Chapter 102: Truth Or Dare

"What are you going to do? What can you do?"

"You have disobeyed the Decalogue and committed a dreadful mortal sin against Christ by committing a barbaric murder on the one and only Pontifex Maximus… You shall be sent to suffer in the depth of inferno and hell until the rest of your voice…" The old clergy responded biting his teeth in a tone full of hatred.

"May Christ accept the souls of his Most Divine All-Holiness, the Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome, and Ecumenical Patriarch. Alleluia, alleluia." All the clergies and nuns prayed behind the old man with their hands and minds together.

The war cries of Ottomans behind them can already be heard clearer and clearer signaling the impending possible blood shed. Giacomo Coco does not want to waste his valuable manpower fighting the Ottomans, he let out a loud tsk and continued to threaten the crowd before him. "Do you want to move away or not? If you don't trust me I don't mind slitting the throat of another Christ's servant with my blood thirsty blade!"

"Are you not worried about yourself? Wont you think that god will send down a brave soul to have your throat slit and your head chopped off, like how the courageous Perseus beheaded the monstrous Gorgo Medusa?"

"Leave my way, old man, last warning."

The old man clenched his fist and continued standing there, just as Giacomo Coco is about to draw his blade and end the old man's life, a young man stepped up and shouted. "My most prestigious general, my teacher and I respect hero with true valor and audacity, if you are able to shout thrice 'Who dares to kill me?' Then we will clear your path immediately for you to pass, honourable general, and we will help you to repent your sins." After that, the young disciple bowed and waited for a response.

Giacomo Coco laughed wildly with his black beard shaking up and down and replied in a wild manner. "Listen, there are only three people in the city who has the power to kill me. Two of them are in the heat of the battle, and one is still lying in the hospital… "

"… I will not only shout three times! For your sake I can shout as many times as possible I want! Why not! Now listen you stubborn old brat!"

Giacomo Coco rose his sword high up pointing towards the head of the old man and bellowed echoing a violence in the thin air.

"Who dares to kill me?!"

"Who dares …. to kill me?!"

Giacomo Coco looks around him, it seems like everyone even including his own soldiers do not dare to might his eyes as they lower down their heads in obedience. Satisfied with this, he went on yelling.

"Who dares! TO KILL ME !?"

"…"

"I DARE TO KILL YA!" An arrow is sent flying straight splitting through the air sending its iron head right into the skull of Giacomo Coco before everyone can react following the savage voice of someone at the back. The force of the arrow was so huge that the moment it collides Giacomo Coco's head it sent his whole body into the air and pounding him on the ground.

Julian lowers down his Turkish recurve bow, gently touches the flexible slender ash bow as he walks towards Giacomo Coco. Then he squatted down, tried to plug out the arrow but failed, patted the already dead man on his cheeks and commented.

"That is a very strange request that I have heard throughout these years… But as a extra ordinarily kind hearted person, I approve your request… Are you satisfied with your question now?"

"…"

He gets no response.

Julian then stood up, bowed to the clergies and nuns and then went on to face the crowd of Venetian soldiers standing there not knowing what to do.

"Brothers! My fellow brothers! Please pardon me for my deficient Latin! I am here on my mégas droungarios… or Drungarios' orders! The state of Rome is in the direst situation! Those infidel barbarians are pouring into the city! Now! Show me the evidence, that your heart dangling in your chest are not made of stone! Show me! That those blades hanging by your sides! Are not made of twigs! Show me! That those guts containing your bravery is not empty! Now! Formation back change to front, march back and fight with me!"

The Venetian soldiers looked at each other with confusion in their eyes, some let out a cold snort while some stared blankly into the sky, all of them seems to have their feet rooted to the ground refusing to move according to Julian's orders.

"…. Those who march and fight with me today, will receive two ducats of pure golden coin at the end of the battle."

"Hoorayy!" The Venetians cheered letting out cries of battle, pounding their chests slashing their Falchion swords against their wooden chest, seems like they are also soldiering of fortune that are driven on by the lust for gold and wealth to fight. Julian organised all of them into a formation flexible in urban warfare, then assured the clergies and nuns that they will be safe around here.

"Hoc die, comites, ab proelium incedemur!"

…

Mehmed is standing beneath his flags in the central army camp inspecting the assault of his troops on the Norther section of walls of Constantinople. He cannot describe how happy he was when he received the news that the walls of Blachnarea have been successfully breached by his forces. It just seems like all those hardships, the bitterness of receiving stacks of death reports everyday, the dry lips and bumps caused by anxiety and insomnia, the freezing to the bones coldness every night supervising the siege. Now it just feels like all efforts have paid off.

Mehmed smiled turning to his vassals around him and boasted. "The fruits of victory have tumbled into our mouths too quickly."

"May Allah bless our Sultan! Allah senden razı olsun! Allahu Akbar!" All the vassels including Canderli Halil Pasha kneeled down on the ground with their hands high in the air towards the sun sang their prayers and congratulations to their sultan.