"What was my name again?" I asked myself as I looked up and stared at the empty hollow sky where no light was able to penetrate through it nor would the light want to as it avoids this land of death.
In my daze, a fragmented memory from the past flashed through my mind like a broken, corrupted memory crystal.
…
As the scenery around me started to change into a Roman-style room in front of me stood a man which seems like he is about to announce some news to the four other people in the room sitting at a round table.
That's when the oldest person, looking about 60 years of age caught my attention.
'Hmm…he seems familiar…' as I rubbed my mandible thinking to myself.
Grey combed hair, light yellowish twinkling eyes that could possibly light up the darkness in the sky, and a face that brims with light despite the time-worn skin.
'Aha, I remember now, that was me before I became what I am today, only bones…' I thought cheerfully staring proudly at my handsome flesh and skin before I was interrupted by the man's announcement.
"Pope Rupert, you are hereby stripped of your position from Radiant Church and cast away due to severely humiliating and disgracing the holy son Aaron."
"W-W-What?" I was thunderstruck by this revelation.
"Your immediate dismissal and banishment have been approved by the other 3 popes and more than 90 per cent of the cardinals" the speaker of the house, Fred, announces the verdict as he tries to hide his increasing excitement in his emotionless voice.
"I only punished Aaron because of his inappropriate behaviour of accepting money for treatment and his bullying against the weak and his fellow brethren!" anger rose within me as I realized that this meeting has all been a plot by the other 3 popes in removing me from the church allowing them to completely take over the church and destroying the very life, core values of the radiant codex. Instead, they use the church as an enterprise to live lavish lives and their greed and desires for monetary gains. Something that I was opposed to. As the strongest pope in the history of the radiant church, my overwhelming power was what kept them at bay for the last 10 years
"Pope Rupert, Fred has yet to finish" smiled pope Logan with a mask of benevolence on his face but no matter how he wears that mask, he was unable to hide the triumphant smirk on his face.
"In addition, Cardinal ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, and ____ has been executed for planning a rebellion against the Church means a rebellion against God which is blasphemy against God" finished Fred with a wide grin on his face. At the same time, Aries, a member of the disciplinary committee burst through the doors carrying with him nine heads.
I turned white as a sheet praying that those heads were not what I thought it was but the words I heard next shattered my hope causing a stabbing pain in my heart.
"It's done Cardinal ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, ____, and ____ has been executed due to their rebellion against God," said Aries in a rugged and raw voice as if a wild untamed beast is inside of him ready to charge out of its way and into battle.
As I mourn the loss of my brethren, sadness turns into anger as I lashed out "You did not need to involve the innocent in our matter! Was there a need to kill them!"
As I watched the 3 popes smiling smugly at their handiwork before one of them, pope Lionel, broke the silence with an emotionless voice, "enough of this Rupert, go back and pack immediately if you do not want to be dragged out of here, we will leave you the dignity to walk out of this place yourself".
"No, I resent this!" as I ran out of the office and into the church and prostrated myself at the altar.
"O Almighty Omniscience and Omnipotent divine one, I your lowly servant questions your ruling no, are you going to do nothing about this? Are you just going to sit there while the beliefs laid down by you get violated?" I begged, hoped, and questioned his inaction against such a ruling over and over again but the only thing that I got, in turn, was silence and the footsteps and the thudding sounds of boots racing towards my location.
The louder the thudding, the longer the silence, the greater the despair as somewhere in my subconscious, I knew that God does not make mistakes and the church that I grew and loved will disappear and turn into the place I despise the most – business. Where the only thing those merchants ever care about is their profits and themselves. Those evil-doers would even sell their sons and daughters for the sake of gaining more profits.
"Hmph! Rupert, I gave you chance to leave with dignity, but you still decide the latter option, huh, well if you like it so much then so be it" with that Pope Logan raised his right hand in the air holding his unique werewolf token followed by pope Lionel and pope Todd with their lion and fox token and chanted.
The token was something given by God with a unique engraving on it whereby it allows the pope to summon an elite platoon of fifty mythical creatures to come down and aid us. These troops are loyal to only the holder of the token and not the radiant church of God.
"By my order, I Logan, summon my werewolf platoon to come to me and aid me in the capture of the then Pope Rupert and now exiled Rupert"
"By my order, I Lionel, summon my Lion platoon to come to me and aid me in the capture of the then Pope Rupert and now exiled Rupert"
"By my order, I Todd, summon my fox platoon to come to me and aid me in the capture of the then Pope Rupert and now exiled Rupert"
As soon as the three popes finished, 50 new troops entered the fray. "Haha, in the past, even when all 3 of your troops attack my Valkyries, you have never won, what makes you think you still can" with that I stood up and raised my arms holding my Valkyrie token as I chanted.
"By my order, I Rupert, summon my Valkyrie platoon to come to me and defend me as I await the lord's answer" However, after a breath of time, the familiar faces that I summoned did not appear. Thinking that they did not hear me, I chanted again and waited, again, again and again feeling a sense of eeriness towards this situation by the fifth call, a sudden thought struck me which slowly made me fear for the safety of my Valkyries as my face turned paler and paler with each call.
"Don't bother, seeing as you can't summon them, the operation on our end was a success" sighed Todd as he looked towards me with pity in his eyes.
"What did you do to them" I stared at them with a grim expression
"Dead, of course, we cannot let any unknown variable get in our way, now or in the future" pope Logan triumphantly announced.
With my closest brethren dead, my Valkyries dead and no answer from the lord, my head drooped down as my eyes turned lifeless feeling that all hope is lost as I descended into the darkness of loneliness, as I felt a suppressed unknown sinister dark power slowly seeping out and embracing, changing, and remodelling my body. That is when I felt a switch within me flipped and a dangerous unthinkable taboo thought came to mind, "If God won't help me, I will seek my justice and fight for my own sake and not for others, after all, I now have nothing else left to lose".
The moment I agreed with my thoughts and steeled myself with a new sense of purpose and determination, that suppressed unknown power burst out from within me wrapping me around like a cocoon as I roared, "If you God won't bring this evil to justice, I will do it myself and you can go to hell god!"
"By the gods stop the transformation and quickly kill him" the three popes shouted as they raise their holy armaments preparing to launch their strongest attack their soldiers rushed towards me as brought their weapons down against me.
But they were too late, I burst out of my cocoon like a butterfly with newfound strength and power within me as I bellowed "all that gets in my way shall die!" with just the shout of my voice, it blew away the troops and armies attacking me. "My revenge starts with you 3" as I pointed my skeletal hand and pointed it at pope Logan, Lionel, and Todd.
...