His attention wasn't on the other two even though they were also interesting.

He had immediately recognized Preceptor Elias, someone he knew, looking unusually subdued. And with him was a purple-haired girl who radiated something that made his Truth fragment react slightly. It felt like an uncomfortable sense of order that fundamentally opposed his nature.

But she wasn't the one that captured his attention, rather, it was the third figure. A boy — No, a young man. Perhaps nineteen or twenty. With massive metal wings folded against his back, sharp, predatory eyes, and tufts of dark, feather-like fur visible along his forearms.

The blonde man's expression still didn't change. The same bored look remained fixed on his face. But his eyes... his eyes observed Finn with curiosity and something more…

.

.

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Finn's POV

"—which is why the soul tools must be arranged in that exact pentagonal configuration," Preceptor Elias was explaining the specifics of what was happening below. "It mirrors the Soul Sanctum's own structure too. The pattern isn't just for containment. Repeated trials have shown that the pattern can also help the Caretaker… depending on their level of belief."

"But all of that is supplementary," he continued, "at the end, it is still up to the Caretaker to tame the chaos of the soul mass and assimilate it."

Finn nodded absentmindedly, even though the explanation had mostly been for Althea rather than him.

His enhanced eyes observed the massive dragon soul mass writhing on the chamber floor far below. Even through the thick protective glass and the artifacts embedded in the observation room's walls, he could tell just how powerful the soul mass was. His soul naturally recognized that he was watching something that could kill him without effort.

"This is one of the final trials," the Preceptor murmured. "If she succeeds, she becomes a probationary Preceptor."

"And if she fails?" Althea asked quietly with a voice that still carried faint traces of the ancient, detached quality from her recent use of her Order Edict.

"She won't leave this chamber," the Preceptor said flatly. "At best, the soul mass will fully corrode her and we'll have to purge what remains. At worst, if her body is too weak to even handle the corrosion, she'll be twisted brutally into a chaos breach by the soul mass and we'll have to put her down before the contamination spreads."

The casual brutality of that statement sent a chill through Finn despite the Ferropteryx's influence dampening his emotional responses.

And he was just about to ask a question of his own when he suddenly felt something and paused.

Someone is watching me… He looked up slowly.

Across the vast chamber, suspended on a chain bridge that looked like it might collapse at any moment, stood a man with blond hair that seemed too bright for the dim lighting.

He had a frustratingly handsome face and glowing gold eyes that locked onto Finn in a calm, yet uninhibited observation, as if he had no care of being seen.

Their gazes met.

And the man's expression transformed instantly.

The bored indifference on his face vanished, morphing into genuine shock. His gold eyes widened fractionally and his lips parted slightly as if he'd just witnessed something impossible.

Finn frowned, feeling uneasy from the man's bizarre reaction, as if Finn noticing him was somehow unexpected, as if he should have been invisible.

But that made no sense. The man's presence wasn't exactly subtle. He was literally the only figure on that bridge. And with his eye-catching features, he stood out very evidently like a beacon.

So why did the he look so shocked that Finn could see him?

Finn glanced at the Preceptor, expecting the old man to have noticed the staring stranger as well.

But the Preceptor was still watching the trial below, explaining something about soul debt management during S-Grade assimilations to Althea in a subdued tone.

Finn looked at Althea. She too was focused downward with a thoughtful expression on her face as she listened to the Preceptor's explanation and observed the Caretaker's struggle.

What? Finn thought, bewildered. He's right there in front of us. How are they not seeing him?

Finn looked back at the blonde man, intending to make sure he wasn't hallucinating or anything of the like…

But the bridge was empty.

The man was gone.

Huh? Finn started a frown. But immediately, he forced his expression still, schooling his face into a normal look as if he'd been observing something else.

His danger senses were flaring like an alarm bell.

Behind him! He could feel a presence behind him!

Every Ferropteryx instinct screamed at him to react. To instinctively lash out with his wings at this danger. To attack the threat that had somehow bypassed his awareness until it was already within striking distance.

But Finn forced himself still. Forced his muscles to remain relaxed, his wings to stay folded, his breathing to continue at the same steady rhythm. He gave no outward sign of having noticed anything at all, though internally his heart hammered against his ribs and adrenaline flooded his system.

The presence waited.

Finn could feel amusement radiating from them like heat from a fire. It was surely the man. And he knew. He knew Finn had sensed him. And he was simply enjoying his struggle to pretend otherwise.

Then finally, after an excruciatingly tense few seconds, with a warm, conversational, and almost cheerful voice, the man spoke:

"Hello, Elias."

The reaction was instantaneous and violent.

Preceptor Elias whirled, releasing his soul essence around him like a storm as his hand snapped toward his shadow.

Althea moved several beats slower, also shocked, but not at all able to react with the speed the Preceptor had.

Even Finn 'jerked back' in a startle, jumping to the side with eyes wide open.

The blonde man stood behind them with his hands casually tucked into his pockets and an amused smile playing at the corners of his lips.

"Goddamn it, Priest!" Preceptor Elias hissed and withdrew his soul essence back under control with visible effort. His face had gone red in what looked like genuine anger. "Your obsession with using your Truth fragment to sneak up on people is a paradoxical fucking irony!"

The man — Priest — tilted his head slightly, and regarded the Preceptor with a barely suppressed laughter.

"Is it, though?" he asked.

"Yes!" the Preceptor jabbed a finger at him accusingly. "For fuck's sake, you wield the Abstract Path of Truth! You're supposed to be the one person in this cursed world who cannot lie or deceive! And yet here you are, playing pranks by deceiving everyone about your presence!"

Priest's smile widened and the playful expression of a teacher about to impart 'profound wisdom' colored his face.

"But Elias," he cleared his throat and said, "what is a lie, really? Is it not simply a truth presented from a perspective that contradicts popular reality? When I activate my fragment, I don't deceive anyone about my presence. I simply make my presence a truth so mundane and so unremarkable, it becomes functionally equivalent to absence."

He spread his hands as if explaining something so obvious.

"I'm not hiding or deceiving anyone. I just made my truth so profoundly uninteresting that people's minds naturally slide past me without registering my presence. It's all about framing, you see. Truth and deception are merely different lenses through which we view—"

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