The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

PoV: Urraca

The princess of Castro, commander of the crusade, appointed by the Pontifex himself, is in a foul mood as she discusses with the priests.

"Can you please stop with the excuses and the dodging and answer me properly?"

Despite the foul mood, she still keeps her composure. She is a princess, after all.

"But we are... We are saying all that we know about it."

"So you are useless, then. Is that what you mean?"

Without the blessing, if the enemy does another attack like the last one, it would bring chaos to the army. More than that, it could spell doom for the whole campaign.

She departed her country with the assurance of three advantages in this war.

First, the advantage of numbers. This is one of the biggest armies that the world has ever seen. Or at least in the recorded history that she was allowed to study.

Second, the advantage of the Adventuring System. She was promised that this time the heretics would be properly excommunicated. There are some high-ranking bishops and paladins with the army whose only job is executing that.

Third, the goddess' blessing. Which is its own can of worms that the Castro princess is just now opening.

Ever since the goddess went silent, the Church has been working on two fronts to cover it.

One is the narrative front, in which they go to great lengths to act like everything is cool and normal.

The other is the battlefields of the war against the dragonkin. They would use priest spells to buff the army just a little bit and then pin the blame on the soldiers for not having enough faith for the blessing to be stronger.

Their tactics ranged from the classic gaslighting of 'it was always like that; only the pious and faithful get the full blessing ' to the crude silencing of anyone who questioned too much.

As the years passed and the veteran soldiers were slowly replaced by rookies who had never experienced the true blessing before, the ruse became even easier to maintain.

But now the whole army experienced the full weight of a true divine blessing. They felt it in the marrow of their bones, and they saw it in their stats screens.

So everyone felt it going away as well. Everyone now knows what it feels to fight with the goddess by their side, so they also know that she is not there anymore.

That is the reason Urraca is so angry at the priests, who are not explaining to her what is happening.

One of the bishops is kneeling on the floor, praying ardently and crying in sobs, calling for his goddess.

"Just answer me this. It's a straight question. Just yes or no. Has the goddess abandoned us?"

Urraca throws her question like a dart at the leader of the priests. And she does it while unsheathing her sword and pointing it at him.

"N-n-no! Of course not! The goddess would never abandon us. We are her holy army, destined to destroy her enemies."

"Are you sure about that? Because it does feel like she has abandoned us. Aren't priests supposed to be able to communicate with her? Aren't you one of the highest-ranking bishops within the Church?"

She gets just one little step closer to the High Bishop, with the point of the sword only inches from his jugular.

"I-I... I mean... Y-yes, we can. Of course we can. That's the reason we are appointed priests, after all."

"Then do it. Right now. Ask her what the meaning of this is."

"Y-y-y-yes. R-right away, Your Highness."

"Tsk!"

The fact that the priest was obeying her, instead of her being punished by some divine bolt or something, was already the answer she needed.

If the goddess was still as powerful as she used to be, she wouldn't be able to get off with threatening the High Bishop like that. There was little doubt that she would be punished on the spot.

That puts her in an even fouler mood. She feels like she lost that battle against Aurea as well. While Aurea noticed the weakness in the goddess and seized the opportunity to kick the Church out of her country, Urraca only came to understand the situation at this very moment.

"Damn, Aurea... But even without the goddess' blessing, I still have the numbers. Your three thousand won't beat my hundred thousand."

Urraca whispered to nobody else in particular, feeling the anger boiling even harder inside her.

After all, she never was a dutiful follower of the goddess, nor did she care about religion and all that. To her, they were only tools and nothing more.

Her reason for being in this war was of a wholly different nature.

"You will see, Aurea. I will defeat you, you sorry excuse of a person. A former slave doesn't have the right to be where you are. I will still see your face contorted in agony, and it will be the most pleasurable day in my whole life."

:::

PoV: Juno

Far away, in another dimension, three girls shiver and shake as a hurricane destroys the room.

Not a real hurricane, obviously. It was just their owner and master going on a mad rampage, destroying everything her sight falls on.

In all the centuries they've been serving her, they've never seen her like that. This is literally the first time they see her this angry.

Combined with the dissipation of the effec. Jof the subtle charm effect she used to have on others, the three girls are honestly terrified.

They can't do anything to stop her, though. Not even thinking about opposing her is allowed, because of the collars they wear, proof of their servitude to the rampaging goddess.

"You three!"

The girls let out a collective squeak as the hurricane stops andfocusess her attention on them.

"I can't help the army directly, nor am I allowed to bless them. But they never mentioned anything about my servants in the punishment. So get your asses useful and go down there. NOW!!!"

The three squeak again and hurry away, their hearts happy for being allowed to get some distance from the hurricane.

And to think that only one day ago they were wailing and praying for Juno's return.