The game difficulty
has gone crazy
Lily Clooney.
As Glen repeated that name in his mind, her past actions, remembered from Seong Yo-hwan’s memories, vividly resurfaced.
First, if the opinions of players who had played the original work were summarized in one sentence about the person called Lily Clooney, it would be this:
“The crazy bitch of the Black District.”
The Black Cult was already overflowing with fanatics who were impossible to reason with.
But even among them, there were a few who showed truly unrivaled madness—and Lily Clooney stood out the most among them.
She’s worse than Judith.
Because both were fanatics, Lily was often compared to Judith Respelt, the Inquisitor.
Honestly, if you ask who’s crazier, that woman is worse than Judith.
To be fair, even though Judith tended to talk at her own pace, she was still someone you could have a conversation with.
She might wander off-topic for a long time, but she understood what Glen was saying and could think for herself and reach conclusions.
In fact, through small performances and careful dialogue, Glen had drawn conversation out of Judith and ultimately succeeded in pulling her to his side.
Judith definitely had a screw loose, but she was not an idiot with whom conversation was impossible.
That was why she could serve as a high-ranking inquisitor in the Inquisition, one of the highest power institutions of the Papal State.
But Lily Clooney…
Anyone who had played the original work knew this.
Conversation with her simply did not exist.
The moment there was even the slightest need for her to think on her own, she would immediately stop thinking and talking and just commit some random act.
To be honest, calling it “random action” is generous. Put simply, she just causes chaos on the spot.
If her older sister Amelia or the cult leader Forbinus gave her advance notice, her impulsive behavior would lessen somewhat, but still—
Either way, the appearance of an enemy whose actions were completely unpredictable was extremely troublesome.
I knew she’d show up, but facing her directly makes it way more uncomfortable.
On top of that, she had arrived in Rublyn a full day before the secret meeting, which made things even more suspicious.
The Black Cult had more than three hundred dioceses across the continent, but the number of top executives—the Prophets—was only seven.
Because of that, the cult tended to run the Prophets on extremely tight schedules.
In other words, unless there was a special reason, she would not arrive a whole day early and leisurely wait like this.
Fine. Let’s be direct. I’ll confirm it myself.
There was no need to guess why Lily Clooney had arrived in Rublyn early.
All Glen had to do was tail her and see for himself.
Keeping his distance, Glen followed Lily Clooney as she went down the stairs.
Honestly, it was obvious what would happen tomorrow, but in the original story, the Black Cult had never openly revealed themselves like this.
Moves like this are exactly what create these damn situations that never existed in the original.
Lily Clooney left the inn.
The sun had long since set, but since it was the time when travelers flooded into inns, the entrance of the village was crowded.
Thanks to that, Glen was able to blend into the crowd and continue following Lily, who was dressed in plain clothes.
About ten minutes later—
Glen followed Lily all the way to a secluded corner of the village.
This isn’t the meeting location.
He briefly wondered if she was trying to identify the meeting site in advance and sabotage it, but the direction she was heading was completely opposite.
As foot traffic grew sparse, continuing the tail required preparation.
Wooooong—
Glen activated the gray ring and converted all eight active rings into demonic rings.
Then, using demonic energy through the eight activated demonic rings, he used the four-star skill Demonic Veil.
Sssrrrk—
Like a snake disappearing into hiding, Glen’s demonic energy and presence vanished in an instant.
He continued the pursuit.
Lily Clooney walked even deeper inside.
The place where Lily stopped was an abandoned house on the outskirts of Rublyn Village.
Moments later, figures wearing the dark crimson robes of the Black Cult opened the door.
…Would you look at that?
From what he could see, they were using the abandoned house as a temporary base.
Since this had never appeared in the original story, Glen could be fairly certain it was a hideout rather than an official diocese.
A hideout, huh…
The Black Cult hated unnecessary exposure, so it was rare for them to establish temporary bases.
However, when an operation required it, they did set up temporary facilities in remote, uninhabited places.
For example—
A storage site for explosives to be used in a terror attack.
Glen’s eyes sharpened.
The closer one got to the capital Estirenne, the more the Black Cult resembled religious terrorists rather than mere heretics.
And the one who committed such acts most frequently was none other than Lily Clooney.
So even without seeing it with his own eyes, Glen could be certain.
There are explosives in there.
He also knew exactly what kind of explosives they were.
That was why the current situation felt extremely annoying to Glen.
This is going to be a hassle…
Scratching the back of his head, Glen pulled a black sphere out of his inventory.
The sphere reflected not even a single point of light—it was a perfect black.
Soon, an information window appeared in his vision.
《Dark Matter》
《Grade》 : Rare
《Type》 : Explosive
: The blackest substance in existence. When impacted, it causes devastating damage within a 50-meter radius.
Back when he had been at the Black Cult diocese located in Haven Mine, a former territory of the Wordsworth family—
Just before encountering Romina, Glen had taken this item from their storage.
And inside that abandoned house, there would be at least a few more of these—possibly over ten.
And there was no need to think about where they would be used.
It would be the site of the secret meeting.
Insurance, huh.
In case the demon they summoned failed to kill Saintess Luceria, this was their backup plan.
After the consecutive collapse of cult branches and the death of Beveluga, it seemed they were being extremely cautious.
Damn bastards… You’ve got plenty of other things to do, and you choose to go all out on this one…
Glen fell into thought.
Should I deal with it now?
He soon shook his head.
No. Not yet.
Glen’s current combat power exceeded eight stars.
If he attacked the abandoned house now, he could wipe out the Black Cult members inside along with Lily Clooney.
He could also secure a large quantity of Dark Matter.
Even if the Shadow Maiden Chell came to support Lily through her shadow, Glen would not lose in his current state.
However, if he did that, there was no telling what the Black Cult might do within the next day.
From the beginning, Glen’s plan had been to defeat the demon after it was summoned to kill the Saintess.
Only then could Glen respond within predictable parameters.
Only then would the Saintess realize she was being targeted by the Black Cult—and trust Glen, who helped her.
Until then, he needed to recreate the original event as closely as possible.
More importantly, Lily Clooney isn’t someone you can poke half-heartedly.
To be honest, considering Glen’s current strength, Lily Clooney was no match for him.
Even if her older sister Amelia Clooney joined her, their combined power would barely reach seven stars.
There was no chance Glen would lose to her in a straight fight.
But the real reason the Clooney sisters were such a nuisance wasn’t their strength—
It was the fact that they were immortal beings who revived endlessly even after being killed.
Of course, there was a strategy to deal with them.
You had to kill the remaining sister within one hour of the other’s death.
…Yeah right.
Unless they were idiots, the sisters would never move together.
In fact, in the original story, the Clooney sisters always operated at the maximum distance allowed by their ability.
So unless both sisters’ locations were confirmed, touching even one of them was dangerous.
Otherwise, I’ll be stuck with a crazy bitch hunting me down every hour.
