The noblewoman in the red dress stood beside George Kant. "She" chuckled softly by his ear, while Shade looked at the fading firelight within the archway behind the noblewoman, who still wore the form of a woman in red:
"So this was once the temple of the Old God Radiance Doorway."
The familiar power reminded him of what had happened beneath the giant tree in the Thousand Tree Forest. He had not expected that, after so long, he would encounter traces of that deity again:
"So Mrs. Shatara is still in the city, while the Mrs. Shatara who stepped out of the door came from another time?"
The noblewoman narrowed her eyes, and her red gown had already begun to burn.
"The believer of the Winter God you found truly is formidable. Even in the age when the Old Gods still existed, mortals with such talent were rare. The battle has only just begun. Though I will lose to her, she cannot possibly come save you now."
Shade had already crushed the red bead in his pocket with a spell, while George Kant added:
"You need not hope for any other help either. Since I waited for you here, I naturally came prepared. The temple's power has been activated. Unless you defeat me or forcibly shatter this doorway, there is no way for the outside world to enter."
He held the flaming great sword in his right hand, while Mrs. Shatara drew a fiery red whip from the remaining flames of the bonfire with her empty left hand:
"It has been three hundred years since I was defeated by the Church's 'Ranger Hunter.' To humans, that is a very long time, but to me, it was no more than the blink of an eye. Over these three hundred years, I