Fire Mage

Chapter 495: Confrontation

A few moments ago.

A wavy-haired young man suddenly appeared more than 500 meters above the Holy See and looked at the city with a stern look on his face.

He appeared to be around 25 to 28 years old, with an eyepatch on his left eye, a handsome face, a square face, and straight eyebrows.

He was none other than Charles in Julius's appearance!

At that moment, he also noticed flashes of blue lightning coming from the faraway clouds and chuckled.

"He completely lost his rationality."

In the past few minutes, he learned that the more Bryson got angry and frustrated, the more he started to act like a mad man.

"I hope everything goes according to the plan."

As he finished his mutter, Charles suddenly perceived a future vision and instantly activated [Accelerated Thoughts] on himself.

The next instant, he noticed that the whole 100-meter radius suddenly started to slow down and soon returned to normal.

No, it appeared more like everything started to move at a slow speed.

'Time power?'

While he was in confusion, an old voice echoed in his ears.

"Who are you, Young Man?"

Simultaneously, a dense amount of light elemental particles appeared behind him and soon formed into an appearance of a 70-years-old man.

He was none other than the Pope of the Light Church!

Charles turned around with a calm look on his face and sized him up and down.

He had long white hair, a wrinkled, pale face, and an aura of sacredness around him. But what caught his attention was not the sacredness aura but the golden crozier in his hand.

A row of information appeared in his mind the next instant, causing his eyes to widen.

'A crozier made of the Fallen Demon Lord's bones? Demon Lord Scylla?'

He retracted his gaze from the crozier instantly and responded with a smile.

"I've many names, old man. But you can call me whatever you want."

While saying so, he raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

A moment later, a dense amount of wicked flame essence came out of his body and formed more than a 20-meter radius blackish fireball in an instant!

On the other hand, Pope didn't mind his rude words or the newly appeared Black Sun. Instead, he stared deep into Charles's eyes and soon showed a surprised look on his face.

"You are not a Demon like that lad mentioned in the book... You have the full qualification to ascend to Godhood one day." He paused for a moment and soon shook his head.

"Unfortunately, you are destined to die here."

His words appeared sincere and seemed to hold the authority of the truth itself!

Meanwhile, Charles wasn't much surprised by his words and asked calmly.

"Then, do you think you have the power to stop me from leaving this plane today?"

Just as he asked the question, countless lightning arcs appeared from the cloudy sky, blinding both of their vision, and soon disappeared.

But a second later, a new person appeared in front of Charles and Pope.

The person wore a black suit with golden embroidery and held a black stick with a bright-red tip.

He had long black hair, greyish eyes, pale face and showed a twisted smile on his face.

"Bryson!" Pope instantly identified him and released a strange invisible power towards the surrounding air.

At the same time, he muttered a strange incantation and focused a part of his attention on the Black Sun.

Charles instantly learned that Pope was deeply surprised by Bryson's arrival and chuckled.

'Trying to interfere with my spell?'

He also released his wisdom power, created a forcefield around his body, and stopped the probing force first.

Then, he raised both hands, made a smirk on his face, and activated the [Black Inferno] spell.

At that moment, the Black Inferno spell had already started showing cracks and released black lightning arcs everywhere.

As he activated the spell, the fireball shrunk to a minute level and sent out invisible ripples in all directions.

The next second, rumbling noises came from the dark sky, followed by a loud explosion!

Within a second, the whole dark sky got consumed by the sudden appearance of black flames, and it continued to expand in the clouds while burning fiercely.

Before long, Charles, Pope, and even Bryson got enveloped by the flames!

At the same time, shockwaves also spread in all directions and caused destruction everywhere.

Like before, the shockwaves destroyed glass windows, doors, carriages, and even houses. Although there were no casualties in the Holy City due to the defensive formation that appeared out of nowhere and blocked most of the shockwaves and black flames, the destruction wasn't minimum at all.

It also caused Bryson and Pope to lose their sense. If not for them constantly casting multiple spells to block the mysterious black fire from affecting them, they would have long burned to ashes!

By the time Pope and Bryson managed to get out of the flame, both found out that Charles was nowhere to be seen!

What's more shocking was that a strange invisible cloak appeared below them, and it had already covered the Holy See like a cocoon!

'What is that?' Pope knew that it wasn't the defensive formation and got startled inside.

But before he could think further, Bryson turned into arcs of bluish lightning and disappeared from there.

He reappeared behind Pope a second later and attacked him.

"Dream Domain!"

Pope felt that the surroundings started to distort the next instant and soon found himself pulled into a strange place.

In the meantime, Charles watched them disappearing from the Astral Realm and smiled.

"That went smoothly." He muttered with a nod and looked at his illusionary soul form.

Although his soul had undergone mutation, he didn't have any soul-related abilities to counter astral beings or enemy's souls, and now it was one of his weaknesses.

'Although the Rebirth Flame could heal my soul, it won't help me in the battle. Hmm, I should start researching more about the 'Soul Fire' and find a way to get my hands of the Soul Fire Essence.' He thought to himself and started descending towards the Holy See.

Within a few seconds, he passed through the Shadow Cloak's invisible layer, moved towards the center of the Holy See, and soon landed in front of the Main Church.

At that moment, hundreds of people like Saint Knights, Bishops, Arch-Bishops, and even a handful of black-dressed figures stood at the entrance and looked at the sky anxiously.

Charles wasn't much bothered by the presence of Saint Knights and Bishops. But what caught his attention were the seven black-dressed figures.

They were all clad with a dark-blue jacket, black shirt, and a golden collar. All the figures seemed to have a powerful aura surrounding them, and their faces showed no sign of emotions.

'Are they something like Human puppets?'

He thought for a moment and decided not to waste more time here.

He left the Astral Realm without delay and reappeared in the Physical world a moment later.