An unremarkable underground warehouse stood in a border trading town in northeastern Gray Sea Bay.
Fabian stood in the middle of the dark, damp cellar.
Dim candlelight flickered, illuminating dozens of ordinary faces.
They were peddlers, vagrants, laborers, and even a veteran who had lost a leg.
But beneath those disguises, each wore a tiny, almost invisible silver badge on their collar-the token of the True Source Sect.
"Everyone's here."
Fabian toyed with a glass test tube.
"The Bishop-no, those lackeys of the false god's Church-are turning our brothers and sisters into walking corpses."
He raised the test tube, and the light passed through the liquid, refracting into a cold halo.
"They call it 'Holy Water,' a 'blessing.' But we know the truth. It's a shackle, a demon living inside their brains."
The believers before him began breathing heavily. Most were only first-tier, or had no class level at all, yet their fervor at that moment was more terrifying than a regular army's.
"This is the 'truth' our lord has bestowed upon us."
Fabian lowered the test tube into his palm and gripped it tightly.
"It can burn the worms to death and let people see reality. But the process is painful. Your task is to bring that pain and clarity to more people."
Behind Fabian, stacked wooden crates nearly reached the cellar ceiling. He signaled for everyone to begin moving them and taking out the bundles of potions tightly wrapped in straw. Each person received a bundle.
"Remember, this isn't poisoning. This is salvation."
Fabian walked over to a young believer and pressed a large bundle of potions into their arms, then straightened their ragged collar.
"Go. Go to Marquis Ironwall's Northern Foothills Province. Find the granaries, find the water supplies. Give the people another chance to choose."
**"For