Chapter 1 The Many Troubles of the Diocese

Ever since the disappearance of the Holy Relic a year prior, the Diocese of Beinz seemed to have fallen into a state of misfortune. In just one year, a series of major events occurred in this land twisted by supernatural forces: the collapse of the Dragon Spine Mountains, the siege of the Stone Giants, the awakening of the Firstborn, the destruction of the diocese, the death of a bishop, and finally, the entire Sacred Lake was transformed into a giant crystal mine by an orbital bombardment. Each of these events would have been enough to make history elsewhere, yet they occurred densely in such a small area. Today, this diocese, once considered sacred, is unrecognizable. Almost all civilian settlements have been evacuated, replaced by various knightly order garrisons and newly established monasteries. The population remains about the same as a year ago, but the composition has shifted to almost one hundred percent soldiers and monks. Even the boldest mercenaries of the past now avoid this place.

However, the Diocese of Beinz's troubled times are not yet over. The mining and utilization of the crystal mine had barely begun when it became the front line of the "Holy War" between the Radiant Church and the Apostles of the Great Mother.

Currently, the Diocese of Beinz and the "Holy Mountain" to the west, which is not within the territory of Holletta, have become the battlefront between the Radiant Church and the heretics. This area is centered on the crystal mine. To the east of the mine are the remnants of the Dragon Spine Mountains after the collapse, where the main forces of the church knights and the kingdom knights are stationed. To the west of the mine, the towering peaks are the territory of the werewolf tribal kingdom. Beneath those peaks lie the secret fortresses that the Apostles of the Great Mother have been building for years. The werewolf tribal kingdom is furious about these heretics under their noses and considers this oversight a disgrace. Therefore, their burning desire to fight the Apostles of the Great Mother is no weaker than that of the fanatical Radiant Church believers on the east side of the mine.

In terms of strength, the heretics hidden in the Holy Mountain are at an overwhelming disadvantage. They are completely surrounded and have no external support. The fierce snow mountain wolf cavalry and the two major knightly orders have cut off all roads around the western mountains. However, the heretics have shown no signs of weakness. Like numb sentinels, they resolutely annihilate anyone who enters the mountains. This confidence may be the result of mind control, or they may truly believe that by dying in the "Defense of the Faith War," their blood and flesh can gloriously return to the Mother Goddess—the affairs of fanatics are basically incomprehensible.

A group of people departed from the royal capital and arrived directly at the knightly order's main camp in the Diocese of Beinz via a teleportation array. After the light of the teleport faded, Hao Ren found himself in a wide hexagonal hall. The walls around the hall were as crystalline as crystal, flowing with magical light, and the floor in the center of the hall was painted with a huge and complex teleportation array. In each corner around the hall, three guards could be seen in groups: a high-level magister wearing a mage robe, and two elite knights in bright armor, with magic patterns floating on their armor.

A sense of oppression of being in a military stronghold came over him.

As soon as Lily showed her head, she saw a knight in the corner of the hall with a pair of wolf ears on his head. She was immediately delighted and waved to greet him, "Yo! Fellow! I'm a werewolf too, I'm from the Ha family..."

"Stop howling, he's on duty," Hao Ren quickly pulled Lily back, then looked around the place, "It looks really gorgeous... I thought the front lines of the diocese were messy places like temporary camps, and as soon as you showed up, you'd see the ground full of rawhide tents..."

Aofra laughed, "Of course there are such places, but they are all ground-based outposts. Come on, I'll show you something—although it may not seem very clever to a foreigner as powerful as you, it seems like a miracle to me, allow me to show off to you."

"Ground outposts?" Hao Ren muttered subconsciously, then was dragged away from the teleportation hall by Aofra.

As soon as he went out, he was startled by the scene before him.

He saw a magnificent, shimmering fortress.

A huge crescent-shaped square extended in front of him, where elite knights and magic soldiers could be seen marching in formation. Around the square were tall, orderly buildings, surrounded by thick walls. Between the buildings, elegant magic spires were scattered, and the bright light at the top of the spires jumped and conducted each other, showing that all the buildings here might be in an overall energy system: and such a large overall power supply system is rare in this world.

Hao Ren looked at the square and the things around it in surprise. He found that the building materials of these facilities were different from ordinary Holletta buildings. The material was obviously a kind of artificial building material, and it was very high-end. They were smoother than stone and more delicate than bricks and tiles. On their smooth surface, a slightly shining crystalline shell could be seen, giving the feeling of being glazed. Hao Ren had never seen anything like this on this planet before.

The shapes and distribution of the various buildings reminded people of militarized facilities, so at first glance, everyone thought that this might be a fortress. But in this completely abandoned Diocese of Beinz, which is full of cliffs and deep pits, where is there a place to build such a fortress?

Lily stretched her neck and looked around, and she suddenly found that the outside scenery was incongruous: you couldn't see any mountain peaks from here, and in the mountainous Beinz area, no matter where you were, you should be able to see a mountain peak if you looked up. She was very surprised: "Where are the mountains?"

"Below us," Aofra smiled and led everyone to a round platform next to the crescent square. The round platform was surrounded by railings, and in the middle was a large hole. Hao Ren glanced down and suddenly found that directly below was the crystal mine that he had blasted out with a single shot—and the place where he was standing was obviously flying in the sky!

"Welcome to 'Hodecius,' our aerial fortress—designed and manufactured personally by the Pope and the twelve Royal Magisters, it only took less than a month to lift it from the ground," Aofra's voice was full of admiration, "This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen... of course, limited to the scope of man-made objects."

"Wow..." Lily stared blankly for a long time, and suddenly exclaimed, "So awesome!"

"Is it still 'awesome' compared to your things?" Aofra joked with a smile, "This thing is the only one I've ever seen in my life, but I heard from Becky that there are more magnificent miracles in other worlds that far exceed human imagination, even cities that can fly among the stars... Although I haven't seen them, I can imagine that Hodecius is too primitive compared to those things."

"Still awesome!" Lily jumped hard, "A magical floating city! The name sounds so awesome!"

"This husky is used to being shocked," Vivian held Lily's head to calm her down, but she herself was very surprised, "How did you do it? I've learned about your magic technology... It seems that your air force is still stuck in the stage of fighting on griffons and magicians flying in combat, and in terms of aircraft, there are only the dwarves' steam airships—which need refueling every hundred kilometers. How did you suddenly build a floating city?"

"Thank you for the mine below," Aofra pointed to the ground under everyone's feet, "Those crystals, they have magical properties: they can maintain a certain magical effect for a long time with just the right treatment, so we created long-lasting levitation stones, which are the shiny stone bricks you see. The 'glaze' on the surface of those stone bricks is processed with crystal dust. The entire floating fortress is made of levitation stones, and then hundreds of magic arrays engraved on the outer walls are used to maintain its posture and generate power. It requires a hundred high-level mages and thousands of mage apprentices to control, and we are not yet very clear about the use and supporting tactics of this kind of floating fortress, but in any case, it is already one of the most powerful symbols of force in Holletta, at least that's what I think."

"Just those crystals?" Hao Ren never expected that the crystal mine that he blasted out with a single shot could be so useful, "I went... I knew that firing a cannon at the surface would definitely cause a lot of follow-up trouble."

Aofra looked at Hao Ren: "Is leaving us these crystal mines a violation of your organization's rules?"

Hao Ren thought for a while and poked the data terminal on his shoulder: "I remember it's not a violation, right? According to the situation at the time."

The data terminal knocked Hao Ren on the head with a bang: "You're asking this kind of thing to this unit? Have you read your employee handbook to the dogs?"

Lily pricked up her ears: "Nonsense, the landlord never lets me read his handbook!"

Everyone: "..."

Hao Ren blinked: "...Okay, I don't think it should be a violation. Although it seems to have a bit of an impact on your development, it was to prevent your civilization from being destroyed at the time, and I remember that this counts as an exception permit."

Hao Ren didn't say the second half of his sentence: a planetary-level civilization built a magic floating city, which may seem like a big deal to themselves, but it is estimated that no one in the Space-Time Administration would pay attention to it, no matter how much it violates the rules...

The magic floating city Hodecius towers over the sky above the Beinz area, overlooking the Holy Mountain where the heretics are hiding like a giant beast. At this time, what exactly is the Brain Monster, which seems to be in a desperate situation... planning?