“ “ (name) is normal conversation.
[ ] (name) is a person's thoughts.
< > (name) is conversation through device or telepathy.
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As the pope looked at their expression showing expectation he smiled, but when he was about to open his mouth to speak, Sparda who moved next to him whispered something into his ear to which the pope nodded his head. He then looked at the group and said.
"That question of yours and any more will be answered on the way to the palace." (Pope)
After saying that the pope stood up. Seeing that the five were not getting up he looked at them.
Seeing his gaze Lee spoke with fear in her voice.
"We're moving? To a palace?" (Lee)
It was not just Lee who showed fear but the other four as well.
When the pope looked at them, instead of laughing or mocking them, he said in an extremely gentle and caring voice, one a grandfather would use when calming their grandchild's anxiety.
"Don't worry, I know this is all strange and fearful to you but I will promise you, none of us will cause you all any harm. If you are not certain, then I will make an oath to my goddess that ‘We Pope Abednego of the Alvaian Church promise that as long as you five are in my presence, you will learn as much as I can teach you about this world and that you shall not face any harm in my presence until you are able to stand upon your own two feet." (Pope)
Hearing the pope's promise, even if a little, the fear on the groups face lessened. When the pope once again gestured for them to follow him they did so with the two cardinals following behind them.
As they walked through the halls that were big enough to let 10 people walk in a row through comfortably, they passed various people with different distinct features such as pointed ear, horns, animal ears in priest like attire with an insignia of the owl and doves of different color on the area of the heart. While the pope's robe was pure white with a golden insignia that gave off a golden light and the seven cardinals had robes that were pure white in color and with a golden insignia that did not glow, the people walking around them wore pure white robes but the insignia was of different color. There was orange, sky blue, and light yellow. The light yellow was the most common place among the people that walked by them.
Noticing that the five teens were looking around Sparda spoke up.
"Is there something wrong?" (Sparda)
To his question, Lyle asked.
"Why are all these people wearing priest robes with different color insignia?" (Lyle)
To his question, it was not Sparda but Antonella who answered.
"The robes worn by the various people of the church represent their status within the church. As you see, pure white and a golden insignia with a golden glow represent the pope, while robes that are pure white and just a golden insignia represents our cardinals. The sky blue insignia represents the Archbishops, the orange insignia represents the bishops and the light yellow color represents presets. The insignia of the owl and doves is the symbol of the goddess Alma." (Antonella)
As they continued down the hallways the people of the church kept on staring at them, possibly because there was a group of teens wearing clothes they probably never seen before following the pope with two cardinals following behind them.
As they exited the long hallway the group entered a large dome shaped room. The room was massive with a mural painted on the roof. The mural was of an absolutely breathtaking woman with golden hair that went past her waist and golden eyes that seemed to have the ability to see through someone's very being, similar to the eyes that the pope used to look at Lyle. She was wearing a long robe that covered her entire figure but one could still tell with the hazy outline that her figure could induce lust in every man and even most women.
Seeing the look of awe on the faces of the fives the pope chuckled and explained.
"That is out goddess Alma." (Pope)
After saying that the pope continued to walk and the others followed behind him.
When they passed through a large archway, they reached outside. There they saw a massive green space with trees and benches where people in priest getups were resting, it resembled a large park. As they went down the staircase they saw more people, however, these people looked to be the same age as the five teens and they wearing yellow robes. Seeing these people Lyle looked around and faced the two cardinals. However, they seemingly knew what he was going to ask so they answer in unison.
"The yellow robes are for the priest apprentices." (Sparda and Antonella)
As they reach the bottom of the staircase they noticed a large oval shaped object with what seemed to be windows on it . As they got closer, a hole appeared on the side of the object and stairs came out.
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When he reached the beginning of the stairs the pope stopped and looked at the group following him.
"This is one of my personal airships. It can hold ten people comfortably and we will be using this to head to the capital of the human empire." (Pope)
After speaking the pope turned around once again and entered the airship with the others following behind him.
When they entered there were ten seats in which everyone sat down and the ship rose in the air with the sound of what seemed to be an engine. As the ship lifts off the people on the ground get smaller and smaller.
When the pope moved his gaze across the five he noticed that Elizabeth was shivering and Marc was trying to ease her.
"What's wrong?" (Pope)
"She has a fear of heights." (Marc)
"Oh is that so, just tape the windows and they will go dark." (Pope)
Upon hearing what he said and seeing him give and example the group did that to all the windows on the airship and when he noticed that Elizabeth had calmed down he looked towards the five.
"Well now to answer your question on being able to return home." (Pope)
When the pope saw that he had the attention of all five of them he continued.
"There are three ways for you all to be sent home." (Pope)
"One method is if a god summoned you here. If you were summoned by one of the gods, you could ask one of the gods to send you back, however, if they were the ones to summon you, they would probably not comply with your request to be sent home." (Pope)
"Why is that!? They were the ones to summon us so they should send us back!? (Marc)
"Because if was most likely not a god who summoned you all here. There is currently no conflicts happening, what would be the need to summon you all." (Pope)
Hearing his sound reasoning Marc became quiet. Upon seeing this the pope continued.
"The second would be to use the interdimensional array in our possession to sent you back but that is impossible because it was what had brought you all here in the first place." (Pope)
"It brought us here, so it was your fault! Then why don't you all take responsibility and sent us home." (Elizabeth)
Upon hearing her tone of voice the pope responded with a slightly cold voice.
"We are taking responsibility, why do you think, I a pope who leads billions of followers am personally assisting five teens, who most of which have yelled at me continuously." (Pope)
Hearing what the pope said the five looked down dejectedly with guilt ridden faces. Seeing their reactions the pope's voice softened a little and he continued.
"The array had malfunction this morning and when I went to see what had happened I saw that you all were summoned. It requires ten years to gain enough power to be activated again. Plus on top of these ten years, we will also have to research what had made it malfunction for we are not aware of the reason why. We do not know how long that will take." (Pope)
"Is there not another array that can send us home." (Lyle)
"There is,however, I told one of the cardinals to contact the Church of Darknesses Pope and ask if their array could be used but the answer that was received was that their array this morning completely broke and all the power it possessed disappeared. In turn, it will take them longer than us to get it ready for activation since they will need to rebuild it." (Pope)
"What is the third method for returning home?" (Lee)
"The third is the most difficult and dangerous of all, it is also the method the Hero used in attempting to return home." (Pope)
"What do you mean attempt?" (Lyle)
"I say attempt because we do not know if he was able to successfully return home. As I have said this method is not only the most difficult but also the most dangerous, one mistake and the person using it would be dead or something worse than that." (Pope)
"The third method requires two things for it to be useable." (Pope)
"First, the user must know where the dimension they wish to travel is located." (Pope)
"Second, the user must possess an immense amount of power to connect the two dimensions. The hero was, like the Dragon Empress, also about to attain godhood so connecting dimension was possible for him." (Pope)
Upon hearing the ways home and also hearing that all of them were impossible to achieve at the moment or anytime within the near future the group of five became dejected.
Seemingly after contemplated over what the pope said Marc asked him a question.
"You said that the Hero and Dragon Empress were about to attain godhood. So does that mean that a mortal can become a god." (Marc)
"Yes, it is possible for a mortal to attain godhood, however, the explanation for it will take up time and since we are about to reach our destination I believe we should save it for later.' (Pope)
Hearing the pope, the five became slightly confused until Lyle tapped one of the darkened windows and looked outside. What he saw was awe-inspiring.
There was a large city that was built in a circular format. It was divided into four parts, each separated by large walls. In the innermost part of the city was a large castle surrounded by a massive green space that looked to be a lawn. In the lawn were various pools of water of different shapes and sizes.
Seeing Lyle's awe-filled face the others except Elizabeth looked out the window and all made the same face.
Seeing their reactions the pope beams amused and spoke with a smile on his face and amusement filled voice.
"Welcome to Asla(Us-La), the capital of the human empire Adeen(Ah-Deen) on the largest continent, Adeeren." (Pope)