In thirty days, she will purify fifty million souls. But today, she just wants to play.

A dark fairy tale about a merciful saint.

Malvika is a priestess of the Clements — the creed of mercy in a world at war for three thousand years. She sleeps in, dances badly with her broom, and is the kindest soul in the town of Orison.

The god she serves measures devotion in a single number: souls purified.

She loved the ash. And the ash loved her back.

What to expect:

• A villain-origin descent arc — you will root for her, and that's the horror

• LitRPG bones: system screens, titles, Graces, vows that bind power

• Grimdark war: plagues, alchemy fire, mercy with a knife behind it

• Dark fairy tale prose: lullabies, snow angels, ashen rain

• Completed and bingeable — 21 chapters, one countdown, no hiatus

Not for you if: you need heroes who stay heroes, or mercy that stays merciful.

Never seek vengeance. Always show mercy.

She obeyed. That was the problem.