Badge in Azure

Chapter 1425: Rampage (Part 2)

Saleen went on to destroy churches in over a dozen cities. It was different from how it was back then with Ironwall City, as he only targeted the churches and the adherents protecting them.

The little girl who wanted to protect the red-robed bishop never said anything to dissuade Saleen ever since she came to the Floating City. She simply watched with her own eyes how Saleen went about destroying churches.

He was the one who became unable to help and asked the little girl, “Why didn’t you try to dissuade me from attacking the churches?”

The little girl had a devout look on her face as she said to Saleen, “It is god who guides your hand to clean up the filth of the world. Those who don’t believe in god, and those who are of impure faith, will go to hell.”

“Is your faith pure then?”

“Of course. I believe god will come to save me. How else would I survive?” Saleen was utterly baffled by the little girl’s words.

So this is the logic of the adherents then? So the only way I’d able to answer the kid is to kill her then.

But then he had promised the red-robed bishop that he wouldn’t kill the little girl...

“How old are you?”

“Twelve.”

Saleen was thinking that there was no need for him to kill a 12-year-old child just to drive home his point. Unless he was willing to chuck her into the purgatory of purification, however, the little girl would have definitely maintained her devotion to the Lord of Glory and provided the Lord of Glory the purest of power of faith.

Despite not being able to use divine arts, that little girl was someone nearing the status of a saint.

Saleen was not going to try to persuade anyone. He was there at Tanggulasi to crush the nation’s network of faith through sheer violence. He would not let one church be left standing.

More important, those who kept defending the churches after seeing the Floating City would have been the most devout among the adherents of the faith. They were the ones Saleen had marked for destruction. A very devout believer was able to provide the power of faith over 100 times that of false ones.

What’s the most important thing to a religion? It is not its codex but its devout adherents.

The Floating City gradually closed in on the Tanggulasi Empire. There was a larger city between the empire and the duchy, and the city belonged to the Holy See.

Cologne City had a population of about 100,000, yet there were over a million adherents who came on pilgrimages. That place was second only to Holy City and considered a holy land in the minds of the adherents.

Saleen did not move fast, so when he gradually closed in on Cologne City there were more adherents of the Holy See moving to Cologne City. They were getting ready to defend their religion.

The headquarters of the Holy See was located at the Holy City’s Grand Church of Nick. The pre-pubescent pope wore clean, holy robes and sat at the end of the round table, listening to the reports of the red-robed bishops.

A white-robed young holy master was standing behind him. That was the newly appointed pope’s chief of affairs. In truth, the position was a special one. He was usually considered a servant of the pope.

Gagas was getting rather impatient. His hand was tucked in his sleeve, holding onto something.

He did not have the three godly items possessed by Pope Theisio; however, he wore a crystal skull around his neck. The young man behind him had a cold, gloomy expression. There was an apparent mark of holy prose at the center of his brow.

That was the mark of complete submission to Gagas. That powerful young holy master was forced by the oracles to sign a contract with the pre-pubescent pope.

That contract was an extremely unfair one, but when the oracles took power the Pivotal Council was in total chaos. Only orders from the oracles would have been carried out.

He attained power bestowed by the oracles by surrendering his freedom.

“Lord Pope, what happened to the Oracle Corps?” A bishop from the Pivotal Council asked Gagas.

Everyone knew that the oracles were gone; that was no longer a secret. At that time, however, when the people of the Oracle Corps came to Holy City, the young pope barred them from entering.

The elders of the Pivotal Council had long been itching for action. They could have been subdued when the oracles were around, but with their disappearance, any one of them would have been qualified to become the next pope.

Gagas was a pope designated by the oracles. He did not possess the three godly items. As such, this was not according to the rules of the codex.

Shouldn’t we send the child to heaven and be blessed with the light of god? The elders from the Pivotal Council exchanged looks but none was willing to be the first to make the move, as they did not want to lose the chance to sit on the pope’s chair.

Historically speaking, there had indeed been popes who were removed from office by one of their own. It went without saying that blood was definitely spilled as well. All who killed the pope would have lost the right to become the next one.

Gagas smirked and said, “All of them are looking forward to my leaving this place as soon as possible. Why bother asking me about not seeing the Oracle Corps then? If I were to reach an agreement with the Oracle Corps and forge a secret deal with them, would anyone of you get anything out of it?”

Gagas mocked his elders with a tone unbefitting of his age. The bishops of the Pivotal Council were all wearing red robes, so the changes on their faces could not be seen.

That might be a decree from god. Why would the Oracle Corps members wear white robes otherwise?

Seeing that none of the red-robed bishops had answered, Gagas waved and said, “Tell the people of the Oracle Corps that I’m not seeing any of them until Fycro shows up.”

“Lord Pope, that blasphemous mage is heading for Cologne City.” A red-robed bishop changed the subject, after seeing that the matter concerning the oracles was unable to make Gagas talk.

If Gagas was willing to see those from the Oracle Corps, the Pivotal Council would have been willing to pay a great price just to get them to kill Gagas.

Everything had its own designated procedures. If they were to just kill the pope without a good reason, no one would have benefited.

The Oracle Corps was different in that oracles were capable of receiving god’s orders directly. If the people of the Oracle Corps killed Gagas, they could have made up a decree from god that would have benefited everyone.

The pope was unwilling to leave the Grand Church of Nick and no one was able to do anything to him.

No one knew where the oracles picked the child named Gagas from. He was cold and incapable of being swayed.

“Cologne City. The city of saints.” Gagas smiled. That smile was one of sarcasm.

“Indeed, Lord Pope. You’d need to give your orders,” another bishop suggested instead of keeping his thoughts to himself.

Gagas turned around and said to his pope’s chief of affairs, “Is that so, Ugar?”

The holy master named Ugar answered, “Lord Pope, you are the shepherd of the Holy See. All holy masters shall work under your light. That mage has come this time with great force, targeting all churches of the Holy See. There is no way we could defend every single one of them, but he would definitely head to Cologne City. It is indeed your duty to give the order to have the adherents of the faith protect that city.”

“Alright then, I shall delegate the right to you for the time being. I’m still too young after all. Ugar, you’ll be in charge of how we go about this.”

Gagas’s words did not sound right given his position, but he was not wrong. He was still too young. If he were to give the order, it would have caused an unpredictable mess.

Those from the Pivotal Council, however, were all disappointed, especially that bishop who asked earlier. He was hoping Gagas would have delegated the right further down the line, but Gagas simply put it in Ugar’s hands.

Ugar was not one of their own.

After hearing what Gagas said, he was elated! Yet he quickly caught the resentful looks from the elders of the Pivotal Council.

It seems as if this is some difficult seat to sit on indeed.

Because he and Gagas were bound by the contract between them, he was unable to disobey Gagas’s orders. He resented that the child was smarter than he looked. He was but a child of a peasant, someone of very low birth when he had first arrived at the Holy See. It was unknown what kind of divine spells the oracles had used to feed large sum of information to Gagas, uplifting his intelligence to frightening levels.

None of the old men in the room had been able to dupe him into doing anything.

“Cough...Well, you’ve all heard what Lord Pope said, I take it?” Ugar did not bother with any of that. Those from the Pivotal Council were free to do whatever they liked. He was not like the young pope. He had the abilities of a level-10 holy master, and they wanted to harm him; those elders needed to figure out ways to go about it.

“We shall do it your way, Ugar,” the elders replied coldly.

Gagas smirked. The oracles had been right. The believers of that god of theirs were a dirty bunch who were filled with their own desires. That room should have been the holiest of all places in the empire, yet it appeared to be dirty as hell.

It’s been 500 years since the Holy See had last seen a saint, eh?

“Well then, I shall get on with it.” Ugar said uncaringly and stepped forward, facing the elders of the round table and continued, “Defense of Cologne City is considered somewhat better than average among the cities of the Holy See. Even Holy City wouldn’t have been able to rely on common folks to take on that mage. He has a city that flies after all.

Reports from spies say that the blasphemer called Saleen could take his city to altitudes of tens of thousands of meters and throw rocks from there. Think about it: Even if he were to do nothing but gather rocks and throw them down on Cologne City, what would the knights from the Pivotal Council be able to do to counter the attack?”

“What are you getting at?”

“I assume that the Pivotal Council still has a secret weapon hidden, no?”

The elders glared at Ugar with angry eyes. The secret weapon of the Pivotal Council meant that 10,000-strong Heaven Knights. They were truly a formidable bunch and the strongest fighting force on the Holy Plains.

If the Heaven Knights were to perish, it would have more or less spelled the end of the Pivotal Council.

“Units incapable of taking flight would have been of little use against that city in the sky. If any you think that I’m not making sense, you’re welcome to retort,” Ugar said with a grin. He was indeed up to no good himself.

Everyone actually knew that eventually, the only thing all of them would have been able to do was to hold the fort at Holy City. The other way to go about it was to accumulate holy masters capable of flight to intercept the Floating City.

If they did not attack the city, the Floating City would have flown elsewhere and the Holy See would not have been able to do anything about it.

“If no one objects, then that settles it. Deploy the Heaven Knights and contact Black Dungeon Island. Have the warden send wardens capable of flight our way. I know that there are at least a million such soldiers at the depths of the Black Dungeon. It would be nice if we could get 10,000 of them to show.”

That was a conclusion Ugar came to. Black Dungeon Island would not have had any thoughts about the position of pope. All soldiers borrowed would have been put under Pope Gagas’ s command. Doing so would have meant that he was able to deploy the Heaven Knights and command powerful flying wardens as well.

As for Cologne City, it didn’t matter to him if they were able to keep the city intact.