The divine high-priestess silhouette looked down upon the golden droplet with contempt clearly written on her face. In front of her, such a thing did not amount to much at all. It seemed as if she was simply going to dismiss that droplet without much of a thought.

The paladin rushed to explain before she did something drastic like that. "Wait, my priestess. That is not a normal treasure. I found it inside one of the main vaults of the Pantheon faction. It has to be extraordinary I am sure of it."

The words tumbled from his lips desperately, his golden aura flickering like a dying flame. He knew one misstep, one wrong breath, and he would be erased, just like Liam.

For a moment, the divine high priestess remained motionless, the golden droplet still suspended between her fingers. Then, ever so slightly, her eyes narrowed.

The pressure in the void shifted. The paladin felt it immediately, the subtle, almost imperceptible change in her stance. To an outsider, she still looked like an untouchable goddess, her expression cold, unreadable.

But he knew better. The mere mention of the Forgotten Pantheon had changed something. Even if she wouldn't show it, even if she wouldn't acknowledge it, the weight of those words had struck a nerve.

The golden droplet pulsed in her palm, resisting her grasp, the fragment of ancient power within it seemingly rejecting her divinity. A speck of something beyond her control, no matter how insignificant.

The priestess exhaled softly, the barest trace of amusement curling at the edge of her lips. "You truly are pathetic, clinging to scraps like a drowning man to driftwood." She let the words settle, her voice smooth, almost bored.

The paladin lowered his head, swallowing his frustration. "Perhaps. But even scraps from a place such as that… hold weight, my priestess. You of all people know that sometimes scraps can hold true power that one hadn't seen in an entire era."

The priestess let out a small hum, tapping a finger against the floating droplet. It shuddered, glowing faintly, but didn't shatter under her touch. Her radiant eyes shifted back to the kneeling paladin. "You are selling this way too much. And you are certain this came from the Forgotten Pantheon?"

The paladin forced himself to nod. "I swear it on my very existence, Priestess. It was buried deep, hidden away. I do not believe they intended for it to ever be found."

A long silence followed. The high priestess tilted her head, considering his words. Her fingers closed around the golden droplet, and for a brief second, the air crackled with an immense surge of divine energy, as if she intended to destroy it outright.

But she didn't. Instead, she let her hand fall to her side, the golden droplet vanishing into the endless folds of her radiance. She was keeping it.

"Fine. You have proven to be useful enough for me to keep you on for some more time. This is your last chance. If you fail again, don't bother staying alive. I will hunt you down and kill you myself. There is nothing I hate more than a failure."

"Yes, my priestess."

"By the way, where did that cunt go? She did not return to the temple after the event. Did she run off by herself again?"

The paladin flinched slightly at the priestess's choice of words but quickly lowered his head even further. He knew better than to react, especially when her irritation was so palpable. The fact that she was even asking about her meant that she was already displeased.

He had to tread carefully.

"My priestess," he began cautiously, his voice even but submissive. "High priestess Morencius left the event without me. I have no idea where she went because she did not discuss any of her plans with me. Do you want me to try and track her using one of the soul marks?"

The divine high priestess's expression didn't change, but the void itself seemed to tighten around them, as though reality itself recoiled from her displeasure. The pressure was unbearable.

The paladin clenched his fists. He had expected this reaction, but that didn't make it any easier to endure.

"I see." The priestess's tone was unreadable.

The paladin hesitated before adding, "There is a possibility she has aligned herself with someone else… or is searching for something on her own."

At this, the priestess's gaze sharpened, her divine radiance flaring slightly, sending golden ripples across the space. "Aligned herself? With who?"

The paladin swallowed. "It is only speculation, but… she was asking me a great deal about the true royal families. I think that was just a ruse to cover up what she was really interested in."

"We heard the reports about the movements of the vampire dogs and I have a feeling she is interested in them. She thinks they are onto something. I think that is the reason why she tagged along with me in this event. She wanted to run into some of those dogs to interrogate them."

The divine high priestess remained silent for a long moment, her expression unreadable. The golden ripples from her aura slowly faded, but the pressure in the void did not lessen. If anything, it only deepened an invisible weight pressing down on the paladin's very soul.

"She is not foolish enough to defect," the priestess continued as if thinking aloud. "But she is ambitious." Her golden eyes flickered with something sharp, something knowing. "And ambition has led stronger creatures than her to ruin."

The paladin hesitated. "Shall I—?"

"Let her run." The priestess's voice was absolute. "If she wants to play games with corpses, let her waste her time." She exhaled, amused. "She has never understood the fundamental truth, has she?"

The paladin did not answer.

The priestess smiled, slow and cruel. "It does not matter what secrets they uncover. What scraps of ancient power they dig up. They are still lesser beings." Her divine radiance pulsed once, the sheer force of her conviction shaking the void itself.

Then, she waved her hand dismissively. "Still, it would be a shame to lose a useful pawn. Send a shadow to observe her. Do not interfere. I want to see just how far her delusions will take her."

"Yes, my priestess."

Satisfied, she turned away, her thoughts already elsewhere. Then, after a pause, she added, "And while you're at it, give me the trigger for the soul mark. I personally want to keep an eye on that cunt."

The man nodded weakly and raised his hand, producing yet another golden droplet. The droplet floated toward the priestess's silhouette, disappearing in the golden radiance.

The paladin finally let out a sigh of relief thankful that all of his offerings had been accepted. The high priestess had been in a particularly volatile mood today, and he had barely survived the encounter. He knew better than to think himself truly safe, but at least for now, he had bought himself more time.

However, just when he thought he was saved the priestess yet again glared at him with killing intent. "Why are you still mute? What about the other things? Do I have to spell everything out on my own?"

The paladin blinked in a daze. "I…"

"What about that stone tablet? What about that worthless vermin Crawford? Do you also have the marks for them? I need all my assets back to initiate the next plan. Why are you continuing to be useless and waste my time?"

The paladin quickly scrambled to produce two more divine droplets but he suddenly stopped. "I do not sense the marks-" He started explaining when he suddenly stopped. The look on his face changed into absolute horror when he suddenly realized something was off.

"My priestess, why is my divine droplet still intact… my pries" He stopped midway when he realized the entire thing was a ruse from the beginning.

The paladin's breath hitched, his body stiffening as a realization colder than the void itself settled into his bones. This… wasn't real.

Or rather, she wasn't.

His golden eyes flickered, darting to the priestess's form, but her expression remained unreadable, the same piercing radiance, the same untouchable divinity. Yet now, it was as if he were seeing past it, past the illusion, and past the oppressive presence.

The divine high priestess was not standing in front of him. This entire time, she had never been here at all. And yet, the weight of her will, her suffocating authority, it had all felt so real. His mind reeled. How?

His divine essence screamed at him, warning of something fundamentally wrong. It was as though reality itself was twisting around him, shifting in ways that were impossible.

Then it hit him. The cauldron. He was still inside the damned cauldron. The priestess was not there. She did not come here for him. She probably couldn't even sense him.

The paladin's eyes widened in horror, his body trembling as an unsettling, suffocating presence loomed behind him. He was not alone. Slowly, so painfully slowly, he turned his head.

And there he was.

A shadow at the edge of the void, woven from the deepest abyss, tendrils of nether curling from his form like wisps of smoke, his black eyes filled with killing intent.

Liam.

The paladin's throat tightened, his divine instincts screaming to flee, but he couldn't move. The world had already bound him. A slow, deliberate chuckle echoed through the void. "Took you long enough," Liam's lips curled upwards into a cold, chilling smile. A smile that sent shivers down the paladin's spine, freezing him to his very core.