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A few rounds of divinations later, Freya finally gathered enough information about the Beyonder Characteristic to confirm that it indeed corresponded to a Sequence 6, however, any information on its ingredients and name was skimmed out.
The person who had given the potion to William Sikes was someone whose face had been hidden behind some kind of anti-Divination. However, Kiyotaka had already parsed after his fight with William Sikes that he was a Lawyer Pathway Beyonder.
Which meant that this characteristic could be used as a Main Ingredient. After William Sikes was killed by Astrid, Kiyotaka's potion had digested a little as he had yielded a result from the Bribe that he had given her — which being "protection" in exchange of her "services."
It benefited Kiyotaka more as he could throw her under the bus at any given moment and she, more or less, could do nothing about it. At the same time, Kiyotaka made a mental note to ask Mal about what he had done with her, given he could not sense any kind of malicious thoughts from her.
It appeared as if it was virtually impossible for her to betray Kiyotaka. However, at the same time, he knew Mal was a normal human being and was, hence, impossible for him to do something of that nature to her. Which brought his mind to another, much more daunting possibility.
Which was that this could also be a part of an arrangement. The same arrangement that had put his life into jeopardy many times, but also had aided him multiple times as well. It was a strange situation, given how he could not exactly parse the reason behind the person doing so.
Kiyotaka had an urge to concoct the potion and drink it right away, however, there were a lot of reasons for doing so. The main reasons were that, no matter how minutely, his potion was still undigested and secondly he had imposed mutations into William Sikes via Gloom and Cyst.
It was quite hard to tell if the Beyonder Characteristic had been infected as well. Similarly, his own mental state was not exactly stable as well. While having his emotions under control, the supernatural element of 'madness' had somewhat taken root after using Rime, Gloom and Cyst.
At this time, he wished he had the Black Emperor Card of Blasphemy with him, given how he could more or less tell that something really bad was happening. While it did not give him abilities from higher Sequences, he could still boost his own status and abilities.
Hiding the characteristic, he changed his damaged clothes and wore something a bit more casual before drinking some of the rejuvenation medicine made by Freya.
He sat in his room for about fifteen minutes before chanting the Fool's honorific name, however, there was no response from the other side, no matter how long he waited.
A sudden compulsion rooted itself in his heart as he stood up. Walking over to the window, he looked outside and saw a massive second layer of smog enveloping the mainland of Backlund, while another plume of dust and dirt was flying from a forest, some distance away.
The plume of dust and dirt was followed by a slight tremble in the ground. Kiyotaka had an odd premonition about it and suddenly looked back, feeling as if someone was standing there, however, it was only his hanging coat.
He realized that he was still affected by Gloom and was once more made aware that while it had the ability to save his life from very dangerous situations, it also put his life in quite the jeopardy. He was desperately in need of a Mystical Item or an ability that could suppress the negative effects.
But then again, he was not knowledgeable enough about such a thing or ability — at least for now. Setting aside Gloom, he placed it inside a woolen cover and decided only to use it if absolutely necessary. Then, he told Freya to guard his room but not enter it. By now, he was confident in her subservience to him.
Instead of Gloom, he equipped the white gloves that previously belonged to William Sikes and named it "Guilt." Its applications were quite straightforward as it was able to invoke the forces of nature by declaring multiple commands in Ancient Hermes.
These commands were Prohibition, Imprison, Confinement, Exile and Flog. Other than this, it had two spell like abilities called Illusory Torture Device and Psychic Piercing.
The first one could summon Illusory Torture Devices like branding irons in his hands which can directly damage the Spirit Body. However, there must be physical contact as these devices cannot be used from a distance
The second one caused bolts of lightning to appear within and shoot out from the wielder's eyes to attack their target at an effective distance of 5 meters. It could also impose pressure on the Spirit Body, focus the mind, ignore the physical body, pierce the target's Soul, and directly attack their Spirit Body, bringing unbearable pain.
William Sikes had used it briefly on Kiyotaka which was also the reason why this time the negative side-effects of Gloom was making him act a little schizophrenic. Regardless, with Guilt by his side, he was quite confident in his abilities.
William Sikes was formidable, yes, but Kiyotaka noticed that the old man was not very good at using it. Indeed he used his Baron of Corruption powers quite creatively, however, he could not find the loophole in Kiyotaka's fighting style in time which relied heavily on Mystical Items, and hence the Prohibition came too late.
But for someone like Kiyotaka, who could parse people's fighting style quite easily while further augmented by his Pathway's innate nature, this Mystical Item was quite a nice fit for him.
As for its downsides, he was a little unsure since Freya could not parse it through her divinations. To find out, he had to either ask Klein to perform a divination above the grey fog or experience it first hand and find out through trial-and-error.
While it was quite dangerous to do so, he had no other choice.
After making a few preparations and cogitating his mind back to somewhat full capacity, Kiyotaka exited the holiday home. As he exited the perimeter, a carriage stopped in front of him. The man pulling the carriage was the same man as before who had brought them here.
"Good evening boss." The man tipped his short hat.
Kiyotaka nodded and sat in the carriage. "Take me to..." He paused and thought about something. His brain had several strings of thoughts working at the same time, and hence, if something was going wrong in Backlund, then his destination should be...
Instead of speaking out loud, Kiyotaka whispered in the man's ear before going inside the carriage and placed the back of his head against the soft headrest.
The carriage rolled forward in a calm manner for about thirty minutes. During this time, Kiyotaka felt his eyes go heavy. The next moment when he opened them, he felt the carriage shudder and his eyes suddenly widened.
He suddenly shot forward with his hand and wrapped it around the neck of the half-manifested illusory figure before flipping it to the side and making the figure lay on the seat. The moment it was manifested, he drove his knee into its arms and tightened his hold over her throat.
"You have been following me around for quite a while now, Miss Trissy." Kiyotaka said in a low voice as his chokehold on her tightened even further.
Lying underneath him with her long black hair sprawled messily across the seat, Trissy looked considerably different from the woman he had seen before. Her already fair skin appeared almost unnaturally pale, contrasting heavily against the black hair falling around her face and the dark makeup surrounding her eyes.
She was wearing a black dress fitted tightly while having a dangerously low neckline decorated with fine black lace. Short puffed sleeves covered her shoulders while layers of pale ruffles spilled from beneath them and gathered around her forearms.
A thin piece of patterned black lace was wrapped around her neck like a collar, while several silver ornaments and chains hung loosely from her clothes.
Due to the position Kiyotaka had forced her into, however, the already low neckline of the corseted bodice had slipped even farther down, leaving more than half of her cleavage exposed.
Trissy lowered her eyes toward her breasts for a moment before looking back at him with an amused smirk.
Despite the crushing force of his chokehold, she leisurely brought one hand toward her chest and pressed her breasts together as she pulled the edge of the bodice back into place and avoided them from spilling completely out of the wide neckline.
"Do you usually greet women like this?" Trissy spoke in a charming manner.
"Only those who were men before." Kiyotaka retorted, causing Trissy's eyes to widen.
"You have got a keen eye."
"You were not being exactly secretive. I felt you follow after me ever since I left my residence. Were you the one who dealt with Prince Edessak?"
Trissy didn't seem to be bothered by the crushing force on her throat and talked without any restrictions. "No, I did not. Why would I? I just managed to run away... But seeing as you know about me, are you from Tingen?"
Kiyotaka did not answer and instead the flesh over his left hand began to meld in with Trissy. Her calm facade seemed to vanish suddenly as she felt herself connected to him and her own danger intuition suddenly alerted her, however, she did not make any hasty moves.
The carriage kept rolling forward in silence as the two stared at each other for a long while. Then, Kiyotaka made Cyst recede and sat opposite to her.
Trissy sat up as well and adjusted her dress while gently massaging her neck where a deep red imprint of Kiyotaka's hand had left its mark. A moment or so later, she shook her head and the previous demeanor seemed to vanish in thin air.
"So, you are not from Tingen. I don't think you have anything to do with my previous victims either." While her tone implied so, Kiyotaka could not parse any kind of sick or twisted pleasure from it. "How do you know about me then?"
Kiyotaka was on high alert but in retrospect, there was not much to worry about. Yes, he could tell from a preliminary judgement that she was a higher sequence than him and that there was something wrong about the ring she was wearing, but if both were to fight right now, he was quite confident in himself.
He was already aware about the powers that the Assassin Pathway granted one. And all of those abilities — assuming she was a Sequence 6: Demoness of Pleasure — could be countered in one way or the other, especially with the addition of Guilt to his arsenal.
"The quiet type, I see." Trissy commented and dipped her head a little, making her eyes appear big, round and extremely enchanting.
Kiyotaka's eyes involuntarily moved from her big and round eyes to her breasts that had a mole on it and then back to her face. "You won't seduce me."
Trissy leaned back into her seat and breathed in heavily before letting it out, causing her chest to move up and down hypnotically. "Most men are drooling by this time. Both from their mouths and... Well, regardless—"
Before she could say anything, Kiyotaka looked outside the window and cleared his throat. "No, I cannot report the official Beyonders or the police on your behalf." He turned towards Trissy, only to find an incredulous look on her face. "Surprised?"
Trissy stayed silent as Kiyotaka took out his empty revolver. She wasn't particularly alarmed by him doing so but did sit straight, leaving her cross-legged position which made her hairless calves and smooth thighs bare.
"How?"
"What else could it be?" Kiyotaka asked in a humorous manner. "You are Nie Yinniang."
Trissy scoffed as Kiyotaka took out a few bullets from his pocket. The bullets had small engravings on, written in Ancient Hermes and began to load them inside his revolver. Keeping her eyes on it, Trissy said in an incredulous manner. "Who is that? Is this an attempt to distract me? If it is, it's very sloppy. You should learn a thing or two from that detective friend of yours."
"Nie Yinniang was an assassin from an old story." He inspected another bullet in the dim light coming through the carriage window. "She was sent to kill a ruler and found herself unable to do it after becoming emotionally compromised."
Trissy's expressions did not change as she rubbed her hand on her thigh. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"That's fine." Kiyotaka pushed the bullet into the cylinder as the carriage took a slight turn somewhere outside. He briefly glanced through the window before looking back at her. "Your version is somewhat more embarrassing anyway."
Trissy's brows furrowed as Kiyotaka continued. "You were placed beside Prince Edessak for a reason. At some point you were supposed to either kill him or facilitate whatever your organization intended to happen around him and instead, you stayed."
"You're making quite a few assumptions." Trissy smirked nervously.
"Am I?" Trissy didn't answer and stayed silent as Kiyotaka gave her a small look of pity before reaching for another bullet. "Then, you escaped."
"I already told you that."
"No." Kiyotaka shook his head. "You told me you ran away. I said you escaped. There is quite a substantial difference between the two." He cleaned a small spot from the casing with his sleeve and continued. "Someone in your position can't just walk away from a prince..."
He paused and looked in her eyes. When it twitched a little due to him staring so intently at her, he continued, "...the Demoness Sect and whatever else is involved in this without being pursued immediately. Yet here you are, following a detective's 'close friend.' "So either you're remarkably fortunate..."
Kiyotaka inserted the bullet. "...or someone wanted you to leave, which makes your wish to escape the strings of pre-arranged coincidences quite redundant."
A sudden silence settled inside the carriage as Kiyotaka looked out of the window again.
"Don't pretend that you know anything. You know nothing about me or my circumstances."
"Probably." The casual agreement made Trissy settle back. "But I don't need to."
Kiyotaka closed the cylinder and gave it a slow spin. "You followed Sherlock Moriarty because you wanted him to report you. You wanted him specifically because he was the one who looked into Prince Edessak's friend's death... Talim Dumont was his name, correct?"
Trissy did not answer, however, her expressions did change as she became furious. A spark of black flames appeared and then disappeared from the tip of her fingertips. "That's ridiculous."
"Of course it is. Everything is." Kiyotaka looked at the thick fog outside and then heard the driver coughing out loud.
"Then why would I come here? If it really was what you think it is? Your logic is flawed because—"
Kiyotaka raised his eyes toward her and parted his lips, cutting her off. "Perfection is a flaw too, in some cases. My assumptions may be based on a flawed perspective, but it carries truth as well. What else could have caused someone such as you to react the way you did?"
He did not let her talk as he continued. "To answer your question, because you can't bring yourself to leave Prince Edessak. And you can't bring yourself to stay. So you found a third option." Kiyotaka pulled the hammer back with his thumb. "Have someone else make the decision for you."
"...Shut up."
'There it is.' Kiyotaka leaned back against the seat. "Being arrested solves practically everything. You don't have to kill him and you don't have to return to him and you don't have to explain your failure to the Demoness Sect due to involvement of something else, beyond their reach of influence. Since if there is somebody powerful enough manipulating events around the royal family, being imprisoned by the official Beyonders gives you something you currently don't have."
Trissy's breathing had changed slightly.
"And that something is protection."
"I said shut up!"
Kiyotaka looked toward the carriage window. He had an amused look on his face, as if he had rehearsed this conversation beforehand. "I must say though, the interesting part isn't that you love him, being as disgustingly unbelievable as it is."
Trissy suddenly looked back at him, realizing his choice of words was swaying her mental state and making her move towards a certain state of mind. "I don't! I don't love him!"
"I didn't ask." Her lips parted but no words came out immediately. Kiyotaka rested the revolver over his knee in a way that the barrel pointed towards her. "What is interesting, however, is that you don't seem to know when it happened. You still don't know that it has happened, given you are in denial, but your body seems to be in compliance."
Trissy went completely still. She had grown silent a lot of times during this conversation, however, this time her reaction was quite obvious. Kiyotaka narrowed his eyes on her, taking it as a mental hint that he was going in the right direction.
"You met him because somebody arranged it. You remained around him because somebody benefited from it. You were given opportunities to leave at very convenient moments and somehow ended up seeking Sherlock Moriarty immediately afterward."
"You... You are involved with them...?"
Kiyotaka played around with his revolver, spinning it before pointing it towards her forehead, causing her to flinch momentarily. It was time to nail the coffin. "Have you ever wondered how much of your little romance was actually yours?"
"..."
The previous anger vanished from Trissy's face.
'That is better.' Kiyotaka thought to himself and an almost twisted emotion took root in him. Fear was, after all, considerably more informative and fun to invoke in others.
Suddenly the carriage came to a halt and the horses neighed out loud. Right at the heels of that, a short handled axe tore through the door, revealing a hunched man dressed in tattered rags. He had a shadow over his face, revealing only his crooked nose as Kiyotaka stood up and jumped outside.
Right beside him was a woman who had bright auburn-red hair and dark red eyes with a frustrated look on her face. The moment her eyes landed on Kiyotaka, she turned her head towards Trissy and flames ignited on her hands.
"Ah." Kiyotaka jumped down and took a few strides away. "I was only passing the time."
As he said that, Astrid bolted forward like an arrow and the carriage blew up into smithereens while Trissy attacked with black flames of her own.
Kiyotaka turned around and ran away, leaving Astrid and Trissy fighting amidst a clash of black and incandescent white flames. Meanwhile, Mal, who had accompanied Kiyotaka, turned towards him. "Sir, you really should not have come back... There are strange things in the smog, causing people to experience severe diseases. And its potency keeps increasing."
He did not answer and instead posed a question of himself. "Why did you bring Astrid here?"
Mal did not hesitate and replied almost instantly. "The old woman came back to your house a while ago for the horse— one of our guys stationed close to your house told me. I assumed you were going to come back as well, so I grabbed this woman and brought her here. She was hiding in a hotel close to that estate you had rented."
'That's...'
Kiyotaka narrowed his eyes but did not say anything. Instead, he looked ahead. "Go back and see if the horse is ok. I want it alive. Send some people to the rented estate as well and look after the girls there."
Mal's obscured features did not show any kind of expression, however, the slight scrunch of his nose did convey some kind of displeasure. "Sir... You have to go back as well. It's—"
"It's an order."
Suddenly, a shiver ran down Mal's crooked spine and he lowered his head. "As you command."
The moment Mal left, Kiyotaka saw a boundless grey fog appear in front of his eyes. There was a slight feeling of relief, somewhere inside him, as he saw Klein's figure that appeared boundless. However, it was not as refined as usual.
As a matter of fact, it was anything but refined. Hunched over the mottled, bronze table, Klein was panting as he said a simple sentence before the grey fog fully vanished.
[The cliff overlooking the Tussock River.]