Prince Constantine and Young Marquis Liam were in shock.
Hildegarde held Felicia's hand and gently stroked it with her thumb.
"Why would the Pope attack you!?" Constantine demanded in a harsh whisper.
"Because he is corrupt. The church has long since fallen out of faith with the Goddess and now there is a highly sinister and power hungry man in charge. The Pope acquired his magic from a Demon Lord and he granted a fraction of it to Helena before propping her up as a Saintess. He's using her to further bolster his authority and sway over the public consensus."
Silence greeted him.
Alex rubbed at his wrist when the infinity symbol began to throb.
"But Alex, how do you even know all this?" Liam finally broke out of his shock to ask.
"There is no proof that Helena is a Saintess apart from the Pope saying she is. Her so called magic is pitiful. She's had if for years and it still remains weak. I've seen her using it before and it's...the feel of it is tainted. It's not holy power. Furthermore, the birth of each Saintess is marked by the statue of Goddess Kartara shedding tears. There is no record or even mention of that happening 18 years ago. That already makes Helena's divine claim questionable. The current Pope is an imposter and so is his Saintess. Felicia is the only true Saintess and I being her brother, am her Guardian. The Goddess granted me access to her sword so I could better protect her chosen Saintess."
Alex summoned the Holy Sword and the entire room was immediately engulfed by a blinding flash of light. Goddess Kartara's blade appeared in his hand and he held it flat against his palm for his friends to see.
Liam and Constantine lowered their hands and blinked repeatedly to adjust their eyes after the harsh intrusion. When they saw what was before them, their jaws dropped.
"Goddess Kartara's sword..."
Hildegarde smiled, feeling like a proud mama.
Liam sucked in deep breath. "The earth shake, the heavy wind....it was you, wasn't it? It happened when you pulled out the Holy Sword."
"Yes," Alex admitted with a hard smile. "Around the same time the Pope ordered the Garden of Promise to be sealed off. The gossip would be rampant if the public were to discover that the Goddess's sword was missing. People would begin to hound the church for answers. I suspect the Pope is going to keep it closed off from prying eyes until he can come up with a believable bluff. As of now, it's undergoing repair."
Alex ran his fingers along the length of the blade. He was still intrigued by how the magic within it hummed under his touch. "Felicia and I could challenge the Pope's authority, but there is too much we do not know about him. He's both powerful in demonic prowess and has a lot of public support. We would only be inviting danger if we spoke out against him at this stage."
One again silence reigned.
"If the Pope decided to declare a false Saintess....then....that means he could accuse the two of you of being heretics if you challenged him," Constantine mumbled, feeling dazed. His eyes moved from the Holy Sword to Felicia to Alex.
"But if you and Lady Felicia are both holy beings, then why didn't the Goddess shed tears on the years you were born? Shouldn't she have wept twice?" Liam asked, sitting at the edge of his seat.
"We only discovered our powers a month ago. And I believe the Goddess wished to keep our arrival hidden from the demonic Pope." Alex shook his head in frustration. "Unfortunately, he's already figured it out. During the last Day of Prayer, Felicia accidentally dropped some incriminating information before we fled with the Holy Sword. He knows we're onto him."
"Why would the Pope even practice demonic magic to begin with?" Hildegarde asked. She had meant to ask them this before the attack completely sidetracked her.
Liam and Constantine also wondered the same.
Alex thought about it for a second. "He must have failed to acquire holy power. Each of the previous Popes, prior to taking their positions would retreat to the Scared Fountain up in the mountains and pray to the Goddess for blessings. I'm guessing he did not get the results he was hoping for. The Goddess must have deemed him unworthy and did not bless him, so he decided to fulfill his ambition another way."
"That's very clever." Liam scoffed in disbelief. He looked back at Alex. "But how did Helena get involved with him? Of all the women he could have chosen to be his puppet, why her?"
Alex rubbed his chin. "That's what I'd like to know as well."
His vision suddenly went blurry.
The room melted away and he found himself on his knees, staring up at Felicia. She was dressed in the white dress she had been burned in and was crying bloody tears.
They were surrounded by the familiar thick mists.
"Felicia what, why are we here again?"
She continued to cry while glaring at him disdainfully.
--------
"Alex?"
"Alex!"
Releasing a sharp breath, Alex snapped his eyes open. He was back in the Emerald room. "What? What was that?"
Constantine, Liam and Hildegarde had all surrounded him.
"What happened?"
"Where did you just go? We've been calling your name for a while now; you didn't respond. You looked like you were in a trance."
"Sorry...my mind drifted away...I think I had another vision."
Liam scrunched his brows. "From the Goddess? Did you see Felicia? Is she alright?"
"No, she's not alright, yet I only saw her for a bit." Alex's gaze fell upon his reflection on the Holy Sword. "What was the purpose of me seeing that?"
Constantine bit his lip and took a step back. "What kind of magic do the two of you possess?"
Alex looked back up. "I have the sword and the occasional vision." He glanced at Felicia's sleeping face. "She has more magic than me. So far she can only heal, but we both shared a vision where she was able to throw lightning out from her hands. She brought down several men who were trying to kill her."
"Is that a warning of what's to come?" Liam asked, stiffening.
Alex bit his lip. "Either that, or it has already come to pass in another lifetime and Felicia and I don't fully remember it."
Liam's eyes widened. "Another lifetime!? Alex....who exactly are you and Felicia?"
"We are old souls who've lived in this kingdom twice now. Two very different generations. This is the third time or maybe not since we've returned to the first time rather than another time, I don't know. So much of this confuses me as well."
"The Goddess has brought the two of you back to life over and over again? Across centuries?" Liam breathed in disbelief.
Constantine and Hildegarde too were flabbergasted.
Alex's hands tightened on the Holy Sword. "Yes, but I don't understand it. The visions haven't explained everything fully. The Goddess spoke to us and told us we have a job to do, but her statements were quite vague."
"The job being to dismantle the blaspheming Pope and his pretend Saintess," Liam concluded.
"Yes," Alex affirmed.
Constantine looked away, his hands fisted on his hips.
Hildegarde broke the silence. "Why hasn't anyone been able to pull the Holy Sword out from the rock before now? The Cromwell family when they were still blessed, the previous Popes, the previous Saintesses, why not a single person until now?"
Alex responded immediately. This was one question he had a clear answer to. "The church has never faced this level of corruption before. Demonic magic is active within its walls and the temple of the Goddess has been tainted. The Goddess has better equipped us to deal with the threat. There is a battle coming, my friends. Felicia and I sensed it the day our souls returned here."