Kelsádrine

Before they even stepped inside the public library, Alex spoke again with a chuckle. "I'll head to the restroom first. Think about it while waiting."

"...Understood," Luna answered, her expression neutral.

Alex moved toward the small annex at the side of the library that housed the restrooms.

The room was utilitarian—stone walls, thick and impenetrable to sound, with a narrow window high above to let in a faint beam of light. It was just one room, reserved for either male or female.

He assessed the space swiftly: thick walls, distant from the main street, and most importantly, no eavesdroppers. Finally alone, he allowed a sly grin to slip through. 'Now, what should I Recreate?'

At his current level, recreating living beings was well beyond his reach. Emotions and objects were by far the easiest targets for Recreate. 'I can set aside emotions and think about recreating objects, but what could it be?'

Recall is always active on himself, so he only had to focused on certain keywords on his mind to find these memories.

Images quickly flooded his mind: a delicate clockwork pendant with spinning gears, a dagger with a blade shifting in motion, an hourglass full of suspended golden sands, and a small hand-held mirror with swirling, iridescent patterns—the latter stood out.

Without hesitation, Alex extended his hand, palm facing upward, and whispered with an uncharacteristically serious expression, "Recreate: Kelsádrine."

A small handheld mirror materialized in his grasp, faint tendrils of light coiling around it before settling into solid form. The mirror's surface shimmered like some liquid mercury, obscuring any clear reflection while ripples of energy danced faintly along its edges. The frame was a dark, tarnished silver, engraved with intricate, chaotic runes that seemed to shift when viewed from different angles. Fractures ran across its surface like a spider's web, though they neither marred its integrity nor made it fragile.

One could easily gauge how much SV would be consumed for their Virtues. Soul Vitality is, as one might already expect, the fuel for most Virtue usage. Drained it all, and you'll typically find that it drains your Life Force instead—a sensation no one ever describes as pleasant. SV replenishes with rest, and this particular artifact demanded 20% of Alex's SV. 

On the other hand, there was the Sanity Threshold (ST), which could be strained when one overused a Virtue in a single attempt. 

For instance, if a typical Fireball burned 10% SV with each cast, trying to push it to 20% SV would directly impact ST. That could either lead to the depletion of one's sanity or cause the body to fail under the strain. Not all Virtues had this effect, yes, but pushing limits would always likely come at a cost.

And unlike SV, ST couldn't be restored by simply resting for most of the time. Restoratives, medicines, or therapies would commonly be required to return it to its natural balance.

A grin curled at the corner of Alex's lips while looking at the mirror.

Kelsádrine is an artifact from the Cataclysm of Aether's Era, renowned in the annals of Maldrathis Continent, his current home. It originated from the House of Aetherion, a long-extinct Dominion whose mastery of power had been exploiting the star's energy.

It was an artifact said to grant visions of the past, present, and future to anyone who offered their Soul Vitality to it. However, the visions it provided were unpredictable, and despite this glaring fact, Kelsádrine remained a valuable artifact because it helped uncover both historical events and potential futures.

Well, there's downsides to it, of course. Alex's bright expression dimmed slightly as he recalled them. 'From what I read, this artifact comes from the Cosmos, and things from Cosmos tend to wield horrifying powers, either positively or negatively— including this one.' 

They're often the ones responsible for causing strange effects when people see things they shouldn't—which, in this case, could be displayed from looking at the mirror.

Alex recalled the records he had come across at a ruin near the Emerald Dungeon, Dunbrooke's primary attraction. 

He had visited the site with his sibling, and from the "documents", he learned that users could safely witness up to three visions before there was a 1 in 10 chance of seeing something dangerous in it. The risk increased the more visions were sought.

This mirror artefact could kill the users instantly by exploding their heads, leave them blind and drive them insane, and then leaving them muttering incoherent, unintelligible words until their voice withered into silence and died by unable to sleep—a very lack of horrifying description, I know, but bear with it for now.

Moreover, the number of safe visions one could view depended on rank—higher ranks could experience more visions before encountering such risks but still required a day's recovery between them. As for the lower ranks, the usage of Kelsádrine would be given a recommended recovery time of at least a month.

Alex quickly softened his expression when he remembered that three visions wouldn't hurt him just yet. 

'Let's just hope the visions wouldn't be so useless. Although lower ranks supposedly see less useful visions, my time-based abilities might help!' he chuckled to himself at that last comment, but as his fingers hovered near the artifact, the mirror quickly displayed an anomaly.

"Huh?" he widened his eyes.

—to his surprise, it showed him something without him even trying to inject SV into it.

He quickly examined it.

The projection showed a desolate land, where a group of humanoid warriors clad in black armor charged forward, led by a woman whose armor sharply contrasted with theirs, her face visible, unprotected by a helmet. She wore an expression of valiance.

Alex's gaze was drawn to the symbol emblazoned on her chest. A frown deepened on his face. 'Isn't that the emblem of the House of Aetherion? Is this from the past?'

Before he could reflect further, the scene shifted abruptly. Now, a new vision appeared: another barren land, dark clouds rolling above it. Leading a horde of demonic soldiers—tall, grotesque beings with sharp, spiked features, their faces hidden under hoods and war gear—was another woman. Her golden eyes gleamed as she smiled, her hair an iridescent mix of violet and pale blue.

The two visions felt separated by time—the first, undoubtedly from the past, while the second left Alex uncertain. As he tried to make sense of the images again, however, another shift caught his attention. 

This time, Alex's eyes widened in recognition. 'That's the village... More precisely, the entrance to this very room,' he reacted in confusion. 'Why would it show me that?'

A woman with blonde hair walked toward the library toilet's door. At first, the vision only revealed the back of her head, but it soon shifted, showing her face in full. 'Ah.'

'Clack!'

The door opened behind him as Alex froze when the realization hit him—this wasn't a vision of the past or future. This is happening now. '—fuck!'

He swiftly "erased" the artifact, remembering at that moment that he had neglected to lock the door to the restroom.

As the door swung open, the woman's eyes widened when she saw him. Alex instinctively made a surprised gesture, though internally, he wasn't entirely hiding his true feelings. After all, he knew this woman.

The woman's initial shock gave way to a pale expression. "L-Lucie—?" she cut off midway.

Alex cringed internally. 'I get it, I get it... After what he did, it's completely understandable, Miss. You can be scared.'

The woman— Nearl Karschten— was his former classmate from White Mountain Academy… and a victim of his "blackmail".