613 Passing Time (3)

"Ahhh-!"

As the massive hand formed by golden clouds grabbed hold of the green light, a miserable scream suddenly echoed out from inside the small ball of green light before it rapidly began expanding at a speed faster than the eye of anyone below the Domain Lord Realm could follow.

Fwoosh!

Soon the ball of green light that had been the size of an apple, had expanded to a size that was comparable to the massive hand formed by golden clouds.

This in turn caused it to momentarily break free from the grip of the golden clouds, as the golden clouds were pushed back by the massive ball of green light.

"Hm? How interesting looks like something a one time use protective seal left behind by a someone in the Soul Ascension Realm… However, do you really think you can escape with this?" Not the slightest bit worried upon seeing his attempt to catch the escaping Archbishop fail, the Cardinal just narrowed his eyes before attacking again-

"No-!"

Crack~

Following the helpless scream of the person hidden away inside the green ball of light, the hand formed by the golden clouds forcefully grabbed the massive ball of green light before violently crushing it!

Looking in the sky where the hand formed by golden clouds was located, the ball of green light had completely disappeared, as there was now only an elderly man covered in blood present inside the hand formed by the golden clouds.

At this point in time, the elderly man was fearfully staring towards the Cardinal from the Order of the Sky God.

It was also at this point in time that the people watching the battle taking place from afar realized that the battle was between the Cardinal and an Archbishop from the Order of the Sky God… Of course, this revelation left all kinds of questions in the minds of these people, as they had no idea why the Cardinal suddenly attacked one of his Archbishops.

"That is… Archbishop Green Sky!?"

"Why is the Cardinal attacking the Archbishop?"

"Did Archbishop Green Sky perhaps do something to betray the order…?"

Listening to the crowd whispering to each other below while staring up towards him filled with confusion, the Cardinal from the Order of the Sky God could not help frowning as his eyes narrowed even further while looking towards the bloody elderly man in the distance.

Whoosh~

Not wanting to waste any more time and fearing that the Soul Ascension Realm Expert from the Church of the Plague God might take action to save Archbishop Green Sky, the Cardinal from the Order of the Sky God directly disappeared from his location above the church before reappearing directly in front of the bloody old man on the brink of death.

Even though he had successfully managed to run for a short moment, he had still faced three attacks from a Soul Ascension Realm Expert head on. The fact that he was still alive was a testament to how powerful he was, something that just caused the Cardinal even more heartache.

"Archbishop Green Sky… I'm disappointed that things came to this… To think you would side with not only another god, but with an outsider…" Shaking his head while saying this, the Cardinal didn't give the old man any time to respond-

Ptsh~

Directly using his strength to reduce the bloodied Archbishop Green Sky into a blood mist. Erasing any trace of his existence.

"With this… The Order of the Sky God here in the Sky Empire will at least need a few hundred years to recover from the loss of two Archbishops!"

Not feeling the slightest bit happy after the killing the mole planted by the church of the plague god, the Cardinal only felt a wave of sadness engulf him. Even if he had managed to deal with the mole, the Order of the Sky God's strength had been drastically reduced!

The three religious organisations in the Sky Empire each had a single expert at the Soul Ascension Realm at their core. Allowing them to mostly ignore the imperial family of the Sky Empire.

However, the thing that truly allowed them to manage a large territory of the Sky Empire and harvest a massive amount of faith from the people living there, was the Archbishop who controlled dozens of kingdoms outside the core of the Sky Empire.

Each of the three had five Archbishops and had perfectly split up the territory of the Sky Empire and decided who would be able establish a church in what kingdom.

Now with the Order of the Sky God losing two Archbishops, the Cardinal could easily predict that the Follower of the Fire God and the Cult of the Scarlet Moon would get even more agrresive when it came to taking over some of the kingdoms under the Order of the Sky God…

Even with him stepping in, there was no way to prevent the Order of the Sky God from losing at least a dozen or so kingdoms if those two decided to work together.

"For now, the best option should be to lay low until we can get two new Archbishops…" Muttering this to himself, the Cardinal quickly left the place before the people from the imperial family showed up to cause trouble for him after the damage, he had inevitably caused to the area just outside the imperial capital where he had attacked the fleeing Archbishop Green Sky.

…

Following the death of Archbishop Green Sky, things went exactly like the Cardinal from the Order of the Sky God had expected, as the two others quickly worked together to start taking away the kingdoms that had formerly been under the management of Archbishop Green Sky.

The Cardinal understood very well that there was nothing to do about it, as while he could step in to prevent the two from taking the kingdoms that had been under Archbishop Soft Breeze, this was only the case because he was just missing.

Archbishop Green Sky on the other hand… Had been killed by him and everyone had seen it happen, there was no way for him to prevent them from taking away the kingdoms that had once been under him and splitting them up among each other.

However, among all the major powers in the Sky Empire, the ones to benefit the most was the Church of the Plague God, as they successfully managed to convert half a dozen kingdoms in a short time the Cult of the Scarlet Moon and the Followers of the Fire God were busy trying to take away the kingdoms that had formerly belonged to the Order of the Sky God.

By the time they discovered what was happening, it was already too late, as the Church of the Plague God managed to successfully establish itself at the border of the inner region of the Sky Empire.

The only way that they would be able to expel the Church of the Plague God at this point in time, was if the heads of at least two of the religious organisations worked together to forcefully push out the Church of the Plague God.

Normally, this would have been something the three would not have hesitated in doing…

However, the Cult of the Scarlet Moon and the Followers of the Fire God, while they were working together and could push out the Church of the Plague God, they were not really on friendly terms with the Order of the Sky God at the moment…

If both of them left, there was no saying what the Cardinal from the Order of the Sky God would do to get revenge on them from taking away the kingdoms that had once been under his control.

Even worse, the location that the Church of the Plague God had established itself was only located next to kingdoms under the control of the Cult of the Scarlet Moon and the Followers of the Fire God!

All things considered; the Order of the Sky God would not lose anything from watching the two fights against the newly established Church of the Plague God…

On the other hand, the Church of the Plague God establishing themselves inside the Sky Empire might even be a good thing, as it would force the Cult of the Scarlet Moon and the Followers of the Fire God to move a large portion of their forces towards the kingdoms bordering the territory taken over by the Church of the Plague God.

Allowing the Order of the Sky God to hold on to a large portion of the kingdoms that had once been under the management of Archbishop Green Sky!

…

The imperial family also took advantage of this situation, as they prepared to call in the sect's they had invited across their Sky Empire earlier and hopefully form a Sect Alliance to weaken the three large religious organisations.

Now that a new religious organisation had appeared and the already established religious organisations had fallen out with each other. The Emperor of the Sky Empire hoped to use this situation to further weaken them!