A trio of figures moved through the dimly lit hall, their shadows stretg across the orone walls. Anyone familiar with Vash'kar would have reized the pce immediately—it was the Church of Sonoros. But us usual bustling atmosphere, the grand hall y eerily quiet. A handful of people y sprawled across the pews and stone floor, unscious. A priest was slumped against the altar, his breathing shallow but steady.

  The figures moved with purpose, their footsteps eg softly. One of them, a woman mismatched armor pieces with a twisted elegance, k beside an orand. Her fingers glowed faintly as if reag out with an unseen sense, but she scowled, her tration broken.

  "Have you found it, Ekstra?" The speaker wore a tailored coat with red inys, his short, dark hair framing a smile that now felt more like a mask than an expression. Krieg's voice, usually smooth, carried an edge of impatience.

  Ekstra shook her head, strands of silver hair slipping from beh her half-mask. "her it's not here, or someone's masking it. This pce is drenched in elusive magic."

  The third figure, draped in yers of tattered green silk resembling a kimono, moved without a sound. His hands moved in quick, fluid motions, signing messages with practiced ease. His panions responded naturally, their eyes catg the gestures without needing to pause. A soft chime echoed through Ekstra's and Krieg's interfaces, signaling a silent notification.

  North wall. Uhe tapestry.

  Krieg moved with practiced efficy, his expression calm as Ekstra's firaced shimmering runes in the air. The hidden partmeh the tapestry clicked open, revealing a small, ornate box adorned with silver and blue inys. She slipped it into her pouch with a nod, her movements smooth and unhurried.

  "Good work, Darkbird." she said smoothly.

  Darkbird's masked face remained impassive, his hands moving in a zy pattern of signs.

  Perimeter clear. No movemeed.

  Krieg gave a single nod. "Looks like we're ahead of schedule. Let's this up."

  Darkbird's movements slowed, his head tilting slightly as if listening to something beyond the room. His vision blurred at the edges, a hazy filter settling over reality, an effect of his heightened insight. His fingers moved in quick, precise signs.

  Corre. One approag entity.

  Krieg's gaze sharpened slightly. He exged a gh Ekstra, who merely raised an eyebrow, her expression more curious than ed. "Guess we're not alone," she murmured, fingers brushing the pouch at her side.

  "Just one?" Krieg asked.

  Darkbird nodded. Approag steadily. No signs of backup.

  "Then it shouldn't be an issue," Krieg said evenly. "Let's see who it is."

  The soft echo of footsteps reached them, unhurried and steady. A silhouette emerged from the shadows, its outliting through the muted light. As the figure drew closer, details came into focus. A silhouette dark armor, its segmees shifting with each step. A long scythe rested against his shoulder, its bde a dark, curved crest that glinted with a dangerous sheen.

  Rael's expression remained unreadable, shadows ging to his features. His dark hair framed sharp eyes, and his posture was deceptively rexed, a quiet fidence radiating from him.

  He stopped just within the halo of moonlight, the scythe resting against his shoulder. "You know," he said, his voice low, "I was just out for a midnight walk. Didn't expect to find guests rummaging through the church."

  Krieg remaiill, his expression giving nothing away. "And who might you be?" His tone was eveher weling nor hostile. "Didn't expepany."

  Rael didn't respond immediately. His grip on the scythe remained loose, the curved bde trag a thin line of silver along the stone floor. "What were you looking for?" he asked, his tone casual, almost bored.

  Krieg's expression remained even, his staneither defensive nressive. "Just retrieving something unimportant," he said. "A little errand. Nothing to yourself with."

  Rael moved closer, his footsteps measured and deliberate. Shadows seemed to g to him, poolih his scythe as if drawn to its edge. His preseightehe air, ae their rexed stances, a subtle tension coiled around Krieg, Ekstra, and Darkbird.

  "You know," Rael began, his voice smooth and unhurried, "I was a bit surprised when a random cult popped up out of nowhere. The Order keeps a pretty tight leash on things, a here we are—vandalism, strange symbols, random rituals." His eyes remaieady, unblinking. "Not a single casualty, though. Just property damage and public outcry. What sort of cult does that?"

  Ekstra's fiwitched near her pouch, but she didn't move. Darkbird's stance shifted almost imperceptibly, his masked face giving nothing away. Krieg's expression remained ral, though his jaw tightened just a fra.

  "Then, the Bishop of Vash'kar gets called to the capital," Rael tinued, his voice l as if sharing a secret. "And what do you know? The Order miraculously receives the cult's location. A bit too ve, isn't it?"

  The silehat followed seemed to stretch, the grand hall of the Order's headquarters swallowing sound. The stained-gss windows cast fractured light across the polished stone, colors shifting over the three figures like a slow tide.

  Rael's gaze slid from oo the other, waiting. "And here's the cherry on top. When the cultists were revealed, they weren't just random NPCs or fanatio, they were pyers. And not just any pyers, I realized they were the same ones from those suspicious guilds that had been leveling up at a breakneck pace. Their activity didn't just slow down—it stopped entirely, as if they'd vanished ht. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"

  A subtle shift rippled through the three. Ekstra's casual demeanor thinned, a razor's edge beh her smirk. Darkbird's fingers brushed against his belt, his movements no longer idle. Krieg's mask of posure slipped, only for an instant, but long enough.

  "So," Rael said, his toill light but weighted with implication, "mind telling me what you're really up to?"

  The temperature in the room seemed to drop. Krieg's expression hardened, Ekstra's amusement evaporated, and Darkbird's masked face remained unreadable.

  A soft chime echoed in their system interfaces, a shared message fshing across their vision: "promised. Order forces approag."

  A slow, almost begrudging aowledgment passed betweehree. Krieg's voice, when he spoke, was devoid of pretense. "You're sharp."

  Rael let out a low hum of amusement. "Not really. I just have a very capable vice leader."

  Ekstra's lips curled into a smirk, the tension in her body shifting to readiness. Krieg's expression remained ral, but his stance widened, hands at his sides as faint tendrils of frost curled along his fiips.

  Rael's grip tightened on his scythe, the bde dipping slightly as shadows pooled around him. "Leaving so soon?" His voice held a faint mockery, the kind that dug beh the skin.

  Krieg responded with a slow breath, his breath misting in the cool air. "Unfortunately, we're on a schedule."

  The shift from calm to chaos was instara's hands moved in a blur, violet rug themselves into the air. Magic coalesced into orbs of raw energy, whiched toward Rael in rapid succession. He moved, his body a blur as he Soulstepped to the side, the spells crashing into stone pilrs, shattering fragments across the polished floor.

  Krieg's hand snapped forward, a spear of lightning ng through the air. Rael moved, his body twisting as the bolt seared past, its heat grazing his cheek. Another followed, then a third, the air crag with electriergy. Rael weaved between them, his movements sharp and effit.

  A sudden blur in his peripheral visiora hurled a shard of violet crystal, its jagged edges pulsing with dark light. Rael twisted, the crystal whizzing past him and shattering against a stone pilr, where shadows writhed and cwed at the air.

  Before he could ter, Darkbird's form shimmered, multiplying into a dozen shadowy copies. The hall filled with shifting figures, each brandishing a gss-like bde. Rael spun away as the illusions closed in, his scythe sweeping through them. Each strike shattered an image, but more surged forward, ref as if he were cutting through smoke.

  "Persistent, aren't you?" Rael muttered, his voice low. He Soulstepped again, appearing behira. His scythe arced down, but violet s shot up to meet him. The metal structs snapped around his bde, holding it mid-swira's eyes glowed, a smirk pying on her lips as she yahe s pulling him off bance.

  Rael's expression remained calm, but his grip tightened. His scythe pulsed with a faint glow, the effect of Abyssal Harvest lingering. With a sharp twist, he broke free of the s, the spectral links dissolving into mist. He moved forward, quid precise, f Ekstra to abandon her spell areat.

  Krieg's hand shot up, lightning coiling into a spear. He hurled it, and this time the bolt branched mid-air, f into three separate strikes. Rael's eyes narrowed, his mind rag. The left strike was a feint—too wide. The right had a slight dey, the crackle of energy just a half-sed off. He ducked, the ter bolt grazing past his shoulder, searing the air with its heat.

  A fsh of movement—Darkbird. One of the illusions stepped forward, too solid. Rael's scythe swung in a tight arc, the bde biting into flesh. There was a wet snap, and Darkbird's arm fell away, severed ly at the shoulder. Blood sprayed, and the illusionist staggered back, his form flickering as the es around him wavered. His remaining hand moved, still signing, but the gestures were erratic, strained by pain.

  Rael lunged forward, but Ekstra was faster. Violet energy ed around Darkbird, yanking him back as she moved. s of light looped around him, the magic both a shield and a tether as she dragged him toward the f portal.

  "Time's up," a soft chime rang through the hall. Rael's head snapped up, eyes narrowing as a translut gate shimmered ience. Krieg stood before it, his expression unreadable, the lightning in his hand dissipating into harmless sparks.

  Ekstra's s tightened, pulling Darkbird to his feet. His face remained hidden, his movements sluggish, but he didn't resist. Ekstra's body shimmered, and with a swift motion, she pushed Darkbird through the gate before slipping in herself.

  Krieg lingered for a heartbeat longer, his gaze meeting Rael's without expression. Theurned and stepped into the portal, the gate sealing behind him with a soft hiss.

  Silence rushed in, heavy and cold. Rael remaiill, his scythe lowered, only the soft drip of blood on stone breaking the stillness.

  A procession of heavy footsteps broke the silence. Rael remaiill, his scythe resting against his shoulder as the Bishop of Vash'kar and a retinue of armored padiered. The Bishop's robes trailed behind him, silver embrlintih the fractured light of the stained gss. His expression was a careful mask of authority, though his eyes betrayed a sharper suspi.

  The padins fanned out, ons drawn, their movements practiced and disciplined. Rael didn't react, his posture loose, almost casual, but his senses sharpened uhe weight of their scrutiny.

  The Bishop's voice cut through the silence, heavy with the weight of authority. "What happened here?"

  Rael met his gaze steadily. "A mysterious group attacked the church. They broke through the defenses, fought past the guards, and we fought in the end. But they mao escape through a portal. They took an ornate looking box with them."

  The Bishop's expression remaioic, though a flicker nition crossed his eyes. His grip tightened around his staff, the gilded runes along its length glowing faintly. "A box..." His voice dropped, a murmur of prayer esg his lips.

  A ripple of unease moved through the padins. The Bishop did not look at them, his gaze fixed on Rael, unyielding and cold. "And you expect us to take your word for it?" His tone was sharper now, a bde cloaked in reverence. "You, who stand alone amid this desecration?"

  Rael did not answer. His silence hung in the air, her defiant nor submissive.

  The Bishop exhaled softly, a sound like the wind through a stone. His lips moved in prayer, each word a thread woven into a web of divine magic. Light unfurled from his staff, a delicate wave of gold and white, spreading through the room. Rael felt it brush against his skin, a holy presence, searg and sifting through the remains of the battle.

  When the light receded, the Bishop's eyes opened, and the divine glow lingered in his gaze. "You are not the thief." His aowledgment was devoid of warmth, merely a fact illuminated by the gods' will. His fiightened around his staff. "But you remain suspect. The anonymous tip... that was you."

  Rael's ck of denial was answer enough. The padins exged wary gheir ons l just enough to avoid offe not enough to relinquish suspi.

  The Bishop's expression hardehe brief touch of divination gone, repced by ironcd purpose. "Do you uand what they've taken?" His voice dropped, each word a solemn toll. "The box taihe Golden Token of Vash'kar."

  Rael's expression remained trolled, but his mind turned. "The Golden Token..."

  "With it, they could y cim to Vash'kar," the Bishop tinued, his voice a hymn of judgment. "But to do so, they must perform the Rite of Snty here, within these sacred halls." His gaze burned with the light of faith. "They ot rule without showing themselves. When they return, the Order will be ready."

  Rael's silence deepehe pieces of the puzzle shifted, refusing to align. Their movements had been too precise, their retreat too . Taking the Token only to return into a trap was too careless.

  His gaze sharpened. "If their goal was the Rite of Snty, why not prepare for a direct frontation? They had the advantage of surprise, yet they chose to retreat." His mind moved quickly, the truth unraveling with every thought. "They wanted us to believe they'd e back. But what if they never inteo?"

  The Bishop's jaw tightened, his holy visage shadowed by uainty. "If they do not return, they ot use the Token. Its power is bound to the church's blessing."

  "Uhey've found a way to circumvent it." Rael's voice was grim. "Or if the Token isn't the real objective. They could use it as leverage, draw attention here while they act elsewhere." His mind raced, recalling the precision of their movements, the way they had bought time instead of seizing it.

  The Bishop's expression remained resolute, his faith unyielding. "We will not be swayed by shadows. The Order will prepare. I will send word to the capital." His gaze lingered on Rael, not with respect but with the measured caution of a shepherd watg a wolf. "If you uncover anything, you will bring it to me. Do not mistake your involvement here as a shield from judgment."

  Rael ined his head, his expression as unreadable as stone. "Uood."

  As the Bishop turo issue ands to his padins, Rael remaiill, his mind already weaving pns of his own.