538 Oracle Fyro Part 1 (1/2)
Nico Cathedral was heavily guarded and the people of the Holy See were nervous. The Pope did not intend to be secretive about any news of the Holy War. Within this holy city, it was even rumoured that mages from Alchemy City were lying in ambush.
After the passing of Emperor Chanake, Holy Rock City's support for Alchemy City began to reduce, but that did not deter Alchemy City mages from coming over for revenge.
If anyone thought that mages should face each other outrightly and challenge each other to a proper magic duel, then they must be mistaken. In order to achieve the objective, death mages sometimes might even resort to releasing poison to kill an entire city's worth of enemies and create even more death troops. Although such incidents only occurred during wars between countries, suffice to say, mages were not a pedantic group.
The Holy See murdered Emperor Chanake and angered the mages of Alchemy City. To date, at least four sorcerers were still in the Tanggulasi Kingdom, waiting for an opportunity to wreak havoc of a massive scale.
The knights in front of the cathedral were not worried about the sorcerers at all. The Holy City was where the Holy See's headquarter was located and powerful Holy Masters were everywhere. If the sorcerers dared to attack the Nico Cathedral, they might as well forget about leaving.
Within the Holy City, almost all the Cardinals had gathered at Nico Cathedral, but less than ten were genuinely participating in the meeting.
Beside Pope Theisio sat Chief Pope Sharjah, and on his other side were five red bishops. Sitting opposite him were two people; one wore a black robe and looked to be around seventy years old, while the other wore a white robe and looked to be slightly past thirty years old.
”Your Excellency, since God has passed the decree and the Holy War has begun, then I shall utilize the Knights of Darkness from the Black Dungeon.” The elderly man in the black robe clearly did not respect Theisio. His tone was casual and did not sound like a request at all.
”Precisely. One of our duties as Oracles is to spread the faith. Your Excellency, according to the Code, we have the right to gather knights too,” the middle-aged man in the white robe agreed. His body language was arrogant.
”Humph!” Theisio snickered. He had a full head of white hair that seemed to glow with holy light, suddenly brightening up the dark meeting room.
”Head inquisitor Lucashenko and the Second Oracle, do you think that our current strength is sufficient to conquer the Mainland?” Seeing that there was no rebuke from the two, Theisio continued, ”The royal family of the Sikenqinyans have developed a strong and powerful army that never leaves the royal city. No one knows the size of this army, nor the kind of equipment they have. Cloudflow has an invincible fleet that can spring a sneak attack on our cities by the sea. Although it is a blow to Qin that Chanake died, are you confident in destroying Alchemy City?”
”The Sikenqinyans can be bribed.” The black-robed head inquisitor did not continue to go against Theisio. He knew that if the Holy See continued to build up strength for another fifty years, the situation on the Mainland would change completely. In fact, just twenty years would be sufficient for them to defeat the three Kingdoms. Right now, they needed allies in order to achieve victory though.
You can bribe them, but so can others. The Sikenqinyans are not reliable and the Cloudflows are not on friendly terms with us. We might as well think of how to recover back to our full strength as soon as possible. The number of Blood Knights are just too little,” Theisio gave Lucashenko a sharp glare.
”Your Excellency, the Supreme Court has about one-hundred-thousand Blood Knights. They should be sufficient to withstand any attacks from the Cloudflow Kingdom,” Lucashenko revealed, before continuing, ”For the Supreme Court to support the Sacred Knights, it is necessary to deploy forces from the Black Dungeon. Besides, it is time for us bring out our experiment.”
The Second Oracle let out a dreary sound, obviously showing displeasure towards what Lucashenko said. The disagreement between the two of them had been ongoing for more than a couple of days, even Theisio was troubled over this. The experiments from the Supreme Court were of extremely evil nature and clearly did not fit the doctrine. It was a Holy War now. As long as the enemies could be destroyed, then it would be allowed by the Gods.
The Oracles were strategizing on how to build a Holy Kingdom army. This was equivalent to an attempt to undermine the Sacred Knights, and not allowing the Pope to control everything. Such an act was even more despicable than the Supreme Court.
At this point, Theisio said, ”Okay, the Black Dungeon may be opened. Lucashenko, I will announce God's Order. You can pick and choose whatever powers you need for the Supreme Court to go alongside the Sacred Knights and attack Loulan. Within half a year, Loulan needs to be fully under control. By autumn next year, I want the situation to be stabilized.”
”Second Oracle, the First Oracle is not around, so you can hold on for the time being with regards to the construction of the Holy Kingdom army. The number of Holy Masters gathered for the expedition is insufficient and we still need to utilize the Ascetics. By spring next year, we will launch an attack against Laiyin Duchy. Do you have an opinion?”
The Second Oracle spoke, ”Lord Pope, the Ascetics have always been under the Oracles' control. Their strength does not lie in expedition battles.”
”This is God's will!” Theisio said with rage.
”God's will?” The Second Oracle smiled before shutting his mouth.
Theisio calmed himself down before saying, ”With regards to the Holy Kingdom, the Pivotal Council will consider it again once the First Oracle returns.”