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Inside ‘Thunder Hell’, in Fernando’s secret chamber...

The amulet of life suddenly turned transparent and glowed, and a section of bloodstained intestines wriggled, split and grew.

It took an entire hour before the Lord of Storm became what he used to be like, and another two hours for him to return to the third level of legendary.

After putting on his usual blood-red magic robe and embedding a weird false eye to his left eye socket, Fernando finally turned on the node of ‘Thunder Hell’ that connected the outside world. It was not because he did not trust Douglas, Hathaway or Lucien, but because of the basic wariness of a legendary sorcerer who had lived a thousand years.

No more than half a minute after the node was opened, the transmission magic circles glowed, and Lucien arrived at ‘Thunder Hell’.

“So soon?” Fernando laughed wickedly. “I thought that you were going to ‘celebrate’ with Natasha.”

Even though Lucien had been quite used to his teacher’s banter, his face was still red. “Prince Patrick was killed under the late king’s order. Natasha was not in the best mood because of that. I comforted her for a while. Then, the King of Nightmare sent Grand Duke of Orvarit over. They hadn’t seen each other for a while, and I was wondering how you were recovering. So I came here.”

“What’s to be worried about? I can fight another battle with the saints.” Fernando revealed his stormy vibe again. Then he shook his head, “Such things are not strange in the royal families. That little girl should’ve seen it coming.”

Seeing that Lucien was casual and could even comfort Natasha inside the Nekso Palace, he naturally knew that the brief war had been over with a satisfactory result. So, he was not in a hurry to ask.

Lucien, however, still looked at Fernando in worry. “Master, why do I feel that you are even more heavily wounded than the Holy Avenger was? You seem to be one step lower now, right?”

The moment Fernando revealed his vibe, Lucien sensed that something was not right.

“The wound on the soul somehow spread to the physical side, but it’s only temporary. I’ll recover in one to two years.” Fernando suddenly grew angry, “While Melmax was stronger than me, I couldn’t have been more heavily wounded than he was if I were in the complete state! I was only wounded because I didn’t bring my legendary items, and my puppets, mirrors and such were used to deal with the five saints.”

That was why he was confident to escape even when he was faced with the pope. After all, he had many legendary items and life-preserving legendary magics.

According to the demise of many legendary sorcerers, the Magic Empire concluded many things that could not be explained with current arcana theories. For example, the Sword of Truth could directly slay the soul, and the attack of pure energy might affect the pieces of soul inside the resurrection device after it destroyed the original soul. If the energy were even greater, and the sorcerer was not defended, they might even be completely obliterated.

The ancient sorcerers had named it ‘causality damage’, which was similar to part of the curses. As for what the fact was, nobody had figured it out yet.

The Highest Council’s opinion regarding the center of Eternal Blaze’s explosion was that the massive energy would disrupt the causality line. That was why they diminished the energy of the attack, fearing that Fernando would be killed along the way.

Lucien was not convinced by the explanation, but he couldn’t think of any other reason yet. He was just an amateur in the studies of the soul.

“Yes, of course.” Lucien knew his master to be a proud sorcerer who barely complimented other people. Naturally, he hurried to nod and change the subject, “Speaking of which, the Congress has really used all the stockpiles to trap the five saints. We may not be able to do the same thing again in the future.”

The one-time items such as puppets and mirrors were essentially legendary scrolls. They were much rarer than alchemical items of the same level. Even the Congress of Magic, which was best known for their alchemy, had only three of them, which all belonged to the legendary sorcerers. The puppets were from Douglas, and the mirrors were Fernando’s collection.

“To keep the losses minimal, other than thorough planning, the most important thing is that you must not be petty about items and scrolls. If you don’t want to pay the money, you have to pay your life!” Fernando appeared rather resolute, but the storm in his eyes betrayed him. “If I didn’t have the mirror and the puppets, I would’ve brought the Robe of Dominance and sacrificed it to stall the five stains, but then, the Congress would have to compensate for my loss with a legendary item.”

Basically, only legendary experts had legendary items, but the Congress had organized many operations to explore the demiplanes of the ancient sorcerers, excavating the items of the legendary sorcerers who died in accidents.

The legendary items and those crafted with the rare materials from the relics belonged to the Congress. Whoever made special contributions or gathered enough wealth could trade for them. The members of the Highest Council could also borrow one of them when they were out on an adventure.

There were four such public legendary items, which were too expensive even for the legendary sorcerers. As for special contributions, only two kinds were acknowledged. One was the sacrifice that Fernando described, and the other was a paradigm-shifting theoretical system. That was how Fernando earned his Robe of Dominance.

A hundred years ago, when a new grand arcanists emerged at the same time, the Congress almost ran out of legendary items. As more and more rare materials were obtained from the alternate dimensions, the Innovator and the Alchemy Master each created one to make up for the gap.

Lucien had a deep understanding about the use of money again. While the Church was much wealthier than the Congress, things were the contrary in the field of alchemy.

Fernando asked about the result of the battle. “How many of the five saints died? What’s the final result?”

Lucien briefly described the result. Fernando listened and snorted, “Had it not been for Melmax, the four saints would’ve all died.”

After Lucien finished, Fernando slightly frowned and said, “We didn’t lose any of the legends, which was great, but it was quite weird that the new pope arrived at the level of demigod all of the sudden. If the pope did receive the favor of the God of Truth, why didn’t he kill all the sorcerers on the spot? Since he already bequeathed a bliss, it shouldn’t have been difficult to launch a punishment.”

In the past, the popes all died of natural causes, and they had plenty of time to select and train their heirs. Even so, it would take the new pope’s one year before they could become demigods.

“Huh, if the pope is really the spokesperson of the God of Truth on earth who can receive the bliss, what about the North Church and the Holmish Church? Why can they also perform divine powers? Why can the pontiff use ‘God’s Grace’?” Lucien also expressed his questions.

Thoughtfully, Fernando said, “I just realized that something was wrong. Since the new popes would only be at the peak of legendary in one year after their inauguration, why did the three demigods never try to seize the opportunity in the past hundreds of years? The defense of the Holy City could resist one demigod but certainly not two.”

Lucien shook his head. If they asked the Silver Moon such a question, there was definitely not going to be any answer.

......

In the Bright Hall in Lance, the Holy City...

Anasta, who hadn’t been officially inaugurated, stood before the remaining Grand Cardinals and said grievously, “The Congress of Magic conspired with abyssal devils and attempted to destroy the world. Thankfully, His Holiness sacrificed himself and crushed the Will of Abyss, saving the pure spirits. I will carry on his last will and eliminate the evils completely!”

That was their official statement on the event. Now that the four countries of the straight and the north coastline had been lost, they had to ensure that their base was steady, and nothing could please the believers more than a pope who sacrificed himself to save the world.

Looking around him, Melmax felt sorrowful. Of the eight saints, two had perished, one had betrayed and died, and one had become the pope. Only half of them were left. As for the regular saint cardinals, one had perished and three went missing, meaning that there were only sixteen Grand Cardinals left now. Thankfully, the Angel King prepared to stay on earth for now to help the Church survive the difficulties.

“We will certainly carry on His Holiness’ last will and eliminate the evils!” The Grand Cardinals drew crosses on their chest and replied at the same time in grief, “Only Truth lives forever.”

Anasta’s voice became slow and solemn, “We have suffered tremendous losses, but we must not lose confidence because of that. This is a test of the Lord, and we will accomplish the final victory with the grace of the Lord. Melmax, you will go find Torrens and other saint cardinals and tell them that, as long as they would like to repent, the Lord will pardon them. They were only on the wrong path because of Sard’s trick, and they can still return to the Lord. This is the Lord’s grace.”

Now that he had invoked Lord’s grace in front of the Grand Cardinals, it meant that Torrens and other saint cardinals had truly been pardoned. Even if he intended to go back on his words, he had to consider whether or not it would chill all of the Grand Cardinals. Also, Sard’s last trump card was ‘Will of Abyss’. Those three saint cardinals couldn’t have known much about that.

In appreciation, Melmax said in a low voice, “As the Lord wishes and your command.”

Only by uniting the majority could the Church recover from the hit.

“I am still not the pope yet.” Anasta smiled and walked to the stairs.

There were only seven stairs in total. When Anasta stepped onto the first stair, the hallowed and unpredictable hymns echoed.

When he stepped on the second stair, the vague holy light sprayed down, making the Bright Hall even brighter.

After his third step, countless angels made of light spots appeared and surrounded Anasta.

After his fourth step, the whole Holy City of Lance was enshrouded in holy light. All the clerics and believers kneeled on the ground and prayed: “...Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

After his fifth step, the projection of Mountain Paradise seemed to have appeared in the sky.

After his sixth step, a beam of sacred light illuminated Anasta directly.

After his seventh step, Anasta, whose back was towards everybody, had an extremely pale face, and his left hand was shivering beyond his control as if he were too old and weary, but everything was soon back to normal. He turned around and raised his staff high towards the many Grand Cardinals.

At this moment, a grave and sacred voice descended from somewhere high and unknown:

“You will be given the holy name ‘Benedict’!”

Anasta drew a cross respectfully and spoke with a voice echoing inside the entire Holy City:

“Henceforth, I will be Benedict III!”