The Pope was in hiding.
He was being hunted by royal guards.
And upon capture, would be subjected to a tribunal!
For the first time in nearly a decade, Father Demetri felt like he could breathe a little easier. Despite the severity of the situation, he couldn't help but feel relieved that the sly tongued devil was finally facing the heat of his actions.
And this time, the problem was too severe for him to hypnotize everybody into braindead compliance.
Demetri had felt something lift off of him in the last 48 hours.
Something that had been clouding his judgement and making him forget himself and his goals.
Once the haze in his mind cleared, he knew he had been under a form of hypnosis. One which forced obedience.
And who else but the blaspheming Pope could be responsible for it!?
It was a trademark of demonic power to hypnotize. Why kill when you could enslave?
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Demetri headed straight for the library and pulled out the scroll he had retrieved weeks prior. It had been difficult deciphering its exact meaning, but he was convinced it was a map description. It puzzled him as to why a map would be written rather than drawn, but it could only mean the location wasn't something anyone was meant to find.
You had to solve a mathematical equation before you knew how to go about looking for an entrance.
And with the Pope's eyes and ears away from him, he was more determined than ever to find the hidden passage which led to the lowest part of the Cathedral.
There was said to be a massive hidden chamber down there built to be a place of refuge should the need arise.
A place that most of the clergymen had heard of but were not permitted to know the entrance of or venture down into.
Demetri was certain the Pope was using that place to conduct his nefarious business.
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Entering the library, Demetri walked towards a section of the wall and knelt down, examining the sun's rays on it. He moved his hand against it for a while, pressing his fingers against the marble. Finally, his thumb brushed past a tiny open space located next to a bookshelf.
Examining it for a brief moment, Demetri pushed against it. He felt it budge a bit.
Pushing harder, square section of the wall retreated.
A light scrape sounded in his ears and the shelf next to him suddenly pushed out and turned to reveal a staircase.
His eyes sparked with both apprehension and excitement.
Would this lead him to the Pope? How would that man react? And what exactly is he doing down there?
Or has he already surfaced and is now on route to the palace to spew more lies?
I must dismantle him today! If he is not down here, then surely I will uncover incriminating information!
Grabbing an oil lamp and stepping inside, he pushed back at the square protrusion on the other side of the wall he was now standing in. The bookshelf turned and slid shut.
Holding the lamp up and out, he carefully descended the stairs.
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It went down for a while, each step adding to his chill. He shivered and saw his breath fog as he reached the bottom step.
He was inside a large cavern. Much larger than anything he'd anticipated.
Moving the lamp out in an arc, Demetri arched in neck and looked around. He couldn't help but be in awe of it.
For a minute, he was fully distracted before a loud growl suddenly reverberated off the walls.
His flinched and looked in the direction it had come from.
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The cavern had shrunk considerably by the time he reached what he believed was the Pope's hideout.
He was at the mouth of a tunnel now.
Walking forward, his footsteps were unsteady. The ground was uneven and at times he was stepping on soft earth, other times on broken rock.
The light caused some spiders to drop on him.
Grimacing, he threw off his robe and quickened his pace.
The tunnel grew narrower, making him feel claustrophobic. Demetri wondered if he'd made the right decision by coming down here.
What happened to the Pope's personal knights? Were they still watching him? Would they trap him down here? But he had not seen either one of them in over a week.
What had the Pope done with them?
Spotting a door up ahead, Demetri noticed some strange markings on the wall. The shapes were circular and rectangular. There were some sentences written in an unfamiliar language, but before he could try to decipher them his attention was dragged to large bold words carved in the common tongue.
And the message was daunting.
Beware, the Devil. Moniqua Del Montague.
Demetri stepped back in shock. "Lady Moniqua? What? How?"
Suddenly a high pitched scream sounded from behind the door and before Demetri could react, it blasted open.
He fell back as wooden shards cut into his face and hands.
The oil lamp fell from his grasp and crashed, shattering into pieces.
The light went out instantly, leaving him in complete darkness.