Pope Heidens

"The world shall not suffer this boy to live!"

- Heidens on Linley

Heidens (simplified Chinese: 海廷斯), known as the Radiant Pope or Holy Emperor (simplified Chinese: 光明教皇), is the leader of the Radiant Church, and one of the main antagonists of the Chinese fiction, Coiling Dragon franchise. The only known Radiant Pope so far, Heidens is an elderly yet still powerful radiant oracular.

However, he is just another holier-than-thou hypocrite, being the hidden but true main antagonist of the series until his final death in Volume 12. He was blessed by the Overgod of Fate who passed down Oracular Magic. In the ongoing arc of comic version, he is still alive and serves as the current primary antagonist.

Being a seemly light-hearted person, Heidens is dark and corrupt in the core. He is the true commander of King Clayde of Finley. Even the Radiant Church once resided in Finley until the monster army's attack, Heidens still had higher rank than the king and so anyone else. He even had rights and powers to order the king. The most importantly, he is the real mastermind behind Baruch Family's murder tragedy instead of Clayde, and therefore Heidens holds a major role in the whole story.

Conspiarcy in Finley
As Linley confronted Clayde, he asks the king where his mother was. To Linley's shock and anger, Clayde sadistically laughed and revealed that Linley's mother was dead. Shocked and grieved, Linley attacks Clayde with rage in his Dragonblood Warrior form and nearly kills him, but then Heidens appears to interrupt. The Holy Emperor drains Linley's power by the Light of Purifacation and attacks him, weakening and injuring Linley badly.

Before his capture, Linley orders Bebe to leave as soon as possible, and then he is locked up in the cell under Finley Castle, almost losing his hope. After this failed assasination attempt, the palace of Finley has arranged five more amounts of guards than usual. To protect the king, the guards will kill any intruders even a mouse. Soon, after a talk with the king, Heidens begins to suspect that Linley is the "demon" in legend. Even feeling sorry for Linley's talent going to waste, Heidens still decides to commit the Divine Baptism on Linley remorselessly, to Guillermo's shock.

Meanwhile, at Dawson Mansion, Yale has knew Linley was in danger from Bebe. However, Yale's father, Monro Dawson, the most influencial bussinessman and leader of Dawson Commerce, is willing to help. In the sake of his son, Mr. Dawson visits Heidens and the latter greets him. However, Cardinals Guillermo and Melina, standing beside Heidens, feel uncanny to know that such a heavy man can give birth to a skinny and handsome son like Yale, right after seeing Mr. Dawson nearly fell due to his weight.

After standing up, Mr. Dawson begins to pledge the Holy Emperor to spare Linley, but Heidens refused, since Linley had killed an apprentice of Osenno, the Praetor of the Ecclesiastical Tribunal. Mr. Dawson is nervous, feeling that Linley might be important to the Radiant Church, but then he calms down and tells Heidens that Osenno is nothing more than a murderous madman, thus Linley should be spared. Heidens falsely agrees and sends Mr. Dawson away, but soon revealed his true colors to Guillermo. The plan will not change. At the time of Yulan Festival, begins at the dawn of December 28th, Heidens will brake Linley's soul forever.

Non-canoncial appearances
Coming Soon!

Villainous acts
Note: The list is incomplete.
 * 1) One of Heiden's first acts to cross Moral Event Horizon that the readers known was sacrificing the soul Linley's mother to the Radiant Soverign, brainwashing her and turning her into a puppet angel. Though King Clayde and Duke Padson had captured Mrs. Baruch, Heidens was the true mastermind.
 * 2) While Linley is in Finley, Heidens faked his good attitude and later ambushed and captured him in order to prevent Linley from killing Clayde.
 * 3) He gave falseful promise to Mr. Monro Dawson while trying to brake Linley's soul with holy rituals as the Yulan Festival came. The ritual shall made Linley an absolutely broken man. Even his loyal right-hand, Cardinal Guillermo, was truly horrified and disgusted by this.
 * 4) While Linley is in O'Brien Empire, Heidens ordered some of his best minions to capture an elderly necromancer named Zassler for some evil purpose, only to be stopped by Linely. He also ordered the base within the empire to capture sacrificial souls, even including children.
 * 5) Later, Heidens ordered another team, lead by Stehle, to capture the Amanda siblings - five immortal warriors - to the Sacred Isles, only to be stopped by Linley, Zessler with the help of a returned Cesar, though Linley was almost killed by Sthele if he was not saved by Cesar.
 * 6) After knowing Linley is still alive, Heidens sent Lyndin and five other angels to kill him.
 * 7) During the fight between Wharton and Blumer for Princess Nina, Heidens, in order to prevent Baruchs' return under protection of the Emperor of O'Brien (if Nina married Wharton), ordered Sthele to assist Blumer, using a powerful gem that will depower Wharton. It nearly caused Wharton's demise under Blumer's hand.
 * 8) After knowing Linley and Wharton had won the combat with Haydson, a shocked Heidens decided to save Linley till last and sent Guillermo and Stehle to kill Linley's friends, putting Delia, Zassler, George, Yale, Amanda siblings and everyone connected to Linley in danger. He also caused Renold's capture by the rebles. Then, to stop Linley from entering the Realm of Chaos, he sent his loyal killing machine - Osenno.

Trivia

 * Coincidentally, he has many similiarities with Sanctus.
 * In original books, Heidens still has some very slightly empathy though it is also a driving force to make him commit evil, while in comic version, he is much more relentless.
 * Even though seemly contract to his nemisis Alphlec, the Dark Pope and leader of the Cult of Shadows, for being a "light" leader, Heidens eventually proved to be even more evil and diabolic than his "dark" counterpart.
 * The two eventually become allies.
 * Heidens is one of the most heinous villains in  Coiling Dragon  series, and he even somewhat surpassing the Violet Fiend, another Evil-All-Along in the series.