“What…?” Jack tried to free himself, but he couldn’t.

‘How can this be?’ He thought. He was supposed to be incorporeal. Nothing should be able to touch him. Yet, these energy chains held him as if he was a solid matter.

“No…,” Talia lamented. “My sister had found out about your frequent visit. He lay this trap for you.”

“Urgh…” Jack tried to break free again. His effort was futile. With a defeated sigh, he asked, “What do you think Aglea will do to me?”

“… Aglea won’t do anything. It’s my other sister you should be worried about.”

“Euphosine?” Jack asked. Euphosine was one of the Council of Charites’ three divine priestesses, together with Talia and Aglea. They were the highest authority within the faction.

Talia nodded.

“What exactly happened to your faction?” Jack asked.

Talia sighed. “It was more than one year ago. We stopped receiving any sort of contact from our Goddess. Euphosine and I feared that our Goddess had abandoned us. Only our sister Aglea remained strong in her belief. She encouraged us to continue praying and not lose hope. However, it was hard to do so when your prayers continued unanswered.”

More than one year ago, Jack thought. Perhaps that was when players entered this world.

“Euphosine took this the hardest,” Talia continued. “She stopped praying and no longer carried her duties. Because the leaders were divided, so too were our followers. Some left the faction. Some refused to do their tasks. Aglea’s followers who were the most devout remained firm in their belief and chided the others. This caused tension among us. There was even one time when it came to a full-blown fight between the followers.

“After the incident, Aglea called Euphosine to the main hall and reprimanded her, but she just laughed it off. Her dismissal drew Aglea’s ire and they ended up fighting as their followers did. I tried to break their fight but it was futile.

“Because they were fighting inside the main hall, their attacks damaged everything in that hall, including our Goddess’ altar. Euphosine didn’t care about it. Aglea became even more enraged due to that, and the fight became even fiercer.

“I tried to protect the altar the best as I could, but I couldn’t contend against the power the two of them unleashed together. The altar was badly damaged. But before it was destroyed, we felt something that we haven’t felt for a long time seeping out from the altar. It was the presence of our Goddess.

“Aglea was very happy by that presence. She quickly went to the altar and knelt for a prayer. Euphosine, on the other hand, was terrified. But she also came to the altar and knelt, begging for forgiveness. I, who had stayed close to the altar, had already knelt before they did. However, we then realized that something was wrong. Our Goddess was inert even when her presence was felt.

“We all realized it then. It was not that our Goddess had abandoned us. It was simply that she couldn’t answer anymore because she was no longer with us. What we felt in her altar was just her residual essence.

“Upon the realization, Aglea turned mad with anger and grief. She lashed out her power. But this time, it was directed at the altar. She refused to acknowledge that our Goddess was gone. She instead imagined that our Goddess was simply imprisoned in that altar and she was now doing this to help her out.

“I tried to stop her but I was blasted away by her rogue power. Euphosine just stood at the side, watching.

“Aglea’s attacks finally destroyed the altar. But as she did, a powerful force was unleashed from the destroyed altar. This force struck Aglea square in her chest and it depleted all her HP in a single strike. We watched with disbelief as our sister died in front of us.

“I went to my sister and tried casting a resurrection spell on her, but it was to no avail. It was as if her soul was no more. While I was doing that, I didn’t notice Euphosine who went to the altar. She reached into the hole underneath the altar and when her hand was out, there was a glowing sphere in her hand. It was the most beautiful thing we had ever seen. Additionally, we felt the presence of our Goddess from that sphere.”

“Goddess Joy’s divine heritage…,” Jack remarked.

“That’s right. The thing you came to warn us about,” Talia said. “There is no longer a need for you to worry that it will be taken because it has already been taken by someone worse.”  𝗇𝑶𝗏𝖊𝓵𝑛𝐄xt.𝗰𝒐𝐦

“So… Euphosine holds the divine heritage now?” Jack asked.

“She does… I asked her to let go of the sphere, our Goddess’ essence. I told her that the essence was hidden for a reason. That we should leave our Goddess to rest in peace, but she refused to listen. The way she looked at the sphere when she first held it in her hand… I should have noticed then. She was no longer her usual self. The power of the essence made her drunk. She kept the essence and walked away, while I mourn my sister’s death.

“A few days after the incident, several strange things occurred. Many of our followers went missing. I thought at first that they left, following the members before them. The few that stayed, were as if in a blissful trance. They refused to do anything. They just stayed idle and be content with themselves.

“Then, some of the missing followers, who were also Euphosine’s followers, returned. With them were people of the world, from different races. There were even outworlders whom we heard to have entered our world not long ago. All these people were shackled.

“I confronted Euphosine, only to be met by another dreadful surprise. Beside Euphosine was our dead sister, Aglea. She just stood there. Unmoving and silent as a statue. I realized then it was Euphosine’s deed. She had corrupted our Goddess’ essence and used it to do unspeakable things.

“She said she had constructed a secret dimension where we can perform our annual game. Something that we did for fun to celebrate our Goddess. She promised that the game this time would be more exciting and it could be done monthly instead of annually. The people whom her followers brought in would become the first participants in this redefined game.

“I scolded her and demanded that she let these people go. Instead of listening, she attacked me. With our Goddess’ power in her hand, she easily subdued me.”

“You should have gone to ask for help from the other divine factions,” Jack said.

“I…,” Talia was about to say something but she turned tense. Jack had seen this same expression on her in their previous two encounters.

“Oh, she did try to,” a voice that sent chills down Jack’s soul was heard. His senses detected someone entering the room. The same chilling presence Jack momentarily sensed the first time he was here. However, this presence was shrouded by intense force, Jack’s mana sense couldn’t quite read this person.

“You see, that’s why I keep her in restrain. It’s also the reason why I have to relocate our faction’s base, so the other meddling Gods didn’t interfere with our fun,” Euphosine said.

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