Heresy Judgment – 1

The opportunity came quickly. It hadn’t even been three days since she started walking wherever her feet took her, when Stella was able to confirm with her own eyes the existence of the heretics she had so longed for.

‘As expected, God has guided me.’

Stella saw a group of people in the distance, talking with serious expressions, and she smiled a pure smile. It was a truly innocent and kind-looking smile.

Though the truth behind it was entirely different.

Even from this distance, the scent of a demon mixed with the wind reached her, and her laughter, overflowing with the thought of torturing heretics and unable to contain her joy, spilled out.

There was no doubt. One man was mixed among three women. It was clear that he was the one who had unsealed the demon.

‘But, that’s strange…….’

Her green eyes surveyed the heretics.

The blue-haired woman and the red-haired woman wore serious expressions, and the pink-haired woman leaned weakly against a tree, slumped over. All of them were familiar faces.

They were the Captains of the Silver Dawn Knights, known as the Empire’s elite knight order protecting the Imperial Palace. Stella was certain her eyes weren’t mistaken.

But why would such people be accompanying a demon worshipper?

It wasn’t coercion, nor were they deceived. Those women were acting alongside the demon worshipper entirely of their own will. And they were showing considerable familiarity.

‘I’ll need to confirm.’

Even if that woman, Kaikilia, has a rather bitchy personality, she would never be the type to summon a demon, so I’ll let that slide. But her subordinates are different.

Perhaps acts of heresy by demon worshippers were secretly taking place in a location beyond Kaikilia’s sight.

I’ll have to request an investigation from the Inquisitor later. Thinking that, Stella made the smile on her face even more innocent, and then walked towards the heretics who had already noticed her presence.

“It seems you need help?”

‘……Who is it?’

I raised my guard to the highest level. I had never experienced an event where someone came to find the player right after the Arachnainera boss fight. So, for me, what would happen next was an unknown territory.

Hoping it might help me figure out her identity, I carefully observed the woman.

Her golden hair, with a slight wave, gracefully curved around her collarbones and shoulders. Her bangs also covered her eyebrows and eyes. Through those bangs, small green eyes shone.

But what caught my eye more than anything was her highly revealing nun’s habit.

A semicircular white cloth covered her shoulders, and a triangular chest covering descending from that semicircular cloth barely covered her breasts, which were as large as her head.

Naturally, there were no straps or clothing to secure it. It looked as if her breasts would be fully exposed if even a slight breeze blew from the side. Her underboob and sideboob were practically on full display.

The clothing on her sides was cut almost up to her sternum, revealing bare skin. There was literally nothing where the side slits were. Not even a strap that looked like underwear was present.

The only clothing covering the woman’s private parts was the long, flowing hem of her nun’s habit, and a buckle tightly cinched below her chest, further emphasizing her already enormous breasts.

Her thighs were encased in black fishnet stockings, and her feet wore high heels.

‘……She seems like an NPC from the Holy Kingdom, but I don’t know anything beyond that.’

I thought the nun NPCs from the Holy Kingdom, who changed from priests to nuns when the appearance modification mod was applied, might have dressed like that. But it was so long ago that my memory was hazy.

At the very least, the nun NPCs I knew didn’t have such outrageously revealing clothes. At least their original form was recognizable as a nun’s habit at a glance.

Besides, why would priests from the Holy Kingdom appear in front of the Arachnainera boss room? What business would they have here?

“Help? Us?”

Rije showed an even sharper aura. If the woman made any false move, Rije looked ready to clash weapons with her right then and there. Erica’s atmosphere was also quite chilling.

“Yes. Of course. The person behind you seems to be in quite a critical condition, don’t they?”

The blonde woman pointed at Claudia with her finger. Seeing that gesture, Rije flared up and retorted.

“Don’t you dare point your finger at Claudia. I’m warning you.”

“Warning? A warning? Did you just say you’re warning me? Pfft, Puhut, Puhahahahaha!”

Instantly, the blonde woman’s demeanor changed.

She clutched her smooth, unblemished stomach and cackled for a long time with a breathless voice, then barely managed to stop laughing, gasping as she wiped away tears from the corners of her eyes with a finger.

“Khuhuhuhup…… Ah, it’s truly been a long time since I’ve laughed this hard. A warning? To me? Ah, it’s been ages since I’ve seen such a spirited heretic.”

‘……Heretic?’

As soon as I heard those words, one NPC came to mind.

Heretic. And a nun’s habit.

“But what’s funny is funny. The rest is a separate matter.”

Stella raised her hand. As if in response, a Kwa-jijik sound of trees shattering began to be heard from somewhere. I instinctively looked towards the source of the sound, behind the woman.

The source of the sound was a flail.

A flail, with a weight at its end about the size of two human heads combined, practically a solid chunk of iron, was flying towards the blonde woman, smashing everything in its path.

The blonde woman casually caught the terrifying-looking flail flying towards her with one hand. A Tung sound echoed through the forest.

As soon as I saw that, I realized the blonde woman’s identity. There was only one person who used such a distinctive flail.

‘The Inquisitor……!’

It was clearly the Inquisitor, the leader of the Holy Kingdom’s supreme and strongest military force, directly led by the Pope of the Sun. Her appearance was so different from what I remembered that I hadn’t recognized her.

‘Why did the Inquisitor come all the way here?’

I had figured out the blonde woman’s identity, but I still had no idea why she had come all the way here.

While battle priests belonging to the Holy Kingdom might be encountered a few times wandering around the Empire, the Inquisitor, like the two Popes, absolutely never left the Holy Kingdom.

Something was strange.

“I am Stella, the Inquisitor directly under the Pope of the Sun. And you are heretics who worship demons.”

Kwaang! Stella said, setting the flail vertically. Even though she seemed to have just lightly placed it down, the weight was half-buried in the dirt.

I looked around. If there was an Inquisitor directly under the Pope of the Sun, perhaps there might also be an Inquisitor directly under the Pope of the Moon. If one came, why couldn’t two come?

Given the combat characteristics of B-Dack 4, where the difficulty increases exponentially as the number of enemies fought simultaneously grows, even I wasn’t confident in facing two bosses at once.

“How dare you release a demon into the world that the Holy Kingdom’s priests sealed with their lives, and think you wouldn’t pay the price for that sin?”

As soon as we heard the word ‘demon,’ we all flinched. Not only I, but also the Knight Captains, knew all about the plan I had devised to kill the lord.

Putting everything else aside, it was true that we had been involved with a demon.

It wasn’t that we worshipped demons or tried to bring them into the world, but such minor details didn’t seem to matter much to that Inquisitor.

“We won’t deny that we were involved with a demon. However, we have never committed any act that would warrant being branded as heretics by the Holy Kingdom. Rather, we are closer to being victims ourselves. His Imperial Majesty the Emperor personally confirmed this. Please lower your weapon.”

Erica pointed the tip of her sword towards the ground, indicating her unwillingness to fight, and calmly attempted to persuade Stella. They had no time to waste fighting in such a place, as Claudia needed to be treated as quickly as possible, and it was best to avoid a fight with the Holy Kingdom if at all possible. Although they had been dragged all the way to the Empire’s outskirts, the Silver Dawn Knights were still, in essence, servants of the Emperor. A conflict could easily escalate into a diplomatic issue.

But it was all in vain. Stella smiled brightly and raised the flail’s weight towards us.

“You seem to be greatly mistaken about something. It is not for heretics to judge whether they are guilty or innocent.”

Footsteps were heard from all directions. A startled Erica raised her sword again. Women in nun’s habits, similar to Stella’s but with slightly less revealing designs, had surrounded us.

Even if I had no particular intuition and Claudia wasn’t in her best condition due to poisoning, it was a mystery when they had managed to deceive even Rije and Erica’s senses and surround us.

Cheok, this time, the flail’s weight pointed at me.

“Only God can judge the sin of unsealing a demon.”

“……Aha. So you’re saying you’re going to kill all of us now?”

“If there is sin, you will die; if there is no sin, you will live. If you truly have no connection to demons, God will save you. But……”

Her eyelids, framing her green eyes, curved like crescent moons.

“Will you truly be able to survive?”

“Why do you think we can’t?”

The atmosphere between Rije and Stella became explosive. They looked ready to pounce on each other at any moment.

“Inquisitor-nim. It seems you are greatly mistaken about something. If we had truly done so, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor would have already punished us-?!”

White light burst forth from Stella’s hand. Rije and Erica simultaneously covered their eyes. Only I, who knew what that white light was, quickly rolled to the side to avoid it.

Seeing me avoid the light, Stella’s smile became even more chilling. I knew what misunderstanding she was making. Since I avoided the light made of divine power, she must have become convinced that I was truly a demon worshipper. A normal person would just cover their eyes.

‘If I get hit by that, a status effect is guaranteed, so what am I supposed to do?’

It’s impossible to fight and win against the battle nuns while burdened with the status effect inflicted by a divine attack. If I had had time, I would have warned the other two, but unfortunately, time was short.

Holding my blood-stained sword, I calmly surveyed my surroundings. There were a total of twelve battle nuns. It wasn’t an impossible number to defeat, as long as we weren’t completely surrounded. It was just incredibly difficult to avoid being surrounded.

“Alright. So you want to try this, huh?”

Rije, her body wreathed in ice, charged at Stella first. As long as the Inquisitor was convinced we were demon worshippers, a fight was inevitable. It was either them dying or us dying.

Because an Inquisitor is such a being.

Erica, too, seemed to have given up on persuasion. She gripped her weapon tightly with both hands and stuck close to my side, guarding our surroundings. It seemed she had realized that fighting was the only option left.

Rije closed the distance in an instant. The tip of her sword aimed precisely for Stella’s neck. It was a clean, no-frills attack.

But the problem was that Rije was afflicted with a status effect from the white light just now. Before I, who knew this, could stop Rije, her dagger plunged into Stella’s neck.

-Pwooook!

“You can’t kill me with something like this, you know?”

More precisely, it *tried* to plunge in.

Stella stood there, not even batting an eye, despite being directly hit by Rije’s attack.

Although it’s true that one attack wouldn’t inflict a fatal injury because HP exists, this was a different concept entirely. It was closer to her taking almost no damage at all.

Seeing Stella unharmed, Rije immediately followed up with her next attack. This time, it was her right eye. The dagger in her left hand plunged into Stella’s right eye.

“Didn’t I tell you?”

“……!”

However, even though the dagger was clearly piercing her eye, Stella maintained a calm expression. Rather, Rije’s arm, which had attacked, trembled, as if she had put too much force into it.

“You can’t kill me with something like this.”

The blue-tinged blade was stopped by Stella’s eyeball.