Every Matron was always told a story by the one before them on the day that they took the position as the leader of the Goddess's Sanctum.
Many, many centuries ago, when the sect had first been created by the first Goddess, there had been a time when they were still quite weak, and needed to be left alone so that they could gather the strength to grow and reach the lofty heights that they were aiming for.
In such a time, one day, a man came to the doorstep of the then humble abode of the sect.
He was sent by the cautious leader of a different sect that was part of the then Big Four, and his purpose had been to eradicate them when they were still weak so that there would be no chance whatsoever that they would ever grow strong enough to threaten the position of the sect.
The Goddess had known, right away, that she stood no chance against him. He was one of the most renowned Mages in all of Angaria, and having defeated almost all of his peers in single combat, it was a very easy task for him.
After arriving, he even announced his purpose and sat on a chair to relax for a bit while everyone stared at him with fear, and it was obvious that he was doing so as he knew that they could do nothing to him.
Then, the first Goddess had already laid down all of the rules that she wanted the sect to follow. Her purpose had always been to set up a place that could be called home by unique women, like her, who would not fit in anywhere else, and who would always feel as if something was missing from their lives unless they were given the purpose and confidence that they were Goddesses who could achieve whatever they wished if they just put their mind to it.
Her story had been a tragic one, with her being wronged by many, many people throughout her long life, and it was only because she was fed up of such a world that she had decided to create a safe Sanctum for all those in that age and in the future, who might suffer like her if they did not have support from others who were like them.
But everything that she had created was going to be brought to ruin by the man in front of her, if she did not find a way to send him on his way.
Until that moment in her life, she had always believed that the charms of a woman were meant only to accompany her on her path. If they were too strong, they would actually be the curse that would bring down trouble upon that woman, so in fact, she had even not had a very favorable impression of them, as many of the difficulties that she had faced had been caused by them, too.
However, at that juncture, she had had a revelation.
The way the World worked had always been that it would give everything that was required to those that it had given birth to so that they could fend off any difficulty that would come in their lives, and if so, what if… Those charms had also been given so that they could be used by those who were capable of doing so to get an upper hand in situations that might seem inescapable?
As she was an extremely talented individual who had extensively studied all of the teachings left behind from the age of the Empire, along with this thought, the teachings of a certain woman who had been known both for her talent to bring pain and incite passion had occurred to her.
Her mind had worked miraculously fast, almost as if the World was helping her, and a few seconds later, she had created a spell that she labeled 'The Goddess's Temptation'.
Its specialty was that it only needed one individual to direct it, but the more Goddesses there were, the more it would be effective.
At that time, she had already gathered a large number of followers, so she had quickly called upon all 600 women that she had recruited.
The mage had stood up by then, interested to see what kind of an offense the ones in front of him who seemed so puny and weak when compared to himself might put up, but a second later, the spell was cast, and he… Was lost, forever.
Or maybe… It could be said that he had found his purpose in an otherwise aimless life, as he fell heart and soul for the sect which he vowed to protect until the end of his life, no matter what came in his way.
The story went that he was the main reason that the Sanctum even existed this day, as he had kept his vow, and fought for decades and decades, preventing anyone from squashing this force before it reached its full potential.
The first Goddess, having realized just how effective, but also dangerous her creation was, had decreed that it would only be taught to Matrons, and since then, the custom had been followed. It only had to be used in the direst of circumstances, and over the long history of the sect, there were multiple times when those who had come to attack would find themselves captivated and bound to the sect for life.
It couldn't truly be called a shackle, though, because the key behind it was always that there had to be at least some genuine sentiment behind the captivation. At that time, the genuineness had come from the first Goddess, herself, and hence, one of the biggest secrets of the sect was that if one broke apart the gigantic statue that was built after her life came to an end, they would find a smaller statue of that mage, as he had become the most important part of her, just like she and the rest of the Goddesses had become the most important thing for him.
This entire story flashed through the Matron's mind as she began to cast the spell after teleporting over all of the Goddesses in the sect, but what happened next… Would be something that would make her feel faint no matter when she remembered it throughout the rest of her life.
After all of the members of the sect appeared around her, she had prepared to take complete control of the King. Initially, this control would be temporary, but then, she would change it to become permanent after she found a goddess whose heart could genuinely crave for this man. This was what she had intended when she had let Xuan kiss him, too, and even though she wasn't present, she expected no trouble in replacing her, as the King was already quite famous in all of the sect members.
However, just as she was about to smile on account of achieving victory and another source of support that would allow the Sanctum to survive for many more generations… The landscape in front of all of them also changed, and what it turned into was scandalously shocking, to say the least.
Men. Glorious, handsome, dashing, heart-wrenching, mind-bending men.
The entire sect stood still as hundreds of men with chiseled bodies wearing all sorts of clothes appeared, before rushing in the direction of the women, many of whom are actually quite inexperienced in the area of seduction.
They had only arrived to give strength to the spell, but when they saw the men who were all so perfect and godly that it seemed as if they had walked out of their dreams, many couldn't believe their eyes, and some even blinked and pinched themselves to make sure that they still weren't sleeping.
Even the Matron was frozen, as the man who had captivated her heart long ago was smiling in front of her, with sincere love and affection present on his face as he looked into her eyes and took her hand to kiss it and lay it on his shoulder.
The same scene repeated all over the place. There was a man for each and every one of them, and somehow, each of them was perfect for the one that they reached. They acted in different ways- some mimicked Marcus, the Champion from the fortress who had protected Daniel and allowed him to grow all those years ago as a favor, whereas others acted more boldly, either taking the women by their waists, or directly hugging them to make them snap out of the concentrated state they had entered in order to help cast the spell.
And of course, that was the intention behind it all, and a second later, when Daneel returned to his senses with cold sweat appearing on his back, the scene he was greeted by was so unique that even he couldn't understand what was going on for a few moments.
As for the sovereigns beside him, they had been dead sure that there was no way that he could shock them more than he had done in these past few days, but again, they were proven very, very wrong.
Among the men, even Kellor, Luther and his father had fallen prey to the spell of the sect which had spilled over to them as they were standing near him, and they, too, had just woken to find this sight which they couldn't make heads or tails out of.
But as for the women… They knew what was up, but they were tongue-tied, as they had fallen prey to Daneel's spell, and they were all staring at the perfect faces and bodies of all of those who had clearly stolen the hearts of all of the Goddesses of the Sanctum.
"Ah-ahem…"
Finally, it was Daneel who cleared his throat and asked the system to deactivate the spell, which led to all of them are disappearing.
But what this did… Was something he could never have expected.
At first, grief filled the faces of most of the women, but as the Matron understood what had happened, she shouted something that turned this grief into fury.
"YOU! YOU DARE HUMILIATE OUR SANCTITY WITH THAT…WITH THAT…ILLUSION! CHEAT! SCOUNDREL! GIVE HIM BAC-err, I mean…PREPARE TO PAY! GODDESSES! IT'S ALL HIS FAULT! ASSEMBLE IN THE SANCTORIUM! TODAY, WE KILL!"
Huh?
For once, even Daneel was perplexed. He had prepared for this trip by using the clues hidden all over the history books that the Goddess's Sanctum had such a spell, and he had found no other way that would definitely work to counter it, as he didn't even know exactly how it worked.
But what was this Sanctorium?
Before Daneel could ask the system whether it detected any threats in the area, though, the Matron and all of the Goddesses shot another look at him filled with rage, before disappearing.
And at the same time…the system sent him an urgent message.
[Hidden Isolation Formation detected! Unable to communicate with the outside world! Heroes under host's command are unable to be contacted!]
Even as Daneel furrowed his eyebrows and was about to respond, another change came over the field, and this one…was something that made all 9 sovereigns take a step back with faces that were filled with astonishment.
The 200 m tall statue of the Goddess that was kindly smiling upon the sect…moved.
The ground they were standing on shook as the statue's expression changed to show the same emotion as the Matron who had stood in front of him, and as Daneel finally realized what was going on, he looked at the others and said, "Well, sovereigns, I've really done it now…prepare to fight! It's just us! No Heroes can bail us out! That thing's at the Hero-level, but together, we can take it down! Let's show what all the sovereigns are capable of, together! Let's go!"