Hodius hovered silently beside the crystal mine, facing the drastically transformed Holy Mountain from afar. The earth-shaking upheaval had already subsided, but the real chaos and turmoil had only just begun. The knights and Wolf Riders who had successfully evacuated from the caverns of the Holy Mountain returned to the headquarters in Hodius under Ofra's leadership, where they reunited with the generals and bishops who had stayed behind. However, the leaders of the various factions soon fell into an argument over what to do next.
Ofra had not yet had time to remove her armor, and she, Uruk, and several of the generals still bore bloodstains from their earlier battle with the monsters. The female marshal sat at the head of the long conference table like a god of slaughter, suppressing the tension in the room. The seat beside her, which should have belonged to the Pope, now stood empty.
"It has been confirmed that His Excellency the Pope died a martyr," Archbishop Aubin said as he looked at the empty seat beside Ofra. Little emotion could be seen on his rune-covered face, but his voice held a trace of stiffness and gravity. "Even the Pope could not have survived an explosion of that scale, and afterward, we detected no trace of the Pope's soul."
The doors to the council chamber were shoved open, and a tall figure in a robe slipped inside. It was an archbishop. He had just finished calming the ordinary soldiers and faithful in the floating city alongside the other priests, and the noise and disorder from outside the council chamber seemed to cling to him. "The situation outside is somewhat chaotic. The scene of the Pope's martyrdom has deeply shaken some of the faithful. What's more, after the Pope died a martyr, the evil god