Chapter 543 - The Message...

[Vatican] 

The Pope was sitting behind his desk with a heavy look on his face. The sun was just rising, so the room was barely lit, but the tear streaks on the Pope's cheeks were clear as day. After a few seconds, the man started to sob and whimper. Minutes passed and the Pope continued to sob. 

Someone knocked on the door and the Pope immediately gathered his bearings. He wiped off his tears with his sleeves, but from his red eyes and puffy cheeks, it was pretty clear that the man had been crying. He fixed his robes and turned towards his door. 

"Enter" the Pope called out and moments later, the door opened with a click and seven people entered the room. All of them were immediately alarmed by the Pope's visage. 

"What happened, your Holiness?" Irina Shidou asked in a worried tone. 

"...All of you, have a seat. I am sure that all of you are going to need it" The Pope answered and everyone looked at the Pope with concerned looks for a moment before taking their seats. After that, everyone continued to stare at the Pope with expectant looks in their eyes, they knew something very bad must have happened. 

"Your plan backfired" the Pope said in a hoarse tone while looking at Touji Shidou. The said man was immediately alarmed and a feeling of horror was slowly rising from his gut. 

"You mean our agreement regarding the Rating Games Tournament?" Touji asked in a nervous tone and the Pope solemnly nodded his head. The man gulped loudly… 

"Last night Hela and Yachiru Unohana wiped off all the Churches in Europe" The Pope revealed and everyone immediately gasped in disbelief. Touji's whole world came crashing down on him. At first, he felt disbelief, then anger, and finally guilt. 

"No…" Vasco Strada said while shaking his head. He simply couldn't wrap his head around the news. Vasco Strada had decided not to participate in the Rating Games Tournament because he felt that his presence in the Vatican was more important. 

If all the strong members of the Church left at the same time, then someone might use that chance to attack the Vatican. They knew that Hela wouldn't attack them since she wasn't afraid of them. She had proved that before. He had tried to tell Touji that his plan was stupid, but the man didn't listen. 

Vasco had pointed out that the plan was stupid. He had tried to tell him that Hela might take offence, but to be honest, he never expected such a brutal and cruel rebuttal against such a childish tactic. Touji had asked everyone not to fight and make a mockery of the Tournament, the plan was childish… maybe that is why Hela decided to teach them a cruel lesson. 

"So… what do we do now?" Vasco asked in a solemn tone. 

"Vasco!!" Diethelm gasped in horror while looking at Vasco. "How can you be so calm? Do you even understand what has happened??" Diethelm growled in anger as he slammed his fist on his armrest. 

Vasco turned his head to calmly look at Diethelm. "And what would you have me do? Do you want me to bring back the dead or reverse the destruction?" Vasco asked in a monotone, but Diethelm flinched when he sensed the subtle killing intent Vasco was releasing. 

"It was all of you who decided to follow that childish plan while I had said that you shouldn't" Vasco reminded the whole group in a chilling tone. 

"Vasco, you can't blame us. We simply wanted to get back at her in some way. We simply didn't think that she would react in such a manner!" Ursula defended herself and Vasco simply snorted. 

"Well, you should and I am going to blame all of you. Do you know why?" Vasco questioned while glaring at the whole group along with the Pope. The Pope didn't have anything to do with the plan, but he had agreed with them that they should do something to show that they won't submit in front of Hela. 

"I can blame all of you because it is all of your fault! Did I not tell all of you that this would end in a good way… True, I didn't expect such a brutal and cruel reaction, but from what I already know about the woman I should have expected this" Vasco griped. 

"You said that even you didn't expect that she was going to react in such a manner, then how can you blame us? We have never even seen the woman with our own eyes, then how was I supposed to know?" Lint Sellzen muttered nervously. Even Lint knew that she was just trying to convince herself that this wasn't her fault, her voice was too weak for an argument. 

Vasco scoffed after hearing her words. "All members of the Church are quite familiar with the cruelty she is capable of, so don't dare pull that excuse!" Vasco snapped at the girl and Lint simply cowered in her seat. 

"Vasco… that's too much" the Pope finally decided to interfere before the argument could escalate into something else. Vasco glared at the man and the Pope immediately lowered his eyes due to guilt. 

"Fine… but what are we going to do now?" Vasco repeated his initial question, but yet again nobody had an answer for his question. 

Touji Shidou was still looking down at his lap. It was clear that the man was barely holding himself back from breaking down in front of the others. Xenovia and Irina were too horrified to do or say anything. The two of them simply sat in their seats with the looks of disbelief and horror marring their faces. 

"...How many dead?" All of a sudden Ursula asked, breaking the silence. 

"...We don't know that yet" the Pope said with a wince. 

"Why are we only hearing this now?" Vasco asked.

"I have ordered everyone to keep a lid on it. I don't want the news spreading before we have all the facts" the Pope answered and everyone including Vasco, who was blaming everyone also agreed with the man's logic. 

"There will be complete chaos and panic as soon as the news comes out…" Ursula looked completely heartbroken. She had her eyes closed with a pained look marring her face. A lone tear escaped her eyes as she spoke the words. 

"You have no idea what sort of effect this incident is going to have for the future of Church" Vasco said while shaking his head. "As soon as we release the news, people will become too afraid to associate with the Church. Everyone will be afraid that the axe would fall on their neck any moment" Vasco added with a grave look on his face. 

Everyone in the room including the Pope looked completely horrified after hearing those words. They wanted to refute Vasco's words, but no matter how much they tried, they couldn't find any fault in Vasco's logic. 

"...It can't be… surely there will be some who would still believe in us" Irina said while desperately shaking her head. She was extremely faithful to the God of the Bible and the ideology of the Church. 

"Yes, there will be a lot of people who will still believe in the Church, but nobody would dare to express their sentiments openly. If anybody tried anything, then Hela or Yachiru Unohana would make an example out of them" Vasco said while looking outside the room. He couldn't look at the girl, with his words he was basically crushing the girl's faith. 

'It is much better like this…' Vasco grimly thought inside his mind. Yes, he was destroying the girl's faith, but it was important with what was coming in the future. Vasco already knew that they were already under Hela's thumb, they simply didn't want to admit it. God was already missing and he wasn't going to miraculously appear tomorrow. 

He had already witnessed Hela's power firsthand, so he wasn't even sure if the God of the Bible could even defeat her. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but Vasco couldn't deny it anymore. Their standing in the world has been already changed irreversibly. There was nothing they could do now to regain the faith of the humans. 

Not only that, but they were also slowly losing their ability to harness the Holy Power. Even the Excalibur Fragments were acting funny after Hela took over. Gradually, they would have lost all of their power and they were in no position to enrage Hela and they had done just that. 

"I am sure that everything will work out at the end…" the Pope said with his eyes closed. Nobody believed the man, even the Pope himself didn't believe his own words, but he still needed to say something. He was simply trying to get himself a tiny semblance of hope. 

"Oh… I forgot. Hela had sent us a message… she said that if we pull another stunt like that then she will kill all the humans who believe in the God of the Bible except for the people residing in the Vatican" the Pope said while looking down at his hands. Everyone present inside the room clearly understood the message… 

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