Ciel slowly walked towards Uris and crouched down.
Although she sympathized with Uris’s current plight, she couldn’t do anything about it. This was a simulation, and Ciel was merely completing her Reconstitution Ritual to gain the power needed for self-preservation.
She would just have to inconvenience Uris in this simulation.
I’ll help you get revenge in the next simulation.
“Heretic, I grant you the opportunity to defend yourself,” Ciel looked at Uris and said. “You may also take this chance to explain why you refused to believe in the Mother Goddess and chose to oppose her.”
“…You lunatics. I have nothing to say to you.”
Uris listened to Ciel’s voice and turned her face towards her, her expression full of anger.
For a fleeting moment, Ciel felt scene resembled a cutscene after a priestess character’s defeat CG in a game. According to the rhythm of a Galgame, the next step should be a cut to the humiliation scene.
“You are too arrogant… child.”
Uris’s face, initially filled with defiance, crumpled the moment she heard the word “sister.” Her psychological defenses shattered instantly, her expression shifting to shock.
“Don’t touch my sister!” Uris practically snarled at the Bishop before her.
Ciel released Uris’s chin and snapped her fingers lightly. “Recite the Divine Advent Church’s prayer for me.”
“Yes, Your Excellency, Bishop.”
Adele’s voice was hoarse. She lowered her head, walked past Ciel, and knelt beside Uris.
Uris reached out a trembling hand, disbelievingly, towards the source of Adele’s voice, finally touching the face marked by a horrifying scar at the corner of the mouth.
“Adele… is that you? How could you…”
Uris, who had remained strong until now, burst into tears almost instantly. She wept as she caressed her sister’s face, murmuring, “No… no, no, no…”
But Adele simply stared blankly ahead and recited, “In the endless darkness, I call upon You… Sadhana…”
“In the fractures of time and space, Your presence transcends all…”
Uris was on the verge of breaking down.
She couldn’t believe that her sister, who had always followed her around like a little shadow, had been captured by the Divine Advent Church.
She didn’t even understand why the Divine Advent Church dared to directly attack and capture a High Priest of the Church of the Savior Goddess and a physician from the Redemption Society.
This was practically a declaration of war in Berren City.
“Renounce the darkness and embrace the light, Uris.”
Ciel spoke slowly. “In the Mother Goddess’s embrace, you can still be reunited with your sister.”
Uris gasped for breath, looking up towards Ciel. “You think you can use Adele to threaten me? If Adele still had her senses, she would rather have me kill her than recite these filthy prayers here!”
“Don’t push your luck, heretic!”
Kitty stepped forward, rebuking Uris.
“Your sins run too deep…”
Ciel shook her head and reached down, drawing her pistol from its holster.
“Blaspheming the Mother Goddess’s hymns—that is your first sin.”
Ciel aimed the gun at her own temple and pulled the trigger. The cylinder spun empty.
“Calling us heretics when you are the one turning your back on the truth—that is your second.”
“Refusing to repent despite your own family’s urging, betraying your kin—that is your third.”
The silver revolver in Ciel’s hand began to emit a faint blue glow.
Baseless accusations were listed one by one. They sounded absurd, yet from the Divine Advent Church’s perspective, they were damning indictments.
At least Kitty, standing nearby, was enjoying the spectacle.
By the time Ciel recited the fifth charge, the cylinder of her revolver began to swirl with storm clouds.
“I declare you guilty, Uris.”
Ciel slowly raised the gun, aiming it at Uris. “Do you confess your sins?”
Feeling the tingling static electricity emanating from the gun, Uris’s heart was already dead.
She no longer cared what the person before her said, replying flatly, “I am guilty… kill me.”
Once she died, the Church of the Savior Goddess would launch a full investigation into Berren City… that was the best chance to save her sister.
If she survived only to be brainwashed into a cultist, all hope would be lost.
Ciel’s gun hand paused slightly. After a moment’s thought, she asked, “High Priest Uris, does this count as completing the ‘judging the heretic’ part of the ‘Judicator’ potion ritual?”
For a moment, the room fell into dead silence.
“Your Excellency, Bishop… what kind of joke are you…”
Ciel raised her hand, pointing the gun towards Kitty. The bullet roared out, crackling like a thunder dragon, shooting lightning and sparks straight towards Kitty’s head.
Exhausted from her fight with Uris, Kitty only managed to turn her head slightly. The bullet obliterated half her face.
Driven by a fierce will to survive, Kitty couldn’t even scream. She stumbled backward, crashing into the wooden door behind her. As the door burst open, she staggered out into the corridor, running towards the private prayer room at the end of the hall.
That Bishop… something was wrong!
She had to… survive… leave a message for… the next Bishop…
That private prayer room had been Kitty’s personal sanctuary. It contained a special array for leaving messages. If she left her blood on the array, future members of the Divine Advent Church could use it to see everything she had witnessed before her death!
“Adele, send her to meet the Mother Goddess.”
Ciel looked towards Adele, her voice soft. “Priestess Kitty has betrayed the Divine Advent Church. I am the Bishop… you should know who to trust.”
Becoming a cultist hadn’t seemed to make Adele any smarter. After a moment’s thought, she nodded and chased after Kitty.
By the time Adele reached the end of the corridor, she saw Kitty kneeling before the door of the private prayer room, her face etched with disbelief, despair, and terror.
Before her lay a mountain of corpses. Blood had completely soaked the red carpet beneath her feet. Stepping on it squeezed the viscous fluid from the saturated wool, making a sickening squishing sound.
It was hell on earth.
Hearing the squelching footsteps approaching, Kitty’s body trembled. She turned her head and saw Adele rushing towards her, wielding a forearm-length black and silver hook.
That was the same instrument of torture Kitty had used on Adele.
No… that Bishop is the traitor! She’s the traitor! Impossible! You can’t feel hostility towards me! Impossible!
Kitty’s vision blurred, her thoughts becoming sluggish. She couldn’t voice her thoughts, only watch helplessly as the silver-haired girl she had tortured, the girl whose face was now horribly scarred, raised the blackened hook, still crusted with dried blood, and plunged it towards her throat.
Meanwhile, back in the cell, Uris was utterly bewildered. She turned her head vaguely towards the direction the girl’s voice had come from and asked:
“You… who exactly are…”
“You might not believe this.”
Ciel holstered her pistol and looked at the High Priest.
“I’m here to help you.”
“You know whether I’m lying or not, High Priest Uris.”