Level Up Saintess

The usual beam of light cut through the sky, targeting the banshee with my [Judgment]. The banshee froze in place as the light touched it, and looked directly up towards the heavens. Maybe I was wrong, but its face looked… peaceful maybe, or like it was accepting its fate.

 

Of course, only a moment later it evaporated into smoke, leaving behind a ‘+100xp’ in its place.

 

I stood there for a moment, unsure how to feel about what I’d finally seen, when suddenly a few more bones plinked off of my [Benediction]. Yeah yeah corpse pile, you’re right, we still have something to finish. Here, I’m on my way now.

 

I marched the rest of the way towards the disgusting mound. Sometimes it threw sacks of skin at me that looked like a hollowed out person, completely grossing me out, but I was nimble enough that I didn’t let them hit or deter me. If I wanted to stop looking at all this icky shit, then all I had to do was just finish this already, right? Right.

 

The corpse pile almost looked like it was shivering the closer I got to it. It almost made me feel bad, like I was bullying something and making it scared of me. Really, maybe I was just personifying it too much because it had… faces attached to it... But yeah, it was really giving off that ‘no, please don’t hurt me’ feel, and I was kinda weak to that. Still though, I couldn’t just let it keep living this miserable existence, even if it was out for justifiable revenge. I’d read enough of the appraisals on those undead it was producing to know that they couldn’t tell your average person from the ones that had really created it, so there was absolutely no way they were okay to keep around.

 

Call me weak minded all you want though, because I still felt like I needed to tell it why I was doing all this.

 

I squatted next to the quivering thing, even as it continued to bop me with sharp bones, and talked to it. I even had the thought that I should maybe pet it to calm it down, although it was far too gross looking for me to actually go through with it.

 

“Look. I’m sorry, but I can’t let you hurt people. Someone has to stop you from going too far, and since I’m the Saintess now, I guess it has to be me.”

 

The thing gurgled and moaned back like it was actually replying to my words, which encouraged me a bit to keep talking, even though the pile didn’t sound too particularly pleased.

 

“I totally get wanting revenge. When Kale died, a part of me wanted to go find the person who crashed into him and do something bad to them... anything at all. But you know, then I realized that it wouldn’t bring Kale back, and definitely wouldn’t make me feel better either, so I gave up on that. I wouldn’t know personally, but everything I’ve ever seen about revenge always says that it doesn’t actually fix all the bad things you feel, even if the person totally deserves it... So I figure why even bother?”

 

The pile writhed and wailed at me, and some of the organs that were hanging off of it swung in my direction. It was a bit hard with the way I was squatting, but I still managed to dodge them well enough to not get anything gross on my already mussed robes.

 

Maybe I’m just talking to myself here and making this thing mad, but… I don’t know. Could be that I’m just saying this to get everything off my chest, you know? I haven’t had anyone I could say all this to, and considering there hasn’t been any cosmic time weirdness, it doesn’t seem like the Goddess cares at all that I’m saying this stuff to a monster, so why not use this time, right? Besides, who knows, maybe this is really helping the corpse pile accept its fate. If that’s the case, then I’d be happy...

 

“I’m sure some of the people inside of you had families and people who loved them, right? That’s really wonderful; Not everybody has that. I’m sure there’s people out there right now, looking for some of the people you’re made of and wishing that they were still alive. I’m sure they wouldn’t want to see you like this, hurting other people without a reason. So please, if you can give up on this, I think you should stop... No one wants to make the people who love them sad if they can help it; Not if they really loved them back.”

 

The pile’s quivering lessened, and it made a small ghostly moan. It even stopped trying to attack me. Can you imagine?

 

I must really be getting through to it!

…It’s nice that my words could actually reach it.

No one but Kale had ever really listened to me when I tried to be the voice of reason before.

...Weird that it’s a pile of corpses doing it, though...

 

“I think you should let yourself move on. Go to whatever’s awaiting you, and be happy over there. And if you have people you love, then maybe you can meet them there too, when it’s their time? That would be nice… It’s what I had been hoping for, at least.”

 

-Until a certain Goddess decided to snatch me away from my peace, that is.

I should be a bit grateful though, since she took me to where Kale was in the end.

 

“If passing on by yourself seems too hard, I’ll help you. I happen to be a Saintess, so I’m probably the best thing you could find to help you reach the Goddess or wherever you’re supposed to be going, right?”

 

The pile squirmed for a moment like it was trying to think about my words. Well, I don’t know, maybe that’s just wishful thinking, honestly... Its sounds and movement so far really lead me to believe it understands, but that could all be a big fat coincidence, so who knows. Even if it told me no somehow, I’ve still gotta send it away anyways, so it doesn’t really change much, to be fair... But I really hope it ends up going of it's own volition, you know?

 

After a short while of squirming and making a small blurble-ing noise, the pile finally stilled. Slowly it leaned itself towards me and gently rested a piece of its flesh against me, as if it were saying yes. Odd though it was, I found myself smiling at the grotesque thing. Really, I’m sure no one would believe the picture we made right now.

 

“Alright. I’m glad you made this choice. I hope you get to be happy, wherever you go. And also thank you, corpse pile.”

 

With this, I wouldn’t have to feel any guilt later.

 

I raised a hand and placed it on top of the corpse pile gently, praying in my heart for all the people that this pile was made up of.

 

“[Greater Heal].”

The corpse pile was covered in a bright layer of gold by my magic, and as it let out one last soft wail, it disappeared like grime being washed away from a plate. A small golden colored ‘+200xp!’ drifted up from where it once was, and all at once the mist that it had been creating disappeared.

 

~~~

 

All the way back to the town, I couldn’t help but think: Should I have used [Judgment] on the corpse pile instead of healing it? I wasn’t really sure what the difference was in the end, and for all that I know, healing it could have just completely erased it without sending its souls to heaven. [Judgment] was honestly probably the safer bet that they would be sent to the Goddess, but… Well, considering what I’ve seen of the Goddess so far… I can’t really say that I trust her to handle them appropriately. I mean, it totally makes sense that I think that way, considering she did this to me. Idunno, maybe I was hoping that healing them would just send them on their way without needing too much of her attention, you know?

 

It’s weird, but I kind of wish I could have talked to that shadow figure about it. It’s completely possible that it would have just slandered the Goddess and not given me the real answer, but there’s also the possibility it would have told me the truth about the situation, right? Maybe if I see it again next time, it could tell me some of the things that the Goddess wouldn’t.

 

Ah, I hope the Goddess can’t hear my thoughts...

Although I guess if she could then she would have done something about the shadow figure by now.

Could be that she already has, since I haven’t seen him interrupting any of my [Appraisal] uses since then.

 

“Saintess… It’s beginning to get dark. Will we not be going in?”

 

I raised my head to look up at Kale, who was leaning down slightly above me. Wow, I know I’m a little short in this life and he’s taller than in the last one, but it still surprises me every time that we have this big of a height difference between us now. I mean, even the fact that he has to lean down a bit to look at me is dif-

 

Oh, right, we made it to the adventurer’s guild I guess… I must have really been spacing out. Well, it’s not like I was doing it for no reason, since I was thinking really deep thoughts. I hope I didn’t bore Kale with how quiet I was the whole way here…

 

“Um… L-let’s go in!”

 

The reception of the adventurers was just as unwelcoming towards Kale as the last two times, which was completely unsurprising, really, so I did my best to speed up my quest turn-in with the person at the desk. Thankfully the receptionists here have always been the professional kind whenever I’ve come in, so they didn’t join in with all the other people who were glaring here.

 When all the paperwork was finished I was handed 150 Riffles, and a small ‘+300xp!’ floated up from the receptionist’s hand from me officially finishing the quest for my system’s intents and purposes. And right after that, I got the familiar two note tone and fireworks that accompanied my ‘level 17’ pop up.

 

Yup. This quest wasn’t even actually that high difficulty comparatively, and yet look how lucrative it was!

I leveled up twice today and I made the most money I’ve ever made in my life!

I can totally see how some of the past Saintesses were completely combat oriented, if the payoffs are always like this.