Academy Dungeon Conquest (5)
I had never once failed a purification strategy built around the Saintess in Soul Academy.
When it came to this sort of thing, the Saintess was, without question, a broken-tier character.
Veterans used to complain that running with a Saintess in the party took all the fun out of the game — that's why they deliberately benched her.
I knew exactly how far the untouched, base-version Saintess could push her purification. So there was no way I couldn't be baffled that Phoebe had just failed at it.
Phoebe was never supposed to stumble here of all places.
Which meant this was a variable.
A variable that didn't exist in the game.
One of the endless variables that had been tormenting me nonstop.
But maybe because everything that had tormented me so far had been so absurdly outlandish, this particular variable almost looked... cute.
Right?
All that happened this time was that I couldn't coast through on autopilot.
It wasn't like I was staring down death.
It wasn't like I was about to be royally screwed for failing a quest, either.
And my reputation wasn't ruined from some relationship spiral with an NPC.
Frankly, this was a variable the current me could handle just fine.
There was zero reason to panic.
Slapping aside the barrage of magic bolts hurtling my way with my shield, I burned the image of the dragon chanting its dragon-tongue into my memory and tossed a question to Grandpa.
'Grandpa! What do you think went wrong?'
The first thing to confirm was whether or not I could still coast. If Phoebe had simply fumbled her lines, all I'd have to do was hold out until she finished the prayer again.
<Seems her faith wavered.>
'Sorry, what?'
The single most important thing in wielding divine magic is faith.
The conviction that reciting your prayer will bring about the miracle.
That's exactly why divine magic came so easily to me.
Because I'm a person who came here from outside this world.
I knew divine magic always produced results, so doubting it never even crossed my mind.
'Phoebe doubted the miracle?'
<From the way it failed, that is how it looks.>
Phoebe had doubted the miracle. She had doubted Armadi.
She had believed she couldn't purify the dragon's lingering soul.
The weight of that realization was anything but light.
Grandpa had said it before, after all.
That Phoebe might be wavering.
When I'd heard that, I'd assumed Phoebe would naturally overcome it. She was Phoebe, after all.
In the game, no matter what crisis came crashing down on her, she never broke — she always came out the other side with a smile on her face.
But that was my own stupid miscalculation.
Phoebe was wavering.
She'd doubted herself. She'd lost the ability to believe in miracles.
Her, of all people — a genuine Saintess — reduced to this.
What on earth had been happening inside that girl's heart?
Hah. Guess my brain goes a little white when I run into something that never once happened in the game.
Think, Lucy. Think.
Blowing up that lizard currently swooping around the ceiling? Not exactly difficult. If the easy route is closed, you take the classic route. That's all.
All the gear I'd bought through Alsaetin to hunt that lizard last time is still sleeping peacefully in my inventory. Toss it every time the window opens, dump a few bursts of burst damage while it's grounded — taking it down is absolutely doable.
But... no. That won't work. Not when Phoebe is in a state where she can't even trust herself.
Imagine hunting that golem-lizard without her in a situation like this. She'd decide she was nothing but a useless parasite who contributed nothing and collected the reward anyway.
The Phoebe I know wouldn't exactly dig a hole and crawl into it out of crushed self-esteem — but wait, that's the problem! The Phoebe I know would never have failed in the first place!
So I need to rethink this.
The Phoebe standing here right now isn't the NPC I know. She's the real, flesh-and-blood Phoebe. There's no telling what's going through her head.
The best approach, then, is obvious.
Make her overcome it herself.
Hoist Phoebe back onto her feet so she can work a miracle again.
Because if Phoebe's self-esteem starts collapsing now, who knows what'll happen later — the real trials haven't even begun yet! This is way too early for her to fold!
No guarantee it'll work. Might even be harder and more exhausting than the textbook route. But it has to be done.
Well. What can I say? For a veteran like me, this is nothing.
My situation is worlds better than the time Nakrad beat me into the dirt. There's no reason to give up.
Just think of it as new content dropping.
Wow, Reality Online really does push its updates fast.
Hey, GM? I'd like to file a suggestion, if I may. Could you please make your patches a little more user-friendly? At this rate your entire player base is going to burst and die?!
Ahem. Enough of that.
Now then.
How shall we do this?
The answer to my deliberation came fast. My method has always been one and only one.
The mesugaki way.
"Scaredy-cat Saintess!♡"
I'm clumsy when it comes to comforting people.
I'm no good at instilling confidence. I have no idea how to lift someone's spirits, either.
But there is exactly one thing I'm spectacularly good at.
Making people furious.
"You failed, didn't you?!♡ Pfft♡ How fitting, for the Saintess of a pathetic loser Chief God!♡ Honestly, is there any difference between the Chief God and the Saintess?♡ I bet the doctrine of the scrub Chief God is just 'be a burden to everyone around you'!♡"
"That's not true!"
Stung by my provocation, Phoebe's voice rang out across the chamber.
Face blazing crimson, voice cracking upward — it was a Phoebe I had never seen anywhere, in any playthrough.
She might have endured insults aimed at herself. But an insult to Armadi? Not a chance.
"Not true, hmm?♡ Because from where I'm standing, it sure looks true?♡ Scrub♡ Coward♡ A burden with nothing to offer♡"
"Take it back! I may fall short, but Lord Armadi never does!"
While I weaved and blocked my way through the spells, stalling for time, the dragon shut its jaws and spread its wings once more. The pattern would resume after a short rest, no doubt.
I needed to settle this while that thing stayed quiet. I couldn't stand here bickering with Phoebe, not knowing when the next round of aggro would fly my way.
"Then prove it, hmm?♡ Prove you're not the pathetic Saintess of a pathetic Chief God♡"
The word prove made Phoebe falter.
If it can stop her mid-rant, she must really have no confidence. No wonder her prayer failed.
"Can't do it, can you?♡ No confidence at all, right?♡ That's right, isn't it?♡ What can you do — you're just a scaredy-cat Saintess♡"
"I..."
"If the Saintess is this pathetic, imagine the God♡ Must be a colossal coward♡ Probably some trash hiding in silence because it's too scared to stand before the Evil Gods, don't you think?♡"
"That's enough! Lucy Aln! Just— just let me do it!"
There it is. That's the fire.
If you don't have confidence, you manufacture it like this.
Ah — though technically this is less confidence and more spite and sheer gall?
Eh, whatever. Aren't they basically the same thing? All that matters is the result.
Turning my eyes away from Phoebe, I watched the dragon open its jaws to breathe.
So — time for the veteran's boss-toying session, then?
"Hey♡ Lizard-brain♡ No brain or eyes in that skull, huh?♡ How does a boss go this long without landing a single scratch?♡ Seriously pathetic♡ Total garbage♡ This is a boss? Even the Academy professors must be missing a few brain cells♡"
No. No — there's no way a person like that is the Apostle of Armadi!
Someone chosen by that God could never have the gall to mock Him like that!
They told me Lady Aln had improved, but it's simply not true!
She hasn't changed one bit from the days she threw tantrums inside the church!
To dare call Armadi a— a— that word!
Phoebe bit down hard on her lip.
Only moments ago, she had failed to complete the Prayer of Purification.
It wasn't a matter of insufficient divinity, nor of the lingering soul's dignity being too exalted.
The prayer had collapsed mid-cast because Phoebe herself had doubted the miracle would come.
Not once in her entire life had Phoebe ever doubted that Armadi would work a miracle through her.
God working miracles was the most natural thing in the world. And she, the Saintess He had chosen, had to succeed in bringing them about.
Perhaps that was precisely why Phoebe was so terribly fragile before the doubt welling up inside her.
Having never once confronted it, she had no way to stop the crack as it spiderwebbed through her faith.
And so, after the prayer failed, her heart filled to the brim with black, heavy emotion.
Guilt toward the party members who had carried her this far. Despair at herself. The gnawing question of whether she deserved the title of Saintess at all.
It all clumped together into a thick, oily blackness.
Just as Phoebe was caving in under her own self-loathing, Lucy had called out to her.
And then provoked her.
While blaspheming the Chief God's name.
Insults to her own person she might have endured — but mockery of her God was beyond bearing. Phoebe flared up with a fury unlike anything she had ever felt in her life, and by the time she came to her senses, she found herself standing in a position where she had no choice but to prove it.
Yet Phoebe didn't find any of it the least bit strange.
Her heart dyed scarlet, she simply stared straight ahead.
I have to do it.
I absolutely must.
I will succeed at the Prayer of Purification and smash that insufferable pride of Lucy Aln flat!
That woman, drunk on arrogance because she's loved by God — I will make her acknowledge the greatness of the divine!
Phoebe cried this out in her heart and pressed her palms together.
But in that very instant, doubt flickered through her mind.
Can I really do this?
I just failed a moment ago, didn't I?
Can I truly swear this time will be any different?
Bit by bit, the black began to eat back into the scarlet of her heart.
Learned despair shoves a person over the edge into the abyss so, so easily.
Just as the strength in her clasped fingers began to fade—
"Slowpoke Saintess!♡ Still not done?♡ Useless and sluggish!♡ Just like your scrub Chief God!♡"
Crack.
Her heart flooded scarlet once more.
That's right. This is no longer about whether I can or can't.
I must do this — so that no insult can ever again be attached to the name of Armadi!
Strengthening her fingers a second time, Phoebe recited the prayer in her heart with her eyes closed.
It was flawless — nothing about it could have been more practiced.
The Prayer of Purification was one she had repeated dozens, hundreds of times before, after all. A prayer memorized long, long ago could hardly feel awkward on her tongue.
'The reason the dead remain upon the earth is...'
Reciting the prayer with every ounce of her being devoted to flattening Lucy's nose, Phoebe watched the scene unfold before her eyes.
Watched the tiny girl perched precariously on her shoulder's worth of height toy with a dragon soaring through the air — laughing.
"Where are you even aiming, huh?♡ Got a ghost hiding in there or something?♡ Eek!♡ So scary♡"
How can she act like that against a dragon massive enough to crush her in one fist?
Does fear itself simply not exist for that person?
Watching her, Phoebe clenched her teeth.
That woman acts this way even in the face of a dragon. If I fail one more time, I know exactly how she'll come at me.
Which means I absolutely cannot fail.
It is impossible for me to fail.
I will be the one to prove that Armadi works miracles!
The less her heart wavered, the faster Phoebe's recitation became — and by the time the dragon ceased spewing flame, she had brought the prayer to completion.
"Lady Aln!"
Watch closely.
This — this is the miracle of Armadi that you scorned!