The Pope's Ambition

The deal was made. Matthew actually managed to convince the Demon Lord to help him. In exchange for power, he offered up his own soul as a anchor. A conduit. The Devil fused his essence into the young Matthew.

After his defeat at the hands of Saintess Joan, the Devil had sapped the power from her flesh and bones to keep himself in the living realm. But it wasn't strong enough to maintain. With each passing year, he was fading and fading and he refused to lose his hold completely as going back under would mean he would have to surpass the Goddess's barriers once more. Something that would take thousands of years to do. He had finally manage to escape and he wasn't going to be dismissed at the hands of a mere Saintess.

Over the course of 400 years, he had been draining the life force out of marine mammals and the occasional humans who ventured out and drowned in the lake. But it wasn't enough. He needed more souls to rebuild himself. As it stood, he was currently nothing more than an apparition. A foul stench in the air that could barely eat.

Matthew was the greedy, power hungry fool he'd been looking for all along. Taking him on as a host allowed him the chance to restore himself. Demonic magic and demonic entities could only drain and devour humans. For a human to be able to benefit off the dark powers, they would have to voluntarily give up their souls and invite the dark forces in. This would turn into a symbiotic relationship. For a time, anyways. 

Matthew did the unthinkable. For the sake of reverence and ambition, he broke the sacred vow that all those who enter the Temple of the Goddess to serve had to take. But he did not care. He craved power at all cost. As soon as the ritual was done, he felt both the Devil's spirit as well as the capabilities he now possessed. He wasted no time carrying out his side of the agreement.

Leaving Lake Joan, he moved through the stone like a shadow and happened upon a nearby village. Choosing to utilize a brothel for his first experiment, he went in under the disguise of a patron and proceeded to drain every single soul that lived under the roof. Only a few were able to flee in horror, but none got far as Matthew pursued them so as to ensure his cover was not blown.

The souls offered greatly pleased the Demon Lord who in turn taught Matthew how to utilize more of the powers of hell. 

Matthew was strong now. So he headed back to the church and presented his powers to the Pope and the three factions. Mimicking the healing prowess of the old Pope, scorned Cromwells and previous Saintesses he convinced them and the empire that he had indeed been blessed by the Goddess.

After he was promoted and thus granted the privileges and resources that came with being a Pope, he quickly got to work hiding scrolls and implanting new ideas within the clergymen on what it meant to serve the Goddess. Asking questions became a taboo and Pope Matthew enforced complete obedience. He was not past banishing priests who he deemed to be weak and impure. 

All the while, he began devouring souls on the regular. He created a secret dungeon located half a mile away from the Cathedral where he would keep his sacrifices. Thieves, bandits, prostitutes, vagrants, pirates and so on. Once a week, he would go there and devour a soul. And with each he was able to practice more spells, the most important being able to slow down his aging. At the same time the Devil's spirit in him was growing stronger.

The Demon Lord was very pleased with his host, but after some time he began to grow impatient. It would take upwards to a thousand souls before he could resume his true form. He instructed the Pope to perform killings in greater number. The Pope struggled to meet that demand. After one such incident, he knew the entire third faction was suspicious of him and had to be even more discreet.

The Pope hoped to lure them to a secluded spot and sacrifice the entire faction in one full swing.

He declared the bastard child Helena as a Saintess in order to further bolster the support of the public.

He also aimed to create a scandal where by the entire Cromwell family would be accused of blasphemy and sentenced to death. He wished to topple to current monarch and take charge himself.

Then he would venture out to control all the neighboring kingdoms on the continent.

Pope Matthew intended on living several lifetimes. And as such, Elysium would not be enough.

Once more the images within the infinity began to cloud and blur. The symbol shrunk and resealed itself onto Alex's wrist.

Liam and Felicia were in a complete state of shock. The howl of the wind over the water was the only sound they could hear. They both stared off into the distance as neither one could think of a single thing to say.

Suddenly, Alex's eyes snapped open. And he had seen it all as well.