Sorcerer in the Marvel Universe

God and the angel had abandoned humanity?

Evenson found the idea difficult to accept.

It simply didn’t fit the naaru.

Would a naaru abandon the people under its protection?

Yes.

When the Burning Legion first descended upon Argus, the naaru had forced the prophet Velen to abandon part of his people. But that had been an act of necessity. The Burning Legion’s armies had already arrived, and there had been neither the time nor the power to save everyone.

That was abandonment forced by circumstance.

Under normal conditions, however, the naaru had always gone to extraordinary lengths to save or assimilate other races. They had even tried to redeem dreadlords, some of the most dangerous and treacherous demons in the Burning Legion, doing everything in their power to turn one of those monsters toward the Light.

And humanity wasn’t even inherently evil.

So why would the naaru simply give up on their plan to guide Earth?

Perhaps they had been forced to leave.

But by whom?

Hell?

Impossible.

The Seven Lords of Hell were powerful enough that they might be able to contend with a naaru, but only on their own turf. In Hell itself, they might stand a chance.

They couldn’t even freely enter the mortal world.

How could beings with that limitation force a naaru to abandon Earth?

Then there was Asgard.

But Evenson found it much easier to imagine Asgard becoming the naaru’s ally than its enemy. The naaru’s image was practically the definition of righteous benevolence, to the point that their selflessness could occasionally feel almost hypocritical.

Even if Odin had disagreed with the naaru’s methods and gone to war with them, driving them from Earth, why hadn’t he finished the job?

Why allow the church they left behind to survive and spread?

Why allow a sect like this one, which knew the truth about their faith and even possessed remnants of the naaru’s Light, to survive for thousands of years?

Odin could be merciful. He had even spared the Frost Giants after their invasion of Earth.

But that mercy had limits.

There wasn’t a single surviving civilization on Earth that possessed meaningful records of the Frost Giants’ current whereabouts. Whatever else Odin might have been, he had been extremely thorough about keeping Earth’s secrets under control.

Could this sect simply have been too discreet for Asgard to notice?

No.

Heimdall’s eyes could see almost everything. If he had wanted to find them, there was no way the people in this temple could have remained hidden.

So Asgard probably wasn’t responsible.

But then who was?

Anyone capable of forcing a naaru off Earth had to be extraordinarily powerful. Yet whoever had done it had apparently driven the naaru away without claiming sovereignty over Earth afterward.

What was that supposed to be?

Free labor?

Some cosmic do-gooder who saved the planet and refused to take credit?

Evenson’s head was starting to hurt.

He pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at the monk leader.

"Are you absolutely certain God and the angel abandoned humanity?"

One possibility after another had already been eliminated.

Maybe God and the angel hadn’t abandoned humanity at all. Perhaps the church had simply misunderstood their intentions.

That wasn’t impossible.

Christianity had never exactly been immune to that sort of thing.

"You want to know why the Bible is divided into the Old and New Testaments?"

The monk leader gave a dry laugh.

"Why do the modern stories about God, the angel, and the Son of God differ so drastically from the original records?"

"Why were descriptions of the true God and revelations concerning the angel altered at will, with generations of priests adding their own interpretations?"

His expression grew bitter.

"Why was the church once a symbol of goodness and beauty, only to become synonymous with corruption and decadence?"

"Clergy positions could be bought and sold. Indulgences became a thriving business. From popes and bishops to ordinary priests, the pursuit of wealth and pleasure replaced their devotion to spreading God’s glory."

His voice rose.

"Why could someone like me become a servant of the devil without suffering any punishment?"

He struck his chest with a trembling hand.

"Because God and the angel were gone!"

"No one was left to restrain them."

"They could commit whatever sins they wanted without fearing the wrath of God or the angel."

Evenson rubbed his chin.

There was an old idea that if God truly existed, priests would be terrified while atheists would be celebrating.

With a naaru acting as the universe’s most relentless ethics inspector, it was easy to see why.

It wouldn’t matter whether you were the Pope or a cardinal. If you dared interfere with their plan to guide humanity or allowed corruption to spread through the church, you’d get a faceful of holy fire and lose your position before you could finish your sentence.

And the followers of the Light tended to share that moral rigidity.

They could be honest.

Brave.

Even fanatical.

But Evenson had never heard of a Light devotee who was simultaneously rotten to the core in their private life.

Maybe that was simply what the Light did to people.

Maybe the nature of the Light made certain kinds of corruption almost impossible.

"Could it be..."

Evenson took a drag from his cigarette.

"God and the angel just went to sleep?"

The monk stared at him.

"Maybe they were supposed to watch over you, but they got distracted."

Evenson shrugged.

"It’s not completely impossible. Beings with infinite lifespans probably have a different sense of time. A few centuries might be nothing more than an afternoon nap."

The monk gave him a contemptuous smile.

"Is that what you think?"

"Judging from the plans they established when the church was first founded, their pace was anything but slow. You can see that simply from how quickly the church spread."

He paused.

"Besides... when God and the angel left, they explicitly told me why they were leaving."

Evenson’s eyes widened.

"They actually told you?"

He couldn’t help staring.

"They just announced it to their followers?"

He imagined thousands of devout believers kneeling in prayer, praising God and begging for his guidance, only for God to appear and essentially say:

You’re all hopeless. I’m done babysitting you.

Apparently, cosmic divinity had its limits.

"What exactly did they say?"

Evenson leaned forward, genuinely curious now.

The monk licked his lips.

There was unmistakable resentment in his voice when he repeated the final revelation he’d received.

"We are leaving."

"We will answer the call of the Mother of Light and unite with the Light of countless worlds."

"We will join the final battle against the army of evil that seeks to destroy everything."

The monk gave a bitter laugh.

"That was the last divine revelation we ever received."

"Our predecessors worshipped God and the angel with absolute devotion. They sacrificed everything for their commands, even their lives."

"And in the end, God and the angel simply left us behind to pursue something else."

His voice hardened.

"If that isn’t abandonment, then what is?"

Evenson barely heard the last part.

His attention had locked onto a single phrase.

The Light of countless worlds.

His hand trembled slightly around his cigarette.

He took a long drag.

Then suddenly—

"Ah!"

He jerked his hand away.

The cigarette had burned his fingers.

"Damn it."

He stared at the smoldering tip for a moment before his mind returned to what the monk had said.

All the Light united as one.

Considering the existence of the naaru...

Evenson’s expression turned grim.

Could it be the Army of the Light?

If so, the answer to the next question was obvious.

An army of evil seeking to destroy everything?

That could only be the Burning Legion.

Which meant the naaru who had come to Earth had barely begun carrying out its plans before receiving a summons from its superiors.

And apparently, it had taken Earth’s local God along for the ride.

The naaru had abandoned its mission on Earth to join the Army of the Light in its war against the Burning Legion.

Evenson stared into the distance.

That was...

Not good news.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!