After wading through the swarm of people, Kayden eventually made it past and reached a far less animated corner of this place. Temples attributed to tens of Gods and Goddesses lined the street from left to right, yet Kayden recognized none of them from the top of his head.

He could, however, guess. The cathedral with the symbol of the sun was probably for the Sun God, so the one on the opposite side with a crescent moon must be…

“There it is…”

Situated on the opposite side of the road was what Kayden assumed to be a temple for the Moon Goddess. Just a cursive glance was enough to tell him many things about the religion’s popularity.

While its competitor on the opposite side seemed to have visitors streaming in and out of the place, the temple looked positively deserted. Not a single soul was near the building, and none of the passersby even spared a glance at it.

It was to be expected though. Just how many things require the sun to thrive? It provided light and warmth for all. Compare that to the moon and it is very easy to see why the Moon Goddess’ religion wasn’t so popular with the people.

Zhang was also probably the only Moon Goddess worshipper he had ever seen in his life.

“Anything I should know before I enter? This is kinda like… enemy territory or something.”

Hel quickly responded.

“There are four people in there. I’ll ping them on the map.”

As soon as she said that, four yellow dots appeared inside the represented building on the mini-map. Two of them seemed to be standing behind those closed, stone doors, while the other two were deeper inside.

Kayden took a deep breath before exhaling. Nervous as he was, he knew that he couldn’t put this off forever, and resigned himself to doing it now. He gave himself some time to mentally prepare himself, and soon, he was walking towards those stone doors with a creeping sense of dread that only got worse the more steps he took towards it.

It was early evening now. The sun was just beginning to set, and the moon wasn’t to be out until a few hours later. Still, a long shadow was cast over the ground, and the temple seemed to be surrounded by an everlasting doom and gloom.

The temple wasn’t that big or impressive, especially when compared to the cathedral on the opposite side. Still, with its black, stone pillars and a white, crescent moon at the very top, Kayden couldn’t help but feel…

Afraid. He couldn’t see the moon without being reminded of horrible things again. Calming his troubled heart, he pounded the door with his fist, awaiting whatever lay beyond those doors.

It opened outwards, silently, which forced Kayden to take a few steps back. The other side of the doorway was pitch-darkness, which reminded him of the doors in his dream about Casey’s memories. This was no time to reminisce however, and so Kayden stepped inside.

He couldn’t see anything. The light from the outside didn’t seem to be able to penetrate the veil of darkness, leaving the inside unlit.

What was creepy, however, was that there were two people beside him. Or at least, they should be beside him, but he couldn’t see them. The mini-map says they are right there.

‘Do they use illusion magic too?’

Kayden decided not to point them out. A normal person wouldn’t have noticed them, and he didn’t want to seem suspicious. If they made any sudden movements, Hel would alert him, so he doubt he was in much danger.

‘Just to be safe though…’

Kayden turned himself invisible and placed an illusion of himself a few meters ahead. That should help prevent any sneak attacks from befalling him.

Next, he began to state his reason for being here.

“Your Goddess has asked me to come, and so I have. Not sure if She warned you about this or not, but I’m going to assume She has!”

His voice rang out clear into the void and repeated as it echoed within the walls of the temple. A few seconds later, a feminine voice responded.

“Child of Trickery! We have been expecting you!”

Footsteps could be heard as one of the yellow dots on his map began to slowly approach him. Judging from her tone of voice, which sounded pretty proud, she was probably of a higher position in the temple. Or maybe not. Kayden didn’t know anything.

She continued to speak, with her tone noticeably softer than before.

“Would you like me to turn on the lights?”

“…That would be preferable, yes.”

Seconds later, the ceiling lit up, and a single, circular light source hung high in the middle of the room. That’s right, it was a symbol of the full moon, which was very on-brand.

Instead of being awed, Kayden was again reminded of terrible times. Just add a tint of crimson to the light and Kayden would probably start pulling his knives out.

Now that he could see, he began to take in his surroundings. It looked exactly like Kayden thought a church would look, except it was a lot more moon-themed. Shiny, lustrous metal adorned the ceiling, reflecting the light in a way that looked like stars in the night sky. Whoever designed this knew what they were doing, and it was a shame that so few people were here to see it.

“Do you like the look of this place?”

Kayden looked down and spotted the woman who spoke to him all this time. She was short. Well, everyone was short to him, but she was even more so. That didn’t mean she looked young though, she looked middle-aged, with a kind smile and face. Her hair was silvery white, and the priest outfit she wore consisted of long, flowy white robes with elements of silver that wrapped around them.

But don’t let that kind-old-lady act fool you. Despite her kind exterior, Kayden was ninety percent sure it was a front. Thanks to the help of appraisal, he was able to discern just a little bit of her true nature.

 

Very powerful, but that was to be expected if the woman in front of him was really an archbishop. He was going to pick his next few words quietly.

Standing just behind his illusory self, he got straight to the point.

“What does the Goddess want with me? She promised me answers, and honestly? That’s all I’m here for.”

Her smile only brightened.

“Of course! Of course! Follow me!” She turned around and led him down the hallway with her robes flowing behind her.

Kayden obliged, but as soon as he moved, he discovered that the yellow dots beside him moved with him. Even with the aid of the light, he still couldn’t see the slightest trace of them, which ruled out the possibility of them hiding in the darkness. These two were straight-up invisible.

He stared straight at where one of the guards was supposed to be, and called out, “Is it alright if we hold our conversation here? I’m not comfortable going in any further.”

The archbishop paused, and turned to him with brows furrowed. Following the direction of his vision, she quickly figured out the problem.

“You can see them?” she asked with genuine surprise.

“No… but I can sense them. They’re following me, and I don’t like it.” Kayden stood rooted to the ground, refusing to move even an inch forward from this point on. Answers could be given right here, and there was no need to go somewhere else  “What are they, anyway? Are they illusion magic users?”

The archbishop hesitated, before answering, “…No, not quite. They simply don’t have a physical form where there is no sunlight. As for what they are, they’re a kind of an elemental golem, created by the Moon Goddess Herself.”

‘Interesting. That would also explain why I can’t appraise any information from them… Damned Gods and their divinity… Wait…’

It didn’t click for Kayden until now, but if they were beings created by a Goddess… Isn’t his life in grave danger? How could he hope to defeat a God’s creation? Let alone one he couldn’t even see.

His body subconsciously tensed, though he chose to stay for now. The Archbishop wasn’t finished.

“These two are also gifts. Gifts that the Goddess decided to grant you, should you join our cause.”

“…What?”

Kayden couldn’t believe his ears, but the Archbishop still wasn’t finished.

“That’s not all. As an honorary paladin, you’ll be granted a new ability by the Goddess, as well as support every temple in any of your future endeavors, to the best of our abilities of course.”

Kayden narrowed his eyes. Things sounded too good to be true.

“What’s the catch?”

“There is no ‘catch’.” The Archbishop, for the first time, lost the smile of hers. “The Goddess simply wants you to trust her, and to not harm us in any way, direct or indirect. A truce, if you will.”

While the offer was certainly tempting, Kayden wasn’t convinced. He asked another question just to be sure.

“Why a truce? I don’t see why she would need that when she could just smite me whenever.”

Kayden’s thought process led him to think that something was off. He was a bug in the eyes of the Goddess, yet why go all this way? Perhaps the gifts She made didn’t take a lot of effort, and she simply chose the safest approach? If he died, his master really might start hunting down the worshippers of the Moon Goddess. Was his ass getting saved by his master again?

If he thought about it that way, then things made more sense.

“What about the answers? To all the crazy things that have been happening?”

“You’ll get them if you agree to Her deal.”

Couldn’t say that he didn’t expect that. Again, the offer was incredibly tempting, and it would be a large step in his dreams to become a God.

Still, he couldn’t find it in his heart to trust this deal. For all he knew, accepting this would give the Goddess full access to his body, just like how she took over Zhang back then. Besides, who needs God to gain more power? Kayden believes he can do it himself!

So, instead of listening to his greed, he listened to his guts. He was going to reject the deal.

“Sorry, but I’m not accepting it… I apologize for wasting your time.”

Strangely, the archbishop did not seem the least bit surprised, like she never expected him to take the deal in the first place.

“No no, it’s fine! But since you came all this way, at least take this with you. Free-of-charge.”

From inside her sleeves, she procured what looked to be a potion bottle filled to the brim with liquid silver. It was also both see-through and reflective, making it look like… The reflection of the moon in water?

‘Another moon-themed unidentified object, huh? I do wish they would take the hint of me not wanting anything to do with them.’

He didn’t have the gall to straight up refuse a free item, so he inquired about the bottle instead.

The archbishop’s eyes lit up.

“It’s a potion meant to help with mana short-circuiting. Just drinking this and a good night’s worth of sleep will be enough to cure it with no side effects.”

“That’s… strangely convenient,” Kayden raised an eyebrow. “How did you even know I had that condition?”

“The Goddess told me.” The archbishop replied.

“Then… Did the Goddess tell you to give me that potion as well?”

“No, She didn’t. But I know that She has her reasons for trying to rope you into our side,” She walked up and pressed the bottle into his hands, or his illusory self’s hands. Kayden was forced to take his illusion’s place quickly before the potion was dropped onto the ground.

“I hope that we’ll at least remain on amicable terms. Good luck, Child of Trickery, and good luck for your entrance exams,” the archbishop then pointed to the exit. “You may leave now.”

“R-right…” Not knowing what else to do, Kayden simply left. There wasn’t any reason left for him to be there unless they had more free stuff to give.

As for the potion, he decided that it was okay to receive it. After all, if he didn’t want to drink it, he could always sell it anyway.

“Appraise.”

 

“Seems legitimate… Well, the earlier I drink it, the more I get to recover, right?”

Shrugging, Kayden tipped the contents into his mouth as the doors to the temple slammed behind him.

Call it reckless, but Kayden really needed this if he wanted to stand a chance in the Solus Academy entrance exams. It was a bit of a miracle that it just landed on his lap like that, to the point that it looked suspicious, but he had full trust in the appraisal ability of the System. If it said nothing was wrong, then nothing is wrong.

Not a single drop was left in the bottle in just a few seconds.

[User’s Mana capacity is steadily increasing!]

[User’s Mana regeneration is steadily increasing!]