The capital of the Rose Empire was enormous, with a population of fifty million.

Its walls, which stretched for hundreds of kilometers, were over a hundred meters high, made of white concrete and adorned with dazzling golden towers.

Yet despite the colossal height of this wall, three large buildings could be seen above it.

The first was a foreign architecture called the Pavilion of the Five colours, a strange structure, but respected by the locals.

The salaries were good, and the meals served in the restaurant on the lower floor were unique but pleasant.

The second was the capital's cathedral, a huge building of marble and gold, with towers that pierced the skies and powerful mana formations surrounding it.

It was the second greatest source of power for the Church of Auranys on the entire continent.

Its power and beauty were second only to the cathedral in the Divine Kingdom of Auranys, home of the Divine Queen and spiritual leader of the entire religion.

And last, of course, was the Imperial Palace.

It was a building over five hundred thousand years old. A fortress that had seen the fall of countless generations, the rise of great emperors, and the ruin of tyrants, but still stood.

There were also the many magical towers surrounding the capital, but these were not exactly within the walls, existing on high flying islands above the city.

At that very moment, things in the huge cathedral of Auranys were turbulent.

Inside, the bishop of that cathedral was kneeling before a golden statue bearing the gentle smile of a woman.

Outwardly, he looked like a young man, no more than thirty years old. In reality, he was already approaching sixty thousand years of age.

The bishop was in the Eleventh Ring, equivalent to the Ancestral Emperor's Kingdom, a single step away from reaching the Twelfth Ring and he had seen many things.

From when, in retaliation for their attempted invasion, the draconic elves unleashed Khaedryss, slayer of immortals and butcher of empires upon them, killing more than half a billion and five emperors, one after another, to the recent rise of demonic forces.

Yet, despite all he had lived through and seen, there had never been a moment when his goddess was completely silent. Not until now.

The bishop knelt down, his eyes gently closing as he called out to his goddess, again and again.

But there was no response.

For some reason, strangely after Lucien, one of the candidates to be one of the five heroes, arrived on the eastern continent and had his position confirmed after a duel, she completely stopped responding.

The bishop doubted very much that this had any direct connection, but still, it was something that continued to bother him.

With a sigh, he simply stood up upon hearing rapid footsteps approaching on the horizon.

From the large golden doors, a figure emerged, his blond hair bathed in the light that streamed through the many lancet windows that decorated that place.

That was Lucien. Although not yet the strongest of heroes, his presence was powerful and very important to the people of the capital.

"Your Holiness, I heard that Aeryn was coming back, is that true?" Lucien asked, his eyes shining.

He was honestly happy.

He had never been very interested in women after what happened with Margareth, not until he saw the three heroines who would soon join him on his adventure to purge evil.

His heart almost burst out of his chest, and suddenly all that talk of sin was gone.

He may have had his Margareth taken from him, but that mattered little now.

Margareth was beautiful, of course, but compared to Aeryn? It was simply unfair to put them side by side.

To further excite Lucien, the delay in finding the last hero was making the Divine Queen anxious. She seemed to be on the verge of ordering them to just go ahead with their prophesied mission already.

Just him alone with three beautiful heroines...

That thought immediately made Lucien salivate.

"Yes," the bishop nodded, watching Lucien's facial expression with a hint of disappointment.

Whatever was going through that young man's mind, he didn't like it.

He still remembered when Lucien was too pure to even think about touching a woman.

Well, he still was, but now more out of cowardice than purity.

In the end, the bishop could only sigh in defeat.

Lucien was a man of the Goddess; he would soon understand that he should be above carnal desires and should preserve his chastity without having to wear a chastity belt to do so.

'Not that any of those women are interested in him...' The bishop thought, remembering when Lucien once tried to hug Aeryn.

It wasn't a pretty sight, and the cathedral's healers needed a long time to fix all of Lucien's teeth.

"Come on, Aeryn should be here by now," the bishop said.

He walked through the long, luxurious corridors of the cathedral, greeted by powerful paladins, until he finally reached the courtyard.

The courtyard overlooked the long central street, the black iron wall, and the garden that surrounded it.

Looking ahead, he saw a commotion begin. The gates opened, and then a figure appeared.

She was beautiful, more beautiful than anything the men there had ever seen.

Her elegant blonde hair danced in the gentle breeze, a faint drop of sweat trickling down her delicate chin and landing on her steel breastplate.

Lucien's eyes sparkled and he took a step forward.

'Aeryn-sama!' he shouted in his mind and almost in reality.

But in the next moment, he realized.

Behind her was a second figure, a man Lucien knew well.

The young man from another continent, with a face of incomparable beauty, always wearing a gentle smile and wrapped in pure white robes.

Although he looked different, with purple eyes and black robes, Lucien needed only a single moment to know.

That was Long Qingyi.

Lucien's eyes focused on the bishop, and he drew his sword, noticing the pendant on Qingyi's chest.

"Your Holiness! This cannot be real! He cannot be a chosen hero! He is a sinner! I heard the voice of Auranys, the Goddess asked me to exterminate him personally!"

Lucien roared, his face full of rage.

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