Though it took the entire morning of back and forth through the Deepscorn Woods, the defeat of six Gloamwolves, and a good portion of their afternoon, Zack found himself staring at what must be Grassea’s Shrine of Ralun before the sun was even halfway down. He’d done it. He’d found it. As Anna snatched his hand and squeezed, he found reason to be proud.

Most of the rumors he’d collected over the past year had been true. The shrine was in fact located in the cliffs west of the Deepscorn Woods. The towering rocky spires on each side of the path leading up to the shrine did, indeed, look like spears. And finally, one footnote in Grassea’s history had stated the shadow of the Shrine of Ralun hung over Wolfpine like a dagger as the sun set.

That suggested the shrine must be high in the cliffs due west of the city, and that direction alone hadn’t been far off. There was still the chance this could be another old ruin randomly built into the cliffs at the western zone border, but Zack didn’t think so. Something inside him felt drawn to this place.

Anna dropped his hand and hurried into the shrine. “Gods, it’s just as grand as I imagined.”

Was it? Zack wasn’t all that impressed, but he supposed this shrine had been out here for decades without anyone to tend to it or keep it clean. He knew that Shrines of Ralun had been treated just like Shrines of Celes—with reverence—before the Gods introduced Deathcasters to the world, but had been abandoned shortly thereafter. Yet not destroyed.

Whether acknowledged by the Church of Celes or not, a shrine to the Gods was a shrine to the Gods. No mortal would dare defile one, especially not a shrine devoted to Ralun, God of Endings. So this shrine had remained unmolested and undefiled for all this time. It was simply abandoned.

Even so, the shrine had never been anything truly impressive. It was simply a wide open plaza of neatly set stones with multiple shoots of grass now poking through the cracks. The stones were only marginally darker than the rock of the cliffs of Grassea, suggesting they’d been quarried from this very cliff. Cracks showed clearly all around the edges of the plaza.

Yet the shrine itself was nothing like a Shine of Celes. The shrines in the Chapels of Celes had a large pedestal on which a statue of Celes Herself stood with hands raised. There was no pedestal here, and no statue of Ralun staring down balefully at those whose lives he was slated to end.

There was simply a slightly raised stone at the center of the plaza. That was where Anna knelt, staring down in wide-eyed wonder. After one last cautious glance to ensure they weren’t being observed, at least not by anyone he could see, Zack sauntered over to Anna and glanced at the shrine.

Anna looked up, features warm. “Thank you.”

He merely smiled.

“I need to reSlot,” Anna said. “I may be away for some time, so can I ask you one more favor?”

“I’ll keep watch,” Zack promised. “Do what you need to do.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” Anna assured him. She turned once more to the shrine, then spread her hands and placed them—one on the sun, one on the moon.

She went still. Her breathing slowed. Having used a Shrine of Celes himself, Zack suspected a Shrine of Ralun was largely the same. Anna was now seeing her Status Sheet, Skills, and Blessings in a world that belonged to the Gods, the only world where she could alter such things.

This was, he realized, another danger involved in using a Shrine of Ralun. Using this shrine left one completely vulnerable to attack. While inside a Chapel of Celes inside the walls of a town, one was protected both by Town Guards and the Lifecasters of the chapel. No Monster could attack.

Out here, in the wilderness, anything could happen, and one could easily be badly wounded or even killed by a powerful Monster before one pulled oneself from the Divine sight induced by using a shrine. Something to keep in mind should Zack ever came out here to use this shrine himself.

Given he’d been walking all day today, Zack saw no reason to stand guard on his feet. He settled into a comfortable sit on the stone ground next to Anna and swept his gaze across the Deepscorn Woods to the east. He had no fear of threats to the west. The cliffs of Grassea towered over this shrine from that direction, and nothing, mortal or Monster, could cross those mountains.

Behind him, Anna’s breathing remained even and unperturbed. It occurred to Zack then that he’d never actually watched someone else reSlot at a shrine. Richard Deepscar and his pages actually only allowed one Adventurer inside its small chapel at any time, with a line to use the shrine forming outside. Given the chapel was barely bigger than a large room in Sadie’s tavern, that made sense.

Zack glanced back at Anna a few times, curious to see if anything had changed. She remained utterly still, hands flat against the sun and moon on the incrementally raised portion of the floor. While the gentle wind routinely ruffled the blond curls on each side of her head, she remained unmoved.

A twig snapping to the east yanked Zack’s gaze back to the woods. Nothing moved, visibly, but something that could move about had snapped that twig, and that something was close enough that he’d heard it. A Monster was most likely, but a mortal was possible as well.

A Monster Zack could handle. He could defeat any Monster out here with Anna’s help, and even a Monster that survived wouldn’t run back to Wolfpine to tell on him. Mortals were a different problem. Mortals could tell the Town Guards Zack Silverstone was seen at a Shrine of Ralun.

While the Pantheon’s Law of Consent protected both him and Anna from attack, it wouldn’t if the person who’d snapped that twig was a Blazer intent on arresting Anna. Or a minion of the church.

Zack reached behind himself to grip Anna’s upper arm. “Head’s up.”

She offered absolutely no reaction. Moreover, she didn’t move. Zack tugged on her arm and found her locked stiff as a statue, likely not of her own accord.

The Gods had Anna now, with all of her perceptions lost in Their world. Zack likely couldn’t move her even if he had Glenn’s Strength, and while he could use [-Shadow Walk-] to hide himself, she couldn’t. Still ... hiding himself would be the first step in protecting her.

[-Shadow Walk-].

The bright midday world faded almost immediately to a world of grays. Zack had no trouble seeing in this world—it was still day—but all color was now gone from his vision.

This was both a visual reminder that he was invisible to Monster and Mortals and a minor inconvenience as a tradeoff for being so. An Adventurer of his Level with high Divinity or an Adventurer of significantly higher Level could still spot him in [-Shadow Walk-] if he got close enough, but Zack had no intention of doing that.

He crept away from Anna’s still form on silent feet, just enough that he’d have room to get behind any Monster or mortal who stepped onto the shrine with a minimum of noise. Yet nothing emerged from the woods, and no further twigs snapped. Had it simply been a passing Gloamwolf?

Monsters moved about in the Deepscorn Woods all the time, hunting or going about their business. There really was no good reason to assume whoever or whatever had snapped that twig was out here looking for him or Anna. It could even be another Shadower, one who’d come out here to use the shrine themselves. They might simply be waiting their turn.

Zack measured his breathing and kept still as a statue as he waited for any sign of movement. He was still waiting when feet shuffled on rock behind him.

“Zack?” Anna asked quietly.

He shuffled silently closer. “We might have company,” he all but whispered.

“Might?” she whispered back.

Zack noticed she didn’t look in the direction of his voice. She looked out to the woods instead, and anyone observing her could simply conclude she was talking to herself. Even fresh out of communing with the Gods, she’d remembered not to give away his position.

“Heard a twig snap to the east,” he whispered. “Nothing since.”

Anna rose. “Might be nothing.”

“Might be,” Zack agreed. He checked the current status of [-Shadow Walk-].

[-Shadow Walk-] (Shadower/Xiva) 0:01:22

“I’m going to leave the shrine now,” Anna said quietly. “I suppose we’ll see then, won’t we?”

Zack said nothing. He simply set off quietly behind her as she strode for the edge of the shrine without looking back. Anyone watching her would likely assume she was alone.

Assuming that someone hadn’t been watching the two of them since they’d arrived.

Zack braced himself as Anna stepped off the wide plaza making up the Shrine of Ralun. Nothing emerged from the Deepscorn Woods. [-Shadow Walk-] now had less than 30 seconds before it would expire, and he’d be unable to use it again for a full three minutes after that.

A wandering Monster had snapped that twig. He’d worried about nothing. Zack had just opened his mouth to tell Anna that when the dark shadow of what definitely was not a man manifested directly behind her. Its glowing red eyes and shadowy, insubstantial form suggested it was something far worse.

Though Zack had never actually seen one, every now screaming nerve in his body was screaming the same thing. Demon. This was a Demon. And worse, it was quietly whispering words he couldn’t understand ... but somehow did.

And those cryptic word sounds chilled his blood.