay bills, whereas the "Sea God Scepter" could at most counterfeit the white paper on the altar as cash, which would soon become invalid and return to its real form.
"This is the difference between a false god and a true god..."
"Moreover, outside the gray fog, as long as the procedure and prayer language were correct, the 'Sea God Scepter' could automatically respond to ritual magic, unless it had to mobilize more than half of its power at once... This may be why the steps of ritual magic are very important..."
"Above the gray fog, prayers were blocked and reduced to light points; the 'Sea God Scepter' could no longer respond autonomously, and I had to handle it manually. This is quite troublesome, as I can't stay here forever. Of course, there is also a benefit: as long as the prayer words are correct and accurately directed at the 'Sea God Scepter', no matter how perfunctory the ritual steps are, a response may be obtained, with only one prerequisite: I'm in a good mood..."
"When I have time, I need to figure out a way to make the 'Sea God Scepter' an automatic responder even above the gray fog... Create a paper angel? Useless, no soul infused... Make a stiff mechanical puppet to handle the repetitive and tedious ritual magic response issues? Hmm... I wonder if 'Marionettist' has any ability in this regard; at least