Valerius's body convulsed on the pulpit, black veins spreading like roots beneath his papal white. His eyes, once sharp with cunning, now bulged with primal terror. He clawed at Kael's hand on his chest, but his strength was fading, consumed from within.
"You… gutter rat…" he gurgled, blood bubbling between his teeth. "The Light… will… smite you…"
Kael leaned close, his voice low, calm, carrying the weight of every stolen child, every burned scholar, every starved widow. "The Light didn't smite you, Valerius. *I did.* For Elias Velaris. For Lissa of Oakhaven. For the baker in the alley. For every soul you turned into coin or fuel."
He pressed down harder. **True Void Dominion** surged—not as a spell, but as an **unmaking**. The void didn't just kill; it *erased*. Valerius's skin began to slough off in ashen flakes. His bones blackened, crumbling to dust. His soul, twisted by decades of greed and sanctimony, screamed as it was devoured by the absence—the pure, silent negation of everything he claimed to serve.
The Cardinal didn't die screaming. He *unraveled*, his body dissolving into ash that swirled in the cathedral's draft, forming the faint, fleeting shape of a **crimson lotus** before vanishing entirely.
Silence fell—not peaceful, but stunned, horrified. The stampede had emptied the nave. Only a few Templars remained, staring at the empty space where their Cardinal had been, their faith shattered.
Kael stood, turning to face the ruined congregation. His voice, amplified by **Void Weaving**, echoed through the dust-choked cathedral, calm, resonant, undeniable:
> **"The Crimson Lotus is not your enemy.**
> **We are your reckoning.**
> **The Church is not holy.**
> **It is *hungry*.**
> **And we… are the pruning shears."**
He didn't wait for their reaction. He phased into the shadows, rejoining his guild in the catacombs.
Lyra pressed a leather-bound ledger into his hands—stolen from Valerius's private vault. "It's worse than we thought. Valerius was just a node. The real spider is **Archbishop Malrik** in the capital. And the Penitent Blade program…" Her voice trembled with fury. "It's kingdom-wide. Dozens of cathedrals. Thousands of children."
Bastian tightened the grip on his Void-Forged hammer. Garrick's hand rested on the hilt of his sword, his eyes clear for the first time in months. Elara practiced Malrik's voice—a cold, smooth baritone that dripped with false piety.
Kael touched the obsidian lotus at his belt. Veridia was free. But Aethelgard was still chained.
> **[QUEST COMPLETE: PURGE CARDINAL VALERIUS.]**
> **[REWARDS: TRUE VOID DOMINION, PUBLIC TRUST +25%.]**
> **[NEW STATUS (KAEL)]**
> **STR: 6 | AGI: 9 | VIT: 7 | INT: 15 | WIS: 13 | CHA: 11 | VOD: 14**
> **[GUILD STATUS: ALL MEMBERS +1 TO PRIMARY ATTRIBUTES, VOD +2]**
> **[PUBLIC OPINION: ACTIVE SUPPORT (66%). TRUST: 66%.]**
> **[CRIMSON LOTUS: STATUS — ESTABLISHED.]**
> **[TERRITORY: VERIDIA (CONTROLLED).]**
> **[NEXT TARGET: ARCHBISHOP MALRIK, CAPITAL OF AETHELGARD.]**
> **[WARNING: THE TRUE ENEMY WEARS NO ROBE. IT IS OLDER THAN CHURCHES. OLDER THAN CROWNS.]**