In the basement of Saint Selena Cathedral, in the guardroom outside Chanis Gate…
Leonard Mitchell was leaning on the back of his chair, his legs were propped up on the table. His eyes were vacant without any focus. Even though he had been healed using ritualistic magic, he still looked terrible, as if he had obtained a reprieve from a severe illness without fully recovering.
At the moment, the powerful Beyonders sent by the Holy Cathedral were creating another seal behind the Chanis Gate since the ashes of Saint Selena were lost. They had conflicting opinions; some wanted to fill in the gap of power using a new holy item, while others believed that there was no need to go through all the trouble.
After all, to the Church of the Evernight Goddess, holy items were rare and incredibly precious. What they suggested was lowering the presence of the Nighthawks in Tingen and transferring the artefacts with living characteristics or difficult-to-seal artefacts to the headquarters at the Cathedral of Serenity in Backlund's diocese, only leaving behind those that could be controlled more easily.
They intended to send a telegram to propose a meeting of the higher-ups, to get a vote from the archbishops and high-ranking deacons. Leonard was uninterested in this debate. He felt as if he had become a living corpse, with no sorrow, grief, agitation, or excitement. He was abnormally numb. He didn't want to face anyone.
All he wanted was to stay alone in the corner. Occasionally, he would feel puzzled about why the "murderer" would only take away Klein's Beyonder characteristic and leave Captain Dunn Smith's intact.
*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*
Footsteps reverberated in the corridor. Seeka Tron, whose right arm had been bandaged, appeared at the door of the guardroom. While Klein and the others were attacking Megose and attempting to save Tingen City, she and the Keepers within Chanis Gate were doing battle against a portion of the Sealed Artifacts.
If it wasn't for the timely arrival of the members of the Mandated Punishers and the Machinery Hivemind, or the eventual arrival of the reinforcements from the Holy Cathedral, she also might've lost her life.
But even so, the elderly Keeper failed to last until the end. He fought to his death, under the call of duty.
"Leonard, I found an unencrypted telegram in the Captain's office. It was sent over by the Holy Cathedral," Seeka Tron said.
Leonard's green eyes moved slightly, finally coming to life. He faintly recalled the sound of a new telegram coming in, but the battle was about to begin. He and Klein didn't have the time to pay attention to it.
"What does it say?" Leonard noticed that his tone was unusually raspy.
The white-haired and black-eyed Seeka Tron replied without hesitation, "Beware of Ince Zangwill. Beware of Sealed Artifact 0-08."
'Ince Zangwill, the archbishop that betrayed the Church, the Gatekeeper who failed his advancement... Sealed Artifact 0-08, an ordinary-looking quill,' Leonard muttered at first as he searched his memories, then he tilted his head to the side.
He suddenly narrowed his eyes, and the dispirited feelings and sadness disappeared from his body. 'So that's how it was,' Leonard pulled his feet back and stood up, his green eyes burning with a passion.
He looked at Seeka Tron and said, "I intend to apply to join the Red Gloves."
The Red Gloves was a code name for the elite team of Nighthawks. Under normal circumstances, Nighthawk teams were situated locally and had regions under their jurisdiction. They were not permitted to capture criminals outside of their area of jurisdiction without permission.
As such, some evildoers would change their location after every crime, making it terribly inconvenient for the Nighthawks. To deal with this, the Church of the Evernight Goddess set up the Red Gloves. They were carefully selected elites, some even possessing incomplete holy items.
Their mission was to reinforce Nighthawk teams that had called for help, as well as track down and arrest evildoers without any restrictions. In some circles, they were also called 'Pursuers' or 'Hunting Dogs'.
"Red Gloves? But their lowest requirement is Sequence 7. Besides, the dangers the Red Gloves face are many times higher than an ordinary Nighthawk Squad," Seeka Tron said in concern and doubt.
Leonard smiled coldly. "I'm close to advancing soon." His eyes became cold. He clenched his teeth and said to himself.
'I want revenge! Ince Zangwill, you must live until the day I become powerful enough!'
If Max was here, he would have made a pouty face while crying in his heart thinking something along the lines of 'Now that is true friendship.'
"Alright," Seeka seemed to have guessed Leonard's thoughts.
She sighed. "Almost half of our team will be new faces. It's rare to see a Nighthawk team become so ravaged."
Leonard's expression darkened. He clenched his teeth and asked, "Are the bodies ready?"
"Yes," Seeka nodded indiscernibly.
Leonard suddenly stepped towards the door, "I'll notify their families."
'I'll deal with the scene I don't want to deal with the most. I'll do it.'
…
At 2 Daffodil Street, Melissa sat on the sofa, inspecting the three tickets in her hands. She was looking at the words, the printed date, and the seat numbers. Benson was sitting beside her, observing his sister with a smile. He had a relaxed posture.
Suddenly, they heard the doorbell.
*Ding dong* *Ding dong*
Melissa glanced at their busy maid Bella, and then she took the three tickets with her and stood up, looking a little confused. She briskly ran to the door. Her black hair was shinier than it was before, and her face was no longer skinny.
The colour of her skin had a ruddy colour, and her brown eyes looked brighter and energetic. Twisting the handle and opening the door, Melissa froze for a moment. She didn't recognize their visitor. It was a young man with black hair and green eyes.
He looked handsome, but his face was unusually pale. Hidden in his eyes was deep sorrow.
"May I know who you are?" Melissa asked, feeling somewhat lost.
Leonard had specially draped a black formal coat over his white shirt. He said in a raspy voice, "I'm a colleague of your brother Klein."
Melissa's heart suddenly skipped a beat. She instinctively tiptoed to look behind Leonard but didn't notice anything.
She said with a strange quiver in her voice, "Where's Klein?"
Leonard closed his eyes, inhaling as he said, "I'm very sorry, your brother Klein died at the hands of an evil criminal while he was trying to save others. He's a hero, a true hero."
Melissa widened her eyes slowly, her body shaking indiscernibly. The three tickets in her hands dropped helplessly onto the floor. The tickets faced upward, revealing the name of the play—"The Return of the Count."
...
Sitting in the Moretti family's living room, Leonard didn't dare to look directly at Melissa and Benson. But he couldn't stop scenes of what they looked like from flashing through his mind.
That girl filled with youthfulness and vibrancy had her eyes wide open. She didn't speak, and her eyes were unfocused. Her silence made her appear like a puppet. The man who looked a little like Klein maintained a normal posture, but he would slip into a daze from time to time.
His words came out slowly, "That's the gist of the matter. I'm very sorry that I was unable to prevent it in a timely manner. The Blackthorn Security Company, the police department, and those that he helped have promised a bereavement compensation of about 6000 pounds."
Leonard said, as his eyes darted around. Suddenly, Benson interrupted him. His voice was hoarse as he asked, "Where's his body? I'm asking where's Klein's body?"
He puckered his lips and paused. "When can we see him?"
"In the company. You can see him now," Leonard answered, unable to mask his grief.
"Alright," Benson moved his rigid lips with great difficulty, "Let me use the bathroom first."
Without waiting for Leonard's reply, he quickly entered the bathroom and slammed the door closed. He stood in front of the sink and turned on the tap, allowing the water to flow.
He bent down and repeatedly splashed water onto his face. As he did that, his actions came to a sudden stop. Nothing changed for a long time, leaving only the sound of running water reverberating in the bathroom.
A few minutes later, Benson lifted his head and looked into the mirror. He saw that his face was covered in water droplets, the redness in his eyes was impossible to hide now.
…
Max opened his eyes to the sunlight shining on his face through the thick canopy of green leaves. He could feel his spirituality in considerable chaos, but his own and Samuel's souls were able to settle it down and bring it under control, especially after absorbing the vast amounts of energy from the potion.
He quickly closed his eyes and felt the changes to his body, spirituality, and abilities.
Firstly, his ability to [Attract] and [Repel] had been boosted by 30% and had become just as precise when controlling it. Another important improvement to his existing ability was that he no longer needed to physically touch an object to [Bend] the density of a person or object. Anything within 5 metres of him could be affected, and the intensity by which it could be changed had increased by 20%.
Unfortunately, he still did not have any physical improvements, meaning his stamina, strength and speed were still at the level of a human. Though the constant practice of martial arts had indeed improved his physique to that of an average athlete; someone who was confident in being able to run for 25 km without stopping.
There were new abilities that the potion brought to Max, the most important and seemingly overpowered ability being the ability to [Fool] the Beyonder abilities of other Beyonders, of course with the limit being Sequence 8. There was no actual description of this, but Max could figure it out with some experimentation.
His other abilities included Anti-divination, Anti-danger/spiritual intuition, and Anti-illusion up to Sequence 8. This was incredibly useful for the most dangerous kind of Beyonders, those who could affect you through non-observable means or locate you through divination. Basically, he had become an Anti-Fool pathway. With these passive abilities, he could easily take care of most of the Seer pathway individuals who were at or below Sequence 8.
He could also substitute himself with paper figurines; giving him the ability to leave them nearby and teleport to them as long as they were not too far from his location, and secondly create a convincing duplicate of his body using the paper figurines. Though he would need to constantly supply it with spirituality to maintain the illusion.
Other than these, he also had two new abilities that were not too useful. He could sense the Historical Void and enter it, and he could see Spirit Body Threads, but could not actually use them.
The former just further boosted his ability to hunt down those of the Seer or Fool's pathway, while the latter was just something that would help him locate those at the higher sequences of the same pathway, without actually providing any special abilities other than that.
Still, he now had one of the most important aspects of the Beyonder ability, and that was the ability to [Fool] the powers of other Beyonders. He would no longer need to hide completely from the Official Beyonders, and could now actively use his abilities on Earth.
Of course, getting involved with those Beyonders who were higher than Sequence 8 was not something he could afford, so he still had to be very careful.
He grinned. His current powers were most useful against actual Beyonders. As such, they would not help him too much on Independence. Instead, he would be far more productive on Earth, at least until he got his next Sequence.
Max closed his eyes again to observe the now visible abilities and the details of the ritual of Sequence 7 of his pathway, which were previously only brief summaries.
==========
Singularity Pathway
Sequence 7: Blinded Visionary
Potion formula: 100ml of pure water, 2 strands of Gargoyle fur, 2 eyes of the silver python…
Ritual: Ingest the potion after creating a plan that perfectly foils the advancement ritual of at least a Sequence 5 Beyonder advancing to Sequence 4.
Powers:
Can [Envision] reality to create Beyonder artifacts using large amounts of Spiritual energy, or using other Beyonder characteristics for the same (Up to Sequence 7)
Can [Visualise] Prophecies created using Beyonder abilities
Can [Break] prophecies made by Beyonder abilities as long as you physically touch at least 1 character who is part of the prophecy (Up to Sequence 7)
Can [Take] life away from anything virtual or immaterial that has been given life by Beyonder abilities (Up to Sequence 7)
Physical enhancement: Beyond what is possible with a human body
Partial Mythical form (controlled): Can convert parts of your body into the mythical creature form that greatly reduces incoming damage, both physical and spiritual.
Strengthen abilities:
Attract and Repel are 20% stronger and more precise control
Change the density of objects 15 metres around you by 10% more
Can [Fool] Beyonders abilities (Up to sequence 7)
Unchanged abilities
Anti-divination, Anti-danger/spiritual intuition, Anti-illusion (up to Sequence 7)
Can substitute self with paper figurines (teleport nearby and body double)
Can sense the Historical Void (grey fog of history) and enter it
Can see Spirit Body Threads
Acting: Unknown
==========
But this was the next sequence that he would gain after not only completing the potion but also the ritual.
While Max was looking at this, he instinctively decided to send some of the Unity energy to his mind and body to cleanse the outside influence, only to realise that none of the energy was actually used.
Momentarily stunned, he stopped planning for how he would try and complete the ritual for the next potion and instead focused more on this new incident. He quickly returned to his body from inside the Amalgamation of All and stopped thinking for a moment.
'Peace… at last,' a broad smile appeared on Max's face after a long time of frowning and sad expressions. It was a genuine smile like that of a child seeing its family after a long time of being lost.
He no longer had any outside influence subtly or otherwise, trying to professor-x his mind into having certain types of thoughts. Whatever it was, either his new abilities completely blocked it or had made its tracking method useless for the time being, making him safe for now.
And this was good because he was not in his most stable state at the moment. He needed to quickly figure out the method of acting for his new potion, [Fool's End] and digest it sufficiently so that he would not easily lose control.
'Considering the main ability is to [Fool] Beyonder abilities, I think using it on Beyonders will likely have some progression towards digesting my potion. Or perhaps It might be something else entirely, but I should try it out first. I should head back to Earth and begin experimenting.'
'But first…'
[AN: Last chapter of mass release. The next chapter will be released after the novel reaches a rate of 7k views per chapter once again. This would be around 539k or 540k views. I will continue to write chapters in the mean-time. Please write reviews and comments, they add a lot of views by default.]
[AN: I don't earn anything from this, and it is purely for my own satisfaction, that something I write actually means something to others. Thank you!]
[AN: Update, I have changed the min sequence of Beyonder ritual, for Blinded Visionary ritual, mainly because there are no rituals for advancing from sequence 6 to 5. Rituals only start from sequence 5 to 4 and afterwards. Sorry for the change.]