Lord of Mysteries:Fire of Destruction

Stepping out of the shadows in the hiding place she had used these last few days, Hazel quickly removed the Burnt Band from her forearm.

The ravings, already at the edge of what she could tolerate, finally fell silent, and she could finally breathe a quiet sigh.

Placing a hand on her chest and feeling how fast her heart was beating, the young noblewoman couldn't help but let out a loud giggle.

"That was amazing!"

While acting as a Marauder had had its thrill, breaking into other nobles' houses or sneaking into rooms during parties, this was the first time she felt like a true Beyonder.

Knowing that while the possibility of death was considerable, her preparations assured her that even if she was discovered, her escape was certain.

'I want to see what else I can get away with... Having the most valuable secrets and information of my enemies obtained in front of them, ripped from where they thought it was safest...'

'Taking that for myself... not just because it benefits me but because I can...

'This feeling of adrenaline is addictive!'

Shaking a little, Hazel laughed a little more before letting out a soft sigh, then closing her eyes and going into thought.

Now calmer and with a small smile, the young woman laughed softly.

'While it's addictive, it mustn't get to my head.'

"Nothing is more important than my life. If I risked losing my most precious object just for a little excitement, can I really call myself intelligent?"

This mission/task, which her teacher had entrusted to her, taught her many things. It not only helped her digest her potion but also demonstrated the importance and vitality of being careful and the power of information.

The whole thing would have failed if just one of the elements used had been missing.

Without the blessing of the Scarlet Monarch, she would not have been able to use the Burnt Band so freely, nor would she have been undetected by the Guard Hunters. Without the artifacts, she could never have gotten close to the room or opened the safe.

'In the Beyonder World. Your power is not as important as the preparations you have made and the information you possess...'

Even a Normal Person could kill a Sequence 6 Beyonder if their preparations were sufficient.

'Or successfully hunting down a Pirate Admiral in the middle of Backlund's most heavily guarded district...'

Feeling that she now had a deeper understanding of what it meant to be a Beyonder, Hazel smiled smugly to herself.

Undoubtedly, it had been the right decision to enter this world.

"This is fun~"

With all that said and done, the woman raised her left arm and slightly pulled back her sleeve.

There, just below her wrist, was a simple yellow tattoo of a dog.

'If Mother or Father saw this, they would surely faint...'

Shaking her head, the woman went to where she had hidden the briefcase she had brought and took out various materials.

Red poppies, gunpowder, wine, red candles...

Hazel quickly prepared an altar and lit the candles with her spirituality. She knelt before the altar, closed her eyes, and joined her hands in prayer.

Then, she said in Ancient Hermes:

"The Scarlet Monarch who burns depravity..."

"...The Teacher's mission was successfully completed. The information was delivered to MI9 as requested."

...

Smiling under his hood at his student, Adryan gave a subtle nod.

"Good job."

With congratulations given, the flame door was closed, and the returned artifacts were set aside to return with him.

Undoing his disguise, the redhead looked down at his left wrist, where a simple tattoo of a soldier was.

Having his oldest soldier back brought great peace to the redhead. Who, after a few seconds, smiled softly and nodded in respect of the tattoo.

"Welcome back, Ignir."

After looking at the tattoo a little more and feeling a little emotional, Adryan lowered his arm and looked around...

At the City in the distance, at the multiple floating flames, at the areas where he kept his things along with the soldiers who moved back and forth, taking care of everything.

One of the separate flames was pulsing.

It was Charlotte's.

Sigh...

Sighing a little, the redhead reached out to the side, and the Hanged Man's blasphemy card flew to him.

He absorbed it within himself without saying much and with a flat expression.

His clothes disappeared, his modesty was covered by the skirt, and the chains manifested themselves around him.

...

Looking at the result on his work table, the 17-year-old smiled with emotion and quickly saluted.

"Praise the Monarch!"

With his praise given, the Melee Scholar grabbed his most recent creation and looked at it with shining eyes.

The charm in his hands was rectangular, a little thinner than usual, and its edges were extremely sharp. It was an intense wine-red color, bordering on blood.

The surface was covered with symbols, magic labels, sinister patterns, and twisted path numbers. The symbols merged to form a shadow over the surface.

"If I had better ingredients, I could make it stronger, but this is already a great advance!" Charlotte thought proudly of his creation.

It took a few attempts to find the right formula, but he finally succeeded!

A Medium-grade charm!

After spending a moment of pride looking at the gloomy charm in his hands, Charlotte carefully placed it next to the Altar he had used to create it.

Then he grabbed an open notebook from his work table and wrote down the formula, the process of creating the charm, and its abilities.

"Mercury, silver, iron, 15 milliliters of human blood - more experiments with different types to be carried out..."

"It can give consciousness to the shadow of the target and turn it against their owner; a normal person could not escape without outside help, and even a beyonder would find it difficult to free themselves..."

'If the shadows manage to cover their ears, a horrible roar will lash out, infecting them with madness and corruption... Its activation incantation is 'Contain'.

'How quickly the second effect happens you need to experiment, estimated time: between 5 and 10 seconds...'

'It will last for 6 months, after which the power of the charm will rapidly weaken until it loses its qualities by the end of month 7.'

As a Mystery Prier, Charlotte had gained skills related to rituals, divination, and other mystical knowledge, but these were only rudimentary.

Every time he made a charm, he would get an idea of its power, what it was capable of doing and how long it would last. But, although he knew how long the charm would last and how useful it would be, that didn't help when it came to creating it.

Most of his knowledge about making charms came from his own experimentation and the diary and notebook his uncle left him.

The increase brought by the Melee Scholar was not as significant in the mystical sense as it was in the physical. It only gave him a little more knowledge of rituals and summoning spirits from the spirit world.

The book his boss brought him let his charm-making reach the next level.

"If only I could get high-level ingredients, I'm sure a high-level charm would be possible!"

Knowing that this would be difficult for now, the young man with the purple eyes could only close his notebook and, after checking that he had not forgotten anything, copy everything down on a separate note.

Then he set the charm aside, placed it in a container along with the note, and put it in a basket.

Multiple charms of different colors and shapes, some gold, some silver, and some red, were in the basket.

Since a God had helped him by giving him some power to make the charms and perform the rituals, he had never again experienced spirituality exhaustion.

'I could create charms until I used up all the ingredients I have here, but I must not take for granted the kindness of the Scarlet Monarch... That would be asking for Divine Punishment!' The young man sighed with his expression breaking into a small, uncomfortable grimace.

He closed the basket and pushed it to one side. He still needed nine more medium grade charms to pay Miss Sharron for the book.

That done, he looked around his study and couldn't help feeling melancholy.

Several shelves were full of mystical materials and ingredients that he could use for whatever rituals he might need. Several books on mysticism about rituals and the making of materials together with his own studies of Hermes and Ancient Hermes...

The materials and books on that shelf alone must be worth over 2600 pounds, or 7800 sassem!

Compared to how he had been living in East Borough, scratching for every penny he could use for his rituals and charms. He knew he was in heaven now.

He picked up a blackish, burnt book and placed it on the shelf, next to his book of rituals.

Nodding, Charlotte reviewed his notes one last time before leaving his study, where the team met, at Warehouse 7 on Artiros Street in the Artelia district.

Where he lived was a departmental complex, and he did not dare to pray or make altars there. On the advice of his boss, he decided to use one of the unused rooms in the warehouse and turned it into his studio.

The young man left his studio and returned home with all that done.

It was quite late but the sun had not yet set so he wanted to return before it got completely dark...

...

In another part of the city...

Looking at the altar before her, Serena Williams took a slow breath and repeated for the 16th time in the last 15 minutes.

'Red candles, red poppies... The flowers must be at the top, forming the tip of a spear, and the offering must be placed at the tip of it...'

Rechecking the altar and seeing that everything was fine, the woman nodded slightly and closed the cabinet where it was hidden.

Getting up with a slight groan from having been bent over for so long, Serena couldn't help but look at the mirror in her room with a somewhat astonished look.

The person looking back at her was almost a stranger.

Her cheeks were no longer so thin that she could see the flesh and bone underneath, a healthy layer of fat inflating them.

Her eyes were no longer so deep and now seemed to have a spark of life. The same was true of her skin, which, despite the scars, had a healthier pink color.

Her black hair had also become shinier and was tied back with a simple copper laurel.

Although she could still feel a little pain, it wasn't very important. She hardly even noticed it.

'What a miraculous power... To be able to heal with just food...' Patting her cheek, Serena looked at her reflection a little more before sighing with joy.

A big smile formed on her face, and she couldn't help but hum happily.

'Soon, I should be able to take the potion, and I will be a Beyonder! I will still be able to follow Mr Kenway...'

Gently shaking her head, Serena sighed slowly.

Leaving her room, she went straight to her kitchen, where the rich smell of freshly made food filled her head and lit up her spirit.

Unconsciously, Serena smiled, and her pace quickened a little.

"Sorry I'm late." Apologizing a little, she sat in front of the black-haired boy.

"Don't worry, Miss Serena. The food will be ready soon." Opera looked over her shoulder at the duo at the table and laughed a little.

"Thank you very much again." Opera smiled gratefully before turning her attention to the boy, "Are you feeling all right, Ademisaul? You haven't said anything since you two arrived."

Usually, the boy would be muttering or saying something nonsensical by now. But he was unusually quiet, just absently playing with a fork.

When called, the young man looked up from his fork, and his gaze focused on her.

Serena was taken a little by surprise at how conscious his gaze was.

"Ah, yes, I'm fine... I'm fine. Forgive me. I'm still not used to the silence in my mind..." Ademisual whispered at first before raising his voice a little.

'It's still a bit strange, but I can see that it's nowhere near what he used to do…' Her gaze moved from the boy to Opera in a silent question.

Understanding what was being said, the crimson-eyed woman gave a subtle nod.

"The boss finally gave him the Monster potion, making Ademisual recover his sanity. That's why he's so silent. He's still not used to being 'normal'."

"He's already a Beyonder..." Mumbling dazedly, Serena looked at the boy in front of her, who could barely be half her age.

As she said this, a quick thought crossed her mind, and she could only hold her legs tightly under the table.

'That... That means I'm the only normal person now! I'm falling behind... I'm falling behind!'

If this kept up, she would be abandoned! Abandoned!

'nononononono.... NONONO!'

Her gaze and vision swirled and everything around her became blurry.

A gentle touch grazed her arm and the woman blinked, everything stopped spinning and she could only see the boy looking at her with confused eyes.

"Are you all right Miss Serena?"

Blinking again, the older woman smiled and carefully took Ademisaul's hand and squeezed it in appreciation, "I'm fine, just a little hungry."

"Good, I guess the meal's over then, eh?" Opera joined the conversation, placing plates of beef soup and cheese rice in front of them both.

Ademisaul looked at her for a few seconds before slowly nodding, the boy lowering his gaze to his plate.

"..."

Then he turned to look at Serena's plate.

"..."

He repeated this twice, his eyes shining with extreme confusion by the third time.

Looking at her plate, which was three times bigger than the boy's, Serena couldn't help blushing with embarrassment.

"I'm on a weight gain diet so I have to eat more."

"Shouldn't that be the other way around? Eat less to lose weight?" Ademisual asked innocently.

"... My situation is... A little different."

Before Ademisual could ask another question, Opera's hand delicately but firmly grasped his ear.

"Weren't you ever taught that it's rude to ask a woman her weight?" Opera suppressed softly but firmly.

"Sorry, sorry!" Ademisual cried out in pain at such a brutal attack and began to apologize as fast as he could.

Serena looked on a little lost, her gaze and surroundings finally coming to rest and a gentle smile spreading across her face.

Not wanting the boy to suffer for something so silly, she quickly came to his defense.

"Please stop, Miss Opera. You'll have the boy's ear off at this rate."

"I'll stop once I'm sure he won't say another stupid thing!"