"They will betray us."
That was the only answer.
"No."
Klein refuted him coldly.
"They will not."
"They have always been like this. I learned that lesson in Tyre."
"The Civic Temple is not the Wendigo Church, my lord, just as you are not what people claim you to be."
Though he could not see it, Klein could feel the shadow shift its cold gaze away from the screen and lock onto him.
The sensation was enough to suffocate him.
"Do not defy your instincts, Klein. You do not trust them either. You are right."
"No, my lord."
Klein released his hands, letting them hang at his sides as they clenched into fists.
"If the Civic Temple was not our enemy before, then it has become our enemy now."
The shadow noticed his tone and let out a contemptuous snort.
"We can rely only on ourselves now. Do you still not understand?"
Klein raised his head and stared at the violently churning wreckage on the screen, and at the corpses within, tiny as specks of dust. He was not sure whether his trust could reach that far.
"Then what is our objective?"
he asked, his voice becoming as cautious and quiet as it had been in the past, his gaze drifting.
"Destruction..."
The other party slightly raised a hand, its gauntlet gently stroking the sword at its waist. It was a very unfamiliar sword, wrapped in even deeper shadows.
Yet with only a single glance, the ominous portent it contained made Klein's heart race wildly, as though it were not a sword but a volcano waiting to erupt.
His instincts told him to turn and run immediately.
But in truth, it was merely a sword, a sword hidden within its scabbard.
"We need only wait for destruction..."
"But we should