Viridian Gate Online: Schism: A litRPG Adventure (The Heartfire Healer Series Book 2)

by E. C. Godhand

  My Divinity meter had two bars full now for all the people who were on my side. I answered with my own miracle by stretching my right hand to the heavens. Gaia deemed the best solution was to grant me the ability to cast my own Sanctity for the moment. I didn’t have to heal that many people if I could protect them. A wide yellow dome, glimmering with holy light, protected the crowd long enough for the stun to wear off.

  There was no resurrection in V.G.O., but it felt like I rezzed the whole marketplace as I commanded my mob to stand as one. It was with a peaceful soul, a clear mind, and the loving heart of a priest that I decided it was time to end this, and that some asses needed to be beat into oblivion.

  Smack My Bishop

  This was risky. If I died here, there was no respawn for me. I had no chance to fight the curse’s dungeon by myself even if I had damaging spells. Especially not with the curse restricting 75% of my Health, Spirit, and Stamina regeneration. Even with the Shackles of Faith converting Spirit spent to Health, each spell had to count. I kept Acuity running. It ate up a huge chunk of my Spirit to check so many people at once, but with my equipment, it made up for my lost Health regen.

  I already felt like I woke up dead. I’d have to depend on my Divinity meter filling up fast with the efforts of my allies fighting in the street. If Jericho somehow managed to turn the crowd on me, I was screwed. But he’d already made it clear he thought himself beyond reproach, let alone punishment, and would stop at nothing, including attacking civilians, to take me out so I’d take his secret to my grave.

  Kismet, as a tank, broke out of the stun as the civilians were shaking their heads and gaining their bearings. Her wings made her obvious as she lightly flew and landed on the gallows alongside Inquisitor Morton. I noticed a few rogues slip back into stealth, their shimmering purple outlines moving into place behind Jericho. The plan was obvious and solid: Inquisitor Morton and Kismet would both tank, but switch who Jericho focused on when the other’s Sinner debuff got too high and they took too much damage while not receiving enough healing. The rogues would get their backstabs in and do enough damage to force Jericho to try and heal himself, which would reset the DPS bonus he got from Smite Stance.

  After all, the Inquisition had been studying how priests fought.

  Corvus popped out of stealth beside me and placed a vial of Affka in my hand. I stared at it. I could use the damage mitigation. Even without my Spirit regen crippled, I wasn’t sure my healing and shields were powerful enough to withstand a level 40–something Priest, especially when everyone else was lower level than me. I understood why Grim Jack felt the need to use the cursed blade on Carrera. You can’t fight fair against someone who paid for power.

  This far away, Jericho and I were both in range of each other’s spells. At least I couldn’t hear Serth-Rog anymore, but it’d be nice if Gaia were a bit more vocal in her support.

  Bella Jourdain whacked an Inquisition soldier with her mop handle to keep him from the crowd, then set a hand on her hip and canted her head.

  “Hey, priestess!” she called to me. “You going to just stand there?”

  That worked too. I shook my head to snap myself out of shock. Time to lead this raid.

  My tanks knew what they were doing. My rogues were in place. Thia and the other priests had spread out in the crowd to assist me in healing. The Thieves’ Union and Inquisition forces distracted each other on the outskirts. The tactic worked well when my goal was to escape, but now, they were so focused they weren’t available to help me in the fight.

  I needed people to take out the priests who remained loyal to Jericho. With that Faithful buff, every blow he landed would heal them a portion of the damage. In return, all their healing would be focused on him. We had to take them down to take him out.

  “Corvus, Yvonne,” I asked of my friends nearest me. I didn’t have to say another word. They both gave me a nod and pulled out their weapons like they understood as well as I did. “You don’t have to kill them, just disable and CC them as best you can,” I said.

  They both slipped into stealth and maneuvered through the crowd of forty adventurers and civilians. Part of me felt it was too much to ask that they fight on my behalf, but spreading the damage out among forty people made the fight survivable. I didn’t have the Spirit to shield that many.

  Jericho’s Health was barely touched by the rogues and the two Inquisitors tanking him. I recognized his hand motions immediately before Acuity told me he was casting the third tier of Charity, the mass heal. Only, he was still in Smite Stance. He was going to damage them.

  I started my cast as well, mirroring his movements. This heal had to land shortly after his spell.

  “Burn in righteous fire!” screamed Jericho as the spell cast. I could see the area it’d hit on the ground. A swirl of orange light flew out from him and circled half of the nearest adventurers. They groaned and cried out as the light tore into their skin like a thousand cuts. My heal of soft white light landed on several of them, but it wasn’t enough. Half my raid’s Health bars dropped to 50%.

  The spell didn’t hit me, but it still felt like a punch in the gut.

  My Divinity meter was full. I cast one Miracle to restore everyone 25% of their Health and Spirit and Stamina and get them back in the fight. I shielded Kismet with Lenity and popped Prosperity, the HoT, on her for good measure. Her Sinner debuff made her glow a subtle red to me. But the effort with my previous spell dropped my Spirit by 180 points, and I wasn’t going to get it back quick enough to heal everyone.

  I had to choose: the raid, or my tank, the woman I loved.

  She was protecting me with everything she had. I had to do the same for her. I’d have to save my healing for her and Inquisitor Morton, as much as it pained me.

  Thia and the other priests quickly worked their magic to bring the raiders back to full.

  Jericho scoffed as he blocked Kismet’s sword with his heavy book. He threw out his left hand. I knew the prayer motions for that, too. Despite my having just enough Spirit to cast Lenity and shield myself, the DoT hit me like a hammer, crushing my shield in the first tick. It knocked 10% off my Health with each following tick like it was smacking me upside the head. I’d lose a third of my Health if I let it stay, but I didn’t dare cast Veracity and risk cleansing the curse. He likely knew that, too, judging by the smug grin on his face. I wasn’t about to use the Affka just yet though. It reduced my Spirit and Intelligence too much. I needed the spell power.

  I cast a HoT on myself to try to compete with the damage. It wasn’t enough to nullify it, but it did buy me some extra time for cheap.

  Before he could follow up with another spell, Kismet bashed him with her shield to interrupt his cast. That brought her to a third stack of the Sinner debuff. Even I couldn’t heal through that—not even if I was at full strength. Jericho stumbled back and shielded himself. Inquisitor Morton taunted him with a mighty shout and charged the exarch with a flurry of blows from his sword.

  Corvus and Yvonne had recruited the raiders on the ground to assist them in controlling Jericho’s priests, but it wasn’t enough. Not yet. Whatever damage Morton did to Jericho, the priests healed through it.

  Jericho scoffed and cast several DoTs on the raiders. Each tick of damage done to my people healed his people. He faced Morton and held light in his hand.

  “I wear the full armor of Areste, She Who Saves All, Inquisitor,” he said. “I will have justice against this Darkling.”

  Acuity told me he cast Alacrity, a buff that increased his Defense by 10% for one hour. Inquisitor Morton was ready though, and cast his own version of the spell: Seal of Protection. He pulled his sword back and channeled the Light around it, then charged Jericho and rammed his shoulder into the exarch, nearly knocking him off the gallows.

  Jericho cast Serenity, a spell that let him ignore status effects to cast one spell for free and increase its Critical Chance by 25%.

  Inquisitor Morton howled in pain as the second strongest version of Charity hit
him as burning holy fire. As he was Light aligned, he resisted holy magic by 20%, but even that wasn’t enough to mitigate the damage of a spell that did 100 HP plus spell power. Jericho followed up with a DoT to pick and tear at his Health bar. But whatever Jericho threw at him, I healed through.

  We carried on like this until Kismet took her turn to taunt him. Slowly, bit by bit, we wore him down. Whenever he’d attack the crowd, I had to fight my urge to heal them myself and focus on keeping my tanks alive. But Thia and the two other priests were struggling and called out for help.

  I was wrong to assume Jericho’s attending priests hadn’t taken Duality. Naturally, in hindsight, I should’ve expected he’d bend the rules for his people just like he did for himself. They were shielding each other. They attacked the crowd with their own spells. They healed each other off the damage they did. With his nine versus my three, they couldn’t keep up.

  Corvus wove through the priests with their censer, leaving a choking miasma of smoke that crippled their Spirit. It wasn’t enough, though. The crowd adjusted their efforts off Jericho to the priests and responded with their own series of debuffs, arrows, and strategically placed strikes to try and silence them. Rainer led the charge, hacking left and right with his bardiche, and called for his tanks to take at least two priests each.

  Judia threw out her traps. One captured a priestess in an ice tower to temporarily disable her. Shiraz froze another priest before his spell went off, leaving the Light emanating from his hand like a crystalline, prismatic shard. Rogues that didn’t fit on the gallows platform sapped another, while warriors charged and stunned a fourth. Yvonne made sure the crowd knew not to attack them for fear of breaking the crowd-control. At best, they could keep half of them in play before the effects wore off the others.

  But even with half the priests disabled at a time, that was still a lot of damage and healing to deal with. My team managed to kill two priests, finally.

  Jericho watched the priests fall and disappear into the Light. He roared in anger and twirled his hand around in the air as if pulling Light from the ether. I saw the orange circle on the ground indicating the range of his spell. Acuity told me he was about to cast Sanctity again.

  This time, I called out for everyone to flee. I ran down the temple’s stairs and stood at the edge of the AoE indicator. They glanced between each other, then obeyed. Most of them. The few that remained were stunned and fell to their knees. Jericho followed up with the mass Charity spell, which burst out from him like a whirlwind of lightning and ticked damage on my people.

  “If you’re wearing cloth, follow me,” I ordered to the crowd. Thia, the other Priests, Bri’jit, and I cast HoTs on the people stunned to mitigate their damage as the other casters obeyed.

  Judia, from her perch on the roof of the temple, directed any ranged DPS to join her.

  Keres was the first back into the fight with Jericho’s attendants. Her increased speed put her above the tanks, and her Evade was high enough to not be punished for it. Bri’jit cast Spirits of the Sun to AoE the remaining seven priests, who had broken out of our CC thanks to Jericho’s attack. Keres used Divine Smite to hit them all at once until only four remained.

  We were better situated. Our casters were safe on the stairs with me. Our archers had the high ground. Only the melee had to run out of range of the stun, and with half his people gone, Jericho would start to take more damage.

  The exarch had more tricks up his sleeve though.

  He channeled his Spirit back with Piety. He didn’t have to win this fight. As a Traveler, it didn’t matter much if he lost in the end. What mattered to him was that I was dead.

  And he acted as such. He hit me first with a bolt of holy light. I threw up my shield at the last second to eat it, but it was a trap. The bolt shattered my protective bubble and left me with the Sola Fide debuff to not be shielded again. He followed up with a DoT to whittle my Health and threw another bolt of light that struck me in the chest, right in my Divine Spark.

  I sunk to one knee on the stairs. Keres threw her shield on me to keep me from taking more damage, but I didn’t trust it to keep me from dying.

  My hand was forced. My Health bar was below a third and blinked angrily at me. I slammed the Affka into the meat of my thigh. Even if I had to hobble my ability to heal by sacrificing Intelligence and Spirit, I needed that damage mitigation right now.

  I hadn’t wanted to feel the rush of endorphins from the drug again. I told myself I was choosing sobriety and would stay alive on my own merits, but that high of invincibility that came from the Affka’s cooling wave over me felt good. Even if I died here, it’d take the edge off.

  Bri’jit popped Benevolence on me to heal me to full before the DoT finished me off for good. I stood and threw the empty vial to the side with a clatter. My head swam and my stomach did somersaults. I held my hand over my mouth and felt sweat on my brow.

  I didn’t have time to tend to my discomfort though. My people needed me. I cast my party-wide heal and watched the magic select the people with the lowest Health to restore. They tossed me a quick salute in thanks and joined Keres and Rainer and Corvus in attacking Jericho’s attendants. In short time, there were only two of them left.

  The assault on me was not lost on the tanks. Though they were out of range to help directly, Kismet’s rage distracted Jericho from any follow-up attacks. Despite having two stacks of the Sinner debuff already, she broke rotation by chucking her shield at the exarch and following up with a savage blow from her sword. Jericho popped a spell called Tenacity that cut incoming damage by 40% for a time.

  I wanted that. Not Affka.

  My Miracle meter for Divinity was almost at level two. I didn’t dare use it yet, because it gave me a bonus of 20% to spell power until I used it, but I was ready if, no, when Kismet’s Health dropped. She had help though. The crowd, seeing most of the priests he used as shields fall, rallied. They turned their attention to the exarch himself and pelted whatever they had—weapons, arrows, magic, fish, or tomatoes. Rainer even grabbed his last two priests and threw one into Judia’s vine trap. Keres kept an eye on her to make sure she stayed put. The exarch ignored their pleas for help and didn’t so much as look at them.

  When his Health dropped to 25%, Jericho left the Inquisitors and leapt off the gallows. He landed heavily on the ground and marched his way through the crowd towards me. The raiders failed to slow him. Their crowd control was too low level to affect him. When Kismet threw her golden chains to ensnare him, he shrugged them off with Serenity and followed up with a critical strike on me. The holy fire poured over my skin like molten lava. I dropped to my knees again and cast my shield to eat the damage for me, following it up with a HoT. Even still, my Health was at half from the critical damage.

  Kismet glowed as red as the rising sun over the sea. I needed to buy time to get that Sinner debuff off her. I doubled over and held myself but kept one hand out to tell her to pause.

  This worked in our favor. I remembered trying the same tactic with Lola back in the Black Temple: let the narcissist speak. They’d let their own debuffs fall.

  Bri’jit, Thia, and my other priests took the opportunity to heal up the rest of the raiders while he was distracted and focused on me.

  “You think you have any power here, Dr. Chen?” said Jericho as he marched up the stairs to the temple. He used his boot to lift my chin. “Tch. Look at you. You’re sweating. A drug addict, a lecher, and a drunkard. You couldn’t even hold off indulging for one morning, could you?”

  He kicked me in the chest to shove me on my ass. “Gaia’s proven she will let you die. You’ve chosen the wrong god to follow by forsaking Areste. We offered you a life of peace and purpose, a chance to give yourself to something greater, a chance to become a better person.”

  I braced myself against the cold stone. I had the sneaking suspicion he meant the doppelgangers by the tone of his voice.

  “But you’re so selfish, you can’t accept the salvation that Areste offers
, and instead use these people as a shield to reject your fate,” he said, scoffing. “Where’s your healing now?”

  I spat blood on the temple steps. Getting hit by holy spells hurt. Even with the 20% resistance to Holy magic and the 25% damage mitigation of the Affka, I felt like I’d been shot. Even my gums bled. My Health was at 50% though. His was half that.

  “Looks like you’re the one that needs a healer, Jericho,” I said with a grin. “I hope you have the money to pay for it.”

  I received a swift backhand across my cheek for the sass.

  “How dare you speak to me like that? Since you’re already on your knees, you may apologize.”

  “No,” I said, laughing and leaning back on my hands. “I’m not part of your temple anymore. I owe you nothing. What’s more, everyone here, and soon, everyone in the Empire, will know they don’t need to belong to your little cult to play a priest. You’re finished.”

  I eyed Kismet. She stared at me, wide-eyed and worried, but her Sinner debuff had fallen to only two stacks. Commissar “Cecilia” stood at attention to my right, dutifully keeping her post and not interfering.

  Jericho snarled. “You think you won’t die just because you don’t want to? How big is your ego that you think you can dictate life and death? You think you can fight death all your life, rob and steal from him, and he won’t have it out for you? Is that why you turned to Serth-Rog?”

  “As I said, accusations from narcissists are confessions. We know you’re playing both sides,” I said.

  He grabbed me by my robes with both hands and lifted me. This close, even on the Affka, I saw Cian and Lola and the other Darklings watching in silent judgment. I wanted to shut my eyes to drown out Serth-Rog’s cackling, but I didn’t dare give Jericho the satisfaction, and I didn’t take my eyes off him for a second.