Creature Abandoned by God – 2

Why is a Cleric called a late bloomer type?

That was because ‘Faith,’ a concept equivalent to magic’s ‘mana’ consumed when casting divine spells, utilized a very unique system.

The only way to replenish Faith was through natural recovery. While both Health and Mana could be replenished with potions, potions to restore Faith did not exist in B-Dark 4.

Its recovery speed was proportional to the Faith stat and the Divinity stat. The higher the Faith and Divinity, the faster the natural recovery speed.

When both stats reached their cap of 99, the recovery speed became so immense that it was practically impossible to deplete Faith through normal means.

There was absolutely no chance of struggling due to resource depletion during combat. Health could also be restored with divine spells, and the Faith used for Health recovery would immediately replenish.

Due to this unique system, high-level Faith characters became complete characters whose spellcasting count was virtually infinite, the variety of divine spells they could use was vast, and their damage output was superb, making them a complete character.

Low-level Faith characters were the exact opposite. Just a couple of divine spells would bring on an exhaustion period, they had only a few spells they could use, and their damage was nothing special.

This was precisely why Clerics were called late bloomers.

-This annoying bastard!

It was also the reason I had to wait a long time to reuse Eclipse.

Its tail swept the floor. I rolled to avoid it, approached its front, and swung my blood-stained sword at its calf. I heard sounds like hitting a log, ‘thump, thump!’

The Blessing Enchant from Eclipse had long since disappeared. Now was the time to trade blows appropriately while waiting for Faith to accumulate.

Since I had invested 10 points into Divinity for increased buff duration, natural recovery itself was possible. Though the speed was far too slow to cast enchants precisely on time.

I glanced up. Its second right hand was moving. An attack starting with a flail. The counter-measures flowed through my mind.

I rolled to avoid the flail slamming down vertically and turned my gaze to its left hand, not the weight stuck in the ground. The arm holding the blunt weapon was fully extended sideways. It was a horizontal swing.

As soon as the flail was lifted, the blunt weapon came flying. I swung my blood-stained sword and parried the blunt weapon. Thwack! My body was pushed back quite a distance. Naturally, its next attack sliced through empty air.

As if combat fatigue had reached its maximum, my limbs felt heavy. I lightly stretched my tingling hands and alleviated the combat fatigue. My sluggish limbs regained their condition.

‘Rolling must always come first. It’s impossible to roll after parrying.’

With my current stats, the moment I parried even one of its attacks, the combat fatigue gauge would fill completely, so I couldn’t roll to avoid the next attack after parrying.

If I mixed up the order even once, it would be over.

-Flitting about, how annoying. Stop it and die.

“You weren’t this talkative before, were you? Why are you chattering so much?”

It snorted and snapped irritably. I retorted without backing down.

Most bosses, with a few exceptions, only spoke once in a cutscene, once to signify a phase change, and once as a dying word when they died; that was all their dialogue.

The Creature Abandoned by God was no different, yet the one currently before my eyes was incredibly talkative. It had been constantly expressing its irritation since earlier, telling me to stop dodging and just die.

Whether it was a grand scheme to distract me by constantly talking, or if its personality had changed, was unclear.

-Originally? Do you speak knowing what I originally was?

Thud! The axe slammed into the ground right next to me. I, who dodged it by a hair’s breadth with just a slight movement of my foot, swung my sword and replied.

“Of course I know. You’re a monster banished by God for being ugly, aren’t you? In human society, they call that an orphan, I wonder if you knew that.”

Indeed, one of the nicknames players used for the Creature Abandoned by God was ‘orphan bitch,’ ‘orphan bastard.’ Posts screaming ‘How do you even clear this orphan bastard?’ flooded the community.

Its original name was awkward to shorten and too long to just call out, and its nickname was so fitting that it was called by its nickname much more often than its actual name.

-You bastard!

As I widened the distance again, it hurled the flail in its right hand straight at me. I rolled to avoid it. The flail plunged into the abyss, creating a magnificent shockwave.

The flail stuck in the abyss disappeared as if melting into the ground. Instead, shadows floating aimlessly in the air gathered in its right hand, forming a weapon once more.

“It’s not exactly wrong, is it?”

If my blood-stained sword had been enchanted with Blessing, that would have been a thrilling free damage window, but unfortunately, it wasn’t, so I leisurely widened the distance and waited for its next attack.

The reason I could afford to banter and tease it like this was because the return was far too small compared to the risk if I forced myself to stick close and attack now.

I couldn’t risk it just to shave off 20 or 30 Health. It was much better to maintain distance and bait out easily avoidable patterns.

After using Eclipse, of course, to hell with risk, I’d have to beat it to death.

It lifted one foot in place. As soon as I saw that, I prepared to roll to my right. The moment its foot slammed down with a thud, a massive tentacle shot up from my left.

The rising tentacle, with a ‘crunch’ sound, crushed the spot where I had been standing. Of course, I had already rolled away some distance.

In vanilla, it was a pattern that could be dodged even by walking if the timing was right, but in Dark-La Mode, doing so would instantly turn you into a flat pancake.

-Crunch! Crunch!

And it would fly up two more times.

‘Quite some time seems to have passed, but why is there no reaction?’

I fiddled with the catalyst tied to my waist. Still no reaction. The speed at which Faith replenished was much slower than expected.

‘At this rate, it might really take over four hours to defeat it-huh?’

Just as I was about to readjust the estimated clear time in my mind, a sudden sense of incongruity ran through my entire body. I looked down at the Divine Catalyst again. A faint golden light was seeping out of the catalyst.

It meant that my Divinity had fully replenished again.

‘…What?’

“Look at that, Inquisitor.”

Stella stopped pacing near the building and pointed somewhere. Leaning against the wall, sitting with her knees drawn up and hugged, the purple pupils that had been staring blankly into space slowly turned.

The tip of her slender finger pointed to the building that led to the Holy Kingdom’s underground, which was also a barrier.

“…The divine power, is it growing stronger?”

Selene instinctively understood what Stella was trying to say: that the barrier surrounding the building was gradually strengthening.

This barrier had been maintained ever since the Holy Kingdom first recognized the monster’s existence. For it to suddenly change was a sign that something was happening inside.

However, never once in all the past years had they experienced the barrier strengthening. Even in the Holy Kingdom’s archives, while there were records of the barrier weakening, there were no records of it strengthening.

In a situation they were experiencing for the first time in their lives, not only Stella but even Selene looked at each other’s faces and the building alternately with bewildered eyes.

“How long has it been since Honored Guest-nim entered there?”

“Thirty minutes and seventeen seconds.”

“…Were you counting down to the second? How persistent. Anyway, Honored Guest-nim is clearly accomplishing something against that monster. Otherwise, something like this wouldn’t be happening.”

“I agree, Inquisitor.”

Stella had personally experienced how powerful the monster sleeping inside was.

The moment I laid eyes on the abyss contained within, I felt my limbs stiffen. Not out of fear or terror, but by some power that transcended human ability itself.

If the Popes hadn’t enveloped me in divine power, I would surely have been dragged into the depths of the abyss without even being able to properly resist.

As an Inquisitor, I had slain countless heretics and faced more demons than I could count on two hands, but it was the first time I had felt so powerless as I did then.

Yet, someone was fiercely fighting against such a being. Now that I thought about it, it might have been natural that Stella herself couldn’t win in the sparring match.

“So you were here after all, Inquisitor-isiyeo.”

“…Your Holiness the Pope.”

As a powerful divine force was felt from behind, a benevolent and merciful voice was heard. Only two beings in the Holy Kingdom could wield more powerful Divinity than Stella.

Stella turned her head. Selene had already knelt on one knee on the ground and bowed her head deeply in respect.

“Raise your head, Inquisitor-isiyeo. That much of a greeting is sufficient.”

“How could I dare to do so to Your Holiness the Pope? I humbly implore you, please do not mind someone like me.”

Selene only rose after bowing her head for nearly ten seconds. Compared to Stella, who had merely inclined her head slightly, it was a world of difference.

The Pope of the Sun approached the barrier. An arm, enveloped in a flowing sheer fabric, was extended forward. Tap, a slender finger touched the surface of the barrier. Floretta gently stroked its surface.

“Has Your Holiness the Pope also detected an anomaly?”

“Yes, that’s right. The maintenance of the barrier is solely our responsibility, so how could we not notice? Not only I, but the Pope of the Moon must have noticed as well. No, in fact, she would be feeling it far more sensitively than I.”

“If that is the case, then the Pope of the Moon…?”

At Selene’s question, Floretta chuckled softly and glanced slightly to the side. At that, something that had been there startled and vanished. The distorted space returned to normal.

A stealth so profound it could deceive even the senses of the Inquisitors, a skill so exceptional it could freely distort space. It was obvious whose gaze that was.

She was probably observing this place even before Floretta, as soon as the barrier strengthened. Her past behavior towards others must have held her back, preventing her from coming down directly.

But Floretta knew that even her abusive language and insults were forced. They were actions she took deliberately to be hated, fearing that others would grieve if she sacrificed herself.

So that those left behind would grieve a little less. She seemed to have tried her best to act wickedly, but there was no way Floretta wouldn’t have discerned her true intentions.

So, Floretta decided to willingly pretend not to know this time as well.

“That is something I also cannot know.”

As she gave that answer, she felt the space that had just returned to normal subtly distorting again. The smile on Floretta’s face brightened even more.

“…Well, it can’t be helped. The Pope of the Moon won’t open her heart easily, after all.”

It seems about half-open already, though.

Floretta chuckled to herself as she listened to Stella’s reply. The Pope of the Moon, her sister, must be fidgeting while watching this place even now.

For the Popes, revelation was an absolute power and truth to that extent.

Just as Floretta wept profusely as soon as she heard the interpretation of the revelation and realized that salvation was imminent, the Pope of the Moon, regardless of her outward appearance, was clearly placing her last hope in that rookie knight within her heart.

If she truly didn’t believe in the revelation, there’s no way she would be watching this place like that, is there? Thinking of her sister, who must be peeking her head out from inside the Grand Cathedral and watching this place, the corners of her mouth naturally curled upwards.

“I will also wait here, Inquisitor-isiyeo.”

“Oh… Really? Will you be alright?”

“What reason would there be for me not to be alright?”

Floretta, showing Stella a benevolent smile, clasped her hands together before the door and offered a prayer. Hoping that her prayer could be of even a little help to that Savior.

The silver-gray figure, secretly watching that scene, also quietly clasped her hands together.