"Your Majesty, this old servant is incompetent! Incompetent!!" Abraham knelt on the ground, weeping bitterly as he begged Norton for forgiveness.
"The Holy See possesses some kind of divine power, able to conjure walls out of thin air, making it impossible for us Blood Clan to enter! Your Majesty!"
Abraham was filled with grief, crying his heart out, but in reality, he was only amazed by Norton's current appearance.
That damn Old Norton, he's gotten even uglier after all these years!
Compared to before, Norton's flesh was now completely rotten, clinging to his body in a barely removable state, making him look utterly disgusting.
Beneath that tattered flesh, however, lay not scarlet muscle texture, but pale, smooth skin that resembled new flesh.
His mouthful of sharp teeth and claws had all fallen out, and now only his scarlet gums were visible when he opened his mouth. Even his eyes were increasingly dark, to the point of being crystal clear.
The bulge on his back was so festering that the skin covering it was riddled with holes, and through the rotting flesh, one could see a structure inside that resembled stacked pale wings...
This thing seems to have evolved to the final stage; it only needs to take one more step to completely transcend the mundane and become some kind of unknown life form...
It even seems to have overcome the Vampire's weakness of fearing sunlight, with half of its body exposed to the sun. Even as its flesh carbonizes, it regenerates in the blink of an eye.
Such terrifying regenerative abilities, resistance to sunlight, and changes in appearance chilled Abraham to the bone.
"Damn it, how am I, Abraham, supposed to play this game?!"
Abraham cried out in despair.
He knelt on the ground, his face filled with terror, looking up at the tall, strange figure. He felt the inhuman and otherworldly aura emanating from that body grow ever stronger.
Pope Adam's policy of non-resistance not only ruined Norton's plans, but also Abraham's.
Originally, he planned to lure the progenitor away, using the mysterious power of the Holy See and his own arrangements to pierce his heart with a silver cross when he was most focused, thus completely sealing the Blood Clan Progenitor. However, he did not expect the old pope to not resist and Yalian III to quickly betray him, which made all his preparations go to waste.
Now, having returned to the progenitor's side, they see his body, which is almost completely transformed, standing in the sunlight.
It's impossible not to feel despair.
Norton, dressed in a scarlet robe and wearing a scarlet crown, stood on the balcony of the majestic palace, letting his flesh and blood be exposed to the sun and feel its scorching heat.
His ferocious face, devoid of any emotion, instilled even greater Pressure in Abraham.
Abraham's suppressed, low moans reached his ears, but Norton's indifferent expression remained unchanged. He didn't even move his body, simply standing quietly on the balcony, basking in the sunlight, admiring the magnificent spectacle that had been built in the distance.
His inaction put increasing pressure on Abraham.
"Damn it, why does Old Norton seem to be losing all human emotion? Should I cry or not?"
As this Old Norton's body is about to be reborn, his emotions seem to become increasingly distant from those of humans.
Today, Abraham can no longer sense any human emotion in his ancestor. He seems to have truly transformed into a non-human species, or even an abnormal species, because he has no emotions at all!
"Holy shit!!!"
Norton remained expressionless, but inwardly he was furious!
His mental state had been completely shattered; even the fingers resting on the balcony were trembling slightly!
What did he hear?
Did Yalian III, the emperor of the Boya Empire, break the Holy See, destroy papal rule, and then become pope himself? And did he establish the Holy Lord Church as the state religion of the Boya Empire?
Revive directly on the corpses of the Old Faith, inherit Old Faith will, and begin a full-scale battle against Vampire?
What kind of tactic is this? The Church has oppressed the royal families of these countries for so many years, with all sorts of beheadings and wars. And yet, they still haven't learned Church lesson. Not only have they failed to completely eradicate the Church's religious rule, but they've actually amplified it. Isn't this utterly superfluous, like gilding the lily?
If you want to be the Pope, why don't you just annex the Boya Empire into the Holy Lord Empire? With the strength of your entire nation, which archbishop could possibly challenge you for the papacy?
After so many years of fighting to the death, just when the Church's lineage was about to be severed, you pull this Edo Tensei trick?
What about all of Norton's efforts over the years?
What do the culture and heritage of his Boya Empire matter?
You, a wise and benevolent emperor, should be using the Church's methods to retaliate against me, Norton, instead of simply eradicating your own nation's culture and then bringing the people and the country under the Church!
How is this any different from the demise of a nation?
For Yalian III to make such a choice after this war has dragged on to this point is truly incompetent, utterly foolish, and utterly incompetent!
The Church was not destroyed; in fact, it was established as the state religion, with the emperor and pope jointly holding the position. This did not simply mean that the Papal State had just changed popes; on the contrary, the Boya Empire itself was destroyed by the Papal State!
Norton's pale, almost inhuman face was contorted in pain, but Abraham, kneeling behind him, couldn't see it at all.
He had long foreseen Yalian III's rebellion and even guessed when it would happen, but the merger of the Boya Empire and the Papal State was something he truly couldn't have predicted at all!
Norton is furious!
All those years of wars and wonders Hajinuo built were for nothing more than to sever the Church's lineage and conceal the Vampire ' weaknesses from the old era.
So, after decades of fighting, most of the Southern Continent has become the Papal State?
Are you kidding me!
"No... Yalian III was not a foolish ruler; on the contrary, he was extremely wise. There must have been an inevitable and uncontrollable reason for his actions that defied common sense!"
Before they attacked the Holy See, they shared my ideology, wanting to destroy the Holy See and sever the Church's lineage. But after they destroyed the Holy See, their stance suddenly reversed... And my Vampire clan, due to some inexplicable force, is unable to enter the Holy See's territory; even Abraham cannot enter the Holy See...
Even the training of Holy Knight takes place within the Holy See...
It seems the Old Faith is far more complex than I thought; there's something hidden within the Holy See!
Norton's hand shattered the edge of the parapet, his dark eyes narrowing slightly, his recent breakdown replaced by curiosity about the Holy See.
"With such immense power, capable of making an emperor suddenly change his mind without hesitation... could it be the flesh and blood of God, or some kind of divine artifact?"
Norton has always believed that God truly exists, based entirely on his reasoning.
Since God exists, and something within the Church possesses such power, then this thing must be connected to God! This was common sense he learned from reading so many novels in his previous life!
Based on the plot developments in those novels, it's highly likely that this Church contains a piece of flesh and blood that remained after God was killed and dismembered!