"You don't find it funny?" The Bishop asks the girl besides him, jeering as he points his thumb at the cowering people kneeling before him.

The girl looks to be very much that; A girl. Her short blonde hair is gold in color, and her light tan skin screams of the youthfulness of a child, or someone extremely young would have. Her dress is a summer dress, light pink in color, and one that only adds to her innocent, young, and cute charm. So did the beaming smile on her face and slightly larger than normal eyes, which are currently closed.

However, hearing the Bishop's question causes a brief look of confusion to pass through her face which quickly went away as she tilts her head towards the old man.

"What's so funny, mister Bishop?" She asks, her voice sweet and pleasant to hear, like the feel of spring after a harsh and cold storm.

"How they beg when this is all their fault to begin with, of course!" The Bishop nearly spit in her face as he begins his rant, "There is simply no way for faith to fix something like this."

"Is that so?" The girl now grew a somewhat cocky and smug grin, "I don't think so."

"I believe in the fact that faith can save them. Faith in the certain right things," She raises one finger in the air before turning towards the kneeling people before them, a much more friendly, albeit formal, smile on her face, "We need to guide them. To help them, even if their situation is their own fault. Isn't that our job?"

Her eyes open, revealing blazing red irises with cat-like pupils. There are a few things different, unusual one will say, about her that definitely makes her not a little girl. One is her status, one being almost as high as the Bishop himself, and is his personal advisor. The next is her eyes. A crimson to blood red color, her unusual eye color, as well as pupil shapes, mark her as either a user of some kind of strange magic, or she is of a different species. 

The next thing is her height. She looks young, sounds young, but her height is ever-changing. Most of the time, while she is with the Bishop, she is five point eight, staggering for her looks. Other times, she is the height that her looks make her out to be. The final thing about her is most likely the one with some form of smarts will realize. She is a girl in an organization of men, yet she gets treated like she is the Bishop himself. It's all due to her smarts. She is very intelligent, probably, nay, most likely smarter than the Bishop. She also seems to lack the filtered view most people in the Church have, but her own filter is one which no one can quite figure out.

"Bahh, but is it really so? If that's the case then how come they are not daring to meet your eyes as you speak this truth to them?" The Bishop asks, his eyes bearing holes through the couple in their brown rags and dark brown cloaks.

The girl's expression changes again, almost seeming to the couple that she is looking down at them, before she closes her red eyes and spins around on her heels to face the Bishop. 

"Why, they are repenting. They need some time and some support. However, you are right. Most of all," Her eyes open once more, almost fully this time, as she turns her head slightly to look at the couple. Her red eyes seem to see right through them, but not in the way the Bishop does. It seems like she is seeing, and has seen, every fiber of their being and is daring them to show her otherwise. To show her that she's wrong about them.

"they need effort. Effort makes it all the worth," She finishes, not once her friendly formal smile leaving her face.

Closing her eyes, she clasps her hands behind her back and leans forward a little bit, her attention once more back to the Bishop. 

The Bishop once more briefly studies the couple before letting out a sigh, his grey tired grey eyes closing with it.

"I will give them two weeks. If in two weeks you show some significant progress, we will fund your requests in full."

The Bishop's words leave no room for discussion, and the couple know that. Ignoring the despair they feel, they nod and get up, making haste as they leave the cathedral. 

 

 

. .    . .

 

 

Black honestly doubts that Auola is currently crying, or trying not to cry in the corner, because of her delusional 'manly pride'. Rather, they are pretty sure that it has to do with the humiliating defeat she has just suffered. They're sure that normal people will be grateful for having to live. However, or in fact, whatever one sounds better, the look on Auola's face says otherwise. 

Her cheeks, as well as her entire face, is red in color, and tears are streaming from her eyes. Her face is cute and her expression is pouty, but there is real pain in it. Her typical blue of her eyes now looks grey. The outline of her irises are red in color, and her pupils are orange. And, to top it off, her eyes are shaky and look like a rapid river. 

Every now and then, her mouth opens up and she chatters a bit, like she is freezing or something. Her skeletal hands twitch every now and then, opening and closing or clawing the ground with her fingers. Sometimes she lets out a string of words that clearly have no meaning, only being nonsensical babble. The other times, besides the majority of the time of simple silence, she lets out rather disturbing lines such as "Why didn't I do it?" or "Why leave me?" or, the most disturbing two by far, "Why didn't they kill me?" and "I want to die.".

Black knows that, while they share the same memories and experiences, that they are Not Auola. They may be somewhat aware of an internal struggle going on in her head, but they have no true idea of what it is or how big it is either. To top it off, she's not in her cute mode despite her mental breakdown, so their words don't seem to reach her or, if they do, they aren't making a dent.

...But they still have to try.

"Hey, Auola...Darren....I know you can't hear me very well, and I know that this must be hard for you but...," Black trailed off before shaking their head...body, "But we both know we aren't isekai protagonists. We wouldn't be able to win a fight like that since skill actually exists in real life. But, if you really want revenge, standing here and mo-"

"You don't!" Darren snarls, cutting Black off, "And what's wrong with just standing around and letting everything sink in? I don't want to go and just be running around all the time. I'm not that strong enough to just say "fuck it!" and run along, taking everything in stride."

"So, you want to just sit around here for a while, girl?" Black asks gently, rubbing themselves on her shoulder blade, "If that's so, then we can stay here for as long as you want."

Darren opens his mouth to protest, but whatever comeback or angry stay away comment sh-he has dies in his throat, with a purr coming out instead. He wants to say something about Black calling him a girl but, for some weird reason, it makes her feel really good inside. All nice and warm....so she'll let it go for now. 

The two let the silence go on for a long time. With the warmth of Black on her, their (though she'll never admit it) comforting presence, as well as their comforting words from before all help Darren calm down. It took some time, sure, but at the end, Darren's face only looks like she had just cried a storm and not like that she wants to die.

Going back to it all, Black feels like this is majorly their fault. Auola seemed to be taking the defeat quite well despite being humiliated. Of course, while the two were arguing over directions, Black pointed out, or said, "How can You know where to go if you can't even listen to your own instincts? I mean, if it wasn't for me doing something, you would have gotten us Both Killed just because of You're Damn Stubbornness!"

Auola's eyes instantly flashed red, then started to slowly turn orange before, with a sniffle, she promptly ran to a corner and started bawling. It took her twenty minutes, well, Black thinks it was twenty minutes, to stop crying where she then entered that 'I want to die' state. How long the two were in that room for with Auola muttering suicidal phrases, Black will gladly always say that they're glad they don't know.

 

 

....

 

 

Darren opens her eyes to some complicated feelings inside her. However, after realizing that she is in fact curled up on the ceiling of the room over a fire place, she quickly closes them once more so as to not be distracted. She....she needs this.

Since she first woke up, she has been doing nothing but struggling with her new body. She has assumed, at first, that if she were to keep on pretending to be human that she would retain everything about her. However, even if her first assumption is correct, all that she is doing is harming herself and Black. If she ever wants to get back at the Gods who did this to him...to her, this is not the way to go about it. However, she knows that giving in to her base instincts isn't it either. She needs to somehow do both. She needs to be strong mentally, yet willing to learn about just what she is and, even more important, start acting like one too. 

Nodding her head, Darren uncurled herself and took one look down at the fire below her. How can she...actually get down from here? She has no idea how she is sticking to the ceiling like a gecko, and the fear of literally being over what looks to be a mighty fireplace is kinda stopping her from trying to move less she falls in. She is already aware that, despite what perks, skills, whatever they are, are, that she is not actually overpowered. Besides, even if she is overpowered, or was, she still wouldn't want to risk falling into a massive fireplace, regardless of how cozy the heat felt instead of the blistering pain she ought to be experiencing if she were normal.

Minutes pass, and Darren has still not thought of a solution. In fact, things just seem to be getting worse. Her limbs are getting a bit shaky, and it wasn't from being tired. No, she feels like she is ready to go. Like she just took the mother load of sugar as a little girl and is now ready to let loose. Staying still is only making the feeling worse, and she knows it won't be long before her shaking becomes too much and she falls off the ceiling. It's funny in a sense, how right after she came to a conclusion about her mental struggles that she finds herself instantly stuck on a ceiling due to a nature of her own body and instinct that she has no idea about.

"...What are you doing?"

Of course Black would choose this time to come around and show themselves. And, although she is finding it hard to think it sentient, the undead rat is with them too. Wait, was that a flash of dark green in the-

"No, seriously. Just what are you doing, shaking like that? I don't think you're a cat, Au-"

Darren quickly cut them off, "I Can't Get Down!"

Black was silent for too long...much too long for Darren's liking.

"But you got up there just fine before...And you know how to leap. Just leap down," Black, if they had hands, would be slamming one of them on their non-existent forehead, "It's not so hard, you kn-"

"No, I Don't Know!" Darren can feel the tears coming from the corner of her eyes, "Please, help me or so-"

To which Black promptly flew right into her face, causing her to fall off the ceiling, clip the fireplace, and hit the floor.

"Welp, you asked for it," Black most definitely has a smug smile on, "Should have been care-"

To which Darren's hand shot up and nearly succeeded in slamming Black down into the ground. If Black didn't see it coming, they would have most definitely been made a paste on the ground right now.

"Ahh, shoot. Should have expec-" Black began, but got cut off when Darren flew up and smacked them into the short pillar holding the gigantic fireplace.

"You Fucker!" Darren snarls, her eyes a mess of blazing red, her eyes watery and what looks like steam coming out of her mouth as she starts growling at Black.

"Th-the glowing r-red stuff on y-your ske-skeleton arms are...uhhh....new," Black's observation did nothing to improve Darren's mood, nor distract her, "A-a-and the st-steam a-as well...Heehee...."

Before Darren could pounce on Black, as she was about two seconds away from leaping, a new voice spoke up.

"E-ex-excuse me," A soft yet somewhat bubbly voice causes their two heads...(does Black even have a head or are they all head...?) to snap to where the voice came from.

Emerging from her hiding place stood a dark green skinned goblin, clearly female and clearly much younger than the ones they have encountered so far.

"C-can...n-no, are you the Monster of Unknowns?"

Darren's eyes flash grey for a brief second before turning quickly to dark blue, her pupils now red in color. In an instant she goes into what can only be described as a defensive position, with her ankles raised and every muscle preparing for action. 

"...Unknowns? What kind of name or bad grammar is tha-"

 

We'll Be Right Back To You After This Short One Month Break!

 

 

..    ..

 

 

The girl watches the doors the couple quickly left through, her eyes half open while an unreadable expression forms on her face. Behind her back, her fingers fiddle around, playing with each other.

The Bishop watches her with quiet amusement. Just what is going on in this girl's head? Well, whatever it is, it sure is beyond him. 

 

"It's funny...you know?" 

 

Her voice is so quiet that the Bishop wasn't even sure if he heard her speak. 

"Did you say something?" He asks just to be sure.

"Oh. It's nothing. Don't worry about it," The girl spins around once before settling down facing the Bishop, her eyes back to being closed, "I am just idling about some things."

"Oh, yes," The girl raises a finger up, the same hand as her right eye that opens up halfway, a more smug smile returning to her face, "Any news about the girl in the temple?"

The Bishop lets out a long sigh, slumping back into his throne.

"Please, don't bother me with that," He sighs once more, "I'm not in the mood to deal with that ominous and yet mysterious bullshit of that just yet."

"Yet it was you who gave the order to have her killed," The girl closes her eyes once more as she leans back, her left foot in the air as she does so.

"Just simply curious to see if those adventurers will make it?" The Bishop may not know the girl well, but he does know her enough. Plus, the slightly surprised expression that drifts on her face that quickly changes to one of smug amusement, almost like she is looking down on him, confirms his answer.

"You know me well," She opens her eyes as she says this before going back to standing on one foot, her eyes closed and her usual smile and expression back.

"Ehh, not well enough," The Bishop drums his fingers on the arm rest, "But I do try."

"Don't we all?"

"No. No we don't all try. Or, if we do all try, then most of us don't try nearly hard enough."

Silence set in for a couple of seconds, but it didn't last very long.

"There's gonna be nothing good from interacting with that temple, but it is better than the consequence of letting a girl walk around in it and let out some ancient evil. We can't take any more chances. Not after what happened last time."

"Oh, still afraid of those old Gods now, are we?" The girl's smug and cocky smile returns, "I thought you knew that they were all gone?"

"Ehh, what did I say about trying? I can try to believe that they are all gone but..." The Bishop shakes his head and sighs, "....I can't try hard enough."