The room he appeared in was very unlike anything Sungjoo had yet seen in the halls of the pantheon. Instead of the shining white that he had come to expect, this room was cast in darkness, grey mist everywhere and the pale walls made dim with a pulsing dark light.

He knew that light, had spent years in the Hall of Faces in the presence of Kergisa's crystal. He hefted his silvery axe, determined to finish what he came for, and started across the room toward the source of the light. There were sounds in the mist, whispers and moans from unseen languishers, some in languages he did not understand, while others he only wished that he could not.

'... hurts..."

"Please stop..."

"... save me..."

"... save us..."

The last became a litany, taken up by all the murmuring voices, growing louder and louder as he approached the dark crystal. He could make out the form of it there in the mist, though it appeared different here than it had in the mortal realm. The shards of crystal that jutted out all over it had been replaced with hands, incorporeal things that reached out and searched for something, anything, to grab hold of. Sungjoo paused in his step, aghast at the view, and it was that move that saved him.

He heard the slightest whistle of a blade through the air and threw himself backward, coming up with his axe held in his right hand and a silver shield springing out across his left arm. By instinct he swept the shield up over his head, and the clang of metal on metal jolted his arm and drove him back down to one knee.

He swung his axe in a sideways slash, aiming for the feet clad in white armor that he could make out through the mist, standing directly in front of him. Therisa, then, there to keep him from fulfilling his quest. His strike missed as she disappeared, and he threw himself in a roll forward toward where she had been standing. The slightest knick of the blade along the leg of his armor was enough to tell him that he was right, she had repositioned herself behind him. 

But if she could use that trick, then he would too. He wrappped power about himself and moved through thin air, disappearing even as another striike came at him and appearing closer to the dark crystal, out of the mists and bathed in its unholy light. Hands reached to grab him as he neared it, though, and he only barely dodged them before Therisa was there, too, her greatsword slicing down in an overhead arc meant to cleave him in half. 

By habit he caught the blow with his shield arm, but once again her strength knocked him down to his knees, and this time she took advantage of that and kicked out, her right knee catching underneath his shield and flipping him backwards to fall onto his back. In his panic he forgot that he could disappear, and instead relied on his old skills, ones that had gotten him out of scrapes more often than he could count. His axe shimmered in his fingers only to transform into a throwing knife, all in less than the space of a heartbeat, and he released it in a desperate throw even as it made the transformation. 

The knife struck her in the head, or it should have, except that her white armor coalesced into a shield over her face, blocking the knife and allowing it to drop harmlessly to the ground. It did buy him time, though, and he scrambled back to his feet and stretched out his hand for the magical blade; halfway to the ground, it changed direction and flew into his waiting grasp. There they stood for a moment, both sizing one another up, Sungjoo coming to realize that there was no way he was going to be able to defeat an immortal being who drew strength from the mere act of fighting.

But if he could get by her...

"So where is Siakera now?" she asked of a sudden, startling him with her need to speak. It was a flaw, he thought, similar to Wenhan's desire to taunt his opponent, and Sungjoo thought that maybe he could use it against her. "She has stolen you away from Kergisa, yet she sends you, alone and unready, against myself and the dark goddess? Has she abandoned you, then?"

He knew that the jabs were meant to hurt, meant to shake his faith in Siakera, but what Therisa hadn't realized was that he didn't draw strength from any of the goddesses. She could say what she wanted, it wouldn't stop his desire to reach that crystal. Seungyeon's soul was inside of that, locked away and held captive, and that knowledge was all Sungjoo needed to continue on. 

Therisa was watching him closely, waiting for his next move, standing between him and the dark crystal. The light it gave off almost made her armor glow even though she had apparently dimmed the light that the armor gave naturally, a