"Rise, all of you."
The ethereal, icy voice seemed to come from the depths of a vast icefield, echoing through everyone's consciousness.
It was not loud, yet it carried an absolute authority that left them unable to muster even the slightest resistance.
"Thank you, my Lord!"
Even after rising, everyone maintained a humble posture, their eyes fixed firmly on their toes. No one dared look up at the deity's true form.
"I summoned you here today to discuss the matter of those cultists."
The deity's voice was ethereal and distant, wasting no words as he went straight to the point:
"Kairils."
"Tell everyone exactly what happened on your journey, from beginning to end."
At the deity's summons, Kairils stepped out of the ranks.
Under the eyes of all Winterhold's senior officials, the young Knight Captain recounted his experiences in full, neither servile nor arrogant.
He began with their encounter with the four refugees from Fog Town in Graycliff Town.
Then came the ambush by the Black Forest Branch deep in the Dense Forest, followed by the sudden appearance of two Blood-Weeping Ridge remnants who had fused with Calamity Tokens, and finally the crippling losses inflicted on the entire party...
As Kairils continued his account.
The atmosphere in the great hall gradually grew strange.
Many of the senior Church officials standing in the middle and rear rows furrowed their brows deeply.
They exchanged glances, their eyes filled with undisguised shock and confusion.
What on earth had gotten into those two Abyss branches, Black Forest and Blood-Weeping Ridge?
Clashes between righteous gods and evil gods were nothing unusual in this wasteland.
If the powerful cultists from Abyss Headquarters had attacked Winterhold themselves, the officials might have weighed their strength and swallowed the humiliation.
But what did the Black Forest Branch and the