One Continent. Four Nations.
The Holy Empire reigns in the north.
The Vaultmere Kingdom rules the east.
The Beast Tribes roam the wild west.
And the Wildlands Federation thrives in the untamed south.
Among them, the Holy Empire stands as the continent's dominant power thanks to its grip on the people's faith. Their religion is followed by the vast majority.
Every ten years, a new Saintess is chosen. She becomes the symbol of hope and the shining jewel of the Empire's divinity.
At just fifteen, Saintess candidates are sent on a sacred pilgrimage across the continent. Their mission is to spread the faith, aid the people and embody the ideals of the Holy Empire.
For five years, they travel from city to city, village to village.
Offering blessings.
Healing the sick.
Guiding the lost.
Their deeds serve not only the faithful but also forge the candidates themselves.
Tempering their resolve.
Deepening their conviction.
Testing their worth.
When the pilgrimage ends, only one among them will rise. The one whose devotion, compassion and impact shine brightest will be chosen to ascend as the next Saintess
It's a position she will hold for the next decade.
Among them, one particular candidate was roaming in the borders of Vaultmere Kingdom.
She walks with poise, draped in ceremonial priestess robes as white and pure as a lotus in bloom. Her golden hair flows like sunlight and her features are angelic. She's an untouchable beauty wrapped in reverence.
Unblemished.
Radiant.
Divine.
At just fifteen, people gaze upon her with awe. She looks like a being from heaven.
And yet...
"Those bastards! Couldn't even spare a single coin for travel expenses?! Rot in hell, you pot-bellied geezers!"
...
She cursed like a sailor yet somehow, she still looked like an angel.
"Ugh," she growled, storming through the trail. "Don't think I didn't notice, sending so many of us out just to save on expenses. How many 'Saintess candidates' do they think the people need? Tch… old vultures clinging to their wealth and titles."
"If we're lucky, we might earn the support of those we help along the way… but most of the other priestesses are just ordinary girls. What could we possibly offer to people of real power?"
She let out a long, tired sigh.
"And…"
Her voice wavered as her expression fell. She looked as if the weight of her truth had finally caught up to her.
"…God isn't real."
The words left her like a wound torn open.
And for the first time in a long while, she felt truly and utterly alone.
In truth, Clara carries a secret that shattered her world.
By pure chance, she unlocked an unknown skill known as DIVINE SENSE. It's a skill that opened her eyes to truths most people will never comprehend.
"Those decrepit fools," she muttered bitterly. "Deceiving millions..."
With her ability, Clara could sense a new kind of energy. It's not mana but something purer. Something deeper.
Divine Energy.
She could see into people's hearts and feel their moral weight. And what she saw in the Holy Empire...
Corruption.
Indifference.
Apathy.
It broke her spirit.
Even the Pope, for all his power, was obsessed with cultivation and had long abandoned his duties.
The Empire's power?
Built on donations.
Maintained by showy light magic.
And enforced by pretty young priestesses paraded as divine.
"Saintess? More like glorified whores selling blessings in exchange for faith…"
Her words were venom but her eyes held sorrow.
DIVINE SENSE didn't just let her see what was wrong. It stripped away everything she once believed in.
The Holy Empire was once the shining beacon of her faith but was now rotting from the inside.
All of Clara's devotion, her prayers, her sacrifices... misplaced. The god she worshipped so fervently didn't exist.
Not in the Empire.
Not anywhere she had ever known.
Now, her faith had no home.
Her purpose, no direction.
But then, three days ago… everything changed.
In the middle of night.
She felt it.
A pulse.
A surge of divine energy unlike anything before.
The Will of the World seems to have spoken to her.
Suddenly, something within her snapped.
Her entire demeanor shifted. The calm, bitter girl was gone. It was replaced by a wild and feverish fanatic. Her beautiful face twisted with a crazed grin as a manic laugh slipped from her lips.
"Almighty God... your devoted follower is coming for you... hihihi."
And with that, she ran.
No rest.
No food.
No hesitation.
For three days, she chased the divine energy with reckless abandon. Whenever exhaustion threatened to slow her, she cast spells to numb the fatigue. Her body cried for mercy but her will refused to yield.
Only when her mana was finally drained did she slow down.
Now on the third day, she staggered through a dense forest, cursing the Empire with every step.
Perhaps from sheer exhaustion, her senses were no longer as sharp as before.
Suddenly...
"PUIHHH!"
She dropped straight into a pit of slime goo.
"Devilspawn!" she shouted, climbing out covered in goo. "You think this'll stop me from finding God?!"
She held some poor fictional demon responsible for her lack of awareness.
Fueled by purpose, she pressed on… and promptly fell into another pit.
And then another.
And another.
"KUKUKU! If you think this will stop me—FUGUIII!!"
She slammed into the muck again.
"Damn it! Who's playing tricks on me?! Maybe it's the Pope! I should learn curse magic and hex his shriveled old soul!"
At last, it seemed the pits had ended.
"...Maybe the threats worked," she muttered, half-serious.
She was drenched in slime goo from head to toe but she didn't care. Nothing could stop her now.
Driven by instinct and unwavering obsession, she marched forward, drawn to the divine energy like a moth to flame.
With each step, her heart pounded louder in her chest.
The air grew heavier. The divine energy thickened around her, cloaking the forest in an otherworldly aura. It was suffocating, overwhelming... and exhilarating.
She knew without a doubt that what she sought was just ahead.
The "real" God.
Her eyes began to glow with anticipation, a crazed light dancing in them as her lips curled into a twisted smile.
The energy surged, denser and denser, until finally...she stepped into the heart of it.
A sacred aura burst outward. The divine energy was so dense it could crush a normal person's spirit.
"I knew it," Clara whispered, eyes gleaming. She dropped to her knees before the source. "My Lord..."
The light was overwhelming.
She was blinded by the sheer density of divine energy. She fell to her knees in reverence.
"I'm... I'm still not worthy to see you," she whispered, trembling. "But I hereby pledge this body and soul to serve you... until death and beyond."
Her voice quivered with devotion and her hands clasped tightly in prayer. Her expression twisted into something intense... something that could only be described with one word.
Fanatic.
"Kukuku... Holy Empire," she sneered with a crazed grin. "Without a real god, you're nothing."
Just then, a rustling in the trees broke her trance.
Her head snapped toward the sound.
A young man stepped out of the underbrush, brushing aside low-hanging branches with a sigh.
It was Lucien.
He had come in search of his Gelatin Shield. While he was at it, he also wanted to examine the Rainbow Slime Lord Statue.
But instead, he stumbled upon... her.
"...Who is this crazy woman? Woah she must've fallen in my traps" Lucien muttered under his breath.
Clara's head snapped toward him. "Who!?!" she shouted suddenly on full alert.
Lucien crossed his arms. "I should be asking you that. Who are you and why are you out here kneeling in the middle of the forest? You do know trespassing's a crime, right?"
He stared at the girl which is completely drenched in goo and kneeling with wild eyes and hands clasped in prayer.
'Yep. Definitely unhinged.'
His gaze shifted past her and then his brow furrowed.
Behind her stood the object of her worship.
The statue of the Rainbow Slime Lord.
Lucien blinked.
"Wait... seriously?"
He glanced at the woman again, this time more confused than before.
'She's worshipping a slime statue? Sure, it looked impressive and felt slightly divine... but this?'
Even if he turned crazy he wouldn't kneel to a statue. Especially not one that looked like a rainbow gelatin mascot from a magical candy store.
Clara's voice rang out with righteous fury. "You dare stand in the presence of God and not kneel?! Blasphemer!"
Lucien stared, deadpan. "...Baffling. Absolutely baffling."
Lucien narrowed his eyes, examining the girl closely.
"Tch tch tch… what a waste," he muttered. "So beautiful yet completely insane. Sigh… why is the world always this cruel?"
Clara heard every word.
Her expression twisted with fury. "How dare you!"
She raised her hand and began chanting. Mana stirred in the air.
Lucien's instincts flared. He couldn't see mana yet but ever since acquiring the Magic Book, he could feel its presence. The book held secrets too but Lucien can't still use magic as he can't see the flow of mana.
No time to dwell on it. He acted on impulse and used SCAN on the girl.
But then... Lucien's face went pale.
"Level 44?! Negative fifty favourability?!"
His voice cracked.
"I'm screwed! I'm actually gonna die!"
Before Clara could unleash her spell, Lucien shouted his last resort.
"Slime Beast Mode!"
In an instant, his body shimmered and turned semi-translucent. His form wavered like liquid glass and his aura meld into the forest around him.
Clara froze.
Her eyes widened. The spell in her hand fizzled as her gaze locked onto Lucien. Her expression twisted, not in anger now but in... awe.
She dropped to her knees, trembling.
"M-My Lord… I-I apologize! I didn't realize… You are the manifestation of the Divine!" Her voice cracked, thick with emotion. "Please, forgive this unworthy servant. I will accept any punishment You see fit!"
Lucien blinked, stunned. "...Huh?"
Clara was dead serious.
Her head bowed, her hands pressed to the dirt. Goo still dripped off her robes but her voice was reverent.
At first, when Lucien arrived, she saw his color. It was an aura of chaotic, unstable energy. Her Divine Sense had interpreted it as malevolent and she had judged him as a threat.
But now…
Now his form was bathed in a different kind of light. The Slime Beast Mode distorted his aura into something transcendent. To Clara, it was unmistakable.
Divine Energy.
She wasn't seeing Lucien anymore.
She was kneeling before her God.
Lucien deactivated Slime Beast Mode.
The aura faded instantly and his body returned to normal.
He cautiously glanced at Clara, half-expecting her to start attacking again but she didn't move. She stayed on her knees, silent and still… like a devout worshiper awaiting judgment.
Still confused, he activated SCAN once more.
Lucien nearly choked.
"Wait—what?! It jumped from negative fifty to... ninety?! And favourability became loyalty?!"
He stared at her.
Clara was still kneeling but now, there was something deeply unsettling about her face.
Her cheeks were flushed.
Her breathing heavy.
Her eyes shimmered with a kind of ecstatic madness.
Her lips moved silently, whispering a prayer or maybe asking for punishment. She looked up at him with glassy eyes, wild with faith and expectation.
Lucien took a slow, cautious step back.
"…What the actual hell?!"