******
It was an explosion beyond anyone’s imagination. It was not something Jenna could have created with her skill, Mjolnir; the secret was…nitroglycerin.
It was a highly explosive chemical used to make dynamite in the black marble.
“I should be thankful for science classes,” Sungjin said to himself. Science had saved him.
Although, he knew it wasn’t the most modern or advanced explosive.
Sungjin knew about high tech weapons but was not able to recreate them. He knew how to make a nuclear bomb with uranium enrichment, but that didn’t mean that he could make it in this world.
It was different for more primitive explosives, especially when he wasn’t considering safety or stealth. Making a highly stable dynamite required better understanding of nitroglycerin, but for their immediate purpose, it was possible thanks to the heroes who went through some trial and error under his command.
All he had to do was to create a tiny amount, so that the Valkyrie could recreate them on the battlefield with crystals; this was Sungjin’s counterattack.
He knew the explosion had the potential to damage both sides, but Ereka was activating her Shield for all People; so, they were protected.
Everyone was confused, including the four priests who had been torn to pieces.
What happened?
They had no idea what nitroglycerin was; they just knew Sungjin had done something. For a moment, it seemed like Sungjin was about to defeat the Holy Pope.
The Holy Pope, laughing at their hope, shouted out:
“You shall serve God after death just like you did when you were alive, Eternal Slave!”
A wind came out from the center of the explosion and disappeared quickly.
The four priests were gone, but the magical robe of the Holy Pope was clean without a stain, protected by the power of the great white priest. Next, six black wings appeared behind Ereka.
“Ah…”
Samuel…the great black priest ultimate skill of killing regardless of the protection took Ereka’s life away. Columns of fire dropped upon the other four.
Rachel quickly cast her spell to fight against the ultimate skill of the great red priest.
“Ocean, protect us.”
Rachel protected Eustasia and Sungjin, who had the lowest defense power, but Rachel and Jenna had to stand against the fire without any shield. Then, blue wind attacked them. It was the ultimate skill of the great blue priest. The wind of swords slayed Jenna and started to attack Rachel.
“I won’t let you.” Sungjin stepped in.
His sword stopped few blows, and the attack ended. It took only a few seconds to kill Ereka and Jenna. Sungjin made it a five-on-one fight, but suddenly it became a three-on-one fight; that was the skill of the Holy Pope.
The Eternal Slave was a skill that allowed him to use the ultimate skills of dead members of his team. The condition was it could only be used once, but once was all it took. His power was next level compared to the power of the Blood Ruler.
It was clear the Holy Pope would reload his skill to use God Hand again, and it would be game over for Sungjin. Sungjin had no time to lose.
“Mother Earth, give us power.”
Rachel’s prayer augmented the attack power of Eustasia and Sungjin, and Eustasia activated her ultimate skill without wasting time.
“Durandal!”
Twelve swords flew like shooting stars. Every sword was a heavenly judgment that could cut through anything. It broke rocks and destroyed buildings. It was a panorama of bright power.
But the Holy Pope Pedrian stood like a mountain holding his cane.
“First Disciple’s Staff.”
His cane shot down the flying swords; they disappeared with sparks trailing behind them. The judgment from heaven couldn’t penetrate the privilege blessed by God.
One. Two. Three. Four…
None of the twelve attacks made it through the cane of the Holy Pope.
“Ugh.”
Eustasia pulled all her remaining power into her final blow. Until now, she was attacking him with the energy of her sword, now she was attacking him with her actual sword with the energy. It was her final blow.
Sungjin moved quickly with Eustasia’s attack.
Until now, he was not able to move properly, but he wanted to add his blow on top of Eustasia’s. Eustasia was aiming at the heart of the Holy Pope from the front, while Sungjin aimed at his heart from behind. But this simultaneous attack didn’t seem to bother the Holy Pope.
He knew the only attack that mattered was Eustasia’s final blow. He didn’t even bother with Sungjin’s attack; this was the difference between the Holy Pope and other enemies that Sungjin had dealt with.
The Holy Pope’s defense power was beyond Sungjin’s attack power, so Sungjin’s attack didn’t matter to the Holy Pope; it was like taking a dagger to a tank.
The Holy Pope held his cane to stop Eustsia’s sword.
Clang!
Eustasia’s sword broke into pieces with a sharp sound. Her final blow didn’t work. At the same time, Sungjin’s sword stabbed the back of the Holy Pope. The Holy Pope didn’t bother looking back and simply raised the defense power of his robe. He didn’t care about a stupid attack of a weak and useless human.
The fight ended. Sungjin’s sword pierced the heart of the Holy Pope. It was Sungjin’s victory.
“Ugh?”
The Holy Pope didn’t know what had happened.
The Sword of Heaven’s Will, Durandal, was not something that could be broken into pieces so easily, and it was also impossible that Sungin’s blade could go through the robe of the Holy Pope.
“You…”
“We switched,” admitted Sungjin with a grin. When he pulled out his sword, the Holy Pope slowly fell down. The broken sword was not the holy sword. It was a counterfeit made by Sungjin’s craftsman. Sungjin was holding the real holy sword. The holy sword had been painted to hide its bright light.
That was it. From the beginning, Sungjin had been holding Durandal, while Eustasia was holding a fake Durandal with an explosive.
The holy sword, Durandal, accepted Eustasia as the owner but also accepted Sungjin; therefore, he had been able to harness the real power of Durandal. When Sungjin stabbed the Holy Pope, Eustasia pulled her ultimate power into the sword, while simply swinging the fake one.
Sungjin knew that even science wouldn’t be strong enough to fight against the Holy Pope, which is why he prepared another trick. He predicted the Holy Pope would stop the twelve attacks and prepared his final feat.
Eustasia went over to Sungjin and high-fived him.
“Well done!”
“Haha. We won, right?”
It was worth the training for this final blow. The Holy Pope’s body started to become ash. He was sentenced to death, and Sungjin’s team won.
“We won?” Rachel’s eyes were shining.
We defeated the scary Holy Pope.
Sungjin Oppa did it.
“We won, right?”
“Yes!” When Sungjin confirmed, Rachel began to cheer with her arms in the air.
“Hurray!”
“Hurray!”
The people, who had been anxiously watching the battle, started to cheer with her. Sungjin won. Their protector defeated the Holy Pope. They knew the curse of the Holy Pope would be lifted.
Sir Todam continued his writing:
The young lion king defeated the Holy Pope at their first fight. Rupellion had a massive territory and the Holy Pope was thought undefeatable, but Sungjin proved he could fight against such a colossal power. People could no longer say he was just an ambitious young man. It was his victory. He was the hero of the day, having defeated the Holy Pope.
Ereka had tears in her eyes.
“You made it.”
Sungjin defeated the Holy Pope.
She had missed out on Sungjin and Eustasia’s high-five of victory…
It’s okay. I was able to sacrifice myself to assure victory. I will congratulate you when you are back in the waiting room.
******
Feeling his body scattering, the Holy Pope closed his eyes. That was it. It was just a battlefield. Logically, there would be another battle next time, but how could truth lose?
Wake up. Are you going to let the world go the other way?
He was able to hear the voice of God, the one he had heard a hundred years ago.
Ugh.
He was also able to hear the sound of the lost souls crying out but unable to say a word.
* * *
It was a hundred years ago, when the holy priest was taking care of orphans while teaching people that heaven opens its door to the good people. Life was not easy for the orphans, but they were innocent.
They all followed his teaching, didn’t hate the world, and helped people in need with love. They were all good kids, and the priest also tried to help people around him.
People were grateful for his help and told him they would live their lives following God’s will, but the priest had to leave the place for a while.
When the thieves from surrounding areas attacked them, he had to handle it. He went to fight against them thinking it was God’s will to defeat them. No, that’s what he wanted to believe.
But it turned out to be a scheme from a priest from another parish who wanted to kill him and take over his parish. He died and was angry at the priest who he thought had been on his side.
How could a person who serves God do such a thing?
He wanted power over the word of God?
After a year, the priest went back to the orphanage. He couldn’t understand how he was still walking around because he was clearly dead, but he didn’t have time to think about it; he was in a hurry to check on the children.
But the orphanage was not there. Where it once stood was just a burned building with burned bones. He didn’t even know whom the bones belonged to.
“How…how dare you do such a thing?!”
He was angry he knew he would never forgive the people who had done this.
Three days later, he used his cane to stab the heart of the priest who had tricked him. Maybe it was his rage, but he was much more powerful than before.
“For…forgive me…I was just…”
Maybe it was not sincere, but the priest who betrayed him apologized.
“I forgive you.”
“Really?”
It was okay that someone tried to kill him to take his status, maybe it was just a flaw of humans to do anything for power.
But…
“But I won’t forgive you! How dare you kill innocent children!”
They were innocent and had nothing. His anger brought forth stronger power from his cane.
“Children?” The other priest didn’t understand what children he was talking about and died with a confused face.
What happened?
The confusion apparent at the moment of death was not an act.
The real killers are out there?
The priest searched for truth and found out that it was not the bad priest who killed the children. The killers were good people, rather those people who pretended to be good and took his generosity. The hypocritic killers were…the village people.
They found out the new priest didn’t like the now dead priest and worried that the new priest might harm them if he believed the rumor that the dead priest left a fortune to the orphans.
When it was convenient, they quickly turned into robbers. That was the real color of a human being, the evil and ugly truth. What he saw was just another face of humans’ greedy side.
Do you understand how you should form this world?
Angramainyu had spoken.
When the priest heard the voice of the first and only creator of evil, he finally realized who had saved him and what he must do. He was the one who had to be called The Prophet. He was the one who had to prepare the world until the arrival of the Child of God.
The truth of the world didn’t stand on the good side, so he had to be the one to punish the wrong as a priest. Humans belonged in hell.
Lead this world to the real truth.
“I take your order, my God.”
Agreeing to reinforce the real truth, Pedrian signed a pact with Angramainyu.