"I don't think we need to worry about the artifact activating anymore," I said, eyeing the heavy wooden doors of the post office.
Beside me, Isaac swallowed hard. "..."
"I'm not entirely sure, but if my theory holds, we shouldn't get looped back," I explained. "The conduits are dead, meaning the artifact has been forcibly separated from its master—the Devil. We will probably have to swear an oath to it before it accepts a new user. Let's hope that's the case."
I braced myself for a potential fourth loop, activating Event Horizon: Application 1 - Infinity Shield just in case. I now had three distinct applications for my spatial manipulation: the defensive Infinity Shield, the vacuum-creating Reverse Event Horizon, and my newest spatial-warping travel method, which I liked to call Sky's Limit.
Since my baseline Ether was still too low to maintain all of them simultaneously, I had to be careful. More importantly, I needed to cut off the supply from the Cenotaph of Pride before its arrogance permanently warped my personality.
Kallisto, sever the connection to the Cenotaph, I commanded inwardly.
[Confirmed. Connection severed.]
"Let's go, Isaac," I said, stepping forward.
We pushed open the doors. The interior of the post office was surprisingly mundane—dusty rows of sorting cupboards, stacks of undelivered letters, and wooden desks. But sitting casually on the main front counter was the source of the anomaly.
It was an ornate hourglass. However, the grains slipping through its narrow glass neck weren't sand; they were droplets of pure, luminous golden Ether.
"Be careful, Lucifer," Isaac warned, doing his best to keep his voice steady.
Since the world wasn't resetting, I stepped forward and confidently placed my bare hand on the glass. The moment my skin made contact, a rush of ancient, foreign knowledge flooded my mind. I instinctively understood how to bind it, how to use it, and, most importantly, its true name:
The Inevitable Spindle of Ananke.
Its mechanics and drawbacks mapped themselves out in my head like a blueprint. It was a localized time-looping artifact. When activated, the golden Ether would begin to drop into the lower chamber. The loop would only break naturally when the top bulb completely emptied. To restart the cycle, someone physically had to flip the hourglass—but doing so required a blood sacrifice of exactly one year of the user's lifespan.
Furthermore, by feeding it Ether and setting a specific condition, the user could dictate the exact rules of the loop.
That explained everything. The Devil had set a strict condition: If anyone attempts to enter the post office or send information off the island, they will be looped back to their starting position without their memories. The Devil was using the Spindle to trap the citizens, keeping his "livestock" completely isolated from the outside world.
But as I stared at the falling golden sands of Ananke, a chilling thought suddenly crossed my mind.
If this artifact has been manipulating time and fate on a massive scale across the entire island... wouldn't Sera have noticed the interference in the threads of Fate?
Is someone actively blocking his foresight, or is this artifact powerful enough to hide itself from him? I thought. No, that can't be right. Sera is a Tier 8 Angel. He is practically standing at the threshold of Godhood. Something doesn't add up.
"Well, let's see what happens," I muttered, pushing the unease to the back of my mind. "Let's head toward the cathedral. But first, we need to send a final report to the Guild and inform your captain about the situation."
We moved toward the communication terminal—a heavy brass machine equipped for long-distance missives. Thankfully, with the loop broken, it was fully operational. I sent a rapid dispatch to the Guild, while Isaac quickly relayed every bizarre, terrifying detail of the island's situation to his captain.
Once the messages were away, we pushed open the doors but, Before we left the post office, I looked back at the golden hourglass resting on the counter. I couldn't just leave a Tier 6 artifact sitting around for anyone to find.
Kallisto, pull my consciousness into the Cenotaph, I commanded inwardly. And bring the artifact into my domain.
[Understood. Transporting conceptual item...]
In a fraction of a second, my vision shifted. The dusty post office vanished, replaced by the grand, oppressive architecture of domain. I held The Inevitable Spindle of Ananke in my hands and carefully placed it within the absolute safety of my Cenotaph. By storing it inside my domain, it was completely impossible for anyone in the physical world to steal it.
With the artifact secured, I quickly exited the mental space. My vision snapped back to reality in less than a blink of an eye.
"Alright," I said to Isaac, my hands now empty. "Let's go."
We pushed open the doors and stepped back out into the city
But the atmosphere had completely changed. The "normalcy" of the residential district was gone. Every single person in the streets was moving awkwardly, their limbs jerking with unnatural, puppet-like stiffness.
"Lucifer," Isaac whispered.
I glanced over and saw him trembling uncontrollably, his Hunter instincts screaming at him.
"Why? What happened?" I asked, my guard instantly going up.
"Look," he choked out, pointing a shaking finger toward a dark alleyway.
A small figure stumbled out of the shadows. It was a child.
"It's just a lost child, Isaac," I said, though my gut told me otherwise.
"No... not a lost child," Isaac said, his eyes wide with horror. "I can see a dark thread attached to him. And it's pulling straight toward the cathedral."
"What?"
Suddenly, with a sickening snap, the child's head violently jerked upward. His feet left the ground, and he was left hanging in the air by an invisible noose, his neck completely broken.
"..." I couldn't even form words. Shit.
Then, the nightmare truly began.
At the exact same time, all across the street, people were violently hoisted into the air. Dozens of bodies hung like gruesome vines from the invisible sky, their necks snapping one by one in a horrifying, synchronized rhythm. The cobblestone streets instantly pooled with a massive river of crimson blood.
I stood there, utterly dumbfounded by the sheer scale of the massacre. The Devil wasn't waiting anymore. The banquet had begun.
"We need to get to the cathedral. Now."
I reached up, grabbed the fabric of the sky, and violently pulled. The space folded around us, and Isaac and I vanished from the slaughterhouse.
We emerged from the rift just ten meters away from the towering, ruined cathedral. I instantly flared my Event Horizon, casting a protective barrier over both myself and Isaac.
"Wear your gloves," I ordered.
"Already on," Isaac replied, the terrifying, tooth-filled maw of Weeping Gluttony manifesting over his hands. He dropped into a low stance, scanning the shadows of the cathedral steps. "I think we have company. Ten of them."
"Puppets?"
"No," Isaac sneered, his black eyes tracking the movements of the heavily armed figures emerging from the mist. "They're definitely working willingly with the Devil. There are no dark threads attached to their heads."
Sigh.
Kallisto, route the power of the Cenotaph to me. Now, I commanded inwardly.
[As you wish.]
The instant the mechanical voice faded, an overwhelming surge of golden Ether flooded my veins. But it wasn't just raw power—it was an intoxicating, suffocating wave of pure, absolute Pride. The world around me seemed to shrink, as if reality itself was acknowledging its inferiority.
"These... thugs dare to stand in my path?" I sneered, the words slipping out with a cold, aristocratic arrogance that wasn't entirely my own.
Beside me, Isaac blinked, visibly taken aback by the sudden shift in my aura.
"Isaac," I ordered, my voice cutting through the rain like a blade. "Take the five on the right. Leave the rest to me."
Before Isaac could fully process the command, one of the armed men stepped forward. He carried himself with the swagger of a lieutenant, a jagged smile splitting his scarred face.
"You two," the lieutenant spat, resting a heavy broadsword on his shoulder. "Do not disturb our Lord's meal. Just lie down and die quietly like the livestock you are."
He laughed, a harsh, grating sound, and the men behind him joined in.
I was so unfathomably, violently angry that my vision tinted red. I didn't say a word. I simply flicked two fingers toward Isaac—go—and moved.
I reached out and grabbed the fabric of the sky.
The space in front of me warped like a crushed mirror. I pulled myself through the distortion, bypassing the physical distance entirely, and materialized directly in front of the laughing lieutenant. I instantly flared my Infinity Shield, an invisible barrier of folded space wrapping around me.
The lieutenant's laugh died in his throat. His eyes widened in sheer terror.
I shoved the barrel of Bad News directly into his open, screaming mouth and pulled the trigger.
BANG.
The condensed Ether round obliterated his skull, splashing gray matter and crimson across the cathedral steps. The suddenness of the execution froze the remaining men in their tracks. Nobody had even seen me move.
"Who decided that you could speak to me?" I roared, my voice echoing like thunder across the plaza.
On my right, Isaac had already engaged. He was a blur of violence, executing a flawless killing spree. He swung his ornate sword, severing a guard's arm before flicking a matchstick. He teleported behind two others in a flash of sulfur and fire, cutting them down before they could turn. Finally, he drew his flintlock and fired a blazing incendiary round, setting a fourth guard completely ablaze.
With their leader dead and their ranks decimated in seconds, the remaining guards panicked. They were trapped between a rock and a hard place—flee, and the Devil would devour them; stay, and I would obliterate them.
Desperation took hold. Four of the largest guards abandoned their weapons and charged me simultaneously, their fists wrapped in heavy, reinforced gauntlets, attempting to crush me through sheer physical force.
"As if such crude methods would ever reach me," I scoffed.
I didn't use my revolver. Instead, I raised both of my hands, palms facing outward. I wasn't aiming at the men; I aimed at the space between us. I gripped the invisible surface of the sky, took a sharp breath, and violently shoved the space away from me.
The kinetic feedback was catastrophic. The distorted space slammed into the four charging men like a localized hurricane. The sheer repulsive force launched them high into the air, their bodies twisting violently against the unnatural gravity. When the technique released, they plummeted fifty feet onto the jagged stone steps below. The sickening crunch of breaking bones confirmed they wouldn't be getting up again.
"Done," I muttered, shaking the tension from my wrists.
"You done over there, Isaac?" I called out, my voice returning to its normal cadence.
Isaac stood amid the burning wreckage of his targets, wiping his blade clean. "Yeah. And you know... I think I'm starting to figure out how to activate that Ascendant Flow on command."
"Is that so?" I replied, impressed. "Good. We're going to need it."
I looked up at the massive, ruined doors of the cathedral. The oppressive presence of the Devil leaked from within like toxic sludge.
Kallisto, deactivate the Cenotaph link, I ordered.
[Deactivation complete.]
The overwhelming arrogance faded, leaving me feeling hollow but clear-headed.
"Let's go inside," I said, pushing the heavy doors open.