Chapter 1327: Maya and Faith

Maya watched her assistants use specialized tools as they carefully collected the golden liquid and distributed it among a hundred prepared glass bottles.

Given the size of the cauldron and the amount of refined ingredients she had used, this batch was sufficient to produce one hundred bottles of Philosopher’s Elixir.

Each bottle contained a potion capable of helping a qualified practitioner break through the limits of their current cultivation. Its value was extraordinary, particularly in a world where genuine Arcanists were scarce, and the resources required to advance were difficult to obtain.

Maya watched her assistants work with a satisfied expression. She had already refined several batches during her stay at the Holy Land, and completing another one meant that she could finally turn her attention to the matters that had brought her here.

However, before she could give her assistants any further instructions, she sensed the presence of a member of the Church of the Lord of the Secrets who hurried into the chamber.

It was a Masked Archon...

"They’re already back?"

Sure enough, the figure was looking for her...

"Lady Maya, I have urgent news!"

Maya turned toward the newcomer, her blue eyes settling on the messenger.

"Go ahead."

"We just received some confirmation... Blackthorn has been destroyed. The entire town was wiped out, and the Arcanists sent to investigate the Void Arts Practitioners around the area were caught in the middle of it. They have been annihilated. According to the initial report, the force included several First-Class Arcanists from the Order of the Lore Hunters, dozens of Third-Class Arcanists from the Order of Illustrious Liquidators, and a Grand Arcanist from the Order of the Valiant Scourge."

The messenger paused briefly before delivering the most disturbing part of the report.

"Our operative claims that the being responsible for the massacre identified itself as the Chaos Sovereign."

Maya frowned as she heard this...

"Xal’Zyrath? Did he really return to this realm?"

This was a huge matter... From the memories she inherited from the Paragon, Xal’Zyrath wasn’t simply an Immortal capable of wielding Divinity...

Xal’Zyrath was supposedly an Entity that shouldn’t exist in the lower realm, as they would literally break the laws of nature...

"Is he not being stopped by the Will of the Realm? No... We must assumed that his entity had already recovered from the pressure of the Will."

The satisfaction she had felt moments earlier vanished, replaced by a deep frown. For a brief moment, she remained silent, as though carefully considering the implications of what she had just heard.

"So it has finally appeared," she murmured.

Although she had warned the church that a dangerous existence connected to Chaos might emerge in the region, hearing confirmation of its arrival was still deeply unsettling. She had hoped that her warning would give the churches enough time to prepare, but she had never expected the situation to deteriorate so quickly.

The destruction of Blackthorn alone was already a catastrophe. The annihilation of three separate groups of Arcanists, including a Grand Arcanist, made the situation even worse.

It was clear that the Chaos Sovereign’s strength far exceeded what the local factions could handle.

Maya’s frown deepened as she considered what might happen if the creature continued to recover its former power. The Chaos Sovereign was not an ordinary Chaos Arts Practitioner, nor was it simply another dangerous entity that could be contained through conventional means. Its very existence represented a threat that the continent’s current forces might be incapable of confronting.

"I have to inform Miss Faith..." she said.

She had initially intended to complete several more batches of Philosopher’s Elixir before leaving the alchemy chamber. However, those plans no longer mattered. The return of the Chaos Sovereign was far too serious to leave to the church’s ordinary investigators.

Turning toward her assistants, Maya gave them a final instruction.

"Finish bottling the remaining elixir and store every bottle securely. Do not allow anyone to handle them without authorization. If anything unusual happens, report it to the church immediately."

"Understood, Lady Maya!"

Maya nodded before turning away from the cauldron. With a slight movement of her hand, she summoned a faint shimmer of mana, and her alchemy tools began arranging themselves neatly around the workbench.

She had no intention of wasting time.

If her suspicions were correct, the events in Blackthorn were only the beginning. The Chaos Sovereign had returned to a world that had grown considerably weaker since its previous appearance, and the creature had already demonstrated that it possessed more than enough power to slaughter even the strongest local Arcanists.

The churches needed to understand the severity of the threat before it spread beyond Blackthorn.

More importantly, Miss Faith needed to hear the news directly from her.

With that thought in mind, Maya left the alchemy chamber and headed toward the inner sanctum of the Holy Land...

The Philosopher’s Elixir could wait.

The return of the Chaos Sovereign could not.

***

Meanwhile, within the territory of the Shadow Domain, Miss Faith was spending her day inside her Arcane Tower.

Unlike the other instructors at the Arcane Academy, she didn’t have any classes to teach at the moment. She hadn’t accepted any disciples either, leaving her with considerably more free time than most people of her standing.

Under normal circumstances, she might have used this opportunity to explore some ancient ruins or conduct research into the mysteries of the Arcane Paths.

However, she was currently occupied with something far more important.

Inside a spacious chamber at the top of her Arcane Tower, Miss Faith sat cross-legged in midair, surrounded by countless glowing runes.

Several intricate magical formations had been arranged around her to form a complex sealing array.

The runes extended beyond the floor and walls, covering the entire chamber in layers of arcane inscriptions.

At the center of this formation, Faith remained perfectly still as she directed her mana toward her body.

Faint lines of light appeared across her skin, spreading from her wrists and ankles toward her shoulders and torso.

Each line represented a seal that she was carefully imprinting upon herself, restricting a portion of the power that resided within her.

The process was neither simple nor comfortable.

Soon, she opened her eyes and spoke softly...

"This should be enough for today... Sreas, you can enter now..."