Bro, I'm not an Undead!

Because of Araeyn's advantages, he managed to reach Hope before the Mad Bishop.

The moment he touched the downpour of purple haze, however, barking sparks poured, along with a grating noise, as though metal was being cleaved through by an equally metallic substance that spun to shred its obstacle!

Replicus' sockets blazed.

In addition to the fact that Araeyn was unaffected by the Siphoning Axis, Replicus had sent him forth because he, much like the Curses, had a passive protection against physical attacks around him.

[Inverted Boundary].

Anything that approached Araeyn would be transported elsewhere.

The Apostle pushed against the falling despair, and in a matter of seconds, even though the friction, likely born from clashing energies, increased, he passed through.

Araeyn looked at Hope with the dark holes on his face.

The Curse looked hideous.

From his back which faced up, flesh had molten off his bones, and he was barely looking like anything more than a perverse mummy. It seemed that the only thing keeping him alive, was the two purple cores churning within him, reinforcing his body.

"You think... I will die... so easily...?!" he said, and another one of his wands flicked lightly, its effect activated. "Come... come and save me!"

At once, the almost long forgotten Ardent Curses scattered around the Cluster were delivered from their paralysis, and within them, an aching urge to serve their Great Father rose. Their energy billowed immensely and against their will, they soared through the sky towards Hope.

Jets of light began to assault the Bishop's nine guards and Replicus who cursed, as he was still caught in the effect of the Siphoning Axis!

"Hurry up, dammit!" Replicus cried as multiple attacks struck at his armour, some of them breaking through. Thrill, whom he was holding captive tried to struggle and urged his fellow Curses to aim at Replicus. This was all he could, after all, he had dropped his wand earlier.

With great effort, the Penetrator summoned Null Life Essence to guard his body when several Curses indeed aimed more of their attacks at him. Unlike mana, Null Life Essence didn't strictly require to be moved through specific channels in his body.

This defence bought him time, and just for the damage he suffered, he refused to deactivate the orb of Distorted Gravity keeping Thrill in place.

He was going to deal with him afterwards.

Araeyn looked down at Hope and searched for the wand he had been told to find. He seemed obliviously to Hope's barking.

He found it promptly and reached in to grab it.

"Not so fast, ugly," the Mad Bishop appeared and grinned. She seemed to be unaffected by the despair entirely.

Araeyn halted.

The Mad Bishop looked down and stomped on Hope's hand which held the Siphoning Axis. She knew which shade of gold it was by now. The wand fell out of Hope's hand as he grunted and tried to turned over.

Of course, the effect of the wand desisted.

"Bright Storm! You're too bold for your own good!" the Mad Bishop shouted into the sky while cupping her hands in front of her mouth. "This is my kill, you know! Technically!"

Replicus who had stopped spinning and began to dash around to avoid the Curses' attacks replied:

"I don't want the kill! I just need one of those wands!"

The Bishop made an 'O' with her mouth and then apologised for calling Araeyn ugly.

She looked down at Hope.

"Fair. We did agree to share spoils from enemies we both felled, didn't we?" she said, and crouched down to the Curse who growled abrasively. "Don't worry. You're in no real harm. In fact, you should be glad. I'll put you good use."

The same glow that had appeared around the Bishop's hand before, appeared again and she pressed her hand against Hope successfully, after all, the despair had defeated his eternal imperviousness.

The glow in her hand spread over Hope and the Curse gritted his teeth chokingly.

He shivered.

He swooned.

He tried to rebel while screaming threats and all, but unfortunately, his intentions were soon drowned.

***

The despair had done.

Araeyn had flown up to hand his master the Flawless Flail of Ruin which he grasped with the Empyrean Ribbon.

Replicus was a little distracted.

His original intent – to learn about the Bishop's abilities – was being fulfilled all the more right now as he looked down below. He couldn't be bothered with the annoyed Araeyn poking him with his Fond Calamity.

The old hag was walking amongst the Ardent Curses who stood paralysed as they did when Hope first appeared. She hopped from one to the next, touching their chest with a hand that was dipped in a stellar glow for several seconds.

She was making believers out of the Curses.

She did it so with such jubilance that one would have thought this wasn't at all a severe case of exploitation.

As it were, the Bishop could induct anyone into her Faith by touching them, even if they didn't want to – though that took a little more effort, and demanded certain conditions – and once turned into a believer, it was impossible to rebel against the Bishop's orders.

With her abilities, the more followers she had, the more power she accrued and its applications were more than she had let on in the previous fight.

Naturally, the one responsible for this current haul of believers, was Hope who stood far behind the neat rows of Curses. He had a stern look to him, as though he was an unfeeling machine.

His body was all healed up, presumably through a healing potion given by the Mad Bishop.

A particular wand of his was raised.

The Fathering Guide. It gave him authority over every single Ardent Curse there was, giving him the power to even control their individual powers.

It was chilling how dark the currently unfolding tale would sound to an outsider without context...well, even with context it didn't sound good at all.

'Well, it's not honest work...' Replicus thought to himself, desisting from being a judge of the Bishop's exploits.

He had achieved what he set out to do.

The golden wand, which was longer than he imagined before – roughly the size of his arm – was in his hands now.

As he finally took it from Araeyn, he found that it felt odd. It was like holding a thick hosepipe in which water was gushing through.

The Flawless Flail of Ruin.

Replicus had only seen its effects once, but that had solidified his intent to not walk out of this Cluster empty-handed.

The ability to disrupt and restore guarded energy mechanisms.

Could Hope have used this against the towering despair?

'Not when he couldn't even point up at its source, I suppose,' Replicus thought.

Thankfully, the Mad Bishop hadn't been stingy and she had given Replicus the wand after having Hope restore the cathedral ability he disrupted with the wand.

Watching this had reminded him what Thrill said, that the wand could only be used by a Curse, which would have posed a problem, if not for the fact that he had procured the 'rights' to that bastard from the Bishop as well.

Thrill was in his possession. If Replicus played his cards carefully, he would be able to exploit him well.

Soon, it seemed the Mad Bishop finished her work and she set to leave the Cluster with her entourage.

Replicus flew down towards her with Araeyn following.

"Ah, Bright Storm! Good show, wasn't it?! You know, this could have been us, but you've been keeping your distance," the Mad Bishop said while gesturing towards herself and Hope who walked silently ahead.

"I'm sure it would have been fun," Replicus replied with a sigh.

"We could still do it. After all, we are in range. What do you say?" the Mad Bishop said eagerly.

Replicus shuddered. He thought she had calmed down, that her sudden better-than-nothing sanity since she began fighting with Hope would persist longer.

"Come on, you must be exhausted after that battle. You should rest. Didn't you even exhaust your Creeds too?" he asked, trying to dissuade her.

"Exhausted? I'm fresher than freshly baked bread! I had to limit the use of my abilities in order to not kill that fellow. Though, if he could use more than two wands at the same time, I would have fought a little harder. For a saint, I do have too many destructive powers. I can't help it. There's too many followers now. Don't know what to do with all the excess strength. I get a lot of Creeds from it too."

"...I see."

'Of course. Why not?' Replicus thought within.

What he had seen of the Bishop was already outstanding, but of course, she wasn't fighting to kill Hope. Rather than Priestess, the Bishop struck Replicus as a Tamer.

'She gets Creeds from getting more people to come into her faith? The gaps in strength between Incandescent Stagers is ridiculous.'

It indeed was. The Bishop was using Creeds unsparingly through the fight. Other Incandescent experts wouldn't stand for it.

On another note, Replicus had thought it weird that Hope wasn't using the Siphoning Axis, Elemental Gambit and Flawless Flail of Ruin at once. The combination would have been deadly.

As it turned out, he couldn't use more than two wands at a time.

"I suppose that bastardess Eaniss left us all behind, hmmm? She missed all the fun."

Replicus' sockets flashed.

"We're in a race, aren't we? She simply played her cards right."

The Bishop merely grunted.

Replicus was baiting a response from her.

He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling the Bishop knew what happened. The shenanigans with time.

"Played her cards right? Well, there is no right."

Soon, the group exited the Cluster.

Everyone else was gone, but Replicus could see his crew waiting on the still clouds above.

He turned to the Bishop.

"We'll definitely stick to our arrangement next time," he said daringly, and before she could answer, he fled upward.