3949 words
Above the Grey Fog, Kiyotaka — who was currently in his Spirit Body form — enveloped The Emperor Card of Blasphemy as his appearance began to transform.
A dark and ethereal mist rose up around him and as the mist clung onto the surface of his solidified Spirit Body, it formed an imposing set of black armor. The transformation materialized a black crown on his head and a long cape of the same color on the back, like an emperor about to embark on a journey.
Kiyotaka's status seemed to have been instantly elevated, as if he was not a Sequence 7, but rather a high-Sequence Beyonder. At the same time, he felt multiple enhancements to his own abilities as Eloquence, Physical Boosts, Bribe and Connection underwent a qualitative change.
Phasing through the door of summoning, Kiyotaka materialized into the real world. At the same time as he descended, he turned his head and looked behind, as multiple prying eyes and creatures which had been staring at the spot a while ago suddenly lowered their heads in their invisible forms and left, as if subdued by the aura of an Emperor.
Kiyotaka reached into his spirit body and then raised his hand, producing a rectangular piece of silver.
This rectangular piece of silver was carved with Hermes incantations on both sides, as well as the corresponding symbols, Path Numbers, and the spell's characteristics. A deep and serene power flowed within this piece of silver as Kiyotaka felt his tense nerves calm down.
Kiyotaka's lips parted and his long and black cape whooshed in the air as he chanted something in Ancient Hermes.
The piece of silver began to glow with utter darkness and Kiyotaka's consciousness began to fade. Consequently, at the same time, Kiyotaka activated his 'Connection' ability and reached out for the faint tendrils of links that connected the 'Briber' and the 'Bribed' before guiding the effects of the Slumber Charm towards it.
All over Backlund, multiple people began to suddenly feel dizzy and fell asleep without ceremony.
*****
Outside Hillston Borough, Edwin Wycliffe — the man who was slapped by Freya — was halfway through raising his wineglass when his hand stopped as the liquid inside it trembled.
For a brief moment, Edwin stared at it with a vague confusion while his thoughts suddenly became terribly slow.
He attempted to speak, however, no words came out. At the same time, the glass slipped from his fingers and shattered against the floor while his uncle, Andrew Wycliffe, looked over. "Edwin, you fool! Has a single glass of wine made you so drunk?!"
However, Edwin's eyes had already closed.
Andrew's features contorted into a grimace and he placed his glass down. However, he could barely manage to rise up from his own chair before his own knees gave away. The two men collapsed within moments of one another, falling into a deep, serene sleep.
*****
On Sørlund Street, Freya was bent over a worktable surrounded by herbs and glass containers as a faint medicinal smell of a concoction filled the room. It was a new medicine that she had prepared for Kiyotaka which could instantly wash away the effects of any alcohol or hangover.
After the events that took place yesterday, she was extremely vexed and had spent the entire day experimenting around.
However, Freya suddenly paused and the pestle slipped from her fingers.
A deep frown appeared on her thin face.
She wobbled and looked around. It felt as if the room had become exceedingly enormous and the floor had begun to feel strangely distant. She tried to balance herself using Guile, however, that was not enough.
Realizing something was terribly wrong, she reached for the table, trying to pick the medicine that could help her suppress her sleep. However, before she could do that, her body folded and she fell down on the carpeted floor with a muted thud and her eyes closed shut.
At the same time, a semi-visible spirit of a young man with a stubble bent down and gently retrieved the ring from her finger, as she fell further and further into a deep, serene sleep.
*****
In Cherwood Borough, Fors Wall had a stick of cigarette between her lips as she nervously kept scribbling on a piece of paper which had the name Williams Holmes at the top. Every now and then, she would stop and think over her words before letting out a sigh.
It was quite obvious that she was hesitant.
As she took a deep puff of the cigarette and inhaled all of it instead of letting it out, she blinked and casted her eyes on the piece of paper.
The name 'Williams Holmes' began to squirm like worms and a wave of nausea rolled through her while the cigarette slipped from her fingers and landed directly on the report.
Fors stared at the burning paper for several seconds, however, she could do nothing as her eyelids continued to become heavier and heavier.
Her head rolled forward and landed hard on the desk, right next to the burning paper as she fell into a deep, serene sleep.
*****
Deep beneath Backlund, somewhere in an underground bunker-like space, a woman with red-auburn hair was still awake. Her tattered clothes which revealed her plump body had been replaced by classic Loenese clothes, reserved for married women, covering her up.
A sudden heaviness hammered against her consciousness, instantly alarming her. The heaviness was not like exhaustion from being tortured all day but rather her brain had been pulled forcefully underneath some kind of dark sea.
She immediately began constructing a Conspiracy and her spirituality surged as she tried to formulate an escape route. However, whenever the thought of 'escaping' entered her mind, it got flushed out at the same time.
In the matter of a few seconds, her conjured Conspiracy failed as her eyes closed, falling into a deep, serene sleep.
*****
On Böklund Street, the Macht residence had finally fallen into a hush after a long evening of festivities.
The servants had withdrawn into their quarters and the candles had burned low. Even the distant sounds of carriages passing through Böklund Street seemed to have been muted behind the heavy curtains.
Inside the master bedroom, however, the evening had not quite ended as Maury and Riana Macht had found themselves into a considerably more private entertainment after the guests had departed.
Riana's hair was undone as several strands of hair clung to her cheek while she caught her breath. Her cheeks were flushed, and the composure she had maintained throughout the party had long since disappeared, morphing into something more... amplified and animalistic.
Maury caught his breath and gave her a crooked smile. "Did you drink too much tonight?"
However, his words seem to have fallen to deaf ears as Riana continued moving her hips back and forth, up and down, making Maury laugh softly. "I've never seen you this enthusiastic."
That comment, however, finally made her pause, only for a moment though. Her eyes opened, and there was something distant in them. A moment or so later, At least, she looked down at Maury, beneath her heavy bosoms. "Perhaps I'm simply in a good mood tonight."
"Good mood?" He barely managed the words before Riana's movements resumed, leaving him with considerably less composure than a while ago. Her movements had gotten rough and fast, and whatever confidence he had earlier had gradually been replaced by the realization that, tonight, he was very much at her mercy.
"Riana..." Maury moaned.
The room suddenly seemed to grow warmer as the two began to sweat and the sounds of their union began to grow louder. Maury's hands tightened against the sheets as Riana's pace increased once more while her breathing grew uneven.
"Wait—" He swallowed. "You're going to... I am going to..." His sentence was interrupted by his own breathless laugh.
Suddenly, Maury's eyes glazed over and his expressions changed. The same could not be said for Riana as her eyes were closed and her face was towards the ceiling, however, the merciless barrage of making herself hop up-and-down had slowed down to a near stop.
A strange heaviness had suddenly settled over Maury as his breathing slowed and he looked up at Riana's glistening bare body with a distant look. "Riana..."
Maury's head sunk deeper into his pillow, "What's happening..."
However, no reply came from Riana. With them still connected, Riana toppled over Maury, her shoulder bashing into his face as the two of them fell into a deep, serene sleep.
*****
Meanwhile, Hazel was sitting on the edge of her bed, with a small chair pulled in front of her. Perched on top of it was a small black rat with luscious fur and a pair of deep-set red eyes, quietly staring at her as if it had been listening to every word.
"I am telling you, that was not normal," Hazel said hastily, waving one hand as she tried to explain herself. "Everything was going very well. I even developed somewhat of a positive opinion about him as well, but then he suddenly started talking about—"
Hazel suddenly paused and her brows furrowed. For some reason, her thoughts had suddenly become strangely sluggish.
Seeing this abnormal reaction, the rat's whiskers twitched and it turned its small head towards the roof, right where Hazel's parent's room was. A strange expression appeared on the gerbil's face.
Hazel blinked a few times and continued anyway before letting out a tired and long yawn. "A-Anyway, that isn't the point. The point is that I actually didn't..."
Her voice trailed off once more as a peculiar heaviness began to spread through her body. She tried to straighten herself and tried to stand up, but her balance suddenly deserted her. "...I'm tired... So tired."
She barely managed to mutter the words before her body toppled sideways onto the bed and her eyes closed without the slightest resistance.
A moment later, a soft and serene snore escaped from her stuffed nose.
The rat stared at her for a moment when suddenly it propped itself up and something akin to a twisted smile appeared on its face as it revealed a pair of teeth dripping with rabid saliva. "Seer!"
*****
As a deep night descended on Backlund, in the absence of the crimson moon illuminating everything, two figures dressed in tuxedos walked towards a specific unit on Böklund Street.
One of them had black hair and brown eyes behind gold-rimmed glasses while the other had brown hair and slightly golden, amber eyes. They seemed to be around the same height with matching builds.
The only difference between them was their features.
The first one was Gehrman Sparrow and the second one was Williams Holmes who had changed his appearance to that of Ayanokoji Kiyotaka.
Gehrman Sparrow made his way towards the main door while Kiyotaka went around the perimeter. Before long, he had arrived at the compartment of the manor that was reserved for the butlers and maids.
Some of them had already fallen asleep while some were playing cards, eating the leftover food as snacks and were chatting amongst each other while drinking wine from the half-full bottles.
Kiyotaka took notice of them and then slipped in a Slumber Charm from underneath the door before activating it. At the same time, the Charm did its work and all of them suddenly fell asleep.
Once that was done, he made his way back to the entrance where Klein as Gehrman Sparrow had already unlocked the door.
Walking inside the initial foyer, Kiyotaka and Klein both looked at each and turned to close the door.
Kiyotaka quickly doubled checked his arsenal as he had currently equipped Ember around his wrist, Guile around his finger, Cyst over his left hand and Scourge around his waist with Gloom sitting snugly in his inner pocket.
After almost losing control last time, Kiyotaka had decided not to use it unless extremely necessary. And now it was extremely necessary.
The two had basically ventured right into enemy territory, with only the knowledge of the other party's pathway. Regardless, it was something that needed to be done.
Kiyotaka took out the baleful looking pair of glasses with magma flowing through them. However, just as he did, Gloom disappeared from his grasp. At the same time, Guile was suddenly stripped from his finger as well.
Having suddenly lost Gloom and Guile, Kiyotaka wrapped his spirituality around his body — with what little influence he had over it — and dashed in the direction from where his Danger Intuition was pointing.
At the same time, Klein took out his revolver and loaded two purification bullets before dashing after him.
Before long, both of them arrived inside Hazel's room where she was sleeping soundly. Meanwhile, the window of her room was open, giving way to frigid winds.
Suddenly, Kiyotaka's Danger Intuition spiked and he rolled out of the way, however, Klein, who was about to do the same, suddenly froze in his place.
He had forgotten what he was about to do!
Multiple sulfur fireballs erupted from the window and travelled towards Klein, suddenly eviscerating him to bits.
Kiyotaka, who just stopped rolling, quickly dashed towards the window and jumped through it.
As he began to free fall through the air, he looked down, only to find a pair of red eyes looking back at him.
Clasping his hands together, Kiyotaka began to compress a Flaming Spear, however, the flames suddenly fizzled out.
This time, the rat rubbed its tiny arms together and a comically large flaming spear materialized itself around the rat as it fired it towards Kiyotaka.
The rat had stolen Ember's Flaming Spear!
As it fired the Flaming Spear, it suddenly disappeared and appeared safely on the ground, replacing its airborne body with chunks of grass.
It had stolen and replaced its position with a patch of grass!
Kiyotaka braced for impact and instantly poured spirituality into Cyst as the Flaming Spear rammed into him, burning his clothes and arms and chunks of the skin over his right cheek.
Cyst began to mend his skin at the same time as Kiyotaka landed on the ground. Plucking some grass from the lawn, Kiyotaka threw it towards the rat who was running away as suddenly its movements began to weaken and the madness that seemed to stem from its psyche suddenly increased to a debilitating extent.
Kiyotaka caused the muscles in his legs to mutate a little and suddenly covered a huge distance in a small instant, appearing right beside the rat.
The rat groaned and let out a blood curdling scream while its bloodshot eyes began to shine and suddenly cold wind brushed past Kiyotaka's bare body.
In its mad state, the rat had stolen Ember, Cyst and all of Kiyotaka's clothes, making his manhood flail wildly in the cold wind.
Not letting it affect himself, Kiyotaka reached out for the only piece of 'clothing' he had on him — Scourge — and whipped it towards the rat.
Since Scourge was made out of the characteristics of Sun Pathway, it naturally resisted evil creatures, undead and trickery. Kiyotaka was not aware about the exact mechanics, however, since the rat was unable to steal Scourge, he naturally came to the conclusion that it could prove as the only counter.
Using Scourge's tip as a javelin, Kiyotaka whipped it around himself before making it whistle through the hair.
His eyes widened for a fraction of an inch as he saw the whip travelling back to himself. The rat had stolen Kiyotaka's position himself, effectively swapping their positions. However, Kiyotaka seemed to have already foreseen this outcome.
Using the long reach of the whip, he stepped on the middle and then swung it again, redirecting the attack from himself towards the rat.
The whip lashed against its back as another blood curdling scream escaped its mouth.
Kiyotaka felt his brow twitch and suddenly different kinds of murmurs and ravings seemed to destabilize his spirit body and body of heart and mind. However, the rat was not unscathed as well.
With its mental state already at the verge of collapsing and using 'Theft' of such a high level in high succession, it had brought itself dangerously close to losing control. On top of that, the mystical items such as Ember, Cyst, Guile and Gloom all had a negative side-effect of either amplifying one's already debilitating state or introducing new factors to it.
And while the rat had only used Gloom and Ember once, the former had extremely dangerous side-effects. After all, after using it only three times, someone like Kiyotaka who had a naturally strong mind, augmented by Briber potion, still almost lost control, had it not been for favorable circumstances.
Still naked, Kiyotaka whipped Scourge once more as the rat doubled in size and stopped running. The sudden halt made Kiyotaka redirect his attack, but it also caused a small opening to appear in his defenses.
The rat used Decryption to find this gap a while ago — which was an ability from Sequence 7: Cryptologist — and instantly capitalized on it. With its body now doubled in size, it pounced on Kiyotaka and bit into his shoulder.
Kiyotaka gritted his teeth as the flesh over his shoulder began to bubble and mutate.
Gripping the rat by its tail, Kiyotaka made a violent movement and whacked its head across a tree before throwing it across the lawn as the rat's head collided against the wall on the other side.
As he did, he saw a Glove made out of flesh and veins drop near his feet. Quickly picking it up, he equipped it and controlled the mutation in his body before using Scourge to quickly dispel the Flesh and Blood Curse.
Panting heavily, Kiyotaka saw a pile of clothes where the rat had fallen with Ember, Guile and Gloom resting on top of it.
Looking around, Kiyotaka made sure that there was no latent threat and carefully approached the pile. Once he was close enough, he picked up his clothes and saw the rat lying dead underneath.
After quickly wearing his pants, Kiyotaka was about to dress himself up when suddenly his body began to ache uncontrollably and his entire body went still.
His mind began to race with thoughts, but one after another, all of them were stolen, leaving Kiyotaka in a blank trance as all of his thoughts were being constantly stolen.
Saliva began to drip from the corner of his lips as his mouth went agape and he stared emptily at the dark sky choked by heavy clouds which had occasional streaks of lightning coursing through it.
"Annoying! So annoying! Why were you after me!" A feminine voice resounded in his voice. It made Kiyotaka regain some of his consciousness as he tried to use 'Connection' to Bribe the rat—or rather, the woman, without actually Bribing her.
However, the woman stole all of his memories pertaining to his potion, making him completely blank about his powers.
"Lawyer... This will do too. That Seer would've been better but who knew that he would prove to be such a fraud. He died from a simple attack without even having any preparation with Paper Substitutes. Oh well, regardless, I will use it until I regain my powers... and take my revenge on those bastards who betrayed me."
The woman droned about as she gained access to Kiyotaka's body and began to parasatise him on a deeper level.
Kiyotaka's fingers twitched, as if trying to use Scourge, however, the woman kept stealing his thoughts.
"What an annoying man you are... Men are the worst. Why can't you stop thinking? Stop! STOP! I said stop!"
Kiyotaka's heart constricted and streams of blood began to escape his nose.
"If you do not want to lose full access to your body, stop resisting. It's of no use. Your useless Seer friend is dead!" The woman screamed inside his head, rattling his soul. "There is nothing you can do!"
However, Kiyotaka kept struggling. More and more thoughts continued to appear in his mind, each one of them corresponding to different threads in a way but inadvertently similar. He was trying to make himself remember or at least instill an automatic motor function in his body which could help him purify this.
After all, this was a form of possession too and anything correlating to Sun Pathway was an easy way out.
As more and more thoughts appeared and disappeared, the woman began to root herself deep into Kiyotaka's soul.
Suddenly, a scream erupted in Kiyotaka's mind as a holy radiance descended from the sky.
Sun Brooch!
Kiyotaka fell to his knees and coughed as he spat out two wriggling worms which had twelve segmented rings around it.
Behind himself, he saw a fleeting shadow as it tried to drift away. Still weak from the possession, Kiyotaka could only see it escape.
However, right over the wall, a figure suddenly appeared in a flash of flames. This figure had black hair and brown eyes with a sharp and angular face. He had a mad grin over his face as he pointed his gun at the shadow.
BANG!
A purification bullet tore through the shadow and an illusory shriek escaped it.
Kiyotaka who had recovered until now imbued spirituality inside Ember and Scourge before firing a Fireball and also whipping Scourge at her at the same time.
The attacks hit her, instantly diminishing the spirituality as a cluster of dead worms with eight circles, transparent rings, and three-dimensional patterns fell on the ground. And hidden inside this cluster of worms was a diamond with translucent worms wriggling inside.
Unlike the dead worms, these translucent worms seemed to be alive and induced a headache upon seeing them.
Kiyotaka bent down and retrieved the Beyonder Characteristic while Klein picked up the cluster of maggots before sacrificing all of these items and stashing them into their respective junk piles.
As soon as it was done, the two of them removed any traces of the fight and Kiyotaka made all necessary arrangements which restored everyone to their original states, before they had fallen asleep while Klein performed continuous anti-Divinations to remove their tracks.
Just like that, the two of them were able to hunt down a Demigod — a severely weakened one who had its strength restricted to Sequence 5 at best, but a Demigod nonetheless. However, none of them had any way of knowing.
Yet.
*****
Author's Note: 7 Chapters in total. I can finally write my other fanfic (don't ask me which and where) and my original story inspired by both LOTM and Shadow Slave, hehe. Anyways, I hope y'all liked the chapters.
Another good news is that I finally got some time to find some good artists and commissioned three things: a new cover for the story with Kiyotaka in it, a waist-up illustration of Freya and another waist-up illustration of Astrid Albrecht.
While my top choices, Noomuz and Aphora was not available due to their slots being already filled, the other ones are also quite decent. But Noomuz told me that he will be free in October so expect a high quality cover in November — since it takes a month for him to draw.
Anyways, that's it from my side.
Tschüß