Deposing The Mighty

Valvesteen finds himself back to the Town's gate, where house N°1 is situated.

'…Nina's place is bigger, but it doesn't look much different from the rest.'

When he stood in front of the door, it opened on its own!

'…It's quite dark, hard to see anything even with my eyes!

Should I open the windows? But there should be lights just like back there…' Valvesteen looks around him but has no clue how to switch them on. In Babel, lights get turned on automatically the moment someone steps inside a room.

He decides to do by the advice he gave earlier and asks the watch. "How to turn the lights on?"

In a matter of second, he gets his answer.

"..Clap your hand once to turn it on, twice to turn it off! Hmmm… This is quite creative actually!" Valvesteen claps and the lights were indeed turned on.

"Nice… now I can discover this place in details…

Well, after I clean all of this mess…" Valvesteen immediately notices that his place is also dirty, more than that it's messy. He lets out a sigh then starts walking around the house.

'…it's even smaller from the inside, that place in front of the door is just where things are piled up, I recognized some clothes there… This room on the right must be where I can sleep! The bed looks okay…Thankfully it's not dirty.

And this is… the bathroom? I'm not sure, it looks very odd but has the same structure of the ones we have.

Anyways, is this all?

Oh, there's a locked room on the left corner…'

On his way to open it, Valvesteen surely was curious as to why it's the only one locked. But he would've never guessed what could have been inside. His expression now, as he's standing in the middle of the room, says it all!

It's a reminiscent of the opening day, when he was amazed by all the paintings and sculptures hanged on the walls of the tower! This time, it's that but with him alone!

And it isn't that he was afraid back then to show his real emotions and reaction to what he's beholding, but at the same time he is constantly acting as the master of all artists when they're around. Right now, he does not need to…

"This….

THIS….

THIS IS THE REAL THING!!!!!" The euphoric expression on his face almost turned to a terrifying evil one!

"HAHA… HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHAAAAHAHHAHAHAHA!!! AMAZING..

AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING…AMAZINGGGGG!!!!!

THIS IS ALL...Mine now."

Valvesteen starts turning around himself eyeing all art pieces in the room. "All of this… I'll study it until I figure out every single information about!

This whole mission thing can wait!!"

Suddenly! As he focused his eyes on one very beautiful painting, he froze!

His ecstatic smile started to fade away!! His firy bright eyes turned out gloomy and his proud broad shoulders shrank on top of him…

Grey's fascination has made him forget about his reality, in fact you can argue the reason he participated initially was for information like this, not to play by the rules of the game itself! However, one thing happened that disrupted his calculations!

"Ah… I forgot that, I am no longer an artist."

Indeed.

Valvesteen could not understand any of these pieces once he looked at them thoroughly, let alone study them and copy their styles unto his own.

His style is already lost from his own memory!

This, drove the master from hysterical laughter to shedding silent tears. He clinches his fist and bites on his teeth. "Damn it… this is torture.

AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH I WANT MY POWERS BACK!!!!! Fuck this, If I knew I would not even participate… This room is suffocating me, I can't stay one more second in here…

I am simply not worthy of being in it."

And so, Valvesteen leaves the room and closes the door so slowly.

He spots a chair made of fine wood in the living room if you could call it that and sits on it, he rests his heavy head and golden hair on the table In front, careless about the dirt and the mess.

'… I don't know why I'm acting like this. These emotions… everybody acts upon them but they have no clue what they are or what they're called. I'd be the same if I hadn't come across them in some books of the pre-revolution era.

Nina's look when she saw me leave, or when she looks at me with bright eyes… Rosaleen's reactions when I act upon my position in the Art Association…

And even my own emotions in this moment. It makes me question myself…

What are humans?'

After asking such question, only silence followed… He had no answer to that.

'…Whatever, I should get back to my mission.

Maybe… No surely, it will be the way to regain my powers. Though I have no clue from where to begin now, but I'll figure it out.

Just like I figured it out, once upon a time…'

Valvesteen regains some of his drive and gets up again, he knew he had to clean and organize the place so he started looking for cleaning tools. With the help of the watch, he finds them!

"A broom, dustpan, sponge, spray cleaner and a trash can! Of all of these I only recognize the last one. Thankfully, it tells the utility of each.

I guess this will take some effort, but I suppose all of us are going through the same thing now."

He's correct in that supposition, the 7 are simultaneously cleaning their own places right now. And each one is equally clueless about their future steps. Yet, they're carrying out with a sense of curiosity and unconscious hopefulness.

On the other hand…

Levon is on his way to face the biggest danger in his early short career!!

…

..

.

*Apertio, Aedificium*

Graham has just gone back from the restaurant, where he spent hours just sitting alone in one of the many tables in front. His interaction with Karam this time was short and cold, just that of a server and a client.

'…I wanted to ask him about certain things, but from how he acted it was clear that he's not up for talking like the first time. He said it's because I was the first to visit, seeing that many are now going there, I guess it doesn't give me any advantage anymore.

Speaking of others… It seems as if some groups know each other! I find it very odd… when did they have time to do so? In fact, it isn't even about time, people can't know others unless they studied or worked with them. That's what we were taught and instructed!

It only means they know each other prior… Such coincidence for them to fall in the same mode and even the same area!

Well, now that I think of it… Zephyr is a cultivator too! Who knows if he's lurking somewhere in the same area...'

After leading his thoughts to an open end, Levon holds his left shoulder and starts moving it circularly!

"Hmm… It has improved significantly. I don't know whether it's the walking, the food or… me being a hybrid+. Obviously, it's all of them combined, but I'd like to know which of the 3 is the most significant factor.

Anyways, I'm tired of fighting and I can't risk another injury right now, so I'll choose a truth mission."

Levon reads the list of next missions he has, the watch only displays 5 of them at a time:

"Objectivity vs Subjectivity"

"Obtain a healing potion"

"Catch the fly"

"Working in a restaurant for 24hours"

"Pain Durability"

"…Very interesting names, looks like it will be fun."

"Oh yeah! Surely it will be fun Mr. Levon Graham." Replies someone from the dark!!!

Graham stops in his place immediately. "…Who is it? And what do you want?"

"Oh we don't want much, we only want to know how much better you are than us!"

Levon quickly stands sideways and tightens his face as he realized something. 'This voice right now…is different from the one earlier!! It came from behind!

Are they two people?'

"Why aren't you answering? Are you possibly afraid of us Mr. Levon?! Shouldn't it be the opposite! I mean after all we're nothing compared to the genius that is you."

Levon's expression gets even more serious! 'SHIT!! A third voice!! I'm surrounded…

Are they one of the groups I saw in Apertio Space?! I didn't sense any following me

Could it be what that insect said… That I'm truly being targeted!!'