The hall became completely quiet.
Just like the dullness and depression before a storm, Aresis suddenly became very quiet.
The Pope was silent, like a statue.
Mellad looked at the glimmer of light on the floor, as though he was lost in thought.
Aresis stood there motionlessly. It seemed that he was stunned.
After an unknown amount of time, the Pope finally glanced at Mellad with a profound look in his eyes.
Mellad didn’t say anything, but he said much more.
He did not sow discord, but after he had told the truth calmly, the Vatican inside and especially the Pope had to do something.
This was the truth.
The coronation of the Pope could greatly enhance the willpower of the enthroned one. In this state, Aresis’s willpower was extremely focused from beginning to end. When he was completely focused, his reaction time, speed, and even his strength would be greatly improved. In contrast, Aresis needed to consume less energy. In general, the enthronement of the Pope was enough to increase Aresis’s combat capability to an obvious level.
Such a coronation wouldn’t be spiritually disturbed by the outside world, either.
It was impossible for Aresis to be hypnotized on the night of the Trial Day.
But there was only one reason for such an impossible matter to become a reality.
Namely, a traitor had appeared within the Vatican.
Angel.
The mighty Holy Virgin of the Vatican, who was second only to the Pope, Angel, had betrayed the Vatican.
Even the Pope, upon hearing this news, felt a tremendous weight in his heart. When he was still hesitating about how to deal with this matter, Mellad had already revealed the truth.
Although he had never mentioned Angel, Aresis was not stupid. How could he not figure out who the traitor was?
From then on, the Pope would have to take action.
“Go call Angel over.”
After a moment of silence, the Pope said somewhat wearily, “I want to see her.”
At this moment, Mellad, who no longer belonged to the Vatican, glanced at Aresis.
Aresis stood there, expressionless, silent, and extremely quiet.
Mellad shrugged and said, “I’m going right now.”
He slowly turned around and left the hall.
The Pope squinted at his back and did not speak for a long time.
This was a secret base built by the Vatican outside Recchi City. To be exact, it was a secret church built next to the beach in the mountain. The area was limited, so the building did not look grand. But it was extremely magnificent. The Pope was living in the largest hall of the church at this time. As the Holy Virgin of the Vatican, Angel, who had so many choices, chose only a small prayer room.
There was a faint glimmer burning in the prayer room, and the shining cross was flickering somewhat. Angel was wearing a white dress and kneeling in front of the cross, quiet and holy.
When the roar that symbolized that he had awoken sounded, Angel just ended her prayer.
She opened her eyes, but her body did not move. She just quietly felt the rage and resentment contained in the roar.
“His Highness Aresis is awake.”
A strange voice sounded behind Angel. The voice was soft, yet extremely cold. It sounded extremely uncomfortable to the ears.
A slender figure wrapped in a black robe walked out of the darkness and stood in front of the candle. She blocked the door of the prayer room, intentionally or unintentionally.
Angel rose to her feet in an elegant manner.
Her voice was calm. “So, His Majesty the Pope should have made up his mind.”
The figure in the black robe stayed silent for a while, and then nodded and said, “Yes.”
She paused and continued, “In our opinion, His Majesty has made up his mind.”
“Why?”
Angel laughed and turned her head around.
Behind the white veil, her eyes were bright and clear. “Just because you’re here?”
“If I’m here, Your Highness, you can’t leave. This is the will of the Pope. To some extent, this is also the attitude of the Majesty Pope,” the person in the black robe said softly.
“You’re wrong, Lei Ya.”
Angel let out a long sigh. “This is the secret base of the Vatican. At the very least, the surrounding regions are within His Majesty’s spiritual domain. He can sense everything in this place. Without his permission, there is no way I can leave, nor can I escape. The reason he sent you here to spy on me was that he wanted to test the attitude of the other high-level members of the Vatican. Up till now, I imagine that he has received quite a bit of feedback and that it is time for him to make up his mind.”
Dressed entirely in black, Lei Ya’s body trembled slightly.
Angel looked at her and said softly, “So you’re not as important as you think.”
Lei Ya.
She was the chief High Priest of the Holy Punishment Priest Group.
As far as her duty was concerned, she was the right-hand man of Angel. But in fact, she could be considered the most powerful candidate in the Holy Punishment Priest Group to keep the Holy Virgin in check.
The Pope had sent her to keep an eye on Angel. This mission had caused Lei Ya to be quite excited for a long time. She had even begun imagining whether or not she would be the next Holy Virgin of the Vatican. Only now did she realize that the Pope’s spiritual domain had actually been able to cover this place.
She thought about what she had done in the past few days. For some reason, her face was a little pale.
Angel didn’t continue. She turned around to look at the cross in front of her and said softly, “Tell me, which one is more important, the Holy Virgin of the Vatican or the Saint War Angel?”
Lei Ya didn’t answer.
She didn’t need to answer.
The Holy Virgin was second only to the Pope. Her importance was naturally above that of the Saint War Angel.
But this was only superficial.
Within the Vatican, the Holy Virgin represented faith.
As for the Saint War Angel, it represented true combat capability. In truth, one of them was more important. It all depended on the current situation of the Vatican and the will of the Pope.
Lei Ya gritted her teeth and said respectfully, “His Majesty the Pope is fair.”
“Fair?”
Angel nodded. “Oh, he’s fair.”
“You have done something wrong, so you must be punished.”
Lei Ya’s voice was vicious.
Obviously, she was talking about the meaninglessness of this question. The most important thing was that Angel had destroyed Aresis’s coronation state and had directly led to Aresis’s serious injury and the Vatican’s failure. Such a mistake was the most important thing.
“I didn’t expect it to be like this either.”
Angel let out a soft sigh. Her tone was extremely complicated, as if she was either telling Lei Ya or explaining it to the Pope. This was the first time that Angel had explained it after the Trial Day.
Although the Pope was not in front of her, in the spiritual domain of the other party, Angel believed that he could hear everything here.
“Why?”
In a trance, another voice seemed to be heard. It was extremely far away.
Then Lei Ya’s voice sounded. “You didn’t expect that? What were you thinking then, Your Highness?”
“What I’m going to say is meaningless.”
Angel gave a self-deprecating smile. “Even from our current standpoint, there’s no benefit for us to fall out with Li Tianlan. His Majesty and Aresis both saw the huge benefit of Europe after Rothschild lost its leader. Such benefit could even make them abandon Eastern Europe. But in fact, with the relationship between Rothschild and the Wang family of Beihai, even if Wang Tianzong didn’t show up that day, would Li Tianlan really dare to kill them?”
“Take a step back. Even if Paul and KingTong died, Li Tianlan and Zhongzhou State are not willing to work for the Vatican. If Aresis succeeded that night, Li Tianlan would definitely turn against him immediately. At that time, whether the Vatican can get out of Eastern Europe was a question.”
The same question had also been asked that night on the Trial Day.
But she had not been recognized by the Pope and Aresis.
Therefore, she had secretly ruined Aresis’s coronation state.
At that time, all she had thought about was stopping Aresis from completely killing Paul and KingTong. In her plan, after heavily injuring Rothschild, she would first stabilize Li Tianlan. It would be the safest choice for them to plot against Eastern Europe and then defeat Rothschild. However, she truly hadn’t expected what happened next. Aresis without his coronation had actually been hypnotized. In the end, there was nothing she could do about it. The Vatican also suffered a crushing defeat.
This was really the worst result. Even if they had turned against Li Tianlan that night, it would probably have been the same.
“I’m afraid it’s not just that?”
Mellad’s voice suddenly came from outside the door. “Your Highness, I think the most important reason is that you don’t want to be enemies with Zhongzhou State. You used to be there, and your affection for him was there. You were in love with an assassin. If you had a choice, you wouldn’t have turned against Zhongzhou State. You wouldn’t even hesitate to destroy His Highness Aresis’s coronation. Is that true?”
Angel suddenly turned her head.
Under the chiffon, her gaze fell on the face of Mellad, which was filled with anger.
Mellad paused for a moment, then loosened his shoulders and bowed respectfully. He laughed and said, “Your Highness, the Majesty Pope has invited you.”
Angel’s body trembled slightly. After a long moment of silence, she slowly said, “Let’s go.”
Lei Ya got out of the way.
Angel walked out of the prayer room and walked toward the hall.
It was dark ahead.
In the darkness, it was hard to tell whether it was the danger of the flame or the frost that began to spread and occupy her whole consciousness.
The church was getting closer and closer.
Mellad, who could already be considered to have formally broken away from the Vatican, finally came to a halt.
He looked at the back of Angel with a complicated expression in his eyes.
In his sight, the floating white dress was completely swallowed up by the darkness in the hall.
Angel’s face remained calm. She glanced at Aresis and then bowed slightly to the Pope.
The Pope looked at her in silence.
In the almost solid darkness, the candlelight grew brighter and brighter. The voice of the Pope was heard. “Angel, you’ve done something wrong.”
“Yes.”
Angel went silent for a moment. “I’m willing to take responsibility, and…”
“Whoosh!”
The icy wind by the sea whistled in with the wind and rain.
An enormous figure suddenly appeared next to Angel.
“Smack!”
After the crisp and clear sound, Angel’s delicate body was sent flying through the air. A smear of blood and some teeth fell to the ground, and the light gauze flew down in the darkness.
“Boom!”
The entire palace shook with a loud noise.
Angel’s body knocked into a pillar of the palace and slowly fell down.
Under the white veil, the Holy Virgin Angel’s beautiful face was a little blurry in the darkness. Blood flowed out from the corner of her mouth, which was shocking.
“Take responsibility?!”
Aresis’s furious roar echoed throughout the palace. “How can you take responsibility? What right do you have to be responsible?! How can you be responsible for such a serious loss of the Vatican? You are such a dirty and mean woman. When I knew you were not a virgin, I should have persuaded His Majesty to purify you!”
Aresis stared at Angel and grinned bitterly. “It’s not too late now. Go to hell, b*tch!”
The candlelight diffused again.
All of Aresis’s roars were drowned out by the candlelight.
Outside the palace, Mellad slowly turned and walked in a different direction.
He climbed up a hillside near the church and looked at the waves in the darkness. As the wind and rain fell, all the voices became extremely chaotic.
Mellad took out his phone and made a call.
The call was quickly connected.
“Have you done it?”
The mysterious Majesty’s voice sounded on the phone.
“Angel has gone to see the Pope.”
Mellad said respectfully, “From now on, the Vatican should no longer have the Holy Virgin.”
The mysterious Majesty laughed and said, “Oh, how will the Pope deal with Angel?”
“It depends on the intentions of all the high-level members of the Vatican. But if nothing unexpected happens, the Vatican will purify her,” Mellad said in a low voice.
After all, he had been in the Vatican for many years. When he talked about purification, he spoke in a somewhat unnatural manner.
Purification.
This was the cruelest punishment within the Vatican, which had not been seen in recent years. Usually, it would be used on the heretics who had caused the Vatican a huge loss. The Vatican would first inject an extremely precious medicine into the person who had accepted the purification. This medicine wouldn’t increase the person’s battle ability directly, but it would make the person who had been injected focus like never before. When the person was completely focused, it meant that the person would maintain their clear-headedness and would become extremely sensitive to the pain in their body.
Then the Saint Warrior would tie the other party to the cross, light the flames, and burn their body. The purified heretic would remain in the most sober state and be burned to death when their perception was extremely sensitive.
That was purification!
After a moment of silence, His Majesty clicked his tongue and said, “It’s really cruel.”
“The majesty of the divine is inviolable,” Mellad said subconsciously.
He shook his head self-mockingly, and then said softly, “Your Majesty, I don’t understand. Why are you against Her Highness Angel? If it wasn’t for me exposing her today, the Pope might not have made up his mind to purify Angel.”
“You can’t bear it?”
His Majesty’s voice sounded a little playful.
Mellad shook his head. “No. It’s just…”
He gave a wry smile and said nothing in the end.
“I am not against her. In fact, if I reach the Peak of the Dark World in the future, the Vatican will definitely be one of my most troublesome opponents. From this point of view, it is not a bad thing for Angel to control the Holy Punishment Priest Group. She is a very kind woman, even a pure one. She deserves the title ‘Holy Virgin’. I have a good impression of her. Even with her existence, we will have many fewer troubles in the future. After all, with her personality, she will not train too many crazy devotees that cause us headaches.”
His Majesty’s tone was a little emotional. “But these are things to consider in the future. How can I care about the future now?”
“I have to solve the trouble in front of me. It’s difficult to deal with, but it’s also very important.”
“What kind of trouble?” Mellad subconsciously said.
“You tell me, if Li Tianlan leaves Eastern Europe, who has the most seniority to take over Li Tianlan’s position?” His Majesty suddenly asked.
Instinctively, Mellad was silent for a moment. His Majesty had already given his answer. “It can only be Tribulation.”
“Don’t underestimate Tribulation. In Eastern Europe, not only me, but also everyone else can’t do anything freely. Even Jiang Shangyu can’t beat him, either. Sometimes, his deterrence is no less than that at the Peak of the Invincible Realm. Everyone can be at ease only when he is dead.”
“If Angel is purified, Tribulation must take action.”
Mellad let out an “ah” then said, “So do you want to use the Vatican’s power to eliminate Tribulation by purifying Angel?”
“I said it before, didn’t I? Yes, I did. There was enmity between me and Aresis. But in order to cooperate with the Vatican, I could only let you save his life. You saved his life, but it doesn’t mean that he can live later. I used the blade of the Vatican to get rid of Tribulation, and I also killed Aresis by the edge of Tribulation.
“Since we can cooperate with the Vatican, Aresis should die,” His Majesty said calmly.
“This…”
Mellad hesitated for a moment. “Tribulation was able to kill Aresis?”
Tribulation was evaluated very highly in the Dark World. He was now the only assassin in the Invincible Realm in the Dark World. But on the Divine & Holy Lists, his evaluation was not high. He didn’t even get on the Divine List. But Aresis was a real expert at the Peak of the Invincible Realm. Even if he was seriously injured, Tribulation shouldn’t be his match. What’s more, he just left Aresis a potion that could temporarily recover most of his combat strength.
“As I said, we should not look down on Tribulation.”
His Majesty’s voice was a little distant. “At present, it’s up to him whether he knows how to let it go or not.”
“All right.”
Mellad laughed bitterly. “If Tribulation really was lucky enough to kill Aresis, then what should we do about the alliance between the Vatican and us?”
“What kind of cooperation?”
His Majesty’s voice was full of innocence.
Mellad suddenly felt that the icy wind in the world was truly very cold. It was so cold that it reached one’s bones.
“Plotting against the big picture in Eastern Europe is something that the Vatican and other forces are interested in. What does that have to do with me?”
His Majesty chuckled. “Look at the Samsara Palace now. The cooperation between them and the Purgatory of Heaven Capital is also about the interests of Eastern Europe’s chaotic situation. The cooperation between us and the Vatican is also about interest. But the so-called interest, after all, is just a saying. No one cares about it except for those who are convinced.”
Mellad suddenly couldn’t bring himself to laugh.
“The Samsara Palace…” he muttered to himself.
“The Samsara Palace wants the new era. She doesn’t care about the interests of Eastern Europe. She doesn’t care about who gets them,” His Majesty said.
“What about you?” Mellad asked.
“Me?”
His Majesty laughed. “Why don’t you understand? What I really want is the Knights Templar.”
Now he had more than one Invincible Realm expert with him.
But strictly speaking, the relationship between the two parties was not completely trustworthy.
His Majesty had no so-called foundation or cultivation, so what he really wanted was a foundation that could help him develop.
Such a foundation existed in Eastern Europe.
But he couldn’t take away the five countries in Eastern Europe.
He could not own Snow Country.
As for the territories outside Snow Country and the five countries of Eastern Europe, they were also entangled in conflicts.
In contrast, in the whole Dark World, only the Knights Templar were the simplest. But the organization of the Knights Templar was also the most simple and comprehensive.
As a subordinate of the Vatican, most of the complicated internal entanglements were focused on the Vatican. The internal environment of the Knights Templar could be said to be the simplest force.
This kind of foundation was what His Majesty needed most.
So he had cooperated with the Purgatory of Heaven Capital.
He had cooperated with Wang Qinglei.
Jiang Shangyu had entered Eastern Europe.
Some of the cooperation had been implemented, and some had not been carried out yet. But it didn’t matter. Because even if it was just a cooperation intention, it could become a bargaining chip in his hand.
He had used these chips to persuade Snow Country.
Then Mellad had revealed his power and had convinced the Vatican.
Snow Country would cooperate with the Vatican, and His Majesty would cooperate with the Vatican as well.
In this way, the Vatican would get Snow Country and the broken but still bloated Polar Ground Alliance.
As for His Majesty, what he obtained was all of the Knights Templar.
Mellad suddenly felt that something was wrong.
The cooperation this time was simple and vague.
Snow Country had used up more than half of its strength on the Polar Ground Alliance.
The Vatican had paid the Knights Templar for this.
Then what had His Majesty paid for it?
In the end, His Majesty…
He seemed to have used some saliva?
In addition, the saliva, which had drawn the attention of the Vatican, had been made by Mellad.
He held his cell phone and was silent for a long time before he asked seriously, “Your Majesty, is this considered as trading nothing for something?”
