< 41 : Estasia (2) >
Sometimes in life, you encounter some luck that is hard to understand.
Like finding some money that fell on the street by chance.
Or winning an event that you didn’t expect.
Or having a big action that you did casually result in a big outcome.
For me, the scene that was unfolding before my eyes was like that.
The screen of my smartphone that had the game turned on.
There, I saw a number of karma that I never thought of.
“What, what is this?”
The amount of karma that increased in just a day or two was 720.
Considering the recent moves of the cult, it was not from the offerings.
Roan seemed to be aiming for the expansion of the cult, and he went into the city nearby.
Then it was better to think that it was karma that increased for some reason.
I moved my eyes to the bottom of the screen and checked the messages that were generated while I was resting from the game.
“What on earth happened?”
At the bottom of the screen, there were messages with unexpected contents lined up.
Most of them were about karma generation.
Of course, there was hardly any content about the offerings that the cult conducted.
The new protagonists of karma generation were the two creatures that I made last time.
The abyssal beast Cuebaerg.
And the cherub Estasia.
The two creatures were active and accumulated a lot of karma for me.
-[Abyssal Beast: Cuebaerg] has harvested life.
-<Karma’s Judgement> calculates the causality rate.
-Karma increased by 42.
-[Abyssal Beast: Cuebaerg] has harvested life.
-<Karma’s Judgement> calculates the causality rate.
-Karma increased by 56.
.
.
.
-<Karma’s Judgement> calculates the causality rate.
-Karma increased by 22.
Among the two creatures, the one that gave me the most messages was Cuebaerg.
Maybe it was because I set its aggressiveness to 10.
Cuebaerg was moving around the spawn point, destroying everything in its path.
Considering Cuebaerg’s size, it was natural that it caused damage just by moving.
And if it also attacked directly, it was understandable that many characters were swept away and disappeared.
All of Cuebaerg’s activities were converted into a large amount of karma by <Karma’s Judgement>.
I didn’t even look at Cuebaerg after creating it, but it earned me so much karma like this.
I felt proud of Cuebaerg, who was diligently hunting automatically, and focused on it.
“Ah… but I can’t let it go on for too long.”
And then I turned the screen to another direction.
It was not a sight that I wanted to see often.
If all of my characters looked like that, I would have quit the game and gone to play another game a long time ago.
Cuebaerg’s appearance was far from my taste.
I turned my eyes away from Cuebaerg, who was hunting, and also checked Estasia’s messages.
“She was the pet who asked me for bread… What on earth happened?”
Estasia was a creature with the opposite appearance of Cuebaerg.
It was because I was startled by Cuebaerg’s birth and placed all the options on the opposite side.
Maybe it was because she was the opposite of Cuebaerg in every aspect, from appearance to personality.
Estasia showed a completely different behavior from Cuebaerg.
-[Cherubim: Estasia] has manifested a miracle.
-<Karma’s Judgement> calculates the causality rate.
-Karma increased by 5.
-The number of followers of the cult has increased greatly.
-Some followers have acquired the <Fanatic> trait.
-Karma increased by 7.
[Cherubim: Estasia] has manifested a large-scale miracle.
-<Karma’s Judgement> calculates the causality rate.
-Karma increased by 10.
.
.
.
-The number of followers of the cult has increased greatly.
-Some followers have acquired the <Fanatic> trait.
-Karma increased by 14.
Maybe it was because her aggressiveness was only 1, but I didn’t see any messages about harvesting life.
Rather, most of Estasia’s messages were events that I had never seen before.
The creation of karma by the manifestation of miracles.
I didn’t know what miracles meant exactly, but it was clear that Estasia had done something outrageous.
And even though she gained a lot of karma, the causality rate adjustment didn’t move much.
It was a stark contrast to the karma acquisition pattern so far.
“What are you up to?”
The number of followers and the cumulative amount of karma increased.
What kind of things did she do to get these results?
I was curious about Estasia’s actions, so I focused the screen on her.
A complex mountain range somewhere on the map.
There, Estasia was spreading her wings in front of a crowd of people.
Estasia looked very holy with her halo and wide-open wings.
Maybe that’s why, but many characters around her were bowing their heads to the ground.
“What is this?”
Estasia was surrounded and lifted up by a crowd of people.
When I looked at the characters near her, some of them had the Fanatic trait.
Fanatics were a trait that only occurred in some of the followers.
Most of the characters on the screen were my followers.
I was dumbfounded by the sight of many followers that appeared where Roan was not.
“Why are you there?”
Many followers appeared even though Roan did not preach.
And the appearance of some of the followers was even worse.
They kept bringing fruits and offering them to Estasia.
Of course, Estasia put the fruits she received in her mouth.
A bitter laugh escaped my mouth at the scene of tribute in front of me.
-“Next time, bring more strawberries.”
-“Yes!”
The absurdity was not over yet.
Estasia ordered the next menu to the followers who brought her fruits.
I thought so since she asked me for bread, but that angel was not ordinary.
There must have been something wrong with the AI structure.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain the scene of an angel exploiting other characters.
I couldn’t help but wonder as I looked at the angel at the top of the social structure.
“…Is this a good thing?”
But it was okay since karma came in. Maybe I got a good creature.
With a strange AI in front of me, my mind quickly compromised with the situation.
Anyway, Estasia was definitely an amazing creature in terms of karma increase.
The best reward for a creature who did a good deed was to praise it by stroking it.
I reached out to Estasia right away.
I wanted to stroke Estasia’s head, who gathered followers.
-“…?”
But my praise did not reach Estasia properly.
Thud.
A shield of light appeared above Estasia’s head with a heavy collision sound.
Estasia lifted her head and looked up at the shield floating in the sky.
I also looked down at the shield that appeared on the screen and expressed my doubt.
My hand that tried to stroke Estasia was blocked.
“What is this?”
I couldn’t help but marvel again at the hand that was blocked by the shield.
She was an amazing pet in many ways.
***
Crossbridge, Temple of Abundance.
There, Saintess Serena opened her eyes after praying to the sky.
Serena’s eyes sparkled with a ring of light as she finished her prayer and opened her eyes.
Serena looked at her hand and the statue of the goddess alternately for a while, then sighed and got up from her seat.
As Serena finished her prayer, Knight Lian, who was waiting nearby, approached her.
“Are you all right, Saintess?”
“Of course, Lian.”
“You look pale.”
“I guess it’s because there are too many troublesome situations happening at once.”
Serena recalled the contents of the divine message she had just heard.
Despite the appearance of a hero, the goddess she served gave the temple a bigger trial by not coming to the temple.
The terrifying minions of the evil god that started to appear simultaneously.
The evil followers of the evil god cult who moved to swallow up the empire.
Neither of them could be left alone.
With many worries on her mind, Serena’s face darkened, and Lian asked her:
“Did you receive a divine message?”
“Yes. I received a divine message.”
“What is the content of the divine message?”
“It’s a lot this time. The first thing I received was about the hero chosen by the goddess.”
The whereabouts of the hero of abundance.
Lian’s face hardened as he heard Serena’s story.
Even though all the marks of heroes had appeared, nearly half of them did not come to the temple.
If a hero with a mark died, another hero would be born soon, but if not, it was likely to become a more troublesome situation.
The training and subjugation schedule for nurturing heroes would be messed up.
They needed to bring the heroes to the temple somehow to prevent that.
“The hero of abundance, you mean.”
“Yes.”
“Did you find out about him?”
“His name is Gilford Proud. He seems to be the captain of Gilford Mercenary Group.”
“Gilford Proud. That’s his name.”
“And he had a divine weapon called Ascalon.”
Serena made a troubled expression as she recalled Gilford’s face, who hid his mark and wandered around.
She had to investigate more details, but Gilford didn’t seem like a bad person from his actions.
She didn’t want to punish him unless there was a problem.
And he received Ascalon from the goddess of abundance as well.
Ascalon was called the strongest among all divine weapons in six temples.
It made your body stronger just by holding it, and when all seals were released, it could even hurt gods.
It was an absurd item among celestial treasures allowed to humans.
The goddess they served entrusted humans with even a blade that could challenge her.
If Ascalon lost its owner and became sealed again, there would be significant restrictions on what they could do in holy land.
Lian confirmed again with Serena about Ascalon after hearing that he had it.
“Are you saying that he has Ascalon?”
“It’s a difficult situation.”
Serena looked at the white holy sword hanging on Lian’s waist and said.
Ascalon was incomparable to the imitation divine weapon that Lian had.
It made your body stronger just by holding it, and when all seals were released, it could even hurt gods.
It was an absurd item among celestial treasures allowed to humans.
The goddess they served entrusted humans with even a blade that could challenge her.
If Ascalon lost its owner and became sealed again, there would be significant restrictions on what they could do in holy land.
“We have to bring him to the holy land somehow!”
“Lian. Calm down. We have a lot of other things to do.”
“Ha… Gilford, you said. I’ll order the knights to investigate him separately.”
“Okay. I’ll leave that part to you.”
The matter of the hero Gilford was something that could not be ignored by the whole holy land.
“And the other one is a fallen angel named Estasia…”
“A fallen angel. A tricky opponent.”
“She’s a bit strange.”
“Yes…?”
“She’s fallen, but not a fallen angel.”
Lian made a puzzled expression as he heard Serena’s words.
When an angel falls into evil, they lose their halo and wings’ light and become a fallen angel.
So Serena’s words were very contradictory.
How could such a state exist?
Of course, Serena didn’t understand it either, who uttered the words.
“I don’t know what I’m saying either.”
She was fallen, but she was a good angel.
She didn’t know why the good angel has fallen either.
