Lothric Cathedral, capital of the Duchy of Navel.
It had been 7 hours since Katy had revealed she could absorb Mana in front of two A-rank Heroes.
During that time, Gray had rushed her along, traveling on foot, switching horses, and even using teleportation circles twice.
He had managed to cross half the Dukedom before the sun was high the next day, arriving at this holy city that symbolized the Church’s highest authority.
The journey had not only left Katy shaken but also nearly killed Lobelia, who had been trying to monitor the two.
She had come close to total Mana exhaustion.
Consequently, when they arrived at the largest cathedral in the Dukedom 30 minutes ago, Lobelia had gritted her teeth and snapped, “Keep an eye on that witch,” before diving into a lounge to recover her Mana.
As a Cardinal Candidate, she received special treatment.
Katy and Gray, however, could only wait for the trial to begin in a cramped, oppressive confessional.
Normally, according to Lobelia’s instructions, Gray could have rested with her, but he insisted on staying with Katy in this suffocating room.
Katy’s gaze fell on Gray.
The young man was currently staring blankly out the window.
He looked haggard after the long journey, his eyes bloodshot.
Ordinarily, a single night without sleep wouldn’t make an A-rank Hero look so weary; perhaps something was weighing heavily on his mind.
A small sense of guilt welled up inside the culprit.
She followed his gaze out the window.
From their confessional, they had a perfect view of the massive Goddess statue in the center of the Cathedral square and the execution ground being busily prepared beneath it.
‘What is he thinking? Is he praying to the Goddess? Praying that I really am just a gifted human girl and not a Demon Race spy lurking by his side?’
Katy recalled the moment last night when he had shielded her and said righteously, “If she is of the Demon Race, I will execute her with my own hands.”
Suddenly, she felt a bit uncomfortable.
Although it was related to the Demon Lord’s mission, wasn’t her initial purpose for getting close to this guy to heal the trauma she had caused him?
‘Why does it feel like I’m causing more trauma instead of healing it?’
If she were actually proven to be a Demon by the Black-robed Bishop responsible for judging heretics, and then Gray was forced to kill her …
‘Then Gray’s sanity would probably be wiped out on the spot. He’d never recover, that wicked woman Lobelia would take advantage of his weakness, and he’d end up becoming one of those blackened Heroes who only knows how to kill — ‘
No, such a ruinous bad ending definitely had to be avoided!
Katy had just mustered a bit of motivation when her gaze swept over the units of fully armed Temple Knights and the few Inquisitors patrolling outside.
The tiny flame of hope in her heart was instantly extinguished.
This was the cathedral in the capital of the Dukedom.
Forget the two A-ranks who brought her here, Gray and Lobelia; the sheer number of Inquisitors she saw when entering would be enough for a boss like her, who lacked area-of-attack abilities, to handle.
Since a brute-force breakthrough was impossible, she had to rely on wit.
However, before Katy could use her brain to think of a clever plan other than hiding in her Authority Space like a turtle, the holy bell of the Church rang.
The bell of judgment tolled seven times, each chime feeling as though it were striking the hearts of the sinners in the confessional.
Gray stood up abruptly at the first chime, his movement so fast it knocked over his chair.
He looked at Katy sitting opposite him, his voice hoarse.
“Let’s go, Miss Katy.”
“It’s fine, Mr. Gray. The Goddess only judges sinners, right?”
The young girl smiled and squeezed his cold hand.
She showed no panic about being pushed onto the judgment stand, acting as if the reality Gray feared was an impossibility.
” … Yes, may the Goddess protect you.”
Gray forced a smile and gripped her hand tightly, as if afraid she would disappear if he let go.
Of course, Katy’s heart was not as calm as she appeared on the surface.
She was currently cursing the church’s bell ringer in her mind:
‘Why get up so early! Are you a rooster?! You didn’t leave any time to think of a plan!’
Now, her hopes rested on the restriction the Demon King had placed on her power, hoping it could fool the Black-robed Bishop in charge of the trial.
‘Your Majesty, I, Noctiluca, have worked diligently for you for over two years. Even if there’s no glory, there’s hard work. At this critical moment, your gift better not fail me!’
***
On the trial platform, among a crowd of gaunt sinners dressed in gray, the blonde girl in a white dress stood out like a pearl in a coal pile, drawing everyone’s attention.
The crowd below pointed and whispered, with Katy being the main topic of discussion.
“Such a young and beautiful girl, what crime could she have committed?”
“I think she’s too enchanting. Maybe she’s a witch who seduced a priest …”
“Enchanting? Look at how innocent those eyes are. They must have caught the wrong person.”
Katy looked left and right.
Her fellow sufferers waiting for judgment were all ashen-faced.
Some were even shaking so hard their legs trembled, looking as if their world had ended.
Although she really wanted to say ‘First time?’ to look cool, Gray and Lobelia were watching nearby.
To maintain her persona as an innocent and frail girl, she had to hold back.
However, it was no wonder they had such expressions.
On the other side of the trial platform stood a massive black metal cross.
The base of the cross was piled high with unlit firewood.
The metal surface, scorched by smoke and fire, glinted with a chilling, dark light.
“That is the famous Pyre of Purification.”
In the VIP seating next to the platform, Lobelia hid her upward-curving lips and lowered her voice to educate the grim-faced Gray.
“If found guilty, the sinner is tied to it. Under the influence of the special metal, the purifying flames won’t immediately turn the sinner to ash. Instead, they will slowly meet their death in agony … It’s a merciful design, isn’t it? Because it gives them more time to repent.”
Gray didn’t answer.
His gaze was locked onto the small figure on the stage, his muscles as tense as iron.
The fists hanging at his sides were clenched so tightly that his knuckles were white.
“If you really can’t bring yourself to do it when the time comes, it’s fine to let the Inquisitors do it for you,”
Lobelia noted with interest, watching Gray’s expression which was on the verge of exploding.
She didn’t forget to mention her privileges as a Cardinal Candidate.
Clang!
The bell for silence rang again, cutting off all whispers.
Amidst the vibrating echo of the bell, the white-robed monks standing in formation respectfully moved aside, creating a path.
A bishop dressed in pitch-black robes walked slowly through the crowd.
This was the dreaded Black-robed Bishop of the Church, a person of real power responsible for heresy trials.
Behind him followed two sharp-eyed Inquisitors.
Their cold, disgusted gazes swept over the sinners on the stage as if they were looking at a pile of trash.
The bishop ascended the high platform and stood before a massive statue of the Goddess named the Pitying Icon, opening the heavy tome in his hands.
“Beneath the radiance, shadows must cringe. We gather here, bathed in the glory of the Goddess, to witness the grace of purification.”
The bishop’s cloudy yet sharp eyes slowly scanned the row of kneeling sinners, pausing for a moment on the blonde girl.
Katy felt like a chick being stared at by a weasel; cold sweat instantly drenched her back.
“Weeds steal nutrients from flowers, and filth blinds the eyes of the soul. Today, the brilliance of the Divine will strip away your disguises. Repent to the Goddess, not to seek life, but so that your filthy souls may obtain even a moment of whiteness within the raging flames.”
The trial began immediately.
The first sinner at the head of the line was dragged out by an Inquisitor.
Another Inquisitor expressionlessly read out his crimes — embezzling Church offerings — and the death sentence.
Afterward, the Black-robed Bishop waved his hand, signaling the man, who was nearly paralyzed with fear, to crawl toward the massive Goddess statue.
“Sinner, repent your faults to the Goddess before the holy icon,”
the Bishop said coldly.
“This is our final mercy. If your remorse is sincere enough, the Goddess will pardon your capital crime. But if she is unwilling to forgive …”
He didn’t finish his sentence, merely glancing at the metal cross in the distance.
The meaning was self-evident.
The sinner, acting as if he had caught a lifeline, knelt frantically before the Goddess statue and kowtowed.
He wailed and shouted that he was wrong; the sound of his forehead hitting the stone floor was clearly audible as blood splattered.
However, the massive Goddess statue remained with her eyes cast down, her expression compassionate yet deathly still.
1 minute later, the Black-robed Bishop closed his eyes and waved his hand like he was shooing away a fly.
“The Goddess has made her judgment. Take him for purification.”
“No, no! Lady Goddess!! Please — “
Amidst desperate screams, the man was knocked unconscious by an Inquisitor’s punch and forcibly dragged toward the terrifying Pyre of Purification.
“Do you see?”
Lobelia leaned close to Gray’s ear, her pink eyes full of mocking laughter.
“The judgment will be decided by the Black-robed Bishop and the Inquisitors, and then the sinner is made to kneel and repent before the statue before being executed.”
“Oh, by the way, there is an ancient rule that has almost never taken effect which might save your Demon girl: If the Goddess forgives the sinner, he does not have to face the fire.”
She looked at the unresponsive statue and whispered softly:
“But for hundreds of years, that stone statue has never shed a tear. Who knows if the Goddess has actually forgiven anyone? Or perhaps … from the very beginning, she never intended to forgive anyone at all.”
As the fire ignited, screams echoed through the square.
The audience below didn’t feel fear.
Instead, they seemed stimulated, shouting excitedly as if they were watching a form of daily entertainment rather than an execution.
“Burn him well! Burn him to death!”
“Burn that embezzler to death!”
Gray’s face turned pale.
He realized he had made a fatal mistake.
The Church’s trial was not a process of finding the truth at all.
Regardless of whether one was of the Demon Race, as long as the Inquisitors and the Black-robed Bishop decided to tie the sinner to the cross, there was no way out.
On the stage, Katy watched the person wailing in the fire, who was starting to smell of scorched meat.
She silently swallowed.
‘I really need to think of something, or else I’m going to turn into a sizzling roasted chicken!’