Just escaped the fatal beast tide outside, only to run into a fiery one the moment she ducked into a cave.
Was that 8 points of Luck on her panel just for show?
And she had the nerve to brag about being the Goddess's favored daughter?
Bah!
If you were my old man, I’d seriously pull the plug on your oxygen tank when you get old!
The original host's memories contained information on magical beasts like the Flame Dog—a fire-attribute magical beast that not only possessed fire spells, but also had a natural immunity to fire magic.
It was a complete counter to her!
Logically, she should just lie down and wait for death.
Except... Lilian narrowed her eyes. A fully grown Flame Dog should be red all over, with sparks sputtering from every part of its body.
Yet the creature in front of her had drab black fur all over, save for a ring of fluff around its neck and the tip of its tail emitting a few tiny sparks.
This was clearly a pup that had barely crossed the threshold into the First Rank!
Its overall resistances hadn't fully developed, and it couldn't even use magic yet!
She could take it!
The standoff didn't last three seconds before the Flame Dog kicked off the charred rock with all four paws and lunged at the two of them!
Lilian acted with swift hands and sharp eyes. Raising her right foot, she planted a flying kick right on the little nun's butt, sending Clara tumbling firmly back into the passage.
She took advantage of the momentum to slide half a step sideways, turning her right wrist to spark a bright white fireball in her palm.
“Go!”
Dragging a wave of heat, the fireball shot from her hand.
Unprepared for this move, the Flame Dog had nowhere to leverage itself mid-air, taking the hit straight to its soft underbelly!
With a dull thud, the shockwave flipped the large dog over, sending it rolling more than two meters across the gravel bed.
Large patches of its black fur were scorched and curled, leaving blackened bloody gashes across its soft belly.
Digging its four paws into the gravel, the Flame Dog flipped back up, a violent, low growl rumbling from deep within its throat as its blood-red eyes glared at Lilian.
Lilian's eyes lit up.
There was a chance!
The spots where this beast hadn't grown red fur couldn't withstand her white flame at all!
Her mana had recovered somewhat during her desperate sprint earlier; all told, she could still toss out six or seven more Sparks.
However, the exchange that followed shattered her expectations.
A First-Rank magical beast was ultimately no brainless slime from the roadside.
Having suffered a painful blow, the Flame Dog no longer lunged straight forward. Instead, it stayed low, rapidly circling the edges of the spacious stone hall.
Not only was this bastard lightning fast, but it also predicted her positioning!
Lilian cautiously hurled three Sparks in succession. The first slammed straight into the rock wall, shattering into ashes, while the remaining two hit their target but merely scorched its fur.
After several rounds of dodging and weaving around the stone hall, compounded by the fact that her stamina hadn't fully recovered from fleeing, Lilian felt as though her legs were filled with lead.
Seizing the window when her strength gave out, the Flame Dog lunged forward and swiped with a paw!
Lilian had barely raised her arms to block before an immense force surged through her forearms and straight into her chest, sending her flying backward until her back slammed hard against the rough rock wall!
Cough!
A mouthful of copper-tasting blood trickled down the corner of her mouth.
Her internal mana had run completely dry; at most, she could squeeze out one final Spark.
By contrast, although the big dog across from her was scorched all over, its four legs were planted firmly on the ground, panting heavily with energy to spare.
The vicious dog took step after step toward the girl slumping against the wall.
Was she going to kick the bucket here?
Lilian raised a hand to wipe the blood from her chin and let out a light laugh.
The ruthless streak deep in her bones shot straight up to her crown.
Even if I really am going to die in this damn dog hole today, I'm taking a bite out of this beast's flesh to taste it before I go!
She clenched her fists, and just as the last weak wisps of white light began to gather between her fingers, a fist-sized chunk of gravel flew through the air and struck the vicious dog squarely in the face!
Smack!
“Don't you dare hurt Lady Saintess!!”
At the mouth of the passage, Clara desperately hurled rocks at the vicious dog with both hands, shaking like a leaf, her screams laced with tears.
This little nun was so stubborn it made her head ache.
That kick earlier had clearly sent her out of danger, yet she had scrambled and crawled all the way back on her own!
Struck by the stone, the enraged Flame Dog whipped its head around, abandoning Lilian against the wall. Turning its massive body, it opened a mouth full of fangs and lunged straight for the little nun at the passage entrance!
Clara's legs buckled; she collapsed onto the pile of gravel and screwed her eyes shut tight.
“Clara!”
Right at that moment—
Every movement in her field of vision froze dead in mid-air.
The massive black dog pouncing mid-air, the kicked-up gravel and dust, even the single tear drop flung from the corner of Clara's eye—everything hung motionless in the air.
The light inside the entire stone hall dimmed, as if someone had hit a pause button on reality.
...
A few minutes earlier, at the main gate of Morningbell City.
White doves fluttered their wings as they swept past the white stone spires, and the heavy hammers of the clock tower struck the massive bronze bell again and again.
Dense crowds of fanatical believers packed both sides of the main avenue, with flowers blanketing half the street like fallen leaves.
Eleanor, Vice Bishop of Morningbell City, attended in person at the flank, hands extended cautiously to lead the way ahead.
Surrounded in the center of the procession, "Saintess" Little White—being merely a soulless AFK puppet—stared vacantly with a blank face, not even blinking her eyes, in a state of pure, unadulterated numbness.
Yet in the eyes of the fanatical believers, this stiff, wooden expression was immediately interpreted as divine, untainted purity that transcended the mortal realm!
“Lady Saintess doesn't even spare a glance for vulgar gold and silver!”
“What a pure and flawless incarnation of the deity!”
The foreheads of the believers banged loudly against the stone pavers, and their hymns of praise nearly blew the roof off the cathedral.
The holy light above Morningbell City surged violently. Like a roaring tide, Faith Value rushed through the threads of karma across hundreds of miles of wilderness, pouring into the system panel like a bursting dam!
...
The scene snapped off with a click.
Time snapped back to the dark, freezing dog hole.
Lilian leaned her back against the rock wall, half-buried in the pile of gravel, bitter, bloody threads still clinging to her teeth.
The vicious dog's fangs hovered half a meter above Clara's head; the tear at the corner of Clara's eye was frozen in mid-air; dirt and gravel hung suspended. The entire stone hall was as silent as a faded oil painting.
A pillar of pure, dazzling golden light pierced through the shaft in the rock ceiling, slamming down like a waterfall onto the top of Lilian's head!
Crisp system notifications chimed in rapid succession by her ears:
【Current Faith Value: 621/500】
【Ding! Your talent 'Favored of Heaven' has been triggered, drawing the attention of the Goddess...】
【Next Blessing Threshold: 1000】
【Loved by believers, protector of the weak, kind and generous.】
The blessing of the Goddess had arrived!
Staring at the dazzling 【Current Faith Value: 621/1000】 on the panel, and then at that line of commentary from the Goddess, Lilian's eyelids twitched uncontrollably, her molars grinding until they ached.
I'm getting kicked around like a soccer ball in this pitch-black dog hole, vomiting blood until I'm nearly croaking, while that brainless Unit 2 is living like a deity in the main city, enjoying all the luck in the world?!
As for this absurd moral evaluation...
I literally just found the human traffickers disgusting and cremated them on the side, thought the copper coins on the scorched meat smelled too bad to dig out, and casually kicked an annoying sidekick out of the battlefield—and that counts as "protector of the weak, kind and generous"?
This otherworldly deity's eyes must be blinded by twenty pounds of cataracts!
Cursing aside, she had to admit—Little White fucking nailed it!
It was a literal lifesaver pulling her out of deep fire—as for where the fire came from in the first place, never mind that for now.
Three cards wrapped in rainbow-colored light floated out of the pillar of light, suspending right before Lilian's eyes.
The faces of the cards were veiled in a layer of dancing, holy mist, silently waiting for her to flip and choose.
Lilian took a deep breath. Life or death rested entirely on this blessing!
Rate on N.U.
