“What if we dressed up like them and killed the bishop?” Zia’s eyes lit up only to dim down instantly.

“No killing the bishop! We already discussed it – if king Alexander or Spencer wanted to do that, they would’ve done it long time ago. Live bishop is probably important for this country’s stability.” Nick explained.

“But … but …” Zia wanted to say something.

“You want to kill some bad guys, right?” YunYun came to help, “Nick, can we let her kill someone else important here, like ..?”

YunYun didn’t manage to finish her sentence when Zia jumped up on her feet, “Goddess! I want to kill that Lori goddess! She’s really bad, you said it yourself, Nick! She probably kills more people than the emperor Osman!”

Nick would’ve been shocked if he didn’t expect something like this, “How exactly do you expect us to do that? If you have a passable idea, I would lead the way myself!”

“Hahaha! You said it! You can’t take it back now! Alright! It could be dangerous, but we are the three fastest people in Moira and, if anything happens, we’ll just run away and never come back!” Zia victoriously said.

An hour and a half later they left the building dressed in dark red robes.

Nick walked slightly in front, wearing a hooded robe, while the two girls followed him. He was still in daze from the brainwash the two performed and couldn’t understand how he signed up for this mad plan. Even though it was a dark, cloudy night and he had a hood almost fully covering his face, the makeup of the two girls was questionable and it was quite hard for them to pass as two men from the Holy Order, especially if they had to say something.

He himself was not confident in changing his voice, but, after he practiced for twenty minutes or so, both girls persuaded him he sounded almost exactly like elder Sonor. The problem was – he could not voice long sentences like that and ‘almost’ was not good enough!

But the girls persuaded him again, arguing that the elder didn’t like the bishop anyway and wouldn’t discuss with him anything. In addition, all they needed was to see the fake goddess and, if there was even one suspicious expression on the bishop’s or any other Qi master’s face, they would immediately retreat.

They continued persuading Nick in turns and he even missed how YunYun disappeared for ten minutes to inform Feroz.

‘The power of the women in Li family really is frightening.’ Nick shuddered and at this thought sobered up.

Unfortunately or fortunately they just passed the temple ground gates and there was no turning back. Truth to be told, Nick did find this adventure thrilling, it was just that the common sense somewhere deep within continuously screamed ‘run away!’.

Trying to calm down, he gripped the handle of elder Sonor’s sword. Before leaving Zia pulled it out and ‘lent’ him, but made him promise he would return it to her since it was her trophy. Somehow, maybe because it was slashed deep in Nick’s body, the sword survived the blast and after Zia cleaned it, looked almost like new.

After they entered the temple grounds, a guard, without saying anything, immediately departed and, even before trio reached the pyramid, the bishop in white robe with his two bodyguards appeared at the entrance. Nick didn’t know if it was normal for them to meet during the night, but they did it last time when Nick and the girls got caught and from overhearing argument back in the mansion, they knew somebody wanted to come to report during the night as well.

“You made us all really worried, elder Sonor!” Bishop’s melodious voice greeted them. He should’ve been an old man around his eighties and from the looks he was, but his voice sounded like that of a forty year old woman. It was really bizarre and both girls involuntarily shuddered while Nick loudly snorted. It was time for the grand performance and he prayed he could earn another ‘Oscar’.

“Alright, alright. No theatrics then.” The smile on the old wrinkled bishop’s face disappeared, “What exactly happened?”

“A trap. They came for me, not for you or … her.” Nick did his best to imitate elder Sonor.

“Who were they? What did they say when you questioned them?” Bishop continued to inquire.

“I barely survived!” Nick angrily barked back, “Try yourself after the blast of a rank five beast core!”

“Alright, alright!” Bishop tried to calm the fake elder Sonor down, “So they …?”

“Dead.” Nick confirmed.

“Sigh, alright. It’s good that you are fine, old friend.” Bishop smiled again, while Nick immediately snorted.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

“Fine!” Apparently this was their usual way of communicating and bishop continued, “You didn’t meet her the last time and she’s still waiting for you. Yesterday they turned off the grand formation so now it’s good time to visit her.”

“Lead the way!” Nick nodded and, after bishop beckoned at his bodyguards, the six people entered the temple.

Even though the three youths were Qi masters already for some time and practiced meditation daily for years, this was way too stressful and currently all three of them felt like their hearts would jump out from their chests with how hard they were beating.

All three had to agree, this was simply too much of a coincidence and the way to meet goddess until now was too smooth. This made every one of them extremely wary and they were prepared to immediately draw their weapons at any given time. Luckily there was no need for that, at least for now, while bishop slowly led the way.

From the information Feroz provided, they knew the general layout of the first floor. This part of the temple mostly consisted of large halls and ritual chambers and there was nothing more to it. One could even call it more or less ‘public’.

Halls and hallways had high ceilings, but there were no paintings on the walls. The most common decoration were altars with statues of goddess Lori and colorful fitted carpets and banners decorating walls behind those. The nature in Moira was too dry and it was not really possible to grow any flowers as a decoration for all of this. Nick even mused that probably most of the water in the capital was extravagantly used for the bishop’s garden.

On their way they met dozens of priests and all of them quickly gave way to the small procession and remained bowed at the sides until the six people passed by. It was a bit strange to see this many people awake at such late hour, but the pyramid, or rather – the temple, inside was this dark and dimly lit all day long, therefore, if a person didn’t go outside, it was basically impossible to know what time of the day it was.

They passed halls, altars and multiple narrow staircases, all of which led only up. No wonder Feroz assumed that if there was anything special in the temple, it was on the top floors.

After what seemed an eternity, at the end of the great hallway, stretching all through the middle of the temple, the group entered a spacious hall almost in the size of a volleyball field. There were two people, probably Qi masters, guarding this hall and with a loud ‘bang’ they closed the three meter high door behind the procession while remaining outside to continue their guard duties.

While Nick and the two girls prepared for a possible attack, what happened next surprised them greatly. The two bodyguards went to the opposite wall and started to fiddle with it. It sounded as if there were loose rocks on the wall that were part of some mechanism, but unfortunately it was way too dark to discern anything. Of course, the trio did their best to pretend to not care and fortunately all this time bishop didn’t pay attention to them or tried to make conversation.

After few seconds, with a cracking sound the wall started to move to the right and soon a wide, similarly dimly lit staircase opened before them. If the stairs they saw earlier leading upstairs were maximum two meters wide, than these were at least five, maybe even six meters wide and continuously stretched down into the darkness. The passage, including stairs and walls, was carved directly in the rocky ground and if it was not for the weak lighting formations and the stairs, of course, one could almost take it for a natural cave.

“Alright, it’s been some time since the two of us went down here together.” Bishop chirped in his feminine voice, but a second later his vision turned black and he passed out. His two bodyguards were dead almost at the same time, each having a sword penetrate his heart from their backs.

To not alarm the guards at the door with the smell of blood, Nick immediately put the two bodies in his wristband, picked up the unconscious bishop and stealthily proceeded down the stairs.

According to their earlier plan, the moment someone will try to separate them, and there was a high chance it might happen, they would immediately retreat or charge forward depending on the situation. Nick already had an inkling his two ‘assistants’ will not be allowed to see the goddess, therefore was ready for the previous action. Girls also instantly guessed his intention and therefore the two Qi masters from the temple had to die.

After thirty or so steps, the staircase turned right and it seemed that it will continue to spiral down. YunYun poked Nick and motioned for him to stop.

“Formations?” She whispered.

“I doubt it.” Nick shook his head.

He also had this thought at first, but then remembered how from time to time there were people brought in and in batches at that and most likely this was the way there were sent to, hence the wide staircase. It would be inconvenient to turn on and off defensive formations all the time when large numbers of people are transported and, in fact, the secret wall and the guarding Qi masters was already a respectable defense. In addition, one couldn’t ignore the large number of guards outside the temple and the many priests inside. And, of course, it was more than likely for them to stumble upon more Qi masters on their way down.

The trio continued on their way down, but it seemed the stairs were almost endless. They were already at least hundred meters below the surface and it didn’t look like these stairs would ever end. The fact that they went slow and tried to be as stealthy as possible, made the route feel even longer. The only light they had was barely functioning lighting formations at each turn of the stairs and it made the atmosphere gloomy, even scary.

After few minutes someone poked Nick again, this time – Zia. She pointed at her nose and then surroundings and Nick nodded. Indeed, for some reason the further down they went, the more cool and humid the air became. The coolness was understandable, but there was no reason for it to become humid. The whole region was so dry, there should not be such discernible humidity, even so deep underground. Of course, the humidity was not on the level Nick and YunYun enjoyed at the tropical Paradise city, but it was still a strange phenomenon.

Few minutes later they finally reached the end of the stairs, but it was too early to relax. After glancing behind the last corner, Nick saw similarly large doors they went through earlier when entering the hall back up in the temple and also two guards, most likely Qi masters.

Even though the stairway was dimly lit, it was impossible to approach them unnoticed. It was also impossible to directly charge over and hope the two guards won’t have any time to react.

They climbed back up and, when he was confident the two guards were not able to hear them, Nick whispered, “Any ideas?”

“What do you think are our chances of frontal attack?” YunYun asked, but Nick shook his head. It was not that they couldn’t defeat those two guards, but it was almost impossible to do it silently. They didn’t know what was on the other side of those doors.