The orange light of the setting sun in the evening shone through the windows.
Jace stood before the mirror of the dressing table; he had just put on a shirt and was buttoning the cuffs.
It had been about a week since he made the traveler his marionette.
Since then, he had found out quite a lot about that marionette of his through scrying memories in the crystal ball.
The traveler's name was 'Christoph Holland', age 54.
He became a Beyonder in his early twenties with his friend, from whom he learned about the Beyonder world.
That particular friend was an 'Abraham'. Unfortunately, that friend of his died when he lost control while advancing to Sequence 8, the reason being that he was an Abraham; meanwhile, Christoph survived his advancement and dived deeper into the Beyonder world.
Christoph was a good guy—from what Jace could see from his memory... Well, as good as a Beyonder could be...—Christoph was also a genius who figured out the 'acting method' on his own.
His journey as a Beyonder was quite slow and steady, unlike Jace, who became a Sequence 5 after just over a year of being a Beyonder...
As an unfortunate twist, the problems started when Christoph killed a Sequence 6 Scribe from the Abraham bloodline when he was a Sequence 7, and used that characteristic to advance to Sequence 6 himself.
At that point, he did not know much about the Abraham family or its bloodline curse, but after suffering from the curse himself on the full moon, he started researching it.
Fortunately, the effects of the curse did not affect him as much as it did the main bloodline of the Abrahams; hell, the only reason he was being affected at all was because he advanced through a characteristic that formed from an individual from the Abraham family.
Nonetheless, he continued his Beyonder journey and became a Sequence 5. On a whim, he then decided to perform an experiment and decided to make Harold a Beyonder. Because after he became a Sequence 5 he was more and more affected by the curse, he wanted to see: if he hadn't consumed the Beyonder characteristic from the Abraham bloodline, would he have been alright? On the other hand, he had also gotten fond of having a disciple around...
'Whatever it was, it worked out well for me...', Jace thought as he put on a brown trench coat over his shirt.
He felt guilty and sorry for killing Christoph and his disciple; Christoph also seemed like a man Jace would have admired, but Jace did not regret what he did or how things went.
The Beyonder world was a harsh and cruel place; here, people die and suffer even if they didn't do anything to deserve it.
It had been long since he felt guilt, but these few days, Jace often felt it. He also had trouble sleeping... even worse, the reminder of his own cruelty and atrocity was now always around him in the form of a marionette...
As he casually styled his hair with his hand, looking into his own eyes in the mirror, "It's all my burden to bear..." he muttered.
Jace's eyes moved behind his own reflection in the mirror and he looked at the reflection of the older man behind him. "Isn't that right, Christoph?" he asked.
"Indeed, sir," Christoph said as he stood behind Jace in a butler's attire.
Again, Jace was in awe of the man behind him. Christoph really had lived a fulfilling life as a Beyonder... until Jace killed him, that is.
Christoph started out as a mundane human with no knowledge of the supernatural. Through errors and trials, he ascended to Sequence 5; he explored the mystic world, finding out about histories, high sequences, and other mysteries of the world on his own...
Not only that, he had recorded all sorts of powers, even two demigod-rank powers.
The first was 'Magnify' of the 'Earl of the Fallen', recorded from an artifact belonging to MI9.
The other was 'Torrential Downpour'. At first, Jace was confused as to which Sequence 4 pathway it belonged to, but then he recalled the 'Tyrant' pathway and its Sequence 4 'Cataclysmic Interfere' and its ability to bring about disasters... this particular ability was recorded by Christoph in the Sonia Sea about six years ago.
Jace again looked at Christoph with wistful eyes. "If only we had met under different circumstances, we would have been good friends..."
The marionette Christoph smiled. "Perhaps in another world, sir..." he said.
"Perhaps...", Jace replied.
Christoph also had like a dozen safe houses all over the countries, stashed with money and artifacts Jace couldn't wait to discover!
But today was not the day, because it was Catherine's day.
After Jace got ready, "Let's go," he said.
Christoph stepped closer to Jace and put a hand on his shoulder.
The world around them morphed as they stepped into the spirit world; they moved with incredible speed.
Within seconds, they materialized in the hall of Catherine's mansion.
Real 'traveling' was far superior to what Jace had achieved with the mere inferior imitation through the Polymath Ring, but now that he could actually feel the deeper mechanism of this particular ability through his marionette, he could likely imitate it better with the help of the ring...
While thinking about such things, Jace paced around in the hall as Christoph stood in a single place with patience.
Soon, Catherine walked down the flight of stairs, dressed in a shirt, pants, and an overcoat, her hair tied back in a low ponytail; she had a leather bag slung around her shoulder.
Jace looked at her with a wry smile and asked, "Are you ready?"
"No," Catherine replied without a beat as she arrived downstairs and stood before Jace.
"Right," Jace said as he chuckled.
Today was the day. Catherine was going to advance to Sequence 4 'Earl of the Fallen'!