Imprisoned for a Trillion Years, I Was Worshipped by All Gods!

“Church?!”

Alan was stunned. He looked at Daniel in disbelief.

Everyone knew by now that the students of Sirius Academy were essentially ticking time bombs—touch them, and you’d be inviting disaster. Taking them in meant becoming enemies of all the Legendary Mages who had come to the capital to execute Sirius, not to mention NK Kingdom… and even the Dark Mages lurking in the shadows.

Alan didn’t believe for a second that his shallow friendship with Daniel was enough to make the archbishop risk the entire Church just to protect him.

He wasn’t alone in that thought. Emperor Denken was thinking the same.

He pulled Daniel aside and whispered urgently, “Daniel, are you crazy? Right now, our priority should be getting these kids out of here—someplace no one can find them. And you want to bring them to the Church, a place crawling with people and eyes everywhere?”

“I’m not questioning your followers’ loyalty,” he added, “but if even one of them leaks something…”

Daniel waved his hand, cutting Denken off coldly. “Enough. I have my own plans.”

Without another word, the archbishop began drawing a teleportation array on the ground—one that would connect directly to the Church’s main headquarters.

Denken grew even more anxious. “You idiot! I already gave up the entire capital for them, and now you’re pouring gasoline on the fire! Are you planning to drag your whole Church down with you?”

But Daniel ignored him, silently continuing the formation. Denken could only clench his fists and grumble.

“Fine, fine! I’ll trust you this once. But if anything goes wrong, you’re on your own. Don’t expect the kingdom to clean up your mess!”

Even as he said that, he fed his own mana into the array, helping to accelerate its completion.

Moments later, a brilliant white light—pure and sacred—flashed from the formation. Daniel, Denken, Alan, and the other surviving Sirius students all vanished.

Not long after they left, Stephen appeared at the scene with the white-robed woman.

She knelt down slightly, picking up a handful of soil and rubbing it between her fingers. After sensing for a moment, she said softly, “Traces of sanctified Light-element teleportation magic. This has to be the archbishop’s work.”

Stephen spat angrily and then stomped the ground with all his strength.

“Damn that old fanatic! What the hell is he thinking?! The Church barely has enough people as it is. They’ve only got a handful of tier-diamond or higher powerhouses, and we’ve sent six Legendary Mages after Alan—not including the two from NK Kingdom and the Dark Mages lurking in the shadows!”

“He’s practically asking to die!”

“You can’t say that for certain,” the white-robed woman replied, still gazing calmly at the ruins of the imperial capital. “Even the most reckless gambler doesn’t play a hand with zero chance of success. If he did this, it means he’s holding something back.”

“Oh, a trump card? What, you think this is chess?” Stephen snapped with a sneer. “He’s just a priest with a martyr complex.”

“Then how do you explain why he’d go through all that trouble to rescue Alan?”

The woman tossed the question back at Stephen.

“How the hell should I know?! I’m not that lunatic!”

“So… what now?”

“What else? We charge in. If it comes to it, we raze the entire Church to the ground! At this point, there’s no turning back.”

Stephen’s eyes were bloodshot, his pupils tainted with crimson veins born of murderous intent.

He had already gone to extremes to ensure Alan wouldn’t live long enough to become a threat to Lioncrest in the future. Anyone who tried to protect Alan was now nothing more than a thorn in his side—an obstacle to be eliminated.

“Well said,” came a cold voice. “That’s the spirit I like in a partner of NK Kingdom.”

An elder in a dark blue robe appeared from seemingly nowhere, accompanied by a silver-haired youth.

The elder approached with an eerie calm and asked, “Could you tell me where that teleportation array leads? My student and I are new to Plantagenet Kingdom, unfamiliar with the terrain.”

“Follow me,” Stephen grunted. “Even if the Church turns to ash, I’d still recognize the stench of that sanctimonious pit.”

With a wave of his hand, he led the elder, the youth, the white-robed woman, and a legion of hidden assassins and mages toward the Church’s stronghold.

Meanwhile, on the other side…

Dozens of kilometers from the imperial capital, a faint, radiant image of a sanctified teleportation array shimmered into existence atop a mountain.

Daniel led the group out of the array and stood before a massive monastery built into the mountainside.

This was the headquarters of the Church of Steam and Magic in Plantagenet Kingdom.

Without wasting a second, Daniel marched everyone up to the top floor of the monastery.

There, he grabbed a gramophone-like device and shouted into it:

“Level 1 Alert! Level 1 Alert! All followers are to cease all tasks immediately and head to the underground bunker!”

“I repeat—Level 1 Alert! Level 1 Alert!”

Outside the monastery, chaos erupted.

The previously peaceful priests—who had been washing clothes, cooking meals, sweeping floors, and tending flowers—panicked as they gathered together, following the leading priests toward a hidden entrance at the rear of the monastery.

Five minutes later, not a single soul remained on the surface.

Daniel nodded in satisfaction, then pulled down a nearby lever.

Immediately, Alan felt the ground begin to tremble beneath his feet. A series of mechanical clinks and metallic snaps echoed around them.

“What the hell is that?!” Francis exclaimed.

Everyone turned to look outside.

Their jaws dropped.

A massive, translucent golden mana shield in the shape of a hemisphere had enveloped the entire monastery, sealing it off like an impenetrable dome.

Along its surface, multiple high-density mana nodes gleamed like charging artillery. Each node pulsed with terrifying power, clearly ready to unleash destructive force on any enemy that dared approach.

Even Emperor Denken, a man who had seen almost everything, couldn’t help but sigh in awe. “I’ve heard tales of the Church’s holy defense system. Now that I’ve seen it… the stories didn’t do it justice.”

Daniel closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Seven-layered Seraphim Ring Wall Formation, personally inscribed by the previous archbishop. Combined with Holy Cannons empowered by immense quantities of faith… it’s both offensive and defensive. Even if several Legendary Mages joined forces, breaching it would take significant time.”

Denken chuckled and asked casually, “And the cost?”

Daniel didn’t even flinch.

“The cost… is roughly half a year’s revenue from the Church’s trading branches—eight million coins. That’s not counting maintenance, restoration, or labor. All in all… we’re probably looking at nearly ten million.”

His tone was calm, almost detached. But Alan noticed the corners of his eyes sink ever so slightly—revealing the bitter weight behind his words.

Alan felt an overwhelming wave of guilt welling up inside.

Daniel had truly… given everything for them.