Published: July 4, 2025
"I knew you would come. But alone? Is it because you only have one of those bracelets?"
The Pope's voice was clear.
Compared to when he had attacked by the roadside, his words now seemed filled with emotion.
"You're right, Your Holiness. In fact, I don't intend to fight you right now. Would you let me go just this once?"
"How interesting. What do you think I would do if I let you go? Would you return with your companions to help these four? Do you think I wouldn’t kill them before that?"
"I don't think so. Those four are your source of magical power, after all. No, it’s not just them; you’ve trapped quite a few mages beyond them, haven’t you? You're stealing magical power from them too, right?"
At Ryo's remark, the Pope showed signs of surprise.
As expected, he seemed much more emotionally expressive now than when he had attacked by the roadside.
"It’s interesting that you understand this much. What is it? Did you use some sort of wind attribute ‘detection’? I didn’t feel any flow of magic like that."
"That's about right."
"You are dangerous."
At that moment, Ryo felt as if the Pope had smiled slightly.
Then he continued speaking.
"Die before you learn too much. ‘Blade Lang Trident’."
"‘Layered Ice Wall Level 20’! ‘Icicle Lance Shower’!"
The battle suddenly erupted.
Honestly, Ryo wanted to extract a bit more information before things escalated.
This was a Pope who was quite talkative.
Three whirlwinds of fire sprang from the Pope's right hand and attacked Ryo.
Ryo received the attack using a layered ice wall. The ice wall wasn’t just in front, but all around him, even above.
And then came the rain of ice spears.
Super high density, super high speed, and super large quantity.
The entire area around him turned into a path for the ice spears.
There were probably tens of thousands in total.
...However.
"I can't believe I’m unharmed."
Even Ryo was surprised by this.
The Pope had simply erected a magic barrier above him without moving an inch.
Normally, a magic barrier isn’t that hard.
However, the Pope's barrier seemed surprisingly tough...
"Interesting. So you’re a water attribute mage. And yet, to unleash this many ice spears without exhausting your magical power... Are you even human?"
"I would rather you not say that to me. You, yourself, must not be human. I don’t know if such a thing exists in this world, but perhaps you're a clone?"
Indeed, the Pope before him was a different individual from the one he had fought by the roadside.
They looked exactly the same.
However, the emotional expressions were different.
Clones can be genetically identical.
But when it comes to the ‘spirit’ aspect, they can never be the same.
This is because a person’s ‘spirit’ is formed based on all the knowledge and experiences they have gained since birth.
This difference manifests as variations in emotional expression.
Of course, this is merely Ryo's hypothesis.
There were no official human clones on Earth.
However, if one thinks logically, it is likely that anyone could arrive at such a conclusion.
And Ryo thought that the result of this reasoning stood before him.
"I don't know what a clone is, but you seem to have stumbled upon our secret. Quite interesting. I know about you; you’re Ryo, a c-ranked adventurer from the kingdom delegation. Hmmm... I can't believe the entire delegation knows, but let's see how much of that secret you actually know."
"Of course, I’ll politely decline."
Ryo thought.
(Just now, I was surprised to learn that he was a water attribute mage, and now he knows my name too. Has the information he holds been updated? Is something like a tactical data link not just in the golem but in this Pope as well...? Well, if he's a clone, it’s not impossible. If they’ve incorporated something like that into the golem, then he probably understands the importance of real-time information sharing.)
"If you want to silence a mage, you should do this. ‘Enchant’ ‘Body Enhancement’ ‘Haste’."
With rapid-fire incantations, the Pope brandished a staff nearly two meters long and charged at Ryo.