Deathstalker 06 - Deathstalker Legacy

Angelo leaned back in his oversized chair, activated the massage function, and smiled widely upon the Patriarch, sitting stiffly upright on his straight-backed uncomfortable visitor's chair. The Patriarch stirred uncomfortably under Angelo's smile, and blinked owlishly back at him.
    "Nice office, Angelo. Very roomy. Bit overblown for my tastes, but then I never was one for the material pleasures. I was a monk, you probably know that, before I was called to be a Cardinal, and then the Patriarch. I was happy being a monk. All I ever really wanted. But they told me I was needed, and I always was a sucker for that... So here I am. And here you are. The Patriarch and . . . what are you, exactly, now?"
    "I'm the Angel of Madraguda. Media saint, spiritual inspiration for the Church Militant, and lord of all I survey. I'm Angelo Bellini; and the Church does what I tell it to. You must have noticed."
    "Well, yes," said Roland Wentworth, diffidently. "I'm not so much ignored these days as bypassed.
    Important matters are no longer brought to my attention, my directives are lost or misfiled, and no one in the media will take my calls anymore. Half my staff don't even bother to come into work anymore. It's like I've become invisible. But I am still the Patriarch, Angelo; chosen and anointed leader of the living Church, the rightly appointed, divinely blessed lord spiritual to all the Empire. And I will not easily be put aside or silenced. I have a duty and a responsibility to guide my flock, my Church, in the right direction.
    To save them from evil, and if need be, from themselves. If you want a fight, Angelo, I'm quite prepared to give you one. The Church and the Church Militant are not one and the same, for all your efforts. There are still a good many good people ready and willing to support me, and the true Church."
    "Only a fool starts a fight he can't hope to win," said Angelo. "You have a few well-meaning supporters, scattered here and there. I have the Neumen. You have faith and a good heart. I have an army of fanatical supporters, ready to fight and die at my merest word. All your precious convictions are no defense against cold steel. Faith won't stop an energy bolt."
    "You haven't read your Bible recently, have you, Angelo?" the Patriarch said calmly. "You see, I'm really very unhappy with the way things have been going recently. I was confused for a while. I saw the Church changing, and I didn't know why. I thought perhaps it was my fault. That I was out of touch. But the
    Neumen riot was a mistake. Even I could see that didn't just happen. It was planned, orchestrated. By you. I freely confess I'm baffled as to why you should want such anarchy and bloodshed, but then, I have never understood evil. Only that I must fight it, with every weapon at my command."
    "Your time is past, Wentworth!" snapped Angelo, leaning sharply forward in his chair to glare across his desk. "You and all your weak kind have no place in the new Church, or the Empire that's coming. Go home. Retire. Be a monk again. While you still have the choice."
    "The butterfly cannot go back to being a caterpillar," said the Patriarch. "I was chosen. And unlike you, it seems, I take my religion seriously. I will fight you, because I must. Even the quietest of souls can become warriors, in God's name. We are all capable of becoming more than we are, or think we are.
    That's the basis of our faith. We can all transcend our lowly beginnings, in God's name. What do you believe in, Angelo? Do you believe in anything, apart from yourself?"
    "I believe I'm going to become very rich and very powerful," said Angelo. He leaned back in his chair, fighting to hold onto his calm. "And I don't care what anyone else believes. None of that shit matters anymore. All that matters now is whether you're for me or against me. Ah, Roland; you have no idea how good it feels to be able to speak openly, to tell the truth after so many years of mouthing pleasant platitudes. Do you know why I was so very good at raising money for charities? Because the more I raised, the more I could skim off the top, to give myself the comfortable life I always knew I deserved.
    Personally, I think Pure Humanity are a bunch of mindless thugs, and their so-called policies are nothing more than childish xenophobia; but they do make such excellent soldiers. Just wind them up, point them in the right direction, and turn them loose. And then stand well back while they do all the necessary dirty