Chương 198: Chapter One-Hundred-and-Ninety-Eight

I finally have an excuse to search for wherever the old seal leads, Adam realised as he flew towards an intact building the others had found inside the village behind the church palisade. He paused to consult his compass and to his surprise it pointed to the very same building. Maybe they found something inside, he wondered, though their melodies seemed rather normal. Unlike the other houses, the building had been made of stone, same as the church.

Its roof had to have been wood though, because it was now gone, surely devoured by the blaze that had reduced the other houses and buildings to ruin. If the secret to the old seal is within, Red Rian may have kept it intact on purpose. It was quite a large house, perhaps serving as the village chief's home.

Red Rian had been looking for the 'Woodlocke ring', and Adam assumed that Woodlocke had to be Lady Cassandra's family name, given that the compass pointed him here and the priest in Old Town had mentioned this place as well. There was no door to block him from entering, and inside he quickly found the others on the bottom floor in a large room, staring at something on the wall. It was a massive engraving carved directly into the solid grey stone and it depicted what Adam assumed was a family tree.

Spots of blood were placed on each branching part, though there were no names. Heiner noticed him enter.

"Did the other tests pay off?" he asked. Adam shook his head.

"No, but we understand how it works at least. With the right setup, we can produce another true flame." Diwa's melody soured at his words.

"How are you fine when I am not?" she asked.

"My armour protected me," Adam replied. Diwa must've assumed that the way he phrased it was a dig at her helmet, because anger rose in her melody, but before she could have another outburst, Natalia put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.

"What do you make of this?" Natalia asked Adam, nodding towards the wall.

"It may have something to do with a ring I found in Moonport," Adam said. He pulled off his scoundrel's glove and raiment gauntlet, before slipping on the old seal and letting them inspect it.

"We thought the engraving might be a family tree," Heiner said.

"But it's impossible to tell who it belongs to, because there are no names. I saw this place briefly in my vision from the orb, but it didn't show me what to do." Adam went up to the wall to look closer at the branching paths. The bottom-most part of it had a blood spot that looked like a fingerprint, but from it sprouted another branch that was empty.

He had a hunch he wanted to confirm, so he revealed his glass hand and placed its index finger on the old blood near from which the empty spot sprouted like the mark of an unfulfilled legacy. The vision that manifested was fractured and hard to distinguish, but in it he saw a boy no older than fourteen cutting his thumb with the old seal and pressing his finger against an empty spot on the wall. He had the same golden hair as Lady Cassandra. I wonder if all of their family had the same hair colour, Adam considered.

He brought up the information for the ring again. < < Secret Relic > > < The Old Seal (Common) — In the old days, this ring would pass from father to son after the coming of age. It was said that any who wore it could always tell right from wrong. That time is long gone and with it the old power it once possessed.

When tradition grows forlorn, the world is bereft of its glow > If this last blood print is Cassandra's father, who she said broke a promise, then it may explain why the branching path from his spot is empty. Although… Adam checked the blood prints one by one, going back in time. The visions became harder and harder to understand the higher up they went, but he at least confirmed his suspicion. All of these spots denote a man in the family.

Which means the wording of the description is literally referring to the relationship between a father and son. But not all of the men in the visions seem to be related directly, so perhaps it's just more of a patriarchal lineage than an actual family tree of parent and child. If Cassandra's father had not broken the tradition, then perhaps it would have been her husband whose blood would be pressed into the empty spot.

"Are you okay?" Heiner asked him, catching on to the weirdness happening when he saw the visions.

"I'm fine. My hand is showing me the echoes of the past when I touch old blood," Adam explained.

"I was trying to figure out a pattern from those who placed their blood on the branches."

"Since they look like fingerprints, maybe you should just add your own blood to the bottom," Natalia suggested. Adam nodded.

"That does seem to be the answer. Although it likely wouldn't work without this ring, and it has to be the thumb that's used. Plus, it seems to only allow a man to do it." Diwa frowned.

"What will it do?" Natalia asked.

"We're about to find out," Adam replied. All three of them took a few steps back.

"It's not gonna blow up," Adam told them. Probably. With the old seal ring on his thumb, Adam used his flesh control to open up a line along the fingertip and pressed it against the empty spot. The ring hissed and smoked, feeling suddenly warm against his skin. Please don't blow up my hand, Adam prayed. The others backed even further away. The hissing died down and the smoke cleared to reveal that the ring had transformed, taking on a soft golden hue.

A flat spot had appeared on the ring, but instead of a gem there was the symbol of a flame. < < Secret Relic Obtained > > < The Old Vow (Uncommon) — Once, the Old Kingdom was a land of vows and promises. They were like the True Flame, a golden beacon for others to follow and a source of great power. Those who seek to cast off the blanket of shadow and drive away its seeking arms must rekindle that flame within themselves | Resist the Forlorn Shadow's attempts to control you > Another riddle.

I think this must be an item that's similar to the rusted crown and will keep evolving. I wonder what other powers it will unlock. He showed them what it had turned into.

"What do you think the effect does?" Diwa asked.

"Will the Forlorn Shadow try to control us?"

"I've only heard of it doing that to corpses," Adam replied.

"Maybe it has the ability to use its shadowy magic to puppeteer us?" Heiner suggested. I would definitely have heard if that were the case.

"I think it just means that anyone who wears it when they die won't be resurrected by it," Adam said. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"Oh…" Heiner muttered.

"Do you think the next riddle is meant to be taken literally as well?" Natalia wondered.

"If so, it sounds like we need to use a true flame on the ring, or perhaps the wearer has to absorb a true flame, like what you and Seo-Yoon were doing with the hoods earlier."

"That's not a bad guess," Adam replied. He pulled out the compass and asked it to point him towards the answer, but it just spun in a circle. Hmm. I can't tell if that means the answer doesn't exist in this stage, or if it can't point me towards it. Wait. Maybe it's because the true flame's ember hasn't yet produced a flame. I'll have to check it again tomorrow then.

"We should go back to the others," Adam said. They looked at him with slightly guilty notes in their melodies.

"What?" Adam asked.

"When we came here, there were two upgrade chests," Natalia said.

"Diwa and I both took one."

"I thought it was fine," Heiner defended them. Adam shrugged.

"I don't care that much about upgrades, but you'd better tell Chien and Seo-Yoon about it." Diwa looked away.

"We will," Natalia promised. They had agreed to spend the night taking turns sleeping and keeping watch, but since neither Adam nor Seo-Yoon slept, they didn't wake up the others when it came time to switch. After a bit of scavenging, they had found a few blankets and brought them to the church, turning the pews into improvised beds. The freed women stuck together in a corner of the building, next to the altar. Although it lacked a holy relic, they seemed to take comfort in its presence.

Despite how much Diwa seems to distrust Chien and how paranoid Natalia is, neither of them seemed worried about sleeping here… Chien and Heiner both slept like rocks as well.

"Strange, isn't it?" Seo-Yoon commented.

"Even after Moonport, they still think sleep is important."

"Did you lose anyone to the dream magic?" Adam asked.

"Just one. I learnt to stay awake after two of the men in my group killed my friend and tried to have their way with me. At least they made me realise my Cloudmaker has some useful hidden features." Adam frowned.

"Is it that common?" he asked.

"Assaults like that, I mean. Someone in my Moonport group had a similar story." Seo-Yoon laughed, but there was no joy in it.

"You tell me this, Adam. After a week or more of no physical contact with other people, unless you count the bugs, how would men with boundless desire act when placed in a stage with careless and innocent women like me?" Adam thought she was neither innocent nor careless, based on some of the crazy things she'd said and done already. Not to mention her melody, it didn't really match the situations they were in, since she was just too calm about everything. It reminded him of Juliette.

"I get your point," he replied.

"Despite how we would all benefit from working together, it is human nature to be selfish and greedy."

"It's not just that," she said.

"In the real world, a lot of monsters are kept in check by the expectations of society and by laws. Those don't exist here."

"It's not just men who abuse that," Adam retorted.

"I know."

"If you had the power to go back in time, what would you do?" he asked. She shrugged.

"Probably nothing. No, that's not true. I would kill those two guys before they killed my friend." Adam shook his head.

"Human nature," she replied with a grin. The way her melody sounded just then made him think that the person she'd lost had been a lot more than just a friend. It was like a brief glimpse behind the curtain, because an instant later it was back to its usual nonchalant tones. When dawn cast its light across the Forgotten Village and reached over the palisade walls, Adam and Seo-Yoon stirred the others.

"Why didn't you wake me up for guard duty?" Heiner asked.

"You were all sleeping soundly," Adam replied.

"What about you? Didn't you sleep?" Natalia asked, looking between Adam and Seo-Yoon.

"Sleep isn't necessary to function," Seo-Yoon remarked.

"Not anymore."

"You will receive an affliction if you stay awake for too many days," Chien said.

"It can be cured with a stamina potion," Adam replied, tapping the last potion in his belt.

"Surely you'll become loopy without sleep," Natalia commented. For a moment she sounded like she was a mother scolding her child.

"After a while you get used to it," Adam just said. Seo-Yoon nodded.

"Well, thank you for letting us get proper rest," Heiner said.

"We won't get much of that after today." The look of well-rested bliss on the others' faces was snatched away in an instant by that single phrase.

"If we sleep in Old Town, we'll be fine until day five at least," Adam countered.

"But we shouldn't stay here again." The women they had rescued had all slept through the night as well, but they looked ready to head elsewhere.

"So, what's the plan today?" Heiner asked.

"We should climb the Oath Spire mountain to the chapel near its summit," Adam said.

"I have a secret that can be used there."

"You want us to hike all the way up there?" Diwa asked.

"It will take forever."

"It doesn't have to," Adam replied with a grin. Natalia frowned.

"Fuck, not again…" After leading the hostages from the church to the road that wove around the northern edge of Oath Spire and led west to Old Town, Adam and his group flew to the mountain's summit using a floating platform with simple seats and seatbelts. He had done his best to make the sculpted vehicle as inoffensive as possible, but it meant that its effectiveness dropped a lot.

Ironically, this turned out to make the trip far more tolerable for the others, although Chien still had shaky legs by the time they reached the frigid top of the mountain. They had landed on a mostly flat part of the mountain top, but it was possible to climb even higher to the very peak, though the chapel they had come for was nearby. It was a weathered and old building made of wood, which seemed to have endured hundreds of years against the elements.

Unlike the two other churches they'd been to in this stage, the chapel had an ominous aura about it. It wasn't anything tangible, but it seemed to promise occult power for those brave enough to enter, or so Adam thought. Given the name of the mountain and the wording of the secret ring, he couldn't help but wonder about how it all worked, because there was clearly power in the oaths, vows, seals, and promises. At least for this stage.

Adam's mind wandered absentmindedly as he reabsorbed the vehicle back into his raiment. It seems to be a general theme, so it would be great if I could understand it fully. It may even be a form of magic I could benefit from learning. The fact that the magic system behind the golden nail was something neither Beck nor Adam had understood, hinted at the possibility of there being many forms of magic and power left to be discovered. Maybe it's possible to perform magic with the Fool if I get mana upgrades.

"What are we doing here?" Chien asked, pulling Adam back to the present. He was pretending not to have been affected by the ride up the mountain, but Adam could still see the tremors in his legs. Adam pulled out the twisted symbol and showed it to them. When he held it in his hand, the small angel figure emanated oily black magic that was visible to them all, even though it had required the aspirant's cowl to be viewed in Moonport. It was unmistakeably the magic belonging to the Forlorn Shadow.

While in his backpack, the magic hadn't been noticeable, which was a bit confusing, but had at least prevented Chien from seeing it until now.

"Blasphemy," Chien remarked. Adam checked his compass, and it still pointed to the chapel when he sought to know the purpose of the twisted symbol.

"It has something to do with the chapel," Adam said, ignoring the rebuke. Seo-Yoon seemed more interested in the compass than the symbol, and Adam quickly packed it away, pulling it through his armour so that only he could retrieve it.

"Is it going to lead to a fight?" Heiner asked.

"I saw this place in the orb of insight, and there was a robed enemy here."

"I have no idea what it'll do," Adam admitted.

"We should be prepared for anything. The enemy you saw, was it a forlorn knight?"

"I think so, but I'm not entirely sure, it looked quite different."

"I will go in alone and you can wait out here," Adam said.

"I'm coming with you!" Seo-Yoon exclaimed.

"I will join as well," Chien said. Diwa and Natalia looked at each other, but didn't make a move to follow. Heiner decided to stay outside too. Adam allowed Chien to move in first and tried not to stay too close to him, since in a confined space he would take the full brunt of his holy nova if he was struck. There were no signs of life inside the building, but they stayed alert since the place definitely felt dangerous.

The interior was the same weathered and old wooden planks, and long pews ran in rows from the main hall towards an open section of the floor where seven large masses of black candles had been placed at even intervals. A circle of black wax connected them, and lines were drawn between the candles, forming a heptagram. Connected to the symbol were three circles placed seemingly at random, and a larger one in the middle of the seven-pointed star.

"Foul magic," Chien remarked. Adam consulted his compass again, but it pointed past the ritual on the floor to an altar with an open and empty reliquary. It looked similar to the one from Father Mathias' church in Moonport, but the central figure of the angel was missing. Past the altar was the only thing made of stone. It was a large standing coffin with the engraving of a handsome sleeping man on the vertical lid.

Adam wondered if the Forlorn Shadow would turn the corpse inside it into another knight when it reached this place in a few days. Though perhaps the secret with the reliquary is tied to it.

"What do you think this is for?" Seo-Yoon asked as she knelt on the floor next to the heptagram. She seemed excited about it.

"It may be for summoning something," Adam said.

"Perhaps it's the objective for one of the Absolutes." He went up to the reliquary and made to place the twisted symbol within.

"What are you doing, Adam?" Chien asked, stopping him.

"I'm trying to uncover the secret," Adam replied.

"That symbol is tainted. It may uncover a monster if you activate it," he warned.

"We should wait until I can bless it and remove the Shadow's power from it."

"There's no guarantee that would work," Adam replied.

"Let's see what it does," Seo-Yoon said eagerly. I hadn't considered that it could be blessed, but it might also prevent the secret from activating if we do that. The compass pointed me here, so it should work. Just to be sure, Adam consulted the compass again, asking it to show him the nearest secret. Unsurprisingly, it still pointed to the reliquary atop the altar. When he moved back towards the heptagram, it snapped towards that instead.

So, two secrets in here, but the twisted symbol seems to be specifically for the reliquary.

"We're doing it," Adam decided and returned to the altar.

"Be ready for anything." Since Adam was somewhat worried about the reliquary itself being a trap, he detached his gauntlet and used it to float the twisted symbol into place. Chien clearly disapproved of Adam's decision, but there was a part of him that seemed excited at what might happen. The symbol slotted into place and its tainted magic flowed out to grasp the reliquary, giving it a rusted appearance as well and darkening its iconography.

Then a shockwave exploded outwards from it, washing across the chapel and splitting the lid of the coffin down the middle. Chien rushed forward as a dark shadowy figure burst out from inside, and Adam launched himself backwards, narrowly avoiding the Lightbringer's holy aura. The figure was a head taller than Chien and the shadow that coated it had the appearance of a hooded robe. In its left hand was a rusted metal staff and in its right was a curled wand made of bleached bone.

< < Optional Stage Objective > > < Defeat the Forlorn Ritualist >