Not long after the Action Team retreated, large numbers of black-robed Apostle Group members poured in from streets in every direction.
They gathered before the cathedral, now reduced to ruins, each silently holding a copy of Words of God.
Then the crowd parted down the middle. When three people walked through the passage, the Apostle Group members all dropped to one knee in greeting.
This was a ceremony reserved for the Pope's arrival.
The three stopped before the cathedral ruins. The young man on the left wore an indignant, unwilling expression. He was Bishop Baike.
On the right stood a burly man over two meters tall, his muscles knotted all over his body. He looked like a towering wall, his suit nearly bursting apart.
Standing between them was the Pope, an utterly ordinary-looking young man wearing black-rimmed glasses with no lenses.
He looked at the church ruins before him and asked after a moment of thought, "Why did this plan fail?"
"It was Shadow, Your Holiness," Baike said in a low voice. "I didn't expect him to be in the Action Team too... If it weren't for him, those heretics would have died in the Magic Array we prepared beforehand!"
"Shadow, huh? He is indeed troublesome." The Pope asked, "But I heard that the Suoloma team didn't teleport to the same place as the main force."
"Yes, they teleported directly inside the church. It was probably deliberate. But if it weren't for Shadow, Heath and I would have dealt with the main force, and with Peter's surprise attack, eliminating Adam's Suoloma team would have been no problem... Now Heath is dead, Peter is dead too, and we lost two bishops at once..."
"Enough." The Pope did not let Baike continue. He turned to the suit-clad giant standing like a wall