The Shadow of the Black Star
The Belnoa Slums—the absolute worst place on earth, where only the most vile trash among the dregs of society gathered.
Typically, the church in the Belnoa Slums was a place of exile, where clergy members were banished after committing irreversible sins or causing massive scandals that led to their excommunication.
Yet, befitting a Holy See renowned across the entire continent, the church of the Belnoa Slums was excessively grand and magnificent compared to the squalid hovels surrounding it.
And within that massive, ornate church lay the bishop's quarters, the largest room of all.
From inside, a roar like that of a wild beast erupted.
"Why do I have to be rotting away in a filthy dump like this?!"
SLAM!
"Is this any way to treat someone as great and noble as me?!"
SLAM! SLAM! SLAM!
Dark red blood dripped from his hand as he repeatedly slammed his fist against the desk in an uncontrollable rage. However, befitting a high-ranking clergyman, a bright light flared from his flesh, and the wounds immediately began to knit back together.
No matter how far he had fallen, banished all the way to the Belnoa Slums, he was still a bishop of renowned standing.
How could they treat him like this just because he had embraced a single nun?
"I'm sure... she liked it deep down, too! She was just... too shy to admit it."
Nahel had once been on a fast track to success in the capital, even rising to become a candidate for archbishop. He had been famous for his deep piety and integrity.
He had lived an ascetic life, always intervening in unjust matters to dispense righteous judgment, regardless of who was involved.
But as the years piled on, he had begun to change. For over forty years, he had praised God and worked himself to the bone performing good deeds, yet he had absolutely nothing to show for it.
No matter how many nights he spent wearing down the pages of the scriptures or how much charity he gave, his divine power couldn't even compare to the dirt beneath the feet of that crazy bitch, Seraphina.
To make matters worse, his former peers who had sinned and been excommunicated in the past were actually living in luxury—using their divine power to amass fortunes, get married, and live far more lavishly than he ever could.
Compared to those corrupt bastards, he had lived a life of noble purity. Was it really such a heinous crime for him to covet a single blooming flower?
Of course, she was a young nun who was still like an unblossomed bud, but surely, she must have enjoyed it too.
Fortunately, she was a mere commoner. Thanks to the lifetime of good deeds and reputation Nahel had built up, he managed to avoid outright excommunication...
But he was still banished to this stinking slum.
The longer he stayed in this garbage heap of a place, the more he felt himself losing his mind.
Though they couldn't compare to the ones in the capital, a flower was still a flower. Yet whenever he tried to reach out to one, a priest named Alex would casually slide in and block him.
And when he lost his patience and tried to reach out toward the slums instead...
He was inevitably stopped by that absolute lunatic of a bitch, Seraphina—a woman he wanted to tear apart limb from limb.
"Crazy bitch. Is she protecting them just because she crawled out of the same gutter?"
By now, the nuns avoided him as if he were a cockroach, and not a single soul respected him.
"Do you have any idea how many years I've dedicated to this Holy See, you rotten bastards?!"
As he spent his days grinding his teeth in a pit of endless resentment, an incredibly intriguing rumor reached his ears.
A young girl with divine power far surpassing that of any Saintess candidate had arrived at the church. What was more, she was the subject of the divine oracle itself.
"This is... my chance."
He couldn't just rot away in this literal dumpster for the rest of his life.
A flower was only a flower when planted in a magnificent garden. You couldn't call something blooming on a pile of trash a flower, could you?
Of course, Nahel hadn't even been able to touch a single leaf of that flower yet.
But what if the subject of the oracle supported him? What if this girl from the Belnoa Slums testified that she had been chosen by God thanks to the holy guidance and care of her bishop, Nahel?
To the foolish masses who went wild over mere Saintess candidates, a girl directly chosen by God would be...
A Cardinal? No, he could even aim for the seat of the Pope.
He immediately dispatched his subordinates to investigate the girl.
"What is the identity of the girl Seraphina brought in this time?"
"I... I do not know, Bishop."
"...What?"
Fuck. Now even this decrepit old Mother Superior is openly ignoring me. How long do I have to endure this kind of treatment?
He ground his teeth.
Seeing Nahel's contorted expression, the Mother Superior hurriedly began to make excuses.
"I-I am not pretending to be ignorant on purpose... It is just that Seraphina warned everyone not to go anywhere near that room..."
"Seraphina?"
Again. That bitch again? That miserable whore, whom he wanted to tear to shreds, was blocking his path at every single turn.
A woman who always walked around with a thuggish scowl, picking fights with everyone, and whom he had never once seen offer a single prayer in the chapel—yet she possessed a divine power that utterly dwarfed his own.
Rage boiled hot in his chest.
"You call yourself the Mother Superior, yet you cannot even control a single subordinate nun?! Does that make any sense to you?!"
"...I apologize."
You're the bishop, yet you run away like a wet dog the moment you see Seraphina. What a load of bullshit.
The Mother Superior sneered at Nahel in her mind while repeating her soulless apologies aloud.
"Enough! You useless fools. I will find out myself."
Surely that crazy lunatic wouldn't be stuck to her side twenty-four hours a day like glue.
Nahel decided to wait for a gap when Seraphina stepped away.
If he were to openly demand that she hand the girl over, she would undoubtedly...
"Fuck. Are you testing me because you think I won't beat up a bishop? Where do you want to get hit first?"
...and throw a fist right at his face.
What infuriated him even more was the fact that even in his prime, he would have been effortlessly thrashed by her bare hands.
He spent several days looking for an opening.
Yet the reports he received made her sound like a tick—she was literally with the girl twenty-four hours a day. She spoon-fed her, bathed her herself, and even slept in the same bed, holding her tight.
And despite all that, she kept the girl locked away in the room, refusing to let anyone else even catch a glimpse of her face.
Unable to bear it any longer, he had sneaked toward her room in the dead of night, but... the barrier cast upon the door was something he had absolutely no hope of unraveling.
Crazy bitch. At this rate, even the Pope's own grandfather couldn't break this...
Ultimately, his patience ran dry, and he resorted to his final card.
Using the remaining connections he had in the central Holy See, he pulled strings to have an official patrol order issued directly to Seraphina.
Upon receiving the order, Seraphina marched straight into the bishop's quarters.
SLAM!
As if throwing any respect for the bishop's office to the dogs, she shattered the thick wooden door as she burst inside.
Normally, this would have put him in an incredibly foul mood, but today, he could welcome her with a smug smile.
"Ah, Seraphina. What brings you here making such a racket?"
"You bastard. It was you, wasn't it? Ordering me to patrol and guard this entire godforsaken slum out of nowhere—what kind of bullshit is this?"
Of course it was bullshit. Why on earth should noble clergy members like them protect the filthy trash of the Belnoa Slums?
But could she really refuse this order?
"It is an official decree from the Holy See. If you disobey orders yet again, your status as a clergy member will be stripped immediately."
"..."
"And once you lose your holy status, you won't even be allowed to set foot inside the church, will you?"
"A church like this? I'll just tear the whole damn thing down—"
Tap. Tap. Nahel casually tapped his fingers against the desk, baring his yellow teeth in a smirk.
"Indeed. A backwater church like this is nothing to you. But if you are branded a heretic, the Holy See will send its executioners to eliminate you. Well, a brute like you would probably manage to flee and survive somehow... but would that fragile little girl you cherish so dearly remain safe in the crossfire of such a battle?"
Seraphina flinched. The arrogant, self-assured expression she always wore instantly froze.
I won!
Nahel wanted to dance with sheer ecstasy, but he forced himself to maintain a solemn, dignified posture.
"...One day. I'm only doing this patrol for exactly one day, so you'd better listen closely. If you pull any more of your cheap tricks, I'll tear the Holy See and everything else to shreds and leave."
"As you wish."
It was done. One day. A single day was more than enough time to brainwash and dominate a naive girl who knew nothing of the world.
I can't wait to see the look on your face when you return from your grueling patrol, only to find that sweet girl praising me as her savior.
"I'm going to get this over with quickly, so don't you dare try anything funny while I'm gone. Even for me, snapping a clergyman's neck leaves a bad aftertaste."
Leaving behind that bloodcurdling warning, she stormed out of the room.
Seraphina headed straight back to her quarters.
Returning to her room, a deeply anxious Seraphina began casting countless blessings and protective spells over Ruby. Of course, she knew that Ruby, having been directly chosen by God, possessed a divine power that far eclipsed her own...
But she had to do this just to put her mind at ease.
Grasping Ruby's shoulders, she pleaded repeatedly.
"Ruby, listen to me carefully. No matter who calls for you, you must never open the door. As long as you don't open it from the inside, it's practically impossible for anyone to force it open from the outside. Do you understand?"
Then, she reached into her robes, pulled out a dagger, and pressed it into Ruby's hands.
It was an exquisitely beautiful dagger, so mesmerizing that anyone who laid eyes on it would instantly covet it. The hilt was embedded with several brilliant gems, and a gentle flow of divine power emanated from the blade, making it glow with a soft, white light.
On the day she had been banished by the Pope, she had secretly swiped it from his chambers in a fit of spite.
She herself had no need for such a toy, capable as she was of tearing anything apart with her bare hands, but it would serve as a reliable source of protection for Ruby, who had yet to master her own divine power.
"You just have to wait quietly in this room for one day. Okay?"
However, rather than listening to Seraphina's desperate pleas, Ruby was completely captivated by the glittering dagger in her hands. Well, it made sense; even Seraphina herself had been utterly spellbound by its beauty when she first saw it.
Giving the distracted Ruby one last affectionate embrace, Seraphina stepped outside and began casting barriers upon the door like a woman possessed.
She poured a terrifying amount of divine power into the seals—so much that even she would need a full day to unravel them.
As if that weren't enough, she even applied an expensive physical resistance scroll to ensure the door could not be breached by brute force.
Even after all that, thoughts of Ruby kept pulling at her, making it incredibly difficult to walk away.
Finally. That persistent bitch had finally left the church.
He didn't know just how pathologically obsessed that crazy woman was with the girl, but the tightly shut door was glowing with a divine light so intense it was practically blinding.
It radiated more divine power than most holy relics, which spoke volumes about the sheer scale of the barrier.
Crazy bitch. If only she used that overflowing power to serve me, her bishop.
Nahel shook off the absurd delusion of Seraphina ever helping him and reached deep into his robes, pulling out the Black Star.
From the fragment, which was so dark it seemed to swallow the very light around it, flowed a thick demonic energy that should never have existed within a church.
It was a universal truth that demonic energy was weak against divine power. However, the demonic energy of this Black Star was different.
It was the filthy, lustful demonic energy of a succubus, a force that embraced all desire and pleasure.
This foul energy did not dissipate when confronted by divine power; instead, it possessed the unique property of absorbing and corrupting even the most pure, holy forces.
It didn't matter how vast or pure the divine power was.
Just as a towering warrior over two meters tall would melt helplessly before the one they deeply loved, this demonic energy could effortlessly embrace and dissolve divine power.
Of course, due to its very nature, it possessed absolutely no offensive capabilities, and because of its foul tendency to absorb even other demonic energies, it was a power shunned even by the Demon King's army.
Yet, for a situation like this, it was absolutely perfect.
Using this Black Star, which he had acquired through a certain shady channel, was a massive gamble for Nahel.
A literal life-or-death, double-or-nothing bet.
If he failed, he would be hunted as a heretic for the rest of his life or face a gruesome death. But if he succeeded?
He could easily aim to become a Cardinal, or even the Pope.
He believed that risking his life on this gamble was far better than being trapped in this garbage dump forever.
Fortunately, the demonic energy of the Black Star began to absorb Seraphina's divine power without any resistance. The absurdly thick barriers she had layered over the door melted away like wax before a flame.
Creak.
Pushing the door open at last, Nahel stepped inside and came face-to-face with the girl sitting on the bed.
"..."
In that instant, Nahel gasped sharply, freezing in his tracks.
Has God Himself descended to judge a sinner like me?
Her beauty was so overwhelming and sacred that it felt as if she could bewitch anyone just by existing. And behind her, an immense, quiet aura of divine power radiated.
By the time he regained his senses, Nahel was already on his knees, slamming his forehead against the floor as he wailed in repentance.
"I-I am sorry! I have been so foolish and lowly! Please forgive me! Forgive me, I beg of you!!"
The girl on the bed merely stared down at him with a look of utter bewilderment.
Right then, a sticky, foul demonic energy seeped out of the Black Star in Nahel's hand. It crawled up his body and began to invade every single orifice—his eyes, nose, and mouth—as he lay prostrate on the floor.
"Gah...!"
Nahel thrashed on the floor for a moment before slowly opening his eyes. His sclerae had turned a murky, unsettling shade as he glared up at her.
The girl trembled as she looked at Nahel, and soon, she lost consciousness.
Under normal circumstances, nothing should have been able to pierce her divine power, but the all-devouring demonic energy of the Black Star was an exception.
Slinging the unconscious girl over his shoulder, Nahel turned and made his way down toward the church's basement.