Chapter 682
Eivass: Crowned with yellow robes?
After Pure White Saintess drank the divine wine, she suddenly fell into a gelled state in pain—
All of this was live-streamed by reporters at the first moment and spread throughout the church.
Combined with the solemn expressions of the Cardinal Bishops and their counter-intuitive actions of not drinking the wine, a terrifying truth emerged in the hearts of those who witnessed it…
“—It’s an assassin!”
A reporter from Star Antinomy blurted out, “Someone is trying to assassinate Her Highness the Saintess!”
His words were merely speculation.
After all, in Star Antinomy, assassination incidents at press conferences were commonplace. Many spokespersons were suddenly killed at press conferences… The conflict between Demon Scholars and Alchemists there had already reached this point.
Some were blatant assassinations, while others were internal purges disguised as operations by the opposing faction. Others still operated on a third layer—considering the existence of the second layer, they deliberately carried out blatant assassinations to disguise them as the other side’s frame-ups.
In any case, Star Antinomy’s official intelligence department probably wouldn’t find anything. After all, no one in the intelligence department dared to offend anyone… Even the King of Star Antinomy only dared to play peacemaker.
Not to mention, what if something was actually investigated and uncovered?
Star Antinomy would probably split on the spot.
As a result, in the end, no matter who died, they would become ammunition for the two factions to attack each other. People didn’t care about the facts… or rather, they believed the part that they wanted to be true as the fact.
But the moment his words were spoken, his voice was broadcast along with the images.
During such a solemn election ceremony, people subconsciously tended to believe the credibility of official reporters—after all, those without a certain level of professionalism would likely not be invited. Therefore, their judgments were likely based on evidence.
In an instant, the news of the Saintess’s assassination spread throughout the entire church!
Second Ring, in a tavern.
A dwarf uncle slammed the table and shouted, “I knew it! Since those people didn’t drink, it’s definitely because there was something in the wine!”
Sixth Ring, in a guard post among the ruins.
Two elves looked at the screen in shock, their hands freezing mid-air with the items they were holding.
“…It’s fake, right? Was the Saintess poisoned?”
“Is that… Tears of Time?”
They murmured.
Eleventh Ring, in a lounge.
An elderly elf slammed the table and reprimanded the youngest elf at the table, “The Saintess has been harmed! Is this your conspiracy!”
The questioned young elf sweated profusely, “Perhaps… maybe… I seem to have heard of similar plans…”
He had previously been a member of Controlled Fire and was proud of his organization.
He believed it was a progressive move to help the rigid and decaying elves renew their system, which would effectively reduce the gelled state rate of elves, undoubtedly benefiting the church in the long run. However, there were too many old-timers at the time who were unwilling to accept new things and abandon their sense of superiority as inheritors, which was why they were not understood by others.
But after hearing that Cardinal Loki colluded with giants and seeing the evidence, his faith collapsed—so he quit Controlled Fire.
Later, he heard rumors: It was said that Cardinal Loki was originally a giant who became an elf after receiving the call of the Candlemaster. Then everything connected… If Cardinal Loki took power, it would be equivalent to a giant becoming the Pope!
He immediately felt like he had been deceived—it would be better to have a human as Pope!
At least humans looked more pleasing to the eye, whereas giants were not only ugly but had also hunted and cooked a large number of elves in the past. They had deeper grudges against each other than dwarfs, and under no circumstances would they allow a giant to become the new Eternal Pope and the strongest being in the world.
Especially after the Papal Court released evidence of Cardinal Loki’s contact with other giants, he became even more convinced—Cardinal Loki had ultimately chosen his race of origin over his identity and race.
“It must be a giant’s conspiracy!”
The young elf, formerly from Controlled Fire, said firmly while wiping sweat, “It must be the assassin hired by former Cardinal Loki! When I was in the organization, I heard of similar plans…”
“Why didn’t you report it?!”
“I did report it! There are more than a dozen similar plans, and no one knows which one is real, or if none of them are real. Look, those Cardinal Bishops didn’t drink, only that human drank… This has obviously been reported! You can’t blame me, and I’m certainly not the only one who knows about this!”
They began to argue like this.
And such arguments were happening in every corner of the church—the more members Controlled Fire had, the more people were questioned at the time of the “Saintess’s assassination”.
For the lazy and introverted elves, they rarely experienced intense emotional fluctuations.
Today was undoubtedly an exception.
Visibly, the entire church had descended into chaos.
At this moment, the magic mirrors of the Eleventh Ring spontaneously activated. Faces filled with fear, anger, curiosity, sadness, and astonishment flickered in and out of the mirrors.
A young golden-haired man with a monocle stroked his chin, standing before the magic mirrors.
He wore a pure white suit with dark gold rune patterns.
Behind him, a suspended angel with closed eyes and a pair of white wings, its skin radiating pure white light.
The angel’s appearance bore half a resemblance to his own.
And, apart from its pure white long hair and a more feminine and gentle face, it was almost identical to Eivass at the age of seventeen or eighteen!
“Is this Loki’s conspiracy?”
The young man murmured, “It doesn’t quite feel like his style, a bit too crude… Could it be Moriarty?”
“Moriarty?”
A voice with a mechanical feel and echo came from the angel behind the young man.
It asked, but did not move its lips.
“Yes, it’s quite possible.”
The young man nodded, as if talking to himself or explaining to the angel behind him, “Moriarty’s plans are often like this—he doesn’t coerce or trick someone into acting. He simply puts the right person in the right place… He tells them what they truly desire in their hearts, and then gives them the power to do so.
“Everyone acts for their own benefit, but when combined, it always benefits him. This is why I admire him—he is different from his teacher, Loki. Moriarty, he knows very well what kind of plan has the lowest probability of failure.”
“What plan?”
The angel continued to ask.
It had a strong desire to know everything in the world, like an innocent child.
“Heh.”
The young blond man chuckled, “Naturally, it’s a plan that’s good for everyone.”
As he spoke, the young man raised his hand.
A cane materialized in his hand with a stream of flowing light. He gripped the cane and then pointed it downwards.
Dark gold ripples spread out slowly like water waves from the “monitoring room”.
Neither the elves walking outside nor the Pope’s Guards standing at the doors noticed the young man’s presence or the ripples.
The ripples continued to spread outward until they stopped abruptly upon contact with something.
“Found him.”
The young man suddenly spoke.
At this moment, the magic mirrors, reflecting various faces, adjusted their screens and all focused on one person. All the screens became comprehensive surveillance from various angles.
—It was the vampire writer imprisoned in the jail!
“Let’s go, [Eivass].”
The young man spoke softly, commanding, “Let’s go meet him… He should be Loki’s last remnant in the Material Realm. Half of him is in the Material Realm and half in the Dream Realm. Whether to move forward or backward makes him a difficult opponent, but as long as he remains stuck here, he can’t do anything.”
“Are we going to kill him, Jacob?”
“Definitely not. Killing him outright would be a release for him. If Loki were to be fully released into the Dream Realm, and then completed himself under the Candlemaster, he would likely become a Disciple. Then, when we speak to him, our identities would be one level lower. Keeping him in the Material Realm would actually yield the best results.
“The church secretly imprisoned him, neither killing him nor releasing him, was probably with this idea in mind. Although they completely failed to realize what Cardinal Loki truly feared…”
“Grey Heavenly Envoy, right? He actually wants to die, but the church doesn’t know?”
“That’s right, you guessed it. So smart, [Eivass].”
Jacob leaned on his cane and casually praised, “You understand human hearts more and more.”
He adjusted his bow tie with his other hand and chuckled, “Let’s inform Lord Loki first… about this unexpected event, ‘the Saintess’s’ assassination’.”
Meanwhile, the elves also quickly pieced together the “truth”.
As early as last month, there were rumors in the church. It was said that the lunatics of the “Controlled Fire” sect had obtained a special poison that could cause normal elves to fall into a gelled state and rapidly worsen the condition of elves who had already begun to gel.
The news was widely spread at the time, even causing considerable panic within the church. Rumors of people being poisoned by the lunatics of Controlled Fire were everywhere, and the accidental deaths of several individuals who had begun to gel were strongly suspected to be related to this incident.
But later, with the death of Cardinal Loki, “Controlled Fire” lost its leader and subsided. This matter gradually faded from public view.
No matter how radical the ideology of Controlled Fire was, or how dangerous their actions were, they were a group with clear demands—they were essentially radical elves who wanted to support Cardinal Loki to be elected Pope. Their further goal was to promote professionalization from top to bottom within the church, thereby leveling the status gap between these lower-class elves and half-elves and the “inheritors” with a long history.
In the final analysis, their goals were ultimately political goals, and their political goals were ultimately for their own benefit.
And with the death of Cardinal Loki, it was destined that they would no longer be able to achieve their previous goals. This organization was originally composed of fanatical followers of Cardinal Loki, and they could not elect a new leader and recommend him as a Cardinal Bishop before March 3rd.
Cardinal Loki naturally would not be so bothersome as to prepare a backup plan for “what if I’m not here”—only when there was no other choice could “Controlled Fire” willingly dedicate themselves.
But now, the facts were laid bare—
All the elven cardinals dared not drink the wine. And regardless of the Saintess’s motives for drinking it, there could only be one fact.
That was that the radical remnants of Controlled Fire had contacted an assassin and assassinated the Eternal Saintess, who was about to be elected Eternal Pope!
Although the Pope election ceremony theoretically required the selection of three candidates, followed by a roll-call vote by all Cardinal Bishops, in essence, the Eternal Saintess was elected every generation… Therefore, directly considering “Pure White” as the next Pope was not an issue.
—That was equivalent to saying the Pope was assassinated!
Any elf would absolutely not dare to do such a thing.
Because all elves knew the authority of the Papal Court, and even more so, the power of the Cardinal Bishops…
As expected.
In less than half a minute, these top healers in the world had stabilized Her Highness the Saintess’s condition.
Cardinal Europa claimed that this gelled state caused by poisoning was actually reversible and would heal within months;
Cardinal Matilda claimed that she had technology that could partially reverse the gelled state, but it would take some time;
Cardinal Dominic stated that the Saintess’s condition had stabilized and her life was out of danger;
Cardinal Belisarius claimed that he had inspected everyone’s wine glasses and only the Saintess’s glass contained poison, and the poison was “Tears of Time” previously used by Controlled Fire;
Cardinal Galatea claimed that she confirmed no one had left the area and ensured that all candidate Saintesses were pure and guiltless.
“Search all rooms near the ritual hall, and search all reporters! Dispatch the Pope’s Guard, and thoroughly check for suspicious Path fluctuations!”
Although Siegfried still didn’t quite understand what was happening, he still very professionally issued martial law.
And just ten seconds later.
Miss Alice, due to her overly frightened expression, was the first to be suspected by the Pope’s Guards, leading to the immediate discovery that the “photographer” by her side was merely an elaborately crafted shadow shell.
“This is technology from the assassin organization ‘Eagle Eye’!”
Cardinal Fafnir confirmed.
Eivass looked at it all with drunken eyes.
He felt as if it was happening in a dream, very unreal.
Eivass instinctively sensed that something was wrong.
The Cardinals seemed to have rehearsed—the amount of information they provided was too useful. Generally, in such a chaotic environment, arguments were very normal. It should have been a messy uproar with many people repeating useless information like a broken record.
But he didn’t know what he should do at this moment.
He went up to Grey, who was still covering her eyes in pain, and softly comforted her:
“—Want some dates?”
And at this moment, Grey suddenly grabbed Eivass’s wrist.
Her grip was so strong that she didn’t look like someone poisoned at all.
“I’ve… almost recovered.”
Grey said, managing to move her hand away.
It was then that Eivass noticed.
The gelled traces on Grey’s body had not expanded at all.
—It had even shrunk a little!
“The Pope election ceremony is very sacred… it must be completed without interruption due to my personal reasons. However, considering that if I were absent, any Cardinal elected Pope might cause controversy…”
The Saintess’s voice reached all the reporters clearly: “I propose that Eivass temporarily act as my proxy for the Pope election, and if the election is successful, he will be the ‘acting Pope’. As a human Cardinal, he will not affect the interests of any faction and will only serve as my proxy until I recover.
“—Those who disagree, please raise your hands.”
(End of this chapter)
