FORTUNA’S TRIAL

On the other part of the temple, Lucius was making his way through the maze-like path.

He did not tread on blindly, but by continuously heading toward a direction that emanated with unusual amount of mana in the air. He knew such phenomenon was the trace of the Fortuna Grimoire and if he could just follow that trail, it would lead him to the magical book.

Lucius walked on and on. The deeper he journeyed through the maze following the grimoire's trail, the denser was the mana in the air.

And when the mana was so dense it was on the brink of suffocating anyone in its presence, Lucius found himself in front of a large iron gate. The grandness of the gate indicated that it was guarding something very precious inside.

Lucius made his way over and once he approached gate, it opened by itself. Apparently the gate was enchanted so that one who was granted permission would not need to use force to open it. And Lucius was definitely someone qualified for the privilege.

The silver-haired man walked inside and found himself inside a large catacomb. Floating right at the center and radiating with crimson radiance which illuminated the catacomb was an ancient book.

The floating object was emanating immense amount of mana, the source of the trail Lucius followed. The mana density around it was so high that a normal person would've died should they stood a few feet by the artifact.

But, alas, Lucius was not a normal person. Despite the mana density in the air around the book, he walked straight to it without being phased whatsoever.

Once the book was right in front of him, Lucius put on a smile.

"The Fortuna Grimoire…" uttered Lucius with a whispering voice. "The key to great powers and--"

"--the key to our damnation."

A voice interrupted Lucius's speech which surprised him slightly. He shifted his gaze and found Luciana leaning by the wall to his side.

"Sister? You're here already?" greeted Lucius. The smile still persisted on him. "Did you wait long for me?"

"Not really. I just got here myself." replied Luciana. She then pointed to the floating book. "So, are you going to offer your blood to the grimoire?"

Lucius chuckled at Luciana's question.

"I'm surprised that you haven't offered your own despite arriving here before me, sister." said Lucius. "What exactly are you planning?"

"I just wanted to talk to you, brother."

"What is there to talk about? The only thing to do is to determine which one of us is going to be Fortuna's apostle." said Lucius. "That is not something we can determine through words, yes?"

"You're making the wrong choice, Lucius."

The silver-haired man raised his eyebrows upon his sister's words.

" 'Wrong choice?' " repeated Lucius. "Are you saying that I shouldn't become the apostle and let you become it instead, for that would finally be the correct choice?"

"No. That would also be the wrong decision." replied Luciana. "Neither of us should become Fortuna's apostle."

Lucius frowned upon his sister's comment with a suspecting curiosity.

"Oh? What makes you say that?" asked Lucius. "Tell me, sister! Why shouldn't we become the apostle of Fortuna? A goddess whose blessings will help us fulfill the ancient prophecy and bring the entire world to a grand new age."

Luciana turned her gaze toward the grimoire.

"Goddess of Prosperity, Fortuna." uttered Luciana. "Or should I call Her by Her real name?"

Luciana's eyes turned empty and cold. Her expression darkened with terror. With an ominous voice, she continued her speech.

"Goddess of Chaos, Kali."

Lucius gasped at his sister's words. His face showed great disgust and fury toward what he just heard.

"What kind of blasphemy are you blurting out, sister?!" asked Lucius in infuriated tone. "How dare you sully Fortuna's name by associating it with 'chaos!'"

"Like it or not, that is the truth, brother." said Luciana bluntly. She pointed to the Fortuna Grimoire floating in front of Lucius. "If you follow the words of Fortuna inside that book, you will only sow seeds of great chaos throughout the world and they would eventually bloom into unstoppable calamities that would devour us all."

"NONSENSE!"

"Fortuna does not wish for the future we seek, Lucius." said the woman who had seen it all. "Do not be deceived by Her promise as told by our father. For the only thing She seeks is chaos and chaos alone."

Lucius trembled after hearing his sister's plea. But it was not because he was terrified by the bitter truth. But because he was amused by what he thought as lies.

The silver-haired man roared with laughter. 

"AHAHAHA! YOU ALMOST GOT ME, SISTER!"

"I beg your pardon?"

"All of these blasphemous things you said about Fortuna…" said Lucius. "…They are just distractions to make me let my guard down. You actually wanted to become Fortuna's apostle and now are trying to create an opportunity to snatch the grimoire from my grasp!"

"Oh my, Lucius! Do you really think I would be that vicious to my own brother?" said Luciana who did, in fact, killed her brother in her previous life to become the Apostle of Fortuna.

"Sister, do you happen to remember a special moment when we were both just ten years old? About half our age right now?" asked Lucius suddenly with a reminiscing smile.

Luciana raised her eyebrows upon the inquiry.

"How could I forget?" replied the silver-haired woman. "It was the day we killed our mother."

"Exactly!" said Lucius with enthusiastic tone. "Father woke us in the middle of the night and brought us to a secluded room in the manor. Inside, we found our mother tied to a chair looking terrified to death."

"He then gave us a large knife to hold together." continued Luciana. "It was so big and heavy that even with both of our strength it was hard to keep it balanced."

"Father proceeded to order us to stab that knife into our mother." said Lucius with a sinister grin. "Do you remember what he said back then?"

" 'This is a test of your determination. To see if you are willing to do whatever it takes to accomplish the holy mission of the Edelweiss family.' " quoted Luciana with a matching sinister grin. "Of all the words he passed on to us, those are the ones I remembered the most."

"It was definitely an experience etched to my soul." said Lucius. "It was the day I realized the darkness within me. The darkness within all of us."

"So you're telling me that was the reason why you couldn't believe the words I said to you about Fortuna?" asked Luciana. "Remember, Lucius! You were also holding the knife that killed our mother. We killed her together!"

Lucius suddenly stared at Luciana with a disturbing gaze.

"That is correct, sister!" said the silver-haired man. "But I believed it was your hand that pushed the blade into our mother's heart, no?"

"…"

Luciana was left speechless at Lucius's accusation. For she knew it was the truth.

"(Well, what can I say? I was blinded by ambition back then.)" thought Luciana in her mind. "(Though I suppose it's the same right now.)"

She then let out a sigh and resumed talking to her brother.

"There's nothing I can say that will change your mind, is there?" asked Luciana. "You will turn yourself into Fortuna's apostle no matter what, won't you?"

"You knew very well what sort of immense power Fortuna possessed in Her blessings." said Lucius. "She's the only one we can count on to make the ancient prophecy a reality."

"No, Lucius! She's not the only one. She's, in fact, not the one!" replied Luciana. "Her blessings will only lead us to our destruction. Not the creation of the world we desired."

The silver-haired man sighed at his sister's words.

"I still don't believe a word you said about our goddess. I don't think I ever will." said Lucius with exhausted tone. "But I now believe of one thing about you."

"And what is that, brother?"

"That you are my enemy. A traitor to Fortuna!" shouted Lucius with disgust. He hovered his palm toward Luciana. "And therefore, I must eliminate you!"

[Dark Arts, Jahat Claws]

A ball of dark mana manifested in front of Lucius's palm. It then exploded into a wave of spinning dark chakrams made of mana. The wave travelled swiftly toward Luciana and shredded her to pieces.

Once the dark fury subsided, it revealed Luciana's mangled corpse on the ground.