Chapter 49: The Ominous Box

Chapter 49: The Ominous Box

Regarding the return—or rather, the restoration to normal—of Botis’s Grade 0 sealed artifact, The Hermit Cattleya and Justice Audrey had indeed made certain contingency plans. After all, they were not confident they could kill a demigod in such a short span of time.

If Botis had not fallen into their trap, if he had not consecutively suffered Mental Plague, Sleeping Beauty, Frenzy, and a fatal blow, leaving him mad and mindless, he would have had many opportunities to directly Teleport away. They would not have been able to stop him.

If that happened, Cattleya and Audrey could only wait for Botis to return to his “safe house” and release Forsi. Then, after the Eyes of Mystery Pry on Miss Magician provided feedback, they would remotely exert influence and create an opportunity for her to summon a projection from the gaps of history.

At this very moment, facing Botis, who had clearly entered an irreversible path toward losing control, and facing his mad act of attempting to fully open that Grade 0 sealed artifact, Cattleya at the center of the battlefield and Audrey hidden outside the forest both made similar movements: each took out a slightly translucent, dark charm and spoke a word in Jotun.

“Star!”

This was a Teleportation charm, one Klein had personally created using the patterns, labels, and symbols Recorded in Leymano’s Travels.

Since Sefirah Castle could mobilize the power of the Marauder pathway, there was no reason it could not answer prayers in the domain of the Apprentice!

As for what materials the charm required, both Mysticologist Cattleya and Traveler Forsi had some understanding of that. There was no need for Mr. Fool to teach them separately.

Just as Audrey and Cattleya were about to activate the charms and Teleport away, planning to return after a minute or two to confirm the situation, Botis—wearing a cruel smile, his eyes filled with madness—suddenly froze.

No matter how hard he tried, he could not open the third layer of the Box of the Great Old Ones!

It was exceedingly heavy, as though wrapped and suppressed by layer after layer of power, simply impossible to open.

It made Botis look less like he was trying to open a box, and more like he was trying to open a new world.

A moment later, he seemed to sense something. The madness in his eyes faded, replaced by extreme astonishment, extreme terror, and extreme fear.

Drop. Drop. One ball of light after another slid from Botis’s body. When they touched the ground, they transformed into insects condensed from brilliant starlight.

These insects curved their bodies into semicircles, encircling patches of wondrous light like one illusory Door after another.

Botis, who was transforming toward an incomplete mythical creature form, suddenly and uncontrollably collapsed and disintegrated.

With two soft plops, his two eyeballs fell to the ground and were stained with dust.

Those two eyeballs were frozen with indescribable terror. They remained sufficiently intact, completely unlike the rest of his body.

A Sequence 4 Secrets Sorcerer died just like that.

Thud!

The silver-black Box of the Great Old Ones, inlaid with various gemstones, fell beside Botis’s two eyeballs, looking just like a jewelry box commonly seen in noble households.

Above the gray fog, inside the ancient palace, Klein breathed a sigh of relief and, filled with confusion, lowered the Sea God Scepter in his hand.

He had just been about to mobilize the power of Sefirah Castle and use angel-level force to drive Lightning Storm, preventing Botis from opening the third layer of the Box of the Great Old Ones. In the end, the Saint of Secrets’ counterattack, meant to drag everyone down with him, had failed before it truly began, encountering a defeat completely beyond Klein’s expectations.

After Judgment Xio left the first battlefield, she had immediately followed the plan and prayed to Mr. Fool. Through that, Klein was reminded and found a chance to enter above the gray fog, where he monitored the battle through the crimson stars corresponding to The Hermit and Justice.

During the transfer to the second battlefield, Justice Audrey also found an opportunity to pray, allowing Klein to directly interfere with the real world through her crimson star.

That was why Audrey’s true body had arrived at the destination slightly later than The Hermit Cattleya.

“According to the magic mirror Arrodes, the third layer of this Box of the Great Old Ones contains something extremely terrifying. I thought the True Creator had bestowed it upon Botis in order to create a horrific disaster at the critical moment, thereby displaying the true nature of an evil god. Who knew it simply couldn’t be opened…” Klein glanced at the crimson star representing Magician and discovered that a layer of black-gray covered it, as though it had solidified. As a result, he had no way to see the scene inside or confirm Miss Magician’s condition.

This was the first time he had encountered something like this, and it was enough to show the level, strangeness, and oddity of the Box of the Great Old Ones.

The Sleeping Beauty magic and the Spear of Longinus he had seen earlier had also given him certain ideas.

After learning about the Beyonder power called Mystical Re-enactment during the private gathering, Klein had overturned his previous guesses regarding Bernadette’s fairy-tale magic.

He had originally thought Emperor Roselle had specifically created those spells based on Earth’s fairy tales for his daughter, or that Bernadette had intentionally created them after her father’s fall, drawing on the tales he had once told her as a way of entrusting her grief. But now, it seemed that was probably not the answer. Certain fairy tales from before the First Epoch might themselves have been “mystery.”

This meant those tales originated from mysterious events that had truly happened. They spread among the populace, gradually became stories, and were then recorded and reworked by writers.

“This corresponds to the prophecy of the stars returning to their positions. Mystery has never been far away. It has always existed. It was merely suppressed or sealed by some power during the ‘Earth Age’ before the First Epoch…

“If that’s true, then certain legends and stories on Earth have another angle of explanation… No wonder there’s a Spear of Longinus… I wonder whether The Peach Blossom Spring involves mystery. I should tell Madam Hermit later and see whether she can create new magic from it…

“I also don’t know whether Bernadette had become a Mysticologist before the Emperor fell. If she had, then it’s hard to say whether these fairy-tale spells were created by the Emperor after he switched to Sequence 1 of the Mystery Pryer pathway, or by the Queen of Mysteries Bernadette herself… But either way, late in life, the Emperor should already have discovered that those fairy tales also belonged to mystery and could be drawn upon for power. Mm, Bernadette doesn’t have the corresponding diary pages, so I can’t see what the Emperor’s reaction and conjectures were back then…

“Was one of his reasons for insisting on going to the moon that he wanted to verify certain matters?

“What a pity. Most myths are fake and cannot be used to draw power. Novels from the internet age are the same…” Klein sighed softly, leaned back against his chair, and continued watching the battlefield.

Inside the collapsed forest, faced with Botis’s mutation, The Hermit Cattleya and Justice Audrey tacitly gave up infusing spirituality into the charms.

Audrey, still in dragonified state, remained hidden in the darkness outside the forest, guarding against possible accidents and against official demigods who might have sensed the commotion and come to investigate.

Meanwhile, pushed by wind, The Hermit Cattleya drew close to the area where Botis had died, cautiously avoiding the Box of the Great Old Ones.

Since a Scribe could use many different abilities, and demigod-level sealed artifacts often had powerful negative effects, aside from the Box of the Great Old Ones, Botis had only left behind a black pouch that seemed to be part of the robe he had worn.

Apart from that, there was his converging Beyonder characteristic, two eyeballs, and roughly ten Star Worms. Most of the Star Worms had already been destroyed.

Considering the terror displayed by the Box of the Great Old Ones, and the fact that Botis was a high-ranking member of the Aurora Order who might carry divine favor, Cattleya did not rashly pick up those items. She feared an accident might occur and make the situation develop in a bad direction.

During their private discussion beforehand, they had talked about how similar situations should be handled: if there was enough time and opportunity, they would first sacrifice the items to Mr. Fool and distribute them above the gray fog afterward. After all, many items, if touched before their negative effects were known, could bring unknown dangers, and Botis most likely possessed a Grade 0 sealed artifact.

At times, merely learning of the existence of sealed artifacts of that level or understanding a certain amount of information about them could cause sudden death.

According to The Star Leonard, the best way to handle such sealed artifacts was: do not touch, do not inquire, do not describe, do not pry. Only a truly high-level existence could suppress them.

Without hesitation, Cattleya took silver candles and other ritual materials from the hidden pockets of her purple-patterned black robe and swiftly arranged a simplified sacrificial ritual.

During this process, she pinched her lips and blew a whistle, creating an invisible servant to assist her. It took only a dozen seconds to finish setting up the altar.

After quickly reciting Mr. Fool’s honorific name and using spiritual materials to open the Gate of Sacrifice and Bestowment, Cattleya released a slight breath and had the invisible servant move the Box of the Great Old Ones, the black pouch, the two eyeballs, the converged Beyonder characteristic, and nine Star Worms to the altar.

Amid a whooshing wind, these items flew up and passed through the illusory gate.

Seeing this, Cattleya immediately pinched her lower lip between thumb and index finger, preparing to whistle once more and stop maintaining the invisible servant’s existence.

Yet amid the whistle, that “servant” did not move at all, as though it had already become unrelated to Cattleya.

The Hermit Cattleya’s eyelid twitched. Her right hand abruptly half-clenched and pressed to her mouth, preparing to use the magical horn.

At that moment, a ball of blazing silver-white radiance suddenly appeared at the altar. Layer upon layer of interwoven electric serpents formed a storm of destruction, enveloping the invisible servant at the center.

Everything quickly subsided. The mutated servant had been completely destroyed.

Cattleya breathed out, lowered her head, and sincerely thanked Mr. Fool.

Then, following the procedure, she ended the ritual, packed up the items, and used the more prophetic Snow White to handle the scene and erase traces.

By then, Justice Audrey had already used the Teleportation charm from earlier and left the battlefield.

Cattleya looked around and, considering that Mr. Fool might require matters to be a little more ritualized, took a card from a hidden pocket in her robe and tossed it into the center of the collapsed forest.

The card half-buried itself in the soil, revealing the image of an old man leaning on a staff, carrying a glass lantern, and exploring in solitude.

The Hermit card.