Chapter 250
I’d heard he was in the final stages: co-opting nobles through every means at his disposal and eliminating variables.
Making an enemy of the Church in the middle of all that would be sheer madness.
“Your Holiness, I’m not sure what misunderstanding has occurred, but Duke Luanax and I are deeply in love. There was nothing coercive whatsoever about our decision to marry.”
As I looked at the Pope and spoke urgently, those silvery blue-green eyes turned toward my face. After studying me in silence, the Pope spoke.
“What if Duke Luanax engineered the situation so that you would believe that? Cornering someone and eliminating every alternative until they have no choice but to take his hand. That is a method Duke Luanax has routinely employed.”
“I’m not so foolish as to fail to recognize such a thing.”
“It isn’t a matter of foolishness, Saintess. When one’s view is simply blocked, one becomes blind all the same.”
Behind his gentle-looking face, the Pope’s voice was laced with cold derision.
“…….”
Watching closely, it was clear that Lionel and the Pope had absolutely no intention of persuading or being persuaded by the other.
It was painfully obvious both had already arrived at their conclusions.
You know how it goes.
The kind of development where you beat each other senseless first, and only then does the real conversation begin. All while spouting nonsense about “it’s a matter between men” or some such drivel.
Lionel was typically someone who favored coin over fists, but the Pope, it seemed, preferred to discipline through force first.
‘What if Lionel gets hurt!’
Halid was here, but I couldn’t help feeling anxious.
In a world where gods existed and miracles occurred frequently, the holy knights serving the Pope were undoubtedly formidable.
“I am not a saintess. I have undergone secularization, so I am no longer a priestess, either. Therefore, Your Holiness has no right to involve yourself in my affairs.”
Even knowing further words were futile, I looked at the Pope and spoke.
“It is not a right but a duty, Saintess. We must guard and protect you.”
“You mean to take my wife from me. Is that what you’re saying?”
“It was you, Duke Luanax, who took the saintess from us.”
It happened before anyone could say who started it.
The Luanax knights and holy knights clashed in a ferocious collision.
Knight Commander Hamed’s combat prowess was astonishing.
Charging in bare-handed, he seized holy knights and hurled them bodily. The sight of armored holy knights sailing through the air like pebbles was nothing short of shocking.
But things did not go so easily.
That underhanded Pope invoked his divine power.
When a radiance that pierced the pitch-dark night enveloped the holy knights, they charged like rabid hounds who feared no wound.
They sustained cuts from the knights’ swords, but the radiance healed them almost instantly and the holy knights threw themselves back into the fray even more ferociously, as if they’d never been hurt at all.
No matter how formidable the Luanax knights were, there were limits to fighting monsters who regenerated endlessly.
The individual powers each holy knight possessed plagued our side as well.
A knight who could wield sword aura could hold his own against a mage. Through training, they learned to defend against magic of each elemental attribute.
But no defense existed anywhere in the world against divine power.
The source of divine power originated from the God who had created this world. It shared a fundamental essence with the most vital force constituting every being who walked this earth, making it impossible to resist or reject.
Unless one were a god of equal standing, or a powerful servant commanded by an evil god.
The Luanax knights had no choice but to endure the holy knights’ divine punishment with their bodies alone, and wounds began to accumulate one by one.
Even if these were only minor injuries for now, the side that would tire first was clearly ours, as it as the side without divine power to sustain them.
‘What do I do? If I use my divine power, it’ll only give them the proof they’re looking for.’
Just as I was agonizing over this, Halid, who had been standing guard beside me and Lionel, spoke up.
“I believe I can handle this. I’ll be right back.”
