Upon learning that one of the leaders sent by the Luminous Cathedral to provide support was the Steel Nun, Sister Dolores, Miss Maria immediately felt a faint ache in her shoulders.
She always thought that the Steel Tome in Dolores's hands could easily smash open the skull of a mighty Ogre.
After all, this was the woman who could swing a double-bladed battleaxe as if it were a thin rapier, twist heavy armor into a knot with her bare hands, and outmatch any strongman. This Steel Nun, leaving deep pits with every step, swung her short ponytail as she walked. Her face was as cold as the steel she wore, until, upon seeing a certain black-clad nun bowing her head, she instantly broke into a joyous smile.
"My sister!"
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Seeing the Steel Nun, like a walking iron wall, stride toward her, Miss Maria instinctively felt her heart and lungs about to cease their function. But when Dolores opened her arms, preparing to embrace her warmly, Maria's stopped heart and lungs jolted back to life from sheer fright.
"Good day, Lady Dolores." Lifting her skirt and curtsying in haste, Maria, in her panic, executed a flawless noblewoman's salute. This forced the Steel Nun, who had intended to crush her in a bear hug, to halt halfway. Dolores instead scrutinized Maria suspiciously.
There was a strange aura.
Not evil, still filled with kindness and compassion. Yet this nun, who hated evil with a frightening instinct, had keenly noticed the change within Maria after her turning point in life. Maria seemed stronger, more resolute, as if some important transformation had occurred.
Since awakening her gift of Hatred for Evil, Dolores had come to see wickedness everywhere. On everyone lingered some glaring taint, dark filth even they themselves were unaware of. Because of this, she had grown increasingly disillusioned with the world. Yet among all the people she had met, Sister Maria remained the purest and unsullied. It was precisely for this reason that the Steel Nun was especially warm toward her.
"Maria, my sister, I am so glad to see you safe."
"Thank you for your concern."
"Let us cleanse this nauseating filth! Praise the Sun!!"
With a thunderous battlecry, the Steel Nun hefted her double-bladed axe and prepared to charge straight into the ruins of Seth Town. Her near-reckless momentum terrified two accompanying priests, who hurried to grab onto her.
Can you imagine that scene?
A heavily armored, burly nun striding forward while dragging three or four burly priests clinging to her arms and legs, plowing deep grooves into the earth as she advanced. Maria herself witnessed firsthand just how relentless Dolores's hatred for evil truly was.
In total, there were five Silver-rank Sun Priests, plus the Steel Nun, whose combat power soared without limit against evil foes. Together, they formed the main force tasked with dealing with the ruins of Seth.
The important task was not simply to defeat, but to purify.
Priest Brown explained to his colleagues the troublesome nature of the forces within the ruins. After seeing the terrifying wounds inflicted on the Paladins, the priests quickly sank into the same eerie unease that plagued Brown. They soon realized they weren't alone, each felt similarly blasphemous thoughts creeping in. Meeting one another's gaze, they silently recited the Sacred Scripture, washing away their arrogance.
How could Seth Town be purified?
That became the pressing focus of their discussion. The town once housed several thousand people; it wasn't as though they could simply walk through sprinkling holy water everywhere.
If they tried that, the very next day the price of holy water across the entire Southwind Province would double.
The Steel Nun looked at her frowning colleagues. Thinking wasn't her strong suit. So before battle, she simply opened the Holy Tome and prayed quietly. There was nothing she loved more than redeeming her enemies while chanting the Sacred Scripture.
"…I suggest advancing purification step by step."
At last, it was Priest Brown who made the decision.
He showed his companions crystal projections of a previously injured Paladin. Unlike wounds caused by toxins or negative energy, this unknown force altered the body in such a way that normal purification could not preserve the corrupted tissue. Its power and purification were utterly incompatible, an endless clash. Even if the victim were purified, their corrupted flesh would have to be carved away. Otherwise, there was always the danger of resurgence.
In other words…
If some unfortunate soul's body was too extensively corrupted, even a priest's purification meant certain death!
Troublesome!
The thought of sending the Church's warriors into the ruins, teeming with this unknown evil energy, made the priests' scalps crawl.
...
At that moment, it wasn't just the priests, already preparing to advance their purification, who felt their scalps tighten. The Paladins cutting paths through the ruins and battling grotesque, twisted creatures also felt the same dread.
These scorched, half-dead Corrupted weren't especially strong.
A Paladin wielding a warhammer could easily smash the skull of a foolish one. The problem lay in the terrain, it was complex street fighting. During the previous fires, desperate to survive, the Corrupted had twisted their forms. Some turned into sludge, others crawled and disguised themselves.
They blended into the charred, warped environment like chameleons.
You never knew whether the ruins around you hid a lurking Corrupted, waiting for prey to step into its trap.
And once ambushed, the Paladin had to immediately retreat from Seth's ruins for purification. That "flesh-carving" purification guaranteed they couldn't return to battle any time soon.
The clergy of the Sun, long accustomed to sweeping aside heretics with ease, finally tasted defeat before the power of Chaos.
This was inseparable from the greater environment of the Fractured world.
In the past, no matter how difficult the fight, the clergy of the Sun always had the gods of the sun above them. Even in collapse, they could summon divine retribution: a storm of lightning spears or a rain of sunlight would obliterate the evil gods' minions. As long as the evil gods didn't dare clash with the sun gods head-on, justice prevailed.
But now, the sun gods had gone silent. Not only the sun gods; all gods, righteous and wicked alike, across the Fractured had fallen into silence. The unease in the clergy's hearts could scarcely be overstated.
In fact, the evil camp was overwhelming the righteous.
This would become a cruel truth revealed after the open beta of Fractured the evil faction wasn't merely the traditional Hell or Abyss.
But rather…
Khorne, Tzeentch, Nurgle, and Slaanesh, the four Chaos gods, an insurmountable wall of evil. That would mark the darkest age in the history of civilization and order.
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