Chapter 173 – Treason (3)

A thunderbolt struck down through the ceiling of the Vatican, and a tremendous roar rang out—one which made the entire holy city of Torra to fall silent for a moment.

The lightning directly struck Helmut, and all those standing around him were electrocuted and then pushed away from him in an instant.

However, Gareon—the person who had stabbed his sword into Helmut’s chest, did not get pushed back like the others.

As soon as the lightning struck Helmut, Gareon was turned into a lump of white charcoal. Even his holy sword was helplessly shattered. His body soon turned into a fine, ash-white power and scattered in the air as it was hit by a broken piece of his holy sword.

“Apostates. All of them are apostates.”

Electricity sparked out of Helmut’s mouth every time he opened his mouth to mutter.

Meanwhile, Heretia barely managed to come to her senses and opened her eyes with difficulty. She couldn’t move her body properly due to the aftereffects of the electric shock. The feeling of lightning sweeping through her entire body for a moment left her with an intense pain that she never wanted to experience again.

Then, she saw Helmut standing in front of her.

Helmut was wrapped entirely in lightning. The lightning constantly leaked out from his fingertips, mouth, and eyes causing the surroundings to burn here and there.

Heretia recalled the words Helmut had muttered just before she lost her consciousness.

‘

Did he say Telgramm?

’

Telgramm was a weapon that was well known to be the Emperor’s weapon alongside Sutra.

Heretia had heard that the Church was keeping it under their possession, but she let her guard down because she had never seen a record of the Church actually making use of it.

Heretia bit her lips; she blamed herself for thinking that the Pope wouldn’t use Telgramm as he had many other ways to protect himself.

‘

It seems like he had a strong counterplan…

’

Heretia had certainly seen Gareon stabbing Helmut in the chest with her own eyes.

However, Helmut then calmly summoned Telgramm without showing any signs of being heavily injured.

Heretia knew quite a few people who could continue without much effect even after being stabbed several times with a sword.

‘

The Templars.

’

Heretia wondered if the Pope had undergone the same procedure as the Templars. The Church allowed the Bishops or the Priests to use many types of Grace, but did not perform physical reinforcement procedures on them. On the other hand, the Church restricted the Grace that could be used by the Templars, but performed physical reinforcement procedures on them.

‘

...It’s only an implicit rule, but it wouldn’t be so strange if the Pope himself didn’t follow the rule.

’

Many people had pointed out and criticized the physical reinforcement procedures on the Templars for imitating the emperor.

Heretia had once thought that perhaps the Templars’ physical reinforcement procedures were a series of experimental processes to make the most perfect Templar.

Thus, it occurred to Heretia that Helmut was not only stealing the emperor’s Grace, but was also coveting the emperor’s body.

“Keuk, Garghhh.”

At that moment, Helmut let out a strange groan, while his left arm trembled. A bolt of lightning suddenly burst, and then at the same time, his left arm fell to the floor in the form of white ash.

Lightning leaked out of Helmut’s severed arm. Heretia hoped for Helmut to collapse on his own upon seeing his severed arm, but then a new arm slowly grew from the stub of his wound.

Helmut breathed heavily and began to mutter something as he clutched both his hands—it was a prayer to draw forth Grace.

Not long after Helmut began to recite the prayer, the lightning that was being released from his body began to gather in his hands instead.

Soon, Helmut was covered in cold sweat, while clutching dozens of thin lightning bolts in his hands.

‘

That’s not what Telgramm looked like from the records I saw.

’

Heretia remembered the figure of Telgramm being described as a long blue spear. But the ‘Telgramm’ held in Helmut’s hands looked completely unstable at first glance. It was clear that Helmut couldn’t perfectly control it, and it seemed like he was barely controlling it with the power of Grace.

“Apostates, heretics, traitors…”

Helmut muttered a growl and looked around. Then, his eyes stopped on one side of the room—it was where Ivy had collapsed.

Cold sweat began to run down Heretia’s spine. She quickly tried to get up, but all she could do was twitch her fingers. She desperately looked around to find someone that could help Ivy, but many of the people were still fainted or had already been burned to ashes.

However, there was one person still standing other than Helmut.

“That is His Majesty’s weapon. It’s certainly not something that should be allowed to be dirtied by you placing your hands on it.”

Lenly Loen was blocking Helmut from approaching Ivy.

For a moment, Heretia had some hopes, but it was obvious that Lenly was also in a state where it was difficult for him to even stand. Lenly may be a powerful man, but there was no way he could beat the Pope who had strengthened his physical power to the level of Templars. Besides, Helmut was even wielding Telgramm, thus making the situation worse.

‘

Run, you idiot.

’

Heretia puffed her lips and muttered at Lenly. At least one person had to flee, since the plan to oust the Pope had failed.

However, Lenly didn’t seem to be willing to do that.

Heretia could understand why Lenly couldn’t easily run away. If he left Helmut unattended now, then there would be a massacre. There was no way that Lenly could allow himself to run away to save his own life after putting the lives of everyone else at risk.

Helmut growled and then swung Telgramm like a whip.

Just when Heretia thought that Lenly would be turned into a lump of ashes, he drew his sword and stabbed it into the pillar.

The stem of Telgramm’s thunderbolt was once again scattered throughout the building due to the sword. It was a clever idea, but that was it. Lenly’s sword was immediately shattered, while the pillar crumbled down.

‘

...The Vatican.

’

Heretia noticed that the condition of the Vatican building had become quite unstable. The Telgramm had already given it a tremendous impact when it struck the building with lightning, but the ceiling was now on the verge of collapsing after the pillar crumbled down.

Heretia wondered if Lenly’s plan was to bury the Pope inside the collapsed Vatican building, but then she shook her head, since that would also kill both himself and the Saintess.

Heretia bit her lips to the extent of bleeding and managed to make herself stand up. The thought that she would die if she didn’t move motivated her to do so.

“What a mess…”

Heretia’s whole body was covered with burns, since she had been standing relatively close to Helmut in order to talk to him. She was afraid to look at her current self in the mirror, but then shook off such thoughts.

Helmut swung Telgramm at Lenly once again.

In response, Lenly picked up a random sword rolling on the floor and tried to repeat what he had done earlier, but he wasn’t so lucky this time—the thunderbolt destroyed the sword Lenly threw into the air and then struck Lenly on the head.

“You son of a bitch!”

At that moment, Heretia threw herself and rolled around while grabbing onto Helmut’s waist, causing him to miss. The lightning that narrowly passed by Lenly left a long cut across his face.

His entire face was left charred, and a scream broke out from somewhere at such a sight—it was Ivy who just regained her consciousness.

“Captain Lenly! No!”

Lenly managed to stay standing without collapsing even though his eye had suffered a serious injury. However, it was very clear that he had shouldered an incurable wound.

“Run! Ivy! Go and find the emperor!” Heretia shouted.

Ivy looked at Heretia with a devastated look on her face.

Meanwhile, all Heretia could do was struggle while holding onto Helmut. She succeeded in making him lose his balance for a short moment, but she couldn’t do much, since his physical strength far exceeded her’s.

“What are you waiting for? Go! Hurry!”

Ivy squirmed and got up, then soon grabbed Lenly and hurriedly tried to leave.

Helmut roared and stabbed Telgramm into Heretia’s thigh.

Heretia once again felt a burning sensation that could almost melt her brain, but surprisingly, she felt no pain in her leg.

Helmut shook off Heretia as if he was shaking off some annoying flies.

Heretia tried to grab hold of Helmut once more, but she lost her balance. Only then did she realize that both of her legs had disappeared—her legs had long since turned into white ashes. However, she felt that she could stick them back together if she quickly held on to them.

But instead of holding on to the legs she could never regain, she once again grabbed Helmut by the ankle.

“You asshole… where do you think you’re going after you ruined the body of a lady in such a manner?”

Helmut completely ignored Heretia and aimed Telgramm at Ivy’s back.

Seeing this, Heretia shouted loudly.

However, Helmut didn’t even spare her a single glance.

Telegram flew toward Ivy’s back and a bright flash of light covered her for a moment.

Seeing this, Helmut had a cruel smile on his face, while Heretia screamed.

However, nothing happened.

Ivy flinched, but she managed to leave the room without being injured—even though she was helping Lenly up.

Helmut looked at the unbelievable sight with a dumbfounded look on his face and once again swung Telgramm, but the thunderbolt just dodged Ivy and smashed into the door.

Ivy turned back and looked at Heretia with sad eyes, before hurriedly leaving through the broken door.

“No!”

Heretia could not figure out what had just happened. However, seeing Helmut’s rage made her feel like she was tasting sweet candy.

Helmut tried to chase Ivy, but Heretia was still holding onto his ankle and being dragged around.

Heretia was grinning even after losing her legs.

“I have no idea what the Saintess means to you, but based on the look on your face, it seems like it was worth risking my life to save her.”

At that moment, a few people rushed in from the door. They were the ones who had been ordered to wait outside to stop the others from intervening. Upon entering the room, they were appalled to see the horrific situation in front of their eyes.

“No… what the hell is going on…?”

Helmut then turned to look at Heretia. He ended up missing the Saintess, but at least he found a target to vent his anger.

Helmut lifted Telgramm while muttering in a rough voice.

“There are apostates everywhere.”

***

The main gate of the Vatican exploded, and the debris scattered over the citizens. At the same time, some pieces of flesh were also mixed among the pieces of stone and wood flying everywhere.

The Templars, who were preventing the citizens from entering the Vatican, looked back at the door with perplexed faces.

Behind them stood the Pope with an evil look on his face and something that looked like a thunderbolt in his hand.

Seeing Helmut covered with white-colored powdery ash, the Templars instinctively noticed that the ash had once been bone and flesh of humans. It didn’t take them too long for them to realize that, since they had a lot of experience burning bodies of humans as well.

“Your… Your Holiness…”

One of the Bishops fumbled up to Helmut.

But Helmut simply ignored him and looked at the protesting citizens with thunderous eyes.

For a moment, the citizens felt overwhelmed in the face of the eyes of a madman in power.

“I thought I had already killed enough, but I see that I still have quite a lot left.”

Helmut revealed his teeth as he grinned, and began to climb down the stairs.

At this point, the Templars were already starting to doubt whether the man walking down the stairs really was the Pope that they knew.

Helmut lifted a bunch of crackling lightning rays and muttered.

“Kill them all. You are His Majesty’s sword.”

For a moment, the Templars doubted their ears—they doubted whether the order they heard was correct.

But their doubts didn’t last long.

Suddenly, the Grace engraved all over their bodies began to overflow with vitality. If the power they had been using as the Templars until now was counted as one, the power coursing through them now could be counted as more than ten. At the same time, their emotions were also elevated to the extreme, so much so that they couldn’t stand it without releasing this power on anything.

“Keuk… Kehak!”

The Templars felt like their heads would explode if they didn’t release the energy coursing through their bodies right away.

At that moment, Helmut shouted in a loud voice that resonated throughout the entire holy city of Torra.

“Torra is a sacred city dedicated to serving His Majesty! However, it has been corrupted and polluted by the will of the vulgar! From now on, I will purify this city with fire and iron as the agent of His Majesty!”

The Templars roared and stormed toward the citizens.

The citizens quickly tried to run away in a hurry upon realizing that something had gone wrong, but two or three people were immediately torn apart as the fist of a Templar thrust toward them.

The bodies of the citizens who were running away were crushed by the Templars, causing their blood to color the road red.

Meanwhile, just as some of the people thought that they had avoided the Templars, lightning struck down upon them from the sky and began to turn everyone into ashes.

In just a second dozens of bolts of lightning crackled down from the Telgramm held in Helmut’s hand and struck down all over the holy city of Torra—the lightning dodged the allies, and aimed only for the enemies, leaving behind ash all over Torra.

Helmut once again cried out in a loud voice so that the entire holy city of Torra could hear.

“Those who are loyal to His Majesty will be granted strength, while those who are unfaithful will be purified by fire!”