Darkness, chaos, confusion, bewilderment, anger, unwillingness, regret... All these negative feelings flooded Claire's mind at once.
"You devil's incarnation, you should never have come to this world."
"No, you are an even more horrific existence than the devil. You are loathed and disgusted."
"The darkness in your heart is darker than the darkest of nights."
...
Malicious voices like this surrounded her, unceasingly attacking Claire, cursing Claire.
"You miscreant. You should have been hacked into pieces and killed long before!"
Claire knitted her brows more tightly.
Evil? Should go die?
Darkness surrounded her, and Claire looked bewildered at the sea of darkness around her.
Was dying really the best way to end all this?
Yes! Only if you die, can everything be redeemed. Everyone will be glad to witness your death, including the people you care most about. Quickly free yourself and atone for them.
The malicious voice slowly became more gentle, like it was guiding Claire.
Child, come. Come back to the gods' embrace.
But as the last sentence ended, Claire abruptly opened her eyes.
The white light around her instantly disappeared without a trace. In her mind, the malicious cursing voice also disappeared, replaced by a mysterious thing – it must have been the arcanum that Emery's friend passed on.
"Claire, are you okay? What just happened?" Jean asked nervously. Claire had seemed really terrifying.
"Humph!" Claire coldly humphed and flicked her finger at a cold wet corner. A tiny flame shot out and a piercing cry sounded out.
Jean looked in amazement at the place Claire attacked, and found that there was a smooth, black stone. At this moment, a figure was rising up slowly from the stone. The image was small like a child, but very faint, as if it would disappear the next second. It also looked as if it were in pain, obviously because Claire hit it.
"This?" Jean looked at the figure and suddenly called out in a low voice, "a ghost!"
"Not bad, being able to hide your essence and follow us." Claire walked up and picked up a small stone, playing around with it.
The faint figure instantly looked terrified.
"You must be the person who fought against the Holy Divine Prince and almost died? You then attached yourself to this stone, waiting for a suitable body to take over," Claire said unhurriedly and then squished the stone with force.
The figure immediately cried out in terror, "Don't, I'm begging you, please don't crush the stone."
"How did you decide on my body?" Claire coldly laughed and played around with the stone in her hand.
"Because… Because you're a person with an interesting past. People with stories always have dark shadows in the depths of their hearts. Also you're a magician, very suitable," The figure hesitantly said, its voice dropping off feebly. It was afraid that Claire would be unhappy and crush the stone.
Jean's expression changed and looked at the figure with suspicion. What did that ghost say? Claire has a hidden past? He and Nancy could testify one point, and that was that the Claire in front of him was a totally different person than before. But, who was she? Presently, Jean felt incredibly compelled to grab the black stone and ask it personally.
Claire caught the look of suspicion in Jean's eyes. She coldly humphed and ruthlessly pinched the stone, hard. The figure started howling, "Please don't, I'll tell you everything. Please don't!"
"Shut up. I don't need you to tell me anything." Claire coldly humphed again. "Get in there." She did have many questions for this unidentified guy who wanted to attack her, but here was not the place.
"Ah, okay." The figure bitterly answered. He had already lost his body, and his power was basically gone, how could he negotiate?
In a flash of black smoke, the figure disappeared before their eyes.
"Claire… ?" Claire could see the confusion in Jean's eyes clearly.
"Nothing, it's just that that guy was defeated and lost his body, and attached his spirit to this mysterious stone. When I was inheriting the arcanum he interfered and distracted me, wanting to take over my body." Claire didn't want to say too much and downplayed the situation. If it was not for the confusion deep down in heart, how could she be distracted?
Although Claire said all this easily, Jean knew that Claire had just been in a very dangerous predicament. Curious on how Claire realized all this, Jean asked, "Then~ Then at the end, how did you discover the existence of that ghost?"
"Because of the last sentence he said." Claire coldly laughed and recited its exact words, "Child, come. Come back to the gods' embrace. " After she finished saying these words, Claire raised her head and looked at the stone door. She gave a light push and opened it.
Claire walked in the front and Jean followed behind. But Jean was thinking about something else. He had heard the contempt clearly in Claire's voice when she spoke that last sentence.
Behind the stone door was a stone ladder that went all the way down, so the two followed the path and came to a simple room that had only a stone bed, a stone stool, and some other stone furniture. There was nothing else other than these. It seems that that person used an extraordinary method to store the arcanum in the stone door, and it was necessary to place the stone tile on in order to inherit. There was no written record for this arcanum. This way, it would be safer.
The secret room was completely empty. The two retraced their steps and like before, Jean brought Claire out of the waterfall.
The two light and dark essences faded as they returned back, and the magic beasts acted normal again. Along the way, they killed some third grade and fourth grade magic beasts while Claire looked for heartbreak grass. She didn't notice that Jean looked at her with a sliver of confusion when she acted. Jean was confused about nothing other than Claire's mettle and efficient moves. This didn't seem like a novice coming to train, but a massacre of everything in Claire's way!
"This beast core would make a great ring for Mother." Claire used a dagger to dig up the beast core from the head of a fourth grade beast. This core was different from the others. The dark blue core's center was the bluest, surrounded by different shades of blue.
Jean felt confused about this young girl in front of him. Who was she? He couldn't see through her. The dainty dagger came alive dancing in her hands as she cut open the head of beasts easily and dug up their cores. Nobody would believe that she was the man-crazy Miss like before if they saw this. Only after a few battles, she could now use magic like she owned it! On many occasions, she didn't even need his help before slaughtering the magical beasts.
"Let's go." Claire stood up and collected all the beast cores. She stuck the dagger back in her boot expertly.
They only found only two heartbreak grass on their way out, but it was enough to complete the task.
Exiting Gale Gorge, the two decided to rest a night in the nearest town and leave the next day.
Night came.
After eating, Claire went into her room and locked the door. Then, she tore a scroll and magic rippled out across the room, forming a magic hood, blocking all magic so no one could hear her conversation.
Only after doing these did Claire pull the little black stone out from her bag.
"Come out." Claire commanded, staring at the black stone on the table coldly.
Nothing happened The stone was still. All was quiet.
Claire didn't say anything else, but instead reached down, pulling out the dagger from her boot, and stabbed towards the black stone.
"Don't, don't~" a voice instantly cried out in fear.
Claire watched as a human figure began to form, and put the dagger back where it came from. Just when the figure thought it had escaped this disaster, Claire extended her finger to flick the stone hard. The figure immediately curled up in pain, trembling.
"This stone, it seems to be very closely related to your spirit, and it can actually make you, a spirit, feel pain." Claire interestedly observed this black stone in front of her, which glowed faintly.
The figure shivered internally. This seemingly beautiful and innocent young girl is definitely not the angel depicted by her appearances, but instead a little devil!
"Alright, tell me. Who are you? How did you get into a fight with the Holy Divine Prince? And what is this stone?" Claire asked, playing with the little stone.
The figure kept silent and didn't speak, when really it was trying to make up some speech to fool Claire.
"Still thinking about how to trick me, huh?…" Claire's voice floated through the room. The next moment, a sharp pain struck the figure.
Claire's fingernail was deeply embedded in the little stone, her indifference making the figure shiver greatly.
Why would this young girl give him a feeling similar to that?!
"Tell me, you are a Dark Magician, right? What were you going to do in Gale Gorge? Don't tell me you were on a date with the Holy Divine Prince." The coldness in Claire's voice flatly pointed out this figure's job. But, the cold joke after that terrified the figure.
He now understood that he had met his match today. A person he definitely could not fool.