Bono had been a natural-born Sequence 5 from birth, human feeling sparse within him from childhood. Later, after Emperor Roselle, he became the favoured of that divine being, advancing at a remarkable pace until he reached Sequence 2 — a state of existence that was now nearly pure divinity.
Crouch took one look at him and immediately lowered his gaze. As Bernadette's most trusted lieutenant, he of course knew of Her Majesty's angelic younger brother — he'd simply heard of him before and never seen him in person until now.
Bernadette drew a slow breath and extended her hand. "Is the compass repaired?"
"Yes."
Bono gave a calm nod. "But I can feel that it is dangerous. I would advise against taking it back."
"That compass was made by Father. There may be a way hidden inside it to find him."
"…"
Bono was silent for a few seconds, then placed the black compass into her hand. "Very well."
Bernadette took it and ran a quick eye over it — the cracks had been mended. She gripped it tightly, and in an instant the compass's needle began spinning rapidly. But just as before, it showed no sign whatsoever of settling.
"Are you certain it's been properly repaired?"
"Yes."
Bono nodded. "But you cannot use it."
"Why not?"
The angel fell silent once more. After a moment, he said quietly: "It requires a demigod or above of the Lawyer or Arbitrator pathway — and of Gustav bloodline."
Then He added: "It is very dangerous."
A demigod or above of the Lawyer or Arbitrator pathway, and of the Gustav bloodline? That was practically impossible.
Even if I were to have a child here and now, the earliest they could reach demigod level would be over a decade from now. And besides — why would I have a child?
Moreover — why had Father crafted a compass that required these two particular pathways to operate? Even if he'd wanted to restrict access, shouldn't it have been the Spectator and Secrets Suppliant pathways instead?
Was this connected to the strange changes in Father's final years? If I can learn Rosellean during the next swap, perhaps all of these mysteries could finally be unravelled.
In an instant, Bernadette's mind turned over a great many thoughts — and arrived at no conclusions whatsoever. She tucked the compass into the Secret Door, then glanced over at Crouch. "Oh, right — my crew member has some business with you. You two talk amongst yourselves."
…What?
Even Crouch, typically so steady, was slightly thrown. Your Majesty, are you serious? Asking me to… negotiate with an angel? To ask Him to forge an Extraordinary item for me?
Is that not a little… too much to ask on my behalf?
As Bernadette stepped to one side, Crouch and Bono stood facing each other in a brief standoff — Bono simply unknowing, Crouch entirely unsure how to begin.
"Do you need my help?"
Finally it was Bono who spoke first, His voice calm and carrying a quiet gentleness, with none of the condescension of a superior.
"Yes, my lord."
Crouch produced a small tin box and held it out with both hands. "This is a Blazing Midnight Extraordinary characteristic. I wish to have it forged into an Extraordinary item."
Bono gave a slight nod. "It can be done."
"And… what is the cost?"
The words had barely left his mouth before Crouch realised what he'd just said.
"Nothing. The forging fee will be covered by the Queen of Mysteries on your behalf."
Bernadette, standing nearby, raised an eyebrow. "And what do you want in return from me?"
"An investigation into the Moss Ascetics… and the peculiarities recently surrounding the Hidden Sage."
She studied Bono for a long moment, but His expression revealed nothing — as the favoured of the Steam God, when He spoke of investigating peculiarities, it meant He already knew with certainty that something was amiss with the Moss Ascetics and the Hidden Sage. Enough, perhaps, to have drawn the attention of the deity Himself.
No wonder the Moss Ascetics have seemed so quiet lately.
"Agreed."
The very instant Bernadette gave her nod, she felt a sudden, powerful surge of feedback from her spiritual intuition — the Broker potion had been fully digested.
"…"
That quickly?
After a brief flash of surprise, Bernadette glanced thoughtfully at the cathedral behind Bono — at the vast, radiant Sacred Halo above its doors. If that's the case, digesting a Sequence 9 potion in an instant is entirely understandable.
Ha. When that man swaps back over, he's in for quite the shock.
A pity, though, that there was no way to add weight to his Scale.
"Let's go, Crouch."
Bono watched his sister depart, then turned back to the cathedral and drew the triangular halo upon his chest.
An instant later, the two figures disappeared amid a spreading tangle of vivid green pea vines.
Bernadette and Crouch had barely returned to the Dawn when she felt a distant call — it was coming from one of the scrolls she had given, some time ago, to a man named Klein in Tingen City.
Per their earlier arrangement, he was to activate the scroll when the Antigonus family's notebook resurfaced.
So it's resurfaced?
Tingen City.
A few minutes prior, Klein had followed the night watch team, using Sealed Artifact 2-049, and successfully tracked down Riel Bieber — the man who had taken the Antigonus family's notebook.
By the time they found him, however, he had lost control and transformed into a monster. Fortunately, through their combined efforts, the creature was brought down in short order.
But then the unexpected happened.
The explosion triggered by the monster Bieber in his final moments left the entire team either unconscious or gravely injured — and, of all things, Sealed Artifact 2-049 was sent flying and landed directly in front of Klein.
In the space of a heartbeat, the sealed artifact had taken hold of him.
And at that moment, there was no one left to give him a push and break the artifact's influence. His body and mind were growing more rigid by the second — if this continued, he would soon become little more than a puppet, his life forfeit.
He knew that now, he could only rely on himself.
And what he could fall back on was… the Grey Fog above… no, wait — there was also… that scroll.
So, as Klein struggled and contorted his way through the inverted four steps, he activated the scroll hidden inside his coat. With a sharp hiss, the scroll was ignited by his spirituality, burning straight through his newly bought jacket:
"This time… the captain should… let me… expense this…"
The ground was strewn with revolting shreds of black and crimson flesh. Night watchmen lay scattered across the floor, unconscious or groaning. A puppet sealed artifact had crawled from its iron box. Klein lay collapsed at an unnatural angle, stiff as a board. And three or four metres away, crouched behind a curtain, was a figure in a tailcoat and painted face — a clown.
This was what Bernadette found when she arrived at the scene of the activated scroll.
Hm. The effect of that sealed artifact looks somewhat like a Puppet Master's spirituality strings. Unfortunate — if it were simply an Extraordinary characteristic of a Puppet Master, things would be much simpler.
Just then, the clown stepped out from behind the curtain. He pulled out a long strip of paper and snapped it taut — rigid as a rod.
Then, from two or three metres away, he jabbed it toward the rigidly contorted Klein.
But at that exact moment, Klein — who had appeared completely immobilised by the artifact — suddenly raised his left hand and caught the tip of the makeshift rod, yanking it sharply backward. Simultaneously, his right hand pulled the trigger of his revolver.
He wasn't aiming at the clown, though. He aimed at the sealed artifact. The clown's instinctive dodge sent him rolling directly into the trajectory of the kicked artifact — and in an instant, his movements slowed to a crawl, his thoughts thickening like hardening tar.
Damn!
Klein wheeled around, revolver gripped in both hands, locking onto the sluggishly moving clown — and squeezed the trigger hard.
Bang!
A silver bullet tore through the air, straight for the clown's throat, just a hair's breadth from its mark.
Then, all at once, the whole world slowed to a crawl.
A phantom chessboard rose through the floor; everything within its bounds seemed stretched to infinite slowness — Klein knew this feeling well. It was the same Extraordinary ability used by that Wanderer last time.
She's here.
The next second, Bernadette stepped out of invisibility. Unaffected by the Chess of Time, she walked calmly to where the clown stood, curled one finger, and flicked the bullet away from less than thirty centimetres away.
Then, with a leisurely sweep of her arm, vivid green vines erupted from the ground and wound themselves around the clown until he was wrapped into a neat bundle.
"My apologies. I still need him."
To be continued…