"Crown, I have one more question!" Andrea asked finally, aboard the flight from the Vatican to France. "If Saint Joan of Arc was truly as powerful as we understand her to be, then why..."
"Why did the powerful Saint Joan of Arc still die in the flas of England?" Mario turned his head.
"Yes," Andrea said. "Should we make preparations in advance?"
"This is no secret. Rasinger tracked down the original text, and this event can be seen in the unsealed secret records of The Church," Mario stated. "That was a truly terrifying disaster for The Church as well!"
"Our Saintess suffered from the betrayal by subordinates, the disdain from the king of France, an attack by allies, and the oppression from mortal enemies in succession. It forced her to make a choice between justice and kindness..."
"In the end, she traded her own freedom for the lives of a few!"
Hearing this, Andrea understood. "When it cos down to it, it is still about human nature, right?"
"Indeed. The trial of human nature is sothing no one can avoid. The overwhelming presence of enemies ensures that our saints are constantly exhausted trying to balance that human nature, which provides the demons with their best opportunity!"
Mario's words carried a trace of deep emotion.
There was no way to reconcile good and evil; all they could do was guard their original intentions.
Andrea froze for a mont upon hearing this. "Crown, did you know that demons would co?"
"They will definitely co, without a doubt!" Pope Mario's expression turned chilling. The rewards brought by his piety were far greater than those of an ordinary bishop. "But just because they can co does not an they will be able to leave!"
"Were you not curious why Leon and George did not co for the Luo City incident this ti? This is the reason!"
"You and Lord Bennett Angus certainly have grand ambitions..." Andrea was utterly shocked. Using the Saintess as bait? Such a massive gamble?
"The hidden malice will only increase. It is better to clean up as much as possible now rather than leaving Caroline to face it all alone in the future!" Mario murmured. "Let us go. We have arrived in Rouen!"
Their landing point was Rouen, the very land where Saint Joan of Arc was burned to death, yet it was also the place where The Church would once again cast its holy radiance upon the loyal children of the Catholic Church.
...
Arica, Illinois.
"Vlad the Great... or should I call you Vlad III?" Lems Oconnor said in a low voice.
He was the Archdemon sweeping across the eastern part of Arica, a terrifying existence that made all military forces tremble in fear.
This demon was no longer in his previously paralyzed state. Instead, he possessed the ability to move freely, a powerful physique, and an incredibly dominant appearance. At the very least, compared to Vlad standing before him, he looked much more like a monster.
He had absorbed massive amounts of negative emotions to repair his body, and throughout the entire eastern region, he had gained quite the reputation!
This man, famous for attacking the military system and earning imnse prestige among the veteran groups of Arica, was currently at his absolute peak.
Behind him stood nurous incredibly muscular n. One did not even need to guess to know that this was his werewolf legion.
"Just call Vlad. Once this na spread, it provided with a trendous amount of power!" Vlad was still dressed in a tailcoat, maintaining an air of noble, lofty arrogance.
His statent was not just aimless talk. Compared to Wallachia, a na sowhat famous in the mystical realm, the na Vlad made it much easier to attract attention and peculiar reverence from others.
Most importantly, it helped him acquire power with far greater ease. In this world, the na Vlad was inextricably linked to another, even more famous vampire—Dracula.
The wish power directed toward Dracula would also spill over to him, making him even stronger!
Just look at him now; he was already vastly more powerful than before. If Lincoln were to appear again, Vlad would undoubtedly be able to crush him in a fight!
Behind him was a space of rolling darkness, resembling black clouds. The ghostly screeches of bats manifested rapidly before vanishing just as fast.
"Then I will call you Vlad. You received the ssage from Hell as well, correct?" Lems asked again.
The two of them, who had virtually no prior interaction, had not gathered just to shoot the breeze. They were here because a superior being had transmitted a ssage to them.
"Yes!" Vlad nodded. "It has been nearly five hundred years since I last received a direct transmission from Crown Cain..."
Hearing this, Lems deduced that Vlad was in a similar situation to him, having received a divine prompt. He slowly nodded. "The Saintess, Caroline, will definitely be our biggest trouble in the future!"
"You do not need to tell that!" Vlad III frowned. "Illinois does not have any Precepts yet, but certain personnel from The Church have already begun distributing The Bible, holy water, and scriptures to resist the corruption of my blood thralls!"
"These are all things concocted by those Precept wielders!" Lems felt this even more deeply. "You are rely experiencing the ripple effects, whereas I am dealing with an all-out encirclent by a Paladin and a Saint candidate!"
"It is only because the Inquisition returned to Europe recently. Otherwise, I would still be running for my life right now!"
It was not that Lems was truly incapable of escaping; rather, he had discovered that the Saint nad George had recently switched his combat strategy, opting to 'fish' instead!
The man had actually gone straight after the corrupt elents within the military, using them as bait to lure Lems out.
These corrupt, malice-filled individuals had already been abandoned by the Arican officials. Faced with a life-or-death crisis, these military bigwigs cowardly chose to cut their losses and run.
Under the threat of death, all the previously withheld salaries and unpaid subsidies were finally distributed in full.
It had to be said that this entire ordeal felt incredibly ironic to George, who had been involved from start to finish. Things that The Church and the governnt could not accomplish had sohow been achieved by a demon.
Thinking about this, Lems stared at the Progenitor of Vampires before him. "So, what are your thoughts?"
"To follow tradition, of course..." Vlad III sneered coldly. "However Saint Joan of Arc died back then, that is exactly how the Saintess Caroline should die today!"
"Joan of Arc still had a few loyal followers by her side back in the day, but in this nation called Arica? Loyalty? Hah!"
"As long as the Saintess suffers corrupting death, they will be forced to swallow this massive loss until the next Saintess is chosen!"
The two of them nodded in agreent. They both knew that this was a head-on collision between Hell and Heaven. Whoever won would seize the initiative in this region for the foreseeable future.
They had long heard rumors that sothing had gone wrong in Heaven. This was a rare opportunity for them!
"The Saintess's power stems from Divine Faith. As long as we destroy the faith around her and plant seeds of doubt in her mind, that power will dissipate..."
As enemies of Heaven for eons, they understood this better than anyone. All physical battles were rely a trifle; the true struggle had always revolved solely around 'faith'.
If they could shatter the Saintess's faith, even if Heaven were to grind their bones to dust, Lucifer would still be able to save them.
This would be a grand victory for Hell!
"My interrogation is actually quite simple. I want to ask the Saintess: do black people count as human beings?"
"If they do, then why do they live in subhuman conditions? If they do not, then how does she explain the black bishops and black saints?"
Vlad's words brought a smile to Lems's face. "Are you still unable to forget about those black people?"
"Is it that I cannot forget? I simply refuse to forget the golden era that belonged to us farrs!" Vlad said indignantly.
"We traveled thousands of miles from Europe to this continent because it had fertile lands, vast pastures, and useful farming tools! But those damn factory owners in the North, all for the sake of their own industrial production, demanded that the black slaves be freed!"
"We actually knew how to maintain our farming tools! We cherished them, and under our care, they could live to be sixty!"
"And what about them? In their factories, let alone sixty, those people could not even live to see thirty! My living blood plasma, gone!"
Vlad III's words rendered Lems sowhat speechless. A vampire thinking that humans were too cruel? What kind of dark humor was this?
It reminded him of a peculiar joke he had heard recently upon arriving in Illinois:
It was a conversation between two officials from the Arican Special Affairs Administration:
"Do you know how to locate the Progenitor of Vampires from the South, Vlad the Great, Vlad III?"
"How do we find Vlad III? That is easy! Just check the areas where a large number of black people have gone missing or died!"
"Uh, the places you are talking about are literally everywhere across all the major cities in Arica!"
"I suppose that is true. Even without him around, black people would keep dying anyway. What should we do then?"
"Just tell them to kill a little less... How about switching to undocunted immigrants instead?"
"Are you implying that only native-born black citizens are dying?"
This kind of matter was, of course, entirely inconsequential to the utterly amoral Arican officials. However, for the Saintess, whose moral compass was at its absolute peak, this would be a horrifying trial!
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