Ash finished repairing the car just as morning light began pushing through the trees. The fog was thinner now, but the woods still felt cursed.
It was definitely time to leave this hell hole.
Ash leaned against the hood and looked toward the broken bridge ahead of them.
"Ummm… are you sure the bridge is broken?" he asked. Even if the car was running again, there was no way they could cross that gap. And walking wasn't much better. The nearest town was miles away.
A small bat sat quietly on Wednesday's shoulder.
"It's fine," Ethan said through it. "I can temporarily put a bridge there."
The bat adjusted its wings slightly.
This arrangement had been Ethan's solution after the tornado. Instead of controlling Selene's body again, he created a small blood familiar to communicate through.
"But the pressing matter is where our enemy went with the book. He seems to have gotten the advantage on us and went somewhere."
The group fell quiet for a moment.
Wednesday spoke first.
"Maybe our enemy realized we are not useful to him and went somewhere else to find weaker humans he can use," she said calmly. "If he cannot break the victims he already encountered, he will choose someone easier."
Selene nodded slightly.
"That is an option."
The bat turned its head toward Ash.
"So Ash, is there any nearby village or town near these woods?" Ethan asked.
Ash thought for a moment.
"Yeah… there's a small town not too far from here."
It was possible the Dark One was searching for weak humans to use them to open the dimensional gateway. The situation suggested that some form of human involvement was required for the ritual. If he could open the gateway on his own, it would have already happened.
They would already be facing those nightmare entities.
The fact that nothing had emerged yet meant certain conditions still had to be fulfilled before the gate could open.
And considering the ritual came from the Book of the Dead, those conditions were unlikely to be pleasant. Human sacrifices, souls, or something equally dark were probably required.
Which meant the Dark One had most likely gone to find them.
They sat inside the car as Ash started the engine.
Wednesday took the passenger seat while Enid and Lucy sat in the back. The road ahead ended at the broken bridge, but that wasn't a problem.
Outside, a bridge made of hardened blood slowly extended across the gap, forming under Ethan's control.
The car rolled forward.
While they crossed, Wednesday spoke.
"Ethan, I found something else in the translation notes," she said. "Something that changes my understanding of Outcasts."
The bat sitting near the dashboard tilted its head.
"Hmmm. What is it?"
"It seems the birth of Outcasts might also be related to the Book of the Dead."
Enid's voice immediately rose from the back seat.
"What? You're saying we came from that creepy book?"
"No," Wednesday replied calmly. "But there may be a connection."
"In the translated notes I saw references to vampires, werewolves, witches… and several rituals describing transformations into them."
The bat went quiet for a moment.
Ethan clearly thought about it.
"Hmmm."
Enid frowned.
"But why would that book even have rituals like that?" she asked. "I don't get how our origins could be connected to a cursed book."
"I might have a clue," Ethan said.
Everyone looked at the bat.
"You see, there was a time long ago called the Dark Times," he explained. "Back then those creatures walked the Earth freely. They tormented humans and treated the world like their hunting ground."
"But humans eventually rose up and pushed them back. They forced them into another dimension and sealed them away."
Enid listened carefully.
"What I never understood," Ethan added, "was how humans managed to resist them in the first place… and even lock them away."
He paused.
"But maybe they didn't fight as ordinary humans."
The bat's red eyes narrowed slightly.
"Maybe they modified some of the rituals from the book and turned themselves into Outcasts."
Enid leaned forward from the back seat.
"You think that's possible?"
Ethan answered without hesitation.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures."
He looked out toward the road ahead.
"And back then, I'm sure humans would have done anything to escape their control."
"Maybe that is how the first Outcasts were born," Wednesday said after thinking for a moment. "Modified rituals from the book could have created them."
"That would also explain why there are no clear records of how Outcasts first appeared. History simply begins with them already existing."
The idea fit too neatly to ignore.
"If those rituals were used during the Dark Times," Wednesday continued, "then the origin of Outcasts may have been deliberately erased or forgotten."
"Wow… I'm learning more about Outcast history right now than I ever did in Nevermore," Enid said.
She hadn't expected there to be something like this behind their existence.
"Seriously," she added. "If the normies ever heard this they'd probably say it's complete bullshit."
Ethan hadn't expected the lore of two universes to overlap like this.
For a moment he stayed quiet, thinking about what Wednesday had said.
If the Book of the Dead really contained rituals related to vampires, werewolves, witches, and other Outcasts, then the history of this world was far more complicated than he had assumed.
It also meant something else.
There might be far more messed up things in this world that he still didn't know about.
*****
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