Bro, I'm not an Undead!

The Mad Bishop had been a factor that Replicus had initially intended to take advantage of before the chaos with the Ardent Curses, in order to create a steerable chaos of his own that would to several accomplished objectives.

He had been hoping to use her usually crazy, and unfocused temperament, capitalising on her desire and interest in him to rein her in.

Unfortunately, she threw all plans of this out of Replicus' head. On top of not being able to find time to process the very real possibility that time had been wound back without him or anyone else knowing, he was forced to consider how exactly the Bishop would act and how his scattered subordinates would fare because of whatever she did.

The first instance of the crazy Faction leader's actions didn't inspire Replicus to feel anything but a dreadful sense of unease.

As the Mad Bishop ascended into the sky with the Ardent Curses and everyone else watching her, she activated her blessing.

Reaching the Incandescent Stage allowed one to fully awaken the dormant blessing they acquired to enter the Foundation Stage, and the range of what this blessing could do ranged from fairly useful to absolutely inapplicable.

For the Mad Bishop, it turned out that she was blessed with the former.

While donning a grin that expressed both a lacking sense of lucidity and recklessness, the ancient Faction leader made a sacred glow shower everything in sight from her body, as though she had become a complexly shaped sun.

Replicus, as well as everyone who was bathed in the light were cautious of touched by it, but few could react to its absurd speed.

The momentary panic turned out to have been unwarranted.

The light did nothing to anything that lived and breathed.

Instead, when it touched the golden land... it made abundant greenery flourish at an absurd rate, as though someone had accelerated time on the display of a farm where seeds for various greens had been planted!

Great green trees; thick, proud shrubs; tufts of resilient, lustrous grasses that didn't care whether the land they were born into was rich or gold...

All emerged and quickly overrode the glare of the golden plant life – which hadn't quite seemed living, in Replicus' opinion.

As the nature the humans were used to sprang forth, covering kilometers under the mysterious, shocked sights of the Curses, the Penetrator made a quick deduction.

'Is she trying to stop whatever is causing the sting in our eyes the longer we look at the golden land?' he thought as he noticed that the buried gold didn't affect him as much now.

Brilliant.

It was quite brilliant!

As Replicus had thought before, he didn't wish to see what the final consequence of that particular feature of this Cluster was; why the Ardent Curses evolved to not have eyes and the usual form of perception.

He didn't relax though, for the Mad Bishop didn't stop by offering this service to her fellow invaders.

She looked down at Thrill who had readied his wand in her direction while donning a look that ironically resembled one a priest would don when a heathen defiled his beliefs.

A blinding shot of greyish flame blossomed from the tip of his wand towards the Mad Bishop, but it was extinguished by one of her guards – a literally bulbous fellow, shirtless and firm – who, with the might of a cloth-shaped Genuine Incarnation blasting the streak of energy off course with as much grace as a matador fooling a charging bull!

"UNORIGINAL!" the Mad Bishop bellowed at Thrill who wore a frown. "You lack more tricks! New tricks! Is this all you've got?!"

Thrill looked agitated.

He beckoned for the other Ardent Curses to leave those they were currently assaulting, and surround the Mad Bishop, which they did.

The old Faction leader merely scoffed at this.

She looked at Thrill and clasped her hands together in an odd manner, her purple quality mana surging from her core.

The look on the Mad Bishop's face changed.

Replicus noticed it and quickly teleported over to Araeyn, Allora and Grim in the sky.

The old woman had lost her fickle and eccentric expressions, but only for a moment.

And that moment, was when she mumbled something unheard and incomprehensible under her breath.

The expulsion of her mana shook the ground below her raised feet, and in quite the unexpected showcase, something emerged.

It was unclear whether it rose from the ground or if it materialised out of nowhere because it happened so fast.

Too fast for Replicus to see.

Too fast for Thrill.

Too fast for Warding Pride and all the other Faction leaders and their members.

A grand cathedral now settled below the Mad Bishop as she hung in the air.

Caramel embossed its slightly glowing stature, with four, bold turrets fitted around its seven-storied build. The narrow windows were tinged in a blueish silver that drew the eye pleasantly, in total contrast with the gold from the Cluster that stung.

At the peak of every turret, an exaggerated, frankly unappealing symbol of blueish silver stood, crafted to mirror the Mad Bishop's face in an oil painting style, could be seen, highlighted excessively in order to sell an unclear idea.

Or perhaps it was obvious.

Replicus would have scowled if he could. He didn't like this one bit.

Warding Pride, who knew better than him of the Mad Bishop's prowess seemed to begin to activate counters to whatever this cathedral was.

The conjurer of said cathedral readopted her demented look and cackled in a voice so loud it reached all boundaries of the Cluster. It was likely that the summoned construct bolstered the volume of her speech, making it sound as though it was the call of an unseen authority.

"Won't any of you join me for the service? There will be retribution to those that don't join willingly!" the Mad Bishop said ominously.

Around her, her male guards became encased in a profound light that bled into their eyes, turning them luminous.

It bled to their torsos as well and had them don glowing tunics with a single end strapped over the shoulder; and they obtained the ability to fly.

All nine of them floated, their hairs tinged in a bright colour and standing on end, as if supercharged.

Everyone gawked at the sight, Replicus moreso, because he felt the boundless surging of Primus energy within the Mad Bishop's guards!

That's right!

She had a Priest class, rather, Priestess. Replicus didn't know whether it was Advanced or Hidden, but the fact that as a Priest, she had access to the low level Divine Energy, should have been straightforward.

What flabbergasted Replicus though, was how was she was able to command it into others and seemingly make them very powerful.

'But what does this even matter? These guys still can't harm the Curses without conceptual abilities or something similar...' Replicus thought... just before he got a ridiculous answer.

The nine guards around the Mad Bishop, opened their mouths, and began to sing with as much grace as a renown choir from a Purity Temple.

The melody had great, prevailing tones of bass ultimately dominating its chorus which seemed to jut out of the nine with splendorous arcs of light that shot outward.

The song was mesmerising.

The lyrics were horrendous.

...And the effects were a mix of both.

---

[Author's Note]

Hey guys, I have made a full recovery. It will be back to usual scheduling starting from tomorrow. A Mass Release, a proper one will be coming on 23rd, as promised