Europe, Italy.

In all of Earth, the Holy Church was probably the richest and perhaps the strongest faction in general terms.

Although the religious faction covered much less territory than other factions such as the Transcendent faction stationed in China or the United States of America faction, the number of survivors that this faction had was by no means inferior to the other two.

Furthermore, leaving aside the low-level manpower, the number of soul evolvers that had joined the army exceeded 5 million and of those over 5 million about 100 thousand had managed to become Second Order soul evolvers.

Before he fell, Israfel foresaw that within another two years the Holy Church would have over 10 thousand powerhouses who had already surpassed level 100; Third Order soul evolvers.

One needed to know that a world in its Third Stage of Evolution such as Eventide World only had a few hundred soul evolvers beyond level 100. In fact, Eventide World was a very advanced world with a good number of Third Order powerhouses even among the worlds in the Third Stage.

Just based on the above, both Earth and the Holy Church were anomalies of colossal magnitude, to say the least.

At this moment, the 700.000 armed men and over 400.000 soul evolvers stationed at the Vatican were tense in defensive positions. The look in their eyes was that of someone about to face a great enemy they doubted they would be able to defeat even with their numbers.

In fact, had it not been for the four winged figures in the sky it was likely that none of the soldiers or soul evolvers of the Holy Church would have dared to raise their weapons in an attempt to defend themselves against what was to come.

Uriel looked beautiful as always. Her six pure white wings kept her suspended in the sky like a heavenly fairy while her white dress with gold engravings clung to her body every time the wind blew.

"Lord, this doesn't make any sense..." She said.

The expression on her beautiful face reflected concern and also guilt as she looked at the humans on solid ground.Anyone who saw the pitiful expression on Archangel Uriel's face would immediately want to please even the deepest of her wishes. However, the expression of the one she referred to as "Lord" did not change in the slightest.

"Uriel, if what Sonnata said turns out to be true, then that child is an even greater anomaly than we first suspected." Medes' voice did not reflect his emotions but sounded as warm and gentle as ever. His silver eyes were lost in the distance, as if he was waiting for something, "You, Gabriel, and I knew Sirius. Arrogant, proud, never listened to anyone and did whatever he pleased even if it meant leaving a sea of blood and mountains of corpses wherever he walked by. The Sky Emperor, though, was a hundred times more bloodthirsty in comparison."

"The Sky Emperor was one of the first soul evolvers who managed to become a Higher Existence on his own, and he was also part of the first era of soul evolvers since the creation of life." Gabriel pointed from the side. The gentle smile on his face seemed to be a permanent feature of his as it always accompanied him regardless of the circumstances, "Or so the ancient records say."

The God of the Army of Heaven nodded, "All those who have already entered the Seventh Order and read the most ancient books kept by each of the eight factions know that the Sky Emperor was an existence that stopped before nothing for the sake of achieving his purpose. He annihilated more than 100 races, killed countless innocents, and conquered thousands of worlds by force... Uriel, if that human child named Bai Zemin was the reincarnation of Sirius I might have taken a step back now that Israfel is dead. I don't want people back there to die for nothing either... but, if he is the reincarnation of the Sky Emperor we need to do everything we can to stop him no matter what."

Uriel looked at Medes with an extremely complicated expression on her face.

She wanted to point out that even if Bai Zemin was the Sky Emperor there was no way for them to stop him unless a Higher Existence sacrificed themselves. However, even that didn't seem to be particularly safe as there had been two records to date of Bai Zemin being attacked by Higher Existences; and he was still alive while those two Higher Existences had their souls obliterated or absorbed.

The first time he had help, but he still had to hold on until help arrived.

The second time it should not have been possible for anyone above level 401 to extend a helping hand to him, and anyone below that level should be useless against the power of a Sixth Order dragon.

And yet, Bai Zemin was still alive.

Uriel didn't believe for a second that someone like that could be taken down by the people below, not to mention that Bai Zemin now owned Hero City.

"For you all to have come out to greet me with such enthusiasm... I must say, I don't know whether to feel honored or worried."

Space twisted fiercely and a part of the atmosphere seemed to collapse as a huge crack opened up in the sky. From within it, a male voice that sounded slightly lazy but at the same time extremely disdainful spread throughout the Vatican.

Gabriel continued to smile and Medes' expression did not change at all.

Only angel Sonnata frowned and subconsciously activated his Light Spear skill to fashion a weapon in his right hand. This was because Hero City represented danger to his records and thus to his life.

The huge city slowly emerged from inside the crack, leaving a huge dark opening behind.

"You came." Medes nodded as the crack gradually closed behind the floating city, "We were waiting for you."

"Waiting for me?" Standing in the midst of his team members, Bai Zemin took a step forward on top of the city's northern wall and looked at the God of the Army of Heaven with a faint smile, "And now that I'm here what will you do? I know you can kill me easily if you attack me now, but the question is... You dare to?"

Medes shook his head and raised both hands, "My intention is not to fight against you or to be your enemy. I mean it."

Bai Zemin gawked before bursting into laughter, "Hahaha! If I remember correctly, you and that guy who looks like a woman were the first to reject the only path of peace that could have existed between us!"

"Ah? Peace deal?" Uriel looked at Bai Zemin and Medes, bewildered as this was the first time she had heard of such a thing.action

"The boy wanted to form a Soul Contract based on blood and then force us not to set foot on Earth or intervene with this world." Gabriel replied indifferently.

"What? And why didn't you accept?" Uriel looked at Medes with wide eyes, "Don't tell me..."

Medes said nothing but stared at the floating city in front of him. His luminous eyes kept glowing as his pupils darted back and forth as if he wanted to search every inch of the mysterious runes on the walls and on the semi-transparent protective shield that enveloped all of Hero City.

"Bai Zemin, right?" Medes finally looked at him and pointed down, "I can do nothing but tell the truth. You killed my spokesman, the man who saved millions of lives and the hope of many... Is your thirst for power so great that you also want to kill these innocent people?"

At first, Bai Zemin did not understand the reason why the army of the Holy Church stationed at the Vatican was waiting for him ready to attack him. But, when Medes said what he said, however, everything became much more transparent and more evident.

* * * * * * *

A/N: Everyone, at the moment I am having some difficulties and personal problems... but I will do my best to give you 3 chapters before the next reset.

Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3