The red bricks and gray tiles of the cathedral gradually came into Isabella"s sight, as her s.h.i.+p was slowly approaching the old Holy City.
It looked fairly prosaic. Unlike the new cathedral on the plateau, it did not have a magnificent chapel or a lofty building similar to the Tower of Babel. It might even be smaller than the churches located in the capitals of the Four Kingdoms. Despite that, in the heart of most believers, this old cathedral together with the cloisters, the Hall of Military Affairs and the Hall of Arbitration formed the palace of deities on the ground.
They considered this old cathedral the source of the church and the beginning of everything.
Isabella, however, rejected this saying.
She knew that the real place of origin for the church located inside the high mountains behind the old cathedral and that the truth was always kept as a secret from the believers.
As for the old Holy City?
It was just built to cover the secret.
After the sailing s.h.i.+p was anch.o.r.ed off by the dock, Isabella walked down the trestle bridge alone with light bags. Seeing this, the guard who came from Pivotal Secret Area to fetch her was taken by surprise and asked, "My Lady, where are the other pure witches?"
"They"ll come one or two days later. I know His Holiness is rus.h.i.+ng for us to return, but they still need some time to make some arrangements," she shrugged and replied.
"But Lady Zero said..."
"She wanted to see everyone." Isabella interrupted the guard. "I knew, but she didn"t say that she wanted to see all of us at the same time."
She was puzzled by the recall order. Requiring all the pure witches to come back to Holy City would apparently ruin the plan to control Kingdom of Dawn. Without the medicine, the king would die in endless sleep. She could not think of a reason for Zero"s abrupt change of plan, nor did she receive any explanation in the order.
"She"s getting more and more like a real pope," Isabella thought, feeling a little unhappy.
Nevertheless, she had to still hit the road as soon as she had received the command. It had taken her a whole week to rush back to Hermes.
She turned around to ask the guard while boarding the cart, "By the way, do you know what happened in Holy City?"
"The advance force of the church fought a battle against the army of Kingdom of Graycastle at the foot of Coldwind Ridge," the guard hesitated for a while and answered, "and I think you"d better ask Lady Zero for the details."
"Did... the advance force lose?"
The guard slightly nodded to her without saying anything. He quickly left to mount a war-horse and then shouted to the coachman, "Let"s go!"
Inside the carriage, Isabella let the curtains down and she was lost in her thought.
There were certainly many G.o.d"s Punishment Warriors in the advance force, as top leaders of the church only reacted when there"s a heavy loss to G.o.d"s Punishment Army.
G.o.d"s Punishment Warriors aren"t immortals. They"ll also suffer from heavy casualties, facing the harms more than they can bear. Since the church launched the attack at Kingdom of Everwinter, Holy City has already lost nearly 100 of them. I thought Zero had already got used to this situation, but maybe I was wrong. What a heavy loss could it be in this battle, which led to Zero"s decision to recall all the pure witches.
The coach traveled through the busy streets of the old Holy City and came to a battalion near the cliffs of the Impa.s.sable Mountain Range. Like the cathedral, this place was also heavily secured. Isabella got off the coach and stepped into a tunnel which was cut into the cliffs. She pa.s.sed through many iron gates, walking into the mountain.
In the cold light of the G.o.d"s Stone prism, the towering silhouette of Pivotal Secret Temple was presented in front of her.
Guided by the guard, she directly went up to the library on the top floor. When she opened the door of the circular hall, the present pope was standing by the window and looking out, who seemed lost in thought.
"What"s this sticky business that makes you forget about Kingdom of Dawn?" Isabella came up to Zero and whistled to her. "No matter what it is, why don"t we leave Gentlewoman and Blackveil there to stabilize the situation?"
Zero did not answer her question. Instead, she pointed down to the people, asking, "What do you think they look like?"
Isabella frowned and asked, "Is that related to what I"m asking?"
Zero ignored Isabella"s question again and said, "Those humble, ignorant people are on the go all day long without knowing what for, just like ants. Maybe that"s also how deities think of us... We devote ourselves to b.l.o.o.d.y wars and then die on the battlefields, knowing nothing about the cause of this situation. Only standing on the top will give one a view of the whole world. Fortunately, now I get one more step closer to Divine Will again."
"What... is your point?"
"As long as I can devour the new king of Kingdom of Graycastle, my chance of winning the Battle of Divine Will will significantly increase." Zero smiled, her eyes were s.h.i.+ning with an unusual excitement. "I somehow feel that... it"s deities who send him to me."
After a moment of silence, Isabella said in a deep voice, "I just want to know how many G.o.d"s Punishment Warriors were killed in the battle at the foot of Coldwind Ridge."
"150 were killed on the battlefield and 11 died on the way back to Hermes. However, the enemy hadn"t even got a scratch. Neither big s.h.i.+elds nor spear throwers could break through the defense line of Roland"s army," Zero said while staring at Isabella with her gleaming eyes.
Isabella"s heart vibrated in a sudden and her mind was in a tumult. "How come the G.o.d"s Punishment Army suffered even a heavier loss in this single battle than it did in the battles during the Months of Demons and the actions of capturing Kingdom of Everwinter and Kingdom of Wolfheart? What makes the Prince of Kingdom of Graycastle so incredibly powerful?"
The witches? The knights? No, not them. Even a mountainous Fearful Beast of h.e.l.l will die when it"s besieged by G.o.d"s Punishment Warriors. How did he manage to do this?
"A dreadful snow powder weapon," Zero said as if she saw through Isabella"s mind. "Even mortals could operate this kind of weapons. They could shoot targets a thousand steps away. They broke the armors plates and iron s.h.i.+elds, and they"re firing non-stop. Our warriors became easy targets for them."
After hearing the process of the battle, Isabella took a deep breath and the look on her face was uncertain. After a long while, she said, "So, you"ve lost."
"It"s indeed a defeat for the church, and Soli Daal took the enemy too lightly..."
Isabella suddenly interrupted and said, "No, I didn"t mean the battle. Do you remember? You told me only the winner was the deities" chosen one, and now you"re clearly not the one."
"You think... Roland Wimbledon is the one who can win the Divine"s Smile instead of me?" Zero peacefully asked.
Isabella could not help but raise her voice, arguing, "Don"t forget about our goal! We must defeat the demons in order to enable mankind to survive. I don"t care whether the church is the one to realize that goal! Given what happened during that battle, it"s clear that even if you pool all your strength to defeat and devour Roland, it"ll do no good to our goal. His army and witches will be slaughtered, G.o.d"s Punishment Army will also suffer a heavy loss and in less than half a year Months of Demons will arrive again!"
For one split second, Isabella thought Zero was going to kill her, but Zero did not react until she finished.
"So what do you want me to do?"
The pope asked softly after a long silence.