Pietro Yogdis, the Roman Catholic cardinal currently holding the greatest authority to speak within the Church, lifted an ornate French press and poured himself a cup of hot coffee. Settling comfortably into a leather armchair beside a Baroque window, he admired this city of the Heavenly Father.
Even though a world war had broken out not long ago and the Papal Palace in Avignon, France, had been destroyed, Vatican City remained as peaceful and tranquil tonight as ever.
This was the Vatican, a city beloved by God. It was hardly comparable to Avignon in France.
Thinking back to when he had first become one of the Lord's lambs, then a devout believer, and finally entered the Roman clergy, the misery of his childhood had driven him to chase wealth all his life. Step by step, he had done everything in his power to climb upward, from cleric to priest, from priest to bishop, and from bishop to cardinal...
Now, among the Roman Catholic Church's fourteen cardinal electors and one hundred and forty-one cardinals, he possessed the greatest authority to speak. That distant and seemingly unattainable position of Pope appeared to be only a single step away.
He desired it desperately.
Pope Reese... you're already old. Too much mercy is nothing but weakness, he murmured silently.
Pietro Yogdis understood very clearly that his and Fiamma of the Right's usurpation of authority would only further undermine the Pope's prestige. Even if they defeated Academy City, the Vatican would likely become little more than Fiamma of the Right's mouthpiece, and Pietro's own power would not increase much beyond what he already held as a cardinal.
But... as long as it benefited him, nothing else mattered.
Pietro Yogdis already regarded the Vatican as his own territory, and his mind was filled with a grand series of plans waiting to be carried out.
As long as he became Pope. Yes, as long as he became Pope. Fiamma of the Right might hold the true power within the Roman Catholic Church, but he cared little about mundane affairs. Pietro would still be the shepherd of billions of believers.
The Roman Catholic Church will become even greater in my hands!
Pietro Yogdis believed that without question.
"Is Pope Reese still unwilling to come out and take charge?" he asked.
"After His Holiness formally declared war on Academy City on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, he locked himself inside the confessional of St. Peter's Basilica. His Holiness said he wished to confess his dereliction of duty and his sins before the Lord, pray for the safe return of the faithful who have gone to war, and pray that this war and slaughter will end as soon as possible. And also..."
Wearing the plain robes of a mid-ranking priest, the cleric belonging to Pietro Yogdis' faction hesitated for a moment.
"Speak freely."
"His Holiness told us to stop hypocritically disturbing him. Since you have already obtained the support of the Cardinals' Administrative Council, then do as you please... Whether you ascend to Heaven or plunge straight into Hell, he is merely a useless old man destined to fall into Satan's most evil abyss."
The priest spoke carefully.
"Mm. Understood. You may leave. And don't send anyone else to bother the Pope." After a long pause, Pietro Yogdis raised his head. There was little change in emotion on his aged, deeply wrinkled face.
"Yes."
I will become the next Pope. That was decided long ago. There is no longer any place for you on the stage, Pope Reese... Once we seize the future of Christianity, you can retire in glory.
Pietro Yogdis looked away, his eyes settling silently upon the porcelain cup. A moment later, he lifted it and drained the coffee in one gulp.
Just as he was about to deal with other matters, someone suddenly knocked on the door.
"Come in." Pietro Yogdis did not shift his gaze. He merely responded, and in the next second the door opened. A Caucasian man who looked around forty, likewise wearing a white skullcap and formal vestments befitting a cardinal, entered while carrying a roll of parchment.
"The situation... doesn't look particularly favorable. The Russian Orthodox Church's movements in the Far East are all thunder and no rain. We cannot count on our ally."
He continued.
"Biagio Busoni ran into difficulties before even entering the Pacific and is requesting support. According to him, he was attacked by all of Academy City's Level 5 espers, and his fleet has suffered considerable losses."
"All of them?"
Pietro Yogdis snorted. "Hmph. Exaggeration. According to our informants inside Academy City, Selene is still there overseeing overall command. She appeared at a science-side alliance conference only moments ago. How can he possibly call that all of them?"
"Tell Biagio that he possesses our Church's treasure, the Queen of the Adriatic Sea. He has received reinforcements from the Knights and numerous other magical combat units, and even naval support from Italy and the nations of the South Asian subcontinent. After all this time, he is still hesitating and refusing to advance. That is indefensible."
"He has already brought shame upon the Lord." Pietro Yogdis was deeply dissatisfied.
Selene had not moved, and neither had Fiamma of the Right. The Roman Catholic Church's trump-card magical techniques had not yet been activated either. Yet Biagio's weak performance made it look as though without Fiamma of the Right, the entire Roman Catholic Church was useless!
He had actually been held back for so long by such a ridiculous combination of iron lumps that blasphemed God, shameless battlefield hyenas, and a group of children whose hair had barely grown in. Was this supposed to mean that the magic side was inferior to the science side?!
"How did the people sent to Vienna fare?"
His brows furrowing slightly, Pietro Yogdis unrolled the parchment. While reading the magical writing upon it and cursing the greedy Slavs under his breath, he spoke without raising his head.
"They failed. Every magical combat unit we dispatched has lost contact. There has been no news whatsoever. The only thing we can confirm is that Brauchitsch von Habsburg has not left Austria."
"Then keep a close watch on him. Under no circumstances can he be allowed to leave Europe. Dispatch the Knights. He will be the key to keeping..."
"ENEMY ATTACK!!"
A shrill roar suddenly echoed throughout St. Peter's Square. The voice was both piercing and abrupt, startling Pietro Yogdis so badly that the coffee cup in his hand shook, spilling the rich light-brown liquid across the table.
Who?!
Pietro Yogdis sprang directly out of his chair. At the same time, Templar knights clad from head to toe in airtight silver armor strode inside on steel boots.
Then suddenly, the humming roar of violently churning air sounded overhead. Immediately afterward, a blood moon drove back the darkness and cast its light over all of Rome. The moonlight was unbearably ominous and carried not the slightest trace of warmth.
Pietro Yogdis looked up. Across the scarlet-lit heavens, streams of silver-white light were descending from the sky.
Boom! Boom, boom—!!
Thunderous explosions abruptly detonated beside everyone's ears!
Centered upon the impact points, shockwaves spread outward like ocean waves. The black cobblestones paving the square sank and cracked, chunks of stone flying everywhere as smoke and dust filled the air.
In an instant, the three magnificent corridors formed by the two semicircular marble colonnades surrounding the square groaned in protest. Between the pillars and atop them, ornate and extravagant marble statues and panes of glass shattered instantly.
Faced with the incoming shockwave and huge clouds of dust, Pietro Yogdis instinctively raised an arm in front of himself in a defensive posture, squeezing his eyes and mouth shut to prevent dust or debris carried in the blast from getting into them.
Suddenly, St. Peter's Basilica, the Apostolic Palace, St. Peter's Square... all of Vatican City seemed to light up. Warm, gentle pure-white radiance appeared as an invisible "wall" manifested from nowhere, shielding Vatican City and blocking the roaring shockwave outside.
"Who the hell is it?!"
Pietro Yogdis stared at the streaks of light crossing the sky. Judging by their range, they likely covered the entirety of Rome. And those writhing masses of light embedded in the ground filled him with an oppressive sense of dread even from this distance.
The defensive magical formation covering Vatican City had required manual activation instead of responding automatically. That meant the attack was not magic. It was not even any known human weapon recorded in their systems. It had not even registered clear malice!
The masses of light on the ground began bubbling as though boiling.
In the next instant, enormous humanoid forms extended out from them one after another. As the radiance faded, they were revealed as gigantic knights nearly four meters tall, dressed from head to toe in silver armor with four enormous translucent wings spread behind them.
Their faces could not be seen beneath mirror-like masks, but everyone observing them understood immediately that they were not human!
"Their appearance... angels? Damn it! Is this provocation? This is blasphemy... blasphemy! This is the greatest possible insult to the Heavenly Father! Who is it?! Who dares attempt to lay hands upon God's domain?!"
The instant he clearly saw those manifested knights of light, Pietro Yogdis began screaming hysterically.
He did not know whether these "angels" were real or fake, nor where they had come from. Most likely they were false. What he did know was that someone had attacked the Vatican using weapons in the shape of angels. Regardless of what the Roman Catholic faithful might think, he—the man about to become the next Pope—could never acknowledge them as genuine!
Clang!
Under his horrified gaze, the massive "angels," some wielding enormous blades of light, others giant arrows of light, and still others colossal warhammers, began exerting their strength and indiscriminately destroying everything around them.
The sight made Pietro Yogdis' eyes nearly split with rage.
"Guards! Defend the Vatican!"
His order was hardly necessary. Members of the Knights clad in airtight silver armor, nuns and priests dressed in standard Catholic robes—those with magical combat ability rushed into battle, while those unsuited for direct fighting formed ranks and chanted sacred incantations together, activating group offensive spells or enhancement magic.
The Vatican was, after all, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church and the cradle of Christianity. At this hour before dawn, the only people still inside Vatican City were the Roman Catholic Church's most devout believers.
"Blasphemers, you deserve death! Satan's inferno is where you belong!"
A Templar knight raised a massive cross-shaped sword already blazing with fire. Amid his chant, countless flames surged from the weapon in his hands and condensed into an enormous fireball hovering above his head before hurtling toward the nearest gigantic silver-white "angel," which was currently wielding a hammer against the obelisk of St. Peter's Square.
The giant "angel" did not retreat. It swung its pointed warhammer, nearly as large as a man's upper body, as violet-red Honkai energy erupted forth—corroding, fissioning—
BOOM!
Terrifying flames instantly swallowed the two figures despite their enormous difference in size.
"Activate every defensive spell in the Vatican. The attackers came prepared. Assemble all members of the Knights. Have the Swiss Guard protect the Papal offices. Eliminate the invaders! Prepare the Gregorian Choir. Mobilize the Roman city guard to suppress the heretics..."
"Don't bother. Other than the forces already defending the Vatican, you won't be able to summon so much as a single reinforcement."
Just as Pietro Yogdis was frantically issuing orders, an incomparably cold and arrogant female voice answered him. It wrapped around him like the waves of a polar sea, bringing with it an invisible chill that pierced to the bone.
"Who is it?!"
The blood moon hung high overhead.
At the far end of the thick scarlet glow, countless sinister, icy points of light flickered while arcs of radiance twisted. Yet amid that ominous scene, what bloomed was a magnificent and sacred set of six angelic wings, proclaiming purity and singular divinity.
Pietro Yogdis froze. Everyone who turned toward the voice stood rooted in place.
With her back to the blood moon, high in the sky beyond the reach of ordinary lights, a tall woman descended step by graceful step with her hands clasped behind her back. Although she was clearly walking upon empty air, each step produced an audible tap, tap.
[Image: "Action Reference", Location: "Images/1669825459-100264372-109648837.jpg"]
Long silver-white hair cascaded over her shoulders. Her skin was white as plaster, almost pallid. Above her elegant nose, scarlet eyes contained golden diamond-cross halos resembling angelic aureoles, radiating faint indifference and mockery.
[Image: "Mother-in-Law's Outfit Looks Amazing", Location: "Images/1669825553-100264372-109648837.jpg"]
She wore a white-and-gold ceremonial battle dress. A faint layer of light seemed to shimmer across the fabric. Under that radiance, the holy lilies embroidered in exquisite golden patterns along the hem appeared almost alive, as though dancing through the darkness with every shifting halo.
She was beautiful, but everyone present had been carefully selected by the Roman Catholic Church for their devout faith. The bishops and cardinals were almost all old men in their forties, fifties, or older. Without some special enchantment influencing them, mere physical beauty could hardly have made them lose composure like this.
What truly shook them were the sacred white-and-gold six angelic wings behind her. With every beat, golden feathers even drifted downward, carrying glittering motes like falling stars.
If the enormous silver-white knights from earlier merely imitated the appearance of angels, then this woman was an angel. There was no room for doubt.
Of course, that was only if one did not insist on using the descriptions in the Old Testament's Book of Isaiah or Book of Ezekiel as the standard.
Bodies blazing with fire, six wings each, eyes covering them inside and out. Four wheels overlapping one another, every rim covered in eyes...
[Image: "Old Testament Angel · Reference", Location: "Images/1669825579-100264372-109648837.jpg"]
Seen through modern eyes, the angels of the Old Testament were all twisted and bizarre monstrosities. Angels? They sounded more like creatures from an ancient bestiary. Wasn't that basically Lovecraftian horror?
"No!"
Although the halo and wings were new, Pietro Yogdis still recognized her. Silver hair and red eyes.
"It's you! Academy City's most vicious heretical esper, Selene von Habsburg!"
Without question, Selene was the attacker.
"Heretic! Blasphemer! Academy City really has been conducting profane research that violates the teachings of Christianity. Fortunately, we discovered it early and struck first. Otherwise Academy City would eventually have destroyed us!"
His eyes bulged as he stared at Selene and screamed hoarsely, "Children of the Heavenly Father, our holy war is righteous!"
"You were born in Central Europe, land shepherded by the Heavenly Father, yet you aid evil instead. Selene, if you are willing to convert to the Roman Catholic Church and abandon darkness for the light, then we can overlook your attack upon this holy land. We might even canonize you as a saint of Christianity."
He stepped onto the balcony, spread his arms wide, and shouted.
His words sounded sincere enough, but the way his eyes darted about, revealing fear and irritation, made it obvious that he was stalling for time.
"Heh..." An elegant curve appeared at the corner of Selene's lips. "Overlook everything. Make me a saint. What tempting conditions."
As she spoke, Selene hovered several hundred meters above the center of St. Peter's Square. Her sacred white-and-gold six wings seemed like the only remaining ray of light beneath this darkest blood moon, but only she herself knew that what she had brought was something more blasphemous and vicious than darkness, than death... than any simple accumulation of words describing terror.
"But unfortunately..."
Her slender fingers, tipped with long nails of a crystal-clear hue, danced gently through the air. A violet-red flower moved between her fingertips, flickering beneath the moonlight.
She did not allow the Honkai energy within the flower to overflow and form a pale violet glow, even though that would have suited tonight's atmosphere better.
Pietro Yogdis saw it clearly. As Selene's fingers moved, countless violet-red energy particles spilled from cracks torn open with her as their origin. Those were what had dyed the sky red, and the condensed particles transformed into silver-white streaks of light that descended upon the city.
At the same time, large numbers of Templar knights who had been resting or patrolling outside gathered in formation before St. Peter's Square, watching Selene's movements with fear and vigilance as they waited to hear what she would say next.
"Ah... aaah... Rrraaaagh—!"
Amid the suffocating silence, an inhuman howl of agony suddenly rang out.
The Templar knight who had first fought one of the enormous silver-white knights abruptly dropped to his knees. He released his cross-shaped sword and pounded the ground in agony, even tearing off his helmet and smashing it down.
"Jeffrey! Hey! Jeffrey! What's wrong? Chaplain, come quickly... you!"
A knight who knew him stepped forward to help, but in the next instant his outstretched hand froze in midair. Jeffrey had stopped screaming. Thin violet-red lines spread through the blood vessels of his neck. The light in his pupils gradually faded until they were filled entirely with lifeless purple.
Then, with a sudden movement, he stood.
Dozens of other knights, nuns, and priests who had been knocked to the ground by the earlier attacks, groaning, gravely wounded, or already dead, abruptly rose as well. Under Honkai corruption, their eyes quickly turned purple.
Without exception, they all turned their gazes toward Pietro Yogdis.
"It's already too late." Mockery and amusement suddenly flared in those sacred yet terrifying eyes as Selene tilted her head slightly.
Then, in the next instant—
ROAR—!
Inhuman howls erupted one after another.
The nuns treating the wounded had no time to react before their suddenly hostile comrades threw them to the ground, tearing at them with hands and teeth. In moments, St. Peter's Square became a scene of mangled flesh and blood, and the defensive line the Vatican guard had only just organized collapsed instantly.
"Dylan, stop! It's me, Luke! Aaaagh—!"
"Don't come any closer, Grace! Don't come closer! I don't want to hurt you!"
"Barbie, you're a devout believer! Wake up!"
Deadification.
On this land, Selene had removed the benign restrictions placed upon Honkai energy.
And this was the earliest manifestation of Honkai energy's unpredictable nature—reviving corpses, corrupting living bodies through physical contact, and transforming them into dead soldiers.
Even the widely experienced Pietro Yogdis froze at the horrific sight before him. Was it like a vampire's turning? Or some ghoul infection...?
"You... y-you..."
"The moment you set your sights on my father, you were already dead. There is no room for compromise. I will destroy the Roman Catholic Church and flatten Vatican City! One Pope, fourteen cardinal electors, and one hundred and forty-one cardinals will all die because of your decision!"
"It's unfortunate that Fiamma of the Right isn't here. Setting aside your large-scale magical techniques, all of your resistance amounts to nothing more than ants struggling beneath a boot."
An aura of horrifying despair radiated from Selene's entire body. She had already lost interest in listening to the howls of a defeated dog. The pale violet flower at her fingertips suddenly blazed with light.
"Die."
BOOOOOOM—!!
Within the once sacred and solemn St. Peter's Square, the sudden explosion produced a fireball brighter than the sun, illuminating the entire sky above Rome like broad daylight.
Even in L'Aquila, Perugia, and Florence, dozens or even hundreds of kilometers away, the tremor could be clearly felt. The dazzling white flash and mushroom cloud from the explosion surged straight into the heavens.
When the smoke and dust finally cleared, the vast St. Peter's Square had vanished entirely. In its place was an empty zone roughly ten kilometers in diameter. All of Vatican City was gone except for...
"So on the mysterious side of magic, the older something is, the stronger it really becomes."
Looking at the main structure of St. Peter's Basilica, which remained standing even though every surrounding building, every stretch of ground, and every tree had been ripped away by the blast wave, Selene sighed sincerely.
A basilica constructed above the tomb of Saint Peter, foremost of the Twelve Apostles. Its defensive magical techniques truly were not comparable to those of ordinary buildings.
"Look at what you've done. The face of an angel, the heart of a devil. God granted you immeasurable blessings that ordinary people could never dream of possessing, and this is how you use the gifts your Heavenly Father gave you—to slaughter and destroy without restraint... Heretic! Blasphemer!"
An aged voice, hoarse and dry like the cry of a night owl, rang out.
"Lord, if I have sinned, why must others bear the burden for me?"
An elderly man dressed in papal robes stood straight and tall before the last surviving, battered remains of St. Peter's Basilica. In his hand was a cruciform staff depicting the crucified Jesus. His hair and beard were entirely white. The defensive spell around him was already faltering after losing its magical power supply and suffering severe damage to the formation itself.
The old Pope looked at the surviving people collapsed around him. His heart twisted and bled. His expression was filled with fury and regret.
If I hadn't been so indecisive back then, if I hadn't been too merciful, if I hadn't shut myself inside the confessional... If I had used the Dinner Fish technique together with the Gregorian Choir the moment the war began, perhaps this world war would already be nearing its end.
Even the Vatican buildings themselves, which could be transformed into a gigantic spiritual item, had been destroyed because he, as Pope, had failed to activate them immediately. If I hadn't run away...
But reality had no ifs. Now, everything was already too late.
A fair number of members of the Gregorian Choir remained, but clearly they could no longer satisfy the conditions necessary to activate the spell. As for Dinner Fish, that was even more impossible. Nearly all of the bishops stationed in the Vatican had died.
Many had barely awakened from sleep before being reduced to ash.
"Selene! I, Matthai Reese, Pope of the Roman Catholic Church! As the Lord's representative on Earth, I will never permit anyone who profanes His glory to exist. By the authority God has granted me, and in the name of the Pope, I command every believer of the Roman Catholic Church to declare war upon you here and now!"
"Until one side is dead and..."
"Go." Selene had no interest in listening to the old man's rambling. Resting her chin on one hand, she casually waved the other.
Shhk—!
Blood sprayed through the air. Matthai's vision spun wildly as his head soared upward. He saw his own headless body below before his sight finally came to rest upon a pair of extraordinarily magnificent and sacred eyes...
A devil disguised behind an angel's face.
Those were his final silent words before endless darkness swallowed him.
Crash—BOOM!
A sharp cracking sound rang out as an elongated Subspace Ribbon swept across St. Peter's Basilica. Black light flashed, and the final remaining structure shattered into section after section of ruined masonry.
Completely uninterested in whatever thoughts had been running through the other man's mind, Selene drove a Subspace Lance through the dead Pope's skull and lifted it like a trophy before proceeding methodically to the next step.
After all, there was still an inheritance to collect.
"Inject. Corrode. Analyze. Imprint."