Selene cautiously navigated the wide, grand hallway. For a brief few minutes, as she had been descending the stairs, she had assumed she would be coming to the sewers of Schwerdt Town, to see damp, dark corridors and flowing sewage, but when she arrived at this architecture, she realized that her imagination had been somewhat limited.

This was a high, wide hallway, at least two hundred meters wide. Hundreds of colossal pillars, carved from solid granite, supported it. Countless snake-eye lanterns, strung together like a row of beads, were embedded on the tops of the pillars, providing light to this underground hallway.

On the walls of the hallway, the pillars, and the lanterns, one could also see some strange symbols. They were a kind of intricate, winding, peculiar symbol, almost like hieroglyphics. Some of them were large enough to cover the entire face of a pillar, while some were small enough that there could be hundreds crammed onto one lantern.

Selene had descended from the wall of this hallway. She was in the middle of the hallway, looking to the left and right. She could see the hallway extending all the way to the edge of her vision, merging into the darkness.

This couldn’t be the work of Schwerdt Town. It couldn’t have appeared at the start of the town’s construction, during the planning stages. Similarly, it couldn’t be the work of the heretics.

Its massive size was frighteningly impressive. Only a city or nation of a certain size could attempt to build such a magnificent feat. Schwerdt Town clearly didn’t meet those conditions. Furthermore, the technology it used was completely different from the Divine Construct—it was simpler, more straightforward, more… backward.

It had a kind of primitive, defiant, primordial beauty.

Selene approached one of the pillars. She saw that it was a grey-white color, with the surface full of open holes that were meant to be used for holding lights. But the holes weren’t sealed very well. A good number of the lanterns had fallen in. And the surface of those lantern holders, which looked like trees, was covered in a strange material, like transparent glass, but harder than glass. It let the light inside shine through completely, and it also had a degree of protective ability.

This hallway seemed to have suffered enough time to be ruined. The pillars were full of cuts and signs of weathering. It seemed as if there had been beautiful bas-reliefs once, but now only vague, undulating outlines remained. Those strange symbols seemed to have been etched onto the pillars and hallways when they were first built. They were damaged along with the pillars. Only those symbols that were deeply etched into the lanterns and protected by the exterior casing remained mostly intact.

Selene looked at this scene and suddenly thought of the magnificent temples she had visited in her previous life.

Although the content was different, and the size and the materials of the lighting were different, they had a similar feeling—a sense of holy, solemn ceremony.

As a “Ritual Magician,” Selene was very familiar with this feeling.

“A temple lost to the dust of history, forgotten by everyone… Was it discovered by heretics, and used as a base for their operations?” Selene muttered to herself. She felt that the Divine Construct’s protection of relics hadn’t been very effective, allowing such a wonder and valuable artifact to be taken over by the heretics.

As a lover of wonders, she felt very heartbroken by this.

She continued walking forward.

The two heretics, who didn’t seem to be very sharp, were walking ahead of her, one of them the one who was disguised as a worker, doing a very perfunctory check. The other one was an individual whose physique was almost sickly thin, a person whose voice and body were incredibly neutral. They were walking down the hallway, carrying a lantern, talking to each other.

Selene followed behind them, maintaining a distance where she could clearly hear their conversation without having to be careful to hide.

“…. What exactly were you doing before?” The worker-dressed man asked.

“What kind of exploration is necessary? We are now just followers of the Lord. Our identity is nothing more.” The neutral-looking cleric replied flatly.

Stolen story; please report.

“That’s what they say, but I haven’t been a member of the church for very long… How great is our Lord? When will he be back? The Bishop never said anything specific…” The worker-dressed man hesitated for a few seconds before he said.

“Put those dangerous thoughts aside! Faithful belief is the chain that links us to the Lord, and the Lord will return when the time is right. We walk in darkness before the dawn, and that darkness is the Lord’s test. Repent your irreverence!” The neutral-looking cleric was furious. His tone was both angry and instructive.

The man, whose faith didn’t seem to be very strong, quickly showed remorse. He touched his head and chest seven times, saying in a devout tone,

“The bearer of seven sins, the watcher of all those who wear the Crown, the great scholar of sin, the Lord of Eternal Knowledge! Forgive my transgressions and my errors! I am your lamb, I am your faithful follower of seven sins. I am the one who offers your betrayers’ heads…

“I will offer my most faithful belief!”

He and the neutral-looking cleric next to him simultaneously shouted,

“Only in you do we believe, Lord of Sin and Knowledge!”

The worker-dressed man hesitated for less than a second before shouting out,

“I am willing to be punished, I am willing to bear your grace, I am willing to take a step forward on the path that leads to you!”

A strange circle of black light seemed to descend from the sky, falling upon his head. He covered his head and knelt on one knee. He was trembling, yelling, as if snakes and worms were crawling in his head. His brain and flesh were boiling at the same time, causing him unimaginable pain. The neutral-looking cleric, however, was indifferent to this, taking a few steps back.

This pain came suddenly, and it left just as quickly. About half a minute later, the worker-dressed man recovered to normal. The neutral-looking cleric greeted him with a smile and pulled the sweat-soaked man to his feet, saying,

“The Lord’s punishment descended. This means your errors have been erased. You have been granted the gift of being closer to him…”

For some reason, Selene, watching from a distance, felt that the worker-dressed man’s muscles had bulged a bit, and his skin had turned redder. It was like he had blushed.

Selene was stunned.

But a second later, something even more shocking happened.

She saw that the neutral-looking cleric’s hand didn’t leave the man after he stood up, but instead traced his body with his fingertips. He pinched his chest a little suggestively, and then stroked near his buttocks. The neutral cleric, his entire black-robed body pressed against the man, was rubbing his arms up and down. But the worker-dressed man seemed unable to resist this temptation. A moment ago, he had been tortured, his mind occupied by pain, and now he let out a growl like a wild animal. He pushed the cleric down to the ground.

The two bodies, with the sound of tearing clothes, intertwined. They collided and separated. Deep gasps rose and fell with their movements…

Selene stood behind them, petrified.

No, what do they believe in? Lust or the scholar of sin?

Selene, startled, unconsciously took a few steps forward, seeing more details.

She saw the two bodies change positions. The neutral-looking cleric, with their dual male and female characteristics and organs, was now sitting like a drunkard on top of the man, who was now like a wild animal. The cleric’s right hand was raised high, as if holding a chalice filled with red wine. It seemed as if a light, like blood, emanated from her, him… from his hand, reflecting off the man below, making him look even more savage. It was as if he were a beast escaping his bonds, and he was letting out an enraged growl. His movements became stronger and more forceful.

Everything seemed to have been imbued with a strange, holy feeling.

… A ritual!

Selene immediately guessed that this wasn’t simply sex, but some kind of bizarre ritual. Then, thinking about the name of the Evil god they worshipped, “The Scholar of Sin,” she immediately had a suspicion. The neutral-looking cleric was “Lust,” and the worker-dressed man was “Fury”!

Their bodies had been transformed according to whatever sin they had approached!

This was what they called “being closer to the gods”?

Suddenly, she heard a light, soft, but undeniably real sound of footsteps coming from behind her. Her expression remained unchanged as she walked a few steps forward. Then she abruptly turned around, but couldn’t see anything.

Selene furrowed her brow. She crouched down and minimized her breathing, then quickly dashed forward. A few turns, and she was gone in the shadows.

A few minutes later, the mosaic-covered “Shadow Walker” arrived at the spot where she had been standing. He couldn’t find her, and he was a little anxious and regretful. He had just seen the image of the two heretics. The shock had made him reveal his footsteps, which had alerted Selene… Where did she go?

He pondered. Suddenly, he felt his limbs bound by invisible ropes. He couldn’t move. A second later, he felt an icy sensation on the top of his head, his face, and his neck.

Behind him, in the shadows, Selene walked forward with a smile. Her left hand seemed to be grasping the invisible rope—it was the low-level spell, “Binding Spell.” Her right hand, holding the dagger, searched around before finding the “Shadow Walker’s” neck, which wasn’t very smooth.

She smiled, and, like a whisper, she leaned towards the color block that was presumably his head,

“You’re under arrest.”