I, The Dragon Overlord - Chapter 399

Chapter 399 – Louie the Christ

The Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran was the cathedral church of the Diocese of Rome in the city of Rome and served as the seat of the city’s bishop – the pope.

It was one of the oldest and highest ranking of the four major papal basilicas in Rome. It also possessed the title of the ecumenical mother church of the Roman Catholic faithful, which allowed it to possess the same sanctity in the minds of Catholic believers as St. Peter’s Basilica.

In the past, these famous Catholic Churches were visited by many true believers and even more tourists. But ever since the events in Kenya, several of the papal churches in Rome had been closed off to tourists for 30 days, and only true believers could visit them.

Moreover, the Vatican was its own religious state with its own legal authority. Even Italy, the city’s “geopolitical boss” complied with its demands.

Italy’s near-universal Catholicism appeared to be even more frenzied and fanatical about the descent of Christ, whose ‘body’ was now in the aforementioned building.

The devout Catholic faithful submitted an application for worship to the Vatican after Christ’s ‘death’, and the Vatican believed that Christ sacrificed himself for the sake of the world and that he deserved the pilgrimage of many believers, so they readily agreed to the application. As a result, they would accept a daily number of pilgrims from the faithful during the thirty days, in which Christ announced his resurrection.

These believers had to be absolutely devout and needed to pass a lot of screening and investigation, but even so, many believers were also eager to sign up, especially those rich and powerful devotees. They used all means to come to see the face of Christ. With the luxurious life and power that they possessed in the mortal world, they hoped to go to heaven after death.

It was not that these rich and powerful wanted to go to heaven for their enjoyment, but to get closer to their Lord and to the God, they believed in.

At the entrance of the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, hundreds of believers were led by a cardinal to change and bathe before beginning to worship, and then all believers had to put on simple linen clothing without any jewelry and accessories on their bodies. They were made to worship in the simplest appearance of their birth to show their piety.

The Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran was now manned by a cardinal every day. The cardinals would even serve as receptionists to receive devotees from all over the world for worship. Even the Pope was moved and wanted to help as a receptionist if not for the many matters that he had to attend to.

Among the hundreds of devotees, there were ordinary destitute people, wealthy people, learned scholars, blue-collar workers, people of different classes of society, hermits, and many others. They all had one common identity – they were all believers of the Lord.

A cardinal stood outside the building and whispered to the faithful the main points of instruction. The main one was not to disturb the ‘body’ of Christ and not to make any sound unrelated to prayer inside.

The cardinal looked old, but he seemed quite robust. His face was quite lively and walked as if he did not suffer from any diseases.

In fact, a few days ago, he was an old man who walked slowly and was tormented by many illnesses, but after worshiping the ‘body’ of Christ, his illnesses slowly eased. Although it did not rejuvenate him, he did not have to endure human sickness and suffering.

This was perhaps the peace that “Christ” gave to mankind, and his devotees could always go to heaven with the light of hope.

Such miracles could not be enjoyed by only one person, so the cardinals needed to be rotated and receive the veneration of the faithful every day, while the Pope, restored to his prime by the greater grace of Christ, gave up his right to venerate God to others.

When entering the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran, one could see images and statues of Jesus Christ and his disciples. Now, the Catholic Church had invited world-famous sculptors to prepare a new icon to be placed as Louie Christ which was the name left by the new Christ before his death.

Although it was detailed in the Catholic canon that no one could be called Christ anymore and anyone who asked to be called so was in fact the Antichrist, Louie’s performance of beating Satan back to hell and sacrificing himself to bear all the sins of mankind made most devout believers doubt the previous canon of the Bible.

The Catholic Church itself was even more patronizing and blamed the errors in the canonical texts on the mistake of their forefather’s records since everything that happened was hard to doubt.

Walking past the statues, there was a statue of Constantine the Great left of the entrance. A bronze door derived from the Senate of Roman times was set as the entrance, and in the chapel, you could see the world-famous Scala Sancta, the legendary twenty-eight-step staircase on which Jesus Christ was tried. It was originally in Jerusalem but was brought back by Constantine the Great.

Now at the top of the stars was a complete rock that had been hollowed out in the middle to make a sepulcher, in which the body of Christ was placed.

The cardinal led the faithful to the bottom of the stairs. Then the faithful would kneel reverently while advancing on their knees, climbing up the ladder section by section to make a pilgrimage to Christ.

“My child, you need not be afraid, you need not be confused, and you need not suffer, for in thirty days, I will return again, and this is the sin I have borne for you.”

“Father, forgive him, for what he has done, I allow.”

“Father, I commit my soul once again into your hands.”

“……”

The faithful prayed with devotion, among which were the prayers of the Bible as well as those words Louie had spoken in Kenya. The clergy had written down each of these words, ready to be compiled as new additions to the Bible, especially the words he said before his ‘death’, which seemed to have mysterious powers that touched the hearts of each believer, making them feel proof of God’s existence.

In front of the ‘body’ of Christ, everyone felt as if their hearts were cleansed as if they were given endless vitality. All of their sickness and pains disappeared, as they witnessed where true heaven was.

Louie had only been a demigod when he performed his miracle in Kenya, but now that he had become a true god, his ‘corpse’ that had been left with some divinity had also become akin to a true Christ.

This was not a false ‘corpse’, but a true body of God with the authority and power of a God!