CH 244

In the Mysterious Underground Sea of the Scripps Cemetery, Bella, Noreya, and Elaine were currently floating on top of a piece of ice. They were buffeted by waves as they made their way toward the mysterious island in the center of the sea.

The fifth-generation pope of the Radiant Church, Roxanne, was nestled obediently in Bella’s arms. Puppet Master Elaine carefully examined the residual cursed power on her body while behind them, pieces of the shattered iceberg floated in the water.

Roxanne had wholly surrendered to Bella’s group after seeing their incredible power and told them everything obediently. This was the Underground Sea World, the magnum opus of the second generation Radiant Pope, Aesop. He had secretly built this place behind the back of the first generation pope, Goldsmith.

Pope Goldsmith had never died; his disappearance was faked. It was rumored that he was trapped within the Floating Cathedral. She didn’t know how it was built, but Roxanne told them that the cathedral that was floating above the central island of the Underground Sea World would periodically land on the mysterious tower on the island in order to replenish its energy before rising into the air again.

However, Aesop was assassinated by the third generation Pope, McPherson, before he could do anything to Goldsmith. This secret region was only discovered by the fourth generation pope, Douglas. He constructed the island in the middle of the sea, as well as the maze.

Hearing all of this, Bella finally understood why all of the previous generation popes were gathered here. These popes were the same as McPherson: they hadn’t been able to enter the wheel of reincarnation after death and remained in this cemetery as undead to continue their battles. When Roxanne discovered this place, she had sealed the entrance in order to prevent Aesop and Goldsmith from coming into the world above to wreak havoc.

“That’s the situation. As for the two girls you’re looking for, one is on top of that tower; she was kidnapped by Douglas. The other girl is in the Floating Cathedral; Aesop took her. That’s all I know…”

“Lord Pope, I think you forgot to tell us something. You know where Pope Goldsmith is, right? Don’t pretend to be stupid; this is the most important piece of information…”

“I… I don’t know… Why are you girls looking for Goldsmith…”

If Pope Goldsmith were to be abducted by Bella, the Radiant Church would have a hard time. Roxanne decided to obfuscate for a while longer, for the future of the Church! Bella eyed her panicked expression and deduced that she did, in fact, know about Goldsmith’s location. However, since she was dead set against revealing this piece of information, Bella and her friends could only search for him on their own.

“Bella, it’s tough for me to break the curse on the lady pope. However, if she were to accept that demonic energy, she can transform the power of the curse into her own strength.”

“Then I’ll be counting on you, Elaine. After you’re done treating her, I’ll give you a present.”

Roxanne was powerless to resist Bella and Elaine as she hadn’t recovered any of her strength yet. Elaine wrapped her up in white bandages, to the point where she looked like a mummy. Only Roxanne’s eyes and nose were exposed. After that, Elaine placed her into a special black coffin.

Bella was curious about this treasure that was inside of Elaine’s spacial ring. This coffin looked like the sarcophagi of the ancient Egyptians from Bella’s world, and the fifth pope of the Radiant Church, Roxanne, was placed inside it. Elaine also put a golden pharaoh mask over Roxanne’s face. Bella even helped by surrounding Roxanne with various gold pieces and gemstones, filling the coffin around her with treasures.

Bella saw that there was a true curse placed on this sarcophagus, by Elaine herself. If they wanted to take Roxanne out, they would have to disguise her as a corpse. Since the people of this world had never seen a sarcophagus from Earth before, they would assume it to be the coffin of some demonic entity and be too afraid to open it to inspect its contents. Besides, Bella also used her own wealth in order to trick the eyes of the Radiant Church. She had filled the sarcophagus with treasures from her personal collection in her spacial ring. 

“Elaine, you made this box really well, as if…”

“I have other styles too, although… Oh right, Captain Bella, you don’t plan on having us explore the island like this, right?”

Bella suddenly remembered that their clothes had all been destroyed. They were all naked! They truly couldn’t step onto the island like this. Thankfully, Bella was a clothing designer in her past life; she was able to put together three sets of simple dresses by the time their piece of ice floated to the island. Unfortunately, she didn’t have time to make any underwear—they were all naked underneath their outer clothes.

This island was a Soul Island created by the fourth pope, Douglas. This entire underground sea region could be likened to an enormous glass ball. The bottom half was made up of seawater, while the upper half was open air. The person who had first hollowed out this region was the second pope, Aesop, and his underlings.

Aesop had initially planned to throw all of the restless dead that couldn’t be placated with holy magic into this hole. That way, they could keep the fall of the God World a secret. Afterward, Douglas converted it into a demon experimental lab and filled half of it with water.

There were a large number of demons and undead in the bottom of the underground sea, and the key to controlling them was the Soul Island. As soon as Bella and the girls stepped onto the land, they felt a powerful wave of divine power emanate from Roxanne’s personal cross, the “Light of Punishment.” It had been stolen, over 5000 years ago, and hidden on the Soul Island.

Soul Island was covered in demon corpses. Elaine’s summoned demons had been completely wiped out, as well as the majority of the wandering demons on the island. When Bella landed ashore, there were only a few enemy demons left, barely clinging to their life. She quickly put them out of their misery.

As for Roxanne, they had buried her sarcophagus in a secret location on the island. After all, Douglas and Roxanne had a deep grudge between them. If Bella brought her closer to the island center, she would easily be detected.

Bella and her companions avoided the bloodied ground and headed toward the tower in the center of the island. They walked especially carefully because they were scared of stepping on something sharp without any shoes.

Along the way, they saw numerous standing pillars of ice, which contained live people. Each pillar had a person sealed within. Judging by their equipment and clothing, they were the previous grave robbers that came to the Scripps Cemetery.

“Bella, don’t smash them… They’ve been sealed by Eternal Ice. If you break them out, you will suffer the same fate.”

Bella had just been about to smash the ice pillars out of curiosity, but thankfully, Elaine was able to stop her in time. As the girls approached the tower, they slowed down and ducked behind a large rock in order to observe the area.

They saw an enormous demonic ice snake wrapped around the tower, looking like a carving of a coiling dragon on a pillar. The ice snake was entwined all the way up to the top. The Giant Frost Serpent was over 100 meters long, and its jaws looked like it could swallow dozens of people at a time.

The Giant Frost Serpent’s enormous eyes were coldly staring at the ground. They were extremely sensitive to movement, but Bella and her friends were safely hidden behind a rock. Although its exact power level was unknown, as a ten-thousand-year-old demonic beast, it was far above ordinary S-rank monsters.

“Bella, you go with Noreya. I’ll distract it with my puppets. This ten-thousand-year-old demon beast has an icy aura that’s even stronger than the ice demon from earlier. Be careful!”

“Understood, we’ll regroup later! Elaine, you need to be careful too. Make sure to escape with Roxanne as soon as you get the retreat signal!”

Elaine released a swarm of dozens of puppet birds into the sky. The flying puppets attracted the gaze of the Frost Serpent, and enraged, it spat out bursts of billowing frost at the airborne nuisances. Bella and Noreya took advantage of this distraction and charged the entrance to the lower layer of the tower. The guards at the gate didn’t even have any time to react before Noreya pierced them through the head.

The corpses of the three-meter tall Snowmen guards didn’t have the keys on them. As a result, Noreya had to use her assassin abilities to force open the lock. Just like that, the Soul Tower that had remained impervious to outsiders for ten thousand years was opened.

On the topmost floor of the Soul Tower, a black, human-shaped shadow roamed freely. This thing didn’t actually have a physical body; rather, it was a Hollow Man that wore a black cloak. This was the fourth generation Radiant Pope, Douglas. Back then, he had sacrificed his fleshy body in order to curse his slayer, fifth-generation Radiant Pope Roxanne.

The platform on the topmost floor was built as a replica of the Chamber of the Pope of the Radiant Church, and there was a Radiant Throne sculpted from ice in its center. At the moment, there was a grey-haired beauty affixed to the top of the throne by chains of ice. She was the daughter of the tower master of the Skeleton Tower, part of the Big Four, Kleina.

Kleina stared fearfully at the enormous dark shadow looming over her. Her clothes had suffered the same fate as Bella’s—they had been torn apart by cold qi. Her naked form was wrapped in frozen chains, unable to move a single muscle, and even her mouth was gagged with a special demonic core.

Ever since she had been kidnapped by Douglas, Kleina had been imprisoned on this frozen throne, shackled and unable to move. Every so often, Douglas would force-feed her several strange medicinal concoctions, and then gag her with various demonic cores. As someone relatively knowledgeable in this area, Kleina had a rough idea of what he was planning.

“I’ve waited for ten thousand years, and now, I’ve finally found a vessel. Little girl, I’ll be taking over your body. You should have absorbed enough energy from that demonic core by now!”

Douglas stepped in front of Kleina and raised a curved knife high into the air. He had lost his body ten thousand years ago, and now, at last, he would have a new one. It didn’t matter that it was a female body; he could just remodel it later. Kleina had a compatible natural talent and didn’t waste all of the precious medicines and demonic cores that he had been feeding her since yesterday.

“You should feel honored, little girl. Although I still don’t know your name, you are no longer important. From now on, you will be the second coming of Douglas. I will take back…”

The floorboards underneath Douglas suddenly split open. Before he realized what happened, he fell straight through the floor. Bella crawled out from the hole in the floor while Noreya hid behind a far pillar, ready to move on command. She didn’t want Kleina to see her real appearance just yet.

“I thought that guy was a heavyweight, but he only weighs as much as that cloak! Kleina, I’ve come to rescue you… Hey, don’t shed tears of joy just yet. After all, I’m like the brother that fell through the floor; I’m not a good person.”

Seeing Bella appear, Kleina began crying in relief and didn’t realize the hidden meaning in Bella’s words. Bella didn’t have time to undo the chains on Kleina’s body and simply hefted the entire frozen throne onto her shoulder. 

“My Radiant Throne! You ugly bitch, release my throne!”

The Fallen Pope’s spirit swiftly returned to the scene and saw Bella carrying away his dearest seat. Douglas was infuriated! Back then, when he was defeated and lost his position to Roxanne, he had developed an antipathy toward women approaching his throne.

Fallen Pope Douglas shot dozens of black spears toward Bella in a magical assault. Bella set the throne down behind her and crossed her arms in front of her chest, blocking half of the black spears with her own body. They exploded on her, raising a cloud of dust.

At that moment, a dirt-yellow defensive array appeared around Bella, fending off the Fallen Pope’s attack. It was a defensive array summoned by the Sacred Object, Crystal of the Earth, the “Earth Guard” array.

Bella used her elbow as a weapon and charged straight at the ethereal pope. Their clash sent the fallen pope flying six meters away. His spectral form could only negate the attacks of humans and was useless against the power of a Demon Lord.

“Impossible! A human can’t possibly hit a spirit with physical attacks! You… Unless you’re not…”

Bella’s attack sent Douglas flying off of the tower, and his landing impact sent up a flurry of snow. Bella knew that this attack wouldn’t kill him, so she turned around to pick up the throne with Noreya in order to retreat. Before they left, Bella recovered Pope Roxanne’s personal cross, the “Adjudicator of Light,” from the frozen throne. 

Elaine saw Bella and Noreya successfully leaving and retreated as well, leaving behind her puppet birds as she escaped with the black sarcophagus. They couldn’t destroy Soul Island right now; otherwise, the demonic beings and undead sealed underneath the water would wake up and escape, resulting in painful aftermath.

“Despicable! Reynolds, freeze them.”

A disheveled Douglas commanded the Giant Frost Serpent coiled around the Soul Tower to attack Bella. However, Bella attached the sacred object, Sky Feather, to the frozen throne, turning it into a flying treasure. Immediately after, Bella and Noreya stepped onto the flying throne and flew towards the Floating Cathedral.

The Frost Serpent was afraid of the Floating Cathedral and broke off its attack. After all, that was the floating city of the second pope, Aesop. Taking advantage of this lull in the offense, Bella and the girls escaped into the Floating Cathedral.

“That woman wasn’t sent by Aesop, was she…? Didn’t we agree not to interfere with each other?! That guy actually struck first. Reynolds, freeze that cathedral out of the sky!”

Douglas, who had lost both his throne and his replacement body in one fell swoop, was infuriated beyond reason. In his view, Bella wielded demonic power against him and was very likely one of Aesop’s underlings. Aesop must not have been satisfied with the quality of his own captive, so he sent someone to steal Douglas’s material.

The Giant Frost Serpent Reynolds was raised over the past ten thousand by Douglas. Therefore, it could only follow his command and rush forward. It realized that having his throne stolen from him again after ten thousand years had enraged Douglas beyond all reason. While lampooning, it opened its jaws toward the Floating Cathedral and shot out a stream of frozen light.

However, the Floating Cathedral was also guarded by a ten-thousand-year-old demonic beast. Sky Dragon Emperor Omnis immediately retaliated with a blast of hellfire. Since ancient times, dragons and snakes had had an intense rivalry, and he had long hated the snake that lived on the Soul Tower. If it wasn’t for his master, Evil Pope Aesop, commanding him to stay put, he would’ve killed that snake long ago.

The two ten-thousand-year-old demonic beasts fired their orbital cannons at each other in an awe-inspiring clash. Since the duo was equal in power, they entered a stalemate, and Pope Aesop never appeared. This led Douglas to believe that Aesop was afraid to show his face, so he decided to continue the attack.

Bella and the girls flew past the Sky Dragon Emperor on the frozen throne, covered in the dark aura of the Sacred Object, Ghost Demon Stone. The dark aura led the dragon to believe that they were on the same side, and it simply let them pass.