In the church of the Sacred Cross.
There was a heavy atmosphere moving inside the church.
The usual heartwarming atmosphere that one would receive upon going inside was nowhere to be seen.
While some of the paladins and nuns had a heavy look on their faces, most of them stood confident with a smile on their faces.
Both those groups looked at each other with hostility.
Someone wouldn´t be surprised if they started a fight right now and there.
But suddenly the heavy atmosphere got broken down by the sound of footsteps.
Comming inside the Church, a group of hundreds of paladins started to come inside, walking in two lines.
Each one of those knights released an aura worth of a high-end 3rd-tier which made those at the 1th-tier have trouble breathing correctly.
And in the middle of those two lines of paladins, was an aura so strong and graceful that everyone who looked at him would be either overwhelmed or feel a warm feeling of security inside of them.
That aura alone covered the whole room together with the hundred other 3rd tier auras.
The source of this aura was coming from an elderly looking at his 70 years with a pure white robe with many gold lines. He was at the height of 1.82 meters tall with his gray hair pushed back and a pair of small glasses.
Holding a wooden staff with many small golden marbles, he walked inside the church escorted by those paladins beside him.
While some inside the church had a grim expression on their face, others had a wry smile.
Seeing where that group was going, an elderly nun walked in front of them.
Looking at the nun, the paladins unsheathed their weapons and pointed them at the elderly lady.
"You dare obstruct the path of the one and only Pope!"
Unshaken, the elderly looked at both of the paladins with indifference, but that was only from the outside.
Behind that face, a strong fear was present in her eyes.
But she didn´t let it show.
"Oh, strongest light, for what reason has the Pope granted us the chance to welcome you at this church?" The nun smiled while ignoring the two paladins as if they weren´t there, to begin with.
"Yo-!"
"Stop." A quiet voice said to those two paladins, making them keep their mouths shut.
Though his voice was quiet, everyone manage inside the church managed to hear it.
"Dear, Miss Lysandre right?" The Pope said with a gentle smile on his face.
"...It´s an honor for the strongest light, the Pope to know my name." The elderly lady said little surprised for such a figure to know a mere nun.
As one who held not a shred of influence in the Sacred Cross, for an important person such as the Pope to know her name was surprising nonetheless.
Moving past the nun, the Pope replied while mentioning the paladins to continue to move one.
"We are just here to remove a heretic out of this church."
Walking towards the huge door leading to the main hall, some murmured in confusion.
"Why is the Pope going towards the gate?"
"Who might be the heretic?"
...
While people were discussing what was going on, one paladin that was standing guard whispered to himself.
"It can't be...the saintness?"
Ignoring the whisper going around, the Pope put his hand in the huge gate while channeling mana.
*Brrhhh
With the door slowly opening, the waiting hundred paladins rushed inside the room with many seats and a statue on the stage.
Walking inside the room, the Pope looked with cold eyes at the beautiful figure kneeling in front of the statue.
"Former brightness light! Under suspicion of using dark magic and producing internal corruption into our ranks, you will be held under custody and be judged fairly if you decide to cooperate." The Pope yelled out loud.
The people outside the room were beyond shocked, at least those in the true believer's faction.
One had to know that without any permission by the saintness herself, none was allowed to enter the main hall.
As it was considered the only place where the saintness could communicate with the goddess herself.
In a way, it was the private room between the sacred cross and the goddess herself.
Though communication was extremely rare to be achieved and only happend every 200-300 years.
If the goddess by some chance decide to send an oracle and none was to receive it.
That alone could write someone as the most sinful man in the entirety of the Sacred Cross establishment for the next thousand years.
"..."
Though the constant aura of hundreds of 3rd-tier paladins and the Pope himself, who himself was a near end the 4th-tier individual.
The saintness kept still kneeling in front of the statue with her claymore beside her.
One of the younger paladins who realized that they were being ignored couldn´t help but lash out.
"You witch! How dare you disrespect the strongest light, the Pope itse-"
"ENOUGH!" The pope's thunderous voice echoed through the whole building while glaring at the young man.
"I-Pop-sorr-I-di-nt" The young man in question was shaking from the sudden outburst of the Pope´s aura.
Removing his gaze on the young man, he looked at the maiden kneeling in front of the goddess statue with dread.
`Those idiots, they must have gone blind.´ The pope cursed internally as he observed his paladins having a similar look.
The strongest light and the Pope of the Sacred Cross.
That was the title that Andrew Marken has worked his whole life to achieve.
From a peasant with no resources in hand, one would have never expected to become a powerhouse on his own that almost was reaching the 5th and final tier.
In order to classify someone's strength, 5 tiers did exist.
With every tier being a higher league of his lower tier.
The 1th-tier was placed on the common man with no special abilities to speak of.
The 2nd-tier was the one where one person was beginning to gain better control on their life force and mana to manifest otherwordly abilities.
Those two tiers could be achieved by anyone who put enough effort into them.
But for a higher tier that wasn´t the case.
Achieving a higher tier of strength required one if not many things such as talent, resources, bloodlines, or outsiders' help.
An example is that someones re-animates a 1th-tier person into 2nd-tier Draugr as an undead.
Unlike the 1th-tiers that could defeat one of the higher tier people. The other 3 tiers cut a clear line that could be rarely be grossed by special individuals.
And the 5th-tier was a monster on their own which could be either described as a walking calamity capable to level kingdoms to the ground by their own strength alone
Andrew Marken who was from the high-end 4th-tier and about to reach the 5th-tier knew, that if that woman, the brightest light of the Goddes of Life will to.
None inside this room could come out of here alive.
Why?
Standing up from her kneeling position, she picked up her claymore and looked indifferently at Andrew and the Paladins.
"So you have chosen this path, Andrew..."
That was because the saintness was of the 5th and final tier.
Suddenly a golden aura exploded from her body, engulfing the whole room with such pressure that made the paladins fall to their knees.
Andrew upon witnessing this aura frowned slightly.
"Former brightest light... I receive your actions as an act of rebellion against the whole kingdom of Berum.
Moving to the side an ominous aura was coming from the gates.
Looking at the figure, the Saintness frowns slightly.
"To think you will join them..." The Saintness whispered to herself.
Andrew who saw that figure put a wry smile on his face.
"Thus, I will let the third Feather take care of you..."
An aura matching the Saintess started to slowly engulf the room
And final.
Two 5th-tier auras started to clash with each other.
*****
Traveling together with the group of mercenaries.
The days past days went according to how Danzel had pictured them.
Boring.
From morning till night, they would travel towards Nercana with an hour of breaks from now and then.
Other than one time when we got attacked by some beast, those were the most boring times for Danzel.
For him who was already used to using his time to work constantly with only taking breaks when he was fed up with work.
Staying still in the carriage for hours long was for him like torture.
At the very least his salvation would be at night where he would run of and train for eight hours long before it was time to depart in the morning.
Other than sometimes talking with the half-elve Serran and the half-orc Hannes nothing would change on his schedule.
And around two weeks of time, the image of a fairly large city was to be seen in the distance.
Looking at the city, Danzel couldn't help but say.
"So that's Nercana...."
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