Chapter 24: Gifts from the Holy Spirit

  Alex certainly uood why Stone asked this question.

  In fact, on the first day he arrived here, after summoning an ahrough the effect of breaking through space, both Stone and the old bishop had asked Alex whether he had received the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

  Alex her firmed nor dehis; he simply feigned ignorance. Ihis wasn't information an ordinary person could easily know.

  Alex had only found some clues about the prote of the Holy Spirit after entering the temple and searg through the records.

  Not too long ago, there was a group of people on this ti. They were either born with or ter acquired the prote of holy angels due to certain reasons.

  These holy angels would guard their lives and pass on knowledge and power belonging to the angels.

  People referred to this as the "gifts from the Holy Spirit."

  Iemple, these individuals were regarded as messengers of the Goddess of Order in the mortal world. They used this power to eliminate aintain order, and bat evil.

  The Holy Spirit Knights were once promi figures iemple, and eae was a beloved hero.

  But as the saying goes, "the tallest tree in the forest is the first to be felled."

  The prominence of the Holy Spirit Knights also drew the attention of chaotisters and cultists.

  Demons coveted the power of angels, while cultists sought to undermihe foundation of order. Eventually, a disaster struck as both sides spired against the Holy Spirit Knights.

  They ihe publid tempted those iemple who were dissatisfied with the power of the Holy Spirit Knights to suppress them.

  They even lured several young Holy Spirit Knights into corruption, along with their guardian angels, turning them into pawns of chaos. Using this as an excuse, they began to scrutihe Holy Spirit Knights.

  At first, the Holy Spirit Knights tolerated this scrutiny, but soon the demands from the temple became more excessive.

  Perhaps it was rare to see the once high-and-mighty Holy Spirit Knights so "obedient," but the as of the temple's authorities became increasingly aggressive.

  They even fabricated reasons to take the Holy Spirit Knights away for interrogatioually, some even attempted to coerce fessions from the Holy Spirit Knights, f them to admit to being cultists.

  As time passed, the rift betweewo sides grew. The Holy Spirit Knights had enough of being treated like cultists, while the temple authorities, fident iemple's bag, became increasingly reckless.

  The flicts escated, causing the then high priest to bee uneasy. He attempted to order a halt to the spread of this situation and to reduce the iy of the scrutiny.

  However, the high priest's order turned out to be the final straw.

  When the high priest decided to end the scrutiny, the lower-ranking bishops refused to ply. Driven by desire and power, they made a crazed decision: they accused the leader of the Holy Spirit Knights, Antonio, of being a cultist and imprisoned his wife and children, t them to extract "evideo fortonio to fess.

  But Antonio would not surrender easily. He led his subordio storm the high tribunal to rescue his family.

  Unfortunately, he arrived too te. Whe there, he only found the corpses of his wife and children.

  Overe with grief and rage, Antonio publicly decred his break from the temple and, in the name of the Holy Spirit Knights, decred war oire temple!

  Those were dark days. The Holy Spirit Knights, who were supposed to uphold order, raised their bdes against the temple.

  The temple, uhe assault of the Holy Spirit Knights, fell into disarray. They tried to stop it, but it was too te.

  The Holy Spirit Knights were not saints. During the prior scrutiny, many had already harbored deep rese. There was no way they would easily admit defeat.

  Moreover, by then, the Holy Spirit Knights had started to suspect that the temple had deviated from the goddess's guidance, succumbing to worldly desires and power.

  The flict had escated from a csh of egos to a battle of ideals.

  iations broke down, and Antonio led the Holy Spirit Knights in an assault on the High Temple, intending to end the temple's rule ond for all.

  However, at the gates of the High Temple, the Holy Spirit Knights finally entered an obstacle—the goddess's prote surrounding the High Temple prevehem from advang any further.

  At that time, the cardinals had lost their sehey believed that with the goddess's prote, the Holy Spirit Knights couldn't touch them.

  They immediately began to mock, even publicly g that the deaths of Antonio's wife and childrehe will of the goddess and that they were merely carrying out her wishes!

  No matter the era or pce, having terrible teammates always has the same effect. Enraged by the cardinals' provocation, Antonio made a shog decision.

  He and his Holy Spirit chose to fall into chaos and bee a Chaos Demons in front of everyone.

  He then shattered the goddess's prote with one sword strike, pletely wiping out the cardinals.

  After this, Antonio left behind a single sentence, "If that's the case, then the existence of this world has no meaning," aed with the Holy Spirit who had fallen with him.

  After this, the Holy Spirit Knights split into two groups. One group resolutely chose to fall and followed Antonio to the Twilight Frontier.

  The roup of Holy Spirit Knights chose to permaly sever ties with the temple, o see them again.

  The temple was severely weakened by this internal flid the departure of the Holy Spirit Knights.

  At this point, the cultists and chaotic demons began to stir and unched fretacks on the ti.

  Without the Holy Spirit Knights, the temple's power diminished signifitly. Although they eventually mao drive away the demons and cultists and once again ehe existence of order, they were gravely weakened and have yet to recover fully.

  Moreover, sihen, individuals blessed by the Holy Spirit have bee rare on the ti.

  Withiemple, there has been a vague saying that the goddess is disappointed with the temple's as and no longer sends her messeo this world.

  Only wheemple realizes its mistakes might they receive the goddess's fiveness.

  This is why the old bishop wao immediately report to the tral bishop cil upon seeing the guardian angel behind Alex.

  However, Stone was clearly not ied in this. He was more curious about how Alex had bee so powerful ht. Could this also be due to the Holy Spirit's legacy?

  After all, those events happened many years ago, and information about the Holy Spirit Knights is now rare, either destroyed or sealed away, and even as a great knight, he couldn't access it. Therefore, Stone was very ied in Alex's "iance."

  "I don't know if this is some kind of iance."

  As before, Alex did not firm Stone's specution. After learning about the history of the Holy Spirit Knights, he khat this identity had advantages but also many disadvantages. So he never aowledged uesses, only selectively sharing his thoughts.

  "After I went back st night, I thought about how to improve my swordsmanship. I discussed it with her, and then she made me have a dream..."

  Fag Stone's inquiry, Alex did not hide much. He described the system as the guardian angel summoned by his space-breaking sword and narrated his experiences in the dungeon as a dream.

  Alex chose to speak out not only to gain Storust but also because he had po do so before ing here.

  Therefore, he didn't mind showg his peculiarities. Even if Stone didn't ask, he would have found an opportunity to sult Stone.

  The reason is simple: "Two heads are better than one."

  Although Alex could accumute experiehrough battles in that world, it would be faster if he could get guidance from someone experienced. Why take the long way when there's a shortcut?

  Moreover, being resurrected doesn't mean it doesn't hurt to be killed! He wasn't a masochist who enjoyed being killed.

  "There's actually such a world..."

  After listening to Alex's description, Stone couldn't help but marvel. With his broader experience, he quickly uood how desperate the world Alex described was.

  A world where survival depended on the burning of fmes, and when the fmes extinguished, everything faced death... Just imagining it, Stone could feel the sorrow of that world.

  Fortunately, it was just a dream.

  "Haha, thank goodness it was a dream. Otherwise, with your skills and without using power, relying solely on swordsmanship to fight those enemies, you'd have died a hundred hty times already."

  Hearing Stone's hearty ughter, Alex rolled his eyes helplessly but had nothing to say because he indeed had died a huo one hundred and fifty times! Maybe even more.

  "Well... but it's irely hopeless. From your previous bat style, you've already grasped the essentials, just not the right methods..."

  Stone didn't disappoint Alex in the end. After thinking for a moment, he began to guide Alex.

  As a grand knight, Stone had much more experien this area than Alex, who listened carefully to his advice.

  After all, this was invaluable knowledge that couldn't be bought. The system currently had no exge fun, and even if it did, Alex doubted he could exge for experience.

  And now... having such a mentor erfect for learning, wasn't it?

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