Everyone has their own thoughts, which His Majesty Adam cannot control, but he keeps them a closely guarded secret.
"Cough cough cough..." His Majesty Adam coughed again, his body so thin and frail.
He is not young anymore. He was already over ninety when he ascended to the papacy, and has been on the throne for over a century. If you calculate carefully, he may have already passed two hundred years old.
His Majesty Adam did not know when he was born, nor did he care whether he celebrated his birthday or not, so he only had a rough estimate of his age.
The old pope was about 256 years old when he died, so it seems he didn't have many years left to live.
The candlelight flickered, making it even harder to see clearly in His Majesty Adam's already clouded eyes.
"Your Majesty, you have truly presented me with a tremendous dilemma... I am nearing my end, yet the world remains murky and chaotic. The rise of the Vampire Empire weighs heavily on my mind; even with all my might, I cannot eradicate them all..."
Now I have no choice but to start another war, to kill Vampire false ancestors as possible, and to suppress the development of neighboring countries, so that my Holy Church can continue to flourish before I die of old age!
Adam felt utterly powerless.
The New-Type Vampire is truly like a stubborn leech, impossible to deal with. Eighty years of Demon-Hunting Campaign have failed to eradicate them. Even painting murals of God throughout the cities, Vampire still reappear in the wild... Human effort has its limits. Eighty years of Demon-Hunting Campaign have already accomplished a remarkable feat in eliminating Vampire from the cities, let alone eradicating Vampire from the wild.
However, His Majesty Adam has not been entirely inactive during these eighty years.
Although the Boya Empire and the Vampire Empire seemed to be thriving, eighty years was ultimately too short. Without the competitive advantage brought by technology, their development intensity remained low.
Although the Papal State are closed off from the world, they are also thriving internally.
His Adam frequently conscripted laborers and established various production systems within the Papal State, such as forced land cultivation, forced confiscation of the wealth and taxes of the powerful and wealthy, and forced expansion of the blacksmith population to produce more steel armor...
Although the people have lost all support, and there is widespread discontent and countless people have died unjustly, these measures have still forcibly boosted the power of the Papal State, and His Holiness the Pope, with his Werewolf Legion and the Holy Judgment Order, remains in an impregnable position.
The main reason for not launching a war or carrying out an attack for so long, besides the Demon-Hunting Campaign within the Papal State, is to further strengthen the Church's brainwashing education and replace those with wavering minds within the Church, in order to prevent the army from becoming Vampire during overseas campaigns.
The allure of immortality is simply too great. If any soldier on the battlefield wavers in his resolve and desires to become Vampire, the army will undoubtedly crumble swiftly, and the entire Church system will collapse completely.
"Now, everyone in our Holy Church is pure of heart and steadfast in faith! Knights' armor is adorned with images of God, and they are equipped with silver-plated greatswords. It's time to launch a siege against the Vampire Empire and thoroughly eradicate that so-called Vampire Progenitor hiding within... Hmph, a mere old-era Vampire dares to presume to call himself a progenitor! The true progenitor's bones were even carved into crosses!"
Adam Majesty Adam's cloudy eyes gleamed with coldness as his fingers tapped lightly on the table, where a document stood out conspicuously.
"The reason for the advancement of the Vampire race has been discovered: the advancement of the Vampire Progenitor Norton has driven the advancement of all other Vampire. He claims to be the Vampire Progenitor, Existence Level all Vampire, so any abnormalities in his body will be reflected in every Vampire. If Norton dies, then all the New-Type Vampire will also perish... I implore Your Majesty to exert all your strength and surely slay the false Norton, restoring peace and order to our Church!"
Years ago, Archbishop Duoxia was ordered to establish a spy department within the Church targeting the Vampire Empire, tasking Duoxia, a Second-Generation Vampire, with training Third-Generation Vampire to conduct espionage activities within the Vampire Empire.
To this day, although there is still no chance to meet the Vampire pseudo- Norton and steal information up close, the most useful piece of information has already been sent out by the spy.
Although it is known that directly hunting down Norton, the pseudo-ancestor of Vampire, is the most effective way to deal with Vampire, sending the Vampire Holy Judgment Order to hunt him Norton is not a good idea. Last time, he escaped during the hunt, and now he has established Vampire Empire with hundreds of thousands of Vampire Lord. Sending these five hundred Holy Knight there would be like sending them to their deaths.
The remaining five hundred-odd Holy Judgment Order are the last line of defense protecting the divine corpse on the back mountain, and no further problems can be allowed to occur! Therefore, His Majesty Adam would not rashly send these five hundred Holy Knight to their deaths without absolute certainty of victory.
However, the Werewolf Legion cannot be sent either. According to the Vampire of Lino City who were arrested back then, the progenitor Norton possessed an extremely powerful Pressure that could crush Third-Generation Vampire without him even lifting a finger.
If it is also the root cause of the Werewolf mutation, then based on its characteristics, sending the Werewolf Legion there would undoubtedly be suicide! ( Adam had previously deduced and described this point, but I'm afraid you've all forgotten).
"A decapitation strike against Norton is no longer advisable, and given his exceptional escape abilities, a decapitation strike might not even be effective."
At this juncture, the only option is to advance the troops little by little, painting murals of God wherever they go, outlining religious symbols, building Holy Lord Cathedral, and training monks to spread the holiness of God. Only in this way can we gradually compress the living space of the false Norton and eventually surround and kill him!
Even if it's ultimately impossible to completely eradicate them, the spread of God's holiness can effectively control the expansion and gathering of Vampire.
Adam's face was cold and frightening. He planned to use the last few years of his life to completely block any path for Vampire. Even if he couldn't exterminate them, he would completely suppress these unclean creatures and sweep them into the trash can, so that they could only live in the darkness that humans had no time to care about!
"It's a pity that Duoxia has become Vampire. If he were to succeed me, his loyalty to the Church would make him a suitable successor to maintain the status quo..."
Adam sighed deeply, feeling increasingly exhausted.