The Amateur's Details

Xia Lin and Tristan walked one behind the other along the muddy streets of Baras Town, heading for the second location marked on the map—the town's only public bathhouse.

"Honestly, I still can't quite figure it out." Xia Lin broke the silence, mulling over the mad hunter's testimony from earlier. "Judging by that crude outline of a stag-headed man outside his cabin, the guy probably worshipped Erastil, the stag god, or some kind of nature spirit. So how did he see a vision of Iomedae in his dream?"

"Xia Lin, would you make your own faith the object of your sexual fantasies?" Tristan's voice came from beneath the shadow of his wide-brimmed hat.

The blunt question caught Xia Lin in his throat, leaving him speechless for a moment.

"----"

"Just joking." A rare trace of emotion entered Tristan's tone. "This is actually quite normal. When succubi seduce Paladins or Priests, they often transform into their deities."

He seemed to have opened the floodgates. "Many people think of sex the moment succubi are mentioned, but as a seasoned heretic hunter, I can responsibly tell you that succubi have countless ways of breaking a mortal's mind. They can weave traps from your deepest fears, your most fanatical ambitions, even your purest kindness. Compared to the methods that can utterly corrupt a person's soul, sex is arguably the gentlest one."

"So you think that hunter had simply been repressed for too long, and imagined some woman from his heart as the goddess?" Xia Lin asked.

"He wasn't some devout believer." Tristan neither confirmed nor denied it. "More likely, that monster took the form of a woman he had always desired, and then he himself forcibly grafted that desire onto the image of the goddess. Creatures of the Abyss are best at exploiting the