Lana was visibly uncomfortable with the place. She approached Aaron until their arms touched and hugged Tatou tightly. Aaron patted her head once and kept moving.

When they got closer to the temple, its wooden door opened, and a middle-aged man in black robes came out. He was tall and thin, with a villain goatee and bright blue eyes. His dark hair was cut short.

"Ah, the Herald of Light," he said. "I thought you would never come to exterminate us as you ordered done to the Guardian Sword clan." He made a mock crying face and exaggeratedly fanned his face with the hands. "I'm so glad I was wrong."

Aaron smiled slightly. "At least you have guts. This shall make things more entertaining at least. I come not as the Herald of Light, but as the rich, recently appointed Royal Duke of Lyr. I want to buy information that I find your temple uniquely suited to provide."

"How generous of you, o high and mighty Duke of Lyr!" He side-stepped from the door and gestured for Aaron to go inside. "This lowly one begs you to go in. Your patronage is a matter of life and death for us, o generous one."

Aaron's smile widened. "Mighty indeed. I'm the Herald of Light, a Royal Duke, and hold all the power of the Arcane Circle in this kingdom. I'm also a Four Star Qi Manipulator in my own right. I keep my assessment; your attitude makes things quite entertaining. It will be really entertaining to see how you deal with the consequences of your mockery when I come to collect for your disrespect. By all means, continue."

Aaron then walked in, not caring one bit for the sudden fear that struck the man.

Aaron was a firm believer of free speech, but those who spoke what they wanted had to understand that words brought consequences with them. Offending people, especially powerful ones, and not expecting retaliation was just plain stupid. That was as true for himself as anyone else; he had done the possible to go unnoticed by the Master bird as to not offend its sensibilities and attract its ire.

A minor character from a minor store in a minor city, like the salesman from Red City, wasn't important enough for Aaron to care about. But this man was a Two Star Devout, a representative of a god. His words reflected on his master and the entire Temple of Darkness.

Aaron would never allow them to offend him like that unanswered.

Lana giggled at the exchange, relaxing a bit. She really liked when he was "mean" to others, as she had told him once. It probably had something to do with his actions and words being contrary to what the Goddess of Light preached. She liked the novelty of it if nothing else.

The inside of the Temple of Darkness was pretty standard as far as temples went; a big black statue of a humanoid figure covered by a cloak dominated the back of the room, a small pulpit stood a few meters in front of the statue, ten pairs of benches filled the place, and a few old-looking pictures on the walls depicted a man shrouded in darkness killing his enemies.

There weren't many people present, only three women sitting on the benches with their heads lowered, and a man in the black robes of the faith. He was waiting by a door close to the entrance.

Aaron went to the man. The door led to a stairway down. The man only opened it for Aaron in silence, who stepped inside without worry.

He was keeping his active perception going, and together with his passive perception, he felt tens of formations all on the walls, floor, and ceiling. They ranged from defensive to offensive ones, going through all manners of wards and veils. The Temple of Darkness wanted everything that happened down there to be kept between themselves and their god.

Interestingly, he also felt himself entering a spatial formation. Indeed, when they arrived at the room at the end of the stairs, it was much bigger than the land of the temple above would suggest. Space had been stretched down there.

The room was hundreds of meters wide. It was completely bare of furniture or features on the rock it was made of. Aaron could feel a few hidden doors and stairs throughout the place though, so it wasn't strange that everything looked like that.

There was a single person there, the first non-human he saw in this world, a high elf.

She was breathtaking even by his standards; her traces were delicate and perfectly symmetrical, her ears pointy, her eyes and hair golden, and her lips pink. She looked no older than twenty if even that. However, she also gave out an aura of old age that rivaled stars. Like most high elves, she was the very definition of agelessness.

Her robes were black like every member of the Temple of Darkness, and she didn't look pleased with Aaron's presence, though her anger was but a hint in her beautiful face. And she was a Four Star Devout, which explained how the Temple of Darkness could operate openly in that kingdom.

"Herald of Light," she said contemplatively with a British accent. "I was told you just threatened a member of my temple."

"Don't be jealous," Aaron replied with a smile, "if you're dumb enough to mock me twice as he did, I'll threaten you too."

She frowned slightly. "I don't like your tone." The way she said it promised violence unless he changed his ways.

"See? You don't like the way I'm talking to you, so you give me a veiled threat. I didn't like the way that guy talked to me, so I threatened him. This is the way the world goes, lady, and I'll have none of your hypocritical righteousness. Let's just get down to business."

"This is the Temple of Darkness, Herald of Light. Your god has no power here. You have no power here. We might be too small to withstand the consequences of killing you, but we will pay the price for it if you provoke us. Dying to protect the honor of our god is worth it."

It was Aaron's turn to show annoyance, though it was mostly fake, to further his goals of gathering information. He wanted to see her try to kill him, but he said instead, "You would dare? Even knowing it would put my goddess, and maybe a whole lot of her allied gods, against yours?"

She snorted. "My god fears none of his brethren, Herald of Light."

Aaron liked where this talk was going. The Goddess of Light had demonstrated great fear when she had removed Lana's class and energy specialization, and one of the things he hoped to accomplish here was finding out what could scare gods that much. In less than a minute, he had already gotten the information that at least the God of Darkness feared no peer, at least not to the extent the goddess had shown. He could safely assume the goddess was the same. So, unless it was just an empty boast from the Priestess, that crossed all gods from his preliminary list.

That is, except for the one god who ruled over them all.

"Really? What if my goddess has a new ally? What if I came here under the orders of the Shalar Order?"

Few people would have noticed her reaction, and even Aaron had trouble with it. She was that good at hiding it. Her heart skipped ­half a beat and her face froze for half an instant. That was all the answer Aaron needed, especially when coupled with her next word, and the way she said it.

"Yes," she said contemptuously.

The quickness of her lie made it clear that half an instant was all she needed to confirm he was lying. Not only did she fear the Shalar Order, a group supposedly under the control of Shalar, the God of Rule, but she also had a means of identifying their agents.

There were only two beings Aaron knew of that could scare this world's gods. First, the aforementioned Shalar. Second, the only Immortal whom he had detected before he came to this world. There might be others, but even among those, he could only follow the trail of the first one. It would be suicide to go against an Immortal.

Just to be sure, he decided to probe the Priestess more directly. "So, tell me, what could scare a god? And how much would the information cost me?"

"We'll sell nothing to you, Herald of Light. Your claims to come as a duke might fool my stupid doorman, but it doesn't change what you are. You are not welcomed here, for business or otherwise."

This time, her reaction didn't confirm whether there was something they feared. So, now, to get information in yet another manner.

"Even if I'm interested in hearing the teachings of the God of Darkness?"

That gave her pause. "I can't tell whether you're lying."

"I'm not." He gestured to Lana. "My maid has been excommunicated from the Temple of Light. I think this is a unique opportunity to give her some perspective."

Lana gulped and felt a bit dizzy from the revelation that she was expected to hear the God of Darkness' lies, but she still nodded.

Even as she did it, she was aware of how artificial her nod looked, but she couldn't pretend any better. Everything was too uncomfortable, even scary, for her. She had never thought she would stand in a Temple of Darkness one day, much less to listen to their heresy.

Her stupid eyes tried to tear up again, but she held herself back. The Patriarch was kind to her, a useless piece of trash who had been thrown away time and time again by everyone she loved. Thus, more than anything, she couldn't be thrown away by him.

He was her breeze-windstorm. He was the first person she had seen rebel in a way she could admire. The one who had withstood whatever came his way without complaining or changing his ways.

They hadn't talked about it, but she remembered feeling the kick that had saved her from the yellow lightning. She also remembered seeing how terrible his state was when he told her to run after her iridescent skill attacked the mighty beast. His entire body had been so burned he had looked like a dead man walking. The lack of skin on his face, but functioning eyes, had looked terrifying. For a moment, she had frozen in fear, thinking the undead were trying to conquer the world once more.

Anyone else would've escaped instead of trying to save others if they were as close to death as him. She wasn't even sure if she herself would've helped instead of running away. It would have been easy to rationalize she should bring help if she were that hurt. And that's considering she had been a Priestess of Light at the time.

But he had stayed. He had woken Lana up and fought the fire elementals even in such a terrible state. That alone made him worthy of all her respect, and he had gone even further.

He had resisted her advances when her mind had been all fuzzy. She had even touched his shirtless body with desire, ready to give herself to him if he had wanted. Yet, instead of taking advantage of her, he kept bringing Logan up to help her find a measure of control.

He was change, but not chaos. He was rebellion, but not abuse. He was destruction, but not an indiscriminate one.

Aaron Ironblood was the new light of her life, illuminating the path forward into a world of unstructured unknowns that she was utterly unprepared for. And for that alone, she would do whatever he wanted her to do.

"Yes," she tried to say, but it came out as a squeak. She took a deep breath. "Yes," she said firmly. "I would love to hear all about the God of Darkness."

She looked the Priestess of Darkness straight in the eyes, and she had to admit there was something delightful in lying to a follower of the God of Darkness, also known as the God of Deception.