Chapter 26 – -Here……
Charles felt the lingering images enlarge suddenly, forming a giant screen. He saw himself in third person outside the screen, wearing a mask and sitting leisurely.
Opposite him was Patestrophe. There was also an old man with unusual hair, styled like a bomb from a cartoon. It was amusing that not only was it dyed red-orange, it also sparkled.
Quite a few uniquely looking spiritualists had gathered there. They didn’t seem to belong to any specific organization.
There was another person, clothed in a linen robe, whose face was never revealed. He was conversing with Charles.
“Is it your first time at such a gathering of spiritualists?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Hmm. We don’t do much here except trade information or items. Got any questions? If it’s something we know, we’ll answer honestly. That’s the rule of our club.”
“Honestly?”
Charles paused, resting his chin on his hand before speaking.
“Do you know about the cult called the Fragmented Salvation Society?”
“Oh, that newly emerging cult, right? I heard their followers buy all sorts of mystic items here and there, so I know a bit about them.”
“It seems I’ve made enemies with the members of the Fragmented Salvation Society.”
“Oh…. That’s unfortunate.”
The man in the black linen robe said.
“What’s unfortunate about it?”
“While you’re lazing around this club, your followers might be getting massacred. And you’ve come to the club at a rather bad timing for yourself.”
“……!”
When Charles became flustered, the man in the robe pulled back his hood. He was a man with a knife scar around his eye.
“My name is Hare. I’m a puppet master. And I’m also a devout follower of the Fragmented Salvation Society.”
Charles quickly drew his pistol from his waist. However, he couldn’t move, caught in Hare’s threads. While Charles was talking, the threads had already bound him tightly.
“Hey! Hostility towards fellow club members is forbidden!”
The old man with bomb-like hair shouted, squinting his eyes, and even Patestrophe, looking surprised, said:
“I recommended him, and now you’re starting a fight?”
“I’ve been following your rules till now…. But I’m tired of this wild spiritualist game. I can’t be bothered with such trivialities when there’s a big catch right before my eyes.”
“The Zucapel Club will not overlook your unilateral actions.”
“Bullshit. Kill them all.”
Suddenly, dolls appeared. They had cracks in their hands and arms like ball-jointed dolls, and they looked astonishingly human-like.
They rushed towards the unprepared wild spiritualists and started fighting with relics and weapons.
“Hehe. Cult Leader Charles Hexen of the Nameless Cult. There is no place for you in Lord Jonas Shaft’s grand design. It’s better if I take your life now.”
Charles tried to form a spear of light, but Hare was quicker. The thread moved, and Charles, with a clean cut to his neck, woke up startled.
He was still in his secret study. Had he already been thrown out from his mental world?
‘It felt so real!’
Charles touched his neck to check if it was still attached. It was. The vivid sensation was surprisingly real.
‘Is this the effect of amplified divination when practicing in the mental world? It’s too strong.’
This wasn’t divination. It was prophecy. Charles knew well that divination didn’t show such definitive visions of the future.
‘With such power, it feels like I’ve borrowed strength from an evil god. Should I re-enter the mental world to confirm?’
But he couldn’t return to the mental world. It seemed Charles had been repelled by the recoil of its power. Amplified divination in the mental world foretells the future.
‘Is this the price for future sight? If that divination is correct, I am in danger right now.’
‘The Fragmented Salvation Society will learn my identity. How did they find out? I was wearing a mask. Dammit, this hardcore mode.’
Charles knew his play was hardcore, but feeling the threat in real-time now, he was terrified.
The clear danger dominated his mind with suffocating fear, but thanks to his nature, Charles’s heartbeat slowed and his excitement calmed.
‘Let’s think about how they found out. When I hit them from behind, they probably wouldn’t have noticed since I was wearing a mask.’
Thinking deeply, Charles soon realized. One of the Fragmented Salvation Society’s followers, named Lucen, had infiltrated his cult in the past.
By eliminating that informant, he thought he had perfectly cut off information, but there might have been another informer or the society might have discovered his identity in another way.
‘I must act swiftly. Strike before being struck.’
Recalling several past events, Charles shook off all thoughts and decided to proceed with the plan to dismantle the Fragmented Salvation Society.
He decided to eliminate the exposed informant immediately. Charles moved at dawn.
“Flona!”
“Charles!”
Just as Charles shouted, Flona appeared as if she had been waiting. Her stalker-like tendencies were helpful at times like this. Ironic.
“It’s an emergency. Gather the followers immediately and prepare defenses.”
“Is the enemy attacking?”
“Someone from the Fragmented Salvation Society has discovered our identity. I intend to extract information from the informant and launch a counterattack. In the meantime, you must protect the cult members.”
Charles placed his hand on Flona’s shoulder. She nodded with a firm expression.
“Good. Move quickly. First, go to Essena and ask for help. She can convey messages to sleeping followers.”
Essena had considerable spiritual training. Sending messages through dreams wouldn’t be difficult for her.
Charles then saddled a horse at the mansion. Though the horse was frightened in the darkness, it soon calmed down upon feeling Charles’s spiritual energy.
Charles first headed to the police station prison. Vince, whose long trial was still ongoing, was placed in solitary confinement for causing trouble.
He moved like a shadow to stand before the prison bars. Despite entering the police station without permission, no one had noticed him. Amazingly, Charles had reached the place alone.
Vince was staring into the void, muttering something.
“Where are you! Where are you going! Hey! Vince!”
Vince? Charles knew there was no one around. It was probably a hallucination. Vince, receiving only one meal a day, was in a skeletal state.
Seeing Charles appear before the bars, Vince spoke.
“Who, who are you?”
‘Hoo.’
Charles sighed inwardly and extended his hand. What he was about to do was use the power of domination. Normally, it was impossible to dominate a human puppet, but it might be possible for partially animated Vince.
In domination, the key was comparing the enlightenment levels. If the opponent had a lower enlightenment level than Charles, they would easily fall under his control.
The opponent’s physical exhaustion also played a role.
The Metro Police Prison was notoriously harsh on criminals. Being in such a place for long, Vince’s physical condition must have hit its limit.
Considering Vince was on the verge of collapse, it should be easy.
The reason Charles had hesitated so far was that he had planned to tame Vince using spiritualized water rather than the power of domination.
But the situation had changed. Information had leaked, and Charles needed to act first on the enemy.
Although Vince was at a distance behind the iron bars, Charles could easily use the power of domination. At that moment, the sleeping Vince opened his eyes wide awake.
“Who? Who’s there!?”
“It takes a bit of time.”
At Charles’s cold voice, Vince clutched his head.
“Get out of my head! Aaargh!”
“Obey me.”
“Urrrrk.”
Vince began tearing at his head, scratching his forehead furiously until he started frothing at the mouth. He wasn’t normal.
Then Vince’s head began to swell.
“Grrek!? Gerererek!?”
A swelling lump formed on the side of his forehead. Vince’s head, now as large as a Martian’s, burst with a bang moments later.
Stepping back to avoid the blood shower, Charles watched the ghastly scene with a chillingly calm heart. He had almost expected this.
As Vince’s brain exploded, Charles noticed something protruding from it. It stood out as it was made of hard metal—a bolt used in mechanical devices.
This bolt had been used to create the hallucinations tormenting Vince. It also served as a medium to make him a puppet for the Fragmented Salvation Society.
It seemed to have been surgically implanted.
Charles was struck by a thought as he picked up the bolt. Leaving the chaotic scene, he opened the bundle of cloth in his possession.
He had collected several bolts until now. With these, he could divine information on the enemy.
‘Let’s find the location of the puppet master, Hare.’
Despite expecting strong divination defenses, Charles realized he could soon re-enter the mental world. Entering the mental world, he lit a candle and stared at the lingering images again.
‘The owner of this and their information.’
*
The puppet master Hare’s daily life ran as follows: he maintained his cleanliness meticulously and received reports from his subordinates hourly. Unlike other followers of the Fragmented Salvation Society, he didn’t work in the public eye.
He dedicated himself solely to refining puppets with his eyes closed. The process of transforming a once-human corpse into a puppet was quite painstaking.
Draining the blood, removing the organs. Preserving the form while preventing decay, and embedding spiritual components inside the body.
Completed puppets possessed varying abilities according to their original nature, with considerable differences in their capabilities.
“Hmm. That’s enough for today.”
Hare glanced at a rectangular object where Jonas Shaft lay dormant. A thick green glass made it impossible to see inside the large coffin.
Jonas Shaft slumbered there. Before falling asleep, he had warned Hare to be cautious of any impending dangers.
“He will wake soon. I can feel it.”
As Hare muttered to himself, satisfied, he suddenly sensed something strange. It was his intuition. Feeling threatened, he promptly pulled out chalk.
This chalk was an exceptional divination tool. Blessed by the evil god, the ‘Mechanical Serpent,’ it vibrated wildly in his hands.
“What? This kind of tremor…….”
Tired from working until dawn, Hare realized the chalk had been shaking nervously and intensely. His mind snapped into alertness.
How long had it been trembling? Goosebumps rose on his skin as he hurriedly called for a follower outside.
“Hey! Is there anyone out there!?”
“Yes, Master Hare.”
A burly follower with a scarred face appeared.
“I have something to report. Regarding the masked man and woman you mentioned earlier. Our followers have identified the enemies. They are from the Nameless Sect.”
“What? You mean the Nameless Sect caused this?”
Hare was startled. Could the leader of such a weak, follower-less sect be responsible?
“Amazing, but not important right now. Prepare the followers for battle immediately….”
Boom.
A tremendous explosion occurred, and a masked figure emerged from the blast.
‘This is the middle of the warehouse!’
The masked man had a gun at his waist and wore a monocle. There was a thick grimoire by his side.
“Hello?”
