Alma 98 Herald of the End

The Pope toasted their arrival in his own twisted way and raised the mutilated skull he'd filled with blood in the air.

"Do make yourselves comfortable, Holy Ones, for we have much to discuss…" He flicked his wrist and a revolting staircase made of compacted gore and bone came out of the mountain of corpses.

Lu'um stared at the Pope with a chilling expression and said, "We have nothing to talk about, fiend. I see now, at last, why I felt such overwhelming disgust for you when I first laid eyes upon you."

Reed clenched his fists in anger and said, "What did you do, you bastard?! I swear to god if you so much as hurt a hair on his head…!"

Sebastian was unconscious, his complexion pale as snow as he hung on a crucifix made out of interlaced

The Pope chuckled and said, "I'd never do something so boorish, Holy One. Who do you take me for — a mindless brute? I would've stood to gain nothing had I broken him earlier than planned."

"Making him scream would've been a meaningless exercise if you weren't here. A play is nothing without its actors, after all…"

Reed reigned himself in and pushed his volatile emotions down the best he could. Now was not the time for rash, emotionally-fueled decisions.

I need to stay calm, at least until I can get Sebastian away from the son of a bitch…

All I need is one opportunity. Just one. I'll definitely reach him…

"What do you want? State your terms," said Reed. He continued to gather Anima into himself in preparation for anything that might happen.

"Good, good! I'm glad that you've worked past your emotions, Holy One. It would've pained me to have hurt your precious friend here had you attempted something foolish and reckless," said the Pope with a smile on his face.

He effortlessly fashioned three chairs out of corpses and beckoned Reed and Lu'um to join him to at the summit of the mountain. "Come, let us discuss the terms of your friend's release and more…"

Reed and Lu'um flew up to the summit and hovered above the mountain instead. They would not step so much as a toe on the mountain, not as long as they still drew breath.

They'd be caught dead first before they disrespected the innocents who had died.

"Oh? Not going to sit? They're not people anymore, you know. It's just flesh and bone — nothing more. Whatever worth they once possessed has already been extracted, anyway. Why bother feeling sentimental over a worthless pile of detritus?"

The Pope bent over, ripped an arm off a random corpse and said, "Look, it's just meat. It doesn't have any feelings, dreams, or hopes."

"Are you the one responsible for this? For everything?" said Reed.

"Hm? Me? Oh no, no. There's no way that I could have accomplished something like this myself, even if I tried my hardest. This was the Ancestor's doing, not my own. I must admit though, I did not expect that it would ask for all of Fourth Heaven, in addition to the Ashborn and Dragoncrest families…"

In total, roughly six hundred thousand people had died overnight. Even now, the outside world had no clue what had happened. They were still too focused on the tragedy of Lei-en, given it'd happened on the same night.

No one knew what'd happened to Fourth Heaven after the attack because it'd locked itself shut. Information on what had happened there was scarce aside from the confirmation that it'd been attacked by an unknown force.

And the Dragoncrest and Ashborn families? Only the inner family members had been lured into the death trap. Their mortal kin had been left alone in order to not draw suspicion. As far as the mortal kin of both families were concerned, nothing had happened at all.

It was normal for them to not be in contact with the inner family. For better or worse, they'd escaped the fate that their talented kin had experienced. Both families had become hollow shells of what they'd once been and were now destined to fade into obscurity without their contenders and conquerors.

The Elders, who'd labored for millennia with the Holy Church to conquer the continent, had finally met their demise at the hands of the being that had tempted them in the first place. They'd been discarded.

"The Ancestor needed fuel, you see. Not for itself, but for the Divine Furnace, of course. Kindling was required. Unfortunately, this was supposedly not enough according to the Ancestor. Thankfully, the Divine Furnace has plenty of sacrifices living inside of it, as you already know."

What the hell? Kindling? Fuel? I don't fucking understand this guy's nonsense at all. Crazy bastard…

"What are you talking about?" said Reed.

The Pope looked genuinely surprised when he heard that and said, "Oh? I thought you'd understand but it seems that you still don't know, eh?" He laughed uproariously and slapped his knees in delight as he jeered at Lu'um.

"How precious, indeed. But don't worry though, I'll let you handle it yourself when the time comes. I want to you do be the one. I want you to see his expression morph into one of pure despair and horror before your eyes."

Lu'um stared at the Pope with an expression of murder and said, "So that's what the abomination has planned. The audacity, the nerve of the damned insect! This will not stand, mark my words!"

"Are you so sure of that? Disobey and he will die," said the Pope as he wagged the dismembered arm in the air in disapproval.

Reed grit his teeth and said, "What do you want from us, then?"

"You are to head to the Divine Furnace and meet up with the Twilight Children who have been sent there. As soon as I get word from them that you have met with them, I will release your friend. You have my word."

Your word? That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all, old fucker!

"You'll find that the girl will be with the Twilight Children. From there, you will obey the instructions given to you by them and in return, they will give you her at the end of your… job, so to speak."

The Pope lifted Sebastian off the crucifix and moved him closer to himself when he finished his explanation. "What say you, Holy One?"

Reed raised his middle finger up in the air and said, "Fuck you, old man. That's my answer." 

"Ssagnasa! F'aactha xuia'taftr un lftatha ang urra' xuia'taftr su sha tsuftftnatt!"

The world heeded Reed's call and space froze in place the moment he uttered the forbidden words. It had caught both Lu'um and the Pope unaware — neither had expected Reed's sudden move.

Gotcha, bitch!

Reed channeled his Anima and burst into action. He made an ultrshort void jump and popped out in front of Sebastian in record time. With a single swipe, he snatched Sebastian and jumped right back into the void.

His heart pounded fiercely like a mad drum as he tightly held onto Sebastian with an iron grip. He wouldn't let him go now that he had him, even if it killed him.

Once the elder speech's effects wore off, Lu'um and the Pope moved into action.

Unfortunately for the Pope, he had lost his only card and he knew that. He had tried to rush toward Reed, or rather, Sebastian in an attempt to reverse the situation but it'd already been too late for him.

Lu'um had caught him no more than a foot away from his original position. It had not even been a fight. It'd been more akin to an adult catching a stumbling toddler. She hadn't even given him a chance to struggle.

Oh, maaaaaaan... I would NOT want to be him right about now.

The Heiress of Moon was infuriated and had already decided on how she'd punish the insufferable fiend for his transgressions.

She'd decided on making him suffer in a manner appropriate for his crimes and knew just the technique for the job. Lu'um conjured a thousand razor-sharp needles and had them inserted into his skin, deep enough to reach his body's nerve endings.

And then, she started her execution. Currents of electricity flowed into the Pope, immobilizing him in excruciating, mind-numbing pain. He couldn't even scream because of the fact that all of his muscles had been locked in place due to the current.

He was slowly frying to death and he'd die sooner or later. Either his heart would give out, or he'd cook to death. But that wasn't what she wanted. She did not want to give him a quick death.

She had gathered Anima and used it to form a miniature bounded field of decelerated space-time around the Pope.

Time flowed normally outside but inside of the field, time ran much slower. For every second passed outside, an hour would pass inside of the spatiotemporal bubble that the Pope had been sealed inside of.

Lu'um had created a personal hell for the Pope, where each minute passed outside was the equivalent of 60 hours passing on the inside. Naturally, in such a situation, the Pope would have died with in the first couple of seconds, but she had prevented that herself.

No, she wouldn't let him off that easily. She forcibly healed him all the while he continued to endure the unimaginable torture of being cooked alive as all of his nerve endings cried out in agony.

A minute passed. Then two. It became seven and later, nine.

By the time the Pope had passed the twelve-minute mark, he'd already turned unrecognizable — charred black and steaming hot beyond recognition.

Only then did she finally stop. When she realized the Pope from the bounded field, he immediately turned into a pile of ash and disappeared from sight.

"Heaven have mercy…" said Reed as he stared at the lump of ash on the ground with a ghastly expression.

The Pope's death would mark the death of the last and final citizen of Fourth Heaven. Henceforth, the Holy Church was no more.

The Age of Peace had ended that day with the death of the heretical pope.

It would mark the beginning of something entirely different… a period of upheaval in the Four Empires… 

The End Times.

Chapter end