How to Help Her Digest a God with Grace

(Orange-loving heroine + darkening heroine + Cthulhu + steampunk + Gothic aesthetics: no agonizing over good and evil, just a rational, unhinged heroine’s meticulously orchestrated path to godslaying as she manipulates multiple factions.)

“The Church says the Rot is divine punishment. The Council calls it an inexplicable plague. They’re both wrong.”

In the steam age, the Rot runs rampant. Veronica Almond, the youngest captain in the Holy Blood Hunters, falls into a blood pool of Rot during a mission. Her body is infected by an unknown parasite. The parasite wields silver strands that devour memories and the power to control the Rot, and it has rewritten her measure of humanity.

“How many lies does evolution require?”

To survive, she learns to disguise herself: she hides her cold heart behind a sweet smile and wins the Council’s trust with fabricated battle records.

She uses the Host’s lingering tenderness to lure a medical officer into corruption, while turning her younger brother into the perfect accomplice;

She draws a curtain of moonlight, transforming a half-elf songstress’s lullaby into a symphony of slaughter;

When the remains of an evil god break through their seal and the entire continent descends into madness, she stands amid the Council’s ruins, elegantly wiping the corner of her mouth.

The Council is a pawn, the Church a blade, her loved ones bait. Even her own body is no more than a temporary vessel, to be discarded when she sheds her skin and becomes a god.

“Now it’s time to let the old gods taste what it’s like to be devoured.”