Jade was pissed.
As a member of the bishop's own guard, she had expected a life filled with privilege and safety.
That was counterintuitive, but until the present bishop had come along, that was exactly how it had been for this very prestigious post.
For as long as anyone could remember, bishops had always been extremely pious individuals who were focused on staying inside the sect and converting as many people as possible. They might undertake missions, but these were often of the sort where they would send out their guards to poor places where people could be recruited for the holy cause of the sect.
That was it. But because it was such an important role, the resources that could be accessed by one who managed to get it were unthinkable for anyone who was merely a priest, or climbing the ladder to get somewhere they wanted to be.
And on the Mainland… Everyone knew that resources made the difference between almost endless life and an early death.
She had planned it all perfectly. She would grow step-by-step and reach here, before taking all that she could and breaking through so that she could gain an even higher role. Saint forbid, she might even become a bishop, but until then, she would bide her time.
Everything had changed when that bitch took over.
She was the youngest bishop in the last thousand years, and from the moment she had taken on the role, she had become the polar opposite of everything bishops stood for.
She had dug up all sorts of rules and powers that had been lying around in dusty libraries. She had increased the resources that they could use, but that came with a risk - they would be sent to the most dangerous locations, and if they resisted, they would be stripped of everything and replaced by the next ranking member.
Jade had sensed her life going onto a path she did not like, so she had done the best she could: she had cozied up to the bishop, singing her praises day and night, until she had been accepted into her personal guard, which was an even smaller group who were supposed to always stay around important individuals such as her so that they could protect her.
Everything had seemed great… Until the bishop had decided that this mission was so important that her best had to be sent.
Even then, Jade had hoped that it would simply be a task of reconnaissance. After all, this creature was designed so that it would be unreachable to all in a continent that was being conquered, so for the most part, all those who went along as security would need to wait and watch leisurely as the conquest went on below.
Just like the bishop, though… This continent was now known to be one in a thousand.
They had been alerted of a threat that might reach them, and sure enough, here they were.
Jade had been the one hit hardest by that corruption before. She remembered seeing her entire existence turn dark and rot all around her, and if it weren't for the life-saving Artefact that all the guards carried, she would have been dead meat.
Shifting from a body that one had existed in for decades to an entirely new one was always an unpleasant process. The clones were designed to be as close to them as possible, but still, there were a lot of things that couldn't perfectly be mimicked.
And without any time to grow used to the body they were in, they now had to face their enemies again.
As soon as she woke up in the secret chamber in the eye where all the clones were stored, she began to get ready to leave so that they could get back into the fight, but beside her, one of the other members woke up and said, "Commander, please wait."
She had been given this role due to all the time she had spent kissing the feet of that damn woman, but she found no joy in doing something that she had wanted to avoid all along.
Still, she had decided to make the best out of a bad situation, so she had accepted the role - insofar as it came to enjoying a lion's share of all the food and training resources they had brought.
Now that it was really time to take charge, she knew that half-arsing it would no longer suffice, so with a serious face, she prepared to speak.
However, the damn hood covered her face anyway, so as her smile curdled, she managed to bring a tinge of annoyance into her voice.
"What is it? We need to get to them before they reach the controllers."
The place they were in was designed by keeping in mind that it would only be activated as a last resort, so provisions had been made to allow it to also act as a safe spot where the team from the Church could strategize.
The clones were such that for a few moments after they woke up, it would seem as if time was passing normally for the ones inside the bodies, but in reality, only moments would slip by, thus allowing one to have a conversation but still arrive back in the battle in time.
"You know that I major in body analysis… While I was taking control of my clone, I engaged in a little analysis of what happened in the fight before, and I found something disconcerting. It could be nothing, commander, but protocol dictates that I must tell you."
She nodded. Protocols always saved lives, so she wasn't going to put them aside now.
"The arrival of the enemies brought with them some sort of change in the air. Microorganisms which have not touched the sterilized environment inside the eye so far have managed to invade, and we breathed in that same air, too."
With a frown, Jade replied, "So what? This is not a Level 0 continent where breathing in the very air can kill you."