Chapter 6: Ritual
Lumin went up the stairs to the first floor of the house.
The sound of a door creaking echoed in the corridor, and Lumin entered his room.
He sat on his bed instead of lying down to sleep.
Ignoring the sound of thunder outside, he took the Castle Man card out of his chest pocket and flipped it over. On the purple background, he found words written in the Foden language.
Only one sentence was written on the card:
"The Link Pathway's Link Stage."
As soon as Lumin read this sentence, the letters changed to form a new sentence in place of the previous one.
"Components of the Link Pathway."
Again, as soon as Lumin finished reading, the letters moved to form a new sentence, which made Lumin stop reading and go to his sister Raheel's room.
He put the card in his chest pocket and opened the door to enter the room. He walked straight to the desk.
He took out the notebook he had written in earlier from the first drawer and began to record.
Even with his confidence in the strength of his memory, he did not want to forget a single component under any circumstance.
He took the card out of his chest pocket and flipped it over to continue reading.
"A vessel filled with five liters of water."
He picked up the pen and began writing before continuing to read.
He finished writing and looked back at the card, reading while writing.
"A thin red thread."
"An item precious to the ritualist."
"A bone from the leg of some creature."
"A drop of the ritualist's blood."
Lumin recorded the final composition of the Link Stage and looked back at the page.
"Ritual of use."
"Boil the water for half an hour without letting the amount decrease."
Lumin recorded the sentence that appeared, wrote it down, and wondered to himself: "Without letting the amount decrease? How is that? Am I supposed to keep adding water continuously so its amount does not decrease? Or is the water supposed to be just a little below boiling? I must ask Mr. Richard before I begin the ritual."
"After half an hour of boiling the water, repeat three times in a clear voice near the vessel: 'As I have joined fire with water, I join the path with the companion.'"
The sentence disappeared and a new one formed in its place:
"Place the leg bone in the water and repeat in a low voice: 'This steadiness is the basis of connection.'"
"Place a drop of blood on the vessel."
"After the water changes color to red, place the thin thread."
"Throw your precious item into the fire so it burns."
"Throw the water onto yourself, and you will become a walker on the Link Pathway."
Lumin was immediately shocked by the final method of becoming a walker at the Link Stage and laughed to himself: "Huh? Heh heh, I have to swim in boiling water to become a walker?"
Lumin looked back at the card after recording everything on paper.
"To change the pathway, repeat the ritual and place the essence of the pathway you want to transfer to in the vessel instead of your blood."
Lumin sighed and said in a low voice, "I still have to swim in boiling water."
He looked back at the card and noticed that no new sentence had appeared, so he returned the card to his chest pocket.
Lumin read the page he had recorded several times and decided to return to his bed and sleep.
Lumin realized from Mr. Richard's words that sleep was nothing but a ritual of connection between the real world and this mysterious world. For that reason, he wanted to try sleeping and return to the real world.
He entered his room and looked at the window while telling himself: "Should I try looking outside?.."
Lumin could not stop his curiosity about the reason behind the sudden disturbance in this world, but in the end he managed to control it and did not approach the window.
Lumin took the Link Pathway stick from his pocket.
He threw the stick to the ground and thought of only one thing: "Transform into a chair."
Immediately, the stick on the ground turned into a chair. Lumin placed the chair under the door handle while thinking: "This way I'll know whether the stick will come with me, and no one will come from outside to disturb me..."
He sighed to himself before continuing: "Ahh, even in the Red Mist there wasn't an aura like this."
After placing the chair under the handle, Lumin put his head on the pillow and closed his eyes to sleep.
After some time, Lumin opened his eyes because of a sudden, sharp pain in his head. He found himself surrounded by endless darkness in all directions.
Instinctively, and without understanding why, he closed his eyes and stopped thinking. He heard a sharp drumbeat in his ear, and the sound intensified until he heard the sound of a rushing stream inside it.
Lumin immediately knew that the rushing stream was nothing but the sound of his ear bleeding from the force of the drumbeats.
He did not know what he should do to survive this situation.
The Castle Man card in Lumin's chest moved and vibrated toward the white point, and at the same time, a soothing voice echoed in Lumin's ear. Lumin did not understand what the voice was saying because it coincided with the loud sound of the drum.
In a few moments, Lumin lost all sense of the drum and the rushing sound in his ear. He could not hear anything, as if he had lost his sense of hearing.
He did not know how much time had passed. He tried opening his eyes, but he could not see anything. He could not see the endless darkness or the white point beneath it, as if he had lost his sense of sight.
Immediately, a word appeared in Lumin's mind:
"Enter…"
Lumin did not feel pain from the word that appeared in his mind. He did not even feel that he had heard it; rather, he felt something deeper, as if there were a direct connection between the word and his mind.
"Into…" Another word appeared in Lumin's mind. He felt an even stronger connection with it in his mind, which made him think that the words had become linked to him thanks to the Castle Man and the abilities of the Link Pathway.
"The door."
Immediately after this word became linked in Lumin's mind, he could see again.
He noticed that a blue door decorated with golden patterns had appeared before him in the endless darkness.
He tried extending his right hand toward the door, since the handle was on the left side of it, but he failed to extend his hand in the correct direction because the concept of direction did not exist in this endless darkness.
He tried reaching out again and again in every direction, but failed.
His failure pushed him to try another method. On the last attempt, he lifted his right hand upward, but he failed to raise it. Instead, his hand moved forward toward the handle's position.
He closed his fingers around the handle and pulled it backward.
A blue-white light emerged from the door. The light pulled Lumin inside, and in mere moments Lumin disappeared from the endless darkness.
...
Lumin woke from his sleep and found himself lying on the wooden floor of his room.
He felt a slight headache, but it was less painful than the headache he had experienced when he woke in the mysterious world.
He remained lying on the floor for nearly five minutes, trying to remember what had happened to cause this strong headache.
He managed to remember everything that had happened in the mysterious world—from waking up in his house as it had been six months ago, to meeting the Castle Man, and that aura that made him feel awe. He remembered everything, but he forgot everything related to the endless darkness.
With his limited knowledge, he understood that the headache was a side effect of the transfer.
He got up from the bed and looked directly at the door. He found a wooden chair under the door handle. He sighed and said, "It came with me…"
Lumin touched the chair and thought, "Link Pathway stick."
The chair immediately transformed into a stick in Lumin's hand. He gripped the stick tightly and placed it in his trouser pocket.
He went down to the kitchen and took a piece of meat from the upper shelf, then returned to the first floor.
He entered his sister's room without knocking. He found her sleeping and placed the meat in the bowl designated for dog food.
When he left his sister's room, he noticed by the wooden clock that it was 7:15, and that he had one hour and forty-five minutes left before going to the hunting club.
He immediately washed up and left the house to head to Dico and Fiona's home. He wanted to take them with him to his house and then go with Lomet for the hunting trip.
He wore a dark brown coat made for hunting over his black shirt, and he placed the axe he had bought on the belt around his waist, while putting the Link Pathway stick in his coat pocket and the Castle Man card in his chest pocket.
He tied a red scarf around his neck—the scarf his father had given him before sacrificing himself in the Red Moon Spirit Festival five years ago.
All the residents of Flansia City believed in the Red Moon religion, the crimson moon, ruler of the night, lord of the spirit, lord of war and fire. Every year, the Red Moon churches and cathedrals chose several people to sacrifice their lives as offerings to the Red Moon.
The citizens had grown used to dancing over the corpses of the sacrifices and wiping themselves with the blood of the dead to receive blessings from the sacrifice's blood, while the deacons were expected to dance with the entrails of the sacrifices wrapped around their necks.
Before Lumin's father went out to sacrifice his life to the Red Moon, he gave Lumin the red scarf and gave Raheel the ring he had bought to propose to her mother. He felt guilty about the way he had raised her, so he gave her the ring and wanted her to live her life and search for the person she deemed suitable for her.
Three days after that, the Red Moon Festival began.
That night, Lumin kept crying in the arms of his sister Raheel, and the feelings of hatred toward the Red Moon Church were born.
...
Earlier today, a delicate girl's hand held a notebook and took it out of the desk drawer.
She took a page from the notebook and tore it out. She wanted to write a letter.
She spent some time thinking, and the girl played with the pen in her hand before beginning to write.
"I apologize for this, Sir Commander. I will begin the letter with something else unrelated to the mission."
She left a blank line and continued:
"A friend of mine encountered a problem that may be related to Walkers. His sister was a beautiful and pure girl with a bit too much curiosity, like us. I heard from my friend that she joined a strange gathering in the village."
"One day, she went to that gathering and never returned home... no, more precisely, she did return that same night, but in another form. When my friend returned home after spending time at the inn, he found a white dog in front of the door."
"After living with her for six months, my friend became certain that this dog was his sister. Do you remember when we apologized for not coming to the company in our second week? It was because we were discussing whether we should return to him or not."
"At that time, he sent us a letter mentioning that his sister had disappeared and never returned. Now I understand the reason for that. He lied to the church and to all the villagers only to protect her from being accused of heresy because of the gathering she used to visit and executed publicly."
"I observed his feelings through the Witness Pendant. It was filled with real and sincere emotions. He was extremely sad. I felt the frustration and the intense emotions rising from the depths of his heart."
"Instead of blaming the world and spilling what was inside him, he chose to suppress his emotions and live with reality in his attempt to take revenge on the gathering all this time."
"He wore a mask of pleasure and living while suppressing his true emotions inside."
"Before he decided to tell us the truth, he was laughing as if nothing had happened to him, but he was carrying a mountain of worries on his shoulders. I did not use the Witness Pendant when we were laughing, but I am certain of what I said after I sensed his sad emotions."
"Rank 33 noticed that I was trying to suppress the emotions coming to me from my friend through the pendant, and understood that he was suffering. Rank 33 wanted to say something to him. I do not know what he wanted to say, but I stopped him so that he could release the emotions trapped inside him."
"Rank 33 left the house behind him to watch him. I told him that I would remain to send you the report. He does not know what I am writing now, and I hope you do not tell him."
"I think one of the two matters he wanted to tell our friend before I stopped him was that he wanted to stand by his side and calm his emotions... He was going to tell him to go out and talk together. I know he did not want me to suffer because of our friend's overwhelming emotions, especially in this critical period."
"As for the second matter... I think he was going to reveal the truth about Walkers to him. He lived for six months beside his sister in that state, so he surely knows about the supernatural matters."
"In any case, I stopped him and made him promise not to reveal anything for the time being. You told us not to speak about Walkers in any way, and we promised you that. I hope you will send us your guidance, Sir Commander."
"Regarding the mission, we met with the young count six days ago and informed him of the request. He strongly approved it and praised our full support for building the gambling building, saying it would contribute to the city's expansion. We only need to wait for the construction permit. We will receive it today."
"And there is something additional... I cannot be certain of this, but I think he knows that we are Walkers and allowed us to build it for the sake of expanding the city."
The girl put the pen down on the table, opened the window, and watched the bloody moon in the sky. She picked up the letter and put it in her pocket before heading to the living room.
She sat on the floor after closing the gas pipes in the living room. Then she closed her eyes while saying, surrounded by darkness:
"A loving spirit no longer wanders in the real world."
"An ancient spirit married a mustached commander and lived with him."
"A kind lady for the sake of her husband, kinder than nature."
The girl opened her eyes and found a spirit floating in the room and forming itself before her. Even though it was dark, it was clearly visible to the eye.
The spirit wore a black dress that revealed her shoulders and parts of her body. Her chestnut hair was decorated with a blue rose above her ear, and she had perfect legs.
The spirit in the black robe and chestnut hair looked at the girl with a contemptuous gaze and said, "What do you want from my husband, you whore?"
The girl did not respond. Instead, she took a paper from her pocket.
The spirit looked at the letter in the girl's hand with disdain before raising her hand toward the sky.
When she raised her hand, the letter flew from the girl's hand into hers.
The spirit took the letter and disappeared immediately