The game difficulty
is crazy
Jjeooooong—!
Romina’s magic, close to her maximum output, struck the organ.
Soon, cracks began to slowly spread across the organ, centered around the enormous spear made of demonic energy.
“Kgh!”
Glen was pushed back by the holy power and spiritual power released by Saint Ridenhall and was once again blown down the stairs.
At the same time, Romina knelt on one knee, blood flowing from her eyes.
“Ah… ngh…!”
Because the enemy’s level far surpassed hers, she had used demonic energy—something as precious as her own life—to a dangerously excessive degree.
If the fight continued beyond this point, it would probably reach a level where she would lose her life.
Thinking that far, Glen shifted his gaze to Saint Ridenhall and the organ.
“Please. Let this end it.”
With Romina retired from the fight, Saint Ridenhall was a bad matchup for him.
So, hoping that destroying the organ was the way to end this trial, Glen tightened his grip on Einheria.
Crack—crack— Kuguuung!
With a loud roar and clouds of dust scattering, the organ began to collapse.
Saint Ridenhall turned his body and silently watched the scene.
“……”
Before long, the organ completely collapsed.
Saint Ridenhall slowly turned around.
Goooooo—
However, the holy power and spiritual power surrounding him were still violently flickering.
“Ha… damn it…”
Glen bit his lip.
It seemed that destroying the organ was not the condition for clearing the trial.
At best, it probably only removed the mysterious defensive barrier around Saint Ridenhall.
“This is bad…”
At this point, Glen had no choice but to defeat Saint Ridenhall using all of his strength.
“I can’t expect Romina’s support, but I’ll have to manage somehow.”
He still had his trump cards—Tyrant’s Wrath and the Primordial Mirror—so it was not impossible to win.
Thinking that, Glen slowly lowered his stance.
And then—
“W-what is all this?!”
A beautiful, high-pitched voice coming from the front instantly shattered the tense atmosphere.
“…Huh?”
“W-what…?”
Similar looks of confusion passed over both Glen’s and Romina’s faces.
The owner of that beautiful voice was Saint Ridenhall himself.
“What… what happened…?”
He turned his skull left and right, looking around his surroundings.
“I definitely died… huh…?”
A completely different atmosphere from before.
Saint Ridenhall, who had been touching his cheek, suddenly realized something strange, raised both hands in front of his eyes, and—
“H-hiiik! W-what is this?!”
He screamed in shock and collapsed backward on the spot.
“G-Glen? What’s wrong with him…?”
Romina asked in disbelief as she looked at Ridenhall, who was panicking at the sight of himself.
But Glen also had no information about Saint Ridenhall, so he could not give a proper answer.
At best, he could only describe what he saw.
“I don’t know… It looks like he’s shocked at seeing his own dead body.”
“Th-that’s true. Still, it looks like we’ve definitely gotten past the dangerous part, right?”
“…Yeah.”
Just as Romina said.
The sacred yet eerie aura that had been swirling around Ridenhall until moments ago had completely vanished.
“Is it because we destroyed the organ?”
“Probably…”
“E-excuse me…”
With a trembling, beautiful voice, the pure white skeleton—now without the glowing light in its eyes—looked at Glen and spoke.
“I-I’m… dead, right?”
—Those who… disturb my rest… shall not be forgiven…!
It was almost laughable that the one who had tried to kill Glen and Romina with a low, threatening voice and glowing eyes was the same person as this.
《Saint Ridenhall’s Tomb Conquest》
《Quest Rank》 : C → B
《Objective》
《Progress》
: Discovered the entrance from Saint Ridenhall Garden to Ridenhall’s Tomb.
: Passed all the trials of Saint Ridenhall’s Tomb and reached the endpoint.
: Discovered a hidden passage at the dungeon’s endpoint and arrived at the entrance to the chamber housing Saint Ridenhall’s remains. (Rank increased)
: Reached the true endpoint of the dungeon, Saint Ridenhall’s mausoleum.
: Destroyed the organ that bound part of Saint Ridenhall’s soul and successfully awakened him from his long slumber.
《Reward》
《Reward Adjustment Points》 : 9/10 Pt
Looking at the updated quest progress,
and the reward adjustment points that had risen to 9 points, Glen let out a deep sigh of relief.
“So this really was the right answer.”
“I-I’m very sorry!”
Saint Ridenhall, the skeleton who had been looking down at Glen and Romina with dignity from the stone coffin atop the stairs, bowed his head with a trembling voice.
“For someone like me, who dreams of peace and harmony, to try to harm others… I do not know how I should atone for this sin.”
Ever since accepting his own death, he had kept this posture toward Glen.
Judging from it, this gentle version seemed to be Saint Ridenhall’s true self, rather than the oppressive presence he had shown at first.
“The organ was binding part of his soul, so that’s probably right.”
A being with such a gentle nature would never send armed skeletons just because someone disturbed his eternal rest.
“Still, I sincerely thank you for awakening my soul like this.”
Drawing the sign of the holy emblem and bowing deeply, he truly looked every bit the saint he was in life.
Being respectfully and sacredly greeted by a skeleton with pitch-black eye sockets was uncomfortable for Glen, but—
“Yeah, well… but Saint, why were you laid to rest here?”
Normally, when a pope, saintess, or saint of the Minnes Order died, their body would be cremated and enshrined in the Sun’s Enclosure, the cemetery reserved for the highest-ranking priests of the order.
But unlike other saints, Saint Ridenhall had a personal mausoleum hidden underground in a secret dungeon.
“And if my memory is correct, there was also a tomb bearing the Saint’s name.”
“…I see. But my remains were probably not in that tomb.”
Seeing Glen’s questioning gaze, Ridenhall continued.
“I left this land of my own will and dug my own grave. Since I disappeared so suddenly, those who remained likely prepared a tomb in form only.”
“You left this land?”
“Yes. I was tainted.”
Suddenly, Saint Ridenhall unclasped his politely folded hands and raised one.
Hwaa—
A translucent gray aura bloomed from the center of his white finger bones.
“Spiritual power.”
“Yes. Without warning, such alien and wicked power took root within me, even though I had vowed to live my entire life as a servant of the god Minnes.”
Glen nodded.
He had thought Ridenhall gained spiritual power after death because he used both holy power and spiritual power, but the situation was completely different.
Of course, it was wrong to say that spiritual power—being the power of the soul—was inherently evil.
But since most people of the Minnes Order believed any power other than holy power to be heretical, Glen did not bother pointing that out.
“Thus, as a saint favored by God, I felt unworthy to face Him. So I dug a grave underground and imprisoned myself.”
“And when I awakened, I found myself attacking humans I had never seen before.”
“Yes. I am ashamed. This must be God’s punishment upon me for turning my back on Him and leaving the order on my own.”
Ridenhall bowed his head again.
He seemed to be the type who could not live with guilt—but regardless, a sin was a sin, and Glen intended to make use of it.
“Well, I almost died.”
Glen slightly rolled up his sleeve and pointed at the various scratches on his body.
“I was trained enough that it ended like this… but if you hadn’t awakened back then, Saint, I definitely would not have escaped death.”
“I-is that so?! Ah…!”
Even though they were just scratches, Saint Ridenhall reacted as if he had taken an innocent life.
It did not feel good to burden someone so kind with guilt, but Glen could not stop now.
“I’ve gone through all this trouble. I can’t just walk away with a simple apology.”
Of course, most of the rewards he could obtain from Saint Ridenhall were neatly listed in the reward adjustment section.
With the points he had accumulated so far, he could already obtain both Saint Ridenhall’s scripture and ring, so his original plan was already complete.
But the moment he realized that Saint Ridenhall was both a summoner and an enchanter,
Glen decided to recruit Saint Ridenhall himself as an ally.
“A seven-star enchanter and summoner is way too valuable.”
Of course, among the human faction’s playable characters, there were figures with overpowered enchantment magic that could turn an entire party into main characters.
“But when would I ever raise them?”
At this early stage of the scenario, Glen did not have the luxury to wait months or years for rookies who were not even one-star yet.
“It’s better to recruit someone with seven-star potential or higher.”
In any case, Saint Ridenhall was not just companion material, but perfect party member material.
So even though the reward adjustment points were lacking, Glen planned to obtain him through non-quest means.
One such method was to burden Saint Ridenhall’s kind heart with guilt—and debt.
“Ha… physical wounds aside, what should I do about these wounds to my heart?”
“H-hic… I-I’m sorry… I will do anything… to atone…”
“Well, I don’t know if that will be enough…”
“……”
A cycle of exaggeration and apologies.
Watching that bizarre scene, Romina alternated her gaze between Glen and Ridenhall with eyes that looked like she was seeing a demon—and a fool.
And the more she did, the more shamelessly Glen exaggerated his suffering and piled guilt onto Ridenhall.
After dozens of minutes of back-and-forth—
Ridenhall looked far more worn down than before.
“Haaa… um… is it really okay for me to keep existing like this…?”
On the outside, he was just a slumped skeleton, but if he still had skin and expressions, anyone who saw him would probably feel drained.
That was how gloomy the aura around Ridenhall had become.
“Brother Glen. If it is not too rude… would you please help me pass on?”
Ridenhall asked in a powerless voice.
Glen quietly walked over and patted his shoulder.
“I cannot do that, Saint.”
“But…”
“You still have things you must do in this world.”
“Things… I must do?”
Glen smiled gently.
After that, it was not very difficult to persuade Ridenhall to join them as an ally.
—This may be my presumptuous guess, but could it be that God awakened you again to give you a chance to atone?
Ridenhall deeply agreed with Glen’s opinion.
In the process, he sincerely accepted Glen’s claim that he was the third saint of the era.
—Unfortunately, the modern order has lost its pure form of the past.
—Some high-ranking priests have even joined hands with horrific heretics to protect their positions.
—Saintess Luceria, who shared my ideals, and I tried desperately to change the situation, but it was useless.
—Even His Holiness the Pope has come to ignore it.
When Glen exaggerated the reality by adding things he had not yet done, Ridenhall sincerely lamented the situation.
He then made it his mission to restore the order to its original purity and chose to accompany Glen.
“….”
Back at the mansion, after Glen cheerfully explained everything, both Tasha and Hockney were left speechless.
Tasha blinked repeatedly, and Hockney scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
“I apologize if my appearance startles you, but I look forward to working with you, brothers and sisters.”
But when they saw the skeleton before them, overflowing with holy presence and politely drawing the sign of the holy emblem,
their expressions became even more vacant than before.
TO BE CONTINUED....
