Chapter 57

Cattleya and Demetrius waited for their knock to be answered, and it got quite annoying since the craftsmen's shop was already open and they could hear the saws and machines roaring inside beyond the walls.

Just then they noticed the flaw in their logic. 

"They have heavy machines working, how would they become aware of our presence?"

Cattleya sighed at Demetruis's question, before opening the guest door and stepping in, plopping a seat onto the sofa in the lobby.

"Isn't it weird that a craftsmen's store has a lobby?"

Demetrius chuckled, running his hand along the wooden walls that surrounded them. Cattleya raised her glasses and started spouting her useless information.

"Well, the council declared an act that all stores and businesses must have a guest lobby. It's kinda nice that such high up people were thinking about the people like us."

Just then the door opened, and a tall, young man with fiery blonde hair and golden eyes stepped out. He wiped the dust and soot off of his apron before placing it on the rack in the back of the room, before turning around and greeting them in a weird way.

"Hello, what could I do for you at this hour? Are you here to pick up an order?"

The man's cluelessness to the attempted murder of a co worker fumed through Cattleya and Demetruis's bodies, but they figured to be nice and serene when talking to the man. 

"We're not here for business, we're here to talk."

The man looked frantically towards a slab of wood with a paper nailed to it, before looking back towards us.

"Did you schedule an appointment?"

Cattleya sighed in an annoyed voice, before speaking up in a way that matched her status. 

"No, we don't need an appointment for this, this is serious business."

The man nodded before looking around the room, hoping that no one would be listening from anywhere. He then grabbed a nearby stool and sat down across from Cattleya and Demetrius.

"We won't talk here, we might attract too much attention."

Demetrius said as he approached the door they entered from and walked out. Cattleya and the man followed him before they took him into a nearby alleyway.

"You said we won't attract too much attention, but we're in an alleyway of all places."

The man chucked, Cattleya looked down and noticed his identity tag; Paul.

"Well Paul, we weren't going to talk inside the building, it's too quiet."

Just then she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small bottle of dust, before opening the lid and sprinkling it around the 3 of them.

"What's that stuff for?"

Paul asked, a little concern and suspicion in his tone. Cattleya's eyes narrowed as she looked Paul up and down, before speaking.

"It's to conceal us, any information I might say will lead to the man finding us, his abilities come from a dangerous artifact."

"An artifact, I guess that explains the robbery held a few months ago, the police are still looking for a suspect."

Demetrius took a few steps towards Paul, before looking him dead in the eyes.

"We found the suspect and attempted to apprehend him, his name is Isaiah Walls."

Paul's eyes widened as he turned away and looked down the street.

"Him? I know him!"

"You do?"

Cattleya asked, crossing her arms and poking up her glasses.

"Yes, he was my coworker a few months ago, but then he left due to an unprecedented illness. He was coughing blood, and acting all irrational."

"Sounds similar to the reports that Madame Fitzgerald gave me, her connections to the Nightshades would be much needed right now."

After Cattleya noted that, she continued to hammer Paul with questions.

"What happened on the day of the explosion?"

Just then, Paul's eyes began to falter, and a vulnerable expression filled his face, indicating this was a matter he didn't really like talking about.

"One of my co-workers, Shouta Aizawa, accidentally bumped into a gas tank, and the chain reaction led to an explosion, killing him and severely injuring me."

"Was this before or after Isaiah left?"

"He still worked there, but he was in the bathroom..."

Just then, Paul started to cough, cough really hard. And blood started to gush from his mouth and nose, as his eyes rolled back and he fell to the ground, spasming like he was having a seizure.

"What the!"

Demetrius shouted as he knelt down and put a hand on his chest, feeling his irregular heartbeat and shaky pulse.

"Our divine protections worked, didn't they?"

Demetrius asked in desperation as he turned back to look at Cattleya, who was watching with wide eyes, digging through her pockets in hope of finding something to nullify these effects.

"They did, but did he have protection in his mind?"

Just then their eyes widened in unison. Paul didn't have divine protection in his mind because he's just an ordinary worker, a regular person who had no need of interfering in these events, and due to his lack of Routeway abilities, he was very susceptible to attacks like these.

Just then their eyes widened in unison. Paul didn't have divine protection in his mind because he's just an ordinary worker, a regular person who had no need of interfering in these events, and due to his lack of Routeway abilities, he was very susceptible to attacks like these.

Arms, legs, eyes and noses started to sprout from Paul's body like plants, and his expression was immediately filled with pain and anguish.

"Help!-"

Paul didn't even finish the word as his body was covered in these strange limbs to the point where he was almost unrecognizable, his mouth covered by these limbs, his original limbs being grown over and eaten like bacteria.

"I'm sorry."

If they had the preparation, they could still communicate with him even after his transportation, but due to their lack of supplies besides the protection ingredients, Demetrius pulled out his handgun and pulled the trigger, planting a bullet inside one of his growing hearts.

On the other side of town, Aaron, Shinso and I were already near Ransom's deformed body, and once we actually went to where Palau described it, our eyes collectively widened at the horror that we saw.

Our eyes caught sight of the dead, unmoving blob of flesh that lay in the alleyway, its body only giving slight, invulnerable twitches.

"I-is that it?"

I asked, already feeling the puke churning in my throat, similar to my reaction to the exploding coachmen.

"It looks like it."

Aaron murmured as he approached the flesh blob and unwrapped a small, thumb sized statue from cloth wrapping in his pocket. The statue was in the shape of a man, a man with 4 arms and a lanky body.

"What's that?"

Shinso asked, walking behind Aaron and crouching down to look at both the statue and the blob of flesh. Aaron turned to him, his expression collected and serious.

"An artifact used to channel divine, unseen energies from beyond the usual, human senses."

He told him as he turned towards the blob of flesh, before placing down the cloth, and putting the man shaped statue on top of it.

"Ransom, your identity may be merged, but we command you to speak to us today."

I heard the voices of spirit calling ringing in my ears as I threw up in the alleyway nearby, the voices were in sync with Aaron's speaking. I surmised that the voices could also translate languages that nearby people were speaking. Of course it had to be of divine intention, because no one wants to be constantly listening in on others' conversations.

Just then, one of the pairs of eyes opened, and their purple pupils locked on the 3 of us, before they started shaking in fear.

"Rise."

The voices commanded again, and just then the flesh blob started to move. The body of the flesh blob started to morph and change, a singular pair of arms, legs, organ structures, eyes, a nose, and a mouth branched off from the structure, before forming into the shake of a man, a man with iron black hair. 

"You may not know who we are, but we know who you are."

Aaron said softly, this time it was in a language I could actually understand without spirit calling. Ransom's eyes widened as he looked down at his own pair of hands, which were shaking violently.

"Put me back, now!"

Shinso and Aaron's brows furrowed at Ransom's command. His voice overlapped with the other bodies voices, some of a woman, a young boy, another man and an elderly woman. 

"Why would you want that, aren't you happy you're free?"

Ransom's expression was filled with a look of fear and surprise, as if he was just introduced to the world.

"Put me back!"

He yelled again, this time even louder and more intentional. Aaron stepped back a few feet just in time to dodge the attack made by Ransom.

Ransom clawed violently at Aaron's throat like a dog, Shinso jumped behind Ransom and kicked him in the back, making him howl in pain.

He then fell to the ground, his eyes now having an emotional surface in them that Aaron would've never noticed. 

"Put me back, damn it!"

Ransom snarled, clawing at the ground like a wolf, his mouth foaming and his teeth cracking. Aaron then turned to look at me, who was staring at Ransom with wide eyes.

"Come."

He beckoned me, curling his finger in an attempt to signal me to come over. I kept my eyes glued on the man as I stepped towards Aaron, before he turned back towards me and spoke up. 

"Take this."

He said gently as he knelt down and picked up the figure and the cloth, before folding it in my hands.

"Summon him to the void state."

My eyes widened, I had no idea why he would want that, why he would make me do something like that all of a sudden.

"Why? I don't even know what that room is!"

Aaron's expression was serious and commanding, but also laced with caution and warning.

"If your divine protection was siphoned faster than any of ours, it's meant to work with haste. Only divine intervention must have called upon that."

I looked down at the artifact in my hands, before picking it up and closing my eyes, just then the voices started speaking again.

"Abomination, help, abomination, help."

They kept repeating those 2 words over and over again, and eventually I felt everything go silent, and I ended up inside the red and black throne room I previously was hours ago.

I stared down at the man on the ground, before kneeling down and tapping him on the forehead with the artifact Aaron gave me. Suddenly, the man's demeanor started to shift at a surprising pace, and the foam that covered his mouth was waxing away, and his fierce expression gradually softened.

"Where am I?"

He then called out, looking around the throne room, clutching his head and closing his eyes tightly in fear. 

"You were part of a raid a few years back on a man named Maxwell, what artifacts did you find in his house following the raid?"

I asked, my voice soft and steady as if I was talking to a young kitten, but it was just as strange due to my talking to a grown man. 

Ransom looked up at me and nodded his head slowly.

"A raid? On a man named Maxwell? I don't remember any of that."

After he said that, the throne room started to shake violently, and a pair of illusory hands with long, talon-like fingernails reached out form the carpet, latching onto Ransom, making him yell out in fear and a little pain.

"What is happening?"

He screamed, but his screams were suddenly silenced, as his body was dragged underneath the carpet, and I was left alone in the throne room.

"What?!"

I frantically murmured as he knelt down and looked under the carpet, only to see the same marble floor that the rest of the room was filled with. I looked outside the dome window behind the throne, and the same panoramic view of the cosmos remained indifferent.

I looked back at the artifact, which laid on the floor, and it was slightly shaking. I picked it up and held it close to my face in an attempt to discern any possible changes, but it disappeared from my hands.

The same happened to the cloth, as it was in the same state as the artifact, it disappeared too.

"What's happening?"

As if the voices of spirit calling heard my question, they answered in illusory unison.

"Protection, danger, protection, danger."