Holy Crusade 1

My chatty friends who loved tidying things up had posted a summary of the situation on the boards. Apparently I wasn’t the only one who felt this quest’s order had gotten twisted because of me.

Among the constantly updating comments under the highly recommended concept post, the last one caught my eye. At any rate, the Holy Crusade had opened according to the storyline, so did it really matter? I found myself nodding. If I’d stubbornly insisted on solving everything alone and forced the issue, the entire massive event called the Holy Crusade might have vanished completely.

Still, looking only at the results, the declaration had been pulled forward by a huge margin, so it had to count as a net gain. Originally the Temple would probably have stepped in only after the 34th and 36th floors had taken damage and the situation became clear. With the golems the quest had tangled; with the vines it had simply been compressed.

“Hey, what’s this about a Holy Crusade?”

“It’s no joke! Inside the Tower some vicious monster showed up and started picking off only the priests.”

From a player’s gamer perspective it felt roughly like that, but outside the guild the NPCs were already in an uproar in real time. Adventurers and mages, of course, and even the merchants working nearby were all jumping out of their skins.

Of course they were. This was a world where the Goddess actually existed. She never appeared openly before the public, yet through Holy Power, oracles, and revelations she had already proven her presence. In a place like that, the weight carried by the words “Holy Crusade” was far heavier than most people imagined.

Nothing had actually happened inside the city itself, so the citizens were confused for that reason as well. City folk had no way of knowing what went on inside the Tower. One thing was certain, though: the Temple had well and truly lost its mind.

“Look over there—Temple knights…”

“Are they coming in from outside the city too?”

The moment the news reached them, the Temple declared a Holy Crusade without the slightest hesitation. We had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠left the Tower a little after lunch; the declaration came before evening even arrived. Feeling that speed as abnormally fast was only natural.

It looked as if someone high up inside the Temple had simply forced it through without any meeting at all. That Saintess who had only given us her voice earlier, most likely. That was why priests, nuns, and Temple knights were pouring in from outside the city in a seething mass.

They didn’t seem to have thrown the name “Holy Crusade” around lightly; they were gathering every last person who had been outside for any reason. Nuns who had gone to remote villages for healing service, knights who had been combing the mountains hunting bandits—every last one of them was being recalled.

Even sitting at a guild table, the noise outside was so loud the news kept sliding straight into our ears. White-armored groups entering the city, nuns arriving in clusters and the gate guards simply opening the way for them without inspection, and so on.

“If a Holy Crusade’s been declared, what do we do?”

“Probably head out with the Temple knights and take care of that giant tree.”

“We’ll have to wait until Irene gets back before anything moves.”

Whether they had some holy method of calling people back or not, the sight of them flooding into the city ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in that short time was almost monstrous. From late lunch to early evening—barely a few hours—the Temple’s forces had gathered so openly that every citizen in the neighborhood already knew.

In the middle of that chaos we simply held our seats. Irene had gone to the Temple and still hadn’t returned to the guild even after the declaration. They would probably try to involve us in the Holy Crusade under the guise of some request or other.

We hadn’t really used anything up on the 35th floor, so there was nothing particular to prepare; the party simply sat at the table at their leisure. A bit of the food in Han Se-ah’s inventory had been used, but not enough that we needed to rush out and restock.

“Everyone, you’re still here.”

“Sister!”

In the middle of that quiet waiting, Irene finally returned to the guild—greeted by the enthusiastic chat of viewers who had grown thoroughly tired of waiting.

From late lunch to early evening—roughly three long hours—Han Se-ah’s viewers had waited for Irene without ever cutting the stream. The reason they endured the boredom in silence was simple.

The two words “Holy Crusade” carried expectation and pure hype.

People in pure-white priest and nun robes marched toward the Tower gate in neat ranks like soldiers. Thinking of the drab gray habits they usually wore when Irene and I visited the Temple made the current colors feel overwhelmingly grand.

A huge symbol of the Goddess’s faith rose high into the air, held aloft by a nun dressed head to toe in white who used a long silver staff as its pole. Beside her, priests in pure-white monastic robes richly embroidered with golden thread carried scripture in one hand and a small scepter in the other, chanting the Lord’s Prayer like a military march as they kept perfect step.

“Ah, O Goddess.”

“May Her grace be with us…”

Citizens watching that spotless, dazzling, magnificent sight instinctively bowed their heads. It was a mixture of fear and respect for a group that possessed superhuman power of a completely different order from knights or adventurers.

“This is getting insanely heavy…”

“Even when our family went out on a full inspection it was never this intense.”

Because of that, the shoulders of the party following behind the Temple knights toward the Tower shrank a little. The viewers were half-mad with excitement, declaring Holy Crusades and even pulling out Hitler speeches that had nothing to do with anything, but that frenzy had nothing to do with the NPCs inside the game.

Under the flood of citizen stares, Grace from a rural village and Katie the noble young lady both shrank equally. Only after they entered the gate and transferred to the 30th floor did the party finally let out long breaths as if they could breathe again.

“So, Sister Irene? What are we supposed to do once we move with the Temple? Guide them to that giant tree after all?”

“For now…? I didn’t hear the exact details either—only a request to come along…”

Inside the gate the oppressive citizen gazes were gone, replaced by people building a forward base. Apparently the Temple had no intention of handling everything with only its own priests and nuns; in that short time they had crammed cooperative helpers into the gate as well.

Masons and carpenters brought in through Temple connections had already begun serious construction using the supplies that arrived ahead of the priests. Without even thinking of heading to a safe zone, the open space of the 30th-floor cave was being remodeled in an instant.

“Where should we go… Should we head up to the 34th floor early?”

“There you are, Sir Roland!”

While I was wondering what to do in ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the middle of that chaos, a voice rang in my ear. The camera that had been sweeping across the construction frenzy snapped back toward my shoulder. The speaker was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a Temple knight whose voice I was hearing for the first time.

Somehow he had managed to find me through the crowded mess of building materials rushing back and forth and laborers shouting as they built not a tent village but a proper base.

“Sir Roland, Sister Irene, and the sisters accompanying you—would you be willing to accept our invitation for a moment?”

“Of course.”

I nodded without hesitation at the polite invitation. There was no reason to refuse in this situation, and returning to the Tower together with the Temple forces seemed to have updated Han Se-ah’s quest window.

Just as the speculative post on the boards had guessed, this time the story hadn’t tangled—it had cleanly skipped several steps.

Against the orcs on the 20th floor, upper-grade adventurers had delivered pure hype; against the tree on the 35th floor, the Temple would deliver it under the name of a Holy Crusade. That expectation filled the chat window.

“Please head inside.”

“Thank you for the guidance, Brother.”

“Only what I ought to do, Sister. May the Goddess’s grace fill the path ahead of you.”

Glancing at the chat while following the Temple knight, I soon saw a pure-white little temple already standing grandly, as if magic had been used to throw it up. A miniature cathedral built of stone rather than wood, sitting inside the Tower—the sense of dissonance was intense.