The righteous heroes had been attracted by hymns and set up statues and temples for the goddess. The heroes had raised the saint, who became a pope and then a hero. This was the legendary history—the birth of the Rebecca Church. The Holy Sword was the first emergence of the goddess’ will. It was the symbol of the pope and the pride of the church.

At the end of the Dark War, the sword was inserted into a rock and couldn’t function at all. However, the symbolic significance of the sword was still intact, and its value couldn’t be determined. At least, this was the case in the eyes of the Rebecca Church.

‘Our precious treasure ended up in the hands of the Yatan Church!’

From the elders to the priests, the Rebecca believers were forced to become agitated. Their sacred treasure wasn’t allowed to outsiders, yet it was being taken by a dirty Yatan Servant? This was an unbelievable sight.

[The Sword Stuck in the Rock has fallen into the hands of the Yatan Church!]

[The morale of the Rebecca Church has decreased drastically.]

[The defense and magic resistance of the Rebecca members have been reduced by 60%.]

[The pope has a duty to lead the members. The pope’s morale is unaffected.]

[The Sword Stuck in the Rock has been contaminated with Yatan’s essence! The weakened divine power remaining in the Holy Sword has been extinguished slightly!]

[The Rebecca Church members will be confused for 10 seconds. No actions can be taken.]

[The pope has a duty to lead the members. You won’t become confused.] 

Damian resisted the confusion with the power of the system, but his mental state wasn’t normal.

“What is this...?” Damian panicked at the arrival of the worst situation he had never imagined to come about. He was trapped in a dark barrier, and his confusion was maximized because he didn’t know what to do.

‘Isn’t it an impossible quest to clear?’

Damian was currently fully restrained. He was completely cut off from the outside world by the barrier and was unable to act. Despite the entire Rebecca Church being in a crisis, he couldn’t do anything. 

‘Let’s think. Think about it, Damian!’

As an otaku, Damian enjoyed countless movies, animations, and manhwas, and he had come across countless fantastic and interesting stories. So, he was now contemplating Satisfy’s worldview from a reader’s perspective.

‘It doesn’t make sense that the Rebecca Church will collapse. In a time when wicked people all over the world, including the Yatan Church, are trying to resurrect the great demons, the balance of the world will collapse once the Rebecca Church is destroyed.’

In short, it would be hell. It would be a world with no dreams or hope. On the day of Satisfy’s release, Chairman Lim Cheolho had expressed his desire to make a world where players could achieve their dreams and feel a sense of fulfillment that couldn’t be felt in reality. How could he have planned for this dystopia?

‘It isn’t possible. It is against the will of the world for the Rebecca Church to fall.’

Damian’s body trembled with conviction. At this moment, he realized how big a burden was being placed on him. An enormous pressure weighed down on his mind and heart.

‘The fate of the world is left to one person!’

The destruction of the Rebecca Church meant the end of the world, yet he was the only one who could stop the destruction. Damian obviously felt a great burden. If his spirit was at the level of ordinary people, then his mind would’ve blanked out due to the great pressure. However, Damian’s spirit exceeded the category of ordinary people. It was a spirit that had been trained since childhood due to people criticizing him for his otaku nature.

In the first place, if he were the owner of an ordinary mind, he wouldn’t have cried out in official meetings, “Isabel, I love you!” Neither would he have continued praising Grid-sama despite the criticism of the people. This meant he wasn’t a regular person.

‘This is too exciting!’ Damian succeeded in sublimating the enormous pressure into a joyful passion, and the anxiety in his gaze disappeared. 

That’s right. Damian was also a protagonist. He was the same type as Grid.

‘Think about it again.’ 

Once he realized it was a crisis that could be overcome, he forced his brain to work. Damian thought about it for a while before coming up with a hypothesis, ‘What if the pope was an NPC and the current episode occurred?’

It was highly likely that the NPC pope would’ve easily overcome the current crisis by knowing about it beforehand due to the goddess’ divine message. This was because NPCs had the characteristic of flexibly adapting to already designed stories. However, players were different. They didn’t know the pre-designed story and could experience sudden crises like Damian was going through right now. Compared to NPCs, players were at a disadvantage.

Then Damian had an idea. ‘Players have more disadvantages than NPCs, but they also have a lot of advantages. Let’s think about it as the player Damian, not Pope Damian.’

The intervals between the explosions were gradually shortening, and the screams of the Rebecca followers rang out through the broken ceiling of the banquet hall. Damian gritted his teeth and struggled to ignore them. He couldn’t spare time for the people suffering in front of him and focused on thinking of an idea.

“Kikikik! Kihahahahahat!” Agnus’ mad laugh echoed and his hair had long been wildly swept all over the place from the fighting. Two demons were already dead, while others were injured. Agnus had lost two death knights, with only Lich Mumud remaining.

Yatan’s Fourth Servant Silvenas was also in bad shape. She was breathing hard and covered with blood. A named NPC representing a major force was struggling against just one player. Rose, who was overpowering Chucksley, felt horrified by this sight.

‘Isn’t Silvenas level 420?’

Yet a player in the 300s was dealing damage to her single-handedly? A typical level 300 player wouldn’t be able to push Silvenas to this extent. The power of a legendary class was greater than expected. Rose was filled with a fierce jealousy as she pointed her staff at Chucksley lying on the ground. In the past, he had been a sword that defended the Eternal Kingdom, and now he defended the Overgeared Kingdom.

Rose shook with rage at the fact that the NPC with the golden name had managed to grab her ankles for 10 minutes.

“Due to you, I couldn’t hunt the followers properly! A trash like you interfering...!”

Rose had received some subquests to hunt the Rebecca followers. It was a precious quest that increased her intelligence every time she hunted a number of priests and paladins of the Rebecca Church. As such, she had expected to achieve massive growth from the subquest, but all her plans were completely destroyed by one NPC. The other Yatan Servants and black magicians had wiped out a large number of believers, and there wasn’t much prey remaining.

“Die! Be wrapped in thorns and die! Tempting Thorns!”

Purple vines grew from the cracked ground. Then it happened the moment the sharp blade-like thorns tried to wrap around Chucksley’s entire body.

“...!?”

A knife flew toward the thorn that was climbing up Chucksley’s ankle and cut through it. Surprised, Rose turned toward the direction that the dagger came from while Chucksley turned red.

“Your Highness...”

“What?” Rose doubted her ears. She knew that Chucksley served Grid’s son and that Lord was now around five or six years old. Still, the one at the end of her gaze really was Lord. 

‘This little guy threw the dagger towards the vine and cut it off?’

No, it was too absurd...

Rose denied the reality and once again aimed toward Chucksley with her staff. Simultaneously, a new dagger flew and struck Rose exactly in the neck.

[You have suffered 1,300 damage.]

[The magic casting has been forcibly canceled.]

“Crazy...!”

It was a thin and sharp dagger. Rose pulled it out of her neck and once again turned to Lord, who was staring at her with eyes that resembled his father.

“You!”

There was a monster before her that shouldn’t be allowed to grow up! Rose felt this instinctively and cast a new spell. This time the target of the spell was Lord. Then Lord pulled out a new dagger. The throwing skills he had learned from Kasim before he was even a toddler were being unfolded.

“Kuk...! Cough!” Once again, a dagger stabbed Rose’s neck, and her casting was canceled! The daggers thrown by the little prince didn’t deal her with fatal damage due to her legendary armor, but they were definitely a hindrance. It was enough to fill her with fury!

“You...! You are your father’s son!” 

Rose blamed Grid and the Overgeared members for her death during the Great Demon Belial raid. So, she didn’t have any good feelings toward Grid and didn’t care how young Lord was. She then opened a shield to block Lord’s daggers and started chanting a spell.

“No!” Coke’s and Royman’s gazes shifted toward Lord from where they had been moving through the black magicians. Coke tried to throw himself over to protect Lord with his body. Flop! However, Coke fell to the ground because his stamina was at its limit. Instead, he witnessed Agnus, who had been struggling with Silvenas, reach out toward Lord.

Agnus’ golden eyes shone fiercely as he moved his gaze backward. It was because he witnessed Rose casting magic toward Lord and Irene.

“This woman!”

“Are you selling one hand?”

“Kuk...!”

This was bad. The sight of Rose’s disgraceful behavior agitated Agnus in an irreversible manner. With Agnus’ gaze shifted to Rose, Silvenas was now able to move freely. She moved through Lich Mumud’s magic, reached Agnus’ back, and swung her weapon at his heart.

“Ah...!” Irene’s eyes shook as her son and her savior suffered a crisis at the same time. There was only one thing she could do now that she thought it was over.

“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Simultaneously, Agnus and Coke, who were struggling, apologized for their efforts being in vain. Irene rushed over as hard as she could and held her young son. This was the only thing Irene could do. She closed her eyes and waited for death. Her body would become a shield for her son to live.

“Your Majesty!” Frightened, Chucksley raised his body. He once again transcended his limits as he swung his sword as hard as he could to protect his queen and prince. However, Rose's casting time was shorter than the time it took for Chucksley's sword to cut Rose. Her magic was fired out. The giant flash of magic flew straight toward Irene and Lord, but Agnus couldn’t defend them. He wasn’t in a position to reach them because Silvenas was clinging to him.

“Kik...! Kikikik! Kihahahahat!”

‘Again?’

He had become stronger than before, but he still couldn’t save a woman? Agnus’ eyes filled with shame when a voice reached his ears. 

“Thank you for buying time, Agnus-chan.” It was someone’s holy voice. The person had taken his own life and resurrected at the Vatican’s resurrection point. The voice belonged to Damian, who had broken free of the dark barrier in a very player-like manner.

He fell by Irene’s and Lord’s side and then turned to look at Agnus and Silvenas. A bright golden magic circle rose and destroyed the black magic, forming a shockwave that caused Damian’s white clothes to flutter. As Irene and Lord opened their eyes, they saw Damian’s divine armor under his white clothes. After confirming that his mother was unharmed, Lord smiled at the person who was most reliable to him after his father.

“Teacher Damian!”

“I’m sorry I’m late. I will protect Lord-chan and your mother from now on.”

The grandeur of the pope captivated everyone. He had the light of the goddess’ blessing. This was a man who competed with Sword Saint Kraugel in swordsmanship, the person who helped the Overgeared King become overgeared, and the person who learned to farm after Piaro.

One of the strongest players in the game overwhelmed the people present.