Great Prophecy

The Pope's robes were red, as scarlet at the corners of his eyes, and they seemed to complement each other. For a moment he seemed to be back to being the mighty Pope who handled things in a calm and unfazed manner. Nothing would alarm him. But only Archbishop Caluxfa, who knew him well, knew that the Pope was still grave. There seemed to be things which confused him, which could not be solved.

The atmosphere was heavy in the solemn temple. If the young believers outside saw this, they would be so shocked that their jaws would drop. The Pope, Archbishops, and Elders, who had always looked at the world with loving kindness, now looked grim. Something serious must have have happened to make these powerhouses look so worried!

Pope Themis had been most favored by the Light God for thousands of years. All believers of the Temple of Light believed that the Pope was the embodiment of the God of Light. His power was unmatched in the world. The aura of light he exuded was the purest. From the day Themis was born, everyone knew that he would be the next great Pope.

At that moment, in the quiet sanctuary, Pope Themis looked up at the top of the vault of heaven. A shaft of holy light shone down from the top of the crystal, bathing the entire temple in pure white light. The Merle Temple was the only temple with a bright, holy light. At the top of the temple's pointed dome, there was a statue of the God of Light looking down at the temple with a benevolent gaze. Anyone who entered the temple could feel the sacred aura of the God of Light. For this reason, the greatest wish of all the believers of the Temple of Light was to be able to enter the Merle Temple and receive the gaze of God.

The only time in their lives that the kings of the small western countries entered the Temple was when they were crowned. They would walk barefoot into the Temple and be crowned by the great Pope. This was regarded by the kings as the most glorious thing in their lives. They knelt reverently at the feet of the archbishop and were crowned under the gaze of the God of Light. Not being crowned in the Temple and not receiving the gaze of the God of Light meant that the king would not be recognized by all as having ascended to the throne.

Legend had it that Mount Kaffa was the place where the God of Light slept. Everyone who entered the mountain for the first time had to climb the holy mountain on foot. Otherwise, it would be considered disrespectful. The kings of the small western countries even climbed the mountain barefoot to show their respect for the God of Light when they were crowned. All of this was achieved with the efforts of the current Pope.

It could be said that this Pope had pushed the prestige of the God of Light to unprecedented heights! This was also why everyone was puzzled and feeling anxious. Under the leadership of such a wise and great Pope, they looked forward to the glory of the God of Light spreading all over the continent.

So they wondered why the Pope had to use the Great Prophecy. And three times in a row. Each use of the Great Prophecy consumed a massive amount of light elements. The Temple of Light had painstakingly accumulated them over the past thousand years. They were non-renewable natural resources. After all, no one could think of any other way to obtain the light elements other than praying.

"Your Holiness, what exactly did you see in the future?" one of the Archbishops couldn't resist asking.

The Pope didn't answer. The blood on his face looked startling in the holy light. At the foot of the throne, a mage in a white robe held a white handkerchief with exquisite golden flowers. He bowed his head and reverently held it out to the Pope with both hands. Themis reached out and took it, wiping the blood from his eyes.

"I didn't see anything."

He returned the blood-stained handkerchief to the young mage's hand. "The Great Prophecy failed."

"Failed?" There was a gasp, and everyone looked at the Pope, dumbstruck.

The Great Prophecy was a magic array that used the power of light that the Temple of Light had accumulated over the years, with the Pope as its core plus the 12 Archbishops of Light. It was obtained by the third Pope who sacrificed his life to the gods. He was the greatest of the Temple of Light's Popes other than the current pope. The Prophecy had been used twice in all, and this was the third time.

The first two Great Prophecies had worked. Using the advantage of seeing the future clearly, the Temple of Light had developed from a small church to the behemoth it was today.

However, this time, the greatest Pope and the 12 Archbishops, who were far stronger than before, had failed in their Great Prophecy. It was given by the gods. How could it fail? Everyone was anxious. They did not see the faint determination in the Pope's compassionate eyes!

The pope wasn't lying. The Great Prophecy had failed just now. But neither the one yesterday nor the one the day before failed. Lately, the Pope had been experiencing a sense of unease emanating from the depths of his soul.

At his level, many seemingly nonsensical feelings often represented some kind of truth. This uneasiness terrified him to no end. And it prompted him to summon the 12 Archbishops and perform the Great Prophecy at the expense of the Temple of Light's accumulation and his own lifespan.

In the first Great Prophecy, the Pope saw a very terrifying scene. Only remnants of the 12 great temples remained, and the great statue of the God of Light lay in ruins. On the mainland, the Church of Light had been destroyed, and the believers were driven away like rats.

The final scene of the prophecy stopped at the moment the holy light went out. This vision nearly destroyed the Pope's years of cultivation! In order to figure out what had happened, he went on to launch a second Great Prophecy.

The result of the second Great Prophecy, however, was completely different from the first. He saw a glorious Temple of Light, more majestic than the one the Church of Light now possessed, and the aura of the Light was stronger. It made him feel as if the God of Light truly lived in that temple.

He saw countless missionaries traveling through cities, deserts, and even the Magical Beast Forest. There was no shortage of orcs, half-elves, and other races. This was especially confusing, because all along, these descendants of the union of humans and other races were viewed by the Temple of Light as the products of depravity, typical of original sin, and creatures that had to be purified. It was the two very different outcomes that confused the Pope who launched the third Great Prophecy. This time, however, he saw nothing!