The use of Creeds to free the imprisoned Curse had come as a surprise to Replicus. Given the evident effort that the Ardent Curses had put in to make sure that Hope didn't escape, it hadn't occurred to him that it could all be undone with a single sentence.
But then...
'It must have cost a lot of Creeds to achieve this. An amount only someone as insane as the Bishop could spare to pay,' Replicus had thought. 'Or did the fact that Musing acted as a replacement ease the burden of payment?'
The Penetrator was unsure.
Creeds were too broad for him to understand as very few Incandescent Stagers were willing to share their secrets.
While he knew they were powerful, he didn't understand some of their more nuanced applications: like Eaniss making a 'Fuck off!' work in her favour days ago.
The Penetrator did know that Creeds weren't exactly portable miracles. While they were Fragments of Rules, they couldn't outright kill or create things. They were more like instruments used to make adjustments not too far fetched from reality.
"Boss. The others are leaving..." Allora pointed out just as Hope tore down the masking and barring over the exit to the Cluster.
Those that managed to ward away the effect of the Collective song rushed out of the gap, taking their leave.
There really wasn't anything keeping anyone here anymore, since the flying Curses who were more or less invulnerable had been taken down.
"Right," Replicus said.
It was time to leave.
The oh so menacing Curse that had been freed from its prison was kind enough to let them leave as goodwill.
That had surprised him.
He had gotten the distinct feeling that this creature was going to be cruel and unreasonable, not that he preferred this.
There were many reasons to follow the others and get back onto the voyage.
Replicus had been wondering about Eaniss and the other Factions, whom he considered to be the core of the Severed Union were missing, initially thinking they were outside the Cluster before he got an idea about the truth.
Finding the time to think it all through was difficult, but every micro moment he spent being a spectator to the things happened around him counted, as the thought phantoms constantly debated efficiently and came up with useful conclusions.
Now that he knew that Eaniss had seemingly messed with time, many reasons for why popped up.
One of them was because Eaniss, who was heavily competitive, had plucked those she deemed most valuable as allies to capturing the masked man, and left with them, leaving everyone else here.
That was likely assumption.
It wasn't like she imagined all of them dying here anyway.
They were merely stalled, and one might argue Eaniss viewed them as safe here.
This voyage was a race at the end of the day.
But why leave the Mad Bishop? Wasn't she one of the core figures of the Severed Union too?
At that moment, the grand cathedral which had been a super stone's throw away vanished, along with the nine angel-like men singing the melody.
The cathedral then appeared around the Mad Bishop and Hope.
While the view of the two was blocked, the Mad Bishop's amplified voice echoed loudly, allowing Replicus to hear:
"How about you join my Faith, hmmm? Shake my hand, and we'll call it even."
'Of course,' Replicus thought.
Of course the Mad Bishop would say something like this.
He immediately sensed that things were about to turn hostile.
It wasn't like the emerged Great Father Hope would consider nine hostile arrows pointed at him – even if they wouldn't pierce him – an invitation to a picnic in the outside world.
At once, Replicus snapped his fingers and soft, white clouds appeared over his Unlimited and Baddan.
"Boss?" Grim asked with a concerned look.
"Get out of here. I'll meet you outside," he ordered.
"But—"
"Don't worry. I only want to confirm something and I'll be right with you. Things are about to get too dangerous and unpredictable," Replicus spoke over Pherdanta who wanted to protest. "Call yourself some cloud and fly out of here. It should still be useful even after you return outside."
Replicus had the ability to share control of clouds he made with his subordinates. For that, he needed to grant them a cloud over their head which had his mana signature.
This was the same ability Grim had been using during his assignment, right when the great trembling occurred.
In this particular scenario, the clouds Replicus had been conjuring to ride all along, were now at the behest of the hesitant Unlimited.
"Go," Replicus said before summoning the [Nullmancer's Royal Raiment of Acclimation] over his body and shooting towards the cathedral with Araeyn whom he beckoned to follow.
His subordinates looked at each other anxiously, before doing as they were told.
Replicus shot into the sky and climbed using the clouds he had created, soon reaching directly above the cathedral and its open courtyard.
He saw the Mad Bishop and Hope engaged in an ominous staring contest.
'I expected the Cluster General to throw a fit right away. Is he actually reasonable?' he thought before using his guidance field to check the creature's status.
[Unable to reveal status: Too great of a strength gap exists between user and target]
'...Right...' Replicus thought with his sockets flaring.
The guidance field didn't think that Hope was something he could defeat. At least not in a direct confrontation.
No matter.
What he was here for, was to analyse the Mad Bishop first and foremost.
He wanted to learn her fighting style, her powers.
Given that she was so intent on having this fine Curse 'join her Faith', she was likely to invest a considerable degree of effort to capture him. He wanted to analyse the process.
It seemed neither Hope nor the old Faction leader needed further conversation to understand where their intentions lied, because nine beautiful white arrows shot towards Hope at the same time.
They stretched into thin beams of light that instantly reached their target from the moment they left the bow.
Curiously, Hope raised one of his six wands... and the arrows vanished without a trace.
They hadn't even gotten the chance to be warped by the protective phenomenon that covered each Curse.
"Splendid!" the Mad Bishop cried as Hope pointed another one of his wands at her; her proximity so close he had angled his wand vertically.
...!
Replicus was alarmed.
The Mad Bishop was instantly turned into white ice, her figure frozen in the same posture she had adopted a split moment ago.
He felt her presence die out immediately, as though she had really... died.
However...
From one of the doorways leading into the courtyard, the Mad Bishop emerged, running jubilantly as she yelled:
"A saint never dies! That is the faith I have taken to! Isn't it marvellously absurd?!"
Hope indifferently pointed his wand at the Mad Bishop again, at the same time receiving nine more arrows his way.
He caused the Mad Bishop's newly emerged body to burst into a scorching blue conflagration that dyed the massive Cathedral in its hue while burning away the greenery outside it.
At the same time, the Curse turned the white projectiles that hurtled towards him non-existent.
Much like before, the Mad Bishop came sprinting from one the doorways into the courtyard, a grin on her face.
As a thick smoke billowed upward from her previous corpse, Replicus' sockets turned bright.
'What the hell is going on?' he thought. 'Is she like Yuyui?'
He would have dwelled on how he genuinely felt that the wand Hope kept using to kill the Mad Bishop had enough power to kill an Incandescent Stager in one attack, but how the old woman kept respawning was equally astounding!
Yet, Hope didn't seem disturbed at all.
How could he not be bothered by a seemingly immortal opponent?
'Is it the cathedral?' Replicus wondered, when Hope pointed another of his six wands towards the Mad Bishop, while the same one he used to defend against the arrows from the sky acted on the third volley of them.
This time, the Penetrator used his guidance field to identify the wand pointing at the old fossil.
...!!!
Without thinking, he turned into a massive bolt of Levin that lurched from cloud to cloud as it rushed far away without even taking the time to tell Araeyn to retreat!
'DAMMIT!' he thought.
A second later, Replicus knew he couldn't outrun what was about to happen.
What was about spawn from that absurd wand.
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