On the third day after arriving in Olympia, the group had just finished breakfast and was discussing where to go that day—perhaps taking a look outside the city—when Rea, Illya, and the other Priestesses arrived. They brought Prometheus' new oracle, asking Hestia to purify the corrupted flames at the temple's candlestick.
"No. I'm coming with her." After hearing Rea, Illya, and the other Priestesses say that only Hestia was permitted to go, Shen Fei immediately spoke up. This was not Orario. Within Orario, it was not much of a problem for a god to act alone, but outside the city, gods were generally escorted by their Familia.
"Fine." In the end, with Hestia insisting, Shen Fei was allowed to accompany her while everyone else remained aboveground.
"An underground altar? But at a time this important, the God Chairman isn't coming along? They really are hiding something, then?"
The so-called candlestick was the underground altar, originally a place that enshrined Heavenly Fire. Logically, at such an important moment as purifying the corrupted flames, the God Chairman of the order should have been present. Even if he had something else to do, Rea, the leader of the Priestesses, could have come instead. Yet neither of them had accompanied them, which made Shen Fei suspicious of Olympia's situation.
"It's pretty huge. It feels a little like an Artificial Labyrinth, but did they really need to build it this grandly?"
Looking at the magnificent structures around him and listening to Illya explain how long it would take to reach the altar, Shen Fei was somewhat speechless. The temple's underground space was enormous. At their pace, it would take more than a day to reach the candlestick. Naturally, that pace referred to the Priestesses, Hestia, and the others.
However, from his subsequent conversation with Illya,