As the gust of Spirit energy rolled into the Turner's villa, it not only alarmed the detective, chief inspector, and Kole — but even Alice and Lucy.
With superhuman agility, Lucy appeared by Alice's side in her maid outfit — her hand on her master's shoulder, pulling her away in an attempt to evacuate this place immediately.
Instead of checking what may be wrong, they had always been taught to run away when they feel something wrong since childhood.
It was the basic teaching of not just Ascendants, but everyone in every part of the world where the light of orthodox Churches reached!
'Corruption' was dangerous, and it was always better to let officials take care of it rather than letting your curiosity or confidence run wild!
The two officials — Ryan and Eleanor, without wasting a single second, dashed upstairs, appearing like two blurry lines. Their pace was even higher than Lucy's already unnatural swiftness.
Alice, who felt a tug at her shoulders, didn't care in the least.
All her attention was on the room — Her father's room!
Immediately, her emerald eyes glowed mysteriously with a bright luster. The shape of her pupils turned to the symbol of a triangle.
When Kole saw this, he felt mesmerized.
Those eyes looked so pretty that it was hard for him not to get lost in those emerald gems.
He heard her murmur quietly, "Eye of Acuity: Clairvoyance!"
Kole had known about some of Alice's abilities after they got close to each other. She had revealed it on purpose to build trust between them.
He knew what was about to happen… but he was too lost in those eyes as he felt naked, physically and mentally!
Snapping his attention back to the situation, Kole suddenly felt alarmed as he saw Alice scrutinizing the room of commotion!
"DON'T!" He yelled loudly, but it was too late.
"Ughh!"
Alice's eyes reddened in an instant. From the corner of her eyes, blood trickled down her cheeks.
Her eyes instantly became hazy — as if all the light had been sucked out of them.
In a hurry, Alice disabled her ability, closing her eyes as extreme pain spread from her eyes.
She felt like someone has stabbed both her eyes with needles.
The pain was so strong that she felt she would go blind if she hadn't chosen to decisively deactivate her ability.
Kole was too perplexed, but as his mind raced, he recalled the maxim: Don't See! Don't Hear! Don't Speak!
Lucy brought a clean cloth to wipe her master's eyes in a panic, when she heard Kole's commanding voice, "Take her to the Cathedral, now!"
The maid jerked up, and without questioning Kole, she held Alice and ran toward their garage, hurriedly.
Lucy was an Ascendant as well, at the same level as her master Alice. Connecting the dots, she knew what had occurred!
She couldn't waste time, and getting treatment for Alice was her priority in this instance.
Kole sighed, feeling his own lack of ability.
Seeing Alice's departing back, Kole's eyes turned gentle. When she vanished from his vision, there was not a tint of tenderness but intense indifference.
With rapid footsteps, Kole climbed the stairs.
He navigated through the slightly dark corridors.
As he approached the doors of the disturbance, confusion became evident on his face.
The doors were closed with only a slightly chilly wind reeking from the crevices.
Where did the two of them go? Did they enter inside? But why did they close the doors?... Kole let out a breath of air to suppress his growing anxiety.
Putting his hand on the doorknob, he turned it gently and opened the door…
The bright glow that fell on his eyes blinded him for a moment.
As his vision cleared up, he saw the detective in white and the inspector in a Police uniform standing by the curtains, looking at the verandah through the gaps, in a daze.
"Inspector, Detective?" A harrowing feeling developed in the pits of his stomach.
The slight chilly wind wafting in the air, and the hair-raising peculiar scene before him, made his heart race with both anxiety and excitement.
He loved the feeling of danger…
He approached the two of them and also looked outside with uncertainty.
Suddenly Kole felt the air around him whirling.
Immediately after that, he appeared in a blurry palace.
Mind Palace!
When Kole glanced around, he realized it wasn't his Mind Palace but someone else's!
The palace had a tinge of pinkness to it, and he couldn't find any canvases lying around.
At the same time, he felt that his connection with this Mind Palace was extremely flimsy, and could be broken at any instant.
How did I enter this place? And whose Mind Palace is this?... Kole racked his brains to find an answer.
He became perplexed but then narrowed his eyes, remembering his real body was in Viscount Turner's room.
Is this Viscount's Mind Palace? If that is so, then why is it bathed in pink color?... Kole wasn't sexist by any means, but in the current era he was in, pink was considered to be a girl's color.
He could only chuckle wryly while mocking himself for considering Viscount Turner might be gay...
Before venturing into the unknowns, he tried cutting the connection with this Mind Palace by stopping the 'communication' with the 'SubconsciousGulf'.
SubconciousGulf was similar to Subspace in many aspects, including the 'corruption', and followed the principles of the prime Maxim of mysticism.
However, when one thought about the SubconciousGulf, they wouldn't appear in their own Mind Palaces but somewhere random with their 'conscious projections'.
It could be your own Mind Palace or someone else's. It could also be endless fog with nothing in the line of sight!
It could also be a place from where it would be impossible to let your consciousness interact with the real world, and your consciousness would be trapped forever — eventually becoming corrupted.
This was the reason, why Kole didn't dare to make contact with SubconciousGulf and find his own Mind Palace.
And at times when he did enter his Mind Palace, it was by coincidence that his consciousness was forcefully pulled almost on instinct while facing lethal danger.
Kole concentrated a little.
In an instant, he forcefully expelled all the ideas from his mind as his thoughts were halted.
He felt the connection between him and this palace weaken greatly.
Phew, ~ Kole let out a sigh.
Thank Goddess, I can leave on my will… With a slight shake of his head, he checked his condition and nodded to himself.
No signs of corruption… yet…
Turning around, he saw…
…
On the other hand, Alice leaned in the backseat of the car.
The loud roar of a steam engine entered her ears as she kept wiping her closed eyes with the clean white clothes that Lucy had brought for her with her increased agility of an Ascendant.
Briefly glancing at Lucy, who was focused on driving at the highest speed possible, Alice fished a golden coin out from somewhere in her dress and flicked it in the air.
Catching it in her palm, she stared intensely at the coin despite her bleeding eyes.
Soon, a rueful smile crept up her face.
"Hah… Sacrifices are Necessary for Achieving Greatness…" She smiled wryly.