17 Chapter 017

Alvin was sitting on the throne. He could leave when he wanted to, but he wasn't in a hurry, now that he understood that the spectre couldn't harm him, due to its own doing.

The box and the structure within was called the Red Castle. It was a completely separate dimension, that isolated everything inside from outside. The Sword of Dominance was the key to gain preliminary control of the Red Castle. There was another mystical time called the Knife of Judgement that could be used in conjunction to gain complete control, provided the wielder was at a sufficiently high Sequence in the Hunter Pathway.

The Red Castle, much like Klien Moretti's Sefirah Castle, could isolate any connection with the outside world at will. Hence, much like the Sefirah Castle, he could store or hide things and isolate himself in case of external interference. While it did not have the overpowered feature of being an to connect anywhere and facilitate the exchange of messages and items, it had a few other neat features. Most of them were inaccessible, due to the fact that he had partial control and due to the fact that there was another being of the Hunter Pathway in the castle, with partial control.

The barrier that the spectre activated was a feature of the castle to prevent the pollution from the lab, storage, and other functional rooms down the passageway from contaminating the main hall. It was fully activated by the spectre in panic. The time for the barrier's existence was to be set while activating it, and it could not be removed once set. in this case, the panicked spectre activated the barrier for 6 weeks. For 6 more weeks, neither he nor the spectre could access the other side of the barrier. Hence, in 6 weeks, Alvin had to prepare enough to deal with the spectre.

While most of the functional areas were on the other side of the passageway, the things on this side were a huge help to Alvin in this stage. The throne, for example, was imbibed with an extraordinary characteristic of a Dreamwalker! Using it, he could calmy bowse through his memory and remember all sorts of details he had forgotten, or ignored. Also, since this place was isolated from the outside world, he could think freely about some things which he couldn't do outside.

He now remembered the full story of LOTM that he read, including the corruption, cosmos, and 0-08, which he previously had fuzzy memories of. And he could choose to forget all those dangerous things when he leaves. Also, he thought of the strange encounter with Stephen Rosier. He vaguely felt that because he had verbally agreed to keep the incident a secret, an unknown power bound him to his agreement. The same power probably affected all the people beaten up, the doctor, and even Stephen himself, forcing them to keep it a secret. If he hadn't pondered it in here, he would have probably thought he didn't tell Soest because of his gut feeling. In here, he could write down the information on a piece of paper and then mail it to Soest afterwards. He would have informed the Nighthawks and kept the secret. But he decided to stay silent for now.

Unfortunately, divination and handling of spirits in here did not yield any benefits, as those were exclusive traits of the Sephirah castle. But Alvin was still more than satisfied.

Alvin then decided to exit the castle, considering that without access to the passageway, there was nothing much to do in there.

He had already confined that the box couldn't be divined, and everyone would think it was an ordinary jewellery box. It could even open and store jewellery if used normally. Hence, Alvin could also store the Beyonder characteristics and items he had in his possession in the castle. While it wouldn't be as effective as storing it in the storage room, and there was a possibility that two items could fuse and produce unknown mutations, at least he doesn't have to worry about them being lost. Previously, he and Chery hid their items in their house, the bar, and a bunch of random places. More than one item was lost because it had attracted some person with their characteristic.

As Alvin was about to pull the sword from the slot, he felt an unknown resistance. It felt as if the slot was jammed, and refusing to budge. He looked at the sword carefully, and saw that there was a mark visible on the hilt, which he didn't see before. As he watched, the mark was slowly peeled off, and slid down to the armrest of the chair. The sword then came free. Alvin looked at the mark now visible on the armrest. With his control of the castle, he could feel that he could remove the mark from there and put it to any surface he wishes to, provided that the surface was strong enough to bear it. The mark was a silver snake biting its own tail, in a circle.

"Ouroborous? Was that mark an addition to the sword by someone from the Wheel of Fortune Pathway? Or was it accidental contamination?" wondered Alvin. He now recalled how he used to find potion formulas and ingredients frequently when he first came to Backlund, yet after he found the sword, he never had such luck. He always missed chanses of becoming a Beyonder for one or the other reason after that day.

"Is this a coincidence? Or some scheme?" though Alex, in deep thought. He then shook his head, deciding to leave the headache for later.

"Now on my agenda should be digesting the Hunter potion, finding clues to the Provoker potion formula, finding ingredients for the Clown and Planter potion, and appropriately training some new recruits to become Beyonders. Finding the Dagger of Judgement was also on the agenda.

"There are 6 weeks till Klien Moretti arrives. It should be the day of the Red Moon reoccurring. That's should be a good time to hunt this spectre!" thought Alex, as he exited the Red Castle.