Elliris and Nino had been trapped in the underground prison for ten days.
During that time, Elliris never gave up, constantly thinking about possible breakthroughs or effective strategies that could help the two of them escape.
However, Nino’s heart had begun to waver. This constant, sunless, dim underground life was about to drive this adolescent girl into despair.
Elliris, with nearly forty years of experience and wisdom from two lifetimes, only grew more mature in such situations.
She repeatedly tried to break the shackles on her hands and feet using external force, but to no avail.
It was clear that these shackles were unusual. She could no longer sense her own magical fluctuations; it was as if they were ability limiters, suppressing the God Race power within Elliris’s body.
Elliris also carefully noted the patrol guards’ shift changes, the details of their conversations, and the structural layout of the prison they were in.
They were deep underground, and the soundproofing was excellent. Every time she heard the guards coming from their duty room to deliver meals, she judged from the footsteps of an adult man that it took about fifty meters to reach their cell.
Elliris knocked on the walls and floor. This private “VIP” prison had solid marble brick walls on all sides, completely inconsistent with the underground soil structure of the capital.
Knocking deeper triggered a magical barrier reaction. It seemed the guards could activate some kind of barrier to seal off the underground. She also tried knocking on the wall to the front right and discovered that beyond it was a large empty space, but she didn’t know what the faint sound of magical electricity she occasionally heard meant.
And today, she overheard crucial information. The guards mentioned the Pope more than once in their conversation.
Elliris had indeed seen the recent reports of God Race female deaths handed to her by Marcus. Those deceased God Race women had all been drained of their magical power, their bodies destroyed and souls extinguished. Now, their own situation was not optimistic.
Given the Pope’s current methods of governance and his wanted posters, once captured, she would basically have no good outcome…
Here, even if they were actually tortured and screamed their throats out, no one would hear them.
Could the Pope be coming here today?
If that’s the case, you never know unless you try!
“Someone! Quickly, someone! I have a grievance! I wish to see His Holiness the Pope!”
Elliris pounded and rattled the iron bars with all her might, making a loud noise as if to cover something up, attracting the guards’ attention.
“What are you yelling for? So noisy! His Holiness the Pope is busy with a thousand affairs, why would he suddenly think of coming to see a top criminal like you?” The guard not far away growled impatiently.
“I have a grievance! I am innocent! I wish to see His Holiness the Pope to get justice!”
“Tch! I told you… Ah! Your Holiness, you have arrived…? I have been disrespectful, failing to greet Your Holiness at the stairway entrance.” The guard who had been shouting at them instantly became as meek as a mouse seeing a cat upon seeing the Pope descending from the upper floor.
“No matter. I am also quite interested in chatting with Lady Saint and Lady Nino, to catch up on old times.”
The Pope, wearing a disguise mask and a full red robe, spoke with his voice altered by a disguise spell, but Elliris could still detect a hint of discordance in it.
Pope Dussell clearly had an ulterior motive. Bad news! Today he was coming specifically for Elliris.
Chatting and catching up? She wasn’t a neighborhood auntie or some housewife.
The two of them, reduced to captives, really had no reason to refuse him. They were now in Pope Dussell’s hands, their fate already in his control.
However, Elliris needed more to gain more intelligence through the meeting with the Pope while trying to see if she could obtain some beneficial resources through verbal negotiation.
And so, the two witches had their first audience with the Pope.
Still wearing shackles, the two were escorted by guards as they followed behind the Pope to the meeting room ahead.
Along the way, they passed by the empty room next door. Since they had been brought in unconscious, they had never known what was next door.
But just one glance at the furnishings inside made their hair stand on end.
There were all kinds of torture devices unsuitable for minors, and even a tiger bench covered in magical runes and electric currents, similar to a so-called “Yang’s electrotherapy chair”…
Elliris and Nino understood. Seeing these terrifying things made their eyes grow dim and despondent.
No way! Not that kind of thing!
Then they followed the Pope into the meeting room. The Pope gestured for the guards to leave forcibly. All the guards, surprisingly acknowledging the order, went upstairs and exited the entire underground third level.
Leaning on his tin staff with the air of a supreme powerhouse, Pope Dussell sat calmly across from Elliris and Nino.
“Welcome back, two of the God Race, to the Felicitala Temple. I am Dussell Racine. I believe you naturally saw me in your childhood. I am pleased to hold talks with you here.”
“Dussell, this is not an equal meeting. Who has ever seen a prisoner in shackles sit across the table from a perpetrator to negotiate?” Elliris stated the facts. After all, the Pope had always served the High Priestess and the Saint. He couldn’t possibly not understand the proper order of status.
“Apologies, but Lady Saint and Lady Nino’s power is too strong. Especially Lady Saint, I am truly terrified from the bottom of my heart of your power as Lady Felicitala’s successor.”
“If you fear me, why are you still sitting here so sanctimoniously, continuing to talk with me? Dussell, be direct. State your purpose.”
“Everything is for Goddess Morvana! She is a far more wise and supreme existence than those two despicable deities who cannot make any real contributions and only bestow blessings upon a useless junior of the Omnia family like you!”
Since Elliris had said that, Pope Dussell stopped mincing words. Now, he had many ways to easily handle the two God Race girls before him.
Pope Dussell’s views were still stuck in the old timeline’s theory of Elliris and Sophia being useless, little knowing that the world line had already shifted.
Six years ago, the reincarnated and reborn sisters had already made the butterfly in the Arden Forest flap its wings. The world was about to undergo a great change.
“I will replace you, and at the same time, I will also revive your mother, using your body, of course! I will also make Lady Felicitala acknowledge and accept my love!”
Once an extremely devout believer, having witnessed Felicitala’s fall, his heart turned into an extremely paranoid, crazy, twisted love.
Dussell removed his mask, just as he discarded his charitable disguise before the people. Elliris and Nino finally saw this ruler’s ugliest, most terrifying side.
He spoke each following word in a hoarse, decaying voice laced with the stench of corpses.
“Lady Saint, I have already stood on the opposite side of you. As you can see, I have become a lich!” Blue ghostly flames flickered in his hollow cheekbones. Lich Dussell let out the chilling laugh of an undead being.
!!
Seeing this, Elliris immediately connected it to why a banshee had appeared in the previous divine trial. Nino’s eyes flew wide open in terror. She could not believe that the once kind and friendly Pope had now abandoned all faith, even discarded his human dignity, and become so terrifying and ferocious.
It made their bodies tremble from the instinctive intense fear. And with Dussell immediately releasing his necromantic pressure, the two living beings, as pure lives, repulsed and resisted such an existence from the bottom of their hearts.
“Whether you believe it or not, Goddess Morvana has proven to me through action that she can revive Lady Felicitala in her own way!”
“You are a heretic and evil!” Elliris forced these words out with all her might from the corner of her mouth. It was already very difficult for her.
However, they had no time to react. Without magical protection, they instantly collapsed onto the table, unable to move.
“You have no bargaining chips. You are my trophies. In two days, when I return, I will consume all of your magical power.”
Dussell then dispelled the necromantic pressure, allowing them to barely regain their senses and sit up straight.
Having lost all means of magical defense, the two of them were like ordinary frail girls, only stronger than commoners in level, their bodies able to withstand the Pope’s thick necromantic aura.
“Oh, by the way, you have come just at the right time. You can listen next door later to what kind of screams those drained of magical power make. It is merely a necessary offering to Goddess Morvana!”
After that, they did not get to see the last moment of that God Race woman being tortured. The Pope made sure that their return times perfectly missed the punished God Race woman. They could only return to their original place and listen to the most helpless screams.
Returned to their previous cell, the two heard what they least wanted to hear: their compatriot on that electric current chair, a heart-wrenching, soul-tearing cry…
The Pope had been gone for a long time. They looked at the exceptionally sumptuous dinner before them, their hearts filled with mixed emotions.
The main course was steak, Italian sweet soup, and a large number of desserts were brought in on a cart and elegantly placed on the stand. The desserts included English scones, chocolate brownies, mini egg tarts, tiramisu, cream puffs, macarons, fruit tarts, chocolate truffles…
Was this the so-called last meal?
Were they going to die as sweet ghosts rather than starved ghosts?
“Wuwuwu, ahhhh!! Sister Ell, suddenly eating so well means our death is probably not far off!” Nino suddenly sat on the ground, crying like a pear blossom in the rain.
“Sigh.”
Elliris sighed deeply, then sat on the ground and leaned next to Nino.
Nino sniffled, hugging Elliris tightly with great grievance. The girl’s shoulders trembled uncontrollably, and sobbing could still be heard.
The Pope was gone, and they could catch their breath for now, but no one could feel happy.
“Sister Ell, Nino is about to give up. Even though I couldn’t be born at the same time as sister, being able to protect Lady Sister before death, Nino thinks it’s worth it.”
With lifeless eyes and a face full of tears, Nino had already begun to speak lightly of life and death. Elliris, with a head full of black lines, looked at her, feeling very bitter inside.
‘Nino, don’t set up a flag at a time like this! You’re making me uneasy too…’
The downcast Nino brought her face close to Elliris, and the two were almost clinging together.
Thinking of this, Elliris felt like she was about to faint. The last shred of hope was about to be extinguished.
She hadn’t even properly enjoyed the wonderful life of this lifetime. Was she going to fall here?
“Damn it! I will never give up. Pope, just you wait!”
Afraid and imagining the earlier screaming God Race woman being tortured next door, Elliris and Nino sat on the ground hugging each other. During this, Elliris angrily pounded the floor. But now, completely different from before, the floor no longer made a solid, dull sound but a clear, crisp knocking sound.
The only possibility for this situation might be—
“Could it be…?!”
Elliris knocked on the floor beneath her feet repeatedly. Tonight was indeed very different from before. The clear echo once again confirmed her thoughts.
Was there suddenly an underground layer beneath their feet, or a secret tunnel?
…..
Late at night, the prison guards were already fast asleep. She also noticed that when the guard had delivered food earlier, he was staggering and reeked of alcohol. She estimated that by now they were blackout drunk and unconscious.
Then Elliris tried knocking on the floor rhythmically, as if sending a signal to indicate that they were here!
Before long, a pangolin dug a small hole and actually came with a letter!
Its round eyes were wide open. It licked her wrist adorably, then lowered its body, signaling Elliris to open the scroll container on its back.
Elliris quickly opened the container and pulled out the scroll. She had been on the verge of crying due to Nino’s emotions, but upon seeing the contents of the scroll, her eyes immediately brightened and sparkled.
[Elliris-sama, please do not give up hope. Your most loyal servant Angelica, along with Marcus and Rachel, are coming to save you! Later, Dwarf Captain Grove will dig a tunnel. He is Blake’s trusted man, who has remained in Heliwood to prepare the God Race rescue plan…]