Chapter 6: So This Is a PopeNothing But a Useless Figurehead

Chapter 6: So This Is a Pope—Nothing But a Useless Figurehead

“Are the knights of the Holy Order assembled?”

The Lotai Church.

Rows of exquisitely tailored knight uniforms accentuated figures standing tall and proud.

A pale neck, whiter than snow, peeked from a starched collar. Her face—undeniably beautiful—radiated a daunting, oppressive edge.

But most striking of all were her golden eyes. To meet that gaze was to feel one’s soul laid bare.

Everything about her radiated strength—a terrifying woman, through and through.

She turned her piercing gaze on the Pope Secretary standing before her, her voice cold and utterly devoid of emotion.

“Yes, Lady Meilin.”

Even as the Pope’s personal secretary, she could not help but feel the crushing pressure this Grand Commander of the Judgement Knight exuded, seemingly without effort.

Years ago, when the previous Pope fell victim to a despicable demon ambush, it was this proud Judgement Knights—Lady Meilin—who had forced her way through demon ranks, slaying several high-level fiends to reclaim the Pope’s body and save it from desecration.

Yet, during the subsequent succession ceremony, it was the Saintess, Selena, upon whom the goddess Alicia’s divine light ultimately descended.

Even so, Meilin—admired and revered for her overwhelming strength—retained immense influence within the Papacy.

In the aftermath, she naturally assumed the role of Grand Commander of the Judgement Knights, becoming one of the Holy Church’s three Grand Commander.

“And what of the Pope? Has she given any special instructions regarding this operation?”

Meilin’s thoughts lingered on Selena, now the one who wore the crown.

She hesitated for a moment, then pressed further.

“And regarding that matter…”

The Pope Secretary—usually so adept at smooth, immediate answers—actually faltered for a heartbeat.

It was a full two seconds before he replied.

“No special instructions. Her Holiness the Pope has already departed the Holy City to investigate the disappearance of the subjugation squad.”

“Before she left, she said that this mission was to be handled entirely at your discretion, Grand Grand Commander Meilin.”

“She left the Holy City to ‘investigate the missing squad,’ huh? Heh… She certainly knows how to come up with excuses.”

Meilin let out a cold, derisive laugh. She didn’t believe a word of it.

Selena… She knew her all too well.

Back when Selena was still the Saintess, she constantly slipped out of the Holy City, flouting Holy Church rules at every turn.

Even then, Meilin had always thought she was unfit to remain within the Papacy.

Unfortunately, before she could figure out a way to have Selena expelled, disaster struck—and the goddess Alicia chose Selena as the next Pope.

Even now, Meilin could never quite accept it.

“A Pope who refuses to remain in the Holy City, always running off somewhere… She didn’t even show the slightest concern during the evil god resurgence incident.”

“According to our intel, this is a cult that worships the Blood Sacrifice Mother. The evil god fragment in their possession is nearly at the final stage of awakening.”

“If that thing fully revives and makes it into the city, Lotai will be reduced to a slaughterhouse in an instant… Selena really is as useless as ever.”

If not for the constant disasters erupting across the world—leaving them all stretched thin—Meilin would have already called for the Final Judgement and forced the election of a new Pope.

But given the current situation, it was already too late for such thoughts to matter.

“All that’s left is to hope this operation goes smoothly.”

According to the intel, the enemy possessed a evil god statue roughly at the seventh-rank—should it awaken, even she would struggle to subdue it by conventional means.

Thankfully, there were still at least two days before the evil god’s revival. As long as all the Judgement Knights assembled in time, everything should be manageable.

“BOOM!!”

But at that very moment, an overwhelming presence suddenly erupted from somewhere beyond the city walls.

A shockwave of terrifying force tore through the air, shaking the very soul. The deafening roar of an explosion thundered from outside the city.

The impact swept outward in a wild, unstoppable surge, and even the cathedral at the city’s heart was instantly rattled.

“What’s going on? Did the evil god awaken early? According to our intel, we still had two days!”

The wave of evil energy that surged in made Meilin’s judgment clear in an instant—but now was not the time to dwell on it.

“Summon all assembled Judgement Knights in the Lotai region—move out with me! Everyone else, converge on the location immediately! Go!”

She issued two rapid-fire orders without hesitation. In the next instant, Meilin’s body became a stream of golden light, vanishing into the sky.

“My, my… Looks like I might’ve gone a little overboard this time.”

In the depths of a shadowy void, countless golden lights shimmered and slowly appeared behind a lone figure.

Dozens of golden sword blades, condensed from pure energy—like weapons thrust through a portal from another world—radiated an overwhelming, intimidating power.

And at the center of it all, a horrifying sight unfolded.

A monstrous creature, nearly three meters tall, was pinned to the earth by a forest of golden blades.

Countless trees toppled in a thunderous cascade, the earth itself torn asunder and scorched black—a landscape ravaged as if by a catastrophic explosion.

The evil god’s twisted, grotesque face, along with its countless eyes, were fixed in a death stare on the figure hovering above. Despair and death radiated from its corpse, the last traces of life ebbing away.

Its already misshapen, irregular body was now little more than a heap of mangled flesh, pinned in place by weapons wrought of holy light. Its limbs still twitched faintly, a sight so nightmarish that to meet its gaze was to feel a chill run to the bone.

“Not bad. This evil god really was tough. Looked like a seventh-rank, but it was just disguising itself—it was actually eighth-rank in strength.”

“Took half a minute of my bombardment just to kill it. But that’s the end of that.”

Lin Wei stretched his limbs with the satisfied ease of a job well done. If this thing had made it into Lotai, the whole region would’ve been finished.

“Good thing I stepped in quickly today. For saving the city like this, even the Pope ought to be on her knees thanking me!”

All around, the cultists who had fled from the stronghold now stood frozen in shock.

Faced with the carnage before their eyes, they collapsed to the ground, their worldviews utterly shattered. Even now, they couldn’t process what had just happened.

This can’t be real.

It has to be a lie.

This is a joke, right?

Ever since their high priest had been forcibly sacrificed to their god, nothing had made sense.

At first, they’d thought this stranger was trying to steal the glory of reviving their deity—so he’d struck down the priest.

But when the god truly awakened—after decades of the cult’s efforts, after risking everything and sacrificing countless followers—the result was…

That terrifying man had simply pinned their god to the ground, killing it as if it were nothing at all.

Black blood pooled and flowed, the evil god’s death throes as grisly as if it had been brutally tortured in life.

Recalling the scene just moments ago—how it had been utterly overwhelmed, unable to resist as countless blades pierced its body—the outcome seemed even easier than kicking a stray dog to death.

“So, what should I do with these cultists now?” Lin Wei mused.

With the evil god vanquished, the matter of cleaning up the remaining cultists was something the Holy Church would surely handle. Lin Wei’s cold gaze swept across the survivors.

The cultists he looked at shuddered, raw terror written on their faces.

By normal protocol, captured evil god cultists were to be handed over to the Judgement Knights for thorough interrogation.

But what was with that look in his eyes? Was he planning to slaughter them all right here!?

No! Anything but that!

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

A burst of holy energy exploded in the air, and the terrified cultists crumpled to the ground, one after another.

“Forget it. I’ll just leave them for the Holy Church to deal with.”

With a pulse of holy light, Lin Wei had neatly knocked every last one of them unconscious. Dusting off his hands, he made his decision.

After all, when fighting the evil god just now, he’d used nothing but holy light to speed things up.

With all these eyewitnesses around, it would only help conceal his true identity—who would ever suspect a Demon Lord of wielding holy power?

As far as anyone would be able to tell, it was just a wandering holy knight who had destroyed the evil god. Even if the Holy Church later discovered this hadn’t been the work of any of their own clergy, and began to wonder about the existence of some mysterious, unaffiliated holy warrior—

That was a problem for the far-off future. Either way, it wouldn’t lead back to him.

Oh, Goddess Alicia! Is this the legendary cunning of a Demon Lord at work?

“All right, time to clock out and head home.”

Lin Wei clapped his hands, thoroughly pleased with himself, and was just about to turn and slip away.

But suddenly, a timid voice called out from what should have been a field of unconscious bodies.

“Um…”

“Hm?”

Lin Wei, poised to leap into the air, froze mid-motion. He turned in disbelief.

From among the cultists who were supposed to be knocked out cold, one figure slowly pushed herself up, rubbing her forehead.

She shrugged off her black cloak of disguise, and a cascade of brilliant golden hair spilled out, catching the light.

It was a beautiful girl, her face flushed with nervousness and as delicate as a work of art. She looked no more than sixteen or seventeen—frail and petite, yet at this moment, summoning all her courage.

Facing the masked stranger before her—someone she’d never seen before—she clenched her fists and stepped forward, forcing herself to speak.

“It’s our first time meeting. I… I am Yalis, candidate Saintess of the Holy Church.”

“I’m sorry—I was only just chosen as a Saintess, so I don’t really know most of the people in the Holy Church yet.”

“May I ask… are you one of the Holy Church’s knights?”