The High Priestess raised her hand and the air itself seemed to still. Her authority, honed over centuries, quelled their frenzy. But she could not banish their dread. Even she could not banish her own.
Her thoughts swirled behind her calm mask. 'To devour a Nascent Soul… not even our ancestor can do such a thing so cleanly. This is a calamity not of fate, but of our own making. We have hidden, but for how long before his shadow falls upon us too?'
A representative of a mercenary blood sect slammed his fist onto the table, though his hand shook as he withdrew it. "If this… Lin Mu… can annihilate the Drowned Crescent, then what chance do we have? Hiding will not save us forever!"
The statement struck the hall like a thunderclap. It was what they all thought, but none dared to voice.
The truth they feared.
