The Inquisitor's hoarse, lung-bursting roar was like a grain of ice thrown into boiling water amidst the fanatical and joyful prayerful weeping of tens of thousands of Battle Sisters; it was swallowed instantly without raising even a single ripple.
Not a single person paid him any mind.
Not a single gaze strayed from that golden, divine figure.
His authority, and the majesty of the supreme Inquisition he represented, became an absurd and pathetic joke at this moment.
Inquisitor Heraviel's body trembled violently from extreme rage and the humiliation of being ignored. His face, distorted by fear, turned the color of pig liver, and his bloodshot eyes glared fixedly at the Blonde Girl below, who was being protected in the arms of the black-haired goddess.
It was her! It was this false god! She had used sorcery to bewitch the Empire's most loyal warriors!
"Fire!" he screamed again, his voice becoming shrill and piercing from overexertion, like metal scraping against glass. "I command you, fire upon the heretic! This is the final judgment of the Inquisition!"
He held his Bolter pistol high, the muzzle wobbling due to his trembling arm as he aimed it in Terrania's direction.
"Those who disobey are as guilty as the heretic!"
Finally, someone responded to him.
Sister Katerina, the leader of the Bloody Rose Order, slowly stood up from that black ocean of devout kneeling.
Her tall frame, encased in power armor, was like a black mountain rising from the ground, carrying an unshakable sense of weight. She did not pick up the Bolter that had fallen to the ground; she simply raised her head and calmly looked toward the crazed Inquisitor on the command platform with eyes sharp as a hawk's, freshly washed by tears.
In her gaze, there was no longer the awe of the past, nor even anger.
There was only a deep coldness, a mixture of pity and resolve.
"Inquisitor Heraviel."
Katerina's voice spread clearly across the entire plaza through the power armor's vox-caster. It was a steady female voice with a metallic texture, tempered by war and prayer.
"Your soul is wailing."
"What?" Inquisitor Heraviel barked back shrilly, as if stung by a scorpion. "You traitor, blinded by sorcery, what nonsense are you spouting!"
"I see it." Katerina ignored his roar and simply continued, her voice carrying an unprecedented, absolute certainty born from witnessing a miracle with her own eyes. "I see the fear deep within your soul. You fear the truth we have seen; you dread the grace we have felt. Because that warmth and mercy are things your cold throne of dry bones, built upon dogma and suspicion, cannot provide."
She took a step forward, her heavy metal boot making a crisp, firm echo on the polished marble floor.
"You call a miracle sorcery, and you call the Saintess a heretic."
Katerina raised a hand, pointing at the Inquisitor who was backing away in fear.
"Then may I assume that it is you, Inquisitor Heraviel, whose eyes have been blinded by the deceits of the Subspace? That your mind has been polluted by the whispers of Chaos?"
"You... how dare you!" Heraviel's lips quivered. He had never imagined that a leader of a militant order would dare to turn around and accuse an Inquisitor of the Holy Inquisition in front of tens of thousands of people.
This was the most absolute rebellion!
"Why wouldn't I dare?" A cold arc curled at the corner of Katerina's mouth. "When a deity walks the earth, when the Saintess graces us with her presence, we children bathed in divine grace have a responsibility to clear away all the dark, blasphemous noise for her."
As soon as she finished speaking, two squads of elite Battle Sisters standing behind her—the Sacrament Guard, the most decorated in the Bloody Rose Order—stood up in unison.
Beneath their faceplates were gazes burning with the same fanaticism and resolve.
They looked toward Katerina, awaiting her orders.
Inquisitor Heraviel finally felt a fatal terror. The few Inquisition guards beside him also looked at each other in dismay; in this ocean of tens of thousands of Battle Sisters whose faith had completely defected, their few guns were as insignificant as toothpicks.
"Guards! Protect me! Kill them! Kill these traitors!" Heraviel ordered hysterically.
However, his guards only raised their weapons hesitantly, not daring to take any further action.
Katerina stopped looking at him.
She turned back toward Leticia and Terrania and knelt on one knee once more.
This time, she performed a standard military oath of fealty.
She slammed her right fist heavily against the left side of her chest, which was covered in black ceramite armor, producing a dull, thunderous boom.
"Katerina, leader of the Bloody Rose Order, hereby swears an oath to the supreme goddess and the holy Empress who walks among us."
Her voice was solemn, grave, and filled with unquestionable piety.
"We shall become your sharpest sword, cutting through all thorns for you."
"We shall become your strongest shield, isolating all blasphemy for you."
"With my blood as the guide, with my soul as the oath!"
Following her words, the tens of thousands of Battle Sisters in the plaza, like an awakened black tide, repeated the same movement in perfect unison.
"With my blood as the guide! With my soul as the oath!"
The sound of tens of thousands of iron fists striking breastplates converged into a world-shaking thunder of steel!
That massive, pure torrent of faith, having shifted its target of loyalty, surged into Leticia's body like a bursting dam, instantly refilling her sea of divine power which had been somewhat depleted by the blessing, even showing signs of overflowing.
Leticia calmly accepted this fealty.
She simply raised her hand slightly.
Katerina understood immediately.
She stood up, turned her head, and looked coldly at the command platform.
"Inquisitor Heraviel, as his soul has been corrupted by sorcery and his mind has fallen into madness, is hereby stripped of all duties and power."
Her voice was like a judge reading a final sentence.
"Sacrament Guard, execute the order."
"Subdue him and all the stubborn elements following him on the spot. Throw them into the dungeon to await the goddess's final disposal."
"By your command, Canoness!"
The two squads of the Sacrament Guard, twelve battle-hardened Battle Sisters, launched their power armor's sprint systems like twelve agile panthers. Their figures turned into streaks of black lightning, ignoring the futile warning shots from Heraviel's guards as they charged onto the command platform with a brutal, unstoppable momentum.
Accompanied by a few short screams and the sound of clashing metal, the commotion quickly subsided.
A moment later, the once-arrogant Inquisitor Heraviel was like a plucked rooster, dragged down from the platform by two tall Battle Sisters holding him on either side. His peaked hat was askew, his magnificent red robes were torn to shreds, and a piece of cloth torn from who-knows-where was stuffed into his mouth, leaving him only able to make desperate "muffled" cries.
Order in the Cathedral Plaza was restored with unprecedented speed.
Only, the supreme controller of this order had quietly changed.
...
genesis, Captain's Quarters.
A special incense called "Serene Burning," personally offered by Katerina, wafted through the air. The scent carried a faint, fresh aroma like a forest after rain, effectively dispelling the tension and fatigue lingering after the series of battles.
Leticia leaned comfortably on the soft sofa, holding the deeply asleep Terrania in her arms.
The little one had been through too much today; once the crisis was resolved and the tension snapped, she had fallen into dreamland almost immediately in Leticia's warm embrace. She slept deeply, a trace of a tear still on her small face, but the corners of her mouth were slightly turned up as if she were having a beautiful dream.
Leticia reached out a finger and gently wiped away that tear, her movement as soft as if she were touching the most precious piece of porcelain.
Angronia stood silently to the rear side of the sofa, like a loyal red guardian statue. Her amber eyes never left Leticia and Terrania for a moment, filled with pure protective intent.
Fogremia sat elegantly opposite Leticia. She had changed into a moon-white silk gown and held a cup of floral tea emitting misty steam. Her deep purple eyes were sizing up another guest in the room with great interest.
Katerina.
The leader of the Bloody Rose had now removed her heavy power armor and changed into a simple black monastic robe worn only during prayer. Without her war gear, she lost some of the battlefield's killing intent and gained more of the steadiness and fortitude of a middle-aged woman. Her scar-covered face was written with awe and curiosity toward everything before her.
She stood respectfully in the center of the room, head slightly bowed, awaiting the goddess's inquiry.
"Sit, Katerina," Leticia's voice broke the silence. "There is no need to be so formal in my presence."
"I thank the goddess for the seat."
Katerina followed the instruction and sat cautiously in the chair beside Fogremia, but she only dared to sit on half the seat, her body remaining in a posture ready to rise and take orders at any moment.
"You did well," Leticia said calmly. "Decisive, resolute, leaving the enemy no chance for a counterattack. You are a capable leader."
Receiving personal praise from the goddess, an irrepressible flush of excitement appeared on Katerina's face.
"To serve you is the supreme honor of my life," she said humbly, bowing her head.
"I am quite curious." Fogremia set down her teacup, her purple eyes, which seemed to swirl like stars, falling upon Katerina with a hint of scrutiny. "What made you, a leader of an order who holds the imperial codex and the Ecclesiarchy's dogmas as absolute truth, abandon everything from your past so easily?"
Her question was sharp, striking at the core.
Katerina raised her head to meet Fogremia's pressuring gaze, without the slightest hesitation on her face.
"It was not an abandonment, respected... lady," she chose her words carefully. "But rather... a return."
"A return?"
"Yes." Katerina's gaze became distant and deep. "I have been in the Order for sixty years. For these sixty years, I have prayed every day and fought every day. I once thought that what I believed in was the Emperor's eternal glory and the Empire's immortal order."
A hint of self-mockery entered her voice.
"But what I saw were increasingly rigid dogmas, infighting and struggles between factions, and the boundless tyranny exercised by the Inquisition in the name of 'loyalty.' Our prayers never received an answer. Our sacrifices only earned us cold inscriptions on monuments."
She paused, turning her gaze toward the sleeping Terrania in Leticia's arms, her eyes instantly becoming incredibly tender and fanatical.
"Until today."
"Until I saw the Empress with my own eyes. Only then did I realize that we had been wrong all along."
"What we prayed to was not that distant corpse on the Golden Throne, but a living, warm, merciful will. A true divinity capable of soothing the scars on our souls and responding to the longings of our hearts."
She took a deep breath and looked at Leticia, her eyes filled with absolute trust.
"You and the Empress are our true home. The Empire... has not been for a long time."
Fogremia raised an eyebrow slightly upon hearing this but said nothing more.
This answer was "perfect."
Leticia nodded; she was not surprised by Katerina's mental journey. This was simply a group of poor souls searching for Hope in despair.
"I have received your loyalty," Leticia said. "Now, I need you to do something for me."
"Please give your command!" Katerina immediately straightened her posture.
"Heraviel's Inquisition must have an intelligence outpost or an archive on Saintess Star." Leticia's gaze became sharp. "I need you to use all your power to find it. I need all the top-secret files with the highest clearance inside."
"By your command," Katerina replied without hesitation. "In fact, after imprisoning him, I already sent people to raid his residence. I believe there will be results soon."
She seemed to think of something and took out a thin data slate made of an unknown black metal from her robe, holding it with both hands as she respectfully presented it to Leticia.
"Goddess, actually... regarding things you might be interested in, I might already have one here."
Leticia's gaze fell upon the data slate.
"What is this?"
"A top-secret file I have kept hidden for many years, 'obtained' from another Inquisitor." Katerina lowered her voice, a hint of lingering fear and relief in her tone. "That Inquisitor was secretly executed after being defined as having 'impure thoughts' because he investigated too deeply. And I secretly kept this file."
She raised her head and looked at Leticia, her eyes sparkling with the light of wisdom.
"This file records dozens of unexplainable 'miracle' events that occurred within the Empire over the past few hundred years. Their commonality is that the core of these events were all young women possessing special powers."
Leticia's pupils constricted suddenly.
"The Inquisition unified their classification as 'Unranked Heretics.' The code name for the file is—"
Katerina spoke the name one word at a time.
"—Saintess Candidate."
---------------------------------
I hope you're enjoying the fanfiction so far! If the fanfiction has you hooked and you can't wait to see what happens next, you can unlock 30 or more chapters in advance over on my patreon: patreon.com/FTLGenBen
Also every bit of support means the world to me so if you're loving the ride, don't forget to drop a Power Stone, Thanks.