The Dark Rebirth of Pandora: Revenge of the Abyss

Chapter 261: Doubts about the Pope and Planning

Another day, and after having thoroughly thrashed the heroes under the pretense of field training where I placed them in the arena to face me, and beat them until they passed out, I’ve come to the teachers’ lounge with the Saint.

I have matters to discuss with the Saint, and it was quite fun beating the heroes they didn’t stand a chance because they couldn’t use magic or weapons, only mana reinforcement.

Since that was the excuse I used, a supposed situation where they don’t have time to use anything other than their bodies, experience, and planning to face the enemy.

And since the Saint was there to heal them, I could beat them as much as I wanted, after all, I have a much superior physique to theirs, and without the use of abilities, they don’t stand a chance against a ”killing machine” like me.

In the end, it’s basic race limitations, humans will never be equal in general attributes to my race.

”So...we’re alone, no teacher within a 200-meter radius,” I say to the Saint, sitting on the desk without caring much for the papers, I want the Saint’s answer about taking me to the church.

”...” The Saint, who is frightened by the situation, remains silent, she doesn’t even try to speak about my current posture of sitting on top of the other teachers’ work as if it were nothing.

”I hope you’ve thought about my request with care,” I say to her arrogantly, reminding her of what happened before, anyway, there are no teachers here to hear.

This is another advantage of being a temporary teacher, while the other teachers are in class, I’m here free to ”play” a little with the Saint.

”I-I...yesterday I spoke with the Pope...and-he said he’s eagerly awaiting to see you at the church, he also said he would give you special attention since he wants to connect with the divine,” The Saint speaks, surprising me. The Pope himself allowed it? Why?

’Why would this person allow that?’ I had even thought of threatening the Saint with influence, saying that if they didn’t allow me to go to the church, the Grand Duchy would close all the church’s trade routes and cancel all its contracts. After all, the Grand Duchy basically controls the kingdom’s economy at the moment, so that threat could have worked, but apparently, I don’t even need to do anything, what a surprise.

Although it’s a bit uncomfortable that the Saint has informed the Pope so quickly about my request, doesn’t she realize the danger? Luck for her that I’m in a good mood and won’t do anything.

’There must be something behind this’ I don’t believe these religious people would let someone like me into the church so easily, this specific point still bothers me.

”What does the Pope want with me?” I know the Pope is the highest figure in the church, he never appears directly, always sending the Saint in his place, even in the summoning of the heroes, it was the Saint who came, not the Pope.

So, in my view, this guy is a malicious rat, who uses others to get what he wants, but doesn’t act directly, so he can always blame others for failures, among other things.

”I-I don’t know, I-I just know he wants to see you there, he said it would be a ’Joyful visit’ for the church,” From what I see in the Saint’s colors, it doesn’t seem to be a lie, I wonder what this guy really wants with me.

”So I can go to the church?” I question her to get more information about it.

”Y-Yes, the Pope just said he needs some time, so it can’t be right now, m-maybe in two weeks or something like that,” The Saint speaks, clearly too scared to look me in the eye.

’2 weeks...enough time to hide things that shouldn’t be seen’ I wonder if he agreed to let me go just to avoid being labeled as suspicious, since he can always use the excuse of time linked to the fact that he has to prepare everything for the visit.

”Alright,” I say with a smile, it doesn’t matter what he wants to hide, it’s not like I’m after anything specific that would be damaging to his reputation, I just want to go there in search of the list of unique abilities of the heroes that I’m sure they have.

So it’s fine to take a little while, after all, I have a fight to do with Mikael, and I’m sure it will be a chaotic battle, I should already start preparing in whatever way possible.

I just get up and go to a chair in the farthest corner, picking up a book and a pen to write down some things, I should devise a strategy to fight against Mikael.

The terrain won’t be useful, because either we’ll fight in a different location so the planet doesn’t take damage, in which case it’s a Mikael ability, or we’ll fight in one of my universes.

I can always create a small one just for our fight, after all, with the power of Mesumari, the damage is inevitable, although I prefer to fight in a separate space that Mikael has, as that’s a greater guarantee that the location can withstand the fight.

I’m not sure how resistant my self-created universes are, so I can’t say they would withstand Mikael, in addition, my universes are still very limited in structure to even handle this fight.

Ignoring the Saint, who starts shuffling some papers, I begin to recall the fight I had with Mikael to gain as much knowledge as possible and figure out what approach to use.

The first important point I remember is Mikael’s fighting style, he focuses on brutal and devastating attacks, Mesumari is a sword too large for certain types of movements, which is an obvious limitation that can be an advantage for me.

Since I have a more versatile and free fighting style, mainly with weapons suitable for my size, as Mikael opts for a more brutal combat, I should go for a more agile approach.

Using pure speed and movement to try to compete, I know that head-on I will lose, Mikael held back in our first fight and even then it was very difficult to compete head-on.

Now that he won’t hold back anymore, it’s impossible to constantly go head-on, I can defend some blows, but the damage may not make up for the attempt to defend.

Furthermore, if I’m defending, I’ll be exposed to magic and abilities that Mikael knows, and even the Mesumari magic itself, which I don’t know exactly how it works.

But I have a unique tactical advantage, Violet, who can cut destiny, if there is a destiny in which I will receive an attack that will kill me instantly, I just need to cut that destiny beforehand with Violet.

I can’t see the destiny, but Violet said she can, so I’ll leave the defense against very strong attacks to Violet, unfortunately, Violet has limitations on what she can see.

So she can’t tell me how the fight will go or things like that, she can only see the immediate future about to happen, so she can’t give me real support in the current planning.

She also has other useful abilities like rewriting destiny, but these are very costly, and anomalies like me and Mikael can easily shatter destiny.

Especially with Mesumari, which has a concept more tied to destroying everything, and I don’t doubt that Mesumari can even ”devour” destiny, so I have to think carefully about how to use the mana I have.

In theory, I have three major mana reserves, I have my tail, my angelic halo, and finally, Violet, who can share her mana with me, that’s enough mana to generate powerful attacks continuously.

I start scribbling some things in the book, mostly movements and spells, if it’s about the scenario, there’s a way to make any scenario advantageous for me.

I just need to create platforms with magic and keep jumping from one to the other to increase speed, this has always been my focus anyway, but I must be careful with the damage.

Unfortunately, I’ve never been suited to the term general physical resistance, it’s a fact that I’m very resistant, but if I compare attributes, I’m stronger and faster than resistant.

And this is obviously because regeneration is the real highlight I have, with my current regeneration, it should be able to withstand some attacks without problems.

The biggest problem that remains would be being ”devoured” by Mesumari, its abilities are mostly unknown, and the only thing I’ve seen it do was a devastating attack that wiped out everything in its path.

I don’t know if I can withstand that attack and I don’t want to receive such a blow to test it, I must be careful, Mikael is a human, he won’t be leaving openings without thinking.

He’s smart, so I have to be even smarter, any opening can cost me my life in this fight, it would be great to have my divine weapon, but it hasn’t appeared yet, and Delphina said hers just appeared out of nowhere, so there’s nothing I can do.

I also don’t want to use armor or anything like that, for two obvious reasons, there’s no armor that can withstand the attacks of a special-grade weapon, unless it’s also a special-grade armor.

And the second reason is that it would interfere with my movements, which need to be as free as possible.

I’ll fight by making movements that no human body can, I have a flexibility that is unattainable for most, and I should take advantage of that with intelligence.

’Okay...something is taking shape...’ There are many scribbles in the book, there are many flaws and variables that I need to think carefully about, I have time and I will use it to prepare mentally.