An Arcanist's Citadel 4 (Patreon)

An Arcanist’s Citadel

Chapter 4

-VB-

The Roman Catholic Church.

107 archbishops.

19,882 bishops.

5,022,251 Priests.

330,227 Deacons. 

16,541 hospitals. 

50,000~ clinics. 

100,000 nursing homes. 

250,000 secondary and primary schools. 

25 billion official members. 

The public didn’t see just how big the Roman Catholic Church was. Or how unwieldy this organization was when it crossed over seventy worlds, three hundred cultures, and one hundred member states of the Systems Alliance. 

For a long while, the church was happy to let this be.

But like all things, the church’s attitude toward this dangerously decentralized and almost disconnected nature of the faith’s standing changed. 

It didn’t happen because of the First Contact War. It happened earlier than that. 

It happened because of the Corporate Wars, a series of devastating wars that broke out between several megacorporations and states of the Systems Alliance. The Fourth Corporate War especially struck the Roman Catholic Church hard when a whole swathe of Catholic communities along the periphery were wiped out for, get this, “failing to provide adequate compensation” to a megacorporation that was running a protection racket. 

The pope at the time had been a man too soft. 

The pope who came after wasn’t. 

And it was under this pope, Pope Gregory XX, that humanity met other races. It was under Gregory XX that the Roman Catholic Church became … militant. 

Having a few billion followers dying because megacorporations wanted profit and then having the father (biological, not congregational) and grandfather of many of those who died being made the pope will do that to the church.

Technically, the Roman Catholic Church was not a member of the Systems Alliance. After all, the Holy See was never part of the United Nations, which the Systems Alliance initially used to be. 

Technically, the Holy See never gave up its sovereignty. 

Technically, not all human colonies were part of the Systems Alliance. It was just assumed that they would eventually submit the application to join. 

Pope Gregory XX chose to use those technicalities for the benefit of the church. He formed the Exorcisia Militant. On the surface, their stated purpose was “to serve as a bulwark against alien threats.” It was a public condemnation of how the Systems Alliance didn’t do its due diligence in patrolling the periphery colonies. That the Systems Alliance had failed so horribly that the Roman Catholic Church decided they weren’t good enough.

But in truth, the Exorcisia Militant was not the shield but the sword of the Roman Catholic Church. 

Oh, they also had exorcists among their numbers, but they were there as a guarantee against “potential” problems aliens might cause.

No, most members of the Exorcisia Militant were hardened veterans. Veterans of the Corporate Wars. Veterans of the First Contact War. Survivors of burnt colonies. Men and women that the universe had abandoned and left to rot. 

They were those people that the Roman Catholic Church took in when their own nations abandoned them and helped back onto their feet. 

They were charged with just one mission: to prevent what happened to them from happening to others. 

To excise the excesses of humanity and any who would threaten the innocents. 

‘But this time is a little bit different,’ Father Joshua Kim, Major of 3rd Papal Guard Company of the Order of Exorcisia Militant , thought to himself as their ship, HSN Mother Teresa, traveled at sunlight speeds within the Vetus System towards Elysium. 

When Vicar Emiliano got intel on Elysium Situation (as it was being called on Earth), he immediately used his status and title to meet with the Grandmaster of the Exorcisia Militant. Whatever he managed to relay to the grandmaster was enough for the usually calm and patient grandmaster to summon half of all exorcists within his order and send them out with the actual soldiers. 

As the man in charge of all of these men and women, he had been allowed a glimpse at what had caused this. 

And he was afraid. 

It was different this time.

He was a veteran of the Corporate Wars himself. He’s seen horrors and atrocities. He’s done some of them himself. 

It’s why he was in Exorcisia. To repent by protecting. 

But what he and his company was tasked with contacting was … not human. At least, not a normal human. 

“Major Kim.”

He turned to his right and saw Lieutenant Yokkuniji. The scarred Finish woman held a radio.

He took it. “This is Major Kim, over,” he said into the radio. 

“Major Kim, this is Agent Sean. We’ll be landing on Elysium within the hour. Before we land, I need to know if you will follow through with the plan, over.”

“We are professionals, over.”

“So you say. But when faced with the unknown, people have been known to panic. Please just repeat the plan back to me, over.”

He took a deep breath in and let it out. It was obvious what the Alliance agent thought. “Fine. We will land on the planet, meet with the local government heads, and then head on over to meet our target. If the target wishes to remain on Elysium after your talk with him, then nothing changes and we leave empty-handed, over.”

It was a sensible plan. 

“Thank you. We’ll meet again once the ships land, over.”

Snorting, he handed the intercom radio back to the lieutenant.

But she wasn’t taking the radio.

He looked back to her and stopped. 

Yokkuniji was another Corporate Wars veteran. She had guts and experience.

The intercom radio crackled. “Major! Please respond! We have an emergency, over!”

He quickly pulled it back up toward his face. “What is it?”

“Half of the Exorcisia are panicking, over! They are screaming!”

Kim stopped and continued staring at the statue-still and pale woman. Paler than her normally pale peach skin would be. 

And she was looking out of the corridor’s window.

He followed her gaze and stared out. 

He realized two things. 

One. Elysium really was less than an hour away if it was that close. 

Two… 

What the fuck?

-VB-

When the Alliance ship and another ship bearing the sigil of the Holy See landed, Jeffery Bolkins, as one of the most important people on the colony, was there to meet them. 

He watched as the delegations from both ships came out.

And he immediately noticed something off with the Papal delegation. 

Aside from the fact that they were armored and armed to the teeth, they were also scared. It was in the way they looked around. No, not scared. On edge. They huddled close to each other in perfect military formation.

The Alliance delegations, on the other hand, were more casual, if definitely in the formal levels of it. 

Jeffery also noticed something. 

Among the Papal delegation, those who were most alarmed were those wearing rosaries. Those who didn’t looked prepared but they didn’t have the genuine nervousness that the rosary wearers had. 

… What the hell was going on? 

“Good afternoon, Mister Bolkins,” the Alliance delegation’s lead said and extended a hand. 

He took it and shook it. 

“Good afternoon. And you are …?”

“SAII Agent Sean,” the other man replied with a smile. 

A shiver ran up Jeffery’s spine. Why was SAII here?! 

“I … see. And for what reason are you visiting our colony along with the Papal delegation?” he asked warily. 

“We are here to perform an in-depth investigation into how Elysium defended itself from the Batarian raids.”

Oh.

They were here for Marris.

Fuck.