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Chapter 732: Alliance Destined to be Broken

I had previously imagined if some assassin wouldn’t do me a major favor getting rid of him, or maybe Pope Caloma would someday suddenly choke to death while eating a walnut. That would be quite nice for me.

Still, it would be unrealistic to think that would actually happen.

Since Pope Caloma was able to stand at the very peak of the Holy Church, which was filled with talented individuals, it was obvious that Caloma was someone who was both incredibly powerful and intelligent. While there were many popes in history who had died of old age, very few popes had ever died in combat.

Being able to reach this position meant that he would have to be at the peak of combat power possible in the mortal plane. Even though popes in history always looked like doddering old men, a pope would hold power for 170 years on average. Pope Caloma was a recently ascended pope who had only been in power for about 10 years so far. It was likely that he wouldn’t die of old age even by the time that all the current Cardinals were dead.

Back when Caloma had still been Cardinal Caloma, there was already a record of him personally slaying the God of Ocean Waves. Now that he was the pope, it was a definite that he was one of the strongest mortals in the world.

Still, when I saw the faltering old man in front of me, I was quite delighted at his current condition.

“Hey there, old man. You’re still not dead?”

Although Pope Caloma still looked mostly the same, his complexion was much worse than before. He no longer had such a kindly appearance nor aura of unfathomability. Now, he was emanating an astonishing amount of power, but I felt that it was only comical. He was just like an old lion king whose authority was being challenged due to weakening in old age, which meant that he needed to show off his power all day long in order to express his existence.

I laughed quite happily at his plight, not even trying to conceal my delight at his misfortune.

“R… Roland? Roland!”

He squinted at me, but then his eyes suddenly widened with surprise and disbelief, followed by unconcealed hostility.

“Yep, it’s me. You recognize me, right? That’s right, I’m now a Level 4 individual. Without you guys pressuring me so much, I wouldn’t have needed to rush and take this step.”

I was filled with evil delight as I looked at the old man in front of me. Just two months ago when I last saw him, he had seemed to be incredibly steady. But now, he was just like a frightened bird. Seeing his wrinkles and fatigued expression, it made him appear like he had aged by more than a decade in these two months.

What would make me happier than achieving great personal progress? Naturally, that would be seeing that my enemy had taken a huge step backwards after I sprinted so far forward.

For any Divine Arts practitioner, mentality would be the most important. In this world where Will could be expressed with a number, having a resolute will was the most important statistic of all for any divine job class member. If your belief was shaken, or if your soul became fallen… Those would be the biggest sins possible. Any powerful priest or Cardinal would always be the stoical type who could remain calm in any situation. But as the pope, Caloma’s mentality was quite obviously in an imbalance. It was a definite that he would lose lifespan because of this, and it was also highly likely that his power level had significantly decreased.

“Why haven’t you died yet? It would be so much easier on me if you simply died.” I made a snarky comment.

“Heretic!!” the pope’s personal guards all shouted in anger. The rashest of them all directly unsheathed his sword and charged at me.

A black shadow flashed. A black wind blew past, and the warrior instantly vanished. His angry roar continued to echo in the air, yet he was now nowhere to be seen.

This abnormal scene caused the pope’s bodyguards to all stop in their tracks as they automatically arranged themselves in front of Pope Caloma.

I had no intention of explaining to them what just happened. I simply brought out a nail file and casually lowered my head while filing my nails, not even glancing at them. Everyone fell silent for the time being.

“You’re not here to just enjoy the show, are you?”

Of course I wasn’t here simply to watch the Holy Church. I had plenty of my own affairs to be busy with. I had no free time to simply watch others.

Pope Caloma also realized that if I had come here with hostile intentions, I wouldn’t even waste time with words. I would simply attack them directly.

Since I kept speaking and insulting them, this actually meant that I was here with sincerity to negotiate with them.

Still, if any of them intended to point their sword at me, I had no objections to taking back some of the interest that the Holy Church owed me.

I continued to remain silent as I patiently filed my really long nails. I had been so busy on the road these days that I had neglected the length of my nails.

After a long period of silence, I finally spoke up first.

“I’m here as a representative of the Mist Alliance and the Southern Sect to establish a new alliance with you. Be happy, since I’m here to help you out.”

—————————————————————————————————————

Who in this world had the biggest grudge against the Holy Church? I would probably be somewhere at the top of the list.

Who in the mortal plane wanted to see the Holy Church’s eradication more than anyone? I would definitely also be somewhere at the top of this list.

There was my personal grudge, the Mist Kingdom’s destruction, Estrada’s death, the grievances that the Northlands People of the Mist had suffered, and the recent schemes, both obvious and hidden. Not to mention, the Holy Church had recently just tried to assassinate me with Seraphim Winton. All of these added together meant that my grudge against them was as deep as the ocean.

I truly wanted the Holy Church to be eradicated as swiftly as possible, but if I instead looked at it in the context of the entire world’s current situation, it definitely would be a terrible thing right now if the Holy Church was swiftly eradicated.

Those who were the most powerful would always attract the most attention. Right now, the most powerful Order Faction allied faction in the mortal plane was definitely the Holy Church without a doubt.

It was only natural that the Chaos Faction would furiously attack the Holy Church. Even if the Chaos Faction didn’t try to attack the Holy Church in some way, then they would create trouble for other countries and organizations in Eich.

The current situation was doubtlessly a gigantic pitfall that Sophocles had devised for the Holy Church to fall into.

If the Holy Church continued to involve itself in San Antonio’s civil war, not only would the Holy Church’s reputation be damaged, they would also be forced to continuously send reinforcements to battle here, weakening the Holy Church’s combat strength like a leech constantly draining blood from a giant.

If the Holy Church instead abandoned San Antonio, their reputation would similarly be damaged as well, and they would be greatly weakened by losing San Antonio, one of their greatest supporters.

Normally, not only would I not help them, I would have to be in a really good mood not to attack them as well.

But right now, the Holy War had only started a short 10 years ago. It was far too quick for the Holy Church to be collapsing right now. Even in the game’s history, the Holy Church had persisted for almost 200 years after the start of the Holy War before it was truly destroyed.

Even though the Holy Church had so many countless useless Cardinals and priests who hurt the Holy Church more than they helped, the Holy Church’s foundational strength was truly phenomenal. That was why it had taken nearly two centuries for the Holy Church to die. But now, the Holy Church was in a far more dangerous position than it should have been in the game’s timeline only 10 years after the start of the Holy War.

If you looked at why the Holy Church met with danger so much quicker, it was of course because I had constantly been chipping away at the Holy Church’s support, making them accrue countless small losses. They also no longer had the full support of all of humanity. When compared to the game’s history’s Holy Church, which was the mega faction that led all of the human mega empires, this Holy Church was obviously far weaker in influence, if not overall strength.

The Holy Church could collapse. I even hoped that they would collapse. The God of Holy Light deserved to die. I would curse him to die as quickly as possible. However, their deaths weren’t something that could be permitted to occur within the next 20 years.

It was quite simple to extrapolate what would happen next if the Holy Church was to collapse right now.

For ordinary people, they would lose everything that they had believed in. It would be as if the sky itself had fallen. They would also lose all confidence in being able to win this entire Holy War. This would be a chain reaction affecting confidence and morale. Although such things sounded vague and ethereal, they would definitely concretely affect battles all over the world.

While a flag that had been knocked over could be replaced with a different flag, if the Holy Church’s flag was knocked over so quickly, the Chaos Faction would never give us enough time to establish our own flag to lead everyone.

In my planned timeline of events, the Holy Church was supposed to gradually decay and die slowly. During this process, new heroes from everywhere, along with new Gods, would gradually establish their own new factions and organizations. The entire world would be filled with new factions, so the major Holy Church faction’s dying would no longer be as important.

Also, there was the matter of the highest-level combat strength. If belief in Holy Light was severely shaken, the reduction in the number of worshipers would further weaken the God of Holy Light even more after I had also worked hard to weaken him. If the God of Holy Light was weakened to the point of no longer being “undefeatable”, then that would be immensely troublesome.

If that really happened, all of the Chaos Main Gods and Demon Lords would lose all fear of the God of Holy Light. They would unhesitatingly invade the mortal plane immediately. Who would lead the fight against the Chaos Main Gods then?

Right now, the highest-level combat strength between the Order and Chaos Factions had a very subtle balance. As the God of Holy Light was indisputably the strongest existence in the entire world, he held far too much influence in the Holy War. If he was weakened far too much, all of the so-called unwritten rules of the Holy War would instantly vanish. All sorts of powerful Chaos Faction existences would immediately personally invade, immensely pushing forward the timeline of the Holy War.

Although this would still happen sooner or later, it still needed to happen only after new seeds had finished sprouting so that many outstanding heroes could appear all over the land. But right now, it would still be quite a while until the heroes could be independent. The heroic spirits who had reincarnated into the world when I created Hell were still only 10 years old now. Once they reached adulthood, their strength and leadership would greatly improve the situation all over the land.

From the Mist Alliance’s standpoint, the Holy Church collapsing right now wouldn’t be good, either.

That would mean losing an allied tank who would attract all firepower for your sake. The Mist Alliance’s current situation was really good to the point where everyone knew about it. In that case, the demons would naturally know about it as well. Compared to far more ancient factions that would be difficult to foundationally shake, the Chaos Main Gods would of course first focus on stomping on this small tree sprout which was developing well.

New technologies were being invented every day. The longer that we stalled for, the stronger the mortal plane would become.

So, at this critical moment, the Holy Church absolutely couldn’t be allowed to collapse.

No matter how helpless I felt, and no matter how much I hated them, I was someone who cared more about the overall situation. I could only keep telling myself that I was doing this for my own good as I came to visit Pope Caloma and help them survive a little longer.

Of course, I wouldn’t be telling them the truth about any of this. To them, I would simply appear to be a former ally who was here to establish a new alliance with them.

“An alliance with the Mist Alliance and Southern Sect? It indeed sounds like a tempting offer at this time. What about the price, then?”

Pope Caloma supported himself with a staff as he reached his hand out while inquiring me about the price I wanted.

“Everything… ahem, what I mean is, of course there’s a price. It wouldn’t make you feel reassured if I didn’t try to take advantage of this situation. Rest assured, I want a lot.”

Since I was here, I naturally wouldn’t be satisfied until I got as much out of them as possible.

A bit more than two hours later, I happily left with some of the Holy Church’s scrolls. Behind in the conference room, Pope Caloma and his Cardinals all had really dark expressions.

What had I asked for?

First of all, I asked for the entire Divine Northern Battlefront Alliance in the Northlands.

The Holy Church didn’t have the time to deal with the Northlands right now anyways. I didn’t make any unreasonable request such as making all those countries in this alliance join the Mist Alliance. I simply asked that these countries loyal to the Holy Church in the Northlands cease all hostilities against the Mist Alliance, and that they would stop the embargo against all Mist Alliance products and transportation. I also requested that the Holy Church retract everyone currently stationed in the Northlands from its main headquarters.

This was something that the Holy Church could accept since they didn’t have much territory in the Northlands to begin with. The Divine Northern Battlefront Alliance defense line had also caused much controversy within the Holy Church. The Holy Church had invested much personnel and resources into establishing a defense line against the Northlands for no benefit in return. They also needed to be worried about provoking an all-out war against the Mist Alliance. Since things in mainland Eich were ever worsening as the Holy War went on, investing more resources in the Northlands which had no direct relationship now seemed even more foolish.

And if the Holy Church confirmed a new alliance between itself and the Mist Alliance, then that defense line would seem even more wasteful and meaningless.

What would the Mist Alliance gain from this? I could only say that it would be a lot, reaching the point where the benefits were countless.

Additionally, I requested that the Holy Church officially recognize the Southern Sect’s teachings on pure Holy Light to be an official branch of the Holy Church, and that Estrada be posthumously declared as a loyal follower of Holy Light who had died in its service, and that he be declared a saint.

Even though I merely made a verbal request, after I said it, the entire conference room remained silent for a full five minutes. Every single Cardinal had an expression as if they wanted to devour me.

A church was a religious organization first and foremost, not a political organization. Different branches of religious interpretation were extremely crucial for any church. Even if the entire church was destroyed, the church would still refuse to change its teachings for a different interpretation.

If the Southern Sect, which didn’t worship the God of Holy Light, was considered to be an official branch of Holy Light teachings, then what would the God of Holy Light count as? What would the Holy Church count as when they worshipped the God of Holy Light as the most venerated existence?

This request was something that the Holy Church would never possibly agree to in the first place, even if the entire Holy Church was destroyed.

But, since the Holy Church was going to reach a certain level of alliance with the Southern Sect, the Holy Church would at least need to tacitly admit the latter’s religious acceptability. In a way, it would be recognition of the Southern Sect’s existence.

For such a matter, it would normally be fine to just leave everything tacitly unsaid. Yet, I still brought it out in the open. This would be considered extremely foolish as a diplomatic move. Still, I felt absolute delight in my heart as I saw how all of these old men were so angered that their faces reddened. There were even some who had to cast Holy Light healing spells upon themselves because their anger was physically affecting their hearts.

I knew already that they wouldn’t possibly agree to “official recognition” for the Southern Sect. I had simply made this request in order to anger them. As for my other request that Estrada be posthumously declared a loyal follower of Holy Light who had died in its service, not only had I done this to anger them, I definitely had no good intentions in mind besides that.

With Estrada’s past reputation and accomplishments, it truly would be no exaggeration to say that he deserved to be declared a saint, as well as having died in service to Holy Light. In fact, some people within the Holy Church were even saying this. However, in the end, everyone tacitly decided to forget about this old Holy Knight who had given his entire life over to the Holy Light.

Why? It was because the God of Holy Light’s incarnation had personally killed Estrada. This represented the God of Holy light’s will.

In that case, if Estrada was declared as a saint and having died in service to Holy Light, then what would his murderer, the God of Holy Light, become?

When I mentioned “official recognition” for the Southern Sect, these old men had only been angered to the point of angrily stomping and having some heart palpitations that required Holy Light healing. However, when I requested that Estrada be declared as having died in service to the Holy Light as well as being made a saint, two old men even directly collapsed while holding on to their hearts. I was almost able to witness old men trying to resuscitate each other through CPR.

And when this happened, I also saw the Holy Knights’ and priests’ representatives seem like they really wanted to say something. But in the end, they nonverbally communicated with their eyes, and all chose to remain silent with complex expressions.

100 years down the road, it was likely that Estrada would become the darkest stain on the Holy Church’s history. But right now, Estrada’s disciples, those who had learned from him, and those who owed him were still everywhere in the Holy Church.

There were many regular Holy Knights and priests who secretly sympathized with how Estrada had died for the sake of the pure Holy Light. They would feel that the God of Holy Light had gone far too overboard. Many basic members of the Holy Church thus had their foundational belief shaken. That was why there were still those who vouched for Estrada within the Holy Church.

I was confident that after I left and when the Southern Sect and Holy Church privately maintained a certain amount of distance and peace, more and more people would start crying out for justice for Estrada. In that case, as time passed, this would likely shake the ordinary members’ foundational faith.

“I am Estrada’s disciple, as well as currently the strongest Holy Knight in the world. I’ve also inherited the Holy Knights’ battle hammer and path of protection. Isn’t it quite normal to ask for justice for my teacher?”

My words were quite plain, direct, and sincere. I was speaking only the truth here, truth which came from the bottom of my heart.

Right after I said this, my Holy Light sword Dawn, which was at my waist, became the center of attention for everyone in the conference room. When they all ascertained that I had indeed managed to achieve Level 4 with the Concept of Holy Light, the other Holy Knights and Holy Light priests had an obvious change in the way that the looked at me. Although they were still on guard against me, their expressions now also contained some respect and understanding.

The inheritor of the Holy Knights’ battle hammer had always been the leader of all Holy Knights, in both name and spirit. My current identity was indeed quite awkward for them to accept, but as mature Holy Knights, they would at least express friendliness and basic etiquette to me.

Still, I decided to move on as I didn’t expect them to actually be able to agree to this. I was here to establish a new alliance, after all. If I went on about this topic any longer, I would likely start a religious war. The God of Holy Light was also an existence that we wouldn’t possibly be able to go around.

“Alright, I know that you have difficulties. In that case, at the very least you can cancel the gag order on even mentioning Estrada’s name, right? The gag order isn’t something that the God of Holy Light requested you to do. Estrada worked for the Holy Church for his entire life. At least let the juniors know who he was. This request isn’t too much to ask for, now is it?”

The Holy Knights and priests who were watching this all silently nodded. Seeing this, Pope Caloma sighed as he finally compromised.

Although he hadn’t agreed to declaring Estrada a saint or to officially recognize the Southern Sect, Pope Caloma had managed to compromise. Privately maintaining peace with the Southern Sect was agreed upon as part of the alliance. The ban on even mentioning Estrada’s name was also lifted, so people could now privately discuss and memorialize Estrada again.

Yet, this was only the most non-controversial and most acceptable portion of this alliance which was destined to enter history.

“In Year 10 of the Dawn Generation, the Holy Church secretly signed an alliance agreement with the Mist Alliance and the Southern Sect. History now refers to this as the ‘Traitors’ Alliance,’ and with this alliance at the catalyst, the incredibly strong Holy Church went down a path of constant weakening… Haha, I like this description. I should write it down in my notebook.”