"You are finally here."
The old man said calmly, it seems he was expecting his presence.
The middle-aged man just replied by launching another ball of flames that exploded harmlessly over the stone shield.
The old man smiled as he looked at him before shifting his gaze towards the worm-like creatures that were getting barraged with attacks by the floating figures in the distance. The attackers seemed to have taken extra precautions after their last failure and would probably take down the creatures soon enough.
His gaze turned towards the sound of laughter from the extra-large creature that was tangling with the much smaller water snake while getting blasted by multiple attacks, if not for the snake taking the brunt of the attack, that side would probably be hopeless.
He then turned to the woman with the frosty blue eyes that were watching him with apprehension. She seemed to have her attention split between him and the middle-aged man, traces of hesitation appeared on her face.
His gaze finally went back to the middle-aged man again but it didn't linger for long.
"Since you're here I can finally leave this place to you."
The old man spoke slowly, his trench coat ruffling with a passing wind.
"I'm sure you will take care of it properly. You were always rather thorough in that sense."
He chuckled to himself but the middle-aged man didn't seem to find it funny.
"SHUT UP!"
He yelled as he launched another attack but it was already too late, I could already feel the pull of some force dragging me somewhere distant.
We vanished into thin air with a snap of the old man's fingers before the attack reached halfway.
#
When we reappeared once more, the first thing I noticed was the presence of a snowflake that landed on my bottle prison.
It was a pretty and delicate thing with symmetrical patterns, unlike anything I had ever seen. But snowflakes were supposed to be like that, completely unique in their fleeting existence.
The snowflake was immediately blown away though by a rather violent wind. We seemed to have landed somewhere high up as I could see the stars were much closer than before.
The old man coughed and trembled violently. It seemed his teleportation abilities took quite a toll on him every time.
He took out a handkerchief from his seemingly limitless supply and wiped his mouth, I could see traces of dark red blood from my position in his breast pocket.
I didn't disturb him as he wiped his mouth quietly before looking around. He nodded his head a few times before waving his hand, the ground trembled and the surrounding snow was blown back leaving the rock surface bare.
Setting the briefcase down, he tapped on some parts of the case before opening it up to a bunch of equipment, containers, papers, and books that were stuffed together.
I wouldn't admit it but I was quite disappointed I didn't see the side of the briefcase that was filled with complex machinery covered in numerous inscriptions which I had seen the first time.
The weird aura and sparks of electricity that emanated from it had seemed to have some form of attraction over my consciousness and I was eager to experience it again.
I watched as the old man quietly took out the white leather book from the top and caress it softly, a look of melancholy in his eyes. He quickly placed it aside though and surprising to me, took me out of his breast pocket also.
He placed the book on a large slab of rock by the side and placed me on top of it. This gave me a view of the distance beyond and I quickly realized that we hadn't gone that far.
We had teleported to the top of the flat snow mountain that was situated just outside the city. I could still barely see the large worm-like creatures venting their anger at the city below, it seemed like one of them had been taken down though.
'Good for them.'
The old man got to work, using his finger and tracing out a large perfect circle around us. Some sort of power was carving the circle deeply onto the rock surface. Immediately after the last curve of the circle was completed, the area inside suddenly became quiet.
I quickly noticed that the violently blowing winds were no more and seemed to be blocked by some invisible barrier that was created around the circle. Nothing could get through, even the snow dropping from the sky. Even the whistling of the wind seemed to have been subdued.
The old man continued his work, carving more inscriptions onto the stone floor and mumbling to himself from time to time. He took out a clean kerchief from his trench coat a few times and coughed into it before throwing the blood-stained cloth outside the circle.
I was quiet throughout, not wanting to break his concentration. The patterns and inscriptions he was carving made no sense to me for the most part.
As far as I could tell, there was the outermost circle and then a large square was within it. In the middle of the square was a long rectangle that was also divided in two at the middle. A large pupil-less eye was sitting there, emitting some form of terrible grimness I couldn't put in words.
This was just a general explanation though as far as I could tell, as the individual shapes and diagrams were filled with various indiscernible inscriptions and connected to each other in twisted indirect ways. Some parts of the shapes and diagrams were even clearly made up of inscriptions I couldn't make sense of.
The old man seemed to be nearly done with his work when someone suddenly popped into existence nearby.
It was the middle-aged man again.
'So fast?'
I turned my head to see that only the largest of the worm creatures could still be seen. I could faintly see the glistening blue of two snake-like figures wrestling with it above the skies of the city, it seemed like the woman with the frosty blue eyes had doubled her attack to take the abomination down.
The middle-aged man didn't hesitate to create a large spear from his flames which he hurled toward the old man violently!
BAM!!!
The attack dispersed harmlessly over the invisible barrier created by the circle. The old man didn't even pretend to notice him and continued with his work.
This seemed to infuriate the middle-aged man more as he started throwing attack after attack at the barrier without pause, spitting vicious curses when he felt angry enough to.
My gaze alternated between the calm old man quietly carving through stone with his finger and the middle-aged man hurling attacks over and over again. The contrast was amusing in a sense and I couldn't help but wonder what was the relationship between them.
"When I told you that the soul was a path to ascension, I meant that I had finally found a way for people to advance."
The old man's voice was calm and slow, even more than usual.
"Just like you said that time unless we could find an existence much better than us and be inspired by them to climb the hierarchy, there was no way to advance forward in matters relating to life, purpose, and the truth of the world."
Although I could clearly remember the first conversation I had with the old man, it seemed like such a long time ago now.
"You have found it haven't you? An existence higher in the hierarchy?"
I asked him a question to which I already knew the answer.
"Yes I did, and in the most unlikely place ever."
The old man chuckled.
"In the hands of uncultured, illogical, and unlearned mad men of all places."
The Order.
They proclaimed to serve a transcendent lord that sees all and was very fervent with their extremist belief to help him descend to the world.
I took a glance at the pupil-less eye that sat in the middle of the carving and the feeling of grimness intensified.
"What is Foutier?"
I suddenly changed the topic.
The explosions and ramblings of the middle-aged man had toned down after a while when he realized he wasn't making any effect on the barrier and he seemed to be throwing attacks just for the spite of it.
The old man carved out the last inscription and looked over the whole thing with a careful eye before turning to me.
"Foutier is nothing but remnant vomit!"
He said with a self-deprecating chuckle.
'Vomit? What!?'
I was caught off guard by his absurd answer.
"A long time ago, members of the Order had managed to summon a part of the transcendent being into the world."
He launched into a story.
"A very powerful person at that time had risen up to fight against it. After killing all the members of the Order he could find, he went on to fight the incarnation of the transcendent being. It was a terrible battle that destroyed numerous places and ravaged the entire world!"
"But he eventually managed to defeat it and banish it from this world. The remnants of power that were left behind by the transcendent being were collected by that powerful person and used to create Foutier. A dimension of power that is both feared and lusted over by everyone."
The old man paused at this point and sighed.
"How pathetic!"
I didn't say anything for a while as I digested this information.
The old man also said nothing more and started taking out things from the briefcase. Glass bottles, silver containers, wooden boxes, and finally, a small silver mirror.
I watched as he poured the contents of the bottles and containers around in a seemingly ritualistic manner. It seemed the middle-aged man also realized that something dangerous was about to happen as he stopped his attacks and instead focused on screaming at the old man to stop what he was doing.
It felt somewhat nostalgic as it reminded me of the first time I had appeared in this world.
After the old man was done, he picked up the silver mirror and placed it on top of the pupil-less eye before taking a step back.
"After all these years of my life, I still couldn't find the answer to the question I was looking for. What is the soul?"
His voice was heavy with sadness.
I wanted to open my mouth and console him but the air suddenly felt heavy as the unnatural and distorted power descended once again.
A sharp stone spike appeared out of thin air and the old man grabbed it and slashed his wrist in one fluid stroke.
Dark red blood dripped onto the silver mirror below, the old man's figure hunched over as it lacked its usual confident posture and his silver-grey hair glistened dully under the light of the stars.
"You are free from now on, completely free. Freer than either I or the fool outside will ever be?"
The old man said slowly.
"What do you mean?"
I asked in confusion.
"It is not something you can grasp with your current knowledge of course, but for one thing…"
The old man turned to look at me, I could see the traces a tear had left behind on his face. Although his eyes still contained that unnatural glow, they seemed extremely sad to look at. It felt like the sadness deep inside him was been emanated through his eyes.
"The eyes are the door to the soul."
As he said this, his eyes lost some of their natural glow.