And yet the three-and-a-half years that passed didn't make everything as peaceful as Carpathia had hoped...or as anyone thought he had hoped. A brief nuclear exchange with powers that didn't feel comfortable being under the thumb of Carpathia's new regime had to be dealt with. Events that those who were called "Judah-ites" had refered to as "judgments from God" came upon the earth, such as a massive earthquake that had destroyed Carpathia's first headquarters and had killed his faithful second-in-command Leon Fortunato, whom he resurrected simply by speaking his name. There was a heated rift between the former United Nations Secretary-General Mwangati Ngumo and the African subpotentate Rehoboth that resulted in the deaths of both rivals. And there was also suspected rivalry between himself and the Pontifex Maximus Peter Cardinal Mathews, who used the whole rivlary between Ngumo and Rehoboth in an attempt to remove Carpathia from being the head of Global Community.

Nicolae realized it was time to deal with the Pontifex Maximus and strike a death blow to Enigma Babylon One World Faith, which has served its purpose but now was becoming an obstacle to Carpathia being recognized as the only true living god of this world, just as Eli and Moishe were constant irritants whose time would soon end. Already he had talked to the various subpotentates, including the newly-chosen replacement for Rehoboth, and he had planted in their minds the desire that Peter Mathews, now calling himself Peter the Second, was to be eliminated as soon as possible. He then went on the phone with Leon Fortunato, at that time the Supreme Commander, to reveal his plan to eliminate the Pontifex Maximus:

"Enoch Litwala will invite Peter to a meeting in Jerusalem before the Global Gala, telling him it is to discuss his succession to my role if a certain plan of theirs is carried out. It would be a meeting of just Peter and the potentates at the fancy new Global Community Grand Hotel, where the ice sculptures have become so popular. For the meeting they will order the large sculpture of Peter himself, the one that depicts him as a mighty angel, life size, with the huge wings with pointed feathers. As the ten are admiring it, each will break off one of those thick feathers with the sharp ends, and as Peter is wondering what in the world it is all about, each will plunge his into him from different angles -- neck, eye, temple, heart."

As Carpathia finished wrapping up his conversation with Leon about Peter, he noticed a woman standing in his office wearing ancient Middle Eastern garb, holding a baby in her arms, resembling depictions of the Virgin Mary. He recognized the woman as she started to speak. "This is where my role ends, son of Lucifer. You give me the children of the world to nurture and grow as their hearts are led away from the One who dares to say, 'I am, and there is no other like Me,' and you in turn take my children away and lead them unto your father, leaving me naked and desolate, eating my flesh and burning me with fire. The one who is called Tender and Delicate, the Lady of Kingdoms, the virgin Daughter of Babylon, deserves better from you."

"You haven't been a virgin from the day you've been birthed in Babylon," Carpathia answered. "You've been portrayed as a virgin because my father wanted you to be the copy of what the One who thinks he is God had planned all along from the foundation of the world. You've been living under many names since then -- Isis in Egypt, Asherah in Canaan, Isthar in Persia, Aphrodite in Greece, and last but not least, as the perpetually-virgin Mary of Roman Catholicism, whom they now call co-redeemer with this Christ. Your purpose was to allure people through your sensuality and your alleged virginity to worship the creature more than the Creator, to give more honor to the mother who gave birth to the Son than to the Son whom this God says every knee shall bow before and every tongue shall confess as Lord, even that Son's mother. People have fed the lusts of the flesh by committing all sorts of sexual acts and even murder of their newborn children as a worshipful sacrifice because of you. But you will not be honored anymore by anyone, nor will you be a virgin to anyone. Let the charade end now."

The woman simply said, "I am your servant. Let it be done as you say." And she unveiled herself, revealing underneath the humble robes of a mother with child, the scarlet and purple clothes of a brazen harlot, wearing all sorts of jewelry made of gold, costly stones, and pearls. The child then turned into a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. On her forehead was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

"You've done well in your job of deceiving people into believing anything but the truth," Carpathia said to the woman when he had finished drinking and wiped his mouth. "Your apparitions of Mary, that condemned the true gospel that the foolish Judah-ites believe in as a false gospel, has convinced those who have drunk of your wine and made them oppose those who still cling to the words of a God I do not regard as true. They even killed those that they once considered brothers or sisters and say to themselves that they're doing God a service. How much more will they do the same once I and my father take our rightful place in the highest heavens, as I, who do not regard the God of my fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god, will exalt myself above all, and will stand in what the Jews call the temple of God, showing to all the world that I am God." He then handed the cup back to the woman as she transformed yet again to a more hideous form. "Return to your place, Ashtaroth. You shall be summoned again when the time comes to rid ourselves of the Jews and the God who has given a Messiah through them."

On the opening day of the Global Gala in Jerusalem, Enigma Babylon Deputy Pontiff Francesca D'Angelo announced that Pontifex Maximus Peter Cardinal Mathews had died of a highly contagious virus that had suddenly overtaken him and that a memorial service for him was scheduled for the following morning. It had actually turned out to be more of a goodbye speech for Enigma Babylon, since Carpathia had swayed those who listened to D'Angelo's speech to believe that the news was of no significance, and also because on the following day the memorial service was cancelled and D'Angelo was already defrocked. Interestingly, this had little or no effect on the teachings of whatever televangelists who had already subscribed to the ideals of Enigma Babylon were left in a world already affected by more than a dozen judgments from God's hand. Apparently they have been so immersed in their own beliefs and in their own agendas, such as continually fleecing their flocks with phony spiritual formulas and promises of instant wealth and health, that it would only take an act of God to bring their ministerial empires crumbling down. With Nicolae Carpathia being killed a few days later and then resurrected three days after that, however, a new one-world religion would emerge to take the place of Enigma Babylon in bringing the world together as one -- Carpathianism.