I Became a 6★ Gacha Character-Chapter 544: Honey, Poison, Flame 4

The fact that a direct communication crystal to the Grand Temple was stuffed away in storage told me all I needed to know about how well they were treated.

Despite being a city famous for its adventurers and the Tower, the Temple here was little more than an orphanage and infirmary. Until Irene became a saint, it was just a place where neighborhood women gathered to care for orphans and a stopover for priests entering the Tower for ascetic training. The fact that they had a direct line to the Grand Temple spoke volumes.

Much happened before the bustling elderly nuns finally located the crystal sphere—about the size of a human head—in storage. Mostly minor things, like orphan girls approaching Irene to ask if she had a boyfriend while staring at me with sparkling eyes.

"My word, you impatient child! How dare you ask such things of Lady Saint!"

"But even if she's a saint, surely she can have a boyfriend—ow!"

"Young man, really? Have you finished your cleaning to be saying such things?"

After a small commotion that left Irene blushing and a little girl in tears, we finally received the large crystal sphere. With the promise of a "direct line" to the Grand Temple making my heart race, I watched the elderly nun fiddle with the crystal on the table.

Was this specially made for the Temple, transmitting signals through holy power rather than mana? The elderly nun caressed, pressed, and tapped the crystal sphere with slow movements, like a senior citizen handling a smartphone for the first time.

Still, since it was a communication device, perhaps it was designed to be user-friendly for nuns, as the crystal began to glow brightly and seemingly activate despite her clumsy handling.

"Whew, I thought it was broken. I'll give you some privacy to talk."

"Thank you, Sister."

"Nonsense, there's no need for such formalities between us."

As the nun jokingly waved off Irene's gratitude and disappeared through the door, the crystal sphere began projecting an image with perfect timing. Like a video call, the upper body of someone appeared in the human head-sized sphere.

With more elaborate garments than those of ordinary priests and deeply wrinkled skin, the elderly cleric introduced himself as Cardinal Carol from the Grand Temple. Thus began the conversation between the nun and the priest—or rather, between the saint and the cardinal.

While Irene explained the situation after the ceremonial greetings of clerics invoking the Goddess's blessing, our party members whispered quietly behind her, careful not to be heard through the crystal sphere.

'Isn't a cardinal an extremely high-ranking person?'

'Yeah, right below the Pope, isn't he?'

'A direct line to a cardinal left in storage...?'

Though we were the hero party accompanying Saint Irene, the title of cardinal clearly denoted a high position. From what the viewers were saying, cardinals seemed to be papal candidates rather than just a position, but either way, it meant an important person.

As the number of viewers had increased, it seemed that those connected to the Temple had also grown in number. While I watched them make a fuss about why a cardinal was appearing here, the conversation between Irene and the cardinal was wrapping up neatly.

— "So you're saying ghosts are swarming in the Tower?"

"Yes, countless spirits wander the forest, hindering our progress."

— "Spirits trapped in a space beyond the Goddess's reach—truly a sorrowful tale. I will dispatch additional Temple knights and send priests."

As believers in the Goddess of Life, perhaps they viewed unresolved spirits as victims pushed outside the cycle of life. With just a mention of ghosts, additional reinforcements were immediately decided upon, without further requests or explanations.

※

The Temple was expending more resources on the Demon Lord's Tower than I'd thought.

Looking just at the swamp layer I'd sliced through with my holy sword, Temple knights were patrolling the pilgrim's path from the 31st to 35th floors, constantly maintaining the route. On the highland layer starting from the 41st floor, they were establishing temples in the stone dwarves' underground city and the harpies' mountain city, converting these other races.

In terms of layers, they were patrolling, managing, exterminating monsters, and spreading religious doctrine across fifteen layers.

Since ordinary priests and nuns couldn't exterminate monsters to protect pilgrims, priests from the Temple were naturally stationed across these fifteen layers for security. And now they were sending additional forces... was this really alright? The thought briefly crossed my mind.

"Fortunately, pilgrims from the Empire who came to the Kingdom have volunteered to help."

"Ah, the Empire."

Of course, my pointless worry ended within seconds of Irene's explanation. Just as they say it's useless to worry about celebrities, perhaps there was no need to worry about the Magic Tower and Temple in this fantasy world.

With the Empire, several times larger than the Kingdom and with a plentiful population, suddenly appearing, the numbers of adventurers and mercenaries had multiplied—and the Temple's size must have increased nearly fivefold as well. If adventurers from the Empire had begun climbing the Tower, then Temple knights from the Empire could also come to the Kingdom.

Han Se-ah seemed to be thinking along the same lines as she muttered something about the Empire, only to be suddenly accused of being an imperialist.

"Still, the Temple knights won't be able to arrive immediately, so we should find a way to break through on our own."

"True, even coming from the Empire, it would take at least a month."

While Han Se-ah was busy defending herself from accusations and financial "therapy" in front of the camera, Grace and Katie started discussing the situation, viewing her passionate speech as just another of the mage's eccentric musings.

Even with the promised support of Temple knights and priests experienced in dealing with spirits, the hero party couldn't just sit around doing nothing.

As evidenced by the ghost hand I crushed with holy power, spirits weren't invincible. If they had been, they wouldn't have cared about the finch's noisy chirping and would have entered our tent while we slept, sending Han Se-ah straight to game over.

"If we need holy power instead of mana to fight them, doesn't that mean only Roland and Irene can handle them?"

"Mana replaced by holy power, holy power replacing mana... where have I heard this before?"

"Wasn't it the opposite? That lich creature. It created life force and mana from holy power."

As they continued talking, Grace suddenly clapped her hands at Katie's mutterings, recalling something.

The lich—wasn't that the boss monster from the 40th floor? A dark wizard who absorbed holy power to create doppelganger parasites, with a giant parasitic tree as a mid-boss. If I remembered correctly, after its body was shattered by the holy sword, its remaining skull and skeletal staff were taken to the Temple.

It probably had the ability to convert holy power into life force and mana, becoming something like an eternal chalice that could produce potions endlessly when infused with holy power.

"If it could convert holy power to mana, couldn't it do the reverse and convert mana to holy power?"

"That's true, it's worth checking out."

"Oh, that's right. The Temple knights definitely locked it in a golden barrier to serve the Goddess until it repented."

Han Se-ah, who had been eavesdropping on our conversation, searched through her broadcast archives with the help of viewers. She confirmed that the lich was indeed forced to make potions inside a barrier until it repented.

There was no way the lich that created doppelgangers to insult the Goddess would have given up everything and repented within a year. Since it was likely in the Kingdom rather than the Empire, we could access it faster than waiting for Temple reinforcements.

"...First, let's get that thing back into the shadows."

"Hmm, I wonder if these fang tigers were actually pets kept by forest fairies who couldn't enter the Tower?"

As we discussed this, I firmly pushed the cat lying on its back in front of the Goddess statue—busy receiving jerky from praying adventurers—into the shadows with my foot.

Enjoy the chappy!