The Demon Lord's Bride (BL)-Chapter 703: You need to take time when you’re summoning the final boss for your enemies

Chapter 703: You need to take time when you’re summoning the final boss for your enemies

"What?!"

The Pope seemed to contemplate swinging his staff to bonk my head, but before he could do anything, the light coming from the statue’s crown grew so blinding that I had to cover my eyes. It was enough to make the plaza seem like it was bathed in daylight, even though it was supposed to be the twilight.

At that point, most of the people in the plaza had been evacuated--thanks to Zarfa and friends. The people who were inside the building were still inside, and the ones still in the plaza were people who were originally in the park behind the outer sanctum. All, without exception, turned to look at the blinding statue once the light dimmed.

Of course, the clueless pawns and the snared executives. Also, the old man Pope, whose pale eyes were squinting hard.

There was a ten-second lull when everything fell into silence. No scream, no questioning. Their brains were still too dazed to even question what caused the blinding light.

And then, the vibration came.

First, from the air, as if a stiffening storm raging around them. Invisible force pressuring their sides and above as if the air suddenly gained weight.

And then from the ground, quaking like an ancient dragon of legend stomping in. The poor people left in the plaza braced themselves to the ground or held on to pillars as the world seemingly went into a rage.

Perhaps it was. Perhaps it was their patron deity’s anger--who knows?

But just in case, I let the bound members of the church experience the full treatment. With tied limbs, they were staggered and sprawled all over and around the stairs, unable to balance themselves. They rolled and fell to their knees, like the poor people they had made miserable without much thought.

The Pope struck his staff to the stairs to hold on, and I simply elevated myself a little bit--about five centimeters above the stair surface--so I wouldn’t get affected by the shaking ground. The air pressure, for me who had gone through the Demon God’s trial, was nothing.

The vibration happened for a minute. Only a minute, but for those affected, it must have felt like an hour. But the one vibrating the most was the huge statue in the plaza, which stood taller than the church itself. And at the end of that one minute, a crack appeared on the Goddess’s crown.

It was unmistakable; the loud noise akin to splitting earth could be heard from the statue. Even people who were still trying to find their balance or sprawling on the floor couldn’t help but turn toward it. In horror, the devotee and the clueless pawns watched as the crack spread all over the statue.

"W-what happened?!"

"The statue!"

"Why is the statue--"

Shouts filled the plaza, both from the devotees and the clueless pawns. The statue was a religious symbol for them, and just like every spiritual thing, superstition followed. Since the statue had existed before the church was even built, it was treated as the representation of the Goddess. They believed that as long as the statue stood, they would be showered in prosperity.

Naturally, they would be terrified when the symbol of their belief looked like it would crumble down.

"What do you think, old man?" I looked back at the shaking pale eyes behind me. "Do you know what happened? Do you know why it happened?"

"No way..."

In truth, the people who thought the statue was the representation of the Goddess couldn’t be nearer to the truth.

When the cracks filled the whole surface of the statue, a magic circle appeared in the sky above it. And then the second magic circle appeared, then the third, then another one beneath the statue, which quickly spread all over the plaza. The devotees and the church members looked down with widened eyes, and then looked up, as the same thing happened in the sky.

And it wasn’t only the sky above the plaza--it was above the whole church complex, and spreading far all over the capital city of the Holy Empire like a blooming flower. The sun should be nearly setting at that point, but the sky was so bright with the light coming out of the magic circle that it felt like midday.

I had to admit, it was rather impressive.

"Do you not think the Goddess would have a backup plan?" I asked the old man again, who finally shifted his shaking gaze from the statue to me.

But I returned my gaze to the statue--or rather, to the area around it. A young man, looking only slightly older than the first time he arrived in this world, was standing at the foot of the statue, looking in our direction.

"Why do you think she summoned Mister Hero over there using the last of her existing power?"

You must have thought you won when you managed to manipulate the young Hero into working against the other race instead of cleaning up the dirt in your own realm. Even when the Hero ran away from Lenaar, he never directly attacked the church, since he thought it was only the kingdom that was rotten.

Well, well--not on the fellow transmigrators’ watch!

The Pope, who finally realized that our plan was bigger than merely stealing a relic, swung his staff with a roar. "You!!"

Clang!

Before the staff could even afflict my shadow, Alveitya already shot from its place on the ground and parried it. The movement dragged the white roots and vines used to bind the others and got them groaning as they were thrown around the place just a minute after the vibration stopped.

Welp.

"Do you not have anything other than ’you’?" I sighed and grabbed my spear, swinging the lower end to the Pope’s side, shattering his barrier. "Give me some creative insult, old man."

"Gaah!" the old man poured his mana into the luxurious staff in an attempt to party Alveitya, but the sentient spear simply pulled out more mana from me to rival the Pope’s.

"Not very creative. Not even an insult."

I sighed and shook my head, parrying the staff until the Pope staggered back and bonked his head. Ugh--this one was supposed to be the final boss, but why did it feel like villain number three or something? Honestly, the fight against the Spectre was more exciting.

Did I get stronger, or was it simply not interesting fighting against an old man?

Well, the church’s biggest problem was their number and influence anyway, akin to going against a president. Slapping the president’s face was easy as long as we could get past the bodyguards. It was getting out of it that was difficult.

But well...in this case, our side had a bigger backup, right?

I bonked the Pope’s head once more and conjured white hemp ropes to coil around the staggering Pope tightly. It looked flexible, but it was as hard as metal, just like Alveitya’s shaft. It was made from my mana, so unless the Pope had a reserve mana somewhere that was bigger than mine, he wouldn’t be able to shatter it.

"Anyway, it’s taking some time, huh?" I turned around and let go of Alveitya, letting the spear poke some people playfully while the statue was still shedding and the magic circle was still...magic circling. "Quite the spectacle."

"Aargh! Let me go!"

I rolled my eyes at the noisy old man, clicking my tongue as he wriggled on the stairs. "Would you, if you were me? How funny..."

Should I just kick him down the stairs? Would be fun seeing him rolling--

[Papa! Jade put out all the fire!]

I flinched and looked up at the sky, where the beautiful, colorful elemental bird swooped down to perch on my outstretched arm. "Oh, good job, baby!"

Phew. Shouldn’t give my kid a bad example of cruelty.

Jade nuzzled my head, still adorable even in a bigger form. The beady green eyes looked at the squirming old man behind me and asked curiously. [Who’s this, Papa?]

"The bad guy," I replied simply, truthfully.

The bird screeched excitedly. "Bad guy! Jade want to smack bad guy!"

"Sure," I shrugged, and the juvenile bird immediately jumped toward the old man.

Gone was the dignified Pope. Squirming within a white hemp prison, he let out an embarrassing scream as a beautiful bird attacked him with a pair of energetic claws and a screeching beak filled with many complaints. The screeching was so fast that even I wasn’t able to translate it well.

Well, just know that it was a lot of complaints and preaching about how being a bad guy would make him receive smacking.

...even though what Jade did was more like a stomping than smacking.

[You’re old! Old man shouldn’t be bad guy!] the colorful wing smacked the side of the Pope’s face. [Old people should be good example! Auntie Nezja say so!]

Oh, I guess Jade also did some smacking.

"Agh--what the fuck is this bird?!" the Pope wriggled around, trying to roll on his side to avoid Jade’s flurry attack. But what could he do with limbs tightly bound by the white shackles?

But then, Jade stopped attacking and screeching in surprise while flying back to me. [Papa! Bad guy’s face peeling!]

"Huh?"

I looked at the old man closely, and just as Jade said, the old man’s cheek was scratched. But rather than bleeding, it was like a layer of his face flaking off weirdly. As if he was wearing a mask, but the mask fused with his original face.

What the hell?

"Well, well...the more you know..."

Before I could think further of the Pope’s weird facial condition, however, the magic circles started to let out a whirring sound. Gradually, the spreading magic circles started to move toward the Plaza as if uniting. The sky was filled with colorful light as waves and waves of mana got centralized.

[Oh, firework?]

"Not fireworks," I stroked the bird’s plumes, watching the sky in intrigue. "Something bigger."

Jade gasped. [Bigger?]

The magic circles moved quicker, fusing with each other until there were only seven entangled magic circles in the sky and another seven on the ground, as if mirroring each other. Hmm...I guessed the ’tears’ were the keys to activating each magic circle pair.

With a shockwave, the fourteen magic circles connected with each other and created seven pillars of light around the statue, showering it with golden light. The cracking stone husk crumbled, but instead of an empty space, there was a golden figure of a woman in a flowy robe, just like the statue.

And so, as the vessel was shed, the Goddess descended to the mortal world.