Chương 183: Chapter One-Hundred-and-Eighty-Three

"What are you talking about?" Adam asked, vividly remembering what had happened last time he'd tried to visit a dead person's dimension.

"There is another moth," Kat told him. Another?

"Is it white?" he asked, wondering if she'd somehow met Luvicidix.

"No. She is grey." Adam turned to his cube and asked, "Is there a grey moth denizen on Interim Island?" The cube didn't respond, something that was generally reserved for moments where it seemingly wasn't supposed to know, such as with the time-defying moth twins. That might mean it's possible Kat is telling the truth…

"Explain to me what happened," Adam said. And so she did. Kat had bought the visiting stone with the intention of visiting Adam, but when she had asked Alivida about using it to visit Aeran and what would happen, she had gotten a strange response. She had been told that she would not like what she found. That's different from what I was told, but maybe that's because my question was broad and hers was specific to one person.

When she'd travelled to Aeran's dimension, she had landed on a barren copy of Interim Island, covered in embers and ash, and with a grey moth humanoid standing amidst it all, staring up into the dark clouds above.

"What does she do?" he asked.

"She sells powerful upgrades with immense demerits to balance them out." I can't tell if she's telling the truth or not, but it sounds too specific to be a lie. Adam scratched his chin. I really shouldn't be doing this now.

"I will check it out," he told her and cut the connection. He tried to get in touch with Beck and Lasse, but neither of them were in the tavern, so he left. Before he walked out of his house, he switched the Cloudmaker staff to the spidersilk needle. If this place is real, I doubt it's somewhere that I'll be protected. As Adam flew to Alivida's tent to ask her more about the visiting stone, he wove the patterns for Shade Barrier and Beckoning Crimson, pulling material out of his Kingly Raiment to form them.

Once he landed in the garden, Adam walked into the tent and placed the visiting stone on the round table in front of Alivida. She appraised him from where she crouched atop her chair.

"Good evening… Adam."

"I want to know what happens if I use this to visit the dimension of the player called ' Aeran'."

"You will not like… what you find."

"What if I use it to visit Emelia Bell's dimension?"

"It would be inadvisable," she replied, repeating the first warning she'd given him about the stone, moments prior to his death at the jaws of Nwetrou.

"So the difference lies in whether someone was sacrificed or simply died," Adam concluded.

"I cannot say."

"Will I die if I visit Aeran's dimension?"

"You would leave the island's sanctuary," she replied, an answer that surprised Adam and also confirmed his fear.

"Is it worth going there?"

"You will not… like the cost."

"I'll be the judge of that," he remarked.

"You are always the arbiter of your own fate," she agreed.

"One last question. Can I use the visiting stone the moment I return from the next stage or do I have to interact with the altar first?"

"The Absolutes do not like to be kept… waiting."

"That wasn't my question," Adam said.

"We are not allowed to deny them of what is theirs by right," she explained.

"So that's a no?"

"You are welcome to try… I would not advise it." Guess it's no different than Luvicidix waiting until after I've dealt with the altar before she shows up. I thought for a moment I might be able to escape the Flayed Lady's wrath with the visiting stone, but I guess Alivida doesn't want to have that anger redirected at her. Adam looked down at the visiting stone, contemplating visiting Aeran's dimension. He didn't want his run to end, but if Kat had survived it, he was sure he would be fine.

And the curiosity was killing him. Perhaps the Tome Keeper's hunt for knowledge has rubbed off on me.

"I will be back shortly to check out your new upgrade," he told Alivida.

"Unless this kills me." Adam lifted the visiting stone from the table and activated its power. < < Visiting Stone Activated > > < Travelling to the Dimension of Player Aeran >"Pass on my regards," Alivida said, just before Adam teleported away. Stolen story; please report. Everything went black for a moment and Adam felt his feet sink into something soft like snow. Only, it was warm. Much warmer than his own body. Then his vision cleared and he saw that he was in the middle of Interim Island.

But it wasn't a sight he recognised. The houses and other structures were pulverised, with nothing but tiny bits of their walls left to mark their ruins. Grey ash as thick as snow covered everything and a thick fog-like haze of smoke floated on the air while embers fluttered down from above. He looked up and saw the clouds had turned almost black. Within them roiled red snakes of fire and lightning.

A deep reverberating hum swam through the air like an instrument's melody and it made his body shake down to its core. He realised belatedly that his weapons, relics, and powers were all gone. Without knowing which direction to pick, Adam simply headed north to where the player house would be, though surely only ruins would greet him when he arrived.

Still, it seemed a better choice than any of the other directions, and within just a few moments of trudging through the ash, he saw a silhouetted figure through the haze. After a few more steps, the silhouette resolved into a humanoid shape. It was a moth like Kat had said, and she was grey, like the middle ground between Alivida and Luvicidix, though he didn't know if their colours were symbolic of their nature, though it did match their connection to day and night. Which makes this one an in-between.

This is something that is neither day nor night, accessible only in the world of the dead. The grey moth was taller than Luvicidix, and embers clung to her dark wings. Her hair was a frizzy mane of light-grey locks, her face was a pale, almost white, tone, and her eyes were dancing flames caged within marbles. She wore what looked like a jacket with a fur lining at the top, except it was her body and not a piece of clothing.

While Alivida and Luvicidix both had an adorable quality to their appearances, this moth looked more serious and colder, not to mention strikingly beautiful, though Adam felt that something was off about her, more so than her siblings. The grey moth was looking up at the black clouds, but as he drew nearer, she angled her gaze down to him, her fiery eyes meeting his.

"I was unsure if you would come," she remarked, looking away again.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"What are you doing here?"

"My sisters guard the day and night, and I am here in the dusk and dawn, the gaps in-between their existences. We rule three separate realms, and we may never meet. A cruel fate for siblings, would you not say?" Adam hadn't really thought about it from that perspective, but he supposed she was right.

"My name is Fal, and my task is to reward morbid curiosity with a bargain." She turned towards Adam fully and moved her arms through the air, trailing embers behind her fingers as though she was smouldering from within.

"What kind of bargain?" Adam asked. Kat hadn't been completely clear about what was offered.

"A bargain of the soul, binding until the coil winds back around to its start." I think 'coil' is what the Absolutes say when they refer to looping. Which means all of her bargains' effects last until I loop again.

"I'd like to see what you have on offer," Adam said.

"All power comes with a price," Fal said with a flourish of her smouldering hands. The embers that trailed her fingers floated in the air in front of her, taking on the shape of words.

< < Fal's Soul Bargains > > < Mask of Greed — Bosses reward a bonus chest on death — Vendors stop selling upgrades > < Double Charge — One-time-use Relics gain a second use — Lose 5% of all Stats when a Relic exhausts all uses > < Lonesome Spire — Double all Stats — Stages cannot be completed while teammates are alive > < The Soul Dial — Obtain the Soul Dial — Manifest a Capgras Demon on Player kill > < Cheat Death — Obtain the Cheat Death Relic — All damage received is fatal > < Creation Spark — Obtain a Creation Spark consumable — Spells have a 2% chance to summon a Voidspawn > These are all crazy, but the costs associated with them make them basically unusable.

The only one I'd be tempted to try is the Soul Dial, just to figure out what the hell it does. I'm surprised she grants a Cheat Death relic too, but that means it's actually accessible to those who aren't time-loopers. However, anyone who takes it to try and obtain the Self-Devouring Eye is not going to make it to where it's hidden. Surviving the Singing City, when all damage is fatal, is not going to be possible if what Emelia told me is true.

"Creation Spark, that's a divine consumable, right?" Adam asked, recalling the name from what Emelia had explained. It was something that could instantly kill a Voidspawn or resurrect a dead player. She had known of two of these consumables and where they appeared, but they wouldn't show up for many more stages, and getting them was laborious and complicated.

"I am not allowed to describe the bargains in detail," Fal said.

"I would warn you though, the wording is very literal."

"You can't even tell me what the Soul Dial is?" he asked.

"I cannot." Maybe when I get to a loop where I have nothing to lose I'll give these a try, but right now it would be foolish.

"Is it possible to take more than one bargain?" he asked.

"It is not. You have but one soul to bargain with."

"Will there be other bargains than these?"

"My selection depends on you," she answered, but didn't elaborate. Adam looked around at the ashy remains of Aeran's Interim Island.

"Can I find you in the dimension of any dead player?"

"So long as an Absolute has not laid claim to their remains, I will be here."

"Are you sure I can't convince you to come back to my dimension?" Adam offered.

"We are bound to our duty and cannot stray from what we must do. I will be here, until the Trials come to an end or you traverse the coil anew." With that she looked back up into the dark clouds again and the text of her bargains vanished.

"Alivida told me to say hi," Adam remarked before he pulled out his visiting stone. Fal glanced back at him for a moment.

"Tell them both that I am well."

"I will," he promised and activated the stone. < < Visiting Stone Deactivated > > < Leaving the Dimension of Player Aeran > Adam's vision went black and his footing became solid. As the darkness faded, he found himself back in the centre of his own dimension's island, once more wearing his relics and weapons. I wonder if I should tell Beck about this or not. If he picks one of those bargains, he is definitely going to die…

Before Adam returned to Alivida's tent, he went back down into the basement restaurant and reconnected with Kat. Beck still wasn't in the tavern, but Lasse had returned, though he was in the middle of talking to someone Adam couldn't see, so he left him alone for now.

"It worked," he told Kat.

"Did you take any of the bargains?"

"No."

"Good."

"Listen, we can't tell Beck about this," Adam said.

"He's too reckless to have this kind of knowledge and I need him to survive." Kat nodded.

"I will not share this."

"Thank you for telling me though," Adam continued.

"But it was foolish to visit a dead player's dimension. I did it in a past loop and it got me killed. It was not a fun way to die."

"I thought that I might see Aeran again if I went there. I am unsure what I truly expected to find," she admitted.

"If you want to beat the Trials, then you need to focus on what you can do to survive and get stronger," Adam told her.

"Recklessness and chasing curiosity will get you killed." Kat gave him a dubious look.

"Yes, I'm speaking from experience here."

"I discovered something else," Kat remarked.

"What?" Adam asked.

"I was only able to buy twenty-five upgrades after fully evolving my weapons. It even prevented me from purchasing non-weapon upgrades." Adam frowned and turned to his cube.

"Is there a limit on how many upgrades I can buy?" [I cannot say.] Of course not…

"If this is an actual feature, then that changes things," he remarked as he turned back to Kat.

"If it's only possible to buy twenty-five upgrades between stages, then we should do that every time we return to maximise our stats. Hoarding points seems to be punished in this regard."

"It is the first time I have possessed this many points, and they do not allow me to use them as I wish… It seems unfair."

"I'm sure they'd call it fairness," Adam replied. I want to check if this is actually a thing though, so I guess I will just be upgrading the Cloudmaker, before spending the rest of my points on general upgrades.

"I'll be back later," Adam told Kat and left his house, heading towards the market before he'd return to Alivida's tent.