The Priestess of the Evil God, Part II
Renatus's screams sounded deeply surreal to Seraphina.
Twelve. That was the age she had entered the convent. Though it was quite late compared to her peers, who had been groomed as priests of Order from birth, her five years of convent life had been anything but short. Despite the cloistered nature of her life there, she had seen plenty. She understood the clergy she lived with. The same went for Renatus. They had never shared a deep, personal conversation—the vast gulf between a Cardinal and a novice priestess made sure of that. Yet, as godfather and goddaughter, a certain understanding had existed between them.
She had heard the rumors whispered by her peers. Most portrayed Renatus as a weathered, cynical cleric—a man who had weathered every storm of the world yet held fast to his faith in Order. A blind fanatic who practiced his beliefs while utterly ignoring the politics and power struggles within the Holy Order. The Renatus Seraphina had pictured in her mind was exactly that: a stubborn old man. A self-righteous maverick. Though she despised him, she had to respect the old man's unyielding resolve.
Which was precisely why this was so jarring.
"I saw it, I saw it! I saw Him! He is watching us! Whispering with bleeding lips... It is time to pay for our sins, child. The blood price of a betrayal committed long ago has finally come due...!!!"
The girl could hardly believe this screaming wreck was truly Renatus. She had rarely even heard him raise his voice, let alone shriek like this. Yet here he was, howling in agony like a senile old man trapped in a waking nightmare. Seraphina could not make sense of it.
Why? How did he end up like this? What on earth did he do—
She questioned herself. As she pondered, a memory resurfaced—a fleeting remark she had overlooked in her dazed state. Just before he had left her, the Cardinal had said:
"Keep her alive for now. She was once a priestess who served a Constellation, so I must speak to her master to ensure there are no loose ends."
Leaving only those words, Renatus had vanished into the ruins of the city. The next day, Seraphina had found his corpse, half-devoured by monsters. What had Renatus done in the hours between? What had he attempted before meeting his gruesome end?
As the priestess of the Evil God, Seraphina realized the answer almost instantly.
He tried to commune with Him... and he saw it.
That chilling, silvery gaze. That inorganic, surreal presence that belonged to nothing living.
What kind of crushing pressure had the old man felt in that moment? Undoubtedly, it must have been far worse than what Seraphina had experienced. Though Renatus lacked her raw talent, his decades of religious experience far surpassed hers. He would have established a much deeper communion... and perhaps, he had even 'understood' a fraction of what the owner of that gaze truly was.
...And his mind couldn't bear it.
Even encountering a beast-kin Constellation could warp a human priest's personality, as they became stained by the deity's primal instincts. They were helplessly dyed by that massive presence. If a mere Constellation could do that, what of an Evil God from another world? It wouldn't just be a splash of ink on paper; it would be setting the paper ablaze. Renatus had likely acted under the assumption that the grace of Order would protect him, but the moment he peeled back the veil, he had found nothing but absolute despair.
If that's what happened... then yes. It makes perfect sense that he lost his mind.
She understood the situation. Her thoughts moved to the next logical step: how to resolve it.
"Ah, the One who opened the dawn has been shattered! The creations trampled their Creator, ushering in an age of humiliation and persecution! It is time to return! Just as He was betrayed by three disciples, three precursors shall guide Him...!!!"
As Renatus continued his mad ravings, Seraphina's dilemma deepened. How was she supposed to communicate with a man driven mad by a presence he could not comprehend? How could she reach a brain that had practically short-circuited under the weight of an overwhelming existence? Since he had lost his mind to the Evil God, he wouldn't react to anything unless it possessed a similar level of shock value—
"...Ah."
As she traced her thoughts, Seraphina realized she had the perfect tool for the job.
The AK-47. The gift bestowed upon her by the Evil God. Wouldn't this serve as an excellent tool for negotiation? She decided to give it a try. She had brought plenty of catalysts; she could easily afford a few test runs. Seraphina aimed the Thunder Staff at her godfather's head.
Bang!
Thunder roared. His head shattered, spraying fragments of flesh across the velvet-colored meat lining the dungeon floor, adding a brief warmth to the cold stone. Then, he began to regenerate. Though the low mana density made the process sluggish, the important thing was that he did regenerate.
"He—"
Bang!
"—will seek—"
Bang!
"—Aaaagh—"
Bang! Bang!
The thunderclaps echoed in rapid succession. By the time she had nearly exhausted a full magazine of catalysts, Seraphina asked quietly,
"...Well? Are you awake now?"
"..."
Renatus did not answer. He stopped his mad praise of the Evil God and simply stared blankly at Seraphina's face. His expression was a mix of bewilderment and a strange, faint sense of relief. That alone was answer enough.
Keeping the Thunder Staff leveled at him, Seraphina asked,
"Tell me everything you know about Cardinal Ods's trial."
"...Seraphina. How are you here—"
Bang!
She cut off all useless chatter. She was dealing with a Cardinal who had survived decades of church politics. If she let him speak freely, she might find her own resolve wavering. She had to eliminate that risk. If his answer did not address her question, she fired. Just because he could regenerate did not mean it did not hurt. Sure enough, an agonizing grimace began to warp the Cardinal's face.
Grit.
Seraphina clenched her teeth, steeling her heart with the memory of Ods. She stared down at the grimacing old man and demanded once more,
"...Tell me how Cardinal Ods was branded a heretic, and what exactly this Council is!"
"...Seraphina. It is too dangerous. If you meddle with them—"
Bang!
After a few more rounds of this, Renatus finally gave up his resistance. His eyes flickered toward the Thunder Staff. Whatever thoughts the sight of this divine gift from the Evil God provoked in him, he began to answer her questions submissively.
"...The Consilium Ordinis. To those in the know, it is called the Council—a secret faction within the Order of Order."
"A secret faction? Not a sect?"
"A faction. Because the doctrines they espouse could never be officially recognized by the church."
"...What did they claim?"
"They argued that since the Constellation of Order has fallen silent after the Gate Incident, the Cardinals must take the reins and lead the Holy Order themselves. They declared this openly at a general assembly of Cardinals."
"..."
Renatus's calm explanation was more than enough to shock Seraphina. Though she tried to maintain her composure, a flicker of sheer disbelief crossed her face. And with good reason. For humans to dare lead the church of a Constellation... it was an arrogance that transcended mere blasphemy. It was an unthinkable sacrilege. It was a claim that should have immediately branded them as heretics. Why on earth did the other Cardinals of Order tolerate such madness? A burning question flared within her. Her expression shifted, and her godfather, who had raised her for five years, instantly read her thoughts.
"...Sigh. They possess a certain Sacred Relic."
"A relic?"
"An artifact that amplifies the divine authority bestowed upon the Cardinals. Among themselves, they treat it as a holy relic, calling it the 'Will of Order'... though it has yet to be officially canonized."
Renatus explained in a low voice. Only then did Seraphina grasp the hidden context.
Immediately after the outbreak of the Gate Incident, the three chief deities had vanished. Though their divine authority and holy magic still functioned, the revelations and prophecies that once guided humanity abruptly ceased. The sudden disappearance of the three primordial Constellations plunged the world into chaos. Clashes between Constellations erupted, and the Demon Kings declared war. The turmoil that began then had yet to find an end. In such a suffocating era, if someone discovered an unprecedented artifact capable of amplifying the authority of Order...
...It's entirely plausible that someone would claim it as a legacy of Order, and that others would eagerly believe them.
Yet, such a convenient narrative could not possibly have swayed everyone. Even if a torch appeared before a flock that had lost the sun, not everyone would accept it as a substitute for the true light. There must have been those who opposed it... and one woman in particular, whom Seraphina knew well, would never have tolerated such a compromise.
"So that's why. That's why they branded Cardinal Ods a heretic."
"Indeed. That foolish child, Ods... she opposed them. Far too fiercely."
The mentor Seraphina knew was a woman who would sooner break than bend. A steadfast soul who would violate the very tenets of Order if she believed it was the right thing to do. Such a woman would never have remained silent in the face of the Council's arrogant declarations. She would have spoken out, painted a target on her back, had her weaknesses exposed... and Seraphina's own incident had provided them with the perfect leverage.
Grit.
The girl ground her teeth as a fresh wave of fury surged within her. She had found them. The targets of her vengeance. The ones upon whom she would pour this boiling, blood-red wrath. Thinking of her beloved mentor, Seraphina pressed further.
"...Who belongs to the Council? Who leads them?"
"Sigh... Child. Do you truly need to know?"
Bang!
Renatus hesitated. Was he trying to spin another web of sophistry? Seraphina fired without hesitation, keeping her guard up.
But this time, Renatus reacted differently. Unlike before, when he would quickly capitulate after having his head blown apart once or twice, he cried out desperately even as his flesh knit back together.
"...Listen to me, Seraphina! This might be the last thing I can ever say to you!"
This unprecedented reaction gave Seraphina pause. The old man's earnest plea carried a weight that made her finger hesitate on the trigger. Seizing the brief reprieve, the aging cleric shouted to his goddaughter:
"If I, of all people, speak her name, she will know. She will cast her gaze upon this place. I will do everything in my power to shield us, but... I cannot guarantee it will work. Once the name is spoken, there will be no turning back."
"..."
"So answer me, Seraphina, my child."
"..."
"Must you truly go this far? Will you only be satisfied once you have burned your entire life to ashes for Ods's revenge? Is a peaceful, stable future within the embrace of Order truly a path you cannot accept?"
Renatus's question was nothing short of a plea. His voice trembled, carrying a distorted yet genuine affection in every syllable—an affection that had only ever been expressed in the worst possible ways. It warmed the girl's cold heart, if only for a fleeting second.
Seraphina thought to herself: If only I had heard these words a little sooner. If only, instead of blindly locking me away in the church's dungeons, he had tried to persuade me like this. Perhaps things might have been slightly different.
But it was a plea that came far too late to change the Seraphina of today.
"...I cannot burn my life away. It already belongs to someone else. I am simply... doing what I must, for as long as I can."
Seraphina spoke with absolute sincerity. Though her words sounded bizarre, Renatus understood them perfectly. Having had his head pierced repeatedly by the Evil God's gift, and having gazed directly into the Evil God's eyes, the old Cardinal understood her words with a painful, bone-deep clarity. He understood them so deeply that he could no longer offer any rebuttal.
"...I see. Is that so?"
A flurry of emotions crossed the old man's dark eyes—regret, anger, sorrow, frustration. And finally, a brief, fleeting remorse. Even Renatus himself could not quite tell which of his past decisions that remorse was for. The aging cleric simply continued in a quiet voice:
"The Council always conveys its will through a representative. They did so at the general assembly as well. The representative who revealed her presence then was 'A'."
"'A'? Who... Wait, don't tell me—"
"—Yes. 'A'. Aurelia Vensar. The First Cardinal of Order."
"..."
"The oldest devotee of Order, and the godmother of the current Pope... She is the Chairperson of the Consilium Ordinis."
The very instant Renatus uttered that name—
Screeeeech—
With a bizarre, piercing shriek, the very fabric of space began to tear open.