Olsylvia Academy, North Campus, Filomena Nobility Academy’s Student Quarters, within a secret environment of the McPherson Monastery, one of the Olsylvia Academy’s Nine Midnight Forbidden Grounds, Cynthia’s dreamscape.
Goldsmith City, the holy city of the Radiant Church. Legend has it that this city was named to commemorate the human hero, Holy Priest Goldsmith. Thousands of years ago, he had led the resistance against the invasion of the Twelve Demon Kings. Even though this was within an illusion, Bella could still clearly see the symbolic objects all around the city.
The sculpture of Goldsmith was hundreds of meters tall. This holy city landmark could be seen from miles away. As there were very few records of the Holy Priest Goldsmith in history, no one knew what the first Radiant Pope actually looked like. Because of that, the sculpture was a hooded figure without a face.
It was Bella’s first time intruding on someone else’s dreamscape. In this illusory world, the entire area was completely empty as she walked past the doors of the church. As she was not the owner of this dreamscape, none of the other illusions here knew of her existence.
“I can’t just walk around aimlessly like this. If this is the holy city, the holy maidens should be here too. Eh? Isn’t that them?!”
Bella was becoming increasingly frustrated with trying to find her way towards the Pope’s Grand Hall when she saw someone familiar. To her surprise, she saw a group of nuns being led by one dressed as a holy maiden.
Although the black habit concealed most of the holy maiden’s face from view, Bella still managed to catch a glimpse of snow-white hair. As Bella and the four holy maidens had tumbled between the sheets many times, she was extremely familiar with every contour of their bodies. Without much effort, she could tell that the leading holy maiden was Hayley, of the Ellen Faction.
Initially, Hayley was the one that showed the most resistance towards Bella’s affections. However, after much “special attention”, she was now much more compliant. Even though she was still not welcoming to Bella’s affections, at least she would no longer claim that Bella was a female demon.
“Madame Hayley, Madame Maria’s coronation ceremony is about to begin. We have to go now.”
“I understand. This Susan is too much. She didn’t even wait for me.”
Casually, Bella followed the fake Hayley and the others into the city as they walked around in all directions. It could not be determined if this was done on purpose to shake her off or unconsciously. Either way, Bella was walking all over the place inside the Pope’s palace.
This immense palace would be nearly impossible to navigate alone without any direction. However, Bella had a good memory and made use of the random walking to take note of important points and landmarks.
Bella had already committed where the rooms of the four holy maidens and the church’s heir, Maria, were located to memory. Although she did not know if there were any differences between the actual Goldsmith City and the dreamscape, Bella decided not to take any chances and took note of them. If it was exactly the same, it would prove extremely useful if she were ever to create trouble for the Radiant Church.
After a couple of rounds, Bella finally found a pattern. This fake Hayley and her companions always kept a certain distance between them. When Bella stopped, they would basically be walking in place, waiting for her to catch up. This dreamscape was full of traps. If one was not careful, it would be far too easy to get caught up in one.
As an intruder inside this dreamscape, there were no restrictions placed on Bella for using her various precious objects. She took out the mysterious ring that the fake lolita, Charlotte, had given her and gently twisted the gemstone on the ring. Almost instantly, the ring projected dozens of fake shadows that looked like Bella.
With Bella’s command, dozens of fake Bellas began to walk in all directions in an attempt to make their way towards the palace. When Bella’s clones appeared, the illusions that could not see her earlier seemed to recover from their earlier confusion and immediately split up to pursue the various Bellas.
The illusions here were much more advanced than the ones in Bella’s own dreamscape. Other than Prince Terence, who could hold a conversation, the others were just background illusions. The ones in this dreamscape seemed almost sentient and intelligent. There was a possibility that they had initially pretended that they could not see that Bella was an intruder.
Before the fake Hayley could take a few more steps, she was stopped by Bella as she took a turn. She was hiding in the corner as she pierced the illusion using her hand.
“You… You’re not… human.”
“You don’t have to bother with who I am. You are not worthy of using Hayley’s appearance. Disappear, now!”
“Oh heroine, please, hold on. Let us talk. We can strike a deal. I’ll tell you anything you want to know…”
“Sorry, your voice is too disgusting. Anyway, I’m not a heroine of any sort in the first place. Farewell!”
“You… You will regret this.”
Ferociously, Bella swept her hand upwards and split the fake Hayley into two. Just like Terence, the fake Hayley illusion shattered and vanished instantly.
There was only one reason for Bella’s actions – the voice of the imposter was a male, and a creepy one at that. Isn’t this cheating her feelings? It was bad enough that these fake illusions were unable to die. Now, a male would even pretend to be a female just to disgust her.
Bella took a good look at her surroundings and realized that there was a tightly shut door not too far away. The design of the door was similar to the doors that belonged to Maria and the four holy maidens, which meant that the owner of this room should be of equal status to them.
There were many engravings of the Radiant Church’s Holy Sword and the words “Holy Swordsman” were written in special characters on the door. According to the information Bella had obtained from President Maria, there was no such special post like a Holy Swordsman in the Radiant Church. At least, there was no record of it.
The post of a Holy Maiden was the only special position within the Radiant Church, so where did this Holy Swordsman come from? Could it be that this dreamscape was of the Radiant Church a long time ago? A different timeline would not make sense as Hayley was here as well, and her age was the same as when she had met Bella at Olsylvia Academy.
“Quickly, the intruder was just here. Shadow Number 25 was just destroyed here.”
“Catch that fellow and make her into food.”
“Everyone, let’s get her together. This is our world. An outsider like her will not be able to destroy us easily.”
Around the corner, not far away, a large group of illusions was hastily making their way over. An alarm had blared when Bella had destroyed the fake holy maiden Hayley’s illusion earlier and attracted the attention of the other illusions nearby.
Bella realized that even though this dreamscape did not restrict her use of most of the precious objects that she had brought with her, she could not retrieve any of her weapons. In addition, the weapons within the space ring seemed to be sealed by a mysterious energy. Even the Great Evil Slaying Sword that she had bought from a savior was sealed as well. As evil energy was useless against the sword, it meant that the energy within this dreamscape was somehow not evil.
As Bella reached forward to push open the door to the Holy Swordsman’s room, she was delighted to find that it was unlocked, unlike the Pope’s heir, Maria, or the holy maidens’ rooms, where Bella was unable to open the doors no matter how hard she pushed. Fortunately, the door for the Holy Swordsman’s room was easy to open.
Bella locked the door behind her as she entered the room. After making sure that there was no one in the living area, she tiptoed her way into the bedroom. There were many famous swords within the room. Some of the Holy Swords that President Maria had mentioned to her before could be found here.
Unfortunately, these Holy Swords were fake. If they were authentic, every single one of these Holy Swords would be priceless. Other than precious swords, many of the Radiant Church’s classic tomes were displayed in the room as well. Since Bella knew that they were fake, she did not bother to look through them at all.
The mob of angry illusions had finally caught up with Bella and were outside the Holy Swordsman’s room. As this was their world, they could technically enter any room they wanted, even if it was locked. However, the group of illusions seemed to hesitate while they stood at the door, as if they were contemplating something and did not dare to enter!
“Holy Swordsman, are you inside?”
“I am. What’s wrong? Maria’s coronation ceremony has not begun right?”
“Nothing, Holy Swordsman. The Pope has asked me to inform you to prepare to leave for the ceremony soon. The auspicious time for the ceremony is almost here.”
“That’s quick. Please hold on, I will be out shortly.”
“We shall wait outside for you then. Please be as quick as possible.”
Once the group of illusions was done speaking, they proceeded to wait outside the door. Before they spoke, Bella had been infuriated with them, as they were in her way, and had been about to engage in a verbal assault. However, it was Cynthia’s voice that rang out when the Holy Swordsman replied.
Bella recalled that the secretary of the Main Student Union, Cynthia, was a student of the Filomena Nobility Academy. Since she was not associated with the Radiant Church’s St. Louis Church Academy in any way, it was strange that she would become the Radiant Church’s Holy Swordsman. This dreamscape had taken this too far, even changing the school of the dreamer. How unprofessional!
Hearing Cynthia’s voice coming from one of the rooms, Bella quietly made her way towards one of the inner doors within the room. It was barely a door, as it was just a curtain across the doorway. Intending to try to confirm Cynthia’s identity, Bella pulled the curtain open and walked into the annex.
Once the curtain was open, a gust of warm steam rushed towards her. Bella did not expect this to be a bathroom. She stood and contemplated her options for a moment before striding confidently into the bathroom. It was not the first time that Bella had snuck into a girl’s bathroom. Even if this world was not real, nothing would stop Bella when she put her mind to it.
The décor in the bathroom was similar to the one that President Maria, the Pope’s heir, had in her room. At first sight, Bella knew that it was a bathroom that belonged to someone who held a high rank within the Church.
Through the misty condensation, Bella could vaguely make out a young maiden’s back. Standing under the shower, the girl was completely unaware that Bella had infiltrated into her bathroom.
“Cyn…”
Bella was about to call out Cynthia’s name before she realized that the girl’s hair was an elegant silver instead of the golden locks that Cynthia had. Could this Holy Swordsman be an illusion as well?
Silver-haired girls, especially the beautiful ones, had always been Bella’s first choice of target. Even though the maiden’s hair was silver, it was almost platinum, which was different from Kriss and Ariel, who both had silver hair as well. The latter’s silver locks did not exude such a celestial aura and thus Bella was confident that this gorgeous young maiden was not Kriss or Ariel.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t I say I would be right out… You’re… Bel…”
Hearing a movement behind her, the silver-haired beauty turned around. At the sight of Bella in front of her, she stood rooted to the spot. Once Bella realized that she had been exposed, she reacted as quickly as she could. With no regard for anything else, Bella pounced on the silver-haired beauty like a ravenous animal and pinned her to the ground.
As though she had rehearsed this earlier, Bella held on to the silver-haired beauty and rolled over into the nearby pool. Both of them landed into the pool, tightly grasped in each other’s embrace in an amorous manner.
As they rolled into the pool, Bella realized that this pool was fake as well. There was not one drop of water on her body. Thankfully, the silver-haired beauty in her arms was real. There was a shocking suppleness to the silky smooth skin that could not possibly be replicated by an illusion.
“You are… let go of me! You are not allowed here. This is the Radiant Church’s…”
“Cynthia, are you alright? Why have your hair and eyes changed color? They’re absolutely stunning now!”
“Who is… Cynthia? Don’t spout nonsense. Let go of me, now!”
The striking features of this silver-haired beauty were on the same level as Kriss and Ariel, the Dark Savior. The only apparent difference was that the maiden’s irises were a silvery-white. This eye color could typically be found among the Silver Dragon Race when they morphed into their human forms. However, there was no hint of the Dragon Race’s aura on her, which meant that she should not be of the Silver Dragon Race.
What excited Bella the most was that this silver-haired maiden had a sacred aura of forbidden beauty that was several times more potent than that of President Maria and the four Holy Maidens. To Bella, there was nothing more satisfying than desecrating the sacred.
From the first moment, Cynthia had instantly recognized Bella. However, she was unwilling to acknowledge her. Only the Radiant Pope had the authority to look upon the true face of the Holy Swordsman. Even the Pope’s heir, Sister Maria, as well as the Radiant Church’s four Holy Maidens were not authorized to see her. This time, Bella had seen it all. Did it mean Cynthia would have to enforce the age-old oath?
“Cynthia, I’m Bella. Don’t you know that already? We have been in each other’s arms before. Don’t tell me that you have forgotten all about that?”
“What Cynthia? I’m not her. I am… my identity is not important. The point is, you should know that I am not Cynthia. That’s it.”
“You… Don’t you touch me everywhere. Stop, there… you can’t touch that place…”
Cynthia was not a good liar. When she was not telling the truth, she did not even dare to look at Bella in the eyes. This was a classic tell. As a “professional”, Bella was able to tell exactly what a girl’s figure was like once she had held them in her arms.
Cynthia had been embraced by Bella before. Thus, no matter how much she tried to argue, her body would never lie. After Bella’s exploratory grope, she was sure that this silver-haired beauty was, in fact, Cynthia. Other than her figure, even the sensitive spots were exactly the same as well.
“Cynthia, we’re engaged! Have you forgotten? D*mn, that old geezer, the Radiant Pope, must have given you some potion to brainwash you! I am here to rescue you, to bring you back so we can finally get married.”
“Grand Duchess Bella, you are not to speak such blasphemous words about the Radiant Pope. This is… Hold on, why are you moving closer… What are you thinking… Stop…”
Hearing Bella’s verbal abuse of the Radiant Pope, Cynthia could no longer keep up the pretense. As the Radiant Church’s Holy Swordsman, her main mission was to uphold the Church’s dignity and honor. Bella had made use of her responsibilities to easily break through Cynthia’s pretense.
Seeing as Cynthia had admitted everything, Bella kissed her unceremoniously on the lips before she could say anything else to defend the Radiant Pope. As this was the fruit of her victory, it would devastate Bella if she did not claim it.
At Bella’s bold attack on her lips, Cynthia’s mind immediately went blank as she allowed Bella’s tongue to wreak havoc in her mouth. Bella had no idea that due to some unknown reason, her kiss was “toxic” to beautiful girls. Anyone that had been french kissed by Bella would eventually fall prey to her affections.
“I’m sorry, Cynthia. You are too beautiful. I lost control for a bit there.”
“Erm… Bella, could you let go of me first? Your hand… it is holding too tight.”
“Sure, if you will let me kiss you one more time. Just once more and I will let go of you.”
“You… You’re so bad. No, your kiss will cause me to lose… wait… don’t…”
Before Cynthia could finish her sentence, Bella had forced her lips on her, taking away her ability to speak any longer. She did not believe that Cynthia would bite her own tongue. This time, Bella had won the bet once again. Cynthia would not be able to escape the enticing clutches of the “Kiss of the Fallen”. As she sank deeper into Bella’s kiss, her faith in the Radiant Gods was swiftly dissipating.
“Have mercy on me, Bella. I will never… I’ll never lie to you ever again.”
“Hmph, I will let you off this time. Next time will be… By the way, did you know that everything here was fake?”
“I do. This world is probably just an illusion, and not actually the hidden Goldsmith City.”
“What… You know… You…”
Bella was stumped as she stared into Cynthia’s glimmering silvery-white irises. After all this trouble, Cynthia was the real “actor”. In fact, she had even managed to deceive Bella. All along, she had thought that Cynthia had been lost within this illusory dreamscape and had not yet awakened.
