"Are you not going to answer? If so, I can force you to vomit."
Selene pushed her head closer. Our bodies naturally pressed against each other. Her thighs wrapped in tights dug between my legs, and I could feel the smooth texture of the tights.
In his right hand, he was holding a rapier. The blade had come up to his chin, and it looked as if it would strike him dead at any moment.
His left hand was squeezing my neck very tightly, but while it was painful, he wasn't squeezing so hard that I couldn't breathe or speak.
It was a very exquisite control of power, befitting the name of the 'Inquisitor' of Heresy.
I expected this. I touched the Pope, the person closest to my faith, and he was very tolerant of me for not killing me right away.
"Of course I should answer. But instead, how about letting go of this hand?"
"Why should I do that?"
"...Okay. Let's talk about it like this. Where should I start explaining?"
"entire."
A voice of an eerie tone leaked out between the lips.
"Tell me everything you know, everything, without a single lie. If not."
The rapier's blade glowed a dim silver. Cook, the tip of the blade lightly touched my chin. I felt the cool, cold moonlight.
Just as the divine power of the sun held warmth, the divine power of the moon held coldness. A chill rose up from under my chin.
"I will show you the lowest level of the Inquisition. It is a place where you must vomit out everything you know and don't know. You will never see the sky again, so choose your answers carefully."
"I will do that."
I answered obediently.
My goal was to convince Selene to skip the middle stages and go fight the final boss of the DLC. There was absolutely no reason to fight for nothing here.
"You are aware that when I and the other Knight Commanders had an audience with His Holiness the Sun Pope, the Moon Pope himself was present there, right?"
"There is nothing we do not know about the affairs of the Holy Land. From the very moment the Pope of the Moon visited the Cathedral of the Sun, we have been watching everything that has happened inside."
"Then you must have also seen the Pope of the Moon wielding violence against the Pope of the Sun."
"We all saw it. But it was His Holiness who did it. It is not our place to step in and judge. Are you trying to find fault with it now?"
"What I'm trying to say is not the facts themselves, but the reasons why they had to be done that way."
"...."
Selene frowned. From the Inquisitor's perspective, it would have been unpleasant to bring up the events of that day, so it was natural for him to react like that.
The unprecedented incident of the Pope of the Moon wielding violence against the Pope of the Sun was discovered not by a person from the Holy Land, but by a person from the Empire, and even by a person of the rank of the Knights of the Silver Dawn.
I know you want to make me forget it somehow, but I can't help but frown when you keep bringing up that situation.
"They say that fate cannot be changed. And that we cannot abandon His Holiness the Pope of the Moon. Your Excellency, don't you have some idea?"
"Don't try to get away with vague expressions or ask me questions. Just tell me straight up everything you know. Do you really think I'd fall for such a shallow trick and just keep mumbling to myself?"
The hand holding my neck became even stronger. But it wasn't enough to make me unable to answer or to pass out from breathing difficulties. It was just that the pain I was feeling had increased.
"The bottom line is this. What the Sun Pope is trying to do, the Moon Pope considers meaningless. Even though he is doing it for himself and no one else."
"...."
Up until this point, it was something that could have been inferred with just a little thought if one had witnessed what had happened inside the cathedral, so Selene could only frown and offer no real rebuttal.
I also had no idea why the Pope of the Moon would do something like that in front of us. He could have done it after we left.
If the situation had been that urgent, it would be understandable, but it was also questionable that the Pope of the Moon did not seem to be in any hurry, whether from his expression or his actions.
I felt like I should ask him this question myself after I beat the boss.
"Then the key is one thing. What does the Pope of the Sun want to do for His Holiness the Pope of the Moon?"
"...."
"But this is also an answer that has already been given. Since you said that you cannot give up His Holiness the Pope of the Moon, it means that the relationship has become distorted to the point where you have to use such an expression. Or that you will no longer be able to meet."
"...."
Selene was still silent. Either my words had hit the nail on the head, or she was thinking deeply about something.
In fact, what happened when we met the Pope of the Sun was really just a coincidence. Who would have ever imagined that popes would do something like that to each other? It wasn't even an event from the game.
But as I was thinking about it that night, I came to the conclusion that if I used this well, I could probably skip the middle story of the DLC.
Because the Pope of the Sun was not pleased with my sister's sacrifice, and he had a strangely strong trust in me.
'First of all, the background setting hasn't changed much.'
The reason the Moon Pope mentioned sacrifice was because it was related to the final boss of the DLC, the creature abandoned by God. It was revealed that one of the Popes had to be sacrificed in order to catch it.
The one who took on the role of scapegoat here was the Pope of the Moon.
Of course, as can be seen from the result that the Holy Nation is destroyed without the protagonist's intervention, the operation ultimately ends in failure and the remaining pope dies during the battle.
'In the game, I just thought that both of them were supposed to be like that and let it go.'
Here, the Pope of the Sun, who was supposed to inherit the power, was rejecting that future and was trying to find a way out. It was completely different from the game's story, where both Popes calmly accepted the sacrifice.
This is why I decided to skip the story. If one side is rejecting fate, the process of persuading them will be much easier than the game.
"So the word sacrifice is—?!"
At that moment, Selene threw me with great force. I flew to the other side of the chapel for a long time and rolled over and over on the silver carpet on the floor.
"Ugh?!"
"It seems like there's more to the explanation, but I'll stop here. What I've heard so far is enough to make a decision."
An eerie voice came from behind me. I quickly straightened my posture. Selene, who had an ominous look on her face, was walking toward me with a blank expression.
In his left hand he held the Divine Catalyst. The rapier he held in his right hand emitted a faint moonlight. Soon after, a dark silver divine power began to burst out from the Divine Catalyst.
"At first, I thought you were the type of people who wouldn't open your mouth lightly, and I was thinking of asking you to keep the cathedral's affairs a secret so that rumors wouldn't spread."
The sound of high heels clicking echoed off the marble walls and floor.
"But just now I had a gut feeling that that wasn't going to work."
I quickly pulled out my bloody sword. As soon as I raised the weapon, a silver flash of light appeared. I instinctively placed my arm in the path of the flash.
-Chae-ae-aeng!
A sharp sound, like a glass window shattering, and a strong shock shot through my arm. A silver flash that had just come in. It was one of the patterns that appeared in the boss battle of the Inquisitor.
It was no different from a signal to fight like this, but I actually let out a sigh of relief inside.
'If you didn't stab me right away, you're more than halfway there.'
I was most worried that Selene might stab me to death while listening to the story, but I avoided that, so from now on, all I have to do is persuade her step by step.
"Why did you say that to me?"
However, it did not seem like this situation could be resolved without armed conflict.
A small moon rose behind Selene as she walked toward me. A shadow from the moonlight appeared in front of her. The full moon melted into the darkness.
"You could have just kept silent forever without saying anything. But why did you create a situation where we were alone and tell me everything you knew?"
Another moon rose. On the left. On the right. And overhead.
"Why did you do that?"
Inside the chapel, there were as many as four full moons rising.
"What you know is a secret that must never be revealed to the outside world. But you seem far from being a man of few words. So, I can never trust the oath of silence you will take."
The tip of the rapier was pointed at me.
I had anticipated this situation. If it were the Inquisitor, he would kill me to prevent the Pope's sacrifice from leaking out.
As word spreads that one of the Popes must be sacrificed, the question of why will inevitably follow, and the rumors will snowball to uncontrollable proportions.
It was a problem whether they revealed the existence of the monster sleeping underground, and it was a problem whether they didn't. Either way, it was no different from having all of their previous beliefs completely denied.
"I know that the Emperor has great interest in you. Even taking that into account, I will do what I must do now, even if it means giving my life to an angry Emperor."
Selene assumed the rapier's signature charging stance. Then, silver rapiers of the same shape emerged from the moons floating all around.
"You must come with me to the Inquisition."
I took a stance, slightly lowering the tip of my sword. Persuasion didn't work right away, but I had a separate plan for this situation. I had no intention of having a boss fight with Selene here.
It was time to skip the explanation and get straight to the main point.
Selene charged, drawing a silvery trajectory. Once. Just once. I only had to deflect it. At that moment, I brought my sword into the attack trajectory and shouted loudly.
"If there is a way that doesn't involve sacrifice!"
-Jjaeng!
The bloody blade clashed with the rapier, creating a bloody cracking sound. The tip of the blade stopped right in front of me, and the fake attacks flying towards me blinked and disappeared.
The rising full moon had set. Only a faint, dark silver color was once again present inside the chapel. The sacred power surrounding the rapier and the sacred power flowing through the sacred catalyst had disappeared.
I lowered my raised voice and opened my mouth again in a calm voice.
"If you brought it up because there was a way to catch that monster without the sacrifice of His Holiness the Pope, what would you do?"
Selene's eyes trembled.
"...yes?"