Chapter 14. The ascent

The ascent was silent as they gradually reached the uppermost floor of the Church. With their feet steady on the ground, Boss gave the entire area a glance. All around them were murals depicting epic battles between people of various hair color and eyes as stained glass covered the ceiling.

Most of the people had red/blue/green hair with magenta/cyan/yellow eyes. Chunks of the murals were ripped off as the broken pieces where their allies and enemies should be were missing. Who were their allies? Who were they fighting? Nobody knew.

The spiraling staircase that they didn’t use to reach this floor, cascaded downward leaving those standing unable to get back down. Boss looked down from where the stairs once were, the stairs he had seen was completely gone. With only one direction to go, Boss continued to follow the Pope.

The Pope didn’t walk much further as they entered a room with a normal sized door. Within the room was exactly two of beds near each other. Both Shelly and Arthur were placed on each of the bed as the Pope pulled a chair over and sat between them.

His eyes closed as he asked for peace and quiet. White energy from his body started to swirl around him before he separated the energy and dividing it into two. The divided energy softly surrounded the two.

Within moments their body began to glow a bright white light as the physical wounds on their face and body started healing. Minutes passed by and the once beaten and painful expression they had transitioned to a calm peaceful one.

Sweat could be seen on the Pope’s forehead, the amount of energy he used to heal these two took a toll on him. However, you wouldn’t see it on his expression, still calm and serene. Now that the recovery was finished the Pope turned his attention to the childish Boss.

“Child, you’re quite strong.” The Pope said. “You managed to carry the girl all the way here without breaking a sweat.”

Scratching his head in embarrassment Boss replied, “My mommy and daddy always said I was strong for my age.”

“You’re quite perceptive too, hm?” The Pope continued. Boss’ reaction and attention during the confrontation against the Statue of the Seraphim wasn’t out of the Pope’s radar.

Boss couldn’t say anything, he knew the Pope had seen his display.

“I wonder what would’ve happened to the boy if I didn’t arrive when I did...” The Pope turned to give Arthur a meaningful look before softly patting the kid’s hair.

Boss continued to stay silent, only he knew what would’ve happened to Arthur and Shelly if the Pope never showed up. Michael and Julie gave Boss a curious look, both lost in their own thoughts of what would have occurred.

The Pope got up from his seat and walked over to Boss, a strange silent confrontation could be seen coming from the two as they stared down the other. However, a short while later the Pope was the first to move, his arm reached for Boss’ head and rustled his hair too.

“It seems like the time for the newer generation is upon us” The Pope sighed as he continued to rustle Boss’ hair. He then turned to glance at Michael and Julie.

“Michael, today you and Julie are forbidden from entering our Church of Future Heaven until your mission is complete.”

“No! I don’t want to go! I can’t!” Julie instantly refused the Pope without a single shred of decency.

“Julie Chartreuse, you know your own destiny the best, why hide from it?” The Pope’s soothing voice provided more questions than answer.

“I’d rather die than that damn destiny.” Julie continued to refuse the Pope.

“A destiny is only a single moment where you see a truth, anything afterwards are your very own truths.” His words silenced Julie as she remained deep in thought. A newfound look of conviction is marked on her face as she silently engraved the Pope’s words to heart.

“Child, would you be so kind to help me?” The Pope turned his attention over to Boss.

“Okay!” Boss shouted in an excited childish voice. “What must I do?” he asked with a serious attitude showing that he was prepared for anything.

“Would you like to be an Emissary of our Church and escort Michael and Julie to the Tillowisk Empire of the Eastern Continent?”

“I can” Boss answered causing Michael and Julie to be dumbstruck, did the Pope really asked a little boy to be their bodyguard? Was there no one else?

“However, not right now.”

“Hm?” The Pope gave him a questioning look waiting for him to continue.

Boss pointed at the two youths beside the bed. “The enrollment for the new class of students is coming up in a few months, I’ll go with them once they’re awake.” His answer was clear, he’ll only bodyguard Michael and Julie if they joined him.

“That is fine, but you’ll have to convince their parents why enrolling with Naturelle is better than Lumiere.” The Pope agreed.

“I’ll think of something.” Boss answered back.

The Pope nodded his head in satisfaction as he returned to the chair. He had one more thing to do. His hands hovering a few centimeters above the two youths began to emit a soft warm glow, visibly different than the healing done earlier.

Two white formed energy inside of them was pulled out and landed into his grasp. “I’ll be taking this back.” It was the same white cloud of energy that came from the Seraphim statue.

Everyone can visibly see the dense energy cloud in the Pope’s hands. Michael and Julie both let out an audible gasp as they finally figured out the puzzle of why the two youths were attacked.

“What is that?” Boss asked pretending he didn’t know what it was.

Chuckling at the attempt Boss was making the Pope replied, “You can say, it’s like an exam for Emissaries.” The thing that came from the Seraphim served as a tracker for it to follow and attack. Like an exam, there could be no cheating, meaning Emissaries had to fight it with their powers locked.

He continued “These two are physically fully recovered. Michael and Julie, you’ll carry them home to the Galafrays. While their physical appearance is unharmed, their mind is exhausted. Do let them rest.” The Pope said before the cascading staircase from earlier reconnected to their floor.

“I won’t be seeing you out.” The two adults bowed their heads while the youth only gave him a nod before walking down and exiting the Church. The giant door with its locks broken was completely fixed as it closed behind them.

The Pope looked at the room with exactly two beds as the entire interior started to change. The four walls were caving in, pushing towards the center, while everything else within the room started to melt, blending into it.

As the Pope walked out from the room, the door behind him disappeared into the walls leaving no trace behind. He continued to walk steady steps towards his seat before staggering at the end.

Falling into his seat, the Pope’s once serene expression became mixed with pain. His chest heaved as he struggled to breath. His eyes were closed, and his teeth gritted, the Pope could only endure the excruciating pain he was feeling.

Moments later, the pain subsides as he completely collapsed onto his seat. His breathing ragged, his body sore, he made no other movements as he sat there with his eyes closed.

Michael with Barkie atop of his head carried Arthur back, Julie held Shelly with Silver on her shoulder. Boss followed along from the back silently examining the two, their internal energy was rapidly improving. A near fatal encounter was a blessing in disguise.

The moment Benjamin saw Michael and Julie carry Arthur in, he immediately went to inform Samuel and Angel. The power they exuded together quaked the entire mansion as they raced to a guest bedroom for two children. The two children were placed here on Benjamin’s order so that he can observe and treat them if necessary.

The parents were fuming in anger when they asked who had done it. But once Boss mentioned it was an accident within the Church for an Emissary examination they completely understood. However, understanding was one thing, being calm about the matter was a another.

“Ima kill him. I’m gonna kill that damn Pope.” Angel did not care whether it was an accident or not, her baby was harmed in his church.

“H-honey, p-please don’t.” Samuel tried to stop her extremely unconvincingly.

“You’re gonna stop me? After what happened!?” Her voice grew louder, at him turning him into a frozen sculpture.

However, the frozen sculpture began to melt as Samuel shivered from the cold “H-he did save them too…” Samuel could only weakly stutter, a military man he may be but in front of an angry wife he can only concede.

“And you.” She turned to Boss her anger was boiling, “Why didn’t you do anything!? You could’ve easily prevented this!” Her force directly sent Boss flying to the wall. She then impaled him at the center of his stomach with an extremely large icicle.

Michael shuddered at the cruel act she displayed upon the child, with Julie completely hiding her face in Michael’s chest. However, the calm looks on the child’s eyes made him feel true terror.

The child impaled to the wall remained there and left out a sigh as he folded his arms and rested it on the large icicle. “I didn’t want to.” He plainly said, the moment he spoke Michael and Julie were scared shitless at the sight. How can a child no older than 10 years old be so calm after getting impaled to speak?

Slowly tapping at the icicle, he continued “I could have done what you’ve wanted and prevented all this, but do you think you guys have all the time in the world? This world is evolving, either you survive it or die.”

“But they’re just kids! 10-year olds!” Angel refuted her words made complete sense.

“During our evolution, most kids would be lucky to make it to 10.” Boss solemnly lamented, his chilling and sorrowful voice filled with regret made Angel couldn’t help but feel empathetic towards him. Michael and Julie could see that if the child continued, he’d have tears crawling down his eyes.

“But why?” She could only mutter, the rage she had towards everything subsided. Defeated she went and sat beside Arthur’s bed with tears streaking down her eyes as she soflty petted his hair. “Is it necessary?” She whispered not sure if she was asking herself or Boss.

Sigh

Samuel let out a sigh and sat beside her on Arthur’s bed. He softly rubbed her back as she continued to shed silent tears down her eyes. The child still impaled to the wall continued to tap at the icicles before it silently disintegrated causing him to softly land on the floor.

No wound could be seen on his chest, only a large hole left on his once pristine blue robe provided evidence of his impalement.

“Yes.” His one word spoke volume about what is to come. It is not something that they’ll have time to adjust and adapt to, it’ll be here quicker than they’re prepared for.

Benjamin softly motioned everyone to leave the room, Michael and Julie were the first to walk out, Julie too was crying when she saw the scene. Samuel walked Angel out afterwards, her eyes still wet with tears, but she was slowly recovering. Benjamin waited for Boss to leave the room, but the kid remained there.

“I’ll wait here until they’re awake, Boss said, the kitten hopped onto Shelly’s bed and nestled beside her, Barkie did the same with Arthur showing their intent. Boss sat down on the floor since there was no chairs in the room.

“I’ll go bring a chair” Benjamin excused himself.

Boss looked at the two pets that were resting beside them “You two should take care of your master in the future, okay?” However, there was no response or movement from them as if they didn’t know Boss had said. Only the strong swirling energy within them showed that they understood.

Benjamin returned with a chair for Boss to sit on. Before closing the door, he turned to ask Boss. “Can’t you prevent this?”

“Don’t worry, I won’t let them die.” His voice showed his intent. Benjamin could only shake his head and sighed, he knew what Boss meant, even if he could prevent it, he wouldn’t.

The purple haired child with bright hazel eyes sat his chair in between the two kids and their pets as the door closed. Neither near nor far away from either as he remained silent in the center.