Chapter Six: The Heist

Sammy made sure he became a bona fide slave driver with the way he was treating the Templers. They had been on the move for four days straight, only stopping when his butt hurt from all the sitting. When they tried to ask him to give them a few more minutes, a cold dead stare answered them. Because of this, they had arrived in the capital earlier than anticipated so they found the people in the Holy Capital still in the phase of decorating the place. Panic ensued when they saw the carriage and some Templers went off to report this to the Arch-Bishop as the rest escorted the Carriage to the Holy Cathedral.

Once there, they helped him out of the carriage and handed him off to some nuns who put a silk well ordained robe on him and a golden scepter. When he asked them what they were, he was told the two represented his power as the next Pope. He was basically the crown prince for the Pope was the ruler in this Empire. He came to know the Holy Empire was one of three strongest Empires because of the power of faith. The church had spread like wildfire and soon, kingdoms had formed together to form an empire headed by the Pope. The nuns led him into the Holy Palace where he found the fourteen kings were already waiting and the Arch-Bishop was seated on the Pope's chair. Sammy realized he looked almost like his father.

"Prince Evans, it's good to see you again, albeit early," Arch-Bishop Lockheart said.

"Well, those incompetent Templers almost got me killed so I had to make them go faster," Sammy said, making sure to sound cross. He then looked at all the kings there then back at Arch-Bishop Lockheart.

"I heard it's your father's fault we lost the believers in Leon kingdom. Why did they ordain you as the Arch-Bishop?" he asked. Everyone there cringed at this question.

"Because there's no one more worthy than me in everyone present in the Empire," Arch-Bishop Lockheart answered. Sammy chuckled at this.

"As the next in line for the seat as Pope, I have my job cut out to me to make sure the failures of my predecessor will not affect me or my successors. My predecessor was killed in a dungeon by a woman called Catherin Bloodmoon. Why and how?" he asked. Everyone there was sweating bullets. They never thought this little guy would so fierce.

"The previous Pope was a hopeless case. He drank, gambled and exercised against our teachings. Because of that, he lost the grace of our Lord and ended up being weak,"

"That brings me back to your father. The prisoners that escaped confessed to the kingdom of Leon of how your father and his Templers treated them that the kingdom decided to give them another trial and compensation which they took from our vaults. Your father committed sins like having sex with a young boy and other men inside the dungeons and they also testified that there was a demon in there that he loved to torture whenever he felt like it. Those signs look to me like someone who has serious psychological issues," Sammy said then glared at the Arch-Bishop. "Why haven't heard you renouncing him like the perfect Believer you are. You are supposed to be a role model, why are you not leading?"

"My Prince, I cannot say things that might bring our Believers to lack faith in us," the Arch-Bishop said.

"So you want to bring this illusion of security and harmony while we make sure our enemies do not drop this bombshell? What I am getting from you is that you do not want your family's name driven in the mud so you would rather sacrifice the whole church for it," Sammy said, a condescending smile on his face. "The fact that the kings here can do that; I do not have a problem with it. Kings do that all the time; daughters, wives, boys, step-daughters and whores; that is their family problem not the church. They can confess later and the Light Lord will forgive them over and over again. But, when a Bishop does it then it is out in the open then his son is ordained as an Arch-Bishop soon after, that is when I draw the line. So, you are suspended as the Arch-Bishop as we investigate all your family's shady things. When we realize that your family is not a loose end, you will be reinstated as the Arch-Bishop. Till then, go and try all you can hide all the skeletons in your closet. Now, someone please show me to my room and have those Templers who came with me flogged and suspended for doing a shoddy work."

News of what happened in the first day Prince Evans came to the Holy Capital spread all over the Empire and other Empires. Shock was the only thing to describe it. They knew the Prince had the power to halt, remove and reinstate an Arch-Bishop. Heck, a Prince is already an Emperor but just not formally. News of the Lockheart family being under investigation brought unbridled joy to their enemies. So, they started giving evidences to the Templers in charge of this operation. Soon, the family was put in a spot they had never been for the hundreds of years they have been in existence. The Arch-Bishop was known to be a pedophile, sons were going around sleeping with servants and raping nuns, his wife was known as a frequent costumer in the whore house and many more.

When Sammy got the report, he was dazed by all the crimes. He felt as if this was a novel and the writer had vendetta with the Catholic Church or something. He then ordered for them to be captured which was not easy for the Arch-Bishop was a Grandmaster Magician so they sent six Legendary Knights Templers to capture him. The upheaval in the city was large as the citizens were watching all this unfold with their eyes closed. The destruction of the Lockheart family brought no relief to the others large families in the place. They were relieved when Sammy said he was not going to go after any other family as long us they did not break leak out their misdeeds.

Sammy was not idle also. Since he had lost his means of learning when he forgot his books in Leon, he has been going to the library daily and brush upon everything. He came to know the library had two sections; the Light Section where it contained every spell book containing Light magic and the others except Darkness and Necromancy. The forbidden section contained all the spells the church had got from dark wizards and necromancers and that section was his main focal point so he decided to take everything.

He then went to the evidence against the Lockheart family and found one of those storage bags. He took it and when he examined it, he saw it was fifty times the size of his previous bag. He also saw there were a lot of mana stones. They were used as international trading materials and sometimes to replenish mana when there is no other options. He thanked his lucky stars and went back to his room. He then announced that in two day's time, he would be executing the former Arch-Bishop and anyone who was not going to be there would be seen as a conspirator.

The city was roused once again and people started preparing for this important day. They all bought good clothes to wear and children were groomed nicely. In three days time, the Execution Block was filled to the brim by people were waiting to see how this Prince would look like. Templers from out the city had been brought for security and Bishops were back from bordering kingdoms and Empires. To say the city was packed would be an understatement. A fly would not even be able to fly through the crowd.

Sammy looked at the crowd and smiled. His plan had worked flawlessly. He then turned into a mouse and ran to the library. There were no guards or the pesky librarian who he knew must have been a crazy strong Knight or Mage. He got into the Library, changed back into a human then he went to the Forbidden Section. In there, he could feel the power of darkness even in the air.

"Jackpot!" he said. He immediately started keeping every book in there into his bag without looking at the titles. Once all the shelves were cleaned, he then went to the Light Section and took all the books there too. Once done, he went to the treasury and found a safe there. He used his fingerprint and immediately it opened. Inside were a small mountain of mana stones, a book radiating of a power he did not know of and a spear covered with runes. He put everything inside his bag and left. What he did not know was that the Church kept it's even more valuable treasures deeper in the safe behind an illusion spell. Once he was out, he turned into a blue hawk and flew off.

Two hours, everyone had been waiting for two hours for the Prince to arrive. A Bishop got worried and sent a Templar to check on him. Half an hour later, the Templar brought back a message stone. It was used to send messages in form of a hologram. The Templar gave it to the Bishop who injected a small amount of mana inside. Then, the enlarged image of the prince appeared.

"What's up, people. It has been real fun masquerading as your Prince. I mean, you people did not have any idea I was a fake and instead left the whole palace with all the goodies with me. First of all, I want to share my joy with every person here. Most of you have had problems with the Lockheart family but I had the balls to kill them. I would have done a better job but my clock was ticking so I had to use them as bait. But the people I am most mad about is the whole Empire. Your Templers locked me up for ten years and it was pure torture. So, I decided to empty your vaults and library; try to recover from that. Right now, I am somewhere enjoying my loot immensely and wondering just what kind of dark books did you keep in the Forbidden Section. I will soon find out and I will use the power to rain hell on each and every Believer and Templar arrive until you all become extinct, trust my words."

There was a moment of silence before the Bishops and the Librarian ran to the building. Their first stop was the vault where they found it open. Inside, they found the mana stones, the weird book and spear were gone. The Librarian then opened up the Illusion and sighed in relief.

"He did not take the Holy Grail and the Lord's Blood," he said then looked at the place where the book was. "But he took the most dangerous thing here."

"You mean the Mind Space? Nobody could even understand the first sentence. We should be glad he will be taking it away and probably throwing it away when he knows he can't understand it," one Bishop reassured him.

"Let's hope so. In the meantime, we should hunt down Catherine Bloodmoon and he degenerates and force her to tell us who they were imprisoned with that is not with them," the Librarian said. The Bishops nodded and got out of the vault.

"Good job, you just forced us do something we swore never to do now that the Empire is at the brink of destruction. I never thought it would be brought to its knees because of a Bishop who could not contain his urges, this is humiliating," the Librarian said as he closed up the illusion. "But I will find you and I will kill you wherever you are."