Chapter 21

I don't own Destiny 1 or 2

I don't own Rising of the Shield Hero

Sorry this took so long, Ive been busy with other things.

"It is pointless to resist, so just accept your fates!" continued the pope

"Pointless! We will see pointless it is!" exclaimed Motoyasu as he begins to spin his spear around as it emits a blue light before he cocks his arm back "Meteor Thrust!" He shouts as a blast of blue energy blasts towards the pope

Unfortunately, the blast did nothing as it hit the shield

"What?! Even Meteor thrust did nothing? How powerful is that barrier?" asked a stunned Motoyasu

"Of course not! My barrier is powered by my faithful followers and is impenetrable. Not like the devil's weak shield." Mocked the pope "Now it's my turn." Raising the spear he swings it diagonally downwards sending flames in front of us much to the shrieks of the others.

I, on the other hand, noticed something important 'He missed, he completely missed.'

"See the power I can unleash with a mere flick of my hand? With this next attack I will unleash the full might of god's wrath!" boasted the pope

"You can't use that weapon! It's cheating!" protested Motoyasu

'This guy is like a broken record.' I thought despairingly

"With this power, I can even erase the devil 😈 ." continued the pope ignoring Motoyasu, not that I could blame him it's what I would do.

Before he could go on multiple swords made out of energy and a single large bolt of powerful golden energy impacted the pope sending him stumbling back and causing him to fall to his knees.

Looking to the right I can see that Itsuka and Ren are very much alive and are currently at the top of the hole. And as I am noticing this...they come sliding down to meet us?

'What the hell are they thinking? Down here we a completely exposed.' I thought to myself ignoring the shocked remarks of the others.

'Yeah they could have thought some more about jumping into a pit of molten rock as the man who made said pit looks down on us ready to attack again.' agreed Casper

"Itsuka...Ren, you came back to life." said a stunned Motoyasu

'Wtf? What is wrong with this guy?' I ask

'Well he is from a different version of our world, maybe in his version, you are killed if you are above a certain IQ?' suggested Casper

'That would make way too much sense.'

"Don't just assume that we're dead." replied Ren before he stuck his sword in the ground.

"Hundred swords!" shouted out Ren as he was surrounded by blue swords of energy that went hurtling towards the pope only to shatter on his golden barrier.

Itsuka then released a shot that releases dozens of lasers that were then blocked by multiple overlapping barriers.

'Mmm, so he tried to see if the barrier would break if it had to protect a larger area. Maybe they aren't as stupid as I thought.'

"That's annoying." said Itsuka

"H-hey how are you guys here?" asked Motoyasu

"We did almost get killed, but we were able to survive the attempt. That's it." said Ren

"That's it!?" exclaimed Motoyasu

"Itsuka and I didn't trust the three heroes church. We had received an anonymous tip that there was more to them what it seemed. Following the tip we found a secret underground bunker where one of our party found a reference to a replica of the Cardinal weapons." said Ren

"Unfortunately when we went to the shrine that was supposed to be found it was already gone, taken by the church to be used to help replace the royals as the main power of the kingdom...Thankfully the people that gave us the tip were still looking out for us and we were saved by a group calling themselves the Shadows of the Queen. If it wasn't for them we would most certainly be dead." finished Itsuka

"I think it was the Three Heroes Church that was stealing our rewards." said Itsuka "You were framed weren't you?"

'What?' I question mentally 'He can't seriously believe that can he?'

"So you were framed huh?" asked Motoyasu

'OMG how stupid are these guys?' I asked

"You must have like zero luck." continued Motoyasu

"Let's do this Ren-san." said Itsuka as he pulled his bow taught

"Yeah." agreed Ren before charging at the pope dodging away from his fire attack

"Meteor Shot!" shouted Itsuka as he released a shot that broke through multiple barriers

Ren then used this opening by unleashing an attack from above as he fell towards the pope "Meteor Slash!"

The pope managed to block the attack before stumbled back and nearly dropped the spear.

Ren, on the other hand, had used the opening to fall back in case there was a counter-attack

"The queen has an army and it is on its way here right now." called out Ren much to the shock of the pope's followers

"Mothers coming here?" asked Melty in shock

"Yes the shadows told us." answered Itsuka before speaking louder "Surrender and I'm sure that the queen will show leniency."

"Drop your weapons and give yourselves up!" ordered Ren

This seemed to spark a conversation between the pope and his followers, a conservation that I had no interest in whatsoever.

"What's wrong with them? We're the legendary heroes!" protested Motoyasu

"Looks like they need to be taught a lesson." agreed Itsuka

"If words won't get through to them then actions will." finished Ren

"Yeah, as much as hate to say this it is an emergency. I'd even take your help." said Motoyasu to me

'O Gee I feel so important.' I think sacastically

"Shall we, the for heroes." started Ren

"Present a united front." continued Itsuka as Motoyasu lined up

"Okay what are the pope's strengths and weakness?" I asked my party

"Well he has that weapon and an army of followers powering it." Said Melty

"But it seems to use up an enormous amount of mana, much more than I would have thought it would. Also..." said Raph before being interrupted

"What are you doing?" asked Motoyasu

"Teaching, if they relied on me too much they will never reach their full potential so I am teaching them how to look for the strengths and weakness and how to use that to help them fight. I replied "Besides I have better things to do than waste my time with idiots who think they are the centre of the universe."

"Despite your views, the pope is too strong for that to work now, us cardinal heroes must work together if we are to have a chance of beating him." said Itsuka

"You do realise he isn't as powerful or as strong as you think he is pretending to be...right?" I ask

"What you do mean? Have you forgotten that attack that caused this pit or any of his previous attacks! exclaimed Motoyasu

Sighing I decided to explain "The first attack was a once-off, judging on how they needed you to distract me for such a long period and needed Ren and Itsuka to walk into a trap and the fact that they have not used the attack again suggests that it needs a large charge time or something else otherwise they would have already used it again to try and finish us off. And as for the other attacks...Ren how many followers of the pope are up there?" I ask

"Too many to count but defiantly at least a thousand." answered Ren

"Okay, Motoyasu I want you to mentally divide those powerful attacks by a thousand and now tell me how powerful they are." I said

"Well when you say that it doesn't seem that impressive." said Motoyasu

"Yet his followers are till collapsing from mana exhaustion and the first time he tried a swinging attack he completely missed, what does that suggest?" I ask

"He can't use the weapon properly." Said Itsuka in realisation "So he is pushing as much power as he can to the weapon in hopes of making it work but all he is doing is wasting energy instead."

"Exactly, the side effect is that due to all that ambient mana a passive defence is created dampening any incoming attacks. So in able to break through it is better to use focused attacks rather than those that affect a wider area. You and Ren almost had him before but I doubt he will let you get that close again. On the plus side, I doubt he will turn the replica into its shield form giving us a weakness we can exploit as it stops him from protecting himself as much as he could." I analysed

"Why do you think he won't use the shield?" asked Ren

"He has been bagging me out as the devil of the shield for as long as I have been here. So it is doubtful that he will use a weapon associated with me...at least while his followers can see him or unless its a last resort." I answered

"Dear me are the heroes actually getting along?" said the pope mockingly "Unfortunately for you any plans you have been making are useless as you have given us enough time for our mana pools to recharge. Farewell fake heroes! Farewell Devil of the Shield!" shouted the pope as he unleashed his attack, a powerful and intense stream of golden energy.

Running forward I once again raise my shield to block the attack. "You just don't realise do you? Your plans, your power and everything you are mean nothing to me, your just an insect to me just like that asshole of a king. And those that stand in my way and hurt others for no other reason than their selfish desires will be put down like the dogs they are."

"An insect am I? A dog am I? Such arrogance it is obvious that you must be cleansed at once, not a trace can remain!" exclaimed the pope

With that the followers began to chant

"We pray to our god, the source of all power. Decipher the laws of nature, bring about a miracle and protect the blessed one!"

"High-level multi-caster defence magic: Cathedral!" exclaimed the pope as a bell began to toll and a dark mist began to form and rise above us before it began to spread. When I completely blocked out the sky it turned into a massive cathedral. "Welcome to my Cathedral!" laughed the pope "And it is your final destination!"

"F-final destination?" stammered Motoyasu

"If it's anyone's final destination it's your." I said resolutely

"Oh and how do you think you can beat me? Here I am under the very protection of God!" said the pope

"Can you stop the act, your not doing this for your belief or for your God. You're doing this because at the end of the day you want to be the one on the golden throne while everyone scrapes around in the dirt." I said annoyed

"I'm curious, how could you tell?" asked the pope

"A benefit of living in a world that survived the apocalypse is that it's easy to tell the true believers from those that just want to use others to benefit themselves." I told him

"Well whether I believe in God or not doesn't matter here, because due to cathedral I am invincible." boasted the pope

"Oh yeah, well let's put that to the test then shall we?" dismissing my shield I summon Leviathan's Breath. Pulling back the bow with some difficulty I feed arc, solar and void energy into the arrow tip. Arc for it's cutting ability as it causes the molecules to vibrate, solar to heat it red hot to sear any wounds to stop the pope from healing himself and finally void to give the attack a greater punch.

Taking aim I released the arrow and watched as it shot off towards the pope, tearing through his barriers like they weren't even there before going through the pope and colliding with the wall behind him.

With disbelief the pope brought his fingers to the gapping hole in his chest before the sounds of glass shattering reached his ears. Turning his head around the last thing the false pope saw was the shattered wall of the cathedral falling apart.