Once I’d decided on my next course of action, the rest was easy. There was no one left in Sealrite who could stand up to me, much less denounce my status as saintess. The Duke was dead, many of his guards had been resurrected into my service, the new field marshals were beholden to me for destroying the summoning circle, the Marquess was enslaved, and the Cardinal was lost. If I could spread my saintess title so that it was ingrained in the minds of every last free-willed individual within Sealrite, then not even the entirety of the Holy Kingdom could halt the staunch and religious belief these people would latch onto—and the snowball effect it was bound to have.

I had never been overly interested in religious activities or people in Ordite, despite my fondness for swearing upon the name of Ashwash. But even I had witnessed some of the largest religious celebrations. For one, the birth of Aedronir had been utterly massive, though that had been more about the union of the secular world and the Order of Ashwash.

Still, it taught me two things about stirring fanaticism in people's hearts. First, you need an enemy. Or, at the very least, something to work against that would cause the people to unite. Second, you need to connect what they unite around to a fundamental belief of their culture.

The second one was already done, and I didn't need to lift a finger. Somehow, the people had already begun to connect me with their deity, whose name I would need to memorize as I kept forgetting it. The first would be a bit more difficult. I could not just call their king the enemy, nor could I turn on Lysoria.

As I racked my brain for an answer, the group I led continued to walk. This time, I directed our meandering toward where I’d seen the giant bell tower during Duke Alistar’s takeover. Now, where exactly had that bell tower been? Somewhere in the southern parts of the residential sections but toward the gate… maybe.

More and more people joined our ragtag group. When I glanced over my shoulder for the umpteenth time, I spotted an ever-increasing diversity in the people as well. From old to young, human to orc, strong to weak—they all began to follow. Whispers of “Saintess” echoed through the followers. At first, it had been quiet words exchanged in near secrecy. But as the gathering grew, so did the volume. By the time Nida found me, there were over a hundred trailing behind, all but cheering the word "Saintess."

I knew she’d tracked me down when a large black shadow cast over us from above. Everyone around me craned their necks up to watch the dark shape land roughly atop a nearby pile of rubble. The Wyvern and Nida didn’t bother to avoid those in their way, forcing the gathering to split in panic and scatter away from the landing creature.

Nida moved like lightning. One second she was riding the wyvern, and the next she was by my side, spear whipping around toward those around us, her teeth bared. The wyvern roared in defiance at the overwhelmingly large force around me. Or it could be that the creature was hungry. I truly had no idea.

I placed a calming hand on Nida’s outstretched arm. I could feel her muscles bunched, ready to spring in my defense at a moment’s notice. Her teeth were bared like a wild animal, though my touch made it lessen into something more akin to a snarl.

“It’s okay, Nida,” I said, gesturing toward the large group at my heels. “They are not our enemy.”

The tigerkin woman cocked her head sideways at me as if to ask, ‘are you sure?’

In a hushed tone that only my paragon could hear, I gave her a rough explanation. “They believe I am the Saintess because of what I did in the arenas.”

Nida paused, staring at me for a good thirty seconds with an expression of complete confusion. Her posture finally relaxed as she turned to really take in the crowd. The crowd had grown even more thanks to Nida’s commotion. If I hadn’t gathered nearly everyone in this part of Sealrite by the time I made it to the bell tower, I would be surprised.

“The… Saintess?” Nida asked, eyes going wide in either disbelief or awe.

“Of the Light Goddess Delilah,” I clarified. “Because I can control… life.”

The paragon stared at me for another minute, and I could see the struggle in her eyes to not laugh. In the end, she settled on a single snort while covering her mouth in a fake yawn. Then, like the reliable ally she was, she played along. In a louder voice that those closest to us and likely those behind them could hear, she said, “I am pleased to see that Your Divine Eminence has deigned to reveal your true self to us mere mortals.” I resisted the urge to narrow my eyes at her. Nida was being way too dramatic about the entire thing, and as she spoke, I began to feel she was enjoying the situation too much. Most of it was at my expense. “The Goddess has always shined her light upon your magnificence. Even in the arenas, you were a beacon of beauty and grace. Your aura was as divine as the gods when you freed all the innocent slaves and shared with us a slice of your divinity to help set this world along the correct path.”

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I swore to Ashwash that if Nida kowtowed, I was going to smack her. Fortunately, she didn’t. What she did was way worse. I saw what she was going to do before she did it, but I couldn’t exactly stop her by force in front of this crowd. Not if I wanted them to see me with reverence.

Nida dropped to a single knee and clasped her hands together. She straightened her arms so her clasped hands shook above her head in a severely overdramatic prayer.

“Oh Goddess of Light. This mere servant of your Saintess thanks you with my full heart for bestowing her to us as your grace. I pray you will help her shine your light all over the world,” she cried in a wavering, teary voice that sounded nothing like her usual self.

My fingers twitched as the urge to cringe threatened to overwhelm me. I grabbed it with the opposing hand and put on a grateful smile. “Ah, my most faithful servant. How grateful I am for your… diligence.”

Nida balked. “Oh Your Eminence. It is not diligence but the truth!”

I swallowed a groan and continued with a placid smile. “Let us continue. We head toward the bell tower.” I turned away from the annoying paragon and resumed trekking south. Without bothering to watch Nida, I knew from the sound of scraping stones that she’d bounced to her feet and was catching up with me.

Words of annoyance caught in my throat when she whispered, “The bell tower is an hour to our left, my queen. You’re heading the wrong way.”

Ah. Fuck.

Without another word, I turned left.

I supposed Nida had helped quite a bit. I could let it go for a day.

True to what she said, we arrived at the bell tower within the hour. It occurred to me that without Nida giving me directions, it could have taken the entire day for me to reach the tower. My inner compass had always served me well enough in the past, and I was sure that I would have found it eventually, but I had to give her credit. Despite having not really seen much more of the city than I had, Nida had put a lot more of it to memory than I had.

“How many have gathered?” I asked Peter.

The nobleman offered me a respectful bow. “I sent out messengers to the other residential sections of Sealrite about what is happening. We just received a response that more are on their way. We currently have a couple of hundred, with nearly half a thousand more on the way. If what the return messages say is true, they will be coming real quick. Many of us in Sealrite are true worshippers of the Light Goddess. Words that one of Her chosen Saintess will be making a speech is bound to draw nearly the entire city in.”

I nodded my approval, absently twirling the Alistar House Coin between my fingers and activating the link. “Field Marshal Marell, how are the preparations coming?”

The response was immediate. “On time, my lady. All guards, soldiers, knights, and mercenaries not immediately deployed will be temporarily redirected toward the bell tower for your speech.”

“Good work, Field Marshal.” I couldn’t see it, but I was fairly certain the man saluted me before our silent link disconnected.

“Any word from Ethan and Nasq?” Nida asked, sitting cross-legged on a jagged slab of stone that seemed to be part of an uprooted military building.

I shook my head. “No, not yet. I’m sure they’ll find the girl.”

“Are you sure that they can take her?” Nida reached up and started to twirl a strand of her silver hair around a finger, a habit I realized she’d probably picked up from me. “I know you crushed her in a single strike, but it didn’t look like the girl was exactly intending to fight back. And she was captured for nearly a week. For all we know, she’d gathered most of her energy back by the time the explosion happened.”

I raised an eyebrow at Nida. “You don’t think our Berserker and Sorcerer can take on the Cardinal?”

I left out Primal due to the present company.

Nida returned my questioning look with a slight shrug. “Nasq and Ethan are strong,” she paused and grimaced. “Ethan is probably stronger than me.” Another pause, then she grumbled, “though not by much.”

I realized she was about to start questioning how the Cardinal was still alive, so I shook my head and gestured toward the bell tower. “We’re going to head up for now and take a look. Everyone else stays here. Make sure the crowd doesn’t turn chaotic before I’m ready to start.”

Peter, his wife, and those Peter had recruited as “peacekeepers” all bowed deeply to me and hurried off.

The moment the bell tower door closed behind us, Nida started airing her worries again. “We don’t know how strong the Cardinal is. You’re the one who always says bringing the dead back to life without cost is impossible. What was her cost?”

“I don’t know how she did it, though something tells me it wasn’t resurrection in the way you’re thinking.” When Nida just stared at me, I sighed. “Full and total resurrection is impossible. Not even the gods can do it. I don’t resurrect someone; I bind their soul to the body, and in return, they must serve me. That is not resurrection. I have no clue what the woman did to come back from having her skull crushed, but it’s likely an artifact or something of the sort. Ashwash knows the System has many artifacts scattered around Graedon.”

“What if she kills them?” the tigerkin woman said somberly, seeming to barely register most of what I'd just said. I glanced at her, wordlessly, for a few moments. Nida was staring at the ground, softly chewing her bottom lip in my silence. That nagging emotion in my gut pulled and tightened at the sight of her—at the knowledge she expected me to say something about how their lives lacked value.

I didn’t know if I exactly cared about the Paragons. My father in Ordite had very effectively killed that part of me, and I didn’t know if it could be brought back or if I even wanted it back.

If Ethan and Nasq died, would that slow me down? Probably not, I realized. But that didn’t mean I wanted them dead. I liked them. They were mine. And I did not tolerate what was mine being stolen from me.

“Then I kill her,” I growled, the words escaping before I realized what was happening. “Then I burn her entire world to the ground, piece by fucking piece.”

There was a stunned silence that followed those words—from her and me.