With the defeat of the cerberus, a large door materialized where the stone altar once stood. However, both Sophia and Maya were too exhausted to notice immediately. The former slumped against the wall, catching her breath, while the latter reverted back to her original form and took a rest herself.

Maya and Sophia trudged towards the stone gates that had materialized following the Cerberus's death. As they crossed the gate, Maya suddenly staggered, her hand reaching out to steady herself against Sophia. Her vision blurred into a stark whiteness.

In an instant, she found herself alone, transported into an endless white void.

She spun around and called out for Sophia. "Sophia! Anyone?" But her words seemed to vanish into the void. The last time she was stranded in a space like this, she had met with the Administrator.

The Shapestealer paced back and forth, her footsteps echoing softly in the emptiness, her hands nervously fidgeting with the hem of her cloak.

After what felt like an eternity of walking, Maya stopped. She squinted her eyes, where a faint silhouette flickered at the edge of her vision. Her heart skipped a beat.

As she walked closer to the silhouette, the figure became clearer, revealing familiar brown hair and an unmistakable elven grace. "Officer Mabel?"

The officer turned and a warm smile spread across her face. "Hey there, kid."

"How are you here?" Maya asked, disbelief evident in her voice.

"I had to come after you myself, kid," the officer replied. "Saw the rest of it."

"This doesn't make any sense. Did you get caught in the tower too?"

"Don't worry about the details, kiddo. What matters is that I'm here, and you've made it so far. I'm proud of you."

Maya couldn't hold back her disbelief. She couldn't believe her eyes; it was almost too good to be true.

'Too good to be true,' that thought echoed in her mind as she contemplated the situation. Surely, there was no possible way for the officer to have made it this far.

Maya shook her head, trying to focus. "Who are you, really?"

"Kid, it's me," the officer insisted.

Suddenly, Maya felt a strange tug, as if her body was moving of its own volition. She found herself walking closer to Officer Mabel, unable to control her legs.

"What are you doing to me?" Maya asked, her voice filled with panic.

Officer Mabel extended her hands, trying to embrace Maya. "It's been so long, kiddo. Why don't you give me a hug?"

Maya took a step forward, her arms hesitantly mirroring Mabel's. But just as their embrace was about to happen, the Shapestealer's eyes widened in shock. A familiar sword thrust through Officer Mabel's stomach: blood trickling from her lips.

Sophia appeared out of nowhere. "Snap out of it. We're getting out of here!"

"W-what do you mean by that?" Maya stammered.

Without hesitation, Sophia stepped closer, placing her hands firmly on Maya's shoulders. "Listen, you need to snap out of it. This is all an illusion."

Maya's mind swirled in confusion, a thick fog seeming to cloud her thoughts. She tried to speak, but it felt so difficult for words to leave her lips now.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Then, the Paladin raised her right arm and delivered a sharp slap across Maya's face. Her head snapped to the side, the sting of the slap bringing a sudden clarity.

The pain awakened something in Maya. As she reeled from the slap, she rapidly blinked and now saw, instead of Officer Mabel, a grotesque sludge monster with too many eyes, slinking back into the darkness. The surroundings were not a white void, but rather a decrepit room.

"What was that?" Maya asked.

"It's just another trap. Let's move on," Sophia said, wiping her blade off the black sludge that covered it. She didn't resist before walking away.

The Shapestealer's mind was still reeling from the illusory assault she had faced earlier. As she followed closely behind Sophia, she examined her new environment.

The two eventually entered what seemed to be an ancient library. The place was filled with dust-covered tomes. Many of the racks were filled with books, though many shelves were empty or seemed to have several books missing.

"We should search this place for a bit. Might find something useful," Sophia said as she took a book from one of the shelves.

"Yeah, I don't really understand any of this," Maya added, flipping through the pages of a book she had recently pulled from a shelf. The contents were written in a language she didn't understand at all, not even slightly. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to be useful in this area.

"That's alright. You can just help me by looking around and checking if there's anything else that's interesting. Leave the books to me."

Sophia flipped through the pages of another book. "Alright, Maya, is there anything in particular you're looking for?"

"Try to dig for anything about what lies beyond this blasted cathedral, so we can be better prepared," Maya replied.

"Fair enough, I'll see what I can find." Maya explored the vast, cavernous library. At first, there wasn't much that caught her eye, but then she noticed a curious-looking book with a pitch-black cover, adorned with a strange magic circle. She picked it up.

Maya took the book and found Sophia sifting through several books on a wooden desk.

"Hey, I found this," Maya said, placing the book right in front of the Paladin.

Sophia glanced up initially, but soon her expression turned to one of intrigue as she examined the book. "Where did you find this?"

"It was at the back, among some other random books," Maya replied.

"Interesting," Sophia mused. "This looks like some kind of ritual book or spell book. Either way, it's magical."

"Well, it certainly doesn't look magical to me, though. I don't know what it actually says," Maya admitted.

"That's fine. Best to find anything else?"

"Not really, that's about it. Strangely, there's no other door out of this library, except for the way we came in."

"Maybe this book can help us with that," Sophia said, her eyes still on the book. "While I try to figure it out, why don't you give this book a read?"

The Paladin passed Maya a book with a dark green cover, titled "A Brief History of the World and the Old Gods."

"Hold on, how come I can actually read this book, or the title at least?"

"Oh, that would just happen to be a translation copy that's made it to the common tongue," Sophia explained.

"I'll give it a look then."

The last time Maya read a book was when Officer Mabel made her read several hundred pages of an encyclopedia about rocks after she was caught stealing some fancy looking bread. While that book was boring to Maya, the one she held now looked a lot more interesting. Soon, she took a seat opposite to Sophia and began to read.

***

In the beginning, there was only Namu: the First God. For eons, he lived alone, causing him great sadness. His tears formed the oceans as his sorrow fuelled the spark of life itself. As Namu witnessed the burgeoning life: he yearned for companionship. Thus, he created Munin, born from his essence, to preside over the domain of change and iterate upon his creations.

Namu then continued to sow the seeds of existence: the seven winds, creatures of the deep, and beasts of the land. It was Munin, however, who transformed these into the four seasons, various fishes and other small sea-creatures, and lastly the mortal races themselves: elves, beast-kin, humans, and many more.

But as Munin's triumphs eclipsed Namu's, envy grew within him. To balance the scales, he conjured Nergal, the God of Destruction, whose purpose was to undo Munin's progress.

Nergal's wrath brought blights and catastrophes upon the world, often spurred by Namu's growing envy. Munin, however, saw the God of Destruction's power as an opportunity.

She used her cunning to influence Nergal, convincing him of his superiority over Namu. This led to Nergal's rebellion against the First God, a conflict that ended with Namu plucking out one of Nergal's eyes, turning it into the sun as a reminder of his defiance.

Angered and feeling betrayed by Munin, Nergal sought ways to trap or kill her. But just like Namu, the God of Destruction would try and fail for many years to capture the God of Change.

In his pursuit to outwit Munin, Nergal proposed an alliance with Namu. They conceived the idea of a Tower: a place where they could exert their power equally and serve as Munin's prison.