I had to admit that there was very little trust in between the pope and us which was painfully obvious as we met the next day during nightfall at the northernmost gate. It was just two of us, waiting patiently for the pope to arrive while he brought a few of those who liked to hide in the shadows.
“You are alone?” Tom asked, wearing the exact same outfit we wore the day before.
“I am.” The pope proclaimed loudly and made the ones in the darkness take a little bit more cover. Sadly though, both of us could see exceptionally great in the dark which made the whole endeavour useless.
“So the ones trailing you aren’t your men?” Tom asked so happily that I could basically hear him grinning.
“…” The pope apparently gave the thieves and assassins a sign behind his back as all of them fled the scene at once. “I was merely worried about my security on the way here. I didn’t know they were still following me.”
“We are in very capable hands during the next week. Shall we begin our journey then?” Tom asked and showed the pope a nearby unmarked carriage. Completely painted black, it wasn’t exactly unsuspicious but still hard to spot.
“Surely. Where are we headed?” The pope asked, already strolling towards it leisurely.
“To the largest cemetery in the vicinity. Or rather, right below it. You will see.” Tom said ominously and opened the door for the pope and I to enter. Only as we were seated opposite of each other did he enter as well and sat right next to me.
For several seconds, it was eerily silent inside until we started to move. Not forwards though and not even on the horizontal plane. The ground beneath the carriage sank downwards as a brownish bubble formed around the carriage. Beyond this thin film, I could see how the ground rose around us, or rather we fell below it.
It took a few minutes for anyone of us to say anything, in particular because the pope apparently didn’t know that we had a few earth mages at our disposal, and because I saw everything for the first time. The earth was split open beneath us and and healed above us, leaving no trace of our movement begin. I was sure that even the pavement we started on had already been repaired.
“So this is the fall you mentioned?” We weren’t exactly falling but figuratively speaking, the pope of death was kind of right.
“Not quite, but close.” Tom answered, just as we came to an abrupt halt. The bubble of brownish magic around us dissipated revealing a near endless tunnel.
“Welcome to one of our smuggle routes.” Tom said and waited for the carriage to start moving once more after several seconds of waiting time.
“So this is how you get everything you need into the city without being found out.” The pope mumbled even though it shouldn’t come at a surprise. The gates were heavily guarded, the walls protected by magic and the skies had yet to be conquered. It was only logical for an underground organisation to be underground.
“Very few know about these tunnels though and even less know about the place where we are going.” In my ears, Tom’s words sounded like a threat, but the pope didn’t seem to mind much.
It was quite the tense atmosphere during our short ride underground but not in a negative sense. The pope of death was seriously eager to see where we were going and didn’t think about his security that much.
If he would, then he would probably pale in an instant. Being in a place where his lackey couldn’t help was a serious misfortune for him. Especially after he stationed a few of them outside the gates to follow us secretly when we would leave the city.
But luckily, he didn’t think about these issues too much and so, we had a rather nice ride towards our destination which wasn’t a fancy place whatsoever. Surely, there were hideouts underneath the city as well, but they weren’t connected to the tunnel network. Too high was the risk of being found out for that.
Instead, we soon disembarked the carriage in front of a little hallway which the earth mage closed behind us once we entered. This way, nobody could ever hope to find the little room we soon entered. It was a circular room devoid of any furniture except for the large, circular magical circle I had created, two plain chairs, the sword of magnetism in the middle and an iron door capable of shutting everything away tightly.
“Can this weird circle create a gateway?” To purgatory? By any means, no it couldn’t. It wasn’t impossible to create a physical opening to purgatory, but neither did I see any reason why.
“Kind of. You are not wrong, but you also aren’t right.” I explained and thus opened my mouth for the first time. Undoing my mask, I smiled brilliantly towards his stupefied face.
“Your voice …” At least he wasn’t that stupefied about my gender, which was something.
“Can we skip that part? For real though it is tiring to talk about my voice with every second person on this planet. Yeah, my voice is similar to that of the saint, no I don’t like it and no, I don’t know why. That should answer every question a sane man could ever come up with. Oh, no I’m not the saint, and no, you aren’t here to meet Askatesh. Any further questions?” I asked and smiled brightly.
“… you lied.” He wasn’t exactly surprised by the revelation and remained strangely calm as if he already expected something along these lines.
“Didn’t that go through your head once?” Tom asked a bit bewildered. Honestly, that was an incredibly stupid question as the pope naturally had weighed the pros and cons against each other.
“I was told it would only take a week at maximum. We know exactly who you are and have a lot of followers in your own ranks. If I am not back in eight days, my closest aides will reveal who kidnapped me to everyone.” The pope said already convinced that we wouldn’t be able to scratch him at all if we didn’t want to fear our own ranks. Problematically was there was no info whatsoever about the religious affiliation of our men which made it hard to get rid of them in the first place.
“So we have a week to break you.” I explained and giggled crazily. Still, even that didn’t led to any fear in his eyes which was honestly quite remarkable.
“You will not be able to. And even if, once my men spot any wounds, they will depose of me. That is the way we deal with popes who had gone missing.” These were quite beefy security measures but it didn’t come at a surprise. We knew of that info already which was why I could laugh heartily.
“You want to say you are untouchable?” Oh these men in top of the ladder always thought they were infallible. But they weren’t. Everyone with a bit of creativity and the right tools could come up with ways to circumvent all the measures they took to guarantee their own security.
By going underground for example we escaped the eyes of his followers and bought us a week in which we could do basically everything we wanted. Just harming him was sadly not possible.
“Please, take a seat.” I said and smiled bitterly as he did so. Sadly, he didn’t give me any reason to use force against him. It didn’t take long until I sat down opposite of him, and Tom left the room through the door. I didn’t want him to be around and neither did he at this point.
“Do you know what this is?” I lifted up the sword of magnetism and presented it to him. He did seem to be oblivious though, judging by his weak reaction. “So you don’t. This is one of a few relics that were on this planet since the dawn of time. Its properties aren’t important here, but what I want to tell you is this. There is a special soul in there. It is incapable of growth in this form, but it doesn’t need to. During its lifetime, it already did so and transformed into a splendid soul. After it’s death though, it was confined in this sword without having that growth stolen. You may not understand it, but you would do good in seeing this sword as a massive mana stone, capable of replenishing its energies on its own.” I explained and noticed how the sword in my hands tried to escape by pulling itself towards the iron door. Sadly, it could only shiver after I gave it a bit of the taste it had once before. Death enveloped it and I made sure it would feel everything.
“What do you want to tell me?” The pope asked confused. Despite being called the pope of death, he couldn’t sense death itself which radiated from me, swept through the whole room and continued to terrorise the sensible freighted soul in the sword.
“Sadly, that sword cannot cannot deliver enough mana for my needs easily. Think about an ocean of mana and only a very tiny outlet with a very small amount that is even accessible through normal means. That is a soul. You feign if you exceed said little amount and you cannot draw more than your tiny outlet allows you to. But…” I lifted it high into the air, swung it downwards and barely missed the pope’s nose. I wasn’t aiming for him though, but rather exactly for the middle of my circle. The sword stabbed deeply through the circle into the ground but other than that, nothing changed.
“But if you poke the underside of the ocean a little bit, mana flows out unhindered. Sadly, such a wound isn’t healable through normal means, which means the soul will never be able to collect any mana at all. But for a bit of time, it is possible to draw out more mana than it should be. And guess how long this noble soul can last?” I wasn’t sure at all if the pope understood everything. But slowly, he began to realise he was in deep shit.
“A week.” I giggled crazily, and looked straight to the sword as two black arrows formed beside me. Invisible for the naked eye, they shot directly towards the sword and stabbed right through it. It’s ocean of mana was punctuated and was immediately sucked up by the magical circle below.
“It is a shame I didn’t find any living soul capable of supplying the circle for a week. Now I have to destroy such a valuable artefact solely for you. Be honoured.” The circle to our feet began to shine in a gentle blue light and even though it’s effects weren’t noticeable right away I knew it activated properly.
“And what does this circle do? Tickle me?” That would be quite hilarious, but also a waste of mana and resources.
“You seem awfully calm for someone trapped deeply underground.” I complained unhappily. I kind of expected him to freak out and that he didn’t bummed me out quite a bit. I was honestly excited for this moment, but he ruined it for me.
“I don’t fear death.” I laughted out loud while holding my belly in utter amazement. He was the pope of death, so that was kind of expected. That he didn’t fear about his well being at all did hurt me a little though. It was as if he wanted to imply that I wasn’t worthy to be his torturer.
“My dear, death will be your salvation, not a torture method I want to use. And trust me, I will break you and in a few days, you will do whatever I tell you.” I said happily and chuckled a bit. The pope and I would become best friends over the course of the next week, that was for sure. And I would make sure to treat my friend kindly.
I had to admit that there was very little trust in between the pope and us which was painfully obvious as we met the next day during nightfall at the northernmost gate. It was just two of us, waiting patiently for the pope to arrive while he brought a few of those who liked to hide in the shadows.
“You are alone?” Tom asked, wearing the exact same outfit we wore the day before.
“I am.” The pope proclaimed loudly and made the ones in the darkness take a little bit more cover. Sadly though, both of us could see exceptionally great in the dark which made the whole endeavour useless.
“So the ones trailing you aren’t your men?” Tom asked so happily that I could basically hear him grinning.
“…” The pope apparently gave the thieves and assassins a sign behind his back as all of them fled the scene at once. “I was merely worried about my security on the way here. I didn’t know they were still following me.”
“We are in very capable hands during the next week. Shall we begin our journey then?” Tom asked and showed the pope a nearby unmarked carriage. Completely painted black, it wasn’t exactly unsuspicious but still hard to spot.
“Surely. Where are we headed?” The pope asked, already strolling towards it leisurely.
“To the largest cemetery in the vicinity. Or rather, right below it. You will see.” Tom said ominously and opened the door for the pope and I to enter. Only as we were seated opposite of each other did he enter as well and sat right next to me.
For several seconds, it was eerily silent inside until we started to move. Not forwards though and not even on the horizontal plane. The ground beneath the carriage sank downwards as a brownish bubble formed around the carriage. Beyond this thin film, I could see how the ground rose around us, or rather we fell below it.
It took a few minutes for anyone of us to say anything, in particular because the pope apparently didn’t know that we had a few earth mages at our disposal, and because I saw everything for the first time. The earth was split open beneath us and and healed above us, leaving no trace of our movement begin. I was sure that even the pavement we started on had already been repaired.
“So this is the fall you mentioned?” We weren’t exactly falling but figuratively speaking, the pope of death was kind of right.
“Not quite, but close.” Tom answered, just as we came to an abrupt halt. The bubble of brownish magic around us dissipated revealing a near endless tunnel.
“Welcome to one of our smuggle routes.” Tom said and waited for the carriage to start moving once more after several seconds of waiting time.
“So this is how you get everything you need into the city without being found out.” The pope mumbled even though it shouldn’t come at a surprise. The gates were heavily guarded, the walls protected by magic and the skies had yet to be conquered. It was only logical for an underground organisation to be underground.
“Very few know about these tunnels though and even less know about the place where we are going.” In my ears, Tom’s words sounded like a threat, but the pope didn’t seem to mind much.
It was quite the tense atmosphere during our short ride underground but not in a negative sense. The pope of death was seriously eager to see where we were going and didn’t think about his security that much.
If he would, then he would probably pale in an instant. Being in a place where his lackey couldn’t help was a serious misfortune for him. Especially after he stationed a few of them outside the gates to follow us secretly when we would leave the city.
But luckily, he didn’t think about these issues too much and so, we had a rather nice ride towards our destination which wasn’t a fancy place whatsoever. Surely, there were hideouts underneath the city as well, but they weren’t connected to the tunnel network. Too high was the risk of being found out for that.
Instead, we soon disembarked the carriage in front of a little hallway which the earth mage closed behind us once we entered. This way, nobody could ever hope to find the little room we soon entered. It was a circular room devoid of any furniture except for the large, circular magical circle I had created, two plain chairs, the sword of magnetism in the middle and an iron door capable of shutting everything away tightly.
“Can this weird circle create a gateway?” To purgatory? By any means, no it couldn’t. It wasn’t impossible to create a physical opening to purgatory, but neither did I see any reason why.
“Kind of. You are not wrong, but you also aren’t right.” I explained and thus opened my mouth for the first time. Undoing my mask, I smiled brilliantly towards his stupefied face.
“Your voice …” At least he wasn’t that stupefied about my gender, which was something.
“Can we skip that part? For real though it is tiring to talk about my voice with every second person on this planet. Yeah, my voice is similar to that of the saint, no I don’t like it and no, I don’t know why. That should answer every question a sane man could ever come up with. Oh, no I’m not the saint, and no, you aren’t here to meet Askatesh. Any further questions?” I asked and smiled brightly.
“… you lied.” He wasn’t exactly surprised by the revelation and remained strangely calm as if he already expected something along these lines.
“Didn’t that go through your head once?” Tom asked a bit bewildered. Honestly, that was an incredibly stupid question as the pope naturally had weighed the pros and cons against each other.
“I was told it would only take a week at maximum. We know exactly who you are and have a lot of followers in your own ranks. If I am not back in eight days, my closest aides will reveal who kidnapped me to everyone.” The pope said already convinced that we wouldn’t be able to scratch him at all if we didn’t want to fear our own ranks. Problematically was there was no info whatsoever about the religious affiliation of our men which made it hard to get rid of them in the first place.
“So we have a week to break you.” I explained and giggled crazily. Still, even that didn’t led to any fear in his eyes which was honestly quite remarkable.
“You will not be able to. And even if, once my men spot any wounds, they will depose of me. That is the way we deal with popes who had gone missing.” These were quite beefy security measures but it didn’t come at a surprise. We knew of that info already which was why I could laugh heartily.
“You want to say you are untouchable?” Oh these men in top of the ladder always thought they were infallible. But they weren’t. Everyone with a bit of creativity and the right tools could come up with ways to circumvent all the measures they took to guarantee their own security.
By going underground for example we escaped the eyes of his followers and bought us a week in which we could do basically everything we wanted. Just harming him was sadly not possible.
“Please, take a seat.” I said and smiled bitterly as he did so. Sadly, he didn’t give me any reason to use force against him. It didn’t take long until I sat down opposite of him, and Tom left the room through the door. I didn’t want him to be around and neither did he at this point.
“Do you know what this is?” I lifted up the sword of magnetism and presented it to him. He did seem to be oblivious though, judging by his weak reaction. “So you don’t. This is one of a few relics that were on this planet since the dawn of time. Its properties aren’t important here, but what I want to tell you is this. There is a special soul in there. It is incapable of growth in this form, but it doesn’t need to. During its lifetime, it already did so and transformed into a splendid soul. After it’s death though, it was confined in this sword without having that growth stolen. You may not understand it, but you would do good in seeing this sword as a massive mana stone, capable of replenishing its energies on its own.” I explained and noticed how the sword in my hands tried to escape by pulling itself towards the iron door. Sadly, it could only shiver after I gave it a bit of the taste it had once before. Death enveloped it and I made sure it would feel everything.
“What do you want to tell me?” The pope asked confused. Despite being called the pope of death, he couldn’t sense death itself which radiated from me, swept through the whole room and continued to terrorise the sensible freighted soul in the sword.
“Sadly, that sword cannot cannot deliver enough mana for my needs easily. Think about an ocean of mana and only a very tiny outlet with a very small amount that is even accessible through normal means. That is a soul. You feign if you exceed said little amount and you cannot draw more than your tiny outlet allows you to. But…” I lifted it high into the air, swung it downwards and barely missed the pope’s nose. I wasn’t aiming for him though, but rather exactly for the middle of my circle. The sword stabbed deeply through the circle into the ground but other than that, nothing changed.
“But if you poke the underside of the ocean a little bit, mana flows out unhindered. Sadly, such a wound isn’t healable through normal means, which means the soul will never be able to collect any mana at all. But for a bit of time, it is possible to draw out more mana than it should be. And guess how long this noble soul can last?” I wasn’t sure at all if the pope understood everything. But slowly, he began to realise he was in deep shit.
“A week.” I giggled crazily, and looked straight to the sword as two black arrows formed beside me. Invisible for the naked eye, they shot directly towards the sword and stabbed right through it. It’s ocean of mana was punctuated and was immediately sucked up by the magical circle below.
“It is a shame I didn’t find any living soul capable of supplying the circle for a week. Now I have to destroy such a valuable artefact solely for you. Be honoured.” The circle to our feet began to shine in a gentle blue light and even though it’s effects weren’t noticeable right away I knew it activated properly.
“And what does this circle do? Tickle me?” That would be quite hilarious, but also a waste of mana and resources.
“You seem awfully calm for someone trapped deeply underground.” I complained unhappily. I kind of expected him to freak out and that he didn’t bummed me out quite a bit. I was honestly excited for this moment, but he ruined it for me.
“I don’t fear death.” I laughted out loud while holding my belly in utter amazement. He was the pope of death, so that was kind of expected. That he didn’t fear about his well being at all did hurt me a little though. It was as if he wanted to imply that I wasn’t worthy to be his torturer.
“My dear, death will be your salvation, not a torture method I want to use. And trust me, I will break you and in a few days, you will do whatever I tell you.” I said happily and chuckled a bit. The pope and I would become best friends over the course of the next week, that was for sure. And I would make sure to treat my friend kindly.
