The echoes rang through the empty hall, shrill and crazed.
After a long while, a flickering torch gave a soft crackle.
That insignificant sound struck like a resounding slap, jolting the High Priest out of his absurd fantasy.
The blood-red sky before his eyes shattered instantly, and the Deity's whispers receded like the tide.
The dark red crystal against his chest remained cold. No bloody tendrils sprouted from it, nor did it merge with his heart.
The little black coffin in his palm remained silent, like a small, exquisite gravestone mocking his delusions.
The fervor on the High Priest's face froze bit by bit, until his expression returned to its lifeless gloom.
He knelt on the floor, his hunched back looking frail and pitiful.
"I'm nothing more than a custodian..."
"Perhaps those two are my only chance!"
Expressionless, the High Priest put both tokens back into the black cloth bag, tied it shut, and tucked it deep inside his robes, close to his body.
Inside the stone chamber, lamplight flickered.
Darkness swallowed the High Priest's figure once more, and everything returned to utter, deathly silence.
Meanwhile, at the Black Forest Edge.
Two figures in dark red robes were making their way through the thick black mist.
They were Lin Shen and [You've Cried Already], who had just accepted a mission at the Main Base and volunteered to go out "looking for people."
As [You've Cried Already] pushed aside the thorny branches blocking their path with his Bone Blade, he glanced back toward the camp, which had long since vanished into the black mist.
He frowned, finally unable to keep his worries to himself, and leaned closer to Lin Shen to mutter:
"Phone Bro, I've been meaning to ask you something."
"Did we go a little overboard with that last-second