A small smile spread across Cel's face - the first genuine one in longer than he could remember.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7WEqjSRrIK
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The blessing. Finally.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0AsyN6VLo8
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After everything he'd endured, every nightmare survived, every wound that should have killed him - he was about to receive what he'd earned. What he'd bled for.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEoVvYxncP2
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The moon hung full and radiant above, its pale light washing over the cracked earth of his soul's landscape.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaZdmUHw4dX
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"Please follow me, Chosen One." Selina’s voice carried gentle warmth as she gestured toward the mist with graceful fingers.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgJf3QPZ1ln
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Cel's breath steadied, though his heart quickened with something that might have been anticipation. He nodded once, that small smile still tugging at his lips.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ16fKm4FrH5
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She turned, white robes trailing across broken ground as she moved toward the mist with unhurried elegance. Cel followed, his bare feet padding softly against fractured stone.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvfFk8AIIwh
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They walked in silence through the transformed landscape. Small flowers with bluish-white petals bloomed from the deepest cracks, reaching toward moonlight. Jagged stones jutted up at irregular intervals - ruins carved into the depths of who he'd become.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5kLnej1vGY
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Cel's mind drifted toward what awaited him.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1IDONbhf5J
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A blessing.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQMpncpe6OS
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Soon the goddess's power would be woven into his very being.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXPiUkMDHFK
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This power had always been a part of his world - expected, almost mundane among nobles. Divine gifts granted to those called by the gods, transforming the Chosen into something more than human.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6a66X43tfq
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But he'd never truly considered what they were. What it meant to be bound to a deity.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYrKP8mxZbI
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Three factors shaped every blessing - the foundation that determined what a Chosen One could become.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXiJcxPVBl4
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First: the nature of the god.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhEbBs7uquC
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The Mountain God granted strength and endurance. The Storm Goddess gave lightning and wind.The Sun God's blessed were always strong, proud, radiant. Warriors who commanded fire and light.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4tCbOZSyWi
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He'd spent his entire life studying them, memorizing their achievements, listening to endless sermons about their legendary deeds.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEVhgE9LXML
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But the Moon Goddess?111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhBLrXAT2iy
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She was different.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhaAH6eS0GY
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Unlike other gods, each with an entire Clan devoted to them, the Moon Goddess had none. No bloodlines carried her favor. No buildings bore her name. She'd had few Chosen throughout history, and even fewer records of what they'd accomplished.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzbEwVGBmNt
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The reason was simple.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeEKNNuQqNS
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They had been weak.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡOvkJ7hOcE2
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Where other Chosen reshaped the world - commanding tides, healing mortal wounds, razing plains with fire - those who served the Moon Goddess had left no mark. Their abilities - whatever they'd been - hadn't shaken the world. Hadn't carved legacies worth remembering.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡc63Ned8hHS
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They'd lived and died as footnotes.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ873Hl4CJAR
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The irony might have made him laugh if it didn't make him so angry. Cast out by the people who raised him. Saved instead by the only deity he knew nothing about.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyypTGAjsbW
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Selina's figure moved steadily ahead. The mist parted for her as though bowing in deference.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVngc9UZiiO
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Cel watched her for a moment before his thoughts moved to the second factor: 111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMEb65FDSNY
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The rank of the priest.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ46jpPNxLNG
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Unlike the rigid hierarchies found in most hierarchies, priestly ranks held no special titles, no formal order. A servant of the gods could be rank 1 or rank 100 - the number itself was all that mattered.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPaUF9dVxKa
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But that number meant everything.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0qIeYILyrd
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The rank indicated proximity to their deity. How close they stood to the divine.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcHWx89HDla
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And which priest was sent to a Chosen One revealed how much the god valued them.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtep5UpwHjr
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The gods dispatched their most trusted servants only to those they deemed worthy. A newly Called receiving a high-ranked guide? That was a declaration of divine favor - a promise of investment and expectation.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡEXJI3ALV6a
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Conversely, someone of lower standing suggested... less. Not rejection, but neither was it embrace.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXm9M2C52dW
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And this hierarchy directly influenced the quality of blessings bestowed.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGIdqQqxWrv
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At lower ranks, the paragons and artifacts granted were functional but limited - straightforward abilities within the deity's domain. Useful, certainly. Yet unremarkable.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMOl42Zlspj
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Higher ranks yielded far more. Through a rank 40 priestess, a god might grant paragons that reshaped battlefields. Through a rank 10, they could forge legends whose names echoed through history.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3jqdZHrnxx
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At the pinnacle, the gods held nothing back. Paragons of devastating power. Artifacts of impossible grace. Blessings worthy of those they deemed truly exceptional.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdGO69oEOgg
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Cel studied Selina's back as they walked. What rank did she hold? Her presence carried weight - certainty that suggested she wasn't newly appointed. But beyond that, he couldn't guess.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWtwMqCsae
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Priests only revealed such information after the first blessing - a rule dictated by the gods themselves for reasons mortals couldn't grasp.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt7nXAjTJHM
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His fingers curled at his sides.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡH4Q0j1on3d
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And the third factor:111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9vTppYQ87e
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The compatibility between the deity and their Chosen One.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRHnLTnEvgB
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This was the part no one understood. Even the royal family, with their vast library and generations of recorded history, had no answer to why certain people were chosen.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcg9TjvooTN
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Some claimed personality - that gods selected those who reflected their own nature. Others insisted on fate, predetermined and inescapable. And then there were those who believed it was arbitrary. That mortals were nothing but playthings for forces beyond comprehension.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZH0GvQNLir
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Cel wasn't sure what he believed. Maybe all those theories were wrong. Maybe they were all right.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtaoz5kgQfb
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In the end, gods remained an enigma. Everything humanity claimed to know was guesswork dressed as certainty. Fragments stitched together over centuries.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡffySYmSfqR
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Only the priests could claim true connection to the divine. And even they spoke in riddles, revealing only what lay within their god-given authority.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0Yuyg1A1bQ
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This secrecy made divine knowledge one of the world's most valuable commodities. Kings, warlords, scholars would pay fortunes for even the faintest whisper of celestial truth.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCZn7yLvdFi
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Everyone wanted answers. Few existed. And in that desperation, lies flourished.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡImCtBI8ZZ8
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His stomach churned with familiar revulsion.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡE3PqWM5Ggz
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False doctrines. Fabricated revelations. Entire faiths built on deliberate misinformation. Humanity had drowned itself in deception.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUUZhNxv4Uw
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And every level of society fed the rot.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡa126cPiktY
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The nobles controlled access to knowledge, yes - they dictated who was worthy and silenced threatening voices. Their monopoly turned belief into power, worship into currency, gods themselves into weapons.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIsPuQaahI6
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But the common people?111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡd8QvuPlLmz
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They weren't innocent victims.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡvVVvQtCbsE
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False prophets rose from peasant villages, claiming divine visions for coins. Sects multiplied like weeds, each convinced they alone understood divine will - demanding obedience in exchange for salvation. Merchants sold 'artifacts’ to the desperate - splinters of 'sacred' wood, water from 'blessed' springs, all fabricated for profit. 111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡgigDd54sgv
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Faith twisted by greed became poison that seeped through the entire kingdom.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlG4k8Wz1Xi
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That was why understanding had stagnated. Why humanity, despite centuries of devotion, still grasped blindly at truth's edges. Because no one wanted truth - they wanted comfort, wealth, power, whatever lie served their needs.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrlsQ3AEKFt
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Almost laughable. People begged gods for salvation while ensuring their own downfall.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnTzCJHgmLr
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And through it all, the gods remained silent.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBqEW0o1Ddj
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Did they care? Or were they simply indifferent?111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDbIab5Y163
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That question haunted him more than any other.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzZfGaSlSV6
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What if the gods saw exactly what he did? 111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYMd4P47FMJ
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Every lie, every corruption, every twisted doctrine - and remained silent because humanity had earned its ignorance. Not punishment. Just... consequences. 111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrXSnJMWNqP
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And Cel, no matter how much he wished otherwise, was part of that same corrupted race.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡwBaiuZNsz0
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Would he be any different?111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuL0WGUSHNv
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A bitter smirk pulled at his lips. He wanted to believe so.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFmkOkrqwMJ
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But he knew better.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7enJORx1W6
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Lies weren't just tools of the powerful. Sometimes they were the only way to survive. If he returned to civilization, he'd wield deception as readily as those he despised.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPr3plwkoRc
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He had to.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡb6pYQWiiCP
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Ahead, Selina stopped.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQRZwutIGqT
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Cel nearly collided with her before catching himself.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡGiNxOB72rq
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She turned to face him, white robes trailing through the mist like they were woven from it.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡePW83Of7Cs
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"We are nearly there, Chosen One."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡbm9eLMuQMo
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Selina gestured forward into the mist, but Cel remained still.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtb3blqtF6r
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She paused, waiting.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8971FD249N
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"I have questions," he said. "About the trial."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3M6JdQOjAz
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After a moment, she lowered her hand and faced him fully. "Of course. Please, ask."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHU85zWFVYV
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Cel studied her masked face. "When I was dying in that cavern, I heard a voice. Female. Sharp and commanding - telling me to get up." He paused. "At first, I thought it was you. But the tone was different. Harsher."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfteG5knHzK
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Silence stretched between them.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4zUChWseFP
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"Who was it?"111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqS8GiEm2SK
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"I am sorry, Chosen One. This does not lie within my authority."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcRKciUwbcJ
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He was silent for a moment, then moved on. "The moon appeared right as I was dying. No trigger I could see - unless dying itself was the trigger. Was the trial simply to survive long enough? Or was there something else I was supposed to do?"111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx0QuwnzynN
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"That, too, does not lie within my authority," Selina said, her tone carrying something that might have been regret.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWoVg4oHTYb
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Cel hummed softly - half-amused, half-resigned. "Can you tell me anything about what I just went through?"111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnmqXvGl19M
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"Only what you experienced yourself. The trial's purpose belongs to the goddess alone."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡv5HvF2oqEw
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He let out a quiet breath. 111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMIayFEtZrQ
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He expected as much, and he didn't really care. The trial was over. He'd survived. Whatever secrets it held, whatever meanings he'd missed - none of that mattered anymore.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡN5fB6zImZz
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"Alright," he said finally. "I'm ready."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtN6sapVQWY
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Selina turned, gesturing forward once more. "Then let us continue."111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡSTLKmEtNgD
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They walked in silence, moonlight breaking through the mist in shifting rays. The air grew colder. Thinner. Each step felt lighter, as if the ground beneath his feet was becoming less real, less solid.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhCcga4c0U7
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Then the mist parted.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1AZ1wO3iib
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Cel stopped.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFJ3g1RNYzS
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The ground was carpeted in bluish-white flowers that swayed gently through the mist, their petals drawing in moonlight and releasing it in steady pulses. At the center, a focused beam of moonlight descended - so strong and concentrated it almost seemed tangible.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡL0aBMRbvCw
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At first sight, he knew that this was a sacred place.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfkpm5652fP
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Selina stepped forward.111Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyYDkrsCfPM
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"We have arrived, Chosen One."1234 copyright protection107ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3fcm6AQpbh 尼

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