The following is a religious passage from the [Hearth Tome], a religious text circulated by the Sacred Flame Theocracy.

...

Fire is both a paragon and a punisher.

In the hands of some, it can be used to mend wounds, stave away darkness, and craft the means for life to survive and thrive.

In the hands of others, it can be used to cause terrible scars and wounds, destroy livelihoods, and burn away even the most innocent of souls for no reason or purpose.

It with this understanding that a hearth keeper must maintain a roaring fire with humility.

Because in their hands is the means of salvation and ruin.

And all it takes is a single stray spark for either to occur.

...

[Are you sure your ladyship can handle the emotional stress of this moment?]

[My lady is much stronger than others give her credit for. She is like blessed steel.]

[I’ll take your word for it.]

...

"Fucking bullshit!" Feroxxa cursed as he saw the last of his allies get sent elsewhere. "Where the fuck are they going?!"

When Feroxxa got separated from the group, via a transforming slide, he was actually accompanied by two of the remaining False Crusaders.

He was hoping that, like the General Legante and several of the Erupting Dawn Elite warriors, he would be sent to wherever they were forced to go to as well. However, that didn’t happen.

Instead, at the very last possible moment, the slide that was ferrying all three of them suddenly split off into three different directions. Feroxxa had attempted to leap off of his slide to join with one of the False Crusaders, but couldn’t due to some weird energy pressing down on him and keeping him stuck on the slide.

He had no choice but to watch as they disappeared elsewhere into what he was now realizing was not an empty abyss.

The further Feroxxa went down the slide, the more the darkness seemed to recede, and it was at some point, he wasn’t entirely sure when, that he realized that he and his companions were not actually floating over an abyss this entire time, but a huge labyrinth of bookshelves.

Feroxxa could see endless paths going in all sorts of directions, leading to all sorts of dangers, from his vantage point on the slide.

A part of him felt that if he and his companions were much weaker than their current stages, they would end up falling directly into this labyrinth and become lost in an instant.

Fate, however, had other plans in store for him.

Eventually, before the majesty of the labyrinth could wear thin on him, Feroxxa noticed that the slide began to incline slightly less and slow down his descent.

A feeling of anticipation, which he hadn’t felt in a long time, began to bubble in Feroxxa’s stomach as he approached the slide’s landing.

Relief replaced the anticipation as soon as Feroxxa stopped sliding and felt his feet touching solid ground.

This relief, however, was rather short-lived.

Immediately after landing, Feroxxa looked about his destination to determine if there were any possible enemies or traps waiting in the darkness for him to put down his guard.

What he found instead was...somehow more unsettling.

To his left and right there were nothing but bookshelves radiating a repelling force field that prevented him from being able to interact with the books in any meaningful way, not that he wanted to touch or read any of them. In front of him, though, was...an entirely different matter.

"What the fuck..."

Directly in front of him was a gateway that resembled the opening to a sideshow carnival tent where the clowns were clearly drugged out, the performers may or may not have been slaves, and the snacks were definitely mixed with sawdust.

"Wait...why am I making that-BAH THIS STUPID ENERGY IS AFFECTING MY BRAIN STILL!" Feroxxa yelled as soon as he realized what he was actually thinking to himself.

To hammer in the fact that he needed to focus on the situation before him and not have stray thoughts, Feroxxa took a flat palm and slammed the side of his [Regalia]-covered head a few times.

An echoing sound like a gong rang out a few times before he took a deep breath and settled his thoughts.

Shortly after doing so, Feroxxa finally realized that the weird carnival gateway before him had undergone a subtle change.

There was now a red carpet and a pair of glowing neon arrow signs directing him to enter. Not only that, but the words, "Enter here, Dumbass," were written on one of them.

The other read, "Traitors must pay."

Needless to say the words on these arrows made his blood boil and brow furrow.

"It...it can’t be...right?"

Confused by the words, but determined to deal with the cause of his issues, Feroxxa took a breath before crossing the threshold of the carnival-like gate.

...

[LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! WELCOME TO THE SINNER’S CIRCUS AND BEHOLD OUR FIRST AND ONLY ACT FOR THIS EVENING: FEROXXA THE DECAPITATOR!]

"What the fuck..."

Shortly after Feroxxa had entered the carnival entrance, he found his senses were more or less overwhelmed by bright lights, loud carnival music, and the smell of...he wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but it was a lot, and he was now cursing himself for having the ability to smell.

Eventually, his status and abilities as an Aether King managed to overcome these issues and allowed him to finally see what he had walked into.

Feroxxa found himself standing in the middle of a three-ring stage, surrounded on all sides by...nothing.

The stands were empty, and yet Feroxxa could sense that there was something, or perhaps many somethings, sitting in them and watching him like a trick-performing monkey.

Evidently, confusion and rage were going to be his main emotions this evening.

"Come out and face me, Kaijin Lord!" Feroxxa eventually yelled in frustration over the situation. "You called us out here to fight, so why aren’t you here ready to do so?!"

[Oh, no no!] the announcer voice said in a slightly quieter tone. [You don’t get to the Ringmaster without getting through us.]

As soon as these words were said, a strange magician box suddenly slammed down from above and almost smashed Feroxxa into a meaty paste.

Unfortunately, the fucker was fast enough to avoid being squished.

Shortly after the box landed, its doors flung open and allowed a familiar, spring-limbed magician to exit.

The sight of this familiar face filled Feroxxa with dread.

"Spring... I should’ve known you were going to be here," Feroxxa muttered. "So I just need to defeat you in order to get to your master?"

[Not quite,] Spring answered. [And you should know that that is not my name.]

"And you’re not going to tell me?"

[No.]

"So why bother informing me?"

[Because I want to give you something else to dread over,] Spring answered. [And besides, you heard the name of my stage. You should probably guess what it’s actually about.]

Like a finger snap, the spotlights over Feroxxa’s and Spring’s heads suddenly turned off before turning back on on a different portion of the three-ring stage.

In the center of this new spotlight, Feroxxa saw a figure that made his blood run cold.

"It...It can’t be..."

Standing in the middle of the spotlight was a lone woman dressed in holy robes and carrying what appeared to be the fire poker from the [Heart Tender’s Trio].

Needless to say, the sight of such a moment caused Feroxxa’s hairs to stand on end.

This visible display of tension didn’t go unnoticed.

[What’s wrong, abbot?] Spring asked in a tone of innocent confusion. [Aren’t you aware that as the star performer of the Sinner’s Circus, that your role is to confront darkest sins and secrets?]

Feroxxa didn’t react as he continued to stare wide-eyed at the late religious leader. But what he said shortly afterwards cemented his guilt over the woman’s death...at least, partially so.

"This...this can’t be!" Feroxxa said as he took an involuntary step back and kept a close eye on the woman he remembered seeing lay dead in an open casket. "You’re...you’re supposed to be dead! Hulna said that he killed you!"

[Oh?]

Spring(erdermain) was expecting a full-blown personal confession of the crime and not a moment of pure deflection, at least, judging by how jumpy the man looked and how dense the [Chaos] in the room was.

However, the certainity in which Feroxxa made this statement made it very clear that he truly believed that Hulna was the one who killed the previous Hearth Tender. That wasn’t exactly what Springerdermain or Serena expected to hear in the slightest.

And neither did a certain Kaijin Lord.

...Something fishy this way stinks...

’...Logos. Pathos. Quick question: did Hulna make a similar confession?’

<=We need to review the footage real fast...=>

Logos and Pathos were silent for a few moments as they reviewed the feed coming from the room in which Blazejudicator, Goldie, and Silvie were confronting Abbot Hulna.