Chapter 66: The Demoness Sect

Chapter Sixty-Six
The Demoness Sect

“Sequence 8: Instigator. Skilled at drawing out the evil desires hidden at the bottom of each person’s heart. Skilled at intensifying contradictions, provoking conflict, and creating bloody incidents…”

The description is not detailed enough. It looks like the Nighthawks do not understand this potion’s abilities very well… But it does indeed match the characteristics of the Clover tragedy…

Klein’s gaze shifted upward, landing on the Sequence 9 corresponding to Instigator.

“Sequence 9: Assassin. Able to alter the body for brief periods, obtaining feather-like lightness, while solidifying eagle-like vision and night sight. Every Assassin is skilled at hiding within shadows, possesses nimble footwork, and can unleash all their strength in a single strike…”

After reading the description, Klein once again sank into profound confusion.

Assassin…

The advancement after Assassin is Instigator?

This is just as strange as the advancement after Seer being some profession skilled in technical combat…

Why are some Sequence pathways gradual and perfectly normal, like Spectator, while others seem to violate intuition and logic?

Mm, perhaps not necessarily. Perhaps there is some hidden commonality I have not discovered…

For instance, Assassin and Instigator both bring disaster to others…

But for Seer, I still cannot make sense of it no matter how I think! Heh. Could it be the path of old Master Gandalf? Add a little support magic, then pile every other skill point into strength and technique?

Silently grumbling, Klein shook his head. He turned the materials to the section on the secret organization connected to Instigator: the Gnosis Society.

“The Gnosis Society is a secret organization that appeared only at the beginning of the Fifth Epoch—that is, the present epoch. They believe that the spirit is the essence of a person, while the body is merely a cage that imprisons the spirit. They believe people commit evil because of the influence of the flesh, and that one must obtain knowledge through spirituality, allowing the spirit to gradually break free from the body. After passing through layer upon layer of trials in the astral plane, the spirit may ultimately leave the material world behind, return to the purest and truest self, and obtain eternal salvation.

“Therefore, many extreme members of the Gnosis Society take the destruction of others’ physical bodies as their goal and have created no small number of bloody cases. It can be clearly seen that the Sequence pathways they control are divided into two types. One is the relatively common pathway within their organization: Apprentice and Trickmaster. The other is the rarely seen Assassin and Instigator. For now, no evidence proves that the Gnosis Society possesses potion formulas for Sequence 7 or above.

“How the Gnosis Society was established is unknown. Analysis can only be made from the two Sequence pathways they possess, suggesting two possible origins. First, Apprentice and Trickmaster easily bring to mind the Abraham family of the Tudor Dynasty during the Fourth Epoch; the possibility of the Tamara family, who intermarried with the Abraham family over a long period, cannot be ruled out. Second, Assassin and Instigator point toward the Demoness Sect.”

The Abraham family, the Tamara family, the Antigonus family, the Zaratul family, the Black Emperor of the Solomon Empire, the Blood Emperor of the Tudor Dynasty, the Trunsoest Empire—as well as the Jacob family and Amon family mentioned by the Hanged Man…

There really are a great many secrets hidden in the buried history of the Fourth Epoch. Perhaps there are also a great many truths…

Klein read with endless emotion. He felt more deeply than before that the Fourth Epoch was shrouded in a dense fog.

Yet merely glimpsing the outline through that fog was enough to make one’s heart tremble. One could almost imagine an era when the extraordinary had flourished to its peak—an epoch in which blood and strangeness danced together, and horror and distortion sang in chorus.

Klein inhaled soundlessly and flipped back and forth through the materials, only to discover no corresponding description of the Demoness Sect.

He lifted his head and looked toward Old Neil, who was fussing with filter paper and hand-ground coffee, and asked sincerely, “Mr. Neil, what kind of organization is the Demoness Sect? I did not see an introduction to them in the materials.”

Old Neil did not answer immediately. Only after finishing that stage of his coffee-making did he chuckle.

“Your confidentiality level is not high enough. Even with Dunn’s permission, you cannot read that portion of the materials. One could even say that many such records exist only in the Sanctuary and are not preserved behind Tingen City’s Chanis Gate at all. Only when you one day become the captain of a Nighthawk team and go to the Sanctuary to receive training will you be able to come into contact with them.

“As for the Demoness Sect, I do not know much either. I only know that they believe in the Primordial Demoness. They believe this hidden existence is the true successor of the Creator, the ‘First One’ nurtured from chaos and born from the Creator’s body, and that She will also inevitably become the ‘Final One’ who ends everything.

“Their Sequence pathway is related to this. Because they seek the Primordial Demoness’s grace, because they approach that hidden existence, their upper levels are all women. That is why they are called the Demoness Sect.

“More details are beyond what an ordinary official member like me can access. I have only heard that Demonesses take spreading disaster as their mission.”

Spreading disaster… That does fit the hidden commonality between Assassin and Instigator…

But Mr. Tris’s future seems rather worrying. The later potions of this pathway appear better suited to women…

Klein nodded slightly and continued reading through the materials.

Once he finished, he discovered that there were quite a few more secret organizations than he had imagined. But after thinking about it carefully, he felt this was entirely normal. After all, this world had accumulated so many years of history, and it had once seen eras when extraordinary power was extremely active.

According to the contents of the materials, Klein divided those secret organizations into three categories by era:

The first were ancient organizations born in the Fourth Epoch, including but not limited to the Moses Ascetic Order, the Secret Order, the Blood Worship Sect that followed demons, and the Demoness Sect, which the materials mentioned only briefly.

The second were secret organizations born in the early Fifth Epoch, that is, early in the present era. They were, to greater or lesser degrees, connected to the terrifying families and sects of the Fourth Epoch. Examples included the Gnosis Society; the Spiritual Religion Order, which worshipped Death; the Life School of Thought, which relied mainly on master-disciple inheritance; and the Rose School of Thought, famous among Beyonders for bloody sacrifices.

The third were newly born organizations that had appeared only within the last one or two hundred years, such as the Aurora Order, the Iron and Blood Cross Order, Element Dawn, and the Psychology Alchemists, which Klein had heard of first.

Aside from these, there were also scattered organizations that had not done anything especially significant.

“Benson and Melissa would never imagine how dangerous this world truly is. It is not only war…”

Klein shook his head and laughed quietly, stacking the confidential materials neatly before pushing them back to Old Neil.

At the same time, he silently added one sentence in his heart:

May my Tarot Club never appear on any list…

Old Neil had no idea that a leader of a secret organization was sitting right across from him. Smiling cheerfully, he took the materials and headed toward Chanis Gate.

Klein sat there, wondering whether he ought to divine the whereabouts of Tris the Instigator. But after thinking about it for a little more than ten seconds, he abandoned the idea. After all, he knew only the other party’s rough appearance and a name that might or might not be real. If he could grasp someone’s whereabouts from that alone, then he should not be called a Seer, but a Prophet!

After Old Neil returned, Klein gathered his thoughts and continued his own mysticism lessons, seeking to master more formats of ritual magic.

He spent the entire day studying and practicing. He did not take part in the joint operation to hunt down Tris the Instigator. He only heard that Sealed Artifact 2-049, sent from Backlund, would delay its departure due to special factors. The exact time remained undetermined.

Because he had earned nearly two soli from divination the previous day, Klein spent ten pence on the way home to buy Benson a two-liter barrel of Enmat beer, and brought Melissa a freshly baked lemon cake.

“Klein, I know you value us, but there truly is no need—no need to keep spending money on things like this,” Benson said after considering his words, looking at the small wooden barrel of beer.

Melissa stood beside him, silently nodding, nodding repeatedly.

This is probably the difference in our spending habits…

Klein sighed in amusement.

“Benson, Melissa, do not worry. I bought these with an extra allowance. Mm, each week there should be around two to four soli.”

It is not as though I can tell you that this is income from helping people with divinations…

He added inwardly.

“…Your job is much better than I imagined,” Benson said after a pause, giving a fair evaluation.

Exactly. It even lets me learn divination…

Klein silently quipped, then turned and walked toward the kitchen.

With the three siblings working together, a sumptuous dinner emerged dish by dish.

After eating their fill, Klein, Benson, and Melissa collapsed in the living room for a while before finally getting up to clean and begin their usual chatter and study.

Once Benson and Melissa are asleep, I will go above the gray fog and see what effect the ritual had…

While reviewing historical texts, Klein glanced separately at his elder brother and younger sister.

…

West Borough, Lower Iron Cross Street.

A three-story apartment building was immersed in darkness, with no streetlamps and no excess light.

Suddenly, a figure leapt out from one of the third-floor windows, landing as lightly as a feather and causing almost no sound.

His body twisted, and he abruptly vanished, as though merging into the shadows. Only a faint outline remained.

Moving quickly, the figure reached the docks district and arrived at an unoccupied corner stacked with goods.

After observing seriously for a while and circling the area twice, the figure finally left the darkness and entered the corner.

It could be seen that he had a round, extremely approachable face. He was none other than Tris, the Instigator who had single-handedly created the Clover tragedy.

“How did it feel?”

From the shadows of the corner, a mysterious figure in a black hooded robe emerged. Her voice had distinct feminine characteristics.

Tris revealed a kind and satisfied smile.

“Very comfortable. It was exactly the scene I dreamed of and pursued.

“I believe I have completed the mission, and I am ready to advance.”

The woman in the black robe nodded almost imperceptibly.

“Very good. According to the promise, I will give you the Sequence 7 formula and the three main materials. You must gather the rest yourself.”

“No problem,” Tris answered, clearly prepared.

The mysterious woman raised her hand and passed something shaped like a book to Tris.

That “book” had an ancient, mottled bronze shell, with a strange star-shaped lock hanging at the side.

Tris knew that inside the “book” were the formula and the materials. Excitement immediately surged through him.

Suppressing his emotion, he looked curiously toward the potion name written on the bronze shell.

“Witch!”

Tris blurted the word in astonishment, unable to believe that the word written in ancient Hermes could possibly be that.

Witch? I am going to advance into a Witch? What kind of joke is this?

The mysterious woman covered her mouth and let out a low laugh. Only after a long while did she answer.

“Have you not always wondered why our upper ranks are all women?

“This is the answer.”