“What is going on? What's a priest doing here?” Artian quietly whispered to Sylvester as the four of them glanced back and forth between the two sides. They could sense a thick atmosphere of animosity between these two factions, something that hasn’t really disappeared since long ago. 

“I guess they still hate each other even all this time.” Sylvester whispered back, only for Rossa to interject. 

“I don’t understand, why is there a rift between the church and mages in your world? Don’t they share a common purpose of protecting the people?” Rossa asked, and surprisingly it was Estelle who replied. 

“It’s.. It’s a lot more complicated than that Rossa.” Estelle said as Rossa noticed her clasp her hands together in front of her chest and her eyes looked down on the floor. She could see that Estelle was feeling a great discomfort with the church’s presence. 

Almost immediately Artian stepped forward and put himself in front of Estelle, his back facing her. Estelle then smiled as she clung on to Artian’s arm. 

The newly arrived priest was the first one to break up the silence and speak after silently staring at the four with very apprehensive eyes.

“The failure of a bloodline.” The priest began. “A nobody, a foreigner, and an abomination.” The priest said in a condescending tone as he continued to speak while walking forward. 

Estelle’s figure then tensed up even more as her grip or Artian’s arm got tighter, prompting her man to respond in kind. 

“Who the hell are you calling an abomination?” Artian replied with fiery indignation, as Rossa and Sylvester moved forward to align themselves and stand by his side. 

“Hey! I think it’s a bit rude to call me a nobody. I played a huge part in solving this mess after all!” Sylvester interjected with a goofy tone, trying to get the priest to set his eyes on him and away from Estelle while Rossa continued to stare in silence. But before the priest could speak, Bridget finally broke her silence.

“Enough of your words, priest.” She said in a voice full of hatred and disdain, prompting Sylvester to look back and see his teacher’s face twisted in a sour rage. 

“Wow, I never expected her to be able to make a face like that.” He thought to himself, and with these bits and pieces alone, a picture was slowly forming in his mind.

Bridget’s figure was then bathed with light only for her to appear right between Sylvester’s group and the priest. It took less than an instant for her to suddenly leave her previous position, a feat that left shocked faces in both Rossa and Sylvester. 

“Hello there. Witch.” The priest replied. 

“The light and mercy of God shines upon all of us. You are all still welcome inside his kingdom despite all your transgressions.” He continued. 

“I said enough.” Bridget continued with her tough stance as her posse of expressionless men moved forward towards her position. 

“Fine then. Let’s get to business shall we?” The priest declared. “Our arrangements required that you only be involved in information gathering, but it would seem that now that you have meddled far deeper than what was discussed.” 

“What are you insinuating? That we wanted this to happen?” Bridget replied. 

“I will no longer entertain that train of thought.” The priest deflected as he continued with his talk. 

“Now then, that book. That Lost Item. Give that to us young man.” The priest demanded as he pointed his finger towards Sylvester.

“Lost Item? You mean this thing? Wow, what a boring term.” Sylvester replied in his usual snarky tone. 

“The terminologies used do not matter here. Now hand it over, that thing should be kept hidden within our walls.” He continued to demand. 

“How about no? This thing is my reward! That strange guy with a mask said so!” Sylvester fired back, his words prompting questions inside his friend’s heads. 

“Mask? Did he appear before Sylvester and we didn’t even notice it? We were right here with him, so how?”  His three friends thought inside their heads as they turned towards the smiling Sylvester. 

However, his statement would also attract the attention of his teacher, Bridget despite not looking back to face him. 

“Masked man?” The priest asked in a curious and weary tone.

“Yeah, a guy named Masked Entropy!” Sylvester replied, omitting the detail about him being the one naming the entity as “Masked Entropy”.

“He was weird and he left a few seconds before you guys arrived. Long story short, this thing was passed down to me so It’s fair that I decide who gets to keep it. It's only fair.” He continued. 

“What an insolent and foolish child. You will hand over that book, or else I will simply take it by force. You do not know its importance.” 

“And I do not care.” Sylvester replied immediately with a smile. 

“Enough of this,” The priest declared with a resigning sigh. “Guards, take the book away.” He commanded. 

The armored men all walked forward except for the one who was shining gold. However, their advance was halted by a blazing black fire suddenly manifesting in front of them. 

“You will not take one more step. Did you forget the New Nicaea council of 1925? If a party managed to solve a crisis involving magical or mystical items that isn’t under their jurisdiction, they would be responsible for storing and guarding said item.” Bridget declared. 

“But we had an agreement! The Church has taken full responsibility for this incident and you were only required for minimal assistance.” The priest retorted.

“Yes, but Inanis Orbis, or rather, some of my students managed to solve this entire conundrum on their own by being at the wrong place and the wrong time. And besides, you have invoked this same clause multiple times over the past.” Bridget continued to assert her side.

“What insolence! You do know I can take this as a form of provocation right?” The priest yelled out as he looked at the golden figure beside him. 

“Take care of it, Saint.” He commanded as the man wearing gold armor walked forward, however his curious choice of words would not go unnoticed. 

“Saint? Did he say Saint?” Sylvester thought as the golden knight raised its hands forwards. A flame of golden radiance then appeared and collided with the wall of black flame causing for the two infernos to fizzle and cancel each other out. 

Bridget looked at the golden knight with angry and sorrowful eyes as she began to start a dialogue. 

“You!” She suddenly shouted. 

“Why do you still serve their cause, their God, after what they’ve done to you!? Aren’t you the same as me?” Bridget asked in a bitter voice.

“Wow, there’s a lot of drama happening right in front of me!” Sylvester declared and then suddenly covered his mouth after he realized his mistake. 

"Dude, are you trying to get everyone mad at your or something?" Artian asked in an amused tone, snickering as he spoke.

"I think therefore I am, but sometimes those thoughts leak out." Sylvester replied in equal jest.

The golden knight however made no reply and simply stood in place as the other armored men moved forward. 

The expressionless men finally reacted, shifting their gaze to the knights and raising their fists in front of them. All of a sudden, their hands turned silver deforming to a liquid like state, and then transformed into metallic blades.

Sylvester and his friends all stood there in awe with what they were seeing. They did not expect those scary looking men to have these kinds of traits, especially since they have been in close proximity to them more than a few times. 

As a brittle deadlock ensued, the golden knight suddenly raised its head upwards as if it received some sort of enlightenment. The knight turned around and faced the priest, lowered itself to reach his ears and started to whisper. 

The priest’s eyes then widened over what the knight told him causing him to reel back in disbelief. 

“Are you sure?” He asked once more, asking for confirmation only for the knight to nod his head.

“I see then.” The priest resigned as he looked towards Bridget and the rest.

“Rejoice! It would seem that god has bestowed mercy upon you today. You can keep the book, we shall now make our exit. However, this incident will be tackled during the 2nd new Nicaea council coming in just a few months.” The priest paused and glanced at Sylvester.

“But before we leave, I would like to ask for your name, insolent child.” The priest said as he pointed towards Sylvester, only for the person in question to look him straight in the eye.

“Sylvester. Sylvester Clearsight. You better remember it!” Sylvester replied with a cheeky smile.

The priest then turned around and walked back to the gate. One of the armored knights then hurriedly walked to his side and leaned close. 

“Father Peter, are you sure we should just retreat?” The knight asked. 

“Yes, the order was from his holiness himself.” The priest replied. “However, we have yielded something we can use as a leverage.” He continued. 

“Sylvester Clearsight..” The priest said in a low and quiet done before disappearing back into the gate long with the rest of his group. The golden gate closed with a resounding bang of metal colliding and then dispersing into golden particles of light and scattered white feathers. 

“Wow that was quite the exit!” Artian commented as they were now left alone with the people from Inanis Orbis. Bridget Bishop then turned around to face the four, a gentle yet serious expression now present on her face. 

“Are you all alright?” She said in a concerned tone as she looked towards their figures. 

“I guess we are now!” Sylvester replied with a smile as he picked up the blackened staff that was lying nearby and had Rossa help him place it inside his hat.

Bridget then guided them towards the elevators still sticking present in the background. The four then glanced around and surveyed the destruction their battle has caused. However, they all know that despite all of the horrific events that happened here today, no one will know that this has ever happened. 

“Oh yeah miss Bridget! We managed to save a lot of folks down there over at the beach.” Sylvester declared. 

“Yes we know. You all did a great job all things considered.” She replied, but despite those words, Sylvester doesn’t feel satisfied. 

In an effort to try and push out those thoughts, he opened the golden book to the page where that weird looking card was placed. Sylvester then saw countless names listed inside the book. 

At first, he didn’t really think much of it, until he saw a name highlighted on purpose by the card's position. Almost instantly, something in his head immediately clicked causing him to suddenly stop in his stride. 

“Hmm? What’s wrong Sylvester?” Rossa asked. 

“No, nothing, it's fine.” He replied with a smile as his thoughts sank into a deep abyss of contemplation. 

“Randolph Carter. Carter? No, this has to be a coincidence.” He silently said inside his head, as quick memory flashed before him.

“Dad? I don’t have a dad, what’s a dad?” 

A cold sweat then dropped from his forehead as he started to piece something together, while hoping that his hypothesis wasn’t true.