The Church of Evernight's Offer

A figure appeared silently, as though she had slipped in from the next frame of a scene.

She was an ordinary-looking woman with long black hair hanging loose. She wore a simple linen robe bearing signs of mending, with a belt that looked like twisted bark around her waist. Her bare feet rested directly on the ground, covered in dust and scars.

If anything, her attire was somewhat similar to Ouroboros's. But while he had an unmistakably sacred, otherworldly air, she seemed like an ordinary person.

Of course, this woman was anything but ordinary.

Leaving aside how she had appeared so suddenly, her very presence made Luther feel tranquil and at peace. Even the shock and wariness that should have welled up in him faded considerably, unable to disturb that underlying calm.

Whoosh!

Antiya stepped forward, putting herself between Luther and the woman.

She was intensely guarded, apparently certain that the stranger was extremely powerful.

"Please rest assured. I mean you no harm."

The woman looked over with her dark eyes, her expression serene.

"Your Excellency, may I ask who you are?"

Luther asked without betraying his thoughts. Anyone who could elicit this reaction from Antiya had to be at least Sequence 2, if not higher. He had to be cautious.

...Still, were angels really that common?

He suddenly felt rather helpless. In this brief span atop Bansy Island's mountain, he had already encountered three High-Sequence beings in succession—Ouroboros, the black-robed woman who had driven Ouroboros away, and now this serene lady... Logically, the higher the Sequence, the fewer Beyonders there should have been. Yet for him, it seemed to be the other way around.

As that thought flashed through Luther's mind, the woman opposite him nodded slightly and answered, "Arianna, Servant of Concealment."

Servant of Concealment... Arianna...

Luther's eyes