I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Many people rushed toward the Royal Capital and the Church, but even more did not react so violently. Most of them were bound by family ties, struggling desperately to secure even a sliver of survival for their loved ones.

However, deep within their hearts, their faith in the Goddess had already begun to waver.

If the faith of the masses were a lamp within the spiritual world, then the lamp representing faith in the Goddess of Light had begun to extinguish or dim on a massive scale throughout the entire Church State.

The Goddess of Light, who had been cultivating, opened her eyes in confusion. She discovered that her cultivation was rapidly dissipating—within the blink of an eye, a full tenth of her divine power had vanished into thin air.

Ivdien’s beautiful eyes quickly shifted from confusion to shock and fury.

Far away on the subcontinent, Mitia stood with her hands behind her back atop a hundred-meter crane used for constructing a divine statue.

She gazed into the distance at the pillar of miraculous light rising into the sky from the Dmitria Church, a subtle smile appearing on her face. “Falling this fast? Then next time, it’ll be my turn to hit you~”

The path of faith-based gods was vastly different from that of traditional cultivation gods.

Rather than being their own, the power of faith-based gods was granted by their believers. How it was granted did not matter—so long as others believed in them, it was enough. This was also why Mitia had been able to leap across multiple ranks.

In a sense, divine power was more advanced than cultivated energy.

In fact, Mitia preferred to call it “power of wishes.” The collective thoughts of a vast number of believers were layered upon a single individual, distorting the limitations of the rules governing her.

For example, the slogan most favored by faith—omniscience and omnipotence. Repeated often enough, it would plant the same belief in the minds of followers: 【He is omniscient and omnipotent!】

True omniscience and omnipotence might be unattainable, as the concept was too abstract.

But as long as enough people held this belief with absolute conviction, omniscience and omnipotence would gradually be deconstructed into concrete abilities—such as “omnipotence” meaning being capable of anything.

Powerful? Invincible?

Then granting children should not be a problem, right? What about wealth? Exorcism? Healing?

The one receiving these projected wishes would naturally gain some degree of ability in those aspects. The more people who believed in that aspect, the stronger that ability would become.

As the bearer of these wishes, one could also deliberately project certain abilities according to personal preference, perform “miracles,” and guide believers to pray and resonate in those directions for refinement.

Previously, Ivdien had attempted to blur the conceptual distinction between herself and the Magic Goddess on the subcontinent—perhaps with the intention of usurping that position.

Unfortunately, she had failed.

Because Mitia had stabbed her in the back~

In an era of low productivity, relatively ignorant policies could stabilize people’s hearts, consolidate rule, and regulate resource distribution. Pain drove people to seek escape, and thus the Church naturally found fertile ground for growth.

After all, resources were limited. Too many intelligent people were not necessarily a good thing—being clear-minded yet unable to change anything was the greatest suffering.

But now, due to the Industrial Revolution, global productivity was expanding on a massive scale. Every nation and race was inevitably being drawn into global competition. Continuing to use old methods of governance would sooner or later lead to major problems.

To maintain competitiveness in the Industrial Revolution, population potential had to be released. Monopolized educational resources had to be opened up. Once ordinary people received education, they would begin to fight for human rights—for everything that should rightfully belong to them.

If population potential was not unleashed, then in conflicts between great powers, even more critical losses would follow. Just because she did not use cannons to blast open others’ gates did not mean that nations buying cannons from her would refrain from doing so.

According to the intelligence she had gathered, the first batch of nations that obtained cruisers and were conducting sea trials had almost unanimously begun dispatching large forces to explore the naval strength of other countries. Their intentions were self-evident.

The later a nation realized this, the smaller its window for transformation—and the greater the cost it would have to pay.

The same applied to the Church.

It had to choose between citizens beginning to fight for their rights and the Kingdom.

Mitia, this newly ascended deity, had gained the initiative—because she followed the tide of the times rather than resisting it.

She did not care how devout her believers were. As long as the Alliance continued to develop positively, her foundational base of believers would never collapse. In fact, when facing adversity, Mitia’s strength might even surge in reverse.

If this time Ivdien personally intervened but failed to properly handle the relationship between believers and the Kingdom Church—continuing to rely on outdated methods such as purging heretics or burning witches at the stake—

Then she would no longer qualify as Mitia’s opponent. She might not even live long enough for Mitia to take action personally before falling from her divine throne.

And not just Ivdien—this applied to the gods of other kingdoms and races as well.

Either they adapted to the times like her, or they tightened control, intensified indoctrination, stagnated—and perished alongside their nations.

After suffering a financial nuclear strike, Dmitria not only faced domestic political instability, but its frontline troops retreating from battle also experienced a sharp collapse in morale. Supplies such as food and weapons had likewise come to a halt.

The internal situation of the Tsarist Nation was equally chaotic. One could say neither side had gained any advantage.

The Tsar’s throne was unstable. Due to the war, the military had consumed vast national resources, most of which were concentrated in Krichenev State.

The rebel forces rapidly penetrated and seized these military supplies. After counterattacking and capturing parts of Church territory, they also began advancing toward the capital, Vyatletsk.

As a veteran force tempered by war, after capturing Krichenev and obtaining large quantities of equipment once again, they now possessed the power to shake the very foundation of the Tsar’s rule.

No exaggeration—every day the Tsar woke up, the first thing he did was touch his neck to check whether his head was still attached.

Fortunately, the capital still had the Central Guard directly under the Tsar’s command. When being equipped with Seris Alliance weaponry, a significant portion of the best equipment had been allocated directly to the Guard, allowing him to barely hold out while awaiting reinforcements from other nobles.

The instability of imperial authority and the shaking of its foundations was no joke. Whether under feudal enfeoffment or centralized imperial rule, the fundamental operating principle during the feudal era was nearly identical:

Maintain an elite central army, and use it as leverage to control all other military forces across the nation—this was the core strategy.

Only afterward would methods such as empowering loyalists, reassigning influential generals or nobles, and weakening opposing factions be used to keep the state functioning.

Throughout history, many seemingly powerful empires and kingdoms had declined or even collapsed after losing just one or two legions. In most cases, this was due to the loss of this core force, leading to internal imbalance.

Although the Tsar still retained his central army, the disparity in combat strength and weaponry between the two sides was not significant. In fact, because the slaves had no path of retreat, the morale of the serf rebel forces remained consistently high.

Whenever they captured a region, the local serfs would be unconditionally freed by officers such as Yadov. These freed individuals would then be reorganized into new serf armies, causing their military strength to expand exponentially.

Regardless of their ultimate fate, at least for now, this regional warlord force undoubtedly possessed the power to influence the rise or fall of an entire nation.