Catherine

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Princess and Saintess

Catherine was named after Dideyasi’s founding heroine because she closely resembled her. She was both the heroine’s descendant and her reincarnation vessel; the original Catherine’s soul influenced her personality and supplied much of her early courage and strength 229 421.

As princess and saintess, Catherine shouldered religious and political responsibilities. Her childhood companion Xiali followed her into the Temple as a priestess, and the two were described as close as sisters. Catherine also clashed with Grand Knight Commander Henderson: she sought to use royal influence over the church, while he insisted that nations should serve it unconditionally 227 406.

Captivity and Coerced Allegiance

Li Lin selected Dideyasi as a target because its royal family’s relationship with the Temple depended heavily on its saintess. By Catherine’s documented captivity, she was exhausted, short of holy power, and unable to escape his stronghold 211 218.

Angela subjected her to confinement, humiliation, sexual abuse, and carefully staged opportunities for resistance. Catherine initially resisted through prayer, refusal, and a hunger strike. She later feigned death with a dinner knife and fled through a second-floor window, but Angela intercepted her in the forest 219 221 224.

Catherine’s remaining resistance collapsed after her encounter with Xiali and her subsequent submission to Li Lin. When the original heroine’s soul awakened, Li Lin extracted it and sealed it in a gemstone. The loss of that soul removed a major source of Catherine’s former resolve; Angela’s conditioning had taken twenty-one days 228 229.

Return to Dideyasi

Catherine’s loss of divine spells threatened to expose her changed allegiance. Li Lin agreed to preserve her authority in exchange for a task that could cost her parents their lives. She presented him publicly as the wandering swordsman who had rescued her from fallen paladins 265 267.

At the Holy Light Festival, Catherine publicly reaffirmed her faith and revealed angelic wings produced through the Seed of Holiness potion. The spectacle restored the Temple’s confidence in her and greatly strengthened her prestige. Her parents began transferring duties and authority to her, believing an angelic ruler could revitalize Dideyasi 268 269 270.

She then fabricated a divine mission to secure royal support for military preparations. Working for Li Lin, she manipulated Temple personnel, helped separate Geligao Li from the young priestess accompanying him, and drew the priestess into dependence through pleasure-inducing “holy water” and religious deception 270 278.

Infiltration of the Temple and United Kingdom

Catherine’s importance lay initially in her influence over believers rather than direct command of the Paladin Order. Li Lin intended her to erode the Temple’s religious foundation and thereby weaken the God of Justice. A staged victory over undead, aided by a ring supplied by Li Lin, further elevated her standing while other clergy struggled with the loss of divine power 278 300 306.

By the Kudel martial trial, the Temple’s highest authority had effectively shifted to Catherine. She used this position to gather paladins for Li Lin’s investigation of Holy Wrath 311 312.

Gabriel’s arrival prompted Catherine to seek greater power. During the resulting corruption trial, she rejected a succubus’s attempt to claim her and reaffirmed her belief in Li Lin, developing a source of power rooted in magic 327 328 329.

Within the United Council, Catherine exploited disputes between nobles and commoner representatives. On Angela’s advice, she offered the representatives responsibility for military supplies, exposing their competing ambitions. She also extended Angela’s abusive methods to others, eventually turning Nalu into her obedient Weapon Spirit 331 354 356 376.

During the allied advance into undead-held territory, Catherine publicized victories as Li Lin ordered while preserving a record of her own warnings against overconfidence. After the campaign failed, she received praise for her caution and rescue of soldiers. She then secured lifetime control over the United Kingdom’s major military and political decisions, privately declaring that she intended to destroy it from within 368 370 376 382.

Final Defense and Open Betrayal

Catherine maintained public confidence by scattering healing holy light over the capital and surrounding cities. As the Scourge Legion advanced, she mobilized civilians, established defensive lines, and placed Mobius at the capital’s final line of defense 404 406.

Her defenses included heated-stone catapult ammunition against flying monsters and undead. She later combined Nalu’s winter power, a powerful magical blast, and catapult fire to destroy a gelatinous monster. These genuine defensive successes raised her prestige even as she continued serving Li Lin’s larger plan 410 411 417 418.

Catherine finally approached Li Lin with Mobius as her supposed guardian, then knelt before Li Lin in full view of the defenders. Declaring her mission complete, she accepted command of thirty thousand Scourge Legion soldiers and ordered the destruction of the royal city 420.

During the assault, she confronted her parents over their treatment of her as the founding heroine’s reincarnation rather than their daughter. Using the soul stone Li Lin had returned to her, she revived the original Catherine and challenged her. Her magical defenses, gravity spell, and raw Magic Power ultimately defeated the heroine’s angelic form 421 422.

Catherine later delayed enemy angels with dark divine arts and Chains of Storms rather than attempting to defeat them outright. After the God of Justice’s defeat, she killed Henderson and the last surviving boy of the Five-Nation Alliance, then took her own life. The chapter’s later inclusion of Catherine in Li Lin’s traveling party remains unexplained in the supplied account 426 433.

Appearance

• Resemblance to the founding heroine: Looks exactly like her ancestor, a resemblance central to her naming and public identity 421 422.
• Human appearance: Described as exceptionally beautiful, with pale skin and long hair 218 221 228.
• Angelic form: Displays a pair of snow-white wings at the Holy Light Festival 268.
• Transformed wings: Her corruption trial darkens her original wings and produces an additional pair formed from magical light 328.
• Unmasked form: Replaces her publicly displayed white wings with magic-radiating wings when announcing her allegiance to Li Lin 420.

Personality

Catherine begins as proud, disciplined, and intensely responsible. She treats physical hardship as a religious trial, refuses to show weakness before her captors, and repeatedly blames herself for perceived failures. Her strong need for self-control makes involuntary reactions and unfamiliar threats especially frightening to her 218 221 222 327.

Her allegiance changes radically, but her intelligence, determination, and capacity for independent action remain. Given an objective, she usually carries it out without constant supervision, consulting Li Lin chiefly when a danger exceeds her ability to handle it 278 341.

Catherine comes to resent the sacrifices demanded of a saintess and regards public worship as an inadequate return for surrendering her life. She considers service to Li Lin more meaningful than pursuing the God of Justice’s seemingly unattainable promise of universal harmony. Her devotion includes accepting that her ancestry will eventually require her death 278 305.

Under Angela’s influence, Catherine becomes cruel and manipulative, seeking to break the convictions of women who remind her of her former self. She nevertheless retains an outwardly gentle, holy manner, using the contrast between her reputation and private intentions to sustain her infiltration 270 354 356.

Abilities & Skills

Faith-Based Magic

Catherine draws power from magic through her intense belief in Li Lin rather than conventional devotion to Heaven or Hell 329.

• Prayer causes magical knowledge, gestures, and spells to appear in her mind despite her lack of formal mage training 417.
• Li Lin cannot directly perceive or answer her prayers, and the precise mechanism remains uncertain 417.
• She lacks the investigative mindset Li Lin considers necessary to become a conventional mage 329.

Spellcasting and Magical Defense

Her later transformation grants high-level magical capabilities 406.

• Uses teleportation, transference, protection, and offensive spells 406.
• Casts Cloudkill, gravity magic, detection spells, and negative-energy attacks 421 422.
• Generates defensive radiance capable of resisting swords, arrows, and divine arts 421.
• Can bombard enemies with raw Magic Power without an incantation or gesture, though her technique is far less refined than Yi Aier’s 422.
• Her detection magic fails to locate the concealed founding heroine 422.

Holy Scripture and Divine Arts

Catherine can use most spells within the holy scripture without changing her lawful alignment to match the spells she casts. Li Lin and Nia cannot identify a connection between her and the scripture, and Li Lin chooses to conceal the discovery from the gods 354.

• Scatters holy light to drive away disease and reassure civilians 404.
• Uses Glorious Holy Light to unleash dark divine arts and Chains of Storms against angels 426.
• Coordinates Nalu’s winter power with her own attacks to freeze and shatter a massive monster 417.

Political Manipulation and Infiltration

Catherine combines royal legitimacy, religious prestige, and careful public presentation 267 382.

• Fabricates divine instructions to influence her parents’ decisions 270.
• Gains authority through staged victories, public reassurance, and selective warnings 306 370 382.
• Reads expressions and exploits religious expectations to recruit or coerce followers 278 354 356.
• Initially lacks authority over the Paladin Order; her later political dominance makes her indispensable to its mobilization 278 382.

Tactical Adaptation

Despite being a civil and religious official rather than a trained military commander, Catherine develops effective battlefield responses 411.

• Proposes bound clusters of heated stones as catapult ammunition against aerial attackers 410 411.
• Combines freezing, direct magic, and sustained bombardment against a large enemy 417.
• Uses concealment and rapidly shifting movement to delay stronger angels rather than fight them head-on 426.
• Remains unspecialized in armed and unarmed combat 406.

Equipment / Weapons / Items

• Seed of Holiness potion — Nia’s creation, supplied by Li Lin to awaken Catherine’s sacred essence and conceal her changed nature 267.
• Divine-power ring — Prepared by Li Lin and delivered by Angela; enables a reputation-building victory over undead 306.
• Defensive magic equipment — Several protective items made by Li Lin before leaving Dideyasi 278.
• Power-enhancing magic item — Makes her regular displays of holy light easier than they appear 404.
• Soul stone — Contains the extracted soul of the original Catherine; later used to restore the heroine to life 228 421.
• Nalu’s pendant — Used to summon Nalu during the battle with her ancestor 422.
• Flaming sword — Wielded during her confrontation with her parents and the founding heroine 421.

Relationships

• Li Lin — Captor, master, and focus of her later faith. She believes he recognizes her as an individual rather than as her ancestor’s vessel, despite his insistence that her bloodline must end 305 411 421.
• Angela — Abuser and later model for Catherine’s own coercive methods. Catherine feels both fear and respect toward her, while Angela comes to admire her conviction and usefulness 305 352 356.
• Nia — Provides transformations, magical assistance, and access to Nalu. Catherine later helps her reconsider her fear of surrendering control through trust in Li Lin 267 354 356.
• Xiali — Childhood companion and closest friend, described as a sister-like presence. Catherine’s distress over Xiali’s changed condition contributes to her psychological collapse 227 228.
• Herbert — Former love interest who searches for her during her captivity. Catherine rejects and kills him within a nightmare during the corruption trial; this is not presented as a real-world killing 228 229 328.
• King and Queen of Dideyasi — Her parents. They trust her and transfer authority to her; she later accuses them of valuing the founding heroine’s image above their daughter 270 421.
• Catherine of the Five Heroes — Ancestor, namesake, and former soul inhabiting her body. Catherine revives and defeats her to reject her assigned identity and fulfill Li Lin’s revenge 229 421 422.
• Henderson — Longstanding rival over royal and Temple authority. Catherine fears he may expose her betrayal and ultimately kills him 406 433.
• Gabriel — Divine envoy whom Catherine deceives and later holds captive. Gabriel recognizes the danger of Catherine’s political ascendancy but cannot prevent it 329 382.
• Nalu — Captive Weapon Spirit whom Catherine abuses into obedience; later serves as her attendant and combat support 356 376 417.
• Mobius — Paladin whose personal loyalty Catherine cultivates. She appoints him to defend the capital and brings him to witness her public submission to Li Lin 406 420.
• Yi Aier — Source of the raw Magic Power bombardment technique Catherine uses against her ancestor 422.

Notable Quotes

“There is only one I believe in...” 328

“They are your people, your believers, and I was nothing more than your vessel—I once was, but not anymore.” 421

“I'm back, Master. I've completed the task you gave me. Everyone in the United Kingdom has become a rat in a sack, without exception.” 420