Thump...
...
THUMP
A heart, an ominous pitch-black heart, was beating slowly in front of Caelum's eyes. It was beating an agonizingly slow pace with an irregular rhythm. With every of its beat, a disgusting squelching sound accompanied with.
Nevertheless, there was a huge smile present on Caelum's face, a smile that was desperately trying to reach his ears.
"Heh..."
*****
'It is really Mother's.' I marveled in front of the black heart.
Unmistakably, the black heart in front of me possessed Holy Mother's aura. Although the aura felt somewhat different, more than half of the aura was the same as the Mother's.
'No, this is Mother's. I don't care about the unknown aura. At least, more than half of it must be Mother's piece.'
My excitement and expectation were real, and it was even enough to make me forget about my bad mood which was caused when I read Seraphina's surface thoughts.
Because,
The Fallen, whom I usually call Mother or Holy Mother was the one who put seals around my mind that worked as borders for my mind. But after this, she lost her strength to involve with the mortal world, where me and other mortals lived.
Mother helped me in exchange for her influence over the mortal world.
Even though her Divine Authorities were rather 'Evil' in the eyes of many people, I didn't care.
Mother was the one who saved my mind while losing her strength to interact with mortals to huge decree.
However, I learned that she was slowly recovering and this recovery could be quickened if I were to find her pieces.
Yes, her pieces.
According to my guesses, even before Mother helped me, she was in a state of weakness.
So, finding and recovering these pieces was a mission I decided to take myself.
With every piece I recover, Mother would recover a bit and even maybe get stronger!
Which follower wouldn't be delighted to see their object of worship getting recovered and stronger?
After all, I was the only follower, believer, and worshipper of The Fallen.
If the Church of Light were to learn the existence of me, I would burn to ashes in the stake.
In the records, Mother was a perished evil deity. And I am an evil god worshipper.
Well, I couldn't blame the church, the other evil god worshippers were trash, not like me or my Mother, hence I personally cleaned them up in the past.
But as I have said, I didn't care. I wasn't an ungrateful bastard. Mother saved me and I became her follower with my own will.
Plus, if Mother were to recover, wouldn't she help me, her only believer?
Slap!
A slap landed on my cheek.
Some disrespectful thought passed in my mind and I decided to punish myself with a slap.
"I am sorry, I was disrespectful," I murmured as caressed the inverted black cross in my jacket.
After that, I carefully looked around both with my eyes and senses.
"Nothing, huh."
Finding nothing but monsters in the cave, I relaxed my tensed-up muscles. Then, I crouched and moved my hands to the black heart that was resting on the rock ground.
Swish
...
"Huh? What?"
My hands passed through the black heart as if it were just an illusion, a mirage, something not real.
'Who...'
"Dares!?" I roared as my clenched hands hit the ground hard enough to cause cracks around me. Blood rushed to my head as my eyes widened and my molars ground each other.
"Which bastard took Mother's piece!?" I bellowed and my rationale slipped away with every second I let my anger out.
"Come out, you bastard!
"Who dares to play with me!
"WHO!"
...
"Huff...puff.."
My breathing was harsh and irregular.
"Damn... 'Hope is a poison' was it, Mother?" I muttered as I once again learned the meaning of this sentence.
I shouldn't have hoped. I shouldn't have expected. I shouldn't have read that transmigrator's mind.
If I didn't were to hope, I wouldn't get sad after hearing Seraphina's real thoughts. If I didn't were to expect, I wouldn't have lost myself in anger after finding the piece I found wasn't real. If I didn't were to read that transmigrstor's mind, I wouldn't have been in a rush to solve the problems quickly, his enigmatic presence made me scared.
Fear of the unknown was something I had yet to conquer.
"Humans aren't perfect, on the contrary, we are filled with imperfections. A mistake or two is alright, I just need to learn to make fewer mistakes."
Taking deep breaths, trying to cool my heated-up head and nerves, I got up and dusted off my pants.
"Let's see if there are any clues regarding who and when took Mother's piece," I muttered as my emotions stabilized with my rhythmic deep breaths.
"No signs of mana and mana signature. Someone must have taken it more than a day ago, or else there would be even a little bit of foreign mana particles."
...
"...No signs of foreign aura either other than the black heart. It seems Mother's piece is strong enough to leave a mark in an aura shape like this. Only 3rd tier items can leave the aura mark but they are usually so weak. According to the tangible appearance of this piece, it must be around 1st rank item, just one below the legendary highest grade 0th tier, which I only heard but didn't see."
"...and one 1st tier item is enough to corrode a Grand rank powerhouse if given time. The Principal is said to be one step away from being Grandmage, so he couldn't have taken it. There are not many Grand rank powerhouses who would spend their precious time in this mediocre dungeon."
I thought and thought, trying to guess who could have taken this piece without being corroded by it.
Even I wasn't safe with corrosion, so no one could be safe with it in this Academy.
'Or is it?'
One particular person came to my mind. That heiress of the Rose Dukedom, who had an ominous presence and golem-like perfection. Whom, I suspected being a devil or controlled by a devil.
Devils were somewhat resistant to the corrosion of higher-quality mana. After all, their bodies were made of more than 70% of very high-quality mana. That was why, their skin were usually purple or dark blue.
So, the thought of a devil taking my Mother's piece felt possible.
"Isabella Rose... Were you the one who took my Mother's piece?" A distorted smile hung on my lips as I murmured these words.