I watched as the priest walked deeper into the church.
I sneakily followed behind him and saw him enter the church basement.
As soon as he did, I took off the face mask adorning my face as well as the black cap on my head.
My face was the spitting image of the priest, down to his hair and psyche.
I secretly changed clothes into the same clothes and glasses the priest wore.
When I was finally done, I checked myself in the mirror I’d brought and was genuinely surprised by how alike we looked.
The shapeshifter mask is insanely accurate, I mused.
Mina had bought it from the black market yesterday.
It cost me every penny I had, but it was worth it.
The mask lets you shapeshift into anyone you can imagine.
You just place the mask on your face, picture who you want, and pour your essence into it—voila, you’re their spitting image.
The best part?
Multiple people can use it at once.
The mask doesn’t stick to your face—after it morphs your body, you can hand it off to someone else.
The only drawback is that it only works for 24 hours with the same cooldown, but you can still swap forms during that time.
After checking myself in the mirror, I walked away from the basement; I wanted it to look like I’d just come from there to avoid suspicion.
I passed nuns and monks, wearing the same smile priest Anvil always wore.
The nuns and monks bowed deeply, showing absolute devotion.
I nodded and hurried away.
I took stairs, turned left, up, down, through a hidden passage—I can’t even remember how many twists and turns I made on my way to the vault.
“Damn, this place is huge,” I muttered under my breath just as I turned.
But what I saw next made all the blood drain from my face.
“Ah, Anvil, it’s been a while.
How have you been?” a man asked, wearing the same white and gold robe as me.
fuck, fuck fuck why, whyyyy?
I thought Anvil was going to be the only priest here.
But another one?
What the actual fuck is my luck?
There are only four priests in the world, and all of them are stationed in different countries.
So why the hell is one here?
I panicked internally, scrambling for a way out.
The red-haired man in front of me tilted his head in confusion; his flaming crimson eyes met my hazel ones.
“What’s wrong, Anvil?
You look as pale as a ghost.”
I quickly tried to recover, stretching Anvil’s signature warm smile across my face.
“It’s nice seeing you, Adrean Crimson.
You came out of nowhere; I got startled.” Lucky for me, Adrean Crimson was my mother’s dense brother, so I might be able to slide out of this one.
He chuckled lightly.
“Yes, I did show up abruptly without announcing anything.
Well, I was visiting my adorable niece back at the academy.” Adorable, my ass; she is anything but adorable.
“Ah, yes, you must be talking about Leonara Crimson, right?
I heard she’s really talented,” I said while searching for any way to escape the conversation.
“Yes, she’s a mage, unlike Valkyie, her mother.” Even though I was trying to escape, curiosity gripped me, and I blurted out a question before I could think.
“Isn’t your other sister’s children here too?”
“Amaras?
Yes, my other nieces—Fiona and Valeria.
I visited them in the academy too; they really reminded me of their mother.
And I almost forgot Rivinna—though you might know her as Octavia.
Unlike the others, she’s a teacher and the spitting image of her mother.
Get this: she’s a 7-star, just like me, at only twenty-six.
I barely listened to his rambling; I was too busy grumbling inwardly about how he’d visited every single one of his sisters’ children but me.
I coughed to get his attention.
“I thought your nephew was here in Lumina City.”
I knew I was asking a weird, out-of-character question for Anvil, but I couldn’t help myself.
“Oh, you mean Asmari?” He chuckled.
“Well, I don’t think he would appreciate that.
You see, he doesn’t really like me.”
I frowned.
“He doesn’t?”
“Mhm, last time I saw him, he kind of lashed out at me for trying to help with his sword training.
He said he hated when I was around and that while I thought I made everyone’s day better, I actually made it worse.” He wore a sad smile as he said it.
I got the urge to smack my forehead after hearing that.
I was fourteen and grieving my older brother’s death; there wasn’t a person I wasn’t lashing out at back then.
I sighed out loud.
“I’m sure that was a long time ago, and maybe he had his reasons for saying that.
You should go talk to him first before coming to a conclusion.”
“Yes, maybe you’re right, Anvil.” I walked forward and placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Take care, Adrian,” I swear for a second I saw his eyes go wide in shock, but it disappeared the next.
“Yes, take care, Asmari—oops, sorry, I meant Anvil.
I must already be getting old,” he said, another chuckle escaping him as he walked past me and to the right.
I stood there, frozen.
My heart hammered in my chest as sweat broke out on my forehead.
My breathing grew heavier, my complexion a completely different shade.
Did he know?
But how?
And why did he let me go and not call me out?
fuck, I hated unexpected situations.
If he really knew about me but decided to let me go, there was nothing I could do.
I stopped thinking about my uncle and walked deeper into the church.
Four minutes later, I reached the vault entrance; it was a big door with an advanced face-scanning system as a lock.
Luckily for me, I was sure this mask passed the face scan.
But if it were a system that scanned essence, I would have been screwed.
I looked down at my watch, and luckily I had made it in time with five minutes left, perfect.
A guard stood outside the entrance; when he saw me, he bowed deeply.
“Priest Anvil, it’s nice to see you.
How can I help you?”
“I will need to enter the vault.” He nodded, not questioning why, and stepped aside for me to scan my face.
I stepped on two foot-shaped prints on the floor and looked straight into the camera.
It shot green lasers all around my face, scanning me.
It didn’t take long, and the door to the vault dramatically opened.
Without hesitation, I stepped inside, the guard stepping in right behind me.
As I expected, the vault room was huge, with artefacts, different kinds of weapons, and even gold.
But none of them caught my eye; something much, much more shocking caught my eye.
A spear lay on a pedestal inside a glass box.
It was silver with yellow as the secondary colour.
Honestly, it was beautiful, giving off an indescribable feeling of timelessness.
I instantly had an idea of what that was. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
And, to confirm my suspicions, my sword spirit materialised beside me.
Her essence danced in a circle, her mismatched eyes glaring at the sword with hostility.
“Tsk, just my luck.
Stumbling across one of the despicably holy swords.” As an answer to her question, a man with long flowing hair reaching to his ankles materialised beside the spear.
His pupil-less eyes stared at my sword spirit, whose name I still didn’t know, then spoke.
“Well, well, well.
And what do we have here?
One of the seven foul curse blades.
And it’s the pride bitch too, Hokoria.”
My lips twitched.
Holy my ass, there’s nothing holy about calling someone a bitch before even letting them speak.
The woman, who I now knew was named Hokoria, snarled.
“Gaman, tell me—how’s your love life going?
Since you embody patience itself, have you been patiently waiting for Teiso to reciprocate your feelings?” she said with mock sympathy.
“Or has that patience of yours not led you anywhere yet?”
The man didn’t flinch at her comment.
He isn’t called Patience for nothing, I guess.
“Mm, Priest Anvil.
Is something wrong?” the person behind me asked.
I glanced down at my watch and realised I only had three minutes left.
Fuck.
“Hokoria, we need to go.” I communicated with her telepathically.
“Did I give you permission to say my name, boy?” My mouth twitched.
“Follow me if you want to; I couldn’t care less.” I turned on my heels and walked away.
But just when Hokoria was about to follow, Gaman spoke.
“All that pride just to follow that boy’s order; maybe you should learn from me and have some patience.” Hokoria immediately shot back a remark.
“All that patience didn’t get you the bitch you wanted, so shut the fuck up.” I really wanted to stay and watch the spirit drama, but I was short on time.
I hurriedly looked around the vault, Hokoria still hovering near me, her figure covered in a black dress.
“Can you leave this place?
I don’t want to be in the vicinity of that bastard.”
Hokoria didn’t answer, but the guard noticed me hurriedly looking around and asked, “Give me two minutes?”
“Mm, priest, are you looking for something?”
“Yes, did you move the Orb of Chastity?
I’m getting old, you see.”
“Not at all, priest; it’s normal to forget; it’s right there, see,” he pointed at the orb on my left, which sat on a long pedestal encased in a glass box.
I hurried over to it and lifted the glass case.
The orb shone pure, like an untouched flower.
I picked it up excitedly without hesitation.
But that was a blunder.
A huge blunder, because as soon as I touched it, the man’s eyes shone with confusion, then widened in shock, and he hurriedly pressed the button in his pocket.
The whole room flashed red as the vault door slammed shut.
I looked around in panic—fuck, what did I do wrong?
All I did was pick up the orb!
The guard who’d been standing respectfully beside me suddenly summoned a spear, his killing intent crashing into me like a tidal wave.
Fuck—and I was only fourteen seconds away from completing the heist.
So why?
Why the fuck am I so unlucky?
Am I really going to die?
A/N
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