We made pretty good time getting to the temple, but we didn't head in immediately. "Alright." I said to Callie. "Can you scope this place out for us? Satala says this priest guy doesn't like the Night Pride, and he shouldn't have any guarding him. With her dossier on his techniques, and your information gathering ability, we can definitely avoid any casualties. Speaking of which, Bethy, you bring any of those stakes?"

The tiny Vampire nodded cheerfully. "Yup." She withdrew a pair of them. "These are my last two. I sent some with Aida and Tracey too, just to keep them safe, but these two should be more than enough. You want to carry them? Your neat little armor bypassing trick worked really well with them last time."

I took one, waving off her attempt to pass me the other. "Better to have two points of attack in there. Will they still work?"

She waggled a hand. "Yes, but not as well. That guy's soul is probably monstrous, with enough soul power you can resist a lot. It won't be enough to save him, but he might be able to force himself to move still."

"It's fine. Nasha, you ready with your binding Skill?" Her Unholy binding should keep him still long enough for us to put him down, which would save us so much trouble here. I had a plan for taking him out if we could get the shot, and it was a pretty good one, but it all depended on opportunity.

The demoness looked troubled. "Yes, but I'll need him to stand still long enough to actually use it. We need to pin him down with attacks before I can pin him down with my Skill."

"That won't be a problem." Said Abel confidently. "I'll make sure he keeps still. Gabe and I should be able to distract him, especially in combination with the invocation teams. I'm like...60% sure no one is going to be mummified alive in a living coffin of molten gold!"

I winced. That particular technique had bothered me too. Nasha didn't look particularly reassured. Callie glared at our mentor. "Can you be serious for once!"

"I am being serious." He said in a wounded voice. "I really think we might all survive this."

Mel smacked him in the back of the head. "She's unhappy with the implication that there's a 40% chance we might NOT all survive. You're not supposed to talk about possible fatalities before a raid. It's bad for morale. No one here wants to think about all the terrible ways some of us are probably going to die!"

I palmed the forehead of my mask with a sigh. And she winced, apologizing quickly as she decided to stop talking. "We'll be fine, guys. We're insanely prepared for this. Plus we have Yvette to leverage our power into a strong invocation."

"Yeah, about that." Said Benny in confusion. "I thought invocations were based on soul strength, shouldn't we be letting Abel do this?"

"Kind of." I hedged. "If you think of an invocation like a lever, the soul is the material, and Impact is the fulcrum. Better Impact lets you pull of more powerful invocations without as much soul strain. At least that's how it was explained to me. Yvette is our best bet for pulling this off. She has as much Impact as Pallax himself, so she should definitely be able to bring some serious power to bear."

There was a loud roar as Randall, who was nearby, stood up on his back legs and crowed in triumph. Jessie, who was standing next to him, pinched the bridge of her nose. "That's not what that means Randy. It's just an expression." The bear paused, cocking its head and issuing a confused growl. "No I don't know why they phrase it that way." She rolled her eyes. "Yes, bears are very powerful."

Bethy, who was standing nearby the two, was trying desperately to hold in her giggles. "Your teddy bear is pretty funny!" She said, grinning at Jessie. "You've gotta teach me how to train my kitties like that."

My blonde team member nodded smugly. "I am an expert in animal training. I have tons of experience."

"You're basically an animal puppet master." Said Benny incredulously. "You just shove life force into them and use it to make them do what you want until it sticks."

She shrugged. "It works, doesn't it? How many giant animals have YOU trained?"

He shot me a smirk. "Just the one. Though to be fair, yours smells better. Plus it doesn't hog all the hot water with it's absurdly long showers. I don't even think mine knows any tricks."

I sneered at him. "Well I can do magic." I flipped him off. "Look, a bird." Callie cleared her throat over the sounds of Jessie and Bethy choking back laughter and I cleared my throat. "Anyway, Randall will be incredibly useful in this fight. Though we'll need Abel's help to get him inside. He can just ride him."

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"You want me to ride into an ancient forgotten temple to kill the high priest of a vanished god on the back of a giant supernatural bear?" Said Abel slowly.

"Yeah, why is that a problem?" I hadn't expected him to mind, honestly.

He reached up and pinched the skin of one of his arms. "No." He said absently. "I just needed to make sure I was awake. I legitimately have no idea when my life got THIS awesome."

"If it helps remember that you might suffocate to death on molten gold as it boils your lungs from the inside." Said Mel helpfully. We all threw up our hands, giving her a what the fuck look, and she winced. "Oh, I said that out loud, didn't I? Right, bad for morale."

"I thought it was informative." Said Abel charitably, and we all just rolled our eyes at their antics.

"So, what do we have?" I asked Callie. "You get a good look at the inside of the temple? I'm betting there are some traps laid out for us."

"You could say that." She said helplessly. "He coated the entire place with gold. Every inch of the walls and floor is plated with the stuff. If we set foot in there we'll basically be walking right into his hands. I couldn't tell exactly from the shadows, but I'm pretty sure it's all forty Impact gold. Which means it's much more durable than any normal F-rank metal, and if he turns it on us we're screwed."

I cursed. "Not what I wanted to hear, but I guess it's better to know at least." With that bit of information, we got down to the serious business of planning a raid.

Within an hour we had officially prepared and we moved into the temple as a group. We had several defensive ability users on the team, and by grouping them all up we'd put together a first line of defense in case Pallax tried to ambush us. Despite the preparation though, once we entered the golden halls of the temple, nothing happened. We peacefully headed into the heart of the place.

When we arrived, we found a golden haired man sitting at a golden table, drinking tea from a golden pot. When he saw us, he smiled lightly, took one last sip from his golden cup, and then set the tea cup down. "Ah." He said warmly. "You must be the current generation sent by the false gods. I take it you're here to kill me?"

Despite the words, Pallax seemed perfectly at ease, and I stepped forward to speak for everyone, a bit of hope kindling in my chest. Maybe this was another person like Satala, who couldn't bear to kill their own people. "We are. I'm Solomon, one of the potential heirs of the Wish Curse Palace. Are you Pallax?"

The golden haired man smiled sadly. "I am. I'm surprised you were willing to talk. Are you hoping to resolve things peacefully?"

"We are." I confirmed. I didn't even need to ask everyone, if we didn't have to fight the former S-ranker, we shouldn't. That just seemed like common sense. "We've already helped one of your own, Satala, break her ties to the ritual. She couldn't bear the thought of killing so many descendants of your worshippers."

"That sounds like her." He said with a fond chuckle. "The little princess was always the kindest of us all. I can understand why she would take that path as well. I too find the thought of killing the descendants of our flock sickening. I've only recently become aware of the leakage, and I would mourn their loss."

I let out a relieved breath. "I'm glad. I thought you might hate us for what happened. I know that malice has infected most of your fellow conduits."

"I'm sure." He said easily. "But no. I hold no hatred in my heart for any of you. Not just you, I don't even blame your ancestors. All things must end. My brothers and sisters were always far too easily swayed. I've felt our mother's madness for centuries, I know she has strayed from her path."

This was going perfectly. "So you'll help us put a stop to this? Make sure that no one else gets hurt? Because I have to say I'm incredibly relieved by how reasonable you're being about this."

"No." Said the golden haired man with a sad smile. "I'm afraid that isn't the case. I'm going to finish my tea, and then I'm going to kill you all. It's nothing personal, of course, simply my duty. If you remain still I can at least make it quick. There's no reason for unnecessary suffering."

My smile froze. "What?" I just blinked at him. "But you just said you don't hate us, that you know your goddess has gone crazy, and that the thought of your worshippers and their descendants dying is sickening to you."

"All of that is true." Said the golden haired man. "It is also irrelevant. I am a priest. It is not my place to question, or reason, or cajole. I am not an advisor. I am an instrument of my lady's will. Her divine judgement made manifest. Madness, fear, vengeance, I act on her designs. If you hoped to negotiate with me, you've gravely misjudged this situation. I bear you no ill will, and that will continue to be true even as your lungs fill with my moongold."

There was a slight rumble, and I watched in horror as the walls and floor began to vibrate. No, not vibrate. Superheat. The gold began to glow as he used his control over it to accelerate the kinetic energy in the substance, heating it to a molten state even as we stood inside.

Cursing, I triggered Moonlit Night. Fog filled the room rapidly, and I felt the stealth imbued water clash against the heat and counter it slightly, steam filling the room as our defensive team triggered their invocation. A massive transparent turtle shell came into being above us, a membrane manifesting below us, and Yvette winced as the gold on the walls and floor exploded down at us in a massive omnidirectional wave.

However, with Moonlit Night up, the attack was off center. More of the gold hit the back side of the shell than the front, and the force sent the whole defensive construct rocketing out of the mist and away from the golden deluge, revealing the normal dark stone walls of the chamber appearing before us as the gold formed into a massive serpent and shot after us, emerging from the steam and fog searching for our location.

Which was when a fist materialized from the air and smashed right into the snake's golden face. Abel had stepped up as an alternate for the invocation teams to offset the disadvantage. The snake was made of a LOT of condensed gold, but Abel's punch was superimposed multiple times, enough to even leave a small dent. Sadly that was all it did. I had a feeling this fight wasn't going to go as smoothly as the last few.