"You're a Black Fire Cultist," Hypamira said with a faint smile. "Do you know the origins of the Black Fire Cultists?"
The young man froze.
Pandora's Box had been opened. War and plague, monsters and disasters had followed one after another. That was how the so-called Age of Civilization's Calamity had begun.
It had been the Earth Sanctuary's most glorious era. Gaia's daughters had joined the Min'er People in protecting this world of civilization and order. In that age, Hypamira knew, there had been a group of people who lost their families and loved ones to invading monsters. They swore revenge, took black flames as their mark, and made themselves the eternal enemies of monsters.
Together with the Sanctuary and the Legions, they had been known as the three swords of civilization.
But time had passed, and all three swords had rusted.
She gave the big man a glance. He immediately rushed over, grabbed the girl with the thick eyebrows, and ran. The others finally began to turn around as well. The young man in black robes stood there blankly for a while before hesitantly following them.
After thinking for quite some time, he tore the badge symbolizing the secret society from his robe and tossed it into the ruins nearby.
Behind them, more than a dozen tentacles finally caught up with Hypamira and bore down on her together.
"Priestess!" the girl with thick eyebrows cried out despite herself.
Hypamira's figure vanished.
Frederick's tentacles surrounded the priestess in the center. They interwove with one another, covered in thousands of faces. Those faces shifted in expression and whispered incessantly, like sighs beside one's ear, hushed conversations, and ceaseless cries.
Hypamira felt a voice forcing its way into her mind. It sounded as though hundreds of voices had merged into one. They