The Pope's Verdict

"Send your votes through the polls now!" Suddenly, two options popped up before every single member of the congregation that sat in the pews.

The options were in the form of panels displayed right in front of them, and they were meant to pick either 'Pass' or 'Fail'.

I had thought it would be something more magical, but this ended up being nothing more than a glorified survey.

'But, what's the purpose of using a fake congregation to come to a decision?'

They were simply projections of my and Maria's thoughts.

"Looks like the results are in!!!" The Pope declared, drawing my eyes towards the large panel spread across the air, above me.

I waited patiently to see how we had fared. After all, this was the whole reason I went through this.

Though my eyes glanced at Maria for a moment, and I quickly looked away. I could also feel a gaze on me, but decided not to look.

'Let's just get this over with. We can always discuss everything that happened, later…'