The avatars of gods exchanged glances, and suddenly the presence of the gods vanished from the room completely.

"Did they.. leave?" Vidalia asked.

"I can't hear anything," Tristan replied.

The two captains of the exploration team looked horrified, realizing what had just happened. Fuck.. Now they would have to take care of them on behalf of the gods, or some other issues would add to the already massive pile of crap.

"We will keep you two in a secure place for a while. You will get a chance to talk with your family over recievers. But you can't reveal anything, or they might get in trouble as well." Sam ordered.

The two disoriented men, after learning what their fate would be, looked somewhat less lost, if that was possible. They did not ask the obvious questions of what had happened, who was controlling them, etc. Sam kept staring at them till they nodded and replied with, "Yes, lord Keeper." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Did they let us go?" Silverspell asked, not quite sure.

"No," The metal man replied. "But if luck is on our side, we bought some time."

"They asked who this metal man was, right? And how did we ascend? They can't.. speak to us or read our minds directly?" Sesha guessed.

"I believe so. Otherwise, they would know what really happened." Lifewarden replied.

Sam stood up. He had to inform others what had happened. And prepare the sanctuary for the worst-case scenario. He couldn't ignore these people, though.

"You all heard what they said. I don't care about following their words, but going against them will put the sanctuary and my people at risk. I have not received any direct commands from Astraea, so I will leave you here. You are friends, and I do not want to force you to do anything. Running will be useless with waygates. I am sorry that it has come to this. I would do all that I can in my power to change your fate, but my power is laughable compared to theirs."

With that, Sam started walking away from his chair. Vidalia and Seraphina joined him as well. But before they could leave, a deep, artificial voice stopped them,

"Keeper? Damian Sunblade used to have a younger brother. If it's alright with you, can I see him once before.. well, you know." The metal man said.

Elias? Why would a golem care for him? Sam had no time to craft theories of that. The metal man was the most dangerous of the bunch, but Damian trusted him. The least he could do is permit him to meet Elias in the presence of other transcendents.

"If you promise to follow all our rules, you are welcome in the sanctuary."

"I give my word. My actions will not bring harm to Damian's friends. It's because of him that we are still alive and are back at home. He could have left us behind. But he didn't, even though he knew what that would bring." The metal man replied.

Sam's expressions did not change, but a sudden pang of guilt in his stomach was unmistakable. He tried his best to suppress it, though. Even the most righteous of decisions leave behind guilt. He had learned that much in his decade-long role as a keeper.

"Do you mind if I stay there too? This place, wherever it is, doesn't look very impressive." Worldscribe asked.

The other Highswords followed behind as well. Even Sesha, without saying a word, joined in. There was a suppressed anger and intense storm of feelings radiating from all the awakened, even the metal man. They had every right to feel that way. It was clear what they were leaving behind.

Sam could not say openly that go away wherever you want to go, so he made an excuse of keeping them here with Tristan. Tristal alone would obviously not be able to restrain them, so they would be free to leave. But all six awakened knew what would happen to the sanctuary and its people if they left. The waygates could easily locate them, but they also knew that if they entered dungeons, waygates would become too dangerous to open.

Actually, it was impossible to open the waygates to people inside the dungeon. They had tried it several times in the past years. It was a risky thing to do after everything that had happened in the Highsword dungeon, but they needed the answer, so they were willing to risk it. And the answer was both a disappointment and a relief.

If entered inside the dungeon, no one could find them.

Lucian and others, back in the sanctuary already tried several times to reach Damian, Landbreaker, and others through waygates who were missing. And had failed.

Sam opened a waygate back to the sanctuary, and they all left together. Farpoint officially did not have any way to open a waygate to the sanctuary. It was not a hundred percent safe place after all.

———

Unknown location, Unknown time, Astraea.

"It's not him! How many times do I have to make it clear? I would have killed him by now if he were the black man!" She argued.

"I highly doubt that." The Sea God replied. "It's not his usual style, but all his actions have plunged the era into an uncontrollable turmoil, just like the black man does. Even if there is a minuscule possibility that he can be the one, which let's be honest, we can never be sure of, we must get rid of him."

Sun God added, looking towards her, "He knows a lot of things that he shouldn't. He tricked you into thinking he is in your control. He was somehow able to hide things in his mind even before he was a fourth ranker. Not to mention his insanely fast growth. Rune shapers have never been that blessed. But if he is already a god and is hiding somehow, revealing layer after layer naturally while pushing our own people to go against us.. It all starts to make sense."