I Possessed The Worst Character In The Hellish Game
Chapter 23: The Archbishop of Night and Darkness [2]

Chapter 23: The Archbishop of Night and Darkness [2]

"Well then. Now that the unpleasantness is out of the way, shall we begin properly?"

As those words left Sophia’s mouth, a massive amethyst magic circle flared to life across the wooden floorboards as its sigils rotated in a slow, silent orbit.

Then suddenly,

Shadows bled from the grooves of the wood as it pooled and swelled like a living tide.

From that depthless darkness, a scene materialized:

It was a low tea table with a steaming porcelain teapot and three delicate cups, flanked by two luxurious sofas facing one another.

Mikael and Jeanne both stiffened at the sheer display.

’...Did she just teleport an entire sitting arrangement from somewhere?’ Mikael thought.

It wasn’t the summoning itself that stole his breath.

But how effortlessly she had done it.

There was no incantation, no gestures.

They didn’t even feel when she gathered her essence to summon such a massive magic circle.

She had simply decided that a tea table and two sofas belonged here, and the world itself obeyed her.

But he shouldn’t be surprised by this.

He had already seen what she was capable of countless times through the monitor screen of ’Eclipsed Realm’ in his previous life.

He knew exactly who was standing before him.

Sophia Ellert.

A Tier 9 Awakener.

A Monarch.

A woman blessed with a Saint-Grade Spellcasting Talent, which was one of the most broken Talents in the entire game.

On paper, that alone should have made her formidable.

But it wasn’t her Talent that had carved her name into the annals of the Mortal World as one of its strongest figures.

What truly set her apart was her mastery over essence.

Which she had refined to an almost inhuman degree.... a level of precision that bordered on the impossible.

According to the lore entries scattered throughout the game, there were even accounts of her defeating a Tier 9, Primordial Rank Monster as a mere Tier 8, purely through her unparalleled mastery over essence.

The gap between those two tiers was massive---

A chasm that most awakened could never hope to cross, no matter how gifted they were.

Yet.

She had done it with nothing but sheer mastery over her essence.

Mikael also possessed the same Talent as her.

Spellcasting.

And he had even gotten an upgrade of that Talent to the Divine Rank--

Two Grades above Sophia’s own Talent.

But unlike her, his essence control was utterly abysmal.

And then there was his curse:

Soul Drought.

A relentless affliction that made every thread of essence feel thick and sluggish, turning even the simplest spell into a grueling battle of will.

But he wasn’t disappointed.

He had long ago accepted his curse in these three years in Liren’s trial, and not once did he believe that Sophia’s mastery over essence had come easily.

’Every person carries their own invisible burdens... What looks like a simple, smooth summit from a distance might also be a hard climb up close.’

He sighed internally.

’With her rank alone, she could’ve been a Bishop ages ago.’

But she chose not to due to her own unknown reasons.

Sophia swept past him and Jeanne as she settled onto one of the sofas with unhurried grace.

Nyx-- the small cat immediately leaped up onto her lap, curling into a compact ball of shadowy fur.

Her fingers found the spot behind Nyx’s ears automatically, scratching with practiced ease.

She looked at both Jeanne and Mikael, who were still standing.

"What are you doing standing there? Take a seat."

Jeanne remained standing rigidly.

"Your Grace, I must apologize for—"

"For what? Defending your brother?"

Sophia waved a dismissive hand.

"Sit down, Miss Jeanne. You’ve done nothing wrong. In fact, I’m rather impressed. It takes courage to stand against a Tier 6 when you know you can’t win."

Jeanne hesitated for a moment before she lowered herself onto the sofa opposite the Archbishop.

Mikael also followed suit, settling beside her.

As soon as they were seated...

Shadows rose from the floor like silent servants, curling around the porcelain teapot.

The dark tendrils tilted it with surprising grace as they poured steaming tea into the three cups on the table.

Sophia picked up her cup and took a delicate sip as her lavender eyes observed them over the rim.

She arched her eyebrow when she saw neither of them had touched their tea.

"Go on. I don’t bite, and the tea certainly doesn’t."

She gestured at them with her cup, chuckling.

Jeanne and Mikael exchanged a glance.

Refusing a direct invitation from a Tier 9 Awakener.... even one as seemingly cordial as Sophia—felt like a poor decision.

So Jeanne reached for her cup first, wrapping her fingers around the warm porcelain.

She took a tentative sip, and her eyes widened from the taste.

"This is... really good."

The words slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself.

Sophia’s lips curved into a warm, nostalgic smile.

"It’s one of the few things I miss from my hometown in Valdris. The tea leaves there grow only at high altitude, and they have a particular... richness you can’t find anywhere else."

Jeanne glanced at her cup.

"But Your Grace, this must be quite rare then. Are you sure it’s all right for us to—"

"Don’t worry. I have them imported regularly. And besides."

Sophia’s gaze slid towards Mikael.

"It also has medicinal properties that help with essence overload."

"....."

Mikael didn’t say anything and simply tilted the cup to his lips.

The moment the tea touched his tongue, a warmth spread through his chest.... and the last traces of the headache he was experiencing also vanished.

It was different from the healing magic she used to cure his essence overload.

Nyx stretched and yawned as she showed her tiny fangs that gleamed like obsidian needles.

Then she hopped down from Sophia’s lap and padded over to Mikael, winding between his legs with a soft purr.

Sophia watched this with a mild expression of surprise.

"Nyx doesn’t usually take to strangers."

Then her eyes narrowed and glowed with soft lavender light.

"But she practically bolted over here the moment she tasted that snack you left in the Cathedral garden—from that little boy’s hand. I wonder.... how you knew she’d like it so much that she’d come bolting straight to you to ask for more."

"...."

The room itself seemed to hold its breath, and Jeanne shifted nervously and glanced at Mikael.

That was Mikael’s plan all along....

The moment Mr. Dyre’s body had collapsed into a rotting heap at his doorstep.

Mikael knew the Order of the Veil would come asking questions, since he.... his family were followers of Goddess Sableth.

The City Watch was one thing....

They could be stalled with formality and rank.

But The Order worked differently....

They would pick at the edges of his whereabouts, tug loose every buried thread.

And sooner or later, they would learn he had been in Mournwood Forest yesterday.

On the night of the full twin moon, no less--

The most dangerous time in the entire region for an awakener to set foot in that place.

But Mikael couldn’t simply explain to some ordinary captain why he had been there.

The secrets he couldn’t afford to share with anyone who might report back to the wrong ears.

Mikael needed shelter from a higher authority, someone who could wrap his secret in silence and make it stick.

Someone with at least archbishop authority.

That was where Nyx came in.

The small cat purring against his palm was no ordinary feline.

She was the spirit companion of Archbishop Sophia Ellert—

A Tier 7 Neutral Spirit with darkness affinity.

And the cute little furball currently rubbing her head against his fingers was far from her true form.

After all, she couldn’t exactly stroll through the city in that form.... a towering, smoke-wreathed monstrosity with multiple eyes.

Mikael remembered the lore entries from the game vividly.

When Sophia was still a Tier 6 Awakener, she had been on a mission to eliminate a Tier 5 Evil Spirit terrorizing a village.

In the chaos of that battle, she had inadvertently saved a tiny Tier 1 Neutral Spirit that was about to be crushed by the clash of powers.

That Spirit was Nyx.

From that day forward, she had followed Sophia like a loyal shadow, their bond growing stronger with each passing year.

They had been inseparable ever since.

But from the game, He knew Nyx had one weakness --

A special snack that was literally called "Nyx’s Favorite" in ’Eclipsed Realm’.

It was a simple ordinary dish with minimal ingredients and straightforward instructions.

But the effect it had on the little Spirit was anything but ordinary.

The recipe required only two fruits.

The first was a Glimmerberry, which grew only where the Mortal and Spirit World environments bled into one another — places like Mournwood Forest.

Its juice had a subtle sweetness and a faint luminescence that made it prized by alchemists.

The second was a common Honeyapple, found on almost every market stall across Thornhaven.

It was a mundane fruit with a crisp texture and a golden syrupy flesh.

Luckily for Mikael, he had stumbled upon a patch of Glimmerberries on his way out of Mournwood.

As for the Honeyapple?

He had simply walked into the inn’s kitchen, tossed a few gold coins to the startled cook, and politely asked to borrow the space for a few minutes.

The cook had been more than happy to comply for that kind of money.

In less than five minutes,

Mikael had mashed the Glimmerberries into a pulp, grated the Honeyapple, and mixed them together into small, bite-sized balls.

He shaped them with his fingers, rolling them into perfect little spheres.

The raw snacks were a pale, unremarkable orange.

Then came the important part.

He drew a small magic circle, which he remembered from the game, onto a scrap of parchment with essence ink, then placed the snacks at its center.

Then he poured the threads of his essence into the magic circle.

The response was immediate.

The orange spheres began to glow, shifting to a bright red and emitting an irresistible aroma.

He gathered the finished treats into a small pouch, then found a small boy who ran errands for the inn’s cook.

Mikael gave him a pouch of treats and gold coins.

He told him to leave it near the garden of the Goddess Sableth’s Cathedral and leave before anyone notices.

It was a gamble, of course.

In the game, if you prepared Nyx’s Favorite and brought it to the Goddess Sableth’s Cathedral garden in Thornhaven City.....

You would trigger a hidden mechanism and would encounter Archbishop Sophia Ellert.

If you managed to give her the recipe, she might even grant you a favor.

But that was in a game... this was reality now.

And yet, he hadn’t really had a choice except to take the gamble.

If Nyx noticed the snack, if she took the bait, he was sure she would want more.

She would follow the scent and his essence signature from the treat, trace it back to him, and eventually find him.

It was risky.

There was no telling if the Spirit would even notice the small pouch hidden in the garden.

But the gamble had paid off.

Mikael met Sophia’s glowing lavender eyes, holding her gaze without flinching.

"The snack.... it was related to the secret why I went to Mournwood Forest."

Sophia’s eyebrow arched slightly as she waited for him to continue.

"I recently awakened a new class."

Beside him, Jeanne’s head snapped toward him as her eyes went wide.

People didn’t just awaken another class.

It wasn’t something that happened by accident or through sudden revelation.

A second awakening was rare.... almost unheard of outside the oldest records and legendary figures.

Mikael ignored her shock and continued.

"From that class, I gained knowledge. Things about spirits—their habits, their preferences, their food. What I prepared earlier was a simple favorite snack for spirits with a darkness affinity. That’s why Nyx responded the way she did."

"That still doesn’t explain why you went to Mournwood Forest."

Sophia asked.

Mikael nodded slowly.

"I.... went there to form a contract with a Spirit."

"???"

"???"

"My new class... lets me form contracts with spirits. And once bonded, I can borrow their abilities and summon them."

Jeanne’s mouth fell open slightly.

Sophia’s eyes widened, and her composure cracked for the first time since she arrived here.

"What?"

******

(Sophia and Nyx aren’t contracted. Nyx just follows her around. Hence, such a reaction from Sophia.)

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