Zay and Rei reached the creepy door again, looked over the door, noticing several things which neither of them had seen at first in their rush. The door had runes carved into it to act as a layer of protection. Carvings of birds with large wings, carvings of what could only be described as fire spreading across a village with gates surrounding it.
"These carvings look... to be at least a few hundred years old, perhaps more." Rei checked the carvings, opened his journal and flipped to page 12 which had drawings of several carvings which he had found throughout his career as the Scythe of Gyro.
He looked at each one on the door, glancing down at his journal after each carving with a sigh.
Zay glanced down at Rei who had crouched down onto his knees, "What are you doing?"
"It might be stupid, but, I'm checking to see if there's anyway this could be connected to anything since I thought I've seen similar carvings."
"Does it appear to be any sort of connection?" Zay asked, bending down, looking over Rei's shoulder at his journal, checking the carvings for himself.
Reiclosed his journal and slipped it into his Arbiter: Vault and released a deep exhale. "There's nothing at all. They are similar if you're going based on the style. The arms, figure, legs, and even the head are all off. You can see it there."
He extended his index finger and pointed towards one carving. It was a carving matching the figure of a woman, her chest was carved to be large, a crown on top of her head, a staff in her right hand, and also a chain in her left hand, connecting it towards a bird with large wings.
"The way her arms are carved, legs, head, and even the crown are in surprisingly good detail. They captured the veins running across what I guess is her abs, the muscles in her legs as well."
Zay looked down at the figure that Rei pointed at and nodded. "I mean... the details are indeed good but if it is true as you said only being a few hundred years then it isn't that surprising."
Rei shrugged his shoulders, unsure what to even say without causing a dramatic argument over a carving in stone and stood up onto his feet before Zay reached out to the handle of the door.
Zay's fingers rightened around the door, his violet aura flared to life, disrupting the strength of the protection rune, rendering it useless.
Pushing the door opened, Zay's night vision activated again as there was no light whatsoever within this room. He saw rows upon rows of armor, swords, spears, tantos, katanas, chest pieces, clothes, helmets, and boots made of complete iron. Some were made of gold, only two were made of a black material which had incantations written into the material itself, causing a protection barrier of golden aura to be constantly surrounding the two sets of armor.
"How strange..." Zay muttered under his breath before Rei unsheathed his sword. Flames sparked along the blade, catching the blade on flames, lighting the room five feet in front of him. Zay's night vision deactivated due to the light of the flame and the two began to go through each piece of gear.
Rei crouched beside a table, pulling open the lone drawer. Inside lay a single notebook, bound in cracked leather, wrapped tightly in a blackened chain that pulsed faintly with energy. The cover bore no title. Every page was a deep, unnatural crimson as he looked down at the book, not wanting to touch it.
"I think I found something!"
Zay heard Rei's voice echo and quickly ran back toward him. He crouched beside him, peering at the strange notebook.
"How odd," Zay muttered.
Rei gave him a sideways glance. "What do you mean by odd?"
"This notebook..." Zay's voice drifted for a moment as his dark amethyst eyes began to shift. They turned into a swirling midnight-blue, the color spinning slowly in his irises like a whirlpool. With enhanced sight, he gazed directly at the chains, now revealed in their true nature—glowing with swirling strands of divine purification. Yet beneath the leather, the pages pulsed with an overwhelming corruption, black and crimson twisting like living smoke.
"It's both. A blend of purification and corruption," he said grimly.
Rei looked at him in confusion, noticing his eyes had returned to their usual amethyst.
"Purification? Corruption? What the hell are those?"
"Corruption is similar to a curse but much more deadly. It's a malignant force that operates deeper than any traditional curse. It manifests in many ways. One of the most dangerous forms appears when an Arbiter pushes their aura too far without the discipline to contain it. If left unchecked, their Seal or Gateway can fracture, allowing corruption to seep into their soul. When that happens, the Arbiter is no longer themselves. Their aura becomes more powerful—volatile and immense—but they lose all sense of identity. All they desire is to kill, destroy, and infect others with the same rot that consumed them."
Rei wrote as Zay spoke, nodding slowly. "But... if corruption only affects Arbiters, then why is a notebook involved? Notebooks can't wield aura."
"A good point. But remember, I said it's like a curse. And curses can be inscribed, bound, or invoked through rituals, incantations, and few other ways. Corruption spreads the same way. There are forbidden incantations, corrupted symbols, and sacrificial rites that can infect not just living things, but objects, places, even ideas."
Rei paused mid-writing. "Wait. Are you saying that if someone touches an object tainted by corruption, they could spread it to others? Like a disease?"
"Exactly," Zay answered. "Corruption is contagious. Objects soaked in it can poison anything they touch. A cursed sword, for example, might seem like a powerful relic. But the moment it's drawn in combat, it spreads corruption through every wound it creates."
Rei quickly flipped to a fresh page. "What about purification? What does it do?"
Zay looked back at the notebook, his gaze falling once more on the glowing chains. "Purification was created as an answer to corruption. A force born from ritual, devotion, and sacrifice. It was created by Leo Trinity, a master of both blade and spirit. He was a Sequence 15 contract wielder under the God of Lands, Picolos and spent twenty years reversing the corrupted verses, chants, and sigils to create its holy opposite. And he succeeded. Thanks to him, the plague known as Gyronosis was eradicated in the year 923—before the standard calendars we use now were even invented."
Rei froze, his quill pausing mid-sentence. "Gyronosis... I think I've read about that in the old tomes. Isn't it just some outdated illness? Like a glorified cold?"
"For normal humans, yes. Corruption on a body without being trained in aura tends to do little, unless the corruption is strong enough to override natural resistance. But objects are different. Corruption lingers within them. A corrupted item can lure people in, and when touched or read it can grant a false blessing."
Rei's brow furrowed. "False blessing?"
"If a regular person reads one of these cursed pages, they receive what's known as the Blessing of Corruption. It grants them the ability to wield aura without training, instantly elevating them to the strength of a Sequence 7 Arbiter. If the corruption within the object is especially dense, they can reach as high as Sequence 13 through brute strength alone."
Zay's voice darkened.
"The body improves. Sight sharpens. Hearing becomes more refined. Taste, reflexes, even cognitive speed—all heightened. But that's why it's called a false blessing. The corruption doesn't stop at enhancing them. It grows inside them, warping the mind. Over time, they descend into frenzy—madness driven by an insatiable hunger to spread the very corruption that empowered them."
Rei glanced at the notebook again, his hand trembling slightly above the quill.
"That's why purification is so vital. It doesn't just cleanse. It can seal corrupted items, purges tainted bloodlines, and purifies curses that would otherwise cling to the soul. It can sanctify cursed swords, cleanse haunted grounds, destroy false blessings, and even break demonic contracts. Some priests and priestesses can invoke purification through a unique and very special skillset called Divinities. These are divine verses which can perform miracles—banishing corruption, restoring sanity, even returning a soul from the brink of being lost. To sum it all up, corruption and purification is of the same coin, opposite sides."
Zay looked down at the notebook in front of them, then removed his cloak, wrapping it carefully around the book before picking it up.
"Might as well take it. It might be useful," Zay said as his Arbiter: Vault opened. He placed the cloak-wrapped notebook inside, and the vault faded from view.
"Let's head back to that building and check if Naomi is awake. We can return here in a few hours to go through the rest."
Rei nodded, placing his journal and quill into his own Arbiter: Vault before standing up. The two of them walked out of the room and down the tunnel, making their way to the staircase. They began to ascend, starting the walk back to the small building.