Chapter 343 - Episode Forty-Three - Pope Sateria (8)
“This is the place where we Levi followers communicate with Levi-sama …… God’s Room.”
Sateria led us to the top floor of the palace.
At the back of the room is a gold ornate pedestal with a large, blue, crystal ball on top of it.
“Thank you, Mea …… we’re done with the stairs now, so I’m fine.”
I lowered my arm from around Mea’s shoulders.
“Are you okay, Abel? Are your legs sore?”
Mea asks me anxiously.
“For the time being, it’s fine ……”
The spiral staircase leads up to the top of the building, and halfway up, my legs gave out and I fael down the stairs.
Sateria apologized and offered to lend me her shoulder, and Mea, who was stretching my toes, half-cried, and Sateria, who was concerned, immediately pulled away.
“I apologize for the real inconvenience of the place …… it was designed to show Levi-sama’s dignity, but it seems that it needs to be a little lower ……”
Sateria’s mouth leaked out the plan to make the palace barrier-free.
I had wondered what that spiral staircase was all about, but it seems that Levi was being selfish.
I don’t really care what happens to the rest of it, as I have no plans to ever visit this place again ……
“Saaateriaaaaaaa! You …… you have really brought such people into this sacred place!? What do you think I am!? This disrespect, this disrespect, this, what do you think this place is ……!”
Levi’s voice echoed directly in my head.
I don’t know what’s going, but I thought that since Sateria seemed so confident, she must have told Levi about it, but apparently, the real god didn’t approve.
Moreover, Levi is quite pissed off at this situation.
This Pope had been talking a lot of big things, but I’m sure she hadn’t gotten any of it right.
It’s not just a domestic dispute, it’s a conflict between the Pope and the Church.
“Enough, please give up! Now that Abel-sama is here, Levi-sama should have no choice anymore. As I said before, if you’re going to fight Abel-sama, I will not cooperate! Please fight without the magic power of your prime or Levi’s spear!”
“For you, for you to belittle me ……! Listen, I’m saying that I’m going to fight to protect this country! If you persist on being stubborn, this country will be finished!”
“Even if we continue to follow Levi-sama, the Riveras Kingdom will surely be destroyed one day! I beg you! I want to believe in you too! I want to believe in you too, Levi-sama! But this country can’t afford to do anything else!”
Sateria blushed and shouted into the crystal ball.
The words were pleading, but sometimes threatening as well.
The crystal ball emits a furious thought like an angry voice.
No doubt, Levi is really angry.
I’m starting to get a little scared too.
No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem to be an act of bargaining.
What is that god doing?
“Abel-chan, I don’t have time for this, though?”
Peter said in a cold voice, deliberately loud so that Sateria could hear.
“U-Um, I’m wondering if we can watch over her for a little while longer or something ……”
As if to drown out my voice, Peter continued to speak.
“Hey, Mea-chan thinks so too, right? Hey? What do you think? You said you really wanted to talk to her, so I sympathized with you and just goes with the flow, but now that we’re here, this is what we got? Well, it’s the Riveras Kingdom, so I can say I wasn’t expecting it, but …… I guess I didn’t have to wait long for this…”
“M-M-, Mea is not, you know ………”
Sateria turned her head halfway back and looked at Peter with impatient eyes.
Tears were welling up in her eyes.
“Sateria …… I’ve been watching you for a while now, and your behavior has been nothing but disgusting. You may be in charge of the Dragon Vein, but does that make you an equal to me? If it comes to it, I can take away your body’s freedom and use it as a tool to draw magic from the dragon vein, you know? It’ll have a terrible burden on your body, so it’s not a move I’d want to take if I could help it, but …… Sateria, if you’ll be a traitor who can’t hear my voice, then I won’t choose any other means, will I?”
The crystal lights up with a cloudy red light.
In the depths of the light, you can see the reflection of wide open, bright red eyes.
Peter signaled to me with his eyes.
I guess he’s telling me to get ready to attack, because we’re going to fall apart before we even start talking.
“…… If you won’t listen to me, I have my own ideas too! The Riveras Kingdom really can’t afford it anymore! …… I believe that this meeting is our last chance! I’m going to put everything on the line here!”
Sateria said, her voice trembling, and she grasped the staff in one hand with both arms, pointing the tip of it at her own chin.
“If Levi-sama doesn’t listen to me …… I will commit suicide right here and now! I beg you, Levi-sama! Please hear my plea! Please hear my plea! The Riveras Kingdom does not have the power to engage the Dinrat Kingdom in war!”
“Saatereiaaaaaa! You …… remember, when we find a replacement, you …… you ……!”
As if to show Levi’s anger, the crystal ball emitted a disastrous light …… and then suddenly the light disappeared from the crystal ball.
“I-I think he ran away ……”
It was the same time that I opened my mouth and the wall between us fell down.
A huge, familiar blue hand emerges from the cloud of dust.
An arm had been inserted through the gap in the collapsed wall.
The arm was withdrawn, and in its place, the face of a huge old man, nearly five meters tall, peered into the God’s Room.
The old man’s face was etched with fury.
Three eyes were fixed first on me and then on Sateria.
“Very well, Sateria. Just for now, I’ll go along with what you have to say.”
“Levi-sama ……! I had faith that Levi-sama would change his mind one day ……!”
“You will soon learn that this is pointless. Sateria, when the talks break down, I will eat every last human being there. In that case, Sateria, I’m going to use the dragon vein’s magic power …… that’s my minimum condition.”
As expected, the power is different when the main body comes out.
The last time I encountered it, it was only an arm, and it left sooner than I expected, so I assumed that it was the weakest of the four gods, a spear god without a spear, but I may have estimated it too low.
The other side must have been caught off guard when we met in Palgas Village, but now there was no sign of that.
Levi showed some pretense of holding a meeting to convince Sateria, but that was it.
It was obvious that he was planning to break up the meeting and bring it to a battle.
I look back at Peter.
Peter, too, was staring at Levi, his forehead covered with sweat and a fearless smile on his face, as if he was sure of victory.
He didn’t even try to hide his smile and gave me a “You know what to do, right? He signaled with his eyes.
It’s no good. Neither one of them has any intention of talking properly.
Sateria’s flailing, dazzling smile is fleeting.
It’s better to be prepared for a fight to start at any time.