The Heavenly Sect
"Agh, ow ow ow..." I clutched my burning cheek after getting smacked by the young lady and let out a low groan. That violent young lady... She was the one who asked if I liked her, so is this really something to slap me over? "She must've been seriously scared if she's hitting me like that..."
I glanced sideways at the young lady sitting next to me. She was wearing the academy's training uniform, sitting primly as if nothing had happened. Yeah, that was just her pretending to be completely unfazed. Maybe the things I'd said earlier had done more damage than I thought. Even while the other students were sparring, her body trembled slightly.
"If anyone saw her, they'd think she actually likes me..." The thought that she might genuinely be serious about me crossed my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. Would the Violet Floyd I knew—the villainess from Starlight—fall head over heels just because someone she'd barely interacted with started treating her kindly for a single day? Of course, every single line I'd dropped today had been right up her alley...
"Even so, I'd have to keep this up for at least a month before it starts working..." I wasn't shameless enough to think she'd fall for me in just one day. When I turned to meet her eyes, she flinched and quickly looked away.
...Wait, did she actually fall for me? This reaction was new, so I wasn't sure either.
—Boom!
Just then, a massive explosion echoed from the training grounds, followed by a plume of smoke that cut off my thoughts. Huh, another match must've ended. I wonder who won this time?
The battles between named NPCs and famous characters from Starlight... It was a rare chance to see them fight in person. I'd been distracted earlier, but honestly, watching had been a feast for the eyes.
"No, it's not just the named characters..." Everyone at the academy was skilled, so just watching each person fight was entertaining in its own right. Was this what it felt like to watch a well-made cinematic from the game company? I finally understood what people meant by getting hyped—I'd experienced it to the fullest today.
Starlight didn't even have cinematics, let alone any communication with players, so I never expected something like this...
"...Come to think of it, why the hell did I even play this game?" Ugh, thinking about the developers was putting me in a bad mood, so I pushed that aside and focused on the matches. Anyway, it hadn't been obvious from just watching on a monitor, but the combat quality in this game was no joke. Everyone had different traits and abilities, and Starlight itself was full of flashy fights.
"On top of that..." Everyone who came out to spar was gorgeous. Maybe it was because it was a game, but their looks were all top-tier, and seeing them in real life felt completely different. Was this what they called eye candy? Just like how fashion is completed by the face, the real highlight of live-action cinematics was the beautiful characters...
—Smack!
"Ow!" While I was lost in thought, the young lady chopped me on the head with the side of her hand. What now?
"It looked like you were staring at that bitch's chest while she was sparring, so I hit you. Got a problem?"
I wasn't staring! And even if my eyes wandered for a second while watching the match, that happens! ...Okay, maybe it was a little big and I did glance a few times, but even if that wasn't the case, the thoughts I was having weren't exactly pure enough to say out loud to her! Still, this violent treatment was too much...
"No complaints..."
Yeah, there were complaints, but I had to endure it. I was a butler, after all, and I'd teased her plenty before coming to the training hall. I lowered my head obediently.
"Next match: Faye Nicare versus Hebriel Istarot! Please begin!"
Finally. The main event of the day—two playable characters duking it out. My heart had been pounding since the start, waiting to see this.
"Brother, I won't be holding back!"
Hebriel Istarot, the white-haired man who'd healed my nearly crippled legs, called out with a bright, cheerful smile.
"Haa..."
Faye Nicare, the fucking bastard we all knew, let out a sigh and drew the swords from the sheaths strapped all over her body.
"Whoa..."
"Is that even possible...?"
At the same time, the students' gasps filled the air. Eight swords floated into the sky, controlled by her telekinetic magic trait.
—Shhh...
The swords that had been drifting irregularly through the air soon gathered smoothly around her at the wave of her hand, orbiting like planets.
"That's fucking awesome..."
I hated to admit it, but it was. It was the kind of thing that stirred a man's soul. I'd felt something similar once before—watching a maestro conduct an entire orchestra, his calm gestures contrasting with the overwhelming presence that dominated the room, backed by experience and sheer skill. Right now, I was seeing the exact same thing from her hands.
And naturally, the thought that followed was...
"How the hell am I supposed to beat that bastard...?"
She was a regressor who made curses fly out of my mouth just by existing, but even if you could dodge swords with movement in the game, I couldn't imagine avoiding that in real life.
"...Tear her apart."
As if to confirm my thoughts, at her low mutter, the swords surged toward Hebriel.
—Thud!
Eight swords embedded themselves grotesquely into his body. Some pierced through his torso, some through his heart, some through his neck. But this was something that shouldn't happen under normal circumstances. In academy matches, a special magic prevented actual injuries—you only took damage equivalent to the attack. So an attack that "embedded" swords into vital points like this should've been impossible from the start.
"Hey... is that even allowed? What's going on?"
"Of course it's not! Shit, is he okay?"
The students who witnessed it were in an uproar, shouting among themselves. Reactions like this were pretty entertaining to watch in person—it felt like being part of the audience for a protagonist's awakening event.
"They're about to be even more shocked."
When I glanced at Faye, even that crazy bitch looked slightly taken aback.
"S-Sebastian, is he okay?"
The young lady was the same. How could you call this a "match" when someone's body had been pierced through? But Hebriel was the kind of guy who didn't follow basic common sense. Everyone was too caught up in the shocking scene and rising tension to notice, but if you looked closely, not a single drop of blood was coming from the spots where the swords had pierced him.
—Whoosh!
Just then, breaking through the students' growing anxiety, white wings resembling an angel's sprouted from Hebriel's back. He lifted his head, which had been slightly tilted back from the impact, and gave a small smile.
"Brother, that actually hurt a bit."
Then he began circulating a green energy throughout his body.
"...!"
Faye, sensing something was wrong, hurriedly tried to pull the swords out of his body, but—
—Crack!
Three swords that hadn't been removed in time were sliced clean in half and shattered by his overwhelming regeneration.
"Holy shit, that crazy bastard."
At this rate, at least three followers must've died mysteriously. Hebriel Istarot. The name of his trait was [Pope]. By borrowing the power of his believers, he gained regeneration abilities so immense they were proportional to their numbers. And the number of people on this continent who believed in the Heavenly Sect he'd founded was, at the very least, in the millions.
However, when he used this regeneration, his followers took on the wounds in his place. That's why I said three followers had died mysteriously.
"Brother. No, follower."
That alone was already insane, but his abilities didn't stop there.
"Shall we try believing in the heavens now?"
He unleashed an overwhelming beam of light that consumed the life force of his followers.
—Boom!
He fired it directly at her.
"Hiek!"
Faye let out a cute yelp that didn't match her usual shitty image and dodged the incoming pillar of light.
—Boom! Boom!
Hebriel began firing lasers in every direction like some light-wielding protagonist from another game. Faye, who had initially struggled to dodge, soon started deflecting them with her swords or—
"Hah!"
—leaping through the air to avoid them. But he didn't stop there.
—Crack!
She tore up the ground with her swords and hurled the fragments at him. Normally, those stone shards would've embedded themselves all over his body, but—
"Such attacks don't work on the Heavenly Sect's proxy."
Instead, the fragments passed straight through Hebriel's body and shattered against the ground, unable to match his speed. Faye tried to control even the smaller pieces that broke off, but juggling the swords plus all these extra fragments was clearly taking a toll on her.
"Hmm, it seems this level of light won't be enough to win."
While continuing to nullify Faye's attacks, he let out a laugh, stopped firing the beams, grabbed his right arm, and—
—Crunch!
—ripped it clean off. An arm separated from the shoulder, held by its original owner. The sight alone was grotesque, but a new arm soon sprouted from Hebriel's shoulder. That would've been bad enough, but—
"I'll try using something similar to that telekinesis myself."
He kept tearing off his arms. Right, left, it didn't matter. He continued until the number of severed arms exceeded a hundred. Just from that, at least a hundred followers must've been crippled—let's pray for the souls of those whose arms had to die mysteriously.
Faye had tried attacking him at first while he tore off his arms, but midway through, she froze in horror and couldn't even attack anymore. And then, the finishing touch.
"That crazy bastard... is he praying right now...?"
The young lady spoke to me, snapping me out of my thoughts. Yeah, that crazy bastard was praying.
"He must be a very devout friend."
I tried to crack a joke to ease the young lady's tension, but even my own hands were shaking as I watched. The bloodless arms floating around Hebriel were terrifying enough on their own, and the man praying at the center of it all was pure madness on par with the Joker.
"...Hm?"
Suddenly, I felt a warm sensation on my hand. When I turned, the young lady had her eyes squeezed shut, her hand placed firmly over mine. She must be scared. I thought about teasing her, but—
"Uwaah... I'm scared..."
Seeing her trembling like that, I felt bad about making fun of her.
—Shhh...
Finally, when he finished praying and opened his eyes, a hundred glowing arms now floated around Hebriel. He looked at Faye, the frozen students, and finally at me with a benevolent gaze, then smiled slightly and pointed at Faye with his newly regenerated arm.
"Then, for the sake of the heavens."