"Ugh..." Gil couldn't help but let out a restrained, low moan of absolute comfort.
He felt an indescribable warm current instantly course through his body.
The weakness, pain, and cold caused by hunger and illness quickly subsided.
His shriveled, emaciated body seemed to inflate, visibly plumping up, and his skin regained a healthy color.
Although he still wasn't strong, he had returned to a normal, slightly underweight adult male physique.
At the same time, his daughter Lina, in his arms, her long eyelashes fluttered several times, and she slowly opened her confused eyes.
The dead gray on her face had vanished, revealing a slight rosiness, and although she was still weak, the heart-wrenching aura of near-death was gone.
She looked at her father and called out weakly: "...Papa?"
"Lina! My Lina!!"
Gil was so excited that tears streamed down his face, and he tightly embraced his recovered daughter, his body trembling with joy.
At that moment, Karl's majestic, deep voice sounded in his ears again, with a slight hint of... helplessness?
"Gil, I have relieved you of illness and hunger."
"As for your daughter Lina, I have temporarily suppressed her condition, but it cannot be eradicated."
When Gil heard this, the ecstasy that had just risen instantly froze, and he looked up anxiously: "Why? My god! Since you can heal me, why...?"
"It's not that I don't want to, it's that there are too many cultists and heretics in the world!" Karl's voice interrupted him, as if fighting against some invisible force.
"They believe in perverted, evil beings who constantly commit murders and cause disasters in the world, brutally slaughtering countless devout believers like you!"
His voice was filled with suppressed anger and sorrow: "Look at this empire you live in! The so-called Sun Cult."
"The vast majority of them have long deviated from the true teachings and become heretics satisfying their own selfish desires!"
"They ask you for money, food, and labor, claiming it is for my use..."
Karl's voice was full of contempt: "But what do material things mean to me? They simply use my name..."
"What I truly need is sincere, pure faith, like yours!"
"Only faith can give me more power to fight against these evil gods and heresies, to shine and protect my true people!"
These words exploded in Gil's head like thunder.
The long-held doctrines, the complaints about the exploitation and oppression by the high priests, and the confusion in his faith.
At this moment, it seemed he had found an outlet for catharsis. So... they had been constantly deceived!
The so-called devotion was nothing but a tool for these moths to satisfy their own selfish desires! The true gods didn't need it at all!
Thinking of himself and his daughter, almost dying miserably because of the deception of these heretics,
Gil trembled with anger, his teeth chattering.
He looked at his daughter's small face in his arms, still ill but finally saved, and a fiercely determined anger and sense of mission burned in his heart.
He suddenly raised his head, and in the empty temple, he gathered all his strength and let out a low roar, as if taking an oath:
"My god! I understand! Your believer swears! Let me cleanse these accursed heresies that tarnish your brilliance!"
"Even if... even if I pay for it with my life!!"
Karl, hovering high in the sky, heard Gil's sincere oath, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl into a satisfied smile.
He could not only gain purer faith power but also cause trouble for the ambitious Emperor Emhyr, who loved to dance on graves.
He could also disrupt Nilfgaard's rear, so why not do it?
Then, in a tone full of praise and expectation, Karl said to Gil: "My devout believer, Gil, I have felt your determination."
"But eradicating heresy is not easy, and there is no point in rushing it for a moment."
"The top priority is to proclaim my goodness and true teachings, so that more lost lambs can return to the correct faith."
"Only by gathering purer faith can I bestow more radiance upon you and heal your daughter Lina."
He gave his final instruction, his voice gradually becoming distant: "When you need to seek my guidance or help, go to a Sun temple and pray to me there, reverently..."
As the words fell, Karl ended his conversation with Gil, ignoring the new fanatic below who was eagerly awaiting a new meaning in life.
What he could do was done—to give him health and a sacred mission.
He had even returned the power of their own faith and the power obtained from the relief ceremony.
As for how far Gil could go in the future, how many waves he could stir up within the Nilfgaardian Empire,
it depended on how firm his own faith was and how... his luck was.
Karl moved and quietly left the sky above the abandoned temple.
Then, following other vague prayers, he flew deep into Nilfgaard.
Karl remained in Nilfgaard for some time, following the faint sounds of prayer.
He found several Sun Cult believers in similar situations to Gil, on the verge of despair but still maintaining a relatively pure faith.
He used the same method to correct the distorted beliefs of these believers, who had been blindly giving without thought, and guided them to use their faith as the strength for their own actions.
Finally, he performed minor miracles to strengthen their faith.
After that, he stopped lingering; his figure soared into the sky, and he quickly returned towards Terra in the north.
......
When he returned to Terra, the land below had already experienced sunset and moonrise, marking the dawn of a new day—around noon the following day.
Karl hovered in the clouds, preparing to ascend again, returning to yesterday's altitude at the planet's edge to continue absorbing solar energy.
At that moment, his hearing caught a slightly anxious voice from Dalton in the manor below.
"Hey, brother, has anyone seen Master Karl?"
"What about there? Did you find him on the training ground?"
"He's not in the kitchen, nor in the study?"
Dalton seemed to be running around the manor, asking everyone he met about Karl's whereabouts.
Karl slightly raised his brows, abandoning the plan to immediately ascend into the sky.
His figure moved, blending with the sunlight, and he quickly descended, quietly landing in the manor's courtyard.
He appeared just behind Dalton, who had just asked a maid a question and was about to head to the stables.
"Dalton." Karl spoke calmly.
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