Jenny did not take offense at Blackie's blunt challenge. Instead, she curved her lips into a faint, knowing smile, the kind worn by someone who had long since stopped expecting understanding from others.

"You probably have no idea how powerful the Divine Sea Temple truly is," she said calmly. "They dwell in the deepest parts of the ocean and almost never surface. To the rest of the world, everything appears peaceful. But over countless cycles, while no one was paying attention, the Temple changed. It is no longer what it once was."

She exhaled softly, her eyes drifting toward the sealed vault as though looking through it and far beyond.

"Changed?" Ethan asked, his expression tightening. "Have they broken their binding? Can they leave the sea?"

If that restriction was gone, the consequences would be beyond disastrous. The impending calamity suddenly felt far too close for comfort. A chain of questions crashed through his thoughts, each more troubling than the last.

"What do they want?" he asked. "What's their goal?"

Jenny was the first person connected to the Temple he had met who could actually speak openly. Her earlier remark, that if things were that simple she would have found her target a century ago, told Ethan she had already pushed deep into the Temple's inner workings. That also explained why she had dismissed Victor so casually. She clearly did not know about Voss, another Soul-Wielder, or she might have tried to pull him in long ago. Even so, Ethan could not help wondering what use a single Soul-Wielder would be in assassinating one specific person. He assumed her target was her parents' killer, but his own concern lay with the Temple's larger ambitions.

"They can leave the sea now," Jenny said quietly. "Not for long, but long enough. And their goal is to stop the Cycle itself. They want to reject the next Mythic Age."

As she spoke, genuine fear flickered across her face, raw and unguarded.

Before Ethan could ask anything else, she continued, as though afraid to pause.

"Their breakthrough began with my father. He was one of the 108 Envoys. Not particularly high in rank. Above the Envoys were thirty-six Bishops, then twelve Archbishops, then four Temple Lords. And above even them was the one they call the God-King. No one has ever seen him. He appeared out of nowhere and claimed to come from the Divine Realm."

Her voice remained steady, but something brittle had crept into it.

"My father was a genius, even by their standards. After millennia spent studying forbidden texts on breaking the oceanic bond, he succeeded. He was the only one who did. Instead of reporting it, he used the method himself and fled the sea alone, reaching the mainland. The moment he did, the Temple began hunting him."

"That doesn't add up," Ethan cut in. "If they couldn't leave the sea, how did they chase him?"

"My father escaped in a hurry," Jenny replied. "He didn't destroy all his research. The Temple isn't lacking in sharp minds. They reconstructed enough from his notes to develop a temporary way to leave the water."

Her hands clenched slightly as she went on.

"An Archbishop led the pursuit. I never learned his name, but I remember his face perfectly. He ambushed my mother. She died instantly. My father fought him with everything he had left. In the end, he used a Soul Detonation to force the Archbishop back. With the last of his will, he guided his broken body just far enough to deliver me to the mainland before his spirit completely scattered."

For a moment, she stared at nothing, her gaze distant.

"I drifted for years after that. Through human lands, through wars and ruins. Eventually, I ended up here. The first person I met in this place was Finny."

She fell silent. The story was finished.

The room grew heavy, the kind of quiet that pressed down on the chest. Ethan felt as though a veil had been lifted, revealing the true scale of the enemy he was facing. At the same time, his priorities sharpened. One thing was now clear. The Divine Sea Temple was not acting alone.

Jenny had mentioned the Divine Realm. Could that be related to the Void Realm Morzan had spoken of, the place that sought to consume this universe? The realm where Earth's ancient gods were said to have ascended?

If the Void Realm stood behind the Temple, then who was pulling the strings on Earth itself? And what secret did this planet hold that made it worth such effort?

His thoughts drifted to Morzan. The entity had once called Earth his old home and claimed he had fled back here. Did that mean Morzan originally came from the Void Realm as well? Ethan reached out mentally, calling to him once, then again, but received no answer. Morzan had been strangely quiet for some time now. To his surprise, Ethan felt a faint sense of absence, as though he missed the constant, irritating commentary.

With no response forthcoming, he turned his attention back to Jenny.

"If I told you my goal is to completely wipe out the Divine Sea Temple," Ethan said evenly, "you'd think I was joking, wouldn't you?"

There was no humor in his eyes.

Jenny studied him in silence. The room held its breath. Voss and Blackfin exchanged stunned looks, neither daring to interrupt.

At last, Jenny released a slow breath. "Honestly… I want to believe you," she said. "But I know the Temple too well."

She shook her head slightly. "Let's leave that discussion for another time. If that day ever truly comes, then leave this one to me."

She lifted her hand and tapped the glass tabletop twice.

Tap. Tap.

The sound did not fade. Instead, the vibrations gathered in the air before them, weaving together into a translucent, three-dimensional human figure. The projection was astonishingly detailed, down to the pores in the skin. It was a sonic construct, precise and lifelike.

The Archbishop.

Her nemesis.

The depth of hatred required to remember a face with such clarity was unmistakable.

Ethan studied the image closely. The man appeared to be in his fifties. Something about him stirred a faint sense of familiarity, an unease he could not quite place. The shape of the eyes, the brow, the expression. He felt as though he had seen this face before, though where or when eluded him. After a moment, he dismissed it as coincidence.

"Understood," Ethan said, nodding once.

Jenny returned the nod. The sonic figure unraveled and vanished into the air.

Ethan looked at her again, this ageless woman shaped by loss and patience, and finally understood something he had only suspected before.

She really had been holding back when she attacked him earlier.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.