"Told by whom exactly?"

The elder didn't seem to mind NIght's ambiguous answer, on the contrary, he found it quite interesting. Not many people come to visit the church, especially considering the situation and the circumstance behind the sudden growth. So when Night showed up, the elder was quite happy internally.

"....."

'That's an interesting question.....'

Could he tell him it was the system? NPC's weren't exactly aware of the system, so saying the word system would simply be stupid. Convincing an NPC that they lived in a game was quite harsh and cruel.

"It was a voice in my head..."

It wasn't a lie, equating the system to just a voice in the head was somewhat undermining it but it was the only thing that he could think of. Naturally, he wasn't aware of how that would sound to an elder of a Church.

"...."

It was the elder's time to process what was said. People randomly coming up and claiming to be God's messenger wasn't rare, while it wasn't common as well but the reason the elder even considered it was because of Night's choice. If he truly was faking it why would he choose a church like the Church of Artemis when there were better choices at the moment.

"Haha I'm sorry young man, I think I misheard you, could you say that again?"

'What was I thinking, I can't believe I thought he said he heard a voice, tch.' the elder thought as he scolded himself internally.

"Ah of course, I said that it was a voice in my head,"

'What a fkn loser man, I had a chance to think about it and I went ahead and said the same thing, for fcks sake...'

"...I see. Please follow me then..."

'Oh, that worked? Hopefully, it worked properly...'

It was a rather surprising turn of events, Night had no idea he was being taken to the Pope as well as the fact that the elder thought he was a messenger. Whereas the elder, naturally, had no idea Night was talking about the system.

'In retrospect, I think simply saying that Noel sent me should've worked but whatever this worked...' it was the same as a counter-argument occurring to people during showers. Night continued to think about the entire event as he followed the elder into the Pope's room.

"Your Holiness," the elder said after very slightly knocking on the thick oak door.

"What is it?" a gruff voice replied from inside, it was slightly muffled, which was probably due to the door, but the voice didn't exactly scream "kindness and virtue".

"We have...errr how do I put this...we have a rather "interesting" visitor. A young man who says a voice asked him to visit the Church of Artemis,"

"....Let him in," the voice replied after thinking for a bit, perhaps he was hesitant but as the Pope of a growing religion, he could easily punish someone and get away with it. If the new visitor was indeed lying then, it was going to be unfortunate for him.

As soon as Night entered the room he was met with the fragrance of the earth, it wasn't exactly earth, it wasn't as strong as the smell of the wet ground, it was more moldy and raw. The Pope of the Church of Artemis stood there with his hands slightly parted, a gesture to welcome the supposed Messenger of God, but he quickly retracted his hands once he looked at Night.

Night's face was a well-known one in Vraun and the Pope recognized him. It would be unusual for him to not do so, especially considering his position requires him to know the affairs of the Kingdom.

"Leave us, elder..."

"At once Your Holiness," there wasn't a single hint of hesitation in his voice, the second he was ordered or, "asked" to leave the room, he turned around and left without any further questions.

"That's a unique smell...what is it?"

"Oh haha, it's red amaranth, it's sacred to our Goddess," The Pope said as he walked to his desk.

He was dressed in his usual rich garbs of white flowing satin robes, heavily embellished with gold signatures and designs signifying the Goddess Artemis and her hunt. On his head, he wore a long mitre hat with similar symbols. The Pope was a distinguished-looking man, unlike the others, he was unusually fit and relatively young. Contradictory to his voice, he had a rather pleasant countenance.

"As you probably know, I'm Pope Moonstar.."

'I had no fcking clue but sure,'

"Truly a pleasure Your Holiness, I go by the name Night," he said while slightly bowing.

"Haha, it would be difficult to not recognize you. You're quite well known within the Kingdom you know?" The Pope chuckled as he sat down on his chair, "so tell me about this voice you heard,"

"There's nothing to say really, I was simply told to visit the church, however, I do have a question of my own. If that's alright,"

"Of course, of course, I enjoy answering and fulfilling the curiosity of the young and complex, so tell me what is it that you wanted to know?"

"You were behind the summoning in the Forest of Silence, weren't you? Why did you order them to do so? Aren't you the Pope? Besides, even if you were behind it, it's foolish to send them in their robes,"

'Those stupid imbeciles! I specifically told them to not wear the robes, now everything a mess, it's gone to shit,'

"Whatever do you mean? What summoning? I have no idea about any of this. You must be mistaken ahah,"

"The men you sent have already admitted that you ordered them to do so. Honestly, I wasn't sure as to why I was asked to come to visit the Church of Artemis, but now that I'm here I met as well catch a criminal, don't you think?"

"Hm? I'm sure you've heard of innocent until proven guilty? I have nothing to do with the actions of my followers, accusing me of such a crime is simply preposterous!"

"Save it, Moonlight, the royal guards are going to show up and bring this entire scheme of yours down with you,"

"...."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright, we're here, and HOLY FCKING SHIT that's a lot of monsters.....they're causing a sandstorm as they move...."

"They'll take half a day to reach the borders, hopefully by then we completely scrape them out,"

"Hmm no no, I mean yes there a lot but the sandstorm is caused by something big, I can't see what exactly it is but it's definitely bigger than the other creatures...." Nate explained to Leo and Noxx as the entire group stood on top of a wall.

"Guardians....." Shade muttered. "I can feel more of my kind...."

"Are you sure about this?" Layla asked quizzically, it wasn't something to joke about after all. Why would beings that were proud to be territorial come forward and make such a bold move? Especially as one force.

"Yes...it's faint but I can feel something," Shade replied in a low tone.

"Okay, but how?" Layla looked at Nate for an explanation. Getting beings like the Guardians to work together was close to impossible, after all the last time such a feat was done was only under the rule of the Divine beings.

"Hmmm..." it was at that moment that he realized. When they were in the royal courtroom the existence of a Myth was mentioned, while it would definitely be annoying, it wouldn't be impossible for someone like him to force beings such as the Guardians together.

'A Myth rated war strategist huh? It has to be him...'

"The Imperial Kingdom, they're using the greed of the Guardians. Since they're territorial beings, I assume the circumstance here is that the Imperials somehow managed to convince them that once Vraun is fully destro-....but it doesn't make sense....there's something missing..." Nate said as he gazed into the horde of monsters.

"Whatever, let's begin, the more we delay, the more we lose our disadvantage,"

"We're ready,"

"Alright then. Just so you guys don't forget, in a battle against numbers, reducing them is going to be our priority. Forget about the big guys and the bosses, focus on slaughter. Layla, Leo, and Noxx are better suited to hunt down the bosses, so they can take care of that. Shade can switch and move around the field but I'd prefer you remain safe. Any injury and I hear it from Night so. Let's go!"

'I sure hope the Imperials aren't involved....'

A Myth facing a Legend was something the world would want to see, but it isn't something the ones related are prepared for. Especially because of how much Pythia had warned the others to beware of Neo Thallius. Even if this man did appear in front of them, they would be slaughtered in less than 10 seconds, not to mention that Night wasn't with them. Perhaps Night was the only one who could survive for more than 10 seconds but even then it would only be thanks to his real-life skills.

'You better not do anything stupid...'