Interlude: Phase One.

A full twenty-four hours had passed since the catastrophic, suffocating wave of dark mana had washed over the capital city of Oakhaven.

Inside the opulent, heavily fortified Royal Palace, the Chosen Hero of the Light was currently hiding under his blankets.

Back when the apocalyptic aura of Aldmax had descended upon the city the previous afternoon, causing holy statues to crack and the Cathedral bells to toll on their own, panic had erupted in the streets.

The Royal Guard had immediately rushed to Nick’s lavish quarters, expecting the Hero to draw his legendary blade and lead them into battle against the encroaching evil.

Instead, they found Nick barricading his own bedroom door with a heavy oak dresser.

"D-Do not fear!" Nick had shouted through the thick wood, his voice cracking noticeably. "I am... I am performing a highly advanced, secret ritual to seal this magic! I must remain in my chambers to contain the evil! Do not disturb me, or the spell will break, and we will all die!"

It was a pathetic, desperate lie, but the guards, blinded by the System's narrative, had believed him and stood watch outside his door.

"D-Do your best, Sir Nick! Save us!" One of them shouted.

"Me, Sir Loin and Knight Light will defend you with all of our might!" The other one said, followed by the sound of swords unsheathing.

Now, the morning sun was filtering through the high windows, but Nick felt no warmth. He lay in a tangled mess of silk sheets, his eyes bloodshot, shivering as he stared at the ceiling. He wasn't traumatized by the dark aura that had covered the city.

He was traumatized by the memory of a dirty, cheap adventurer in a brown cloak.

Nick pulled his hands out from under the blanket, staring at his palms. He had used his ultimate, mana-charged strike. He had swung with the intent to kill. And that... that nobody had stopped his blade with two fingers.

"He was just a Level 35 NPC," Nick muttered to himself, his teeth grinding. "He was nobody. A background character. A generic idiot. How did he do that? Did he use a glitch? An exploit? I am the Chosen One!"

A familiar, chiming sound echoed in his mind. The LitRPG System, completely oblivious to his mental breakdown, violently assaulted his vision with a barrage of translucent blue windows.

[SYSTEM ALERT: Heroic Reputation Decreased!]

[Public Affinity in Oakhaven has dropped by 15% due to your absence during the 'Dark Eclipse' event.]

[ERROR: Harem Synergy buff is currently inactive. Party members are out of range.]

"Shut up," Nick groaned, trying to swipe the notifications away.

But the System wasn't finished. With a burst of golden, triumphant light, a massive new window materialized above his bed, accompanied by a fanfare of trumpets that made Nick wince.

[MAIN SCENARIO UPDATED!]

[New Quest Triggered: Revenge, Redemption, and Harem!]

[Description: A terrifying new dungeon has spawned in the Northern Sector, protected by a Dark Lord whose aura matches the very miasma that choked the capital yesterday! The time for hiding is over. You must strike down this evil, reclaim your honor, and expand your legend!]

[Objective: Capture the new Northern Dungeon and defeat the anomalous entities inside.]

[Reward: +50,000 EXP, Break Level 100 cap, Legendary Weapon Upgrade, and guaranteed Affection Boost with the captured damsel!]

Nick stared at the quest. The System was practically begging him to fight the source of that terrifying aura, and the very idea made his stomach churn with cold, liquid terror.

"I can't go alone," Nick muttered, frantically sitting up and reaching for the communication crystal resting on his bedside table. "I need my meat shields... I mean, my beloved party."

He infused the crystal with heroic mana, dialing the magical frequency of his premier vanguard fighter, Egel.

The crystal buzzed. And buzzed... and then went to the magical equivalent of voicemail.

-

Miles away, in her private training quarters, Egel was surely not preparing for a crusade.

The usually stoic, battle-hardened warrior was pacing back and forth across her room, her face flushed a deep, feverish crimson. She wasn't holding her weapon; she was holding her own cheeks.

“Those eyes...” Egel whispered to herself, panting heavily. “The way he looked at me when he dodged my undodgeable attack... I was nothing but an insect fighting a God. The sheer, overwhelming, suffocating pressure he emitted when he blocked Nick's strike... Oh, Goddess... I’ve never felt so beautifully insignificant. I used to be the strongest... nobody has ever managed to dodge my hits in hand-to-hand combat...” She had spent the entire night rolling around in her bed, trying and failing to calm her wildly muscle-mommy, raging hormones.

The memory of Kaitoyama’s cold, deadpan dismissal had awakened a deep, dormant, and highly concerning masochistic switch within the elite vanguard. She ignored the buzzing crystal entirely, too busy fantasizing about being audited by a man who didn't care about her stats.

-

Nick cursed, switching the frequency to Luna, his genius strategist and mage.

The crystal buzzed endlessly, finally returning a flat [CONNECTION REFUSED] error.6

-

Deep within the ancestral vaults of her noble family’s estate in Oakhaven, Luna was currently stuffing priceless, legendary artifacts into an expanded dimensional pouch.

She had a glowing, magical spreadsheet floating in front of her, calculating the capital's gross domestic product against the projected logistical superiority of the man who had effortlessly humiliated Nick.

“The Hero’s party operates on an unsustainable business model fueled by plot armor and luck,” Luna muttered, adjusting her glasses as she tossed a Crown of Wisdom into the sack. “The man at the guild, however... his calculated cruelty, his calm and perfect demeanor, the way he completely dismantled Nick’s authority without drawing a weapon... that is upper-management material. I need to prepare a severance package and a resume. I will defect at the first profitable opportunity. I must know everything about him.”

After that, Luna immediately cast a strange spell on herself called [Mystical Item Shroud], which allowed her to hide her items' aura from any scanning skill, meaning that she could steal everything in this world.

"System, what is going to happen?" Luna asked to the air, before a purple window stood in front of her.

[SYSTEM REPLY: Wait for new orders and do not reply to Nick.]

"Well, Okay. Fine." She sighed before sitting on the bed, doing nothing, until her stomach started to hurt.

'Shit-! Not now! The toilets in this world are disgusting!" She exclaimed, standing up from the bed.

Luna then stared at the ceiling while hugging her legs. "In all my years of adventuring, when I came into this world, I've faced dragons, werewolves, and demons. But nothing... nothing has ever terrified me like a medieval toilet. Everyone is good at world-building when it comes to monster and edgy bosses, but no one has ever cared about hygienic services. I hate this world—Fuck!" The cramps became worse, and she immediately ran off towards her worst enemy.

-

Sweating profusely now, Nick dialed his last hope: Lucretia, the clumsy but devoted cleric.

The crystal connected.

"Lucretia! Thank the Goddess!" Nick yelled into the stone. "Listen, I need you to—"

From the other end of the crystal, there was the distinct sound of a foot catching on a rug, followed by a loud, echoing CRASH, the shattering of a vase, and a high-pitched squeak. Then, absolute silence.

She had tripped over her own robes and knocked herself completely unconscious.

Nick dropped the crystal onto the bed.

'This is a nightmare. Tomorrow I'll wake up and be back at my lake house in California. Please, God, make it real.'

The Chosen One was literally alone. His party wasn't answering, and the System was demanding that he fight a Dark Lord, while he was still terrified of a Level 35 rogue.

"They're... they're probably just busy preparing for the expedition," Nick lied to himself, his voice trembling as he forced himself out of bed. "Yes. That's it. I am the Chosen One. I'll go to the Church and stall for time."

Meanwhile, in the highest, most heavily warded chamber of the Cathedral of Light, Archbishop Gigglesniff was having a meltdown.

The Scrying Room, a vast circular chamber lined with holy relics and stained glass, was a disaster. The terrifying wave of dark mana from the previous day had completely bypassed their holy wards.

The sacred, constantly blooming white lotuses in the indoor garden had withered into black ash, and the marble statues of past saints had deep, jagged cracks running down their faces.

"Unacceptable! Absolutely unacceptable!" Gigglesniff roared, spittle flying from his lips as he paced around the massive, glowing scrying orb in the center of the room. "The miasma of the Abyss choked the capital, and we did nothing! The people are terrified! The donations have dropped by four percent this morning alone! Aldmax is back, and in the past weeks we did nothing! Sir Nick didn't do anything! It has been a while since he killed a monster! Go to call him now, Cardinal Sin!"

"At your orders, Archbishop." The young cardinal immediately ran out of the room and ran towards Nick's place.

Meanwhile, surrounding the orb were six high-ranking clairvoyant priests, their eyes rolled back in their heads, chanting frantically as they channeled their mana into the magical sphere.

"We have localized the source of the anomaly, Your Eminence!" the head priest gasped, blood trickling from his nose due to the sheer distance of the scrying spell. "It is an uncharted dungeon in the Northern Sector. Twenty kilometers away."

"Show me! Right now!" Gigglesniff demanded.

The glowing orb shifted, projecting a large, three-dimensional holographic image into the center of the room. It showed the exterior of a massive, foreboding dungeon entrance made of black stone.

But what caught their attention wasn't the dungeon itself. It was the figure chained to a post just outside the entrance.

It was a young woman. She had vibrant, fiery red hair tied into elaborate, elegant twintails. She wore a tattered, frilly dress that looked suspiciously like royal attire, and her crimson eyes were wide with perfectly acted, exaggerated terror. She was looking at the sky and crying out in distress.

"By the Light..." Gigglesniff gasped. "Is that...?"

"The facial recognition spell confirms it, Your Eminence," a priest reported. "It is Princess Pyroetta Von Serylda, from the Kingdom of Serylda, who was sold to us for a grain's debt! Kaitoyama told us about her disappearance! He was telling the truth! The Dark Lord must have kidnapped her and is holding her hostage to mock us!"

(Author's Note: Pyroas was currently having the time of her life. After being healed by Ugo and properly 'thanked' by her Lord ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), she had eagerly volunteered for Kaito’s new psychological warfare campaign. She was currently playing the part of her old Mosquito-Self, pretending to be a damsel in distress, while Larry, who was back from the dungeon, stood just off-camera holding a script cue-card for her, giving random thumbs up to cheer her up. The poor janitor thought that she was really in panic.)

Luketto, the non-depressed-but-now-happy Golem, was randomly smashing and throwing rocks while shouting random things.

The worst part? You could hear a malicious laugh in the background.

Suddenly, the heavy doors of the Scrying Room slammed open.

Nick walked in, wearing his gleaming, legendary silver armor. He struck a heroic pose, but his face was pale, and his knees were visibly trembling beneath his greaves. Cardinal Sin stood behind him, admiring him with saliva drooling from his mouth.

"You summoned me, Archbishop?" Nick asked, trying to sound deep and commanding.

"Ah, the Chosen Hero!" Gigglesniff turned, his frantic expression morphing into one of desperate relief. He then pointed at the holographic projection. "Look! The source of yesterday's terror has been found. The Dark Lord has claimed a dungeon in the North, and he holds Princess Pyroetta captive! This is your moment, Nick. You must ride out immediately, strike down this evil, and rescue the royal hostage! And... there's no mistake, this is Aldmax!"

Nick looked at the projection, then at the massive black gates, and, at last, at the readings scrolling next to the orb, which indicated an SSS-Rank threat level with an anomalous, unquantifiable dark aura.

Nick swallowed hard. His throat felt like sandpaper.

"W-Well..." Nick stammered, stepping back slightly, his heroic posture deflating. "Let's... let's not be too hasty, Your Eminence."

Gigglesniff blinked, utterly confused. "Hasty? The Princess is chained to a rock!"

"Yes, but think about it strategically!" Nick argued, his voice rising in panic as he desperately searched for an excuse. "But let's just leave them there! As long as they don't come to the capital, they aren't an immediate problem, right? We don't know who they are, or how strong this 'Dark Lord' really is! It could be a trap!"

The clairvoyant priests stopped their chanting, turning to stare at the Hero in stunned silence.

"Leave them there?!" Gigglesniff sputtered, his face turning purple. "Are you mad? You are the Hero! Your quest is to vanquish evil since there's no one stronger than you canonically!"

"And I will!" Nick squeaked, holding up his hands defensively. "But I need to be prepared! I should stay here, in the capital. I need to... to train! Yes, I need to train in the royal courtyard so I can be as prepared as possible when the time is right to strike! Rushing in now would be foolish!"

It was the most pathetic, transparent display of cowardice the Church had ever witnessed. Nick was literally trying to grind low-level training dummies in the safe zone while a Princess was waiting to be rescued.

Before Gigglesniff could unleash a tirade of holy fury upon the cowardly Hero, the heavy oak doors of the chamber slowly groaned open once more.

Minutes earlier, in the opulent, silent hallway leading to the Scrying Room, Lucy walked alone.

She wore her pristine, heavy white cloak, the gold trim gleaming in the morning light. Her hair was perfectly styled, her posture immaculate. From the outside, she was the flawless, untouched Immaculate Saintess.

But as she walked, her hand unconsciously drifted downward, resting gently against her flat belly.

She stopped in the middle of the empty corridor and looked down at her hand, a profound, heavy sorrow washing over her features.

The memories of Earth, after her talk with Kaito, were now razor-sharp.

For a second, the world around her felt distant, totally muted.

And in the moment, a memory surfaced without permission.

A morning, a dull nausea, a delay, and a truth she had held in trembling hands… and never found the courage to speak out loud.

Her fingers tightened slightly.

Then… they stilled.

Lucy lowered her gaze, but said nothing.

"...There’s still something I never told you, Kaito." She whispered

When she raised her eyes again, there was no hesitation left.

Only the Saintess.

She closed her eyes, took a slow, deep breath, adjusted her cloak, and then spoke to the system.

"System," she whispered, "Equip [Saintess Holy Veil],"

[ITEM EQUIPPED: SAINTESS HOLY VEIL]

[Legendary. Soul-bound.]

[A ceremonial cap with two long veils of white silk, said to have been blessed by the Goddess herself. The veils do not obscure the wearer's vision—they reveal truth hidden in others' intentions. But to those who look upon her, only a blinding haze of holy light remains, keeping the Saintess's intention hidden.]

[Passive Effect: Aura of the Unseen. Your face cannot be remembered. Your expression cannot be read. You are the Pure Saintess, not a person.]

Lucy opened her eyes.

Through the white silk, the world appeared sharper, clearer. She could see the faint golden threads of mana in the walls, the tiny cracks in the marble floor, and the slight tremor in the hands of the guards standing at attention.

But when she looked at her own reflection in a polished shield mounted on the wall, she saw only a silhouette. A shape wrapped in light. A mask of divinity.

No guilt. No fear. No woman who had already buried a future that never began.

Just the Saintess.

She adjusted the cap, letting the veils settle over her eyes.

Then, she stepped forward and pushed open the doors to the Scrying Room.

The argument between Nick and the Archbishop died instantly as the Saintess entered the chamber. The ambient holy mana in the room seemed to brighten, bringing a sense of calm to the panicked priests.

Everyone in the room remained completely stunned after seeing that the Saintess was using such a divine item.

"Saintess... so... the danger is real... you're healed..." Gigglesniff said, almost on the verge of crying.

"Saintess Lucy!" Nick gasped, not caring about such a magnificent sight.

He didn't just walk toward her; he practically sprinted, desperate for a friendly face, desperate for someone to validate his cowardice.

He reached out, fully intending to pull her into a comforting embrace, seeking the unconditional support the System had always guaranteed him.

Lucy didn't flinch or step back.

As Nick’s hands reached for her shoulders, Lucy executed a flawless, imperceptible pivot, turning just enough so that his hands grasped empty air. In the same fluid motion, she turned her head and beamed at him.

It was a smile, the perfectly polite, impossibly bright, and utterly devoid of a single ounce of human emotion.

It was the exact, weaponized Customer Service Smile Kaito had taught her years ago when she was struggling with rude customers at her part-time retail job in Shibuya.

"Good morning, Hero Nick," Lucy chimed, her voice melodic and entirely hollow. "Please ensure you maintain a respectful distance within the sanctum. The Goddess watches, now more than ever."

Nick stumbled, completely thrown off balance by the polite rejection. "L-Lucy? I mean, Saintess? But... I need your counsel. The Archbishop wants me to march to my death!"

Lucy ignored him completely, stepping gracefully past the dumbfounded Hero and approaching the Archbishop.

"Your Eminence," Lucy bowed her head slightly. "I apologize for my tardiness. I was deep in prayer, purifying my soul from the touch of that adventurer. The Goddess has spoken to me regarding the miasma that choked our city."

Gigglesniff’s eyes widened. "A divine revelation? Truly, you are blessed, Saintess! What did the Light reveal to you?"

Lucy looked at the holographic projection of the dungeon, her eyes lingering on the disguised Pyroas for a fraction of a second.

High up in the corner of her vision, a translucent pink LitRPG window, completely invisible to the rest of the room, flickered to life.

[SYSTEM ALERT: Massive Deviation Detected!]

[You are actively deceiving the Church of Light. Alignment shifting...]

[NEW ROUTE UNLOCKED: Betrayer of the Light]

[Warning: If your deception is discovered, you will be branded a Heretic and lose your Plot Armor.]

Lucy didn't even blink at the warning.

-

Earlier that morning, before the sun had even risen, a perfectly mundane, non-magical carrier pigeon had landed on the windowsill of her private quarters.

It had bypassed all the Church's magical anti-scrying wards because it had absolutely zero mana.

Tied to its leg was a small, rolled-up piece of corporate stationery bearing the watermark of Ravenloft Holdings.

The note had been written in Kaito’s messy, pragmatic handwriting, in Hiragana.

'Target acquired. Northern Sector Dungeon. 20 km from Oakhaven. I am using the fire elemental as bait. Send everyone there. Make sure the blonde idiot is at the front of the formation. PS. Be sure not to eat any peanuts if you don't want to suffer from gastric reflux — CEO.'

It was a flawless execution of corporate espionage. Kaito provided the logistics, and Lucy provided the divine authority.

She smiled when she saw that note, especially after seeing the part about peanuts. 'So... there's really a chance for us, Kaito.'

-

"The Goddess wept for the city," Lucy proclaimed, her voice echoing with faux-holy resonance, her customer service smile still firmly in place. "She revealed to me that the Dark Lord who occupies that Northern Dungeon is the orchestrator of the eclipse. He is gathering his strength. If we do not strike him down now, he will march on Oakhaven within the week."

"I knew it!" Gigglesniff shouted, turning to glare at Nick. "Do you hear that, boy—I mean, Hero? The Goddess herself demands action! Your training can wait! You will ride North immediately! Get ready with your party!"

Nick was sweating bullets. He looked at Lucy, silently pleading with her to offer him an out, to tell the Archbishop that the Hero needed rest.

Lucy turned to him, her smile brightening to a terrifying, plastic perfection.

"Do not fear, Hero Nick," Lucy said, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "The Goddess has assured me that this dungeon is perfectly suited for your current level. The Dark Lord is arrogant and has left his defenses weak. You will easily conquer the dungeon, rescue Princess Pyroetta, and solidify your legend. I will personally pray for your glorious, swift departure, and heal you from here."

She was feeding him directly into the meat grinder. She was taking his ego, his System-given mandate, and twisting it to ensure he walked right into the trap Kaito had meticulously prepared for him.

"I... well... if the Goddess says so..." Nick stammered, his cowardly excuses crumbling under the weight of divine prophecy. He puffed out his chest, trying to salvage his pride. "Yes! Of course! I shall gather my party and depart at once! I will bring you the head of this Dark Lord, Saintess!"

"I eagerly await the results of your expedition," Lucy replied smoothly.

Nick turned and marched out of the Scrying Room to personally call his harem.

His armor clanked along the way, and his mind raced with panic as he tried to figure out how to force his unresponsive harem to join him.

As the heavy doors closed behind him, Gigglesniff sighed in relief, wiping his brow. "Thank the Light for your guidance, Saintess. The boy's courage was faltering. Your words gave him the push he needed."

"It is my duty to ensure the Light's enemies are eradicated, Your Eminence," Lucy said softly.

She turned away from the scrying orb, her customer service smile dropping the instant her back was turned to the Archbishop. Her blue eyes were cold, calculated, and focused entirely on the endgame.

'Phase One: Infiltration and Deployment complete,' Lucy thought to herself, dismissing the flashing red System warnings with a thought. 'I'm sending him to you, Kaito. Do what you must.'