dmims Page 155
Page 155
"hehe."
Brad chuckled and shook his head, pulling his papal robes, which symbolized supreme power and faith, tighter around himself, and slowly turned around.
"Hope, I've been pondering this question for a long time: Look at these commoners, nobles, royalty, heroes; adventurers, paladins, scholars, priests, mages..."
They were all no different; they all indulged their vulgar desires to the extreme, and then, with the passing of their lives, they became nothing more than decaying matter, indistinguishable from soil and grass. How tragic!
Chapter 217 Ten Thousand! Weapons! Of! Gods!
"Compared to the long-lived dragons and the near-perfect sacred artifacts... human lifespans are far, far shorter, yet they foolishly waste their lives on their own desires? It seems that they have accepted their 'fate' from birth, how foolish and limited they are."
The church was silent, save for Brad's voice echoing in the empty space:
"Hope, I have traveled this far and never killed a human being, nor have I pursued wealth, beauty, or fame... What do you think is the reason for this?"
The air seemed to freeze, and the temperature in the arena inexplicably dropped. Hope found himself gripped by a feeling of fear. Looking at the somewhat unfamiliar figure, he hesitated for a long time before cautiously saying:
"Because...you are the legendary Sacred Body of the Artifact?"
"wrong."
Under the moonlight, Brad turned around, and Hope's pupils contracted sharply.
His originally hunched body stood straight without any concealment, and the artificial eye on the right side of the Pope's cheek came to life, frantically trying to break free of its socket, bringing with it lines that looked like blood vessels.
Pope Brad's right half of his mechanical body twisted and squeezed wildly like a fleshy alien, emitting an unpleasant and grating sound of metal rubbing against metal... The flesh, wrinkles, and age spots on his body dissolved all at once, revealing a metallic luster that blocked out life, and in an instant, he transformed back into his most youthful and gorgeous skin and body.
Hope stared in horror as Brad's prosthetic body seemed to rewind time, transforming his aged form into a somewhat distorted flesh and blood appearance—a striking resemblance to Pope Brad in his youth.
This appearance, pieced together with the other side of the aged, fleshy face, reveals a distorted, morbid face.
Brad lowered his indifferent eyes, his pupils devoid of all emotion, looking at Hope with a blank expression, and replied:
"Because I am the true—god!"
Cold sweat poured down his back, Hope felt his throat go dry, and his mind went blank.
"Your Holiness, what kind of spell is this...?"
Brad didn't answer, but looked at the medicine in Hope's hand: "What is this?"
"This is...herbs! Yes, herbs!" As if she had found a lifeline, Hope hurriedly introduced, "These are herbs recommended for you by the scholars of Astrid, which can..."
Bang! A sharp metal spike shot out from Brad's body, shattering the medicine into dust.
"I hate herbs!"
A sudden burst of powerful force erupted from Brad, sending Hope flying without mercy as she slammed heavily against the wall.
"I no longer need these things! Tonight, I will become a god!"
No longer concealing his true nature, Brad's eyes blazed white, and a powerful force surged skyward, forming a pillar of light that stretched from the heavens to the earth. The ground began to tremble, and countless unseen emotional fluctuations materialized into an ocean at that moment!
"Teach, the Pope..."
Hope's body crashed heavily to the ground, staring in astonishment at the figure shrouded in an incredibly profound and evil aura within the pillar of light.
Wasn't it said that people easily lose their minds when piloting the God of Weapons...? How come Pope Brad has already gone mad before even mastering the God of Weapons?!
"Bu... Bu Hao!"
Soon, Hope's eyes widened as she realized something was very wrong.
Boom! The doors of the cathedral were blasted open in an instant, and Brad, his papal robes torn to shreds, stepped out, causing the entire underground to vibrate with a deafening roar!
Like a gushing spring, countless sacred artifacts imbued with divine power burst forth from the basement, guided by the activation array, and enveloped Pope Brad in the church grounds!
The next instant, a steel giant composed of countless sacred artifacts stood tall in the square.
The holy sword and hammer, shimmering with sacred runes, cleaved together, their joints locked. The elemental energy surged within the shimmering iron, coalescing into a humming, visceral metallic mass. A shield of interwoven metal spun within the chest cavity, countless sacred artifacts sparking from their friction, forming veins of flowing mineral energy! These countless sacred artifacts, crafted from the world's finest minerals, the hardest and sharpest of all, at this moment, reformed into gigantic arms, legs, and a body imbued with terrifying power!
Ultimately, the hands, feet, and head pieced together to form an unprecedentedly horrifying creature—
"The God of All Weapons!"
A distorted and emotionless voice reverberated throughout the capital city, shrouded in the endless night, like the whisper of a god, shaking the world.
"Th-what is that...?!"
"Pope Brad? I heard Pope Brad's voice?!"
"What's going on? Was it an earthquake?!"
"Those are... sacred artifacts! So many, so many! I've never seen so many sacred artifacts in my entire life?!"
Uneasy gazes turned upwards towards the steel giant beneath the night sky. Countless civilians were awakened and gathered around. Only when they saw a somewhat familiar face among the steel giant did their expressions turn to surprise and reverence: "It's Pope Brad controlling that giant! Everything will be alright!!"
"Pope Brad, does he still possess such power? Is His Holiness about to unleash his power again?!"
The people's unease vanished, and they looked at the majestic and sacred giant as if on a pilgrimage, without a trace of fear in their hearts.
After all, that's Pope Brad!
The foremost being within the borders of the nation, second only to gods and goddesses! The incomparably benevolent Saint of Vessels!!!
"Pope Brad will always stand on the side of humanity!"
……
"The power of the abyss... it's really useful..."
An aged voice emanated from within the machine.
Brad was embedded in the core of the God of All Weapons - Minotaur, like a heart, with countless sources of energy, more abundant than he could have imagined before, flowing and circulating like a river.
A dark, murky power immediately emanated from Brad's body, like the most impure impurity in the world, corrupting all the surrounding sacred artifacts—
The origin of "rotten objects".
Countless sources of energy were frantically squeezed out of the sacred artifact and poured into Brad's body like fish being drained from a pond. They were devoured by the essence of the decaying artifact and transformed into Brad's flesh and blood!
Within the God of All Weapons, controlled by the Sacred Body of Weapons, the source of all sacred artifacts is under his control! Ignoring the mournful cries emanating from the sacred artifacts, Brad frantically absorbed the energy, quickly replenishing the vast amount of source energy he had previously lost, reshaping his body into the purest form of machinery!
—Mechanical ascension to godhood!!!
If it weren't for the need to evenly extract the source of the artifacts from all the sacred artifacts in order to maintain the power of the God of All Artifacts, at least half of the sacred artifacts would be completely rotten and broken by now!
"So strong! Too strong!!!" Brad's eyes flashed with astonishing light.
Whether it's his body, which has now surpassed the limits of humanity, or the God of All Weapons that he controls, both make him feel an unprecedented surge of power!
Powerful from the inside out!!!
The essence of the "decaying artifact" continues to operate, like a wild beast with insatiable desires, constantly tempering its body with the artifact's essence.
It's like a balloon that keeps getting inflated; it can only be stopped once it reaches the critical point where it can hold all the energy... In the meantime, even a needle can puncture it, causing all the effort to be in vain.
But Brad's decade of forbearance seemed to have been all for this perfectly timed moment—
"No one can stop the God of All Weapons!" Brad's godlike gaze swept across the entire capital, without a trace of apprehension.
"—Even I can't!!!"
Chapter 218 Breakthrough! The Crouching Dragon Emerges from the Mountain!
Tick tock, tick tock...
Water droplets dripped from the ceiling, shattering into echoes in the quiet space, leaving only a heavy footstep stretching endlessly down the dimly lit passageway.
No one knew that such a large basement was hidden beneath the Morning Dew Orphanage.
Or, it would be more accurate to describe it as an underground plaza.
The scattered candlelight dimly illuminated the vast, cavern-like space, but the darkness was inescapable, like a pyramid buried underground. The underground plaza occupied a much larger space than the orphanage that was visible above ground, much like... the Blood Cross Society, which was known for its brilliance and benevolence on the surface.
The underground plaza has an uneven surface, with stone platforms arranged closely like a square formation, totaling nearly a hundred platforms that fill the entire underground plaza.
On the stone platform were small, weak bodies, like fish on a chopping board, struggling weakly, their eyes filled with fear... But from the moment they were silently taken away from the orphanage to the meticulously planned underground operation, they hadn't been able to gain a single chance, and now they had no power to escape.
The emotion called helplessness grew uncontrollably like weeds throughout the underground. On the stone platform was an orphan child whose name was not recorded in the kingdom's archives, who had no parents, and whose disappearance would hardly be noticed by anyone.
Their mouths were stuffed with rags to muffle their voices, their hands and feet were bound with bright red bandages, and they felt weak and sore in their limbs. Next to the stone platform, on a support, their blood was being continuously drawn from the needle holes in their bodies and sent to blood bags on the support.
The children looked around in fear at the dark underground and the instruments around them, but what was most terrifying was a figure in a black robe wearing a blood-red mask that appeared at the entrance with the sound of footsteps.
"Children, don't be afraid...it will be over soon."
Looking at the children on the stone platform as if they were kittens or puppies, the masked man smiled indifferently and spoke:
"You are all the blood of the kingdom, each one a precious life force... Let me think, what did the Mino Warrior use to describe you: hope, future, dream... Hmm, those are good words, they allowed me to effortlessly seize control of your proposals one by one."
“I have always believed that I am making a fair deal with you: I provide you with comfortable housing, a stable diet, and ample educational opportunities... and all you need to do is provide me with a small amount of blood during your monthly check-ups. It’s fair, after all, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”
"But today, I must say sorry to you all—"
The blood-red mask took in the hundreds of innocent eyes, filled with deep pleading and fear, that had gathered on the stone platform. He gently licked his lips.
"Because this next deal is no longer fair: what I need... is your lives."
The black-robed figure was surrounded by a blood-red aura. As that violent and evil energy spread out, the blood in the children's bodies seemed to boil, gushing out of their bodies at an extremely terrifying speed!
Slowly stretching out his hands, Thanaus's eyes, hidden beneath the red mask, revealed a look of ecstasy: "For the kingdom, and with blood!"
……
"His Holiness the Pope is truly a great Pope! He is indeed a god within the realm!"
"His Holiness the Pope will attack in his full power! The demons are in grave danger!!!"
"Your Holiness! Is this steel giant a new figure that the Holy Church will be releasing soon? Where can I buy it?"
Civilian area.
Once it was confirmed that the steel giant was the work of the Holy Church and Pope Brad, the crowd's panic vanished, replaced by excitement and exhilaration.
A barrage of adoring and fervent gazes fell upon the God of All Weapons and Brad.
Looking up at the ants beneath him, Brad's eyes revealed deep disgust... He had endured that look for far too long.
From birth until now, in order to climb to the position of Pope and achieve his goal of immortality, for more than a hundred years, he has been playing the role of the iron-willed, selfless saint, the benevolent and merciful Pope.
He dealt countless blows to the demon race, rescued these ants, and shaped the Holy Church into the most spotless and sacred symbol.
He can endure it.