~3623 words
The Tarot Club meeting today was quite mundane.
The diary pages that were presented were basically repetition of the previous one. Other than that, the only noteworthy development was that Kiyotaka sold Jäger to Audrey for £500, boosting his liquid wealth to £2.100
Once that was over, there was someone else waiting to meet him.
It was a young minor noble. Edwin Wycliffe of Falkendorf.
He had arrived to buy a car for himself, as well as talk to the Chief Executive Williams. He was a young man with brown hair and grey eyes.
Kiyotaka made sure to hide himself just in time to avoid him. He had other things to do and did not wished to waste time on a minor noble from some remote village on the outskirts of Loen Kingdom.
Kiyotaka noticed however, that ever since he had entered the showroom, he kept looking at Freya over and over again.
As Freya walked in front of the office, Kiyotaka suddenly pulled her to a corner and pushed her against the wall. Before she could yell, Kiyotaka placed his hand on her mouth. "Keep him occupied until I return."
He commanded and before she could agree to it, Kiyotaka was already gone.
Freya was dumbfounded and wanted to reject the idea, however, she was not given a choice.
The thought of entertaining a stranger, especially one whose wandering gaze made his intentions painfully obvious, left a bitter taste in her mouth. She was someone who was raised under such gazes and had first hand experiencing the lust of men, towards her mother, towards herself...
However, even still, she swallowed all of her complaints.
The life she had now existed because of Kiyotaka.
The finely tailored dress wrapped around her shoulders was so expensive that she could not even dream about it, she ate fresh bread instead of stale scraps, slept beneath thick quilts in a room with its own hearth, and no longer feared waking to another freezing morning and scrubbing her flesh off.
She owed him far more than a few uncomfortable conversations... or actions.
Besides... She had began to form her own image in her head, when it came to him.
To anyone else, Kiyotaka's decision would seem almost heartless, as though he had casually abandoned her to fend for herself. But to Freya, she believed that beneath that detached exterior was a man who never interfered unless he believed intervention was necessary.
In simpler terms, Freya was under the impression that Kiyotaka trusted her to decide where the line was, and trusted even more that if someone crossed it, she would not hesitate to remind them of their place.
It was an oddly infuriating kind of confidence.
Freya let out a quiet sigh before forcing a polite smile and turning back toward Sir Edwin. 'I am a special person now...! Ordinary humans do not pose any threat to me!' She thought with conviction and a sense of superiority as the door closed behind her and the smile on Sir Edwin's face widened.
Meanwhile, Kiyotaka who had already talked with Klein after the Tarot Club meeting had ended and had made very specific arrangements with Mal — who came to visit him on a short notice — made his way to the designated area around which the Sequence 6: Conspirer speculated to be. He had already made several arrangements for today's encounter.
After arriving at the outer perimeter of the estimated circumference within which the Conspirer was allegedly present, Kiyotaka rented a hotel room, changed his clothes, donned the facial look of Hyde with black hair and green eyes and then bided his time therein until evening as the sun had begun its descent beneath the horizon.
Just as the time arrived, a boundless grey fog appeared in front of his eyes and a small portal like manifestation appeared in front of his body that was seated on a rocking chair. Crawling through this portal was a majestic figure.
It had aureate hair and blue eyes while it emanated an aura of majesty. The figure was clad in pitch-black plated armor and had a sinister looking crown on its head.
This was Kiyotaka's Spirit Body under the influence of Black Emperor Card of Blasphemy. A protracted, tattered mantle billowed windlessly as he shot towards the roof and phased through it.
Meanwhile, back in the space above the grey fog, Klein's features grew taut and strained, however, he remained steadfast. While the summoning ritual for himself was not as taxing, allowing another person to do the same through him was something that placed quite some duress over his Spirituality.
Kiyotaka's transparent figure, that looked distorted, flew over the perimeter of the docks and began to phase through multiple buildings, searching for any signs of the woman.
There were many houses and warehouses that littered the southern end of the docks. He saw families sitting together to eat, couples busy procreating, children working in the encroaching dark of the evening, while some had people simply laying still, motionless and dead.
Death was a daily companion of people in East Borough.
After looking into the houses section, he flew towards the warehouses. He drifted silently through one warehouse after another while his Spirit Vision through Guile remained fully active, carefully observing every trace left behind by the countless inhabitants of the district.
He was currently equipped with Guile, Ember, Scourge and Gloom, however, he had not equipped Gloom as it's downsides were quite a lot compared to the other.
Some warehouses contained nothing more than piles of imported timber or rusting machinery while others had long since become makeshift homes for the homeless, where several families crowded together beneath leaking roofs with nothing but old blankets separating them from the cold concrete beneath.
Occasionally, he would stumble across remnants of ritualistic magic, simple symbols, discarded spirituality-rich herbs and burnt candles.
Kiyotaka's expression remained as calm as ever, yet the faint crease between his brows gradually deepened as a realization dawned on him.
The information that the woman had given him was broader than what he had expected. On paper, it looked manageable, however, it felt as if she had intentionally intended to make him waste his time searching for her.
Suddenly, Kiyotaka felt his body stiffen. At the time when he had received the information, his mind automatically skipped over the detail, however, the way this was done felt like reverse-misdirection and time wasting.
As he was thinking, his Spirit Body sunk into a warehouse as his armor-plated feet touched the cold concrete. This warehouse was different as the soot around its chimney was still fresh, one of its side windows had been replaced with newer glass and even more importantly, there were no squatters.
Not a single person occupied the building despite the approaching night.
Rows upon rows of abandoned printing presses were scattered all around. At first glance, there appeared to be nothing unusual, yet after only several more steps, Kiyotaka stopped.
Someone had cleaned parts of the floor, quite recently so. The footprints themselves had long since disappeared, but the distribution of dust was uneven, producing a series of cleaner pathways leading deeper into the warehouse.
Kiyotaka's illusory blue eyes quietly followed the cleaner pathways.
A little on the edge, he kept walking towards the inner side of the warehouse, part of which was behind a wooden door that was left slightly ajar.
Kiyotaka did not enter immediately, but instead, his Spirit Vision swept across the room several times. While most of the room was normal, there was a bundle of knotted and chained Spirituality in the middle of it.
It was quite bizarre. Kiyotaka was unsure how could Spirituality feel so inanimate and...chained.
However, his spiritual intuition did not trigger and any sense of danger was absent. Deactivating his Spirit Vision, his eyes fell on the middle of the room where suspended by three rusted chains was an iron censer.
His eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly. After all, a warehouse such as this had no reason whatsoever to possess such an object.
A little skeptical, Kiyotaka activated his Spirit Vision once again. However, this time, almost immediately, faint purple threads emerged across the surface of the censer before disappearing just as quickly, as though they had never existed.
Simultaneously, the censer emitted a low metallic chime. The chime was so slow that Kiyotaka almost didn't hear it, however, his Spirit Body began to stiffen all over. The effects were somewhat nullified due to the Distortion around his Spirit Body, however, Kiyotaka could feel his thoughts go slow.
The censer began to morph and took the shape of an illusory figure that resembled Kiyotaka while illusory chains began to shoot out of it before entering Kiyotaka's chest.
He had no time to avoid it as his body began to turn corporeal, regaining tangibility. As his thoughts began to slow and his body began to turn soft, as if turning into a Puppet, sounds of multiple people entering the warehouse echoed everywhere.
They were wearing white robes with symbols of hurricane and storms on them.
At the same time there were sounds of wind whooshing and thunder rumbling outside.
"Seal every exit!"
"Second team, advance from the west side!"
"The target is inside! Nobody lets him escape!"
"A male spirit identified! Intercept him!"
Kiyotaka's mind raced, however, he could not think of much as his mental faculties were slowed down.
Acting on his contingency plan, Kiyotaka imparted a Bribe to the Sealed Artifact in the form of himself, by walking into its area of influence and then imparted "Weaken" on it. The effect provided just enough time for his tongue to act as he recited the Fool's honorific name.
At the same time, he was pulled back into the Grey Fog. However, just as he arrived there, he saw that the Grey Fog was not surrounding Klein and he had a panicked look on his face. In the same instant that he had arrived, a crimson column blasted over him and his eyes opened in the real world.
His olive eyes reflected a Flaming Spear made out of incandescent white flames. Having his mental faculties returned to him, he quickly acted and bolted from his seat. Grabbing the chair, he threw it at the Flaming Spear imparting Bribe-Weaken at it.
The Flaming Spear tore through the chair, melting in a mere second, however, the force and speed of it was weakened enough to give Kiyotaka enough time to completely escape the blast radius.
As he did, the entire hotel blew up into flames that condensed back into itself before exploding again.
This action increased the blast's potency, throwing Kiyotaka away like a sack of bricks before crashing through the wall of a house and then blasting from the other side.
Kiyotaka quickly stood up, only to find a woman with a grin on her face right next to him. Her hand was balled into a fist and scorching white flames were enveloped around it.
Stepping into her range, Kiyotaka lowered down and jabbed at the woman's torso. However, she twisted like a cat mid-attack and then went behind him, aiming to tear through his back.
The woman was wearing a burgundy colored dress, with a large white colored ruffle around her neck, tailored coat, corseted waistcoat, and lace cuffs. Beneath it she was wearing slim-riding trousers and long-split coat-tails.
Kiyotaka twisted his body and jumped back before kicking the woman in her face. At the same time, he used Bribe-Weaken to lower her defenses and make his attack land much harder than it possibly could.
The kick landed and she was suddenly thrown back. At the same time, Kiyotaka reached for his inner pocket and equipped the glasses that felt as if they had lava inside them. Parting his lips, Kiyotaka let out a command: "Slow!"
The woman with bright auburn hair and red eyes who was about to launch a devastating attack at him suddenly slowed down. However, she did not seem bothered.
"Curse!" Kiyotaka chained the attack with another, using Gloom and employing Language of Foulness.
The woman with auburn hair suddenly jolted and head flipped back as she let out a scream. Black and purple dots began to litter her face and body as rancid pus began to form on her beautiful and delicate features.
Kiyotaka, however, did not rest easy. He let his spirituality flow and was about to condense a Flaming Spear to end the woman at once when suddenly a giant man — about 1.95m tall — suddenly landed behind him and swung at him.
Since he was already alarmed beforehand by Gloom's Danger Premonition, he quickly side-stepped and avoided a devastating haymaker that would've lobbed his head off if he had been a second late.
However, the reason why the woman did not look panicked was because she had already launched an attack. A Fire Raven hit Kiyotaka and launched him in the air. At the same time, the giant man dressed in white priest robes — that had a dusk like after-shade to it — jumped in the air and punched Kiyotaka's face so hard that it send him plummeting back towards the ground.
As the giant priest landed, the pendant around his neck that was a combination of the symbol for dusk and a sword-shaped symbol swayed wildly.
'Church of God of Combat... That means that the woman is part of the...'
Kiyotaka did not have luxury of thinking as the giant hulk of a man picked up a small piece of a rock and threw it at him. The force behind it was so much that Kiyotaka barely managed to evade it and rolled around into the rubble.
The shockwave from the attack was enough to open a small cut on his cheek. Kiyotaka immediately wiped it with his sleeve to avoid the blood dropping on the ground and then having it traced back to Williams Holmes.
The giant priest leaped forward and took smacked his hands that bronze gauntlets over them with long knives like protrusions on their knuckles. However, Kiyotaka did not evade it as the shirt ripped open and a deep gash appeared on his chest. The wound was deep enough to reveal his ribs underneath.
It was at this time that Kiyotaka — who saw that the woman was trying to burn the curse using her flames — suddenly jumped at the priest and held him a tight neck choke. The gash on his chest burned and it felt like he had been rammed into by a steam locomotive.
At the same time, the skin over Kiyotaka's chest began to wriggle and melt before merging with the priest's neck. The priest sensed this and extended his hands behind, grabbing Kiyotaka's head.
Kiyotaka felt as if his head was going to be turned into mush.
The strength displayed by this man was beyond absurd! Perhaps it was because she was a woman, but Kiyotaka felt that this man's strength dwarfed that of the Conspirer Woman.
However, right before Kiyotaka could feel the priest's plated fingers break through his skull, his throat began to spray blood everywhere.
This was a combination of Cyst's Flesh Control, Flesh Curse and Guile's Damage Transfer. Using Flesh Control, Kiyotaka had mended his own flesh with the Priest's before activating Damage Transfer to — what essentially at that moment was — "his own" body part. Then he activated Flesh and Blood Curse just to be sure.
As the giant priest fell to the ground, Kiyotaka landed on his feet nimbly but then wobbled and fell to the side.
Even though the wound was gone, the amount of pain he had to endure from experiencing his skull getting crushed into smithereens really did quite a number on him. Casting his eyes towards the woman who seemed to have gotten rid of the curse from inside her body, Kiyotaka wasted no time and immediately stood up.
Still wobbling, he flicked his wrist as multiple Sulfur Fireballs flew towards her.
The woman had a panicked look on her face. She had conjured up a perfect Conspiracy up until the point she had attacked Kiyotaka. Using misdirection and leveraging the fact that the other party knew about her being a Conspirer, she was able to deduce that the person looking for her would not attack physically.
So she conjured up two Conspiracies. Then she conjured another Conspiracy to lure her persuer into a trap and have the attention of local authorities towards that person. This way, she would be able to transfer the blame all towards Kiyotaka.
However, just in case this plan failed and the Sealed Artifact could not capture the person in their Spirit Body form, she had already begun to use her Hunter Instincts to track down the main body.
Through the fluctuations in Spirituality and the Distortion caused due to accommodating the Black Emperor Card of Blasphemy, she was able to narrow down Kiyotaka's main body.
What she didn't expect was Kiyotaka's Spirit Body returning to his physical body so quickly. It was almost instantaneous.
Kiyotaka had already expected something like this to happen, so instead of just allowing Klein to leave after letting him turn into a Spirit Body, he asked Klein to stay on guard and kept the summoning circle open to allow Klein to see what was happening with his physical body.
Due to the stress over his spirituality, Klein only detected the woman in the nick of time, which is also why he appeared so panicked when he sent Kiyotaka's body back.
The auburn haired woman brought her hands up desperately, however, the Language of Foulness from Gloom had it's after effects. They disintegrated upon impacting the normal fireballs that she had fired, however, Sulfur Fireballs had another unique properties.
The disintegrated pieces of Sulfur Fireballs drifted towards her as she breathed in and entered her body. Once again, she fell to her knees and clutched her throat, however, this time, the flames began to nullify the effect of the attack almost immediately.
When Kiyotaka had kicked the woman in her face, he had Bribed her, but at the same time, he used that Bribe as a conduit to also establish a Connection with her. With that connection still in effect, Kiyotaka imparted Bribe-Weaken on her without offering a symbolic Bribe and made her knees buckle.
Kiyotaka arrived behind her and kicked the back of her head.
The blow to the back of her head cut her lights out instantly and as she hit the ground, her body stiffened with a brief, unnatural spasm. Her arms locked straight at her sides and her fingers curled tight into a fist before she went entirely limp while a thin line of bloody saliva pooled on the floor beside her slack face.
Only after that did he stop and look around. The scale of the explosion from the woman had killed a lot of people in their immediate blast radius and had scared the others away, which meant that no one saw him battle the other two.
Kiyotaka quickly chanted The Fool's honorific name and Klein sent a paper angel imbued with Black Emperor Card of Blasphemy's anti-Divination properties that enveloped both him and the woman.
Even now, Klein had not completely looked at the card and only used it to cast paper angels on himself and Kiyotaka.
Kiyotaka's eyes showed an angel descend on him with twelve pair of wings of pitch-black and sinister wings before disintegrating.
He waited there for a while before collecting the Beyonder Characteristics of the priest.
It looked like a pure spherical light, comparable in size to a baby's fist. It resembled a golden-red ball akin to the hues of morning clouds and sunset, adorned with a faint flickering light that danced gracefully inside it.
After sacrificing all of the Mystical Items and Beyonder Characteristic to Klein, Kiyotaka was blessed with another Paper Angel before finally running away with the almost-dead woman in tow.
Kiyotaka had already made arrangements for this and already knew where to take her.
*****
Author's Note: With this, the small sub-plot of terror attacks has finished. While it has reached it's conclusion, there will be far reaching effects in the future.
I would have preferred to write a few more chapters before publishing, but well, as I had told everyone before, I am going to publish chapters in a row when it concern a specific event.
I am unsure how many more detours I am going to take before the final showdown of the Volume 1, but chapters will ALWAYS be published in bulk in accordance with the section of plot going on.
There is no designated time-frame which I am going to give, because I usually write during my free time, which is already as thin as it could be.
Let me know of your thoughts on the chapter, and what kind of developments you think could happen in the future surrounding this. Any ideas on who the girl might be?
A little hint: it's not in the LOTM Wikipedia. Regardless, if were to only involve characters that are already in Book 1 and 2, it's going to be an insult to the vast world that Cuttlefish had made. Gotta make the most out of it, hehe!
I am also considering making other sub-plots that involve Sealed Artifacts, Evil Spirits etc and expand on the lore of previous epochs. I already have one planned and referenced it one the chapters released today, so feel free to speculate or drop recommendations.
Well, that said, I hope you liked the new chapters and that we all can agree that Hunter and Warrior Pathways are bum pathways.
Presgard di hellis!