"Oh, Priest, stop teasing me. I sighed because someone merely left during that time-travel adventure."
Shade wanted to sigh again as he spoke, but held it back so as not to break his record of "five times in three minutes."
"You can keep this book. The Order of Spiritual Cultivation still has copies."
Shade had brought over the Eternal Slumber Scripture, though he had naturally kept a copy for himself as well. The book now lay to Priest Augustus's right, and the Old Priest had already flipped through it earlier.
"It seems your latest experience was quite extraordinary. What, do you need an old man like me to help sort out your mental state? Though that's really the Doctor's job—but he's still locked up in the church, so it falls to me."
At the mention of Doctor Schneider, even Shade, whose mood had not been particularly good, smiled. Priest Augustus laughed as well. The Doctor had truly been unlucky this time, but judging by the time, he would be released soon enough.
"I don't need counseling, but I really did encounter quite a lot this time. Sorry for taking up your lunch break. Let me tell you a story."
The story began with the skull on the temple door saying that the Deathbringer Angel had been killed by an Ancient God. Then came their group offering sacrifices and walking the Path of the Dead in reverse. At the road's end, the god appeared, shattered the bracelet, seized Shade and shook him violently before hurling him into the sky. He shared a coffin with the god, learned the bracelet's origins, the evil god's responsibility, the Deathbringer Angel's death, and then departed from death aboard the coffin.
The Priest set aside his work, turned around on his round stool, and listened intently.