Early in the morning, Holy Light Cathedral, which should have been bustling with cheerful people heading to work, had fallen into a rare silence. The church's senior members sat in the conference room with grave expressions.
The Daywalkers, who should have been heading to the major shopping districts and exchanges, instead huddled together in the prayer hall of Holy Light Cathedral, silently awaiting the outcome from the conference room.
Nothing like this had happened in decades. The reason was that, just last night, three Order Keeper patrol squads had been attacked while on patrol. Casualties alone would have been one thing, but what enraged them was that every member had lost their Beyonder Characteristics and had been hung upside down from streetlamps. This was undoubtedly a provocation.
At last, a man in his early forties with dazzling blond hair, who looked more like a merchant than a clergyman, broke the silence in the conference room.
"Have you identified the attackers? How many were there? Did they use a Sealed Artifact or their own ability to remove the Beyonder Characteristics?"
"It cannot be determined. The three squads were attacked less than ten minutes apart. Their enemies were all dressed in black and masked, and they used abilities from different Pathways during the battle. We cannot determine which effects came from Mysterious Items, but extracting the Beyonder Characteristics took only a short time. It can be confirmed that it was a Beyonder Ability."
A relatively young man seated at the very end of the conference table answered. The three attacked squads had all been under his command. If only a demigod Unshadowed could cause Beyonder Characteristics to separate, he would have suspected that his own people had set him up.
"It was definitely the Aurora Society! That guy Kesma happens to have