Niklaus panted as the Nightmare Spell's voice faded from his ears.
The jungle surrounding him started to disappear, wiping away like an artist had taken an eraser and was cleaning the canvas off – the canvas being the world in this case. In a matter of moments, the jungle was once more replaced by the dreary, labyrinthine walls of the alleyways in the Moretti District.
His eyes met the tired and exhausted ones of a red-haired woman.
He threw the spear to the side, letting it fall to the ground with an audible clang, as he opened his mouth to speak.
"What the - "
He paused when he heard the sound of groans.
Turning around, he saw the still bodies of Avy and Laena tremble as they blinked a few times. The sheer terror and the fogginess in their eyes disappeared. They stood in their positions for a brief moment before their legs wobbled and their knees buckled as they fell to the ground.
"Avy! Laena!"
Niklaus rushed towards the two girls.
He knelt beside them and looked them over. He peered straight into their ether body, but other than it being strained and stretched thin from the Demigod Madame's ability, he couldn't find anything wrong with them. Why were they unconscious then, when he wasn't?
"Ugh…"
Laena suddenly let out a groan.
Niklaus sighed in relief as he saw her start to wake up.
Aveline also started waking up around the same time. She shifted around as her face scrunched up for a bit. She then opened her eyes, and Niklaus had never been happier to see the color blue before.
"Mmm… Lia… What happened?"
Niklaus huffed a laugh. "That's what I'd like to find out."
He stood back up, allowing the body's instincts to guide him into straightening his skirt before he turned to face the red-haired woman.
His eyes hardened into chips of emerald as he met her eyes.
It was time for her to cough up some damned answers.
"What the fuck is going on?" he demanded, not bothering to filter his words to match Cecilia's way of speaking. He deftly ignored the look of utter shock on the faces of both Aveline and Laena.
He was way past the point of caring and wanted some damned answers.
"Gather up. We need to keep moving."
Niklaus couldn't help the rage that spiked up when he heard that. "We're not going anywhere! Not until you explain what the fuck is going on!"
Rhea looked at the Blonde princess glaring at her angrily before her eyes moved onto the other two girls. Laena Hall was barely standing up and was being supported by the pink-haired girl.
She sighed.
"I was there at the entertainment district when the procession passed through it earlier today," she started. "When I laid my eyes on them, my spirituality as an Unshadowed screamed at me, and I received what I can only call a divine revelation."
A curious expression crossed Niklaus' face, momentarily replacing the rage he'd been previously feeling.
"Divine Revelation?"
Rhea nodded. "It was like each and every cell in my body had only one purpose, to keep you safe."
Niklaus took in her words and tried to figure out what it meant.
Keep me safe?
And a divine revelation aimed with that purpose. His thoughts first went towards his Mother, Audrey Hall.
She was a God; he knew that.
Could she have sent the revelation?
But if she did that, then why didn't she just send one of the angels serving her or even one of the saints belonging to her church?
Why ask this random Sequence 4 Beyonder, who was, by all appearances, not even a member of the Church of Thought?
"And that's not all." Niklaus turned his attention back towards the red-haired woman. "A single phrase also appeared in my mind."
Then she grimaced, "In fact, it's been ringing in my head ever since the revelation."
Niklaus cocked an eyebrow.
"It's just one phrase repeating over and over. The Descent has already begun."
As soon as she finished speaking, a blinding wave of pain erupted from the depths of Niklaus's head, making him double over in pain. A gasp tore out of his throat as he bent over and clawed at his head. It felt like something was trying to rip its way out of there.
"Cecilia!" Aveline cried as she rushed forward. She knelt next to her girlfriend, a look of immense worry on her face. "What's happening to her?!"
Rhea hesitated. "I… I don't know."
Laena stormed towards the older woman and grabbed her by the arm. "What do you mean you don't know? Aren't you the Sequence 4 sent to keep her safe?!" She demanded. Her cousin was suffering, and this bitch was not doing anything to help.
Aveline looked up at the red-haired girl standing right there! "Do something!" She shouted before returning to fretting at Cecilia.
Niklaus noticed none of this, of course. He could feel his mind island shudder as a powerful darkness threatened to overtake it. Even his body of heart and mind was affected, with quakes running through his entire soul.
The skin on his arms and the right side of his face started to mutate, turning more reptilian as it turned green. The Dragon scales shimmered under the light as they kept spreading. His skin and muscles wriggled painfully underneath the scales, like there were maggots burrowing through his flesh.
"No no no…!"
Just as he was about to lose control, a wave of golden light washed over him.
In a gesture of supreme effort, he looked upwards, and his draconic green eyes met Rhea's. The Red-haired woman had her hands out towards him, and golden light was shining out of them.
The scales began to recede, disappearing into his body as they turned into normal skin again.
Laena let out a breath of relief when the cloudiness in her cousin's eyes receded.
"What the hell was that?" Niklaus finally rasped out after a few minutes, his hair matted with sweat and his breath ragged with exhaustion. Every breath he took felt painful, like his soul had been ripped apart and roughly sewn together – he could still feel the seams.
Aveline wrapped her arms around him and buried her face into his shoulders. Her shoulders shook with muffled sobs she'd held in until now.
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her in, placing a hand against the back of her head. It wasn't for the act this time. There was no one left to fool.
Something about that bothered him, some small voice asking whose instinct that had even been. He shoved the thought down. Now wasn't the time.
"You almost lost control."
He stared at Rhea for a long moment. "How? What happened?"
She shook her head. "I… I don't know. I've never seen anything like this before. It wasn't corruption, or if it was, it wasn't of a kind I've come across before. The way the – "
"Hey Cece, why's your bag shining?"
Laena suddenly called out, cutting Rhea off.
The two of them turned to see where the blonde girl was pointing and saw that there indeed was a faint glow coming out from inside the mouth of Cecilia's handbag.
How that handbag had survived everything that happened, Niklaus didn't know. Nor did he care, even as he took the offered bag and pulled out the glowing object inside with one hand.
It was the Black Notebook.
Avy peeked out, and one of her blue eyes landed on the notebook. "What's that?" She asked him, her voice still wet with tears.
He shook his head. "I don't know. I found it this morning in my bag, and for some reason – I've been carrying it absolutely everywhere with me."
"Open it. Let's see what's inside," Laena urged, a grin forming on her face now that the danger had passed.
She knew she shouldn't have, but she just couldn't help it. She'd always liked mysteries, and this one was unfurling right in front of her eyes. A notebook that no one knew where it came from, one that glowed when its owner was losing control – was it a Sealed Artifact, a corrupted object, or something else? Laena couldn't wait to find out.
The only thing that would make this better would be some popcorn.
Speaking of which…
As Laena reached behind her, Niklaus adjusted his hold over Avy before opening the notebook. The pages flew open before coming to rest on the exact page he'd seen back when his mind had been Cecilia's during the class.
D_ __T T____ _____R
__E D_____T ___ ALR____ _____
__ I ___E M____F, FOL__W ___ PL__
SE______ _ _F L_TM, T___ D__TH
M_M_ _S G_NE
Only this time, one of the lines had been filled. The second line now read:
THE DESCENT HAS ALREADY BEGUN
"The Descent has already begun," Niklaus murmured as his finger traced the line in the notebook. He looked at the others. "What does this mean?"
None of them had any idea.
"Why don't you turn the page and see if there's anything else written in it," Laena suggested with a grin.
He rolled his eyes, not even bothering to respond to her. He reached to do just that even as his thoughts wandered. Cecilia had tried that back in the classroom and it hadn't – His thoughts suddenly cut off as the page turned.
"What're these?" Avy murmured to him, looking down at the notebook. She couldn't understand a single word of what was written.
He looked down at the page and started reading. It was a bit confusing, written in runes that Cecilia could read but wasn't exactly a master of, but he managed. "These are…directions?"
"Directions?" Rhea blinked before taking a look into the book. Just like Aveline, she couldn't make heads or tails of what was written, as she had never learned any of the ancient languages besides Ancient Hermes. "Directions to where?"
Niklaus shrugged. "I have no idea."
"Then let's go and check it out!" Laena suggested.
Aveline raised her head as if to protest, but then she seemed to have changed her mind and just lay her head back down on Niklaus's chest.
Niklaus looked at Rhea.
The red-haired woman shrugged. "I don't have any better ideas. Do you?"
Niklaus shook his head. He didn't have anything better to offer.
And so their next course of action was decided.
OO OO OO
They made their way deeper through the Moretti District.
Niklaus kept an eye trained on the notebook as they followed its directions. The writing was enchanted, and often shifted and changed into different paths when they arrived at certain crossroads. It hadn't taken him long to figure out what was going on – it was showing him all the routes they could take to get to their destination.
He held back a laugh. In that sense, it was much like those GPS units he'd read about in webnovels.
A little ahead of him, Rhea had her spear slightly raised as she looked around with sharp eyes, ready to fight at a moment's notice.
Aveline stood to his side, holding his hand in a vice grip as they walked. While Laena stood in the center of this makeshift formation of theirs, an eager grin on her face as she took in the surroundings.
Time passed without incident.
The directions continued to change whenever necessary, leading them through one turn after another with an almost unnatural certainty.
They kept seeing shadows cast in white out of the corner of their eyes, but the notebook changed directions at the right moments to let them avoid any cultists. Whatever power guided the notebook seemed to know exactly what route they had to take to avoid any confrontation.
The notebook had become the easiest thing to focus on. Whenever the symbols shifted, Niklaus adjusted their path accordingly, barely having to think about where they were going. He also kept trying to memorize the mystical symbols that appeared across the page. Some of them were familiar from Cecilia's memories, while others were completely foreign.
The distinction bothered him, although he could not explain why.
Avy eventually reached a point where she stopped leaning against him and walked under her own strength. She still kept his hand in hers, though, intertwining their fingers tightly.
Even Laena had grown noticeably quieter, her earlier curiosity and excitement fading into a more melancholic atmosphere.
Their journey continued in that way.
Minutes stretching into what felt like much longer.
He kept walking, his eyes fixed on the book, when Aveline suddenly stopped. Feeling the tug in his hand, he looked up to see the pink-haired girl staring at nothing with a look of abject horror in her eyes.
For a moment, nobody spoke, before Avy lightly whispered, "Cecilia… Since when have we been walking through fog?"
Niklaus stilled as a sudden chill ran down his back.
Any lethargy he had been feeling vanished as he stood back up, alert as he looked around. Instead of the alleyways and the narrow roads of Moretti District, he saw to his utter horror that they had been travelling through a thick layer of greyish-white fog
No matter where he looked, he couldn't see past the Fog. He whirled around, trying to see the exit, but only found more of the same greyish-white fog.
"By the Goddess, what?!" Laena whispered under her breath as she stared.
Rhea didn't say anything, but her grip on her weapon visibly tightened.
For several long seconds, nobody moved.
Where the hell did the fog come from?
And how had they all failed to notice it?
"Lia?" Avy tried again when she saw her girlfriend fail to respond the first time.
Niklaus shook his head before turning to Aveline. His lips pursed as he thought about what to say, but came up blank.
He turned to Rhea. "How did we get here?" and where even was 'here'? Because it clearly wasn't Moretti Street. Hell, it probably wasn't even Arcos.
"I… I don't know." Rhea shook her head, a little shaken. She'd been keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings, wary of another ambush after Morgana - but even she had failed to notice that they had walked into this deep foggy area.
She said as such to the rest of them.
They looked at each other.
The four of them talked about what action they should take next - they decided their next action, which was to go forward deeper into the fog to see where it and the directions from the notebook led.
They walked through the Grey Fog, now doubly tense and on the lookout for trouble.
OO OO OO
Niklaus didn't know how long they had been walking when he noticed the barest hints of the fog thinning out.
"Look there!" Laena cried out, pointing forwards.
They followed her gaze and saw an inexplicable sight. It was a large ornate door in the distance. It was surrounded by a large stone arch with wisps of fog swirling around it.
It stood in the distance, surrounded by the all-consuming fog, as if in defiance of it. It was the only thing they could see - everything else was blanketed by this impenetrable fog.
He shared a quick glance with Aveline before separating their clasped hands. He slowly approached the Arch, noting the way the fog seemed to disappear within the cracks between the stones.
The Arch stood there in the midst of the thick fog, in defiance of it. It was the only thing that was visible at a distance, everything else was covered and concealed by this thick layer of inescapable grey fog.
He stepped closer.
The doors had several intricate designs etched onto it. He ran a hand through one of them, and the entire design shifted and moved as it danced under his touch.
It was just like the runes in the Black Notebook, he realized.
And just like the notebook, it read something.
"Lord of Mysteries;
King of Space-Time;
Beacon of Destiny;
Embodiment of Sefirah Castle;
Dominator of the Spirit World."
He muttered as his hands traced the runes. Then, he stilled as his eyes widened.
He'd just repeated the Honorific Name of some entity out loud!
Crap!
You weren't supposed to do that!
But - he'd done just that. But he couldn't feel anything amiss.
No gaze of a greater being falling onto him. No wave of corruption infecting his soul or ravings rendering him mad. Not even a wave of power or consequence to uttering something he should not have.
There was nothing.
As if on cue, the runes of the door shifted again into a new configuration.
Not knowing what to do, he kept reading - this time ensuring he did not repeat them out loud.
'The Annihilation Demonic Wolf;
Incomprehensible Terror of the Eternal Night;
The Inevitable Master of the Sefirah Castle.'
.
'Mother of the Phoenix;
Origin of the Ever After;
The Gateway to the Final End.'
.
'The Great God reigning over the Puppets;
Lord of the Nation of Evernight;
Sovereign of the dead of Foggy Town;
The Embodiment of the Fool.'
.
'The Trojan Horse of Destiny;
The Worm that Erodes Time;
The Loopholes in Rules;
The Manifestation of All Errors.'
.
'Great Door of All Doors;
Guide of Endless Cosmos;
Key to all Mysterious Worlds.'
.
'The Fool that doesn't belong to this era;
The Mysterious Ruler above the Gray Fog;
The King of Yellow and Black who wields good luck.'
.
'Lord of Mysteries;
The Fool with a thousand faces;
Embodiment of Change;
The King of Yellow and Black who guides fate and destiny;
The Door of Light who rules above the Spirit World.'
The runes shifted again, and he suddenly paused - an uncomfortable feeling rising up in his chest. He didn't know why, but this one was important.
And so, he once again made the mistake of repeating it aloud as he murmured under his breath.
"Lady of the House of Mysteries;
The Omnipresent witness of History;
The Origin of Inconceivable Change;
The key to Timeless Darkness;
Inheritor of the Grey Fog."
The runes suddenly glowed as the intensity of the grey fog increased far beyond measure, to the point it was getting difficult to even see his own hands.
A comforting warmth spread through his chest before infusing every part of his being - making him feel like he could do anything, survive anything.
Even this Hellish Nightmare Trial.
Suddenly, he was grabbed by the shoulders and twisted around. His body whirled before coming face to face with Rhea, who had an enraged look on her face.
She breathed down on him, her face close enough that he could feel her breath wash over his face.
"What did you do?! Don't you know not to recite random Honorific names you find in suspicious places?!"
He looked away. "I… I couldn't control myself; it's like my mouth wanted to say them out loud, regardless of what I wanted."
Rhea looked like she wanted to say more, but in the end she just scowled. "What do we do now?"
"I don't know."
"Maybe you can pray to Auntie A and ask for help." Laena pitched her own suggestion in.
They all turned to her.
"What?" She shrugged. "She's a goddess, isn't she? Surely she'll be able to help us with whatever this is."
"I…" Niklaus hesitated for a moment. He couldn't help but remember the emotional moment he'd had with Audrey earlier today.
And more importantly, he couldn't forget the flash of red that had crossed her sight right after that.
"As much as I hate to say it," All the attention now turned to Aveline, who had a put-out expression on her face. "She's right, I don't think we have any other way."
Niklaus sighed before turning to Rhea. He cocked an eyebrow at her.
The red-haired woman clearly thought for a moment before silently acquiescing with a sigh.
Niklaus closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, his mouth opened too, and the words just flowed out.
Like he'd said them a thousand times before.
"The Origin of all Hopes and Dreams;
She who bears the burden of Knowledge;
Keeper of Justice born from the Heart of the World;
Anchor to the Realm of Divinity;
The Great Defence and the protector of the land of Arcos."
He used the entire Honorific instead of shortening it to 3 lines like all Deities allowed.
They all waited with bated breath for a long moment, but nothing happened.
"Well, that's a dud." Laena shrugged. "Guess we're back to square one. Oh well - "
"No, we aren't." Rhea cut in. She turned to Niklaus with a serious look. "Members of the Church of Thought are provided with an alternate honorific name to use in their ritualistic magics. It is known that you are not a member of the clergy, but you are her daughter - will that Honorific still work if you recited it?"
"I don't know, let's try, shall we." Niklaus shrugged.
And it was the truth. Cecilia had never used that honorific before, but she had known that Mother had done something to it so that only recognized members of the Church of Thought could get a response through this Honorific name.
The rest of the prayers were simply filtered out and never reached her.
But whether he was exempt from that filter, even she didn't know.
"Embodiment of Knowledge;
Lady of Dreams;
Guide of all Humanity."
It was with crushing disappointment that he realized that even this Honorific Name didn't do anything.
Dejected, he turned towards Rhea and opened his mouth to speak when -
"Wait!" Laena exclaimed. "There's another one!"
Niklaus frowned as, for a brief moment, the sound of a pen writing on paper hit his ears out of nowhere, but he put that aside and turned towards the blonde girl.
"What do you mean?"
"I'm saying that your mother has another Honorific name you haven't used."
"Since when?" Niklaus asked in shock. He didn't know anything about a third one, and neither had Cecilia. "Never mind, it doesn't matter. Come here and recite it."
"Oh, absolutely not." Laena declared with a firmness that left everyone confused. "I'm not even supposed to know it - I am not going to get in trouble with Auntie A, not on your life."
"Laena, I -" Niklaus tried when Laena stepped closer and leaned towards his ear. Before he could do anything, she had already whispered several things in his ear.
"There! You recite it now." Laena said as she took a step back.
He stared at her for a long moment.
How did she get this Honorific? Not even he knew of it.
For a moment, a brief bout of suspicion passed through him, but then he gave it up, reasoning it out as a coincidence. He rolled his eyes and turned towards the Arch, muttering insults under his breath the entire way.
Did it even belong to Mother?
"The Light at the end of Apocalypse;
The Astral Tower and the Ruler of the Subconscious;
The False Almighty;
The Right hand of Mysteries;
The Architect of Arcos;
The Lady of the Fantasy."
And as he said the words, the world shuddered.
"Whoa -"
The grey fog around them trembled, rumbling to a tune unseen and unheard by them all. Hints of Kaleidoscopic colors reflected through the deep grey of the fog, throwing rainbow light everywhere.
Then it happened.
There was a slow, rumbling groan, and the doors inside the Arch opened.
Laena turned to him with a sly grin. "Guess that's one form of divine assistance, eh~."