Chapter 70: Chapter 70 : Confrontation (2)
In the Holy Church headquarters, precisely in that tall white tower which Arthur and Lucy are heading to, the Pope was sitting on the golden throne while 3 people are kneeling in front of him.
There was also an old woman standing next to him, she emitted a gentle and ancient aura around her, she looked extremely old and her face was full of wrinkles.
The 3 people kneeling were the 3 current bishops, 2 are new since the 2 former ones were killed and the last one is still alive, as for that old woman, she is the Archbishop.
"Are you sure about that?"
The Pope's domineering voice rang out in the big and empty hall, it was full of coldness, for the bishops, the Pope was like a god to them, he is the messenger of their holy goddess and he would sometimes communicate with her which gave him a position much higher than the others, his strength is not to be reckoned with too, so since a long time, no one dares to mess with him or even disobey with him.
One of the kneeling bishops, who was a handsome young man, replied to the Pope
"Yes, my Lord! Several soldiers came a few minutes ago and informed me about the situation outside, it seems the undead army is winning and breaking through our defense, 3 Cardinals are already dead! What's more is that there were sneak attacks from the undead skeletons inside the city"
The Pope's wrinkled face turned ugly, he kept stroking his long white beard while gazing outside through the huge glass windows which had a picture of their goddess, Delia.
"Mhm.. Alex, you go to the frontline and stop them, it shouldn't be a problem for you, right? Cara, you go too"
Two of the kneeling bishops nodded and left without a word, only the handsome young man stayed behind, still kneeling in front of the Pope, he appeared calm although he was in front of the Pope which was surprising, but none of them were impressed, neither the Archbishop nor the Pope.
Arthur and Lucy flew to the tall tower, and just when they were in front of the front gate, it opened and several soldiers came out of it, holding their arms and shields.
There were hundreds of them, priests and mages are at the back and the close-combat fighters at the front.
Arthur knew that Lucy didn't want to deal with them and only wanted to deal with the big shots, such as the Pope, so mercilessly and easily slaughtered them with the Natural Lightning, it only took him a simple wave of his hand to end their lives, After all, their LVL was just too low, even lower than the disciples of the Ma Clan.
It really left him confused, why such a force is still existing even with the clans around? Even the weakest Clan would probably have a Spirit Realm, and he was sure that the Pope is at best LVL500, so it would be very easy to finish him.
As they were entering the gate after collecting the corpses, two figures came at them with fast speed, if you look closely, it was a middle-aged man and a woman, each of them was heading for a target, the woman wielded a blue lance and the man had a white saber.
Just from their attire, Arthur knew they were bishops, and he also knew they were probably new, as he killed two and generally there are only 3, of course, he could be mistaken but who cares right?
Lucy didn't have a grudge with them, so there was no reason to thoroughly torture them, since they were higher rank in the Holy Church and not like the soldiers, maybe they would have some common sense, so he used his threads to totally freeze their movements then he calmly said
"I'm only going to say it once. If you surrender now, I'll probably let you live, if not then you'll die in despair and be slaughtered like a pig!"
In fact, he wasn't going to live them alive, he just wanted to get some answers from them.
"Ignorant! Wh.."
Before the man could finish, he was beheaded by Arthur, the threads were more than enough to do the job, then Arthur's cold gaze turned toward the terrified woman.
It took her some time to realize what just happened, a second she was attacking the intruders and the next one she was frozen mid-air and her companion was already beheaded before he could resist, with fearful eyes she looked at Arthur and Lucy and hesitantly said
"Wh-what do you w-w..want?"
Arthur smirked and spoke again
"Simple, I'm going to ask you few questions and you have to honestly reply"
The reason he wanted some answers is because he found out that he can't use his [Sixth Sense] to determine the position of the Pope, maybe there was some kind of array making him unable to do that, and he wanted to thoroughly finish the big shots before proceeding with the soldiers and such.
The woman slowly nodded, she was still scared shitless of those two, she saw how her comrade was easily killed and truthfully, she didn't want to end up dead like him because of her stupid pride, if there was a way out then she would take it.
From the very moment she was frozen in mid-air, she discovered that albeit her strong armor or the great enchantments on her gear, that was useless against what was restricting her movements, no matter how she struggled, it was utterly meaningless.
"Alright, where is the Pope"
"O-our lord is in the main hall, i-it's at the top of the t-t..tower.."
Arthur pondered for a bit then looked at Lucy, after all, she was the one who was going to take revenge, so maybe there are more people who she is looking for, for example, Sebastien, the man who she previously thought she loved but ended up horribly betrayed by him
"Then what about Sebastien, do you know who he is?"
The terrified woman didn't dare delay and immediately replied hastily
"S-sebastien, y-yes yes! I know, you must be talking about the Bishop Sebastien, that's the only person with the name 'Sebastian' that I know of!"
As he heard that, Arthur turned to look at Lucy and saw that her eyes were cold and full of killing intent as she heard about that name, he, obviously, knew about that man since she told him and he saw her memories, she didn't hide anything from him just as he didn't from her.
He had many other questions, but for now, that was enough, just as he was about to behead her too, Lucy's soft voice rang out
"Don't kill her"
He was a bit confused but since she said that, then he let the scared bishop go, after all, Lucy had her reasons and if she didn't want that woman killed then she won't be killed.
"Consider yourself lucky, you are probably the only person who would come out of here alive, if we ever meet path again, then that would truly be your end.."
As he said that, Arthur and Lucy disappeared from there and flew to the top of the tower.
The woman shivered there for a couple of seconds before she ran out of the building without even looking back, she knew it was the end of the Church, not even the Pope made her feel that afraid, it was really terrifying and since she was somehow spared, she decided to flee.
..
With their speed, Arthur and Lucy appeared in the big hall in a matter of seconds, it was empty, not even one soldier was there, only 3 people.
The appearance of two individuals naturally surprised the Pope and the rest, yet before they could react, they heard a loud scream.
The scream was coming out of the handsome young man who was kneeling a second ago in front of the Pope, he was now held by the back of his neck by a silver-haired woman.
The Pope and the old woman couldn't move as they felt something binding them, and in the next moment, a black-robed man appeared in front of the Pope, his back was facing the old man as he was silently looking at what was happening in front of him.
..
When Lucy saw that handsome man, who was obviously Sebastien, she just couldn't control her emotions, she appeared behind him and instantly broke his knee then held him by the back of his neck while exerting enough force to cause him immense pain yet not kill him.
This sudden turn of events shocked all those who were present, the Pope had many tricks up his sleeves but this mysterious force binding him was too powerful and he couldn't dispel it even after muttering countless spells.
As for the old woman, she didn't try anything and merely gazed at the scene.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...."
Lucy's killing intent reached its climax, the hall's atmosphere became extremely cold as even the Pope felt a shiver down his spines, he was afraid yet a bit happy when he saw Lucy's silhouette, he never thought she was the one who came, after several years searching for her, she finally came to his doorstep but surprisingly, he felt extreme fear as he looked at her and at the man in front of him.
"It's been a very long time.... Sebastien!"
Hearing the familiar yet chilling voice, Sebastien didn't need to turn his head at see her to know who it was, he was usually a scheming and cunning person and wouldn't expose his motives until he was sure he held the advantage, but never did he think this day would come.
"L-Lucy?.."
She didn't respond, instead, a small ball of magma began melting his left hand, and his loud screams resumed.
When almost all of his hand was gone, melted by the magma until it reached his shoulder, it suddenly stopped and vanished, what was left was only blood flowing endlessly and a gory scene, Sebastien face was extremely pale and he could barely hold his consciousness.
Actually, he passed out several times, but he somehow awakened by a mysterious energy which made this like hell for him, the pain was seriously unimaginable.
Lucy didn't even let him time to breath, she picked him up easily and then slammed him down on the ground, a small crater was a formed, blood and foam was leaking out of his lips as he stared fearfully at the cold Lucy in front of him.
His face was finally facing her, it took him a few seconds to adjust and focus on her face, his pale face became even paler as he shrieked, yet because of his special nature, he managed to calm down after breathing for some time, however, that didn't lessen the pain, his left shoulder was aching like crazy and all of the bones in his back were crushed.
"Hahaha *cough* *cough*, So it was you, hahaahhah"
He started laughing hysterically after seeing her figure, that calm attitude he showed normally wasn't present, just by what happened and seeing how he couldn't even retaliate, he knew it was his doom, so he exposed his true face, although he was on the verge of death, he still stared intensely at her while laughing, his gaze even had some lust and lewdness in it.
"S-So you *cough* came, hahaha, did you perhaps miss me? Or miss my.."
Before he could finish, a sharp golden sword was thrust into his body's lower part, and what followed that is a scream even louder than any other one, this time, the pain Sebastien felt by far exceeded the previous ones, even his right hand is broken so he couldn't even move it to hold his lower part, he could only bear and stare at the sharp golden sword penetrating his precious body part.
Lucy's evilly smirked as she saw him stare at the sword, she didn't only do that, instead, she moved the sword while it was still thrust and caused him to wail even more, and while doing that she said
"Emm? It seems you are no longer a man? Here, let me help you out.."
As she said that, a small yet terrifying magma ball, the size of a finger, rushed at his lower part, melting the sword and his body.
Sebastien never once stopped screaming, even his voice changed from all that wailing yet he couldn't stop, as for Lucy, her killing intent subdued a lot, she didn't torture him like he did to her, it's true, but all of this satisfied most of her urges, if it was back then, before she met Arthur, then if she ever caught him like then, she would have tortured him for years, but now, she overcame what he did to her, and this was merely punishment.
Several minutes passed and the Pope never ceased trying to dispel the strange spell cast on him, it was a pity it was not a spell but invisible threads, the more he witnessed what's happening, the more danger he felt, he only thought it was an attack by slightly powerful necromancer, and not by Lucy and Arthur.
Speaking of Arthur, the Pope already knew about him, he knew he was Lucy's companion when he was in the academy, and he helped her a lot, and he felt even more danger coming from this black-robed man.
..
After some time struggling with the threads, he gave up and began chanting something else.
Obviously, Arthur knew about this and heard him chant but he knew it was useless, but once he heard him change his chant, he became alert, he already used the talisman to prevent any teleportation, however, although he knew how powerful he is in comparison to the Pope, he didn't dare act overconfident.
When the chant changed, he spared no time as Natural Lightning circulated in the threads and immediately damaged his vocal cord, permanently preventing the old man from ever chanting again, not only that, he even broke the bones of both his hands and feet.
Never would he underestimate someone again, especially not this man, if not for Lucy, he would have already killed him along with this old woman, it's just that he wanted Lucy to personally kill him, and perhaps ask him why was he so persistent to catch her.
With his voice gone, the Pope couldn't even scream from pain, his eyes were locked onto Arthur as he stared at him with a bit of fear and anger, he was still unwilling to give up, he lived more than 400 years and would never let his fate in the hands of this monster.
..
"*Cough* *cough* Lucy *cough* hahah, good! Good! It seems I didn't educate you enough last *cough* time, even if you do this, you are mine! MINE! HAHAHAH! BITCH! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? JUST A MERE DITY DEMON!"
Although he was provoking her while cursing continuously at her, Lucy appeared calm as her gaze shifted to Arthur, in a split second, she already appeared next to him without even killing Sebastien.
Arthur patted her head while smiling softly, ignoring everything around them, since she wasn't going to kill him, he would do it instead, with a wave of his hand, dark red flames ignited on his body and began burning him very slowly.
The cursing stopped and was replaced by loud yells from him, and from time to time, you would even hear begging but it was useless, as Arthur and Lucy totally ignored him and turned to look at the Pope.
Now that he thought of it, what Arthur did was a bit stupid as now, he can't get answers from the Pope, but the didn't matter anymore, he knew the Holy Church's Pope was famous for his soul attacks and his soul was apparently weak, he didn't know if it became strong or not, but since he devoured 'Abhuva's soul, he couldn't devour anymore.
Lucy's didn't seem she was going to kill the Pope either, so Arthur didn't waste time and guided his Natural Lightning to finish the Pope, but just as the green lightning was going to crush his heart, a deep yet melodic voice rang out in the big hall, completely dispersing the lightning and binding Arthur's movements.
"Boy... stop"
Even though he heard that, Arthur didn't stop and concentrated his powers on the Pope, sending all the green lightning on to his heart, the threads also tightened and started to crush all his bones and trying to behead him.
"Ignorance! I told you to stop!"
As the voice rang out again, Arthur hastily held Lucy and covered her as they were both sent flying away from the Pope, what followed that was a bright light descending from a white crystal above the throne, it was 50 meters or so above it and had a diameter of 20m.
It emitted a very bright light, and a woman's silhouette came out of it, she seemed transparent as you couldn't see her features, but the aura she emanated was very overwhelming yet at the same time calm.
Arthur could barely stand, not even against the Immortal did he feel that.
"Ohhh! Pope Geroge, you indeed managed to get that demon, It seems I need to reward you.."
As she said that, the woman floating in the hall, stretched her bright white hand, and in the next second, a strong force came at Lucy, pushing her toward the Pope and the woman.
The woman's figure was very big, she was approximately 10m, the aura increased every second, Arthur couldn't even move to defend Lucy, he could only look helplessly.
As Lucy's was closing in slowly toward the woman, a cold yet deep voice rang out yet again, it was soul piercing and appeared angry.
"Delia! A goddess like you dares to bully juniors? Seriously gods these days think they are above all or what?"
A black-robed skeleton appeared in front of Lucy, the force that was controlling her a second ago vanished and the pressure coming of Delia didn't affect Arthur either.
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone