The opportunity came quickly. Just three days after stepping into this world, Stella was able to witness the existence of the heretics she had long yearned for.
‘As expected, the divine has guided me.’
Stella smiled innocently as she watched a group of humans, deep in serious conversation from a distance. It was truly a simple and kind-looking smile.
But, of course, the reality was quite different.
Despite the distance, she could smell the demons mixed in the wind, making her unable to contain her joy at the thought of torturing heretics, and the laughter escaped her lips.
There was no doubt about it. A man mixed among three women. That man had surely broken the seal of the demon.
‘However, it’s strange…’
Her green eyes scanned the area around the heretics.
A woman with blue hair, wearing a serious expression, another with red hair, and a pink-haired woman leaning against a tree, listless. They all looked familiar.
They were the commanders of the Silver Dawn Knights, the elite order guarding the Imperial Palace. Stella was sure her eyes weren’t mistaken.
But why were such humans hanging out with demon worshippers?
It wasn’t coercion, nor were they being deceived. Those women were acting alongside the demon worshipper of their own free will, showing considerable familiarity.
‘I need to check this out.’
Even if Kaiquilia had a notoriously annoying personality, she would never be the type to summon demons, so Stella would let that slide, but the subordinates below her were different.
There could be heretical activities taking place unseen by Kaiquilia.
She would request an investigation from the Inquisitor later. With that thought, Stella made her smiling face even more innocent and approached the heretics, who had realized her presence.
“It seems you need help?”
‘…Who is she?’
Suspicion heightened. She had never experienced someone approaching right after a boss battle with Arachnae. Therefore, I too was unsure of what would happen next.
Wondering if identifying her would help, she observed the woman carefully.
Her golden hair, lightly waved, gracefully framed her collarbone and shoulders. The bangs covered her eyebrows and the area around her eyes, with her green eyes glimmering between them.
However, what caught the eye the most was her highly revealing nun’s outfit.
A semicircular white cloth draped over her shoulders, and a triangular covering for her chest, as large as her head, barely concealed her ample bosom.
Of course, there weren’t any strings or clothing to secure it. If the wind blew from the side, it seemed like her chest would be completely exposed. The sides and lower curves were practically on display.
The side of her clothing was cut so low that it revealed bare skin up to her solar plexus. There was literally nothing where the slit was. Not even a string that resembled underwear.
The garment covering a woman’s intimate areas was nothing more than the long hem of the nun’s outfit, and beneath her bosom, a buckle tightened, accentuating her already impressive size.
Her thighs were clad in black stockings made of mesh, and high heels adorned her feet.
‘…She looks like an NPC from the Holy Kingdom, but I can’t tell beyond that.’
The female nun NPCs from the Holy Kingdom who had switched from priest to nun during the appearance modification mod might have dressed like that, but it was so long ago that her memory was fuzzy.
At least the nun NPCs I knew didn’t wear outfits with such outrageous exposure. I could recognize at a glance that the original was a nun’s outfit, after all.
Moreover, why were the priests of the Holy Kingdom appearing in front of the Arachnae boss room? What business could they possibly have here?
“Help? Us?”
Lize revealed a sharper spirit. If anything foolish were to happen, it seemed she was ready to clash weapons with the woman in front of her. Erica also had a rather tense atmosphere.
“Yes. Of course. It seems the person behind you is in severe condition.”
The blonde woman pointed her finger at Claudia. Upon seeing that gesture, Lize flared up and retaliated.
“Don’t point your finger at Claudia carelessly. I warned you.”
“Warned? You just said you were giving me a warning? Pfft, pwa ha ha ha ha!”
In an instant, the blonde woman’s atmosphere changed.
She grasped her flat, toned stomach and laughed heartily in a voice that almost sounded breathless, and then finally stopped, gasping for air while wiping the tears in her eyes with her finger.
“Cough, ha ha… Ah, it’s been ages since I laughed this hard. A warning? To me? Ah, it’s been so long since I’ve seen such a spirited heretic.”
‘…Heretic?’
The moment she heard that word, a certain NPC popped into her mind.
Heretic. And nun’s outfit.
“But while it’s funny, the rest is a separate matter.”
Stella raised her hand. In response, the sound of trees cracking began to resound, Crack— I involuntarily turned to look in the direction of the sound that came from behind the woman.
The source of the sound was a flail.
A massive spiked ball tied to a long handle, about the size of two human heads combined, was flying toward the blonde woman, breaking everything in its path.
The blonde woman calmly caught the intimidating flail reaching for her with one hand. Thud— The sound echoed through the forest.
Seeing that, I realized who the blonde woman was. Only one person used such a characteristic flail.
‘Inquisitor…!’
She was undoubtedly the Inquisitor, the head of the Holy Kingdom’s most elite and powerful force, led directly by the Pope of the Sun. I hadn’t noticed her because her appearance had changed significantly from my memory.
‘Why has the Inquisitor come all the way here?’
Although I recognized the blonde woman’s identity, I still couldn’t fathom why she was here.
While it was possible to encounter battle priests from the Holy Kingdom while wandering around the Empire, the Inquisitor, like the two Popes, had never crossed the borders of the Holy Kingdom.
Something felt off.
“I am Stella, the Inquisitor directly appointed by the Pope of the Sun. And you are heretics who worship demons.”
Thunder!
Stella punctuated her words by planting the flail vertically. Even though she seemed to have just set it down, the heavy weight was buried halfway into the ground.
She glanced around. If the Inquisitor from the Pope of the Sun was present, perhaps the Inquisitor from the Pope of the Moon could also be here. Just because one had come, didn’t mean the other wouldn’t.
In Brightest Darkness 4’s combat mechanics, the difficulty increases exponentially when the number of enemies fighting simultaneously rises, making it daunting to face two bosses at once, even for me.
“Do you think you can unleash the demon that the priests of the Holy Kingdom have sealed with their lives, and expect no punishment?”
At the mention of the demon, we flinched collectively. Of course, the knight commanders were fully aware of my plans to kill the lord.
Putting everything aside, it was true that we were associated with demons.
That did not mean we worshipped the demon or intended to bring it into the world, but such trivialities didn’t seem to matter to the Inquisitor.
“We will not deny that we have had associations with demons. However, we have never engaged in acts worthy of being branded as heretics by the Holy Kingdom. In fact, we are close to being victims ourselves. That was confirmed by His Majesty the Emperor. Please lower your weapons.”
Erica attempted to calmly persuade Stella, showing that she had no intention of fighting by pointing her sword towards the ground.
We had to treat Claudia quickly, so there was no time to waste on fights here, and avoiding conflict with the Holy Kingdom was the best option.
Although we had been dragged as far as the Empire’s outskirts, the Silver Dawn Knights were still serving the Emperor. If things went wrong, it could escalate into a diplomatic issue.
But all was in vain. Stella beamed at us and lifted the weight of her flail toward us.
“You seem to be greatly mistaken. It is not the heretics who are to judge the existence of sin.”
Footsteps surrounded us. Startled, Erica raised her sword again. Women in nun outfits similar to Stella’s, but with slightly less exposure, were surrounding us.
Though I lacked the instinct to notice, and Claudia was under the effects of poisoning, it was puzzling how they had managed to surround us without even Lize and Erica noticing.
Thud, this time, the flail pointed at me.
“The price for unleashing the demon’s seal can only be judged by the divine.”
“…Ah, so you’re saying you intend to kill us all?”
“If there is a sin, you will die; if there is none, you will live. If you truly are not involved with demons, then the divine will save you. But…”
Her eyelids, framed by green eyes, arched like a crescent moon.
“Will you truly be able to escape?”
“Why do you think we can’t?”
The atmosphere between Lize and Stella turned tense, as if they were about to charge at each other at any moment.
“Inquisitor, it seems you are very much mistaken. If we had truly done so, the Emperor would have already sentenced us to death—?”
A burst of white light erupted from Stella’s hand. Lize and Erica shielded their eyes simultaneously. Only I, who knew what that white light was, quickly dove to the side to evade it.
Seeing me dodge the light, Stella’s smile became even more menacing.
I understood her misunderstanding. Since I avoided the divine light, she must have concluded that I was indeed a demon worshipper. A normal person would have just covered their eyes.
‘If I get caught by that, a status ailment is guaranteed; what am I supposed to do now?’
Winning against the battle nuns while carrying the status ailment caused by a divine attack was impossible. If we had time, I would have warned the other two, but unfortunately, time was short.
I aimed my blood-stained sword and calmly surveyed my surroundings. There were a total of twelve battle nuns. It wasn’t a number I couldn’t possibly defeat unless they surrounded us.
The difficulty was in not getting surrounded.
“Alright. Let’s see how this goes!”
Lize, encased in ice, was the first to charge at Stella. Since the Inquisitor was convinced we were demon worshippers, a battle was inevitable. It would be either their deaths or ours; one of us wouldn’t leave alive.
That was the nature of Inquisitors.
Erica seemed to have given up on persuasion and was tightly gripping her weapon beside me, ready to defend. It appeared she had realized their only option was to fight.
Lize quickly closed the distance, her blade aimed accurately at Stella’s throat. It was a clean attack without any unnecessary movements.
However, the problem was that Lize was affected by the white light moments ago. Before I could stop her, the dagger plunged into Stella’s neck.
Thrust!
“This won’t kill me, you know?”
Well, it was supposed to plunge.
Despite being directly hit by Lize’s attack, Stella didn’t even flinch, standing right there.
Thanks to the existence of HP, a single attack wouldn’t result in fatal injuries, but it was a different matter entirely. It was closer to having received almost no damage at all.
Seeing Stella unscathed, Lize immediately followed up with another attack. This time, it was directed at her right eye. The dagger in Lize’s left hand plunged toward Stella’s right eye.
“Didn’t I mention that?”
“……!”
However, despite the dagger being aimed at her eye, Stella’s expression remained unfazed. Instead, perhaps she had exerted too much force, Lize’s arm trembled visibly from the effort.
“You can’t kill me with such tactics.”
The blue-glinted blade was lodged against Stella’s eye.
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