"This is for my lord's fury!"
"Gwahhh!"
A sharp kick from the furious butler slammed into the Pope's stomach, and blood and all manner of things came spewing from his mouth.
That probably wrecked his insides.
"And this, with all due respect, is for my own anger!"
"Gahh, stop... I'm apologizing for everything up to now, so..."
Ooh, a textbook yakuza kick.
He staggered, begging for his life, but it was too late.
"And this is for what my lady had to go through!"
Crack.
A somersault kick that looked like it came with a shockwave connected, and Pope Linus's neck bent in a direction necks should never bend.
"Hmph. Still not enough, but this is where it ends."
The Pope collapsed backward.
Ward stuck a perfect landing and muttered that it was "unsatisfying," so Alan decided to play along.
"Not satisfied enough? Then how about this — 'Resurrection'!"
Then, bathed in a pillar of light, the Pope came back to life and slowly rose to his feet.
"Wh-what... where am I...? Why am I alive...?"
"Alright then, Ward — one more time. You can start from 'This is for my lord's fury!'"
"No, there's really no need to say that line again... but since we're at it, why not one more round."
"Waaahh, stay away!! I don't want to feel that death again!! Why do I have to go through it twice~~~"
And so, Ward's merciless kicks rained down.
The final somersault kick landed, and once again the Pope's neck bent the wrong way, and he died.
"Shall I go one more time?"
"No, that's enough."
◇◇◇
With the cleanup left to the ducal house, Alan departed the scene.
"Listen well — his lordship orders that all remaining members of the Pope's faction be eliminated. Go!"
Ward issued the command to the dark forces of the Raging ducal house gathered at the Grand Temple.
◇◇◇
Duke Geis, naturally, would not remain silent after his daughter had been attacked, and had been investigating Mist and the network behind him.
He had traced the trail all the way to the Pope, but the combat forces backing the operation were no pushovers, and he had been devising a surefire method of annihilation when word arrived that the bulk of those forces had been wiped out after Alan was declared a heretic.
Then, before long, Alan himself showed up and finished off Mist.
Realizing this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, the Duke sent Ward along with Alan, and together they succeeded in laying the Pope to rest.
The rest of them were nothing but a rabble.
Their own forces were completely unscathed.
They had annihilated the Pope's faction and quietly put the Saint's faction in their debt.
He doubted that upright Saint would ever exploit such a thing, but just in case, it would ensure she never sided with the current King.
This more or less settled the score for the attack on his daughter (the current King would likely have no remaining ties to the Pope), but it seemed the Pope's words had contained something hinting at a commission to "Diamond."
There was no way Alan had let that slip past him.
He would probably go after them alone.
The Duke himself wasn't particularly concerned, but given Alan's recently developed vulnerability, he would provide cover for him, just to be safe.
And so, having dispatched Ward to handle the remaining enemies, the Duke issued his next orders.
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