A Visit from the Shadows

In the spacious, magnificent assembly hall, whose ceiling and walls were adorned with countless reliefs and patterns related to the Abyssal Lord, the grotesque being known as the "Saint" stood silently upon the raised platform.

A "crown" woven from pitch-black bones stood atop the platform. Between the nerves and blood vessels tangled around its base were half-open eyes. That chilling brain lay quietly at the center of the skeletal crown, occasionally emitting low, muffled sounds as it slowly writhed.

The lower-ranking priests and ordinary cultists in the hall remained silent, standing cautiously and nervously in the corners. They kept their distance from the central platform and did not even dare meet the dormant eyestalks of the Saint directly. A heavy, oppressive atmosphere hung over the place, as though even the air had frozen solid.

Everyone knew that the Saint was in a terrible mood—and that mood was clearly connected to the abrupt termination of their recent operation.

The order to halt the operation had, of course, come from the Saint personally. Yet it was obvious that this was not an outcome the Saint had wished to see—the situation was not supposed to have developed this way.

This silence and oppression lasted for an unknown amount of time before a voice suddenly rang in the ears of every lower-ranking priest and ordinary cultist. "Leave."

As if granted a pardon, the Annihilation Cultists gathered in the hall departed through the various doors in almost the blink of an eye. In the end, only the high-ranking priests beside the platform remained.

"Saint," said a high-ranking priest dressed in a black coat, his graying hair combed impeccably, turning toward the platform and breaking the silence. "We have received news from Moko and Xiprod. The elves in the various city-states who had fallen asleep or