MCDWTBS Chapter 35
by Volare“The Duke’s Mansion naturally knows how to treat guests. The Church is lofty and unattainable. As a newly appointed Duke, I am fortunate to have met several archbishops. Speaking of which, where is Bishop Alec, whom we are all familiar with?”
Serra’s voice seemed to carry genuine bewilderment, but it made most of the Church’s male insectoids reveal anger, their eyes twitching.
Of the Church’s seven archbishops, Bishop Alec had already been deposed due to mental instability. The scene of him being cruelly tortured and spewing excrement and urine in front of the imperial palace is still imprinted in the minds of many male insectoids.
Humiliation spread through the hearts of every Church insectoid and believer. The full name of the Church is the Star Radiance Divine Church. At the very beginning of the empire’s establishment, it had an extremely high status among the insectoids. The Church’s power reached its peak over the millennia, while the power of the royal family was not as great as before.
Under the leadership of the current Pope and with the support of the Holy Son’s invincible Sacred Light power, the believers in the Church all believed that in the near future, the male insectoid on the throne would also bow down to the Church. In fact, before Serra came forward to interfere, when the old emperor was seriously ill and dying, the Pope wanted to personally crown Colean, the heir to the royal family.
It was unprecedented in the empire for the Pope to crown the royal family, which shows that the Church’s influence in the insectoid empire has become too big to ignore. Even the royal family finds it difficult to compete with. Colean’s attitude towards this was ambiguous. Although his cunning and arrogance gave the Church a headache, before Serra appeared, Colean had already been inclined to cooperate with the Church.
For the shrewd and calculating Church, Serra’s appearance took everything out of control. First, the Church’s punishment robots were revealed to have hidden other male insectoids’ mental energy in their codes, and then the Church’s reputation collapsed in front of other male insectoids. Everything caught the Church off guard, throwing them into disarray.
The Pope was furious and, unusually, used the artifact to imprison the Holy Son in the Confessionary for discipline. At the same time, he reopened negotiations with the royal family’s Colean. After dozens of days of secret discussions, he finally got the greedy and cunning Colean to let go, securing a “meeting” with Duke Serra.
But everyone knew that this was not a relaxed and pleasant meeting.
“Bishop Alec is unwell and has been sent to a recuperation star to rest. Thank you for your concern, Duke.” Sandersfi suppressed his anger and maintained the demeanor of a bishop, “Actually, we are here to meet with the Duke to discuss the matter of the bracelets being distributed free of charge by the Duke. According to more than a hundred confessions, the bracelets issued by the Duke’s Mansion have been implanted with a system by insects with ulterior motives, which allows female and sub-male insectoids to receive harmful information… His Highness Colean is already aware of this matter, and he is very surprised by it, Duke.”
“The Church has been educating sinful female insectoids for many years, diligently and conscientiously, and cannot bear to see the achievements of thousands of years destroyed in one day. May I ask if the Duke has also been deceived by insects with ulterior motives? If the Duke has also been deceived, please investigate the female and sub-male insectoids involved in the technology company. The Church will not shirk its responsibility and is willing to serve the Duke.”
“Preposterous.”
Serra had lost the patience to listen to this nonsense. Of course, he knew what the Church was here to do, just as the Church knew that their purpose was to severely damage the Duke’s Mansion and conduct a major cleansing of the bracelet production line. Sandersfi came uninvited, implying between the lines that the royal family would no longer provide Serra with protection, that Colean had already reached a cooperation with the Church, and that the Duke’s Mansion that produced the bracelets was the victim of their cooperation.
Since they both knew what was going on, why bother to save face and say these high-sounding nonsense?
“The Church has obtained so-called confessions, but is there any evidence? Without evidence, only taking the words of female and sub-male insectoids who believe in the Church as a basis, you dare to break into the Duke’s Mansion at night and covet the companies and industries under the Duke’s Mansion, Bishop Sandersfi, have you forgotten why I was able to become this Duke?”
Serra’s face, which had thinned out into a small chin, darkened. His dark circles were heavy, firmly encircling his pair of clear caramel-colored eyes. His curly hair was fluffy, making him still look cute, but as the fierce wind behind him suddenly rose, the buildings of the Duke’s Mansion blurred in the sight of all the insectoids, gradually turning into an incomprehensible cloud of thick fog, and in the abyss-like darkness, something extremely terrifying and indescribable was slowly sliding.
“Swish… swish… gurgle, gurgle…”
The black tendrils were like the tentacles of a sea monster in the abyss, appearing and disappearing in the darkness, flashing with strange light. Many of the insectoids who had witnessed Serra’s power during the Duke’s ennoblement ceremony inevitably trembled. They remembered the situation at the time.
That young and harmless male insectoid slowly rose into the air in an inexplicable force. The eyes that looked down at them were filled with the same bottomless darkness as his tentacles. The blood red representing slaughter seeped out from that darkness, the killing intent pressing down on people, and their respectable and admirable Bishop Alec was hung in mid-air by a strong tentacle. His body, deeply blessed by the Mother Goddess, seemed to be enduring unspeakable pain, kicking and struggling without any dignity, desperately panting heavily, his well-maintained fair face turning purplish and ugly, his eyes bulging out like the eyes of a dead fish, as if they were about to fall out of his sockets…
In the history of the empire, no male insectoid has ever suffered such humiliation. This is a complete act of blasphemy! Not to mention that Serra did such a thing in public. There were so many lowly female and sub-male insectoids present, most of whom were family members of the nobles and could not be simply dealt with… Bishop Alec was completely ruined!
Deep hatred mixed with fear spread through the hearts of the Church insectoids. Most of them were devout enough that even if Serra was also a holy son in the Church’s mouth and had strong abilities, Serra’s behavior was extremely sinful and could not be tolerated! They had prayed to the Mother Insect countless times, hoping that the Mother Insect could kill all the damned blasphemers, that she could take back the divine power she had blindly bestowed upon Serra, and that she could bestow her blessings upon the male insectoids who were more worthy and more devout to God!
They secretly prayed that this hateful insectoid who destroyed the authority of the male insectoids and the Church would fall into mental collapse after abusing his mental energy, or even suffer from premature aging because he could not develop!
But their devout prayers still went down the drain. Now those insects who had witnessed Serra’s power were once again facing the advent of darkness, and they did not feel the slightest weakening of that power. The terrifying divine power lurking in the darkness had not weakened but seemed to be even stronger.
The Church’s male insectoids were all terrified. Some male insectoids glared at Serra angrily and powerlessly, but they did not retreat or run away because of fear. Many insects’ eyes were fixed on the silent and tall Bishop Sass.
Serra also stared coldly at Bishop Sass, completely ignoring the ugly-faced Sandersfi. Through Sandersfi and Ilia’s warnings, he already knew what kind of situation he was facing. The Church was naturally extremely angry about the huge changes he had caused. After the bracelets became popular among female and sub-male insectoids, some of the news that Serra wanted the Church to try to hide would not be so easy to do, such as Serra’s “farce” in the palace.
Whether it was the elimination of the punishment robots or the “fall” of a Church bishop, the Church had lost all face, and they would not tolerate Serra and the Duke’s Mansion’s forces, and would definitely seek revenge. And the royal family’s Colean, for some unknown purpose, actually acquiesced to the Church’s actions.
Leaving aside the royal family’s sudden ambiguous attitude, where did the Church’s confidence in finding Serra come from? Serra didn’t think the Church was a bunch of idiots who would think that Serra would reach an “agreement” with them without any conflict. And if there was a conflict, then—
According to Serra’s understanding of their strength, unless they used sub-male and female insectoids as meat shields, their weak mental energy was simply not worth mentioning in front of Serra’s powerful, materialized, abyss-like mental energy. Serra was confident that even if the Pope personally came with all the male insectoids and demolished the Capital Star, they would not be able to shake his mental energy.
So, where did the Church’s confidence come from?
Serra suppressed the confusion in his heart, and more of it was endless anxiety. This anxiety came from his vigilance, yes, vigilance. Serra was not some silly and sweet college student, nor was he some innocent and naive larva. He knew that the Church’s actions must be strange, and this strangeness was likely to be on the always silent Bishop Sass.
After he released his mental energy, unlike the other trembling insectoids, Sass stood up straight, without revealing the slightest bit of panic or gaffe. He even took a few steps forward, approaching the pure mental energy surging in the darkness, revealing admiration and indescribable jealousy.
Sandersfi trembled and personally stopped Bishop Sass, but Sass not only did not thank him, but instead revealed an impatient hum.
“It is indeed extremely pure divine power, comparable to the divine power of the Holy Son.”
His pale face, like that of a zombie, was hidden in the shadows, but Serra asked:
“Where is your church’s Holy Son? If the Church wants to deal with me, they can’t do it without calling the Holy Son out, right?”
Serra used a contemptuous tone to cover up his worries about his former unlucky student. He originally thought that he was limited to the body of a larva, rushing to do scientific research and industrial research and development that had nothing to do with his major on Earth was unlucky enough, but when he thought of Ilia’s implication in the communication that the Holy Son was controlled by the Pope…
Well, this explained part of why his unlucky student, who was clearly upright, was still in the Church as a Holy Son to deter others, but it also showed that his situation was not optimistic.
“The Holy Son is just a cynical larva. His Holiness the Pope will teach him the principle of respecting the Mother Goddess.”
Sass said lightly, seemingly seriously lacking awe of the power displayed by the Holy Son and Serra, which was completely different from other male insectoids, and this made Serra’s spirit even more tense. Some of the Duke’s Mansion’s robots slowly emerged from the darkness behind him, vaguely forming an opposing force with the Church’s supporters.
These robots were robots that Edwin had improved with weapons. Edwin had been imprisoned in the medical bay for a long time during this period. His weak body made it difficult for him to move, but his talent for mechanics allowed him to find some small projects to Renovation robots.
Serra certainly couldn’t bear to see him worry, but he also knew that when he was busy with research at the research institute, Edwin also needed his own space. He prepared sufficient tools and materials for Edwin, and also let Edwin share his drawings and processes for modifying and designing machines on the bracelet, just to keep Edwin from feeling depressed.
Now, Edwin’s small projects to relieve his emotions have played an unprecedented role. Serra stretched out many mental tentacles and, in front of the Church, invaded the main panels of the robots with those tentacles.
He not only exposed the Church’s method of controlling robots and evolving the robots’ codes in person, but also unreservedly showed an effect that was countless times stronger than the Church’s works.
In the bottomless darkness, the robots’ eyes were like blood-red spotlights, lit up one after another. They made a buzzing vibration, like worker bees’ devout pilgrimage to the Mother Insect.
Under Serra’s divine power, they were a group of awakening steel soldiers.