The Seeker | Volume 2

The officer brought me to a long abandoned building near the outskirts of the kingdom near the stone wall standing 20 meters high. The building was made of wood, and the foliage and fungi had already started to reclaim its old framework.

"Although my previous statement was merely a guess, I assume someone like you with supernatural abilities should be able to figure out if this is true or not."

I turned back to the officer with a small smile. "I personally think 5,000 Lumin is far too great for the effort I'll put in here."

I approached the old building and opened the door, only for it to snap off of its almost half-a-century old hinges and fall to the ground, sending a storm of dust into my face. I coughed, waving my hand and discerning the cloud. 

I always kept my divination ingredients on me in case something would happen. After all, the MEC I recently started wasn't going to be profitable until I made the right decision and accepted a valuable commission. 

I walked into the center of the living room and placed down the paper and took out the sun-charm which glistened with an ethereal light. To ensure I wouldn't harm myself further I'd already collected a small jar of my black blood and dropped a little of it onto the paper for the given ritual.

"The whereabouts of the Debois siblings...the whereabouts of the Debois siblings...the whereabouts of the Debois siblings..." I repeated 3 times in my mind. My surroundings suddenly changed as the essence of the divination world surrounded my body, sending me upwards into the void-like realm.

When I reopened my eyes I saw a massive sigil glowing brightly in the void, it was a blue symbol similar to mine, except all of its details were different. It was also the size of the one I had conjured with my authority with Raymond's help. 

"This is most likely some protection that regular people couldn't see. I haven't met many people who work with divination, so this man must have had a good sense of foresight." I thought to myself.

I gripped the sun-charm as the apocalypse sigil on my forehead began to glow brighter. Blurry crimson pillars shot through the darkness, seemingly melting the darkness along with everything else it encountered. I was working to summon my Divine Protection into the divination world. 

But since I was merely an Order 8 at the moment, doing such a thing would require an insane amount of effort and concentration. Since Mr. Debois Routeway primarily focused on concealment and hiding, the possibility of there being something else I'm not seeing wasn't a bad guess.

Suddenly, I saw something illusory whip past my vision, it being too fast for me to see. From the mere glimpse I managed to catch of it, it looked as if it was primarily composed of shadows and darkness, seemingly blending in with the environment.

Even more of these illusory shadows whooshed past me, swirling around the blurry pillars and around the sigil in the air. I focused all my might on these spirits, attempting to discern through the layers of darkness that consumed the divination world. All of the sudden, one charged at me with lightning speed before entering my body.

More and more of these spirits entered my body, until I felt like the inside of my body was full of them like a basket. 

"Didn't Raymond call me a "Wraithcaller" when he fed me the Order 8 potion? And don't these look similar to the spirit that clung to me after Cattleya awakened my abilities? Am I continuing my digestion process? Was my potion not fully digested?!" I thought to myself.

A pair of illusory black wings formed on my back as I suddenly propelled myself upwards. I swung my hand, visualizing a wraith leaving my palm and swarming the sigil. And when I did so, a wraith did leave my palm, and it began to swarm and corrode at the sigil.

More and more wraiths left my palm as I attacked Mr. Debois concealment sigil, corroding away at its spirituality. The sigil began to flicker brightly, on and off, on and off. With a sudden boom, it exploded with the force of a supernova!

I was sent back as I felt my eardrums shatter and my eyes pop out of their sockets! I felt numerous pairs of illusory eyes gazing in my direction, and an overwhelming sense of dread overcome my senses, eroding and corroding away at me.

A loud demonic shrill was heard, and a large black hand suddenly reached out from the darkness, wrapping around the sigil which had now taken a new shape, a spirit creature! Mr. Debois saw this coming, and did he instate some form of creature to guard this attack?

The hand wrapped around the creature and clenched its fist, crushing the creature into a lump of flesh, twitching weakly as it fell to the ground of the divination realm. The Umbridge suddenly manifested in front of me, peering up into the sea of crimson stars that have now appeared. "Their" wormhole-like eyes flickering with a weird sense of interest. 

With the wave of "their" hand, all the stairs turned blurry, and they began to melt. The flickers of the illusory barrier I had previously seen had also disappeared overhead, being replaced with the inscrutable darkness that I had previously seen.

"Apocalypse...we meet again." The Umbridge said as "they" looked towards me. 

"I haven't seen you in a while..." I said as I looked at the pair of illusory shadow wings on my back, that constantly warped and changed as if wanting to become physical.

"Your spirit body has acquired a new characteristic. It's almost time for you to accommodate more authority and become an Order 7..." "They" said as "they" disappeared again.

Before I could say anything to "them," "they" had already disappeared, leaving me alone along with the fleeting images that "they" carried. 

I sighed as I held the sun-charm in my hand, looking up at where the sigil had previously been. The images then came to me! It showed the blurry image of Mr. Debois digging a hole, and 2 bodies wrapped in bedsheets descend into the hole with his toss.

"I knew it..."

After I descended from the divination world I left the house and saw the officer waiting for me. "It appears your statement was correct, Mr. Debois did bury his siblings here."

The officer raised an eyebrow in surprise and a tiny bit of amazement at the divination's accuracy. "I'll deliver your payment tomorrow."

...

"Something is wrong with me." Aizawa said as he looked towards Cattleya's mentor with trepidation. 

"Mind explaining?" She asked, folding her hands on the mottled table. 

Aizawa took a deep breath, hoping that he or her wouldn't be confused by corruption upon learning this information.

"One of my friends fainted after looking in my eyes. She said something about a Nest of Vulgarity and the Mother of Impurity..."

Behind the thin veil over her face, Aizawa could still see her eyes dilate with shock. She suddenly lifted her and lifted her veil, revealing a pair of purple eyes.

"Lay down." She said in a firm voice. Aizawa nodded as he suddenly shifted his body, laying down horizontally inside her tent.

"You never told me your name..." Aizawa suddenly said. The woman looked back at him, her expression not softening. 

"My name is Scarlett. But you can address me as Mrs. Scarlett."

Aizawa nodded silently as Mr. Scarlett suddenly opened her bag and took out a small wooden piece that looked like a hollow tube.

She also took out a small bag of red and blue powder, which glistened dimly in the lack of illumination. 

She took a few steps towards Aizawa and kneeled next to him, before placing the small wooden tube on his forehead, facing so that something could enter it from above.

"I have to exercise you." She said with caution as she took a handful of both powders before spilling them down the tube.

Aizawa didn't question the woman's methods, as he assumed that here people had different methods of spirituality due to the lack of technology besides the steam engine over 50 years ago.

"Close your eyes."

Aizawa closed his eyes, and behind his eyelids all he saw was black, but the black began to change. He could see an illusory door form, glowing with a red, ominous light.

"Focus on the door, it's your way out." She whispered, her voice echoing through his ears as if he stood in a cathedral. Was this an enhanced effect of spirituality?

Aizawa focused all of his might on the door, attempting to unravel it through the layers of his own consciousness. 

The door grew brighter as he "approached" it. When he stood in front of it, a blurry doorknob formed on the door.

Aizawa hesitantly reached for the doorknob before pushing it open. Behind the illusory door was a swirling vortex made of flesh and blood. His eyes widened in fear and astonishment as Scarlett told him to enter the "room."

As Aizawa walked further into the vortex, he felt his spirit body feel like it was being pulled and crushed at the same time, his flesh contracting and relaxing layer by layer, fighting for control.

He looked at his hand and saw layers of his skin begin to peel off, revealing layers of flesh, muscle and bone underneath.

Aizawa wanted to ask Scarlett what was happening to him, but he couldn't open his mouth, as if it was ripped from his body.

His entire body was suddenly engulfed in a riptide of blood that threatened to spill through the crimson door, but Aizawa managed to continue walking even if the boiling liquid was up to his knees.

The boiling blood corroded away at his body, continuing to break down his form and reshape it. Aizawa continued to ignore the inscrutable pain, pushing forward.

A figure suddenly manifested inside the vortex, it was the illusory and blurry shape of a woman with hair that always seemed to be moving slowly. 

The figure's eyes lit up with a hot malice as "she" extended her hand at Aizawa. Aizawa suddenly felt a heavy, dense and horrifying aura overcome his senses.

Was Scarlett not planning on interfering? Was this something he had to endure and conquer on his own? 

Those thoughts terrified him, but the thought of his spirit body collapsing in on itself was even more terrifying; that way, he would truly die!

Aizawa stood up, as a sudden surge of adrenaline surged through his spirit and courses into his malformed flesh.

Aizawa suddenly ran at the "woman", his fists clenched so hard they were pale. With a large swing, Aizawa unleashed a wave of purple energy far beyond his current capability.

The energy hit the "woman" and she disappeared without a trace. The vortex of flesh and blood also was corroded away, and his flesh was patched up layer by layer.

So Scarlett's exorcism wasn't something that she would do herself, but it allowed him to overcome it himself.

Aizawa reopened his eyes and met Scarlett's gaze. Everything seemed to be more saturated than usual, as if all color had been enhanced by a percentage.

Aizawa rubbed his eyes, he no longer saw the illusory red door.