Before he could strike, Judith ran forward and barreled into their assailant, tackling him to the ground. In a few seconds, the once-still room burst into pure chaos as robed figures lunged at the pair of investigators. Arthur lost sight of Judith in the crowd as several members circled him, and he stopped thinking about her when he received a swift punch to the jaw.

"Don't let them leave!" He heard the Old Man say amidst all the noise.

Arthur gritted his teeth, reached into his coat, and pulled out his baton but was quickly overwhelmed by several arms and legs. He shielded his face with his arms as he fell to the ground, trying and failing to fend off kicks to the chest and back.

Despite himself, the truth revealed itself to him. He could sense several things at once: he peeked through his fingers to see several cult members leaving through the doors and a few even yelling at the Old Man. A crisis of faith, Arthur realized. The ones currently beating his ass were likely older and more devoted. The less-so ones were all more than a little disappointed with the grand reveal. One even opened the capsule to reveal nothing but air.

"The capsule was empty, and so were your promises!" One yelled as the Man tried to placate him.

"I can't believe I missed my daughter's graduation for this!"
"I quit!"
And then they left, and the population of the room shrank by about half-

Suddenly, in a rush of movement, Judith barreled through the crowd, knocking over several and freeing Arthur as she shoved away several of his assailants. Judith was a tall, stocky woman, and it could be argued that her refusal to keel to anyone was only rivaled by Arthur's own intuition for the truth, a supernatural trait all on its own. It took seconds for her to shove her way through the crowd, pick up a fallen knife that'd clattered to the ground, rush at the Old Man who'd been too slow to run, and hold it to his neck. "Hey!"

The room fell quiet as everyone watched her. Arthur staggered to his feet, holding the black eye he'd received from the onslaught.

Judith tightened her grip on the Old Man's shoulder. "Everyone put your hands behind your back and stay where you are, or Manson here gets it."

"Funny," the Old Man chuckled, despite the situation, "I thought you two weren't cops."

Judith groaned. "Shut up. This would be so much easier if I was allowed to have a gun."

Arthur could not help being silently grateful that she wasn't. He hadn't lied earlier: Paranormal Investigators were not police and did not need warrants, but they were also liable to the same falls that civilians were and more likely to die as a result. This meant fewer rules to follow, but it also meant no real recourse for protection. If they could not prove that there was any paranormal activity here, they could easily get sued, and probably far worse if they managed to get someone killed.

"Brothers, Sisters," the Old Man said to the crowd, "Retreat to your homes. Martyr me. And if I turn up dead, be sure to avenge me."

Judith squinted. "What?"

But it didn't matter what she thought, as the remaining followers immediately did as they were told; they bowed to their leader, pulled away from the center of the room, dropped any weapons, and left through the door. Soon enough, it was only the three of them.

"That was stupid of you," Judith said, still holding the blade to his neck. "You had an advantage of numbers, and you just... sent them all away? What kind of game are you playing? Are you dumb, or are you trying something?"

"He's not dumb," Arthur clarified. "Trust me."

"My brothers and sisters, the ones who are the most faithful, will always return to my side when I have need of them,"the Man said, "As for me staying here with you two, I'll just say that this is only another test of my divine right to the god I've built."

Judith yanked his arm and pulled out some rope from her bag. Arthur didn't even want to question why she had brought it in the first place.

With the Old Man tied up to one of the chairs in the front room, Judith walked up to Arthur. "Why the hell did you walk up to the capsule anyway? What were you thinking?"

"Considering that you screamed at everyone and blew our cover," He spat back, "it's clear that I'm not the only one of us that's made an insanely stupid decision today."

Judith grew quiet. "Hm."

Arthur knew he wasn't getting any sort of apology, but he didn't especially want one either. He walked up to the Old Man. "Look, sir, we know that that capsule has been passed around between a bajillion people by this point. I mean, was that capsule empty when you got it? What was in there that you wanted so badly? Tell me or I'll pull the truth out of you anyway."

The Old Man smiled gently. "I'm sorry, I don't know what you're talking about."

Arthur closed his eyes. And he searched for the truth - the Old Man’s truth - and gripped it tightly as he pulled it forward in his mind. He opened his eyes. "The capsule is supposed to help you 'build a God', yes? It wasn’t always empty, there was something inside it this morning, something important. But you moved it to another space. You wanted me to take a closer look at the capsule to give one of your followers enough time to strike me, but you didn't anticipate me knowing it was empty before I actually opened it, did you?"

He was silent. Arthur continued. "And this .... thing that was in the capsule, it's still in the building, isn’t it? You have it hidden somewhere around here."

"Way ahead of you. I'm gonna go look for it," Judith said, walking down a hall to the room's left.

Arthur didn't even look at her as she walked away, his gaze intently set on the Man in front of him. "As for what the entity in the capsule actually is, you at least view it as a God. But what is it really?"