Episode 37 – Behind the boy, a magic book was fluttering in the air. The book’s frantic flapping made it look urgent.
"Screee!"
"Hey! Didn’t I tell you to keep that thing away?"
"Well, it won’t listen! At first, it was following well, but then I realized it was moving to find violin strings!"
"What?!"
After coming down to the basement, Mori bowed to the non-existent audience like an experienced violinist and started playing an instrument to the screaming Ketelagone.
As soon as the beautiful violin strings resonated, Ketelagone stopped its frenzy and stared at Mori. The melody was truly beautiful.
"Screee! It’s dying!"
"No, wait."
Charles, who was about to save Mori, stopped and watched them quietly. The monster and the idiot. The boy, who seemed about to be killed by Ketelagone at any moment, continued playing the violin.
It was a seamless performance hard to believe from such a small boy. Every time the strings resonated, it gave the illusion of disturbing one’s hearing.
Even the monster stared at Mori in a daze. It seemed that the peculiar feeling carried in the melody had captivated Ketelagone.
This song… It was a requiem. A familiar-sounding requiem resonated, and something in memory began to replay.
It was a recollection of Evren Linden’s feelings toward Ketelagone. Memories from decades ago reverberated as if they were being replayed.
Even Charles realized what Evren had been thinking when he committed this act. He also came to understand Evren Linden’s feelings of raising the children he had taken in from the orphanage as his own.
This wasn’t just a simple performance. It was a power akin to Charles’ own power of domination…
A melody that captivated even a monster.
Though he was impressed by the melody, Charles regained his composure first, understanding Evren Linden’s feelings but recognizing the wrongful method.
Charles slowly walked over. Holding the flame spear, he pierced Ketelagone’s chest, which had completely lost its mind to the violin’s sound.
As the mighty flames began to consume Ketelagone, it made no effort to resist, entirely engulfed by the flames while the requiem continued to play.
Charles made eye contact with the dying Ketelagone. He stared blankly at its eyes as its consciousness connected.
The surrounding scenery disappeared like it had been erased with an eraser, and even the sound of the violin sank into the silence created by the requiem.
He saw the fragments of the revelation stele embedded in the baby’s inner self. Before Charles’ eyes, he could see how those stele fragments had been corrupted over thousands of years.
Initially, they were fragments of a great artifact. Abraham had used it wisely, using the stele fragments’ power to draw water into the barren desert and turn it into fertile land, and to fend off entities crawling in from another dimension.
He founded a new school of mysticism, created incantations, and crafted items imbued with mystique. When Abraham, who had been granted an unnaturally long lifespan for a human, passed away, the stele fragments were passed down to one of Abraham’s kin.
Abraham’s descendant couldn’t use the stele fragments perfectly like his ancestor. However, just possessing the fragments gave them immense power.
Abraham’s progeny flourished because of the stele fragments’ power. But as thousands of years passed and the fragments were passed down through Abraham’s lineage, their power gradually became corrupted.
It was due to human desire. Human greed and emotions had corrupted what once was a great artifact, turning the stele fragments into something entirely different.
"Then we must retrieve it from inside."
Charles continued to gaze into the baby’s eyes, connecting their mental worlds like docking spaceships. At that moment, Charles immediately delved into the mental world.
The world he saw on the other side was completely different. This wasn’t the mental world of the resurrected baby. It was a mental world passed down through Abraham’s lineage, shared among them for thousands of years.
Inside, it was filled with a vast body of water. The water was entirely black, and the sky was covered with dark clouds. Violent storms raged, with lightning and heavy rain pouring down from the sky.
As the worlds began to mix, a black sea started to rage beneath Charles’ floating rock.
With the dark clouds rolling in, they approached near the floating rock. Charles couldn’t open his eyes against the sudden gust of wind.
It was difficult even to see ahead, but Charles gripped the corner of the floating rock with the obelisk and surveyed the surroundings.
He looked down at the sea below. There seemed to be "something" there, but for some reason, it didn’t seem hostile towards Charles.
Squinting his eyes and looking up, he saw a massive fragment of the stele floating amid the lightning storm. The stele fragment was much larger than Charles’, and it was inscribed with numerous unknown characters.
At that moment, Charles thought he should let go. If he kept holding on to the obelisk’s floating rock, nothing would change. He was scared and wanted to stay still, but he couldn’t. If he did, he wouldn’t see the "happy ending."
He couldn’t let the fate of this world cap Charles’ destiny. Having decided to live fiercely against this world as Charles Hexen instead of as a mere human, Kim Yeon-su,
Charles let go and moved towards the storm, the heavy rain obstructing him. Yet, he walked like someone moving on a strong current. The terrifying lightning pierced him causing pain, but it was no use.
Taking one step at a time towards the stele fragment, Charles eventually reached it. Finally, he grabbed hold of the fragment.
The fragment emitted an immense power. Charles felt that power filling him. Taking it back through the storm, he brought it close to his fragment on the lower part of the obelisk.
As the two stele fragments fused into one, the obelisk emitted a gigantic light.
Feeling that tremendous power entering him, he realized he could control his world better. The power named "Nefarion" that Charles had harnessed grew even stronger. When its fullness reached the top of his head, he finally felt that he could control his world.
However, he couldn’t calm the storm, so he separated it from the floating rock. He raised the floating rock area above the dark clouds while placing the clouds and waves below the floating rock area.
It might take countless years to quell those waves and storms. That world was a vast mental world created by Abraham’s lineage over thousands of years.
After retrieving the stele, Charles realized what he could do. But it wasn’t the time to use that power yet.
Opening his eyes, bringing his consciousness out of the mental world, reality appeared before him.
"Master! Look ahead!"
He heard the voice of Paginarrecor and looked forward. There, a massive hole was opening in the air, revealing a void incomprehensible to humans.
Ketelagone’s body could be seen being sucked into something. Inside there… he had seen it before. It was "the void" somewhere in the upper layers of the other world.
The void had opened as a gap pierced through his mind? Charles grabbed Mori and pulled him away. Everything started getting sucked into the open void.
The surrounding dirt, the altar, and the corpses consumed by the altar were all getting sucked in. Eventually, the void also consumed Eleanor Linden’s corpse and closed.
"What, what? Is it over?"
At that moment, the void belched out, unable to digest what it had consumed, along with the first volume of the "Book of the Dead" and an emerald brooch. Then it closed again.
"That was the void, wasn’t it?"
"Yes."
The void was a place holding all the otherworldly garbage. When the stele of revelation was extracted from the mind, the void opened… No, Charles pondered a different hypothesis.
The void appeared because the stele of revelation was extracted all at once. If a large empty space were created in reality, it would make sense for the void to appear to fill that space.
Charles knew all about the main storyline of the game. He could predict what would happen and how things would unfold if certain characters were killed or spared.
But he couldn’t understand what related to the stele of revelation. This event was entirely beyond his planned scope.
He thought that the event caused by the stele fragments could impact the main storyline like a butterfly effect.
"Are you alright?"
Charles turned to look at Mori, who had been playing the violin. For some reason, the boy was crying. There was no change in his expression.
Seeing this, Charles thought he needed to reconsider the boy. It wasn’t merely a mental issue causing him not to feel emotions. Maybe he could be treated.
Leaving Paginarrecor to watch over Mori, Charles looked around. First, the emerald brooch. Charles realized what this brooch was. It was a relic that provided protection against physical attacks that Evren had been holding.
‘I’ll have to properly understand it in the mental world later.’
He then picked up the first volume of the "Book of the Dead." This magic book was unlike any ordinary one. It didn’t just contain resurrection spells but also information from the late Hermes era and necromancy dealing with bones and corpses.
He closed the magic book. The enlightenment from the book made his head spin, but it was still within Charles’ control.
The "Book of the Dead" had three volumes. As each volume was gathered, the resultant power would be immense, but then it would become uncontrollable even for Charles.
‘By the way, how should I clean up this mess?’
Sighing as he looked at the dazed Mori, Charles thought of using the lamp spell to hypnotize people one by one.
Douglas scratched his belly as he read the "Metropol Times." The article talked about the missing Linden family members.
"These journalists are like hyenas. They pounce like a swarm of bees over something not even concluded yet. They get news faster than the police."
He coated some eggs and fried French toast, sprinkling it generously with sugar, and held a glass of milk. With sausages, grilled mushrooms, and bacon, he had his breakfast.
While reading the Metropol Times, Douglas scribbled down information he had gathered. The incident at the warehouse near Bay Harbor was still an unsolved case. There weren’t many clues to investigate. It was dawn, so there were no witnesses.
Remembering that gypsy kid briefly, Douglas dismissed the thought. Muttering weird things, just looking at the kid gave him the creeps. He had no connection to the occult.
"Hey Dougie."
"Hench."
Inspector Hommel waved as he came down to the basement. Recently befriended, Hommel was, in Douglas’ objective view, quite incompetent.
Annoyingly, Hommel considered Douglas his incompetent peer. So he acted friendly, and although Douglas could see through his intentions, he played along because social networking was important.
"Have a donut."
"What’s up?"
As Douglas took a donut, Hommel replied.
"Message from the chief. He says you’re needed for this case."
"Why?"
"The missing persons. It seems it’s not just the Linden couple but all of the Linden children as well."
"What?"
"From what I’ve heard, they didn’t just disappear in a normal way. Going through the Linden mansion, they found many books related to the occult."
Douglas frowned.
"What? The children disappeared? So was the whole family offered as a sacrifice?"
"I don’t know about that. Anyway, do your best, head of the Occult Crimes Investigation Division."
It was ridiculous to call him the head when he was the only member. Watching Hommel leave, Douglas had to accept that he had gotten involved in another bothersome case. Finishing his breakfast and donut, Douglas hauled himself up.