Chapter 19 - Miss Moon
After seeing that strangely familiar and eerie figure, Lucan stood up. To his surprise, there was a small lake in front of him and a wall on the other side. He was in some kind of pit, and the whispering beings had vanished along with their hall of corpses. The pillar next to him began to crumble, and the monster's corpse slid off and sank completely into the water.
"You're very lucky," the figure from above said.
Lucan remained silent, observing the figure. There was no way to confront her, and he didn't even want to. She didn't exude any sense of threat or anything else. It was like watching a still lake illuminated by moonlight.
"I can't believe this was mere coincidence…" she mused, touching her chin thoughtfully.
Lucan could have made a sarcastic remark, cracked a joke, or said something to provoke a response from this being. But he didn't want to. He was tired of games. Lucan was weary of hidden agendas.
"Cat got your tongue?" she asked, laughing.
The woman, reminiscent of a calm lake harboring the fury of a volcano, observed him. She was strangely familiar.
"The figure… the figure in the stained glass window, was that you?" Lucan asked.
She watched him and then leapt into the air, floating gently with her white robe and descending slowly. She finally landed gracefully on one toe in front of him.
The woman, with her nearly dark gray skin, stood over two meters tall and held a wooden staff.
"Yes, that was me, Luke."
"How… how do you know who I am?"
"Why wouldn't I? I'm not bound by human limitations," she laughed.
Looking at her strangely calmed all of Lucan's anxieties.
"You can call me Miss Moon. That's just one of my names, and I won't answer many questions about myself…"
"I understand…"
Am I dead? Did that fall kill me? If I'm dead, is she death?
"You're not dead, and I'm not death either…"
"M-my thoughts, how?"
"I told you, didn't I? I'm not bound by human limitations…"
Terrifying.
"You just made a sacrifice to an entity, you know? You should be very concerned about your situation."
"Sacrifice? Me, never. I didn't… not intentionally."
"I know, that's why I intervened. Just a bit more and you'd have been forced to follow that rabbit… believe me, you wouldn't want to go with him."
Lucan was drowning in a sea of questions, but he didn't know where to start. He was too tired to think.
"Contact with the divine was established during the ritual. Fortunately, not only those things can pass through. So, I decided to drop by and say 'hi'."
She said, ruffling his hair as if he were a child.
"I have some questions…"
"There's no time to answer them… yet. All I can say is that you avoided the worst-case scenario. The diary is sealed, and its corrupting influence has been expelled…"
Diary?
"Now go," she said, pointing upward. "Go, child of the Void. There's no time."
Lucan wanted to know more, but he had to leave. Miss Moon watched him as he climbed up the chains. Climbing, he glanced back to ensure he wasn't imagining things. There she stood on the stone platform, holding her staff and waving at him with a smile.
"Don't forget, Luke, you promised to change."
Those words touched his heart. Only he knew that secret. But it didn't apply to that woman who somehow seemed to know so much about him.
Holding onto the chains, he climbed up to the top. When he reached the chapel floor, he collapsed to the side. As he fell and caught his breath, he looked back to where he had come from and saw nothing. It was just the floor. At that moment, a chill ran down his spine. The chapel floor looked as if it had never been broken, and at the center of it all was Lucan. He was lying right in the middle of that pentagram… and the diary had disappeared.
I need to get out of here…
A bad feeling took over him as he realized what had happened. Somehow, by inadvertently passing through the ritual, he had entered the realm of entities. It was the only explanation that made sense in that sea of illogic.
Things went wrong the moment I entered and saw the diary lying on the asylum floor… I must have passed unknowingly through the dimension of those things without even realizing it.
A wave of fear swept through his body, and he observed his surroundings. There were two doors: one that led directly to the exit and another from where he had come. To his surprise, the door was in place and not destroyed. He opened it and saw the stained glass windows with simple angelic designs, the other designs gone. The glass was intact, as if it had never been broken. Lucan didn't dare walk through the asylum; he returned to the chapel and exited through the door leading back to the garden.
Passing by the angel statue, he was reminded of the gray woman, though in the statue, the angel was crying. He continued walking as much as he could, trying to avoid all thoughts, fearing those things might somehow hear him.
Once he left the asylum grounds, he sighed in relief and sat on the ground.
"What the hell happened in there?"
Checking every part of his body, he saw that he was completely fine.
As he calmed down, he remembered something and summoned his cards.
There were two new cards.
Even amid that bizarre situation, he couldn't help but feel happy about it. After all, it was an achievement. Whether or not he had killed the Wendigo, he celebrated receiving that reward.
"No way!" he shouted, standing up in disbelief.
"L-l-legendary card!" his eyes widened as he read the text.
Lucan paused to breathe for a moment and then read what it said.
[War Canteen]
Description: This canteen is your loyal friend and companion for all battles. While you're busy killing your enemies, it'll be busy quenching your thirst. Effects: (Purification), (Spacious) (Purification): The canteen filters any liquid poured into it, turning it into clean water. (Spacious): The canteen holds more than it appears. Rarity: Legendary
"What?"
Lucan frowned. Part of him had hoped for a legendary sword, but he was happy to have water. And more than just a simple canteen, this one would automatically filter any dirty water Lucan encountered on his journey.
"I'm not complaining. This might be the best thing that's happened to me."
Remembering the effectiveness of using his peculiar items, Lucan thought about how many times the torch had saved his life and even his beloved little broom had shone in some battles. Checking his second card, Lucan was afraid to read the rest of its content.
[Cursed Diary of Ozymandias...]
Looking at the card, he stored it along with the others. Lucan wasn't ready to fall back into a dimension of malevolent entities, nor did he have the energy to worry about how that insidious diary was now with him.
His happiness lay in doing the simplest thing possible and fulfilling one of his great desires. Lucan wanted to drink water.
Walking a bit faster, he entered the small forest and ran towards the pond. Without his precious Midnight Cloak, he no longer had the magical powers to see better in the dark or the sense of protection it gave him. But Lucan didn't care; he wanted to jump into that pond and test his legendary canteen.
Stumbling through the brush, he reached the pond and summoned his canteen. It was small and light, but he didn't care much about that. It was a legendary item, and Lucan wanted to test it.
As he approached the pond, a mix of emotions washed over him. The day's turbulent events had forced him to face death multiple times. He had kicked a cursed diary of a malevolent entity, escaped an Epic Monster with a second transformation, been pierced, broken, scratched, fallen from a collapsing floor, been crushed by debris, nearly drowned, faced a malevolent rabbit, and then conversed with a possible goddess. Lucan had definitely had a full day and was exhausted.
Throwing himself on the ground, he lay on his stomach and looked at the pond while letting some dirty water enter his canteen.
Just as he closed his eyes to give in to sleep, an arrow appeared inches from his face. Jumping up in shock, he dropped the canteen and raised his hands in defense. A second arrow flew past him, very close.
"Identify yourself! Who are you and which House do you serve?"
Ahhh, not again!