My portable grandfather refreshes every week

Chapter 5 You will regret it!
"Your Holiness, there is good news. General Julia has escaped and returned. The Empire still has a chance to make a comeback..." said the herald...

"Good news? Ten thousand Crusaders and thirty thousand Imperial Knights, all wiped out? What's the point of him escaping back? Forty thousand people! This is an army of forty thousand, with thousands of elites among them! You know, we are facing the threat of an additional forty thousand undead troops! Even forty thousand pigs cannot be defeated so quickly." The Pope's chest trembled with anger.

"On the other hand, at least we've preserved General Julia's quasi-legendary combat power..."

"Oh, thank goodness, he's a loser who can only run away. Twenty years ago, he was the one who fled with the army and betrayed the general. Decades later, he's still only able to run away? I advise your empire to first elect a general who can't run away!"

The Pope seemed to laugh in anger. "I've heard that among the current imperial army, there's a legend that 'whoever runs slow will be devastated.'"

"Pope Alola, I come to you on behalf of the Empire to borrow troops. This time, we only need 1000 Paladins. We are confident that we can resist the undead army outside the imperial capital..."

"Get out!" the Pope yelled.

"Your Holiness, I represent the Empire and the Emperor's will! You will regret it!" said the herald.

"I am the Pope!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the paladins in the hall raised their war hammers and glared at the messenger sent by the empire.

A faint light shone above the warhammer, and the pressure emanating from the heavy-armored paladins, each over two meters tall, almost suffocated him.

"You will regret this..." The herald was so frightened that he almost fell to his knees and left in a hurry.

"Did I ask you to stand?" The cold voice of Pope Alora came.

The herald officer didn't dare to say anything more. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to leave the hall. He could only curl himself up into a ball and whispered, "Get out if you want..."

"Your Holiness Pope Alola, the empire is beyond salvation. What should we do next?" said a priest.

In fact, they had long seen that the empire was doomed. Since the death of the previous general, no one in the empire could suppress the undead plague.

The undead scourge could only wreak havoc on the empire's borders, and the defense line was eroded step by step.

This great defeat only buried the already hopeless empire into the ground, and even killed 10,000 crusaders of the Holy See.

"Escape? Where can we escape to?" the Pope asked.

The entire hall fell into complete silence.

"We have nowhere to escape. Behind us is the sea, the endless sea that cannot be found even if tens of thousands of warships are sacrificed!" the Pope roared.

She has had enough of this empire. Ever since the death of the previous Pope twenty years ago, she, as the saint, has been entrusted with the task of taking over this whole mess.

Without its former general, the empire was completely devastated. A deserter became a general? From then on, the empire no longer had any brave warriors. Every battle with the undead army was a race to see who could run faster.

If you run too slowly, you will become a heinous sinner like the previous general!
That incident was a purely political struggle. Before that, the empire had only three legendary masters: one was the imperial court wizard, one was the Pope, and the last one was the former general Barak.

This was the time when the empire was at its strongest. Even when facing the Lich King who had swept across the surrounding small countries and unleashed the Scourge of Undead, the empire could still keep him out and even had the strength to kill the Lich King.

But a stupid political struggle ruined everything. The Empire was dissatisfied with the fact that General Barak was a Paladin. Even though General Barak's family was an old-fashioned imperial noble family, he was considered absolutely disloyal by the Empire because of his inconsistent loyalty.

So in that political struggle, General Barak died and became a ghost, and the Pope also died, killed by General Barak.

The Empire won a great victory and the power of the Holy See was weakened to the extreme, but at what cost?
A few years later, after the court's chief magician died of old age, the entire empire was left without a single legendary warrior!
The external undead army has been crushing the empire all the way and has swallowed up 80% of the empire's territory. The Lich King himself is actually the strongest in the entire continent and the only legendary level.

The end of the empire, the undead plague! How ridiculous!

"How far has the soul purification of General Barak progressed?" the Pope asked the Inquisition's bishop in a deep voice. "Your Majesty, during yesterday's inspection, over 80% has been purified. At the current rate, it will only take four years to complete the purification. We will then receive a Holy Sword and Holy Spirit that will be passed down through the ages," the Cardinal said.

"Four years..." the Pope murmured in a low voice.

It was too late to wait until that time. The empire was like a dying camel, and the last straw had been broken, leaving it with no room for struggle.

"Take me to the underground secret room, I will talk to General Barak." The Pope seemed to have made some decision.

"Wait, Your Holiness."

"No, the general is still undead."

"We are not sure whether the general will attack you directly..."

"Enough, I am the Pope!" Allura's roar silenced all the bishops.

Yes, they have no other choice. They have already torn their relations with the Empire, and the Undead Army is at the gates of the city. They have nothing to lose.

Now that things have come to this, we can only pray that General Barak still cares about the Holy See and is still able to defeat the undead army.

Pope Alora gasped for breath, his chest rising and falling.

She seemed to have made the final decision. Even if it meant death, she would release the only legendary strongman now, the undead Barak.

She has a secret that she has not told anyone. In terms of blood relationship, she is the granddaughter of General Barak.

Her mother was the illegitimate daughter of the general. The general did not take her back to the family, but gave her to the care of friends in the Holy See. Later, her mother married a gifted paladin and gave birth to her.

Twenty years ago, the Barak family was massacred, and only her branch escaped because they changed their identities. This was the secret that the former Pope told her before his death.

She was chosen to be the new Pope precisely because of this identity, because if anyone could best wield the magic sword, it would be her, the only remaining member of the Barak family.

The former Pope calculated that even though General Barak was extremely resentful, he would still protect his only relative.

Because he no longer has any family.

And in the future that the former Pope saw through the Great Prophecy, only this magic sword was the only one that could kill the Lich King and solve the undead plague.

All other futures are doomsday!

That's why he risked his life to seal General Barak. He staked his fate on the future! The only future that could end the undead scourge.

"Buzz..." The sudden earthquake shocked everyone.

Then, the people from the Inquisition suddenly changed their expressions and said, "Oh no! It's the secret room where the Holy Sword is sealed! Damn it! General Barak might have rioted."

However, before they could check, the huge impact shattered the ground.

The earth cracked and the houses shook.

A five-meter-tall skeleton demon rose into the sky and hovered above the cathedral. Its figure blocked the sunlight, with its bony wings spread out, like a demon from hell.

(End of this chapter)