Alex’s ‘light’ shock was nothing compared to what spectators felt.

Similar to the many previous years, the first two parts of the ritual – cleansing with fire and water – went as usual. But the cleansing with blood happened in a peculiar fashion. After emerging from their pit, wolves immediately began killing their pray while for some reason avoided a small child, maybe three or four years old, who sat in the middle of the cage with his eyes closed like he was meditating. And, after they were finished, wolves lied around that child as if awaiting orders from him.

It’s not that the wolves ate their fill and therefore stopped. Exactly the opposite – they teared apart everyone but that one kid and then stopped as if hypnotized. And one only needed to look at them to realize they had starved for days or maybe even weeks from how skinny they were!

Before anyone could react, a thin white stature appeared in front of the cage. Alex, who sat facing cardinals, barely noticed how pope suddenly vanished from his spot and like a lightning bolt moved over.

‘Ok. No matter what I do, I’m not allowed to piss off this guy!’ Alex thought and, instead of satisfying his curiosity and having a better look at the most important person in the empire, did what already became his habit during the last three years in this world.

He closed his eyes, pressed his palms together and then said, “Lord, guide us!”

Alex was in a small body and could not speak very loud, but cardinals and chosen in the spectator seats heard him very clearly and gasped in surprise. Everyone down there had to be drugged and, more importantly, they had to be dead down there as well! This didn’t make any sense!

But the pope was not shaken that easily.

“What is your name, child?” He asked in a gentle voice that reverberated through coliseum.

Since it was basically allowed, this time Alex threw a quick glance at the pope. The old man, even though short and thin, looked very much like a kind grandfather everyone could wish for. His snow white robes made him particularly pleasant and approachable, but Alex didn’t forget that this guy just ordered to massacre forty five kids without batting an eye. He suddenly felt a wave of disgust rising up within him, but quickly suppressed it.

“My name is Bond, James Bond.” Alex said and closed his eyes again inwardly snickering.

He always wanted to say this line and probably there will never be more suitable occasion than now, in front of a few thousand spectators.

“Where are you from?” Pope for some reason continued to inquire.

“I’m from the western wilderness, your holiness.” Alex honestly replied.

“The Lord has guided us!” Pope suddenly joined his palms together and his voice once again reverberated in every person’s mind, “The chosen, James Bond, has been cleansed by the sacred ceremony of blood and has been tasked by our Lord to bring cleansing and enlightenment by blood to the western barbarians! Five years later he will assist in leading our Holy army and bring glory to the Lord, the Holy empire and Serenity! Lord, guide us!”

The information within this message was more important and shocking than the child surviving the ritual of blood. Firstly, because there will be a guaranteed five year period of peace and secondly, because after that the next crusade will take place, this time to the west. Another chosen joining it or co-leading was not as important as the economical implications this message carried, at least not for the people present in the coliseum.

Alex, on the other hand, was stupefied by pope’s quick wit. Not only he instantly solved the current situation, but also used the tiny opportunity to advance his own political agenda further and more importantly – everything was done ‘in the name of the Lord’!

There was only a small complication left since Alex was currently surrounded by wolves, but the moment Pope opened the cage door, the six huge, black beasts disappeared in their pit leaving only whimper’s behind. A split second later pope picked Alex up, vanished from the cage and appeared back in his seat almost as if he never left. Only the small child at his side proved that what just transpired was real.

The ceremony ended after pope gave another speech praising the Lord and the Holy empire and from what Alex understood a large celebration began all over the capital. Sadly he had no pleasure to join it because he suddenly found himself in a large, luxuriously decorated room, together with pope, most likely somewhere below the spectator seats. Obviously the old man left the arena and took Alex with him while moving almost at the speed of light making him feel dizzy.

There were no windows and under the poor lighting provided by the few candles Alex curiously glanced around, but besides the several pieces of exquisite furniture there was nothing that caught his interest. Pope didn’t sit down in one of the chairs, but motionlessly stood facing the door, obviously not in a good mood.

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When three of the cardinals hurriedly arrived with the fourth, the unkempt one, leisurely walking behind, the pope barked at them, “Anyone cares to explain?”

“Your holiness! We …” One of the cardinals wanted to say something, but pope remembered Alex also was present.

The old man put his palm on the toddler’s head and Alex suddenly lost all his senses. Everything went dark, there were no sounds or smells in his surroundings and he would’ve thought he was reincarnating again if not for the clear sensation of him still standing.

‘What the hell are these powers! It’s like watching a friggin’ movie! I need to find a way to learn some of it and add to my collection!’ Alex thought.

The earlier events could only be explained by him cultivating the force of nature according to the headmaster’s instructions. Apparently the concepts that beastmasters used in the previous world could be applied in other worlds as well and it completely changed his perspective.

Seeing that the boy after pope’s action began to stare lifelessly in the distance the cardinal who spoke earlier continued, “Your holiness! Besides the five people in this room there are not many who can replicate what he did in the arena. But it is impossible for a child …”

“Isidoro,” Cardinal Francis, the one whom Alex met right after arriving to Serenity, interrupted, “It was obviously a display of the holy power. But I’ve never heard of a child awakening this way.”

“I think what his holiness was inquiring about was why the kid was conscious, not whether it was holy power or not.” The third cardinal, named Rudolf, said, “I’ll investigate it right away, your holiness!”

“Stop right there! It can wait.” Pope saw cardinal Rudolf intending to leave and stopped him, “It was a serious blunder, but you can do the investigation later. Even though someone messed up, the Lord gave us a sign and we have to follow his orders.”

“What do you mean, your holiness?” Cardinal Isidoro asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” The fourth cardinal, the unkempt one, nonchalantly sat himself in one of the chairs ignoring the fact that the pope was still standing, “The pure child surviving the ritual of blood pointed at the necessity of cleansing by blood, the fact that he came from the western wilderness was obvious hint at the direction, while his age, approximately the age of five – at the time the next expedition had to begin. Am I correct, your holiness?”

“Yes!” Pope hissed through his teeth, “But mind your manners, Theodor!”

“My apologies, your holiness.” Cardinal Theodor nodded, bud didn’t move the slightest and continued, “If I’m not mistaken, you probably want to choose the leader for the next expedition.”

Hearing this the eyes of the other three cardinals lit up. Indeed, the previous most likely future pope candidate cardinal Vidal died during the last expedition and that was an unexpected and tragic result. Thus now there was an unofficial opening in his spot and, of course, all three cardinals had the ambitions to become pope one day.

Opportunity to accumulate resources while preparing for a new expedition didn’t come often, not to speak about the fame and influence they would gain after successfully conquering new lands. The problem lie in the fact that the three of them currently were equally matched in almost any area. Luckily their forth colleague who, apart from his golden robes, looked and behaved like a bum, didn’t care about becoming pope one bit otherwise it would be too hard to compete with him.

Be as it may, all three cardinals – Francis, Isidoro and Rudolf immediately saw and intended to grasp this opportunity.

“Indeed.” Pope nodded, “To which one of you this chosen candidate belonged previously?”

Seeing the expressions of the three turn ugly, he added, “Don’t worry, I don’t intend to punish you for missing out on a chosen. It is up to the Lord when they awaken, not you. But we have to find out where he came from, thus, once again – to which one of you this chosen candidate belonged previously?”

All three looked at each other in confusion. There was no need to lie – the following investigation would show who the kid was, but to their great regret none of them remembered him. In order to become a chosen candidate one had to go through cardinal’s inspection and no sane person, maybe except for their mothers, could recognize a toddler after not seeing it for five years.

“Don’t tell me someone could forget such a peculiar name … James Bond.” Cardinal Theodor snickered.

“We won’t get anywhere like this.” Pope sighed and put his palm on Alex’s head again and, after verifying the kid regained his senses, asked, “How old are you?”

“Your holiness, I’ll turn three years old before the next winter.” Alex replied as politely as possible.

This surprised the five elderly in the room. One could hardly blame pope for making mistake evaluating the child, especially one who could have even been older than five.

“Alright. James, since the Lord made you chosen, the time has come for you to choose your mentor.” Pope said, “And only cardinals can fulfill this role. You know what cardinal is, right?”

The eyes of three cardinals lit up once again seeing Alex nod. Pope wanted to choose the one who will go in expedition right away and this child was basically a three sided coin he intended to flip. It didn’t matter anymore which one of them initially got the kid – all that mattered now was for the child to make the ‘correct’ choice now.

Alex’s brains currently worked in overdrive processing the implications. On one hand he could’ve randomly chosen one of the cardinals and be done with it, but judging from their behavior he suddenly became some kind of a hot commodity.

‘Damn it! I don’t want to struggle with situations like this … wait … struggle … the power struggle!’ Alex felt like he thought of something, ‘They are fighting to get another chosen on their hands to add to the flock! Apparently being a chosen is in some way important, but since I myself have to choose one of them, the other two will basically become my enemies! … no, that can’t be right. No one can blame a small child for making an uneducated decision. In that case …’

He did his best to look as if he was gathering courage by clenching his small fists and taking a deep breath. Then took few strides past the three old dudes, who tried to smile as amicable as possible, towards the confused cardinal Theodor who was grinning in schadenfreude just a second ago.

“Your excellency, would you become my mentor, please?” Alex said in his childish voice under the shocked eyes of three other cardinals.

“I’m not going to the west!” To Alex’s surprise the unkempt cardinal in front of him immediately turned towards the pope and said, “I don’t even intend to leave Serenity!”